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The First Draft: Hillary Clinton’s bad day
By Deborah Zabarenko (Front
Row Washington)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 6:29:04 AM
Some days, you really have to feel
for Hillary Clinton. And this could be
one of those days.
Secretary of State Clinton’s bad
day started Monday in Kinshasa, in
the middle of a grueling African trip,
when a translator goofed and made it
sound as if a questioner wanted to
know what Clinton’s husband Bill
thought of a particular issue. While
on this tour, she’d already had to
comment on the former president’s
humanitarian mission to free to U.S.
journalists from North Korea, and
basically, she’d had about enough.
Read a just-the-facts Reuters story
on what happened here and watch the
video below.
But because the Clintons are the
Clintons, with a long history in the
public eye, that was hardly the end of
it. Tuesday morning television —
CNN, ABC, NBC, others — replayed
the video of Hillary Clinton snapping
at the student questioner: “You want
me to tell you what my husband
How to silence Larry Summers
By Emily Kaiser (Front Row
Washington)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 10:22:56 AM
White House economic adviser
Lawrence Summers is rarely at a loss
for words, which makes Tuesday's
question-and-answer session at the
thinks? If you want my opinion, I
will tell you my opinion, I am not
going to be channeling my husband.”
It was a five-star video on YouTube.
Back at the State Department,
Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley
acknowledged that the question,
however poorly it was translated —
the questioner wanted to know what
President Barack Obama thought, not
former President Clinton — struck a
National Press Club in Washington
downright astonishing.
Summers, whose term as president
of Harvard University ended rather
abruptly after he made some
unfortunate remarks about women
and math and science aptitude, knew
he was on very thin ice when he was
11/08/09 - 12/08/09
nerve. Crowley told CNN that her
reaction had to be taken in the
context of her African trip, where she
has worked to draw attention to the
plight of women who are victims of
rape as a weapon of war in Congo.
“If Africa, if Congo is going to
advance, women have to play a more
significant role. She was in the
setting of a town hall, and the
questioner was interested in what two
asked a question about gender
differences in retirement savings.
As soon as the question was
asked, laughter spread around the
room. Summers himself paused for a
good 20 seconds before cracking a
joke about how the question must
have frightened his staff.
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
men thought, not the secretary of
state,” Crowley said.
No question about it, Hillary
Clinton is a polarizing figure. But
whatever you think, being secretary
of state is challenging enough,
especially on an exhausting trip to a
continent with critical diplomatic
issues, without being second-guessed
about how she feels when asked
questions involving her high-profile
husband or the man she ran against
who is now president.
Or is she fair game, no matter what
the circumstances?
In domestic U.S. politics, Obama
heads for Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, for a town hall meeting
on health care. Fireworks possible.
For more Reuters political news,
click here.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Joe Bavier
(Hillary Clinton in Kinshasa, August
10, 2009)
"Now you have just put their health
at risk," he said. "I think I will move
to the next question."
UPDATE:
See the full clip below:
It's worth watching!
Costa Rica
leader gets
swine flu
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 10:43:13 PM
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias
has announced that he has swine flu.
"Apart from the fever and a sore
throat, I feel well and in good shape
to carry out my work by
telecommuting," the 68-year-old said
in a statement.
The president is receiving medical
care at his residence and is expected
to remain there for a week, his
brother and chief of staff Rodrigo
Arias said.
He had been mediating talks on the
Honduran crisis, after President
Manuel Zelaya was toppled in a coup
in June.
But the negotiations broke down
two weeks ago, and Mr Arias's brief
absence is not expected to affect the
outcome.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner,
who suffers from chronic asthma, is
the first head of state known to have
contracted the H1N1 influenza virus.
He was diagnosed with a mild case
of swine flu on Tuesday after having
flu-like symptoms for some days.
More than 20 people in Costa Rica
have died as a result of the swine flu
outbreak, which was declared a
pandemic on 11 June by the World
Health Organization.
Print Sponsor
2 Politics/ Top News/ Gadgets/ Business/ *
Obama doesn’t want to pull plug on
grandma
By Tabassum Zakaria (Front
Row Washington)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 12:28:58 PM
This just in: President Barack
Obama opposes pulling the plug on
your sick grandmother.
In a sign of how twisted the
healthcare debate has become, the
president of the United States was
forced to stand up in public and say
definitively that he did not favor
killing off the elderly when their care
became too expensive.
The dramatic declaration came in
New Hampshire in response to one of
the wilder accusations circulated
by opponents of his efforts to
overhaul healthcare.
“The rumor that’s been circulating a
lot lately is this idea that somehow
the House of Representatives voted
for death panels that will basically
pull the plug on grandma because
we’ve decided that it’s too expensive
to let her live anymore,” Obama said,
taking the issue head-on.
It apparently arose from a provision
intended to give people more
information so they could handle end
-of-life issues like setting up living
wills and hospice care, he said.
“Somehow it’s gotten spun into this
idea of death panels,” Obama said. “I
am not in favor of that.”
He did not mention Sarah Palin,
former Republican vice presidential
candidate and ex-governor of
Alaska, who got the ball rolling
US, Swiss cement deal on secret UBS bank accounts
(AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:06:40 AM
russell buzzed up: CIT delays
report, could have to file for
on ”death panels.”
The fact that the president had to
take a public stand on a rumor that at
another time might appear absurd (it
would be political suicide for anyone
to suggest the government promote
euthanasia) shows that the opposition
is making inroads in stoking fear
about healthcare overhaul.
Obama used some scare tactics of
his own, saying that unless things
change, health insurance premiums
would skyrocket and the deficit
would grow because of rising costs
of government health programs for
the poor - Medicaid - and elderly -
Medicare.
One thing to watch is Obama’s
bankruptcy (Reuters)
20 hours ago 2009-08-11T11:21:25
-07:00
increased reference to the healthcare
plan as “health INSURANCE
reform,” perhaps the White House
believes that substituting insurance
for care somehow makes it more
palatable to the public.
Do you think Obama effectively
addressed the criticism and put the
rumors to rest? Did his comments in
any way change your view on the
healthcare debate?
Click here for more Reuters
political coverage
Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young
(Obama at healthcare reform
townhall in New Hampshire)
ADVERTISEMENT:
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:20:00 AM
Texas 'fight club' trial begins
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 6:30:34 PM
A former worker at a Texas state
school for mentally disabled people
has gone on trial accused of
organising fights between the
residents.
Jesse Salazar is charged with injury
to a disabled person in what the
Texas police have called a "fight
club".
The case came to light when
officers found a mobile phone in
March with almost 20 videos
showing the residents punching and
kicking each other.
Jury deliberating again in Asteroid Impacts on
Ga. terror video trial (AP) Earth, Seen From Space
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:37:46 AM
russell buzzed up: CIT delays
report, could have to file for
bankruptcy (Reuters)
20 hours ago 2009-08-11T11:21:25
-07:00
iriver E30 shows love for the
lossless, long-winded
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:02:00 AM
It ain't too much different than the
E50 and E150, but considering that
iriver felt it necessary to label it a
score less than the former, it's new to
us. Introduced today over in the Far
East, this pocket-friendly PMP touts
a 1.8-inch color display (220 x 176),
a user-customizable equalizer and
support for MP3, WMA, WAV,
APE, FLAC and MJPEG files. Oh,
and it can purportedly keep the tunes
flowing for 52 frickin' hours without
needing a recharge, so those with
trouble locating AC outlets should
certainly take notice. There's no
mention of a price or release date, but
Internet News Record
Mr Salazar, 25, could face 10 years
in jail if convicted.
As the trial began, the jury was
warned that the video evidence
would be "one of the saddest things
they will ever see".
The footage allegedly shows staff
from the Corpus Christi state school
forcing the residents into fights,
apparently for their entertainment.
Mr Salazar's defence team says he
was trying to prevent the fights from
going ahead.
Six former employees have already
been charged for their part in
orchestrating the fights.
Print Sponsor
By Betsy Mason (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 9:00:00 PM
Wired Science has collected images
taken from space of some of the
oldest, biggest and most interesting
asteroid impact craters on Earth.
both of those tidbits should become
crystal clear soon. Very soon.
[Via The MP3 Players]
iriver E30 shows love for the
lossless, long-winded originally
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Aug 2009 09:02:00 EST. Please see
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Internet News Record Politics/ Gadgets/ 3

The First Draft: Swearing-in is one

thing. A White House do is another.
By Deborah Zabarenko (Front
Row Washington)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:00:50 AM

For those who may have missed it

— and don’t laugh, there could be
quite a few who did — there’s a new
Supreme Court justice in town. After
months of speculation, debate, a
Capitol Hill grilling and finally a
vote to confirm her, Sonia Sotomayor
was sworn in as the first Latina and
only the third woman to serve on the
U.S. high court.
The problem, for public-awareness
purposes, is that it happened on
Saturday in an eye-blink ceremony in
a conference room at the Supreme
Court building. That was a departure
from decades of tradition that has
dictated a White House oath-taking
for new justices, reportedly on
President Barack Obama’s say-so.
That doesn’t mean Sotomayor
won’t get her time at the White
House. That happens this morning in
an East Room reception hosted by
the president and first lady Michelle
Obama.
It’s a busy day for official honors at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This
afternoon, there will be a ceremony
to award the Presidential Medal of
Freedom to Senator Ted Kennedy,
human rights leader Bishop Desmond
Tutu, tennis great Billie Jean King
and actor and activist Sidney Poitier,
among others. See the complete list
here.
The most controversial recipient is
probably Mary Robinson, the former
U.N. high commissioner for human
rights and an organizer of an anti-
racism conference in South Africa in
2001. The U.S. delegation walked
out of that conference and pro-Israel
groups and others have criticised its
concluding document as anti-Semitic
and equating Zionism with racism.
John Bolton, Washington’s U.N.
representative during the Bush
administration, said flatly in a Wall
Street Journal opinion piece that
Robinson should not receive the
award.
Could there be protests in this most
decorous of locations, at what is
normally — forgive our jaded
sensibilities — a heart-warming but
often dull ceremony? Stay tuned.
For more Reuters political
coverage, click here.
Photo credits: REUTERS/Jim
Young (Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in
as associate Supreme Court justice,
August 8, 2009); REUTERS/Fahad
Shadeed (Mary Robinson speaks at
the 3rd Global Competitiveness
Forum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
January 25, 2009)
Nokia rumored to be kicking
Symbian OS to the curb,
moving in with Maemo
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:07:00 AM
Poor Symbian. Sony Ericsson's
been giving you some hot play with
its Satio and Aino smartphones, but
lately it seems Nokia wants little to
do with you, always throwing a cold
shoulder and mentioning what a great
guy that Maemo dude is. Now,
according to rumors from the (still
pink) German Financial Times,
Nokia is looking to drop Symbian OS
altogether and move to Maemo
wholesale, powering not just its
internet tablets but also its
smartphones, the first of which is due
in "the next few weeks" -- possibly
referring to the RX-51 Rover that's
been out and about lately. According
to the report, the Symbian OS just
can't keep up with the younger
players these days; "far too
cumbersome to work with." Nokia
has issued a typical no comment, but
interestingly last night's mention of a
" alliance" between Microsoft and
Nokia for the creation of Office for
Nokia phones made no explicit
mention of Office for Symbian.
Intrigue; we love it.
[Via TechCrunch]
Filed under: Cellphones
Nokia rumored to be kicking
Symbian OS to the curb, moving in
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Bongiovi-equipped iHome iP1 iPod / iPhone dock finally ships

By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:26:00 AM
Remember that totally snazzy
iHome iP1 dock that we toyed with
back in May? You know, the one
with those boyish good looks and a
curious Bongiovi Acoustics Digital
Power Station chip built in? Yeah,
that very iPod / iPhone dock is
finally shipping to those willing to
splurge, with a buck under $300
bringing you 100 watts of hair-
raising rock through a pair of 4-inch
woofers and 1-inch silk dome
tweeters. Sure, it's pretty swank for
an iPod dock, but can you imagine
the fanfare if this thing was Bon Jovi
-approved? Bonus footage is after the
break.
[Via HotHardware]
Continue reading Bongiovi-
equipped iHome iP1 iPod / iPhone
dock finally ships
Filed under: Home Entertainment,
Portable Audio
Bongiovi-equipped iHome iP1 iPod
/ iPhone dock finally ships originally
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4 Top News/ Gadgets/
States cut aid to college students as demand
booms (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:48:23 AM
MADISON, Wis. – Struggling with
budget shortfalls that reach into the
billions, several states are making
deep cuts in college financial aid
programs, including those that
provide a vital source of cash for
students who most need the money.
At least a dozen states are reducing
award sizes, eliminating grants and
tightening eligibility guidelines
because of a lack of money. At the
same time, the number of students
seeking aid is rising sharply as more
people seek a college education and
need help paying the tuition bill
because they or their parents lost jobs
and savings during the recession.
Many of the affected programs are
need-based grants that provide
money that complements financial
aid offered by schools and the federal
government. Without that cash, some
students may be forced to drop out,
transfer to cheaper schools or simply
have less money available for rent
and groceries. Experts fear others
will take on too much debt or spend
even more time working as they
pursue a degree.
"There's almost no question the
folks coming in are probably going to
have much more difficulty getting by
year to year in college and staying
enrolled as a result," said Sara
Goldrick-Rab, a professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
and an expert on financial aid. "The
safety net is falling away."
State financial aid accounted for 12
percent of the grants awarded to
college students in 2007-2008,
according to the New York-based
College Board. While that's a fraction
of the financial aid provided to
millions of students by schools, the
federal government and private
scholarships, the demand for aid is
booming. Roughly 620,000 more
students applied for federal aid in the
first quarter compared with last year,
a jump of more than 25 percent,
according to the U.S. Department of
Education.
University of Illinois senior Brandi
Cho, 21, said her parents cannot
afford to make up the $2,500 she
expected to do without after her state
grant runs out in the spring. She is
considering two options: Find a
second weekend job on top of the 15
hours a week she already works, or
cram five senior-level accounting
classes into the fall semester so she
can graduate early.
"The best that I can do is just start
saving every penny that I have," Cho
said.
The cuts come as lawmakers and
governors struggle to balance
budgets crippled by the recession's
impact on tax revenues. Lottery-
funded merit aid programs in states
such as Georgia, Florida and West
Virginia are also pinched as revenues
from the games are leveling off and
in some cases declining.
In Illinois, a state scrambling to
find $11 billion in budget savings,
officials are telling 145,000 low-
income students who receive the
state's need-based Monetary Award
Program grants to expect no help in
the spring semester because money
for the program will run out.
Lawmakers and Gov. Pat Quinn cut
the state's aid budget in half; an
additional 40,000 students who rely
on other state programs will be
affected, too.
Ohio is eliminating grants of up to
$2,496 for low-income community
college students, and cutting them by
more than 50 percent for low-income
students at four-year universities.
The state is axing $640 grants for
58,000 private school students and
grants of up to $4,000 for 22,500
students attending two-year, for-
profit schools.
"That's a lot of money to someone
like me," said Maria Zimbardi, a 33-
year-old mother of three in
Youngstown, Ohio, who will not
receive the nearly $3,300 grant she
got last year. She is working part
time as a waitress while learning
administrative and accounting skills
at National College, and is taking out
more student loans which now total
$29,000 so she can graduate next
May.
The Wisconsin Higher Educational
Aids Board projects that more than
20,000 low-income students will not
receive grants because of a lack of
money and a sharp increase in
applicants. Jennifer Matamoros is
among them, and the senior at the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
where tuition has increased about 6
percent a year in each of the past four
years is worried about paying bills
without the $2,600 grant she got last
year.
She said she'll likely borrow more
and graduate with $30,000 in student
-loan debt, which is as much as she
expects to make a year in her career
as an elementary school teacher.
"They just keep raising more costs
and taking away more money," she
said.
Education Sector, a Washington-
based think tank, warned in a recent
study that student debt was at an all-
time high, with a rising share owed to
riskier private student loans. The
study warned that could eventually
reduce access to higher education
and lead to more students defaulting
on their loans.
"It's going to start to impact the
equation of whether college is worth
it for some students," said Erin
Dillon, a policy analyst for the group.
In Michigan, where state
lawmakers have yet to pass a
spending plan, about 96,000 students
don't yet know the value of their
Promise scholarships or if they get
one at all. The state's Republican-
controlled Senate voted to eliminate
the $140 million program that
provides high school graduates with
up to $4,000, but Democratic Gov.
Jennifer Granholm has vowed to
restore some of money.
Financial aid officials in other
states are making difficult choices
with the limited funds they have. In
Massachusetts, where the state
financial aid budget was cut 10
percent, the Office of Student
Financial Assistance plans to make
deep cuts to other aid programs to
preserve the need-based Mass Grants
program. Even so, many grants could
fall by $400 to $500 compared with
last year.
Wisconsin decided to slightly
increase the average grant awards
because students are showing much
greater need, said Connie Hutchison,
the executive secretary of the
Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids
Board. That meant university
students who applied in July for aid
are learning the pool of money has
run out.
"We're getting a lot of questions
about why students are not getting
financial aid they got last year,"
Hutchison said. "It's so hard to
explain to them."
___
Associated Press writers Tim
Martin in Lansing, Mich., Dorie
Turner in Atlanta and David Mercer
in Champaign, Ill., contributed to this
report.
Internet News Record
OCZ's Indilinx-based
Solid 2 SSDs bring MLC
NAND to the masses
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:54:00 AM
Indilinx controllers are widely
viewed as some of the best in the
industry, and while most SSD
manufacturers don't have any issues
charging a few arms and a leg for the
privilege of ownership, OCZ
Technology is hoping to bring the
charm and pizazz of said controller to
the general populace. The firm's
newest SSD range, the Solid 2 crew,
is comprised of just two models to
start: the 60 (64GB) and the 120
(128GB). Designed to fit into 2.5-
inch laptop spaces, these
"mainstream" SSDs offer up
125MBps read rates and 100MBps
write rates, not to mention 64MB of
onboard cache and "unique
performance optimizations to keep
the drives at peak performance."
We're guessing that it's referring to
that oh-so-endearing garbage cleanup
system we heard about earlier in the
week, but don't say you heard from
us. Oh, and if you're curious about
whether or not these are actually
priced for Joe Six Pack, it looks like
you'll have to ping your favorite flash
dealer to find out.
Filed under: Storage
OCZ's Indilinx-based Solid 2 SSDs
bring MLC NAND to the masses
originally appeared on Engadget on
Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:54:00 EST.
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Internet News Record
Loved ones get Buffalo crash victims' belongings
(AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:05:16 AM
CLARENCE, N.Y. – A small scrap
of T-shirt, about six inches square,
smoky gray-brown. A black sock,
missing the heel. They were all that
remained of the clothes Darren
Tolsma was wearing when he died on
Continental Connection Flight 3407.
His wife, Robin, wanted them back.
Jennifer West hopes she'll see her
husband, Ernie's, wedding band
again. A tattered slice of his black
leather wallet made it home, along
with the four, somehow perfectly
intact photos of their toddler
daughter, Summer Tyme, he'd tucked
inside.
Employees of a disaster recovery
company recently delivered some
victims' personal effects. But Ernie's
gold-trimmed platinum ring and
other items his watch, the
BlackBerry his wife called endlessly
the night of the crash have yet to
make it home.
It's not known whether they were
among the thousands of items that
survived the flames when Flight
3407 crashed into a house six months
ago, killing all 49 people on board
and a man in the house. It crashed
just two miles from the Wests'
suburban Buffalo, N.Y., home.
Maybe the ring will turn up in the
next phase of this slow and emotional
recovery process, when Jennifer
West, Robin Tolsma and others still
grieving their losses are again asked
to look through a computerized
catalog and claim what is left from
that night.
Miley Cyrus Apologizes for Bashing Robert Pattinson
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:57:00 AM
Miley Cyrus announced on her
Twitter that she too has become a fan
Roughly 30,000 items yet to be
matched with victims are expected to
be ready for viewing within the next
two months. They are likely a jumble
of passengers' belongings and
household items from the Clarence
Center home flattened in the crash.
The disaster recovery company,
BMS-Global, listed more easily
identifiable items in June. They are
making their way home now, each
cleaned and wrapped in white tissue,
as much to protect the hearts of those
receiving them as the items
themselves.
Shreds of winter coats and gloves,
car keys, tooth brushes, laptop
computers, shoes.
"Every item was wrapped with such
care that you would have thought
they'd wrapped a present," Tolsma
said. She placed her husband's gold
wedding band, inscribed "Forever 8-
29-86," on her finger beside her own
after unwrapping it July 15. She
buried other things in her back yard.
While they wait for the belongings,
many families are in the public eye,
prodding congressional leaders for
air-safety changes and honoring the
victims at public memorials.
Bringing what they can of their loved
ones home has been more private, the
families clinging to bits and pieces of
lives lost, long after the funerals.
There have been unimaginable
moments.
On Memorial Day, Jennifer West
held her husband's left foot in her
hands. It had been identified more
than two months after Ernie's initial
remains were cremated. She wasn't
required to view the foot, wrapped in
of 'Twilight' heartthrob Robert
Pattinson, following some comments
she made about the actor last April.
Miley tweeted following the "Teen
Choice 2009" awards, "Gave a hug to
a plastic bag, before allowing a
funeral director to cremate it. But she
wanted to.
"I kissed it and said I'm sorry I
couldn't be there," Jennifer, who had
been married four years, recounted at
her Clarence home, where Ernie still
lives in collages of photographs
inside and the perennials and poplar
trees he planted outside.
"I know it sounds bizarre but it was
comforting because I thought, now I
can be there for you," she said.
Ernie West and Darren Tolsma
were traveling together for defense
contractor Northrop Grumman Corp.
when they died. Their wives barely
knew each other before the crash but
have leaned on each other for support
since.
It is a bond that reaches across all
the families, many of whom have
organized "Families of Continental
Flight 3407." Through it, they draw
strength and show strength.
In May, members sat through a
National Transportation Safety Board
hearing that exposed pilot fatigue and
inadequate training as possible
causes of the crash. They have met
with transportation officials and
lawmakers, pushing for a new
database of pilot training records and
seeking more research on pilot
fatigue.
"We've all been devastated and we
want to make sure that no one else
has to suffer through what we have,"
said Kevin Kuwik, whose girlfriend
Lorin Maurer died in the crash.
Kuwik is the son of a former western
New York mayor and, with Lorin's
father, Scott Maurer, has led the
Rob Pattinson today. Ok girls, I get it
now. So cute. Sorry 'Robby' bout all
my bashing in my past."
The singer/actress did an interview
with Teen Vogue magazine in April
Top News/ Gadgets/ *
efforts.
The families believe the crash was
preventable, the result of Colgan
Air's pilots flying in icy conditions
that they may not have been
equipped to handle. Toward the end
of its flight from Newark, the twin-
engine turboprop stalled, then
plunged from the sky five miles from
Buffalo Niagara International
Airport.
"There were eight countries and
nine states and two Purple Hearts on
that flight, and 11 daughters are not
going to have their dads to walk them
down the aisle," said Tolsma, who
quit her job as an English teacher
after the crash. "We want people to
know that."
Two of musician Chuck
Mangione's band members Coleman
Mellett and Gerry Niewood also
were among the victims, as were
9/11 widow Beverly Eckert, and
expectant mother Jennifer Neill,
whose unborn child the family group
counts as the 51st victim. Brian
Kuklewicz left behind twin 9-year-
old sons, and a wife, Karen, who has
since suffered a stroke that has left
her partially paralyzed and relying on
family to care for the boys.
"You want something positive, even
though there's no way it's going to
ever be equal to what we lost,"
Kuwik said. "You want something
that you can point to and say we just
didn't stare at the wall and crumble.
We tried to make something better."
where she said of the actor, “I’m not
a huge Rob Pattinson fan. Girls
aren’t really in love with Rob;
they’re in love with [his Twilight
character] Edward.”
5
Logitech dishes two new
iPod / iPhone speaker
docks, one of them
rechargeable
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:17:00 AM
Not quite sure if you've noticed, but
Logitech has been on a tear for the
ages here recently. As the torrent of
new gear continues, we're now faced
with another pair of iPod sound
systems desperately attempting to
knock the "me-too" status and
contribute something positive to the
world. The Rechargeable Speaker
S315i is the larger of the two,
boasting a rechargeable battery that's
supposedly good for up to 20 hours
of listening. The unit is fully
compatible with dock-connecting
iPods and iPhones, and there's even
an auxiliary input for those who
aren't down with Cupertino's wares.
The smaller Portable Speaker S125i
plays and charges any iPod model
and can be powered by an AC
adapter, four AA cells or 8.43
tablespoons of Jobs' favorite fairy
dust. Check 'em out this month and
next for $129.99 and $69.99,
respectively.
Gallery: Logitech dishes two new
iPod / iPhone speaker docks, one of
them rechargeable
Filed under: Home Entertainment,
Portable Video
Logitech dishes two new iPod /
iPhone speaker docks, one of them
rechargeable originally appeared on
Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
08:17:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
6 Top News/ Gadgets/ *
Hudson crash helicopter pilot flew
tourists, VIPs (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:26:38 AM
TRENTON, N.J. – The helicopter
pilot killed in last weekend's mid-air
collision above the Hudson River
routinely flew tourists and VIPs
around the Manhattan skyline.
But those who knew Jeremy Clarke
said the 32-year-old from New
Zealand was more likely to talk about
his wedding plans or about recently
becoming a U.S. citizen than the
celebrities and public figures who
often sat beside him in the cockpit.
Some took notice of him, though.
"He seemed like a very nice guy
and a great pilot," said five-time
Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, who
recognized Clarke as the pilot who
flew her and her 3-year-old daughter
on a sightseeing tour of Manhattan
two days before Clarke's helicopter
collided with a small plane over the
Hudson River.
Five Italian tourists were aboard
Clarke's helicopter when it crashed
Saturday. Two men and a boy from a
Pennsylvania family were in a single-
engine Piper when the aircraft
collided and plummeted to the water
below the congested flyway. All nine
people died.
Ernie Keil, a close family friend
who knew Clarke since birth, said the
pilot was a consummate professional
who would only occasionally
mentioned some of the VIPs he
ferried, such as the road crew for pop
Dell lets loose Vostro 10 series from bullet-time
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:41:00 AM
We knew it was coming soon, and
here it is, Dell's latest entry to the
Vostro line of low-cost notes that
won't break the bank -- but don't give
off that netbook vibe, either. The
three models are the 14.1-inch 1014
star Beyonce, or talk show host
Geraldo Rivera.
"He used to fly him quite a bit,"
Keil said of Rivera, recalling a story
Clarke told recently: "There was a
thunderstorm, and they had to land
until it blew over, and they spent
some time together just talking."
By all accounts, Clarke was an
excellent pilot.
According to Liberty Tours in New
York, where he worked for the past
year and a half, Clarke logged 3,100
hours flying helicopters including
850 in the Eurocopter he was piloting
Saturday.
He received his license in 2004 in
California, and worked for Los
Angeles Helicopters from 2005 to
2007 as a pilot and instructor.
"He was an excellent instructor. He
didn't let you be scared of anything
as far as the maneuvers," said Los
Angeles Helicopters general manager
Kim Orahoske, who trained under
Clarke.
Born in New Zealand, Clarke
moved to California around 2000.
For a while, he worked as a
greenskeeper at the Beverly Hills
Country Club.
"But he always wanted to be a
helicopter pilot," Keil said. "That's
when he decided to go to school for
it."
He moved to New Jersey in 2007
and was living in Lanoka Harbor
with his fiancee, 29-year-old
Danielle Granahan, who works for
and 1088, and the 15.6-inch 1015.
All feature Intel Core 2 processors,
optical drives, 802.11n, two
megapixel webcams, and maximum
memory and storage allocations of
4GB and 320GB respectively. Other
than screen size the only difference
seems to be higher-end ATI Mobility
Radeon HD 4330 graphics in the
Jet Blue. The couple had planned to
wed next August, Keil said.
Happy with his career, Clarke told
Keil he was ready to move on to the
next phase of his life during a trip to
Arizona a month ago. He was
looking to buy a home in the Phoenix
suburb of Scottsdale.
"He was ready to make a move, and
settle down and raise a family," Keil
said. "The reason he came out was to
visit me and do a little house
shopping."
Keil said Clarke also wanted to be
closer to family members in
California. His parents and sister still
live in New Zealand. They arrived in
New Jersey on Sunday.
"His love of flying walked hand-in-
hand with his dedication as a
professional, winning the respect and
admiration of his peers within the
commercial aviation industry,"
Clarke's family said in a written
statement released Tuesday.
"It is the great hope of this family
that through this tragedy lessons will
be learned, and new regulatory
provisions within the aviation
industry will emerge that will prevent
future loss of life to our loved ones
and the loved ones of others."
___
Associated Press National Writer
Paul Newberry contributed to this
report from Atlanta.
1088, while the others make do with
a rather more pedestrian Intel
Internet News Record
Texas Judge rules Microsoft
can’t sell Word anymore
By John Biggs (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:16:48 AM
Go ahead and clean up the coffee
you just spit all over your keyboard.
We’ll wait. Back? OK. A judge and
Texas as ruled that Microsoft Word’s
XML systems violate patents by
Toronoto-based i4i Inc. Word uses
XML in reading and writing XML,
DOCX, and DOCM files.
The lawsuit alleges that MS
violated i4i’s 1998 XML patent
#5,787,449. The injunction will go
into effect in 60 days and prevent
Microsoft from selling or
demonstrating Microsoft Word. MS
will have to pay i4i about $290
million in damages. the verdict.”
Obviously this will probably be
20090811i4icomplaint-
Says Microsoft: fixed by the time the 60 days are up -
this is Microsoft, after all. Mike’s the
“We are disappointed by the court’s
ruling,” Microsoft spokesman Kevin lawyer here but I suspect this will be
held up in appeals and i4i will
Kutz said in a statement. “We believe
the evidence clearly demonstrated probably satiated with a little cash.
[via Seattlepi]
that we do not infringe and that the
i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal
Paula Abdul on 'Ugly Betty'?
(ETonline - Breaking News) talks to guest star on the popular
ABC show. Keep checking back here
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:00:00 AM
for the latest!
There's buzz that former "American Last week we confirmed that Abdul
Idol" judge Paula Abdul could appear was filming her second guest-starring
on "Ugly Betty." role on the Lifetime series "Drop
Sources tell ET that Abdul is in Dead Diva."
solution. Dell hasn't graced these on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
with an official price in the US just 08:41:00 EST. Please see our terms
yet, but that should change any for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
minute now. Email this| Comments
[Via Pocket-lint]
Gallery: Dell Vostro 10
Filed under: Laptops
Dell lets loose Vostro 10 series
from bullet-time originally appeared
Internet News Record
Obama tackles healthcare critics
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 12:23:02 PM
Please turn on JavaScript. Media
requires JavaScript to play.
President Obama: ''We are closer to
achieving health insurance reform
than we have ever been''
US President Barack Obama has
accused some opponents of his
healthcare reform proposals of trying
to "scare the heck" out of people.
Anti-reform campaigners had
created "bogeymen out there that just
aren't real", he said at a town-hall
style meeting in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire.
Passing a healthcare reform bill is
Mr Obama's top domestic priority for
2009.
But in recent weeks, opponents of
reform have been making serious
accusations about his proposals.
The former Republican vice-
presidential candidate, Sarah Palin,
said last week that the president
wanted to set up "death panels" of
government officials with the power
to determine whether disabled or
elderly Americans are "worthy of
healthcare".
In fact, under proposals drawn up
by the US House of Representatives,
the government would pay for
elderly Americans to receive
voluntary consultations with doctors
to discuss their end-of-life care.
"The rumour that's been circulating
a lot lately is this idea that somehow
the House of Representatives voted
for death panels that will basically
pull the plug on Grandma because
we've decided that its too expensive
to let her live anymore," said Mr
Obama.
"Somehow, it has gotten spun into
this idea of death panels. I am not in
Fierce Fashion: Stars Sizzle at Hollywood Foreign Press Association Lunch!
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:00:00 AM
Gussied-up celebs shined at the
favour of that, I want to clear the air
here."
Meetings disrupted
Some 47 million Americans
currently do not have health
insurance, and rising healthcare costs
are a major contributing factor to
America's spiralling budget deficit.
But there is disagreement about
how to go about reforming the
system.
Democrats in the House of
Representatives have reportedly
reached a deal on a bill that would
mandate all Americans to take out
health insurance, with subsidies for
the less well-off paid for by a tax on
families earning over $350,000 a
year.
The House bill would also offer
Americans who do not get coverage
Hollywood Foreign Press
Association's Installation Luncheon
held at The Beverly Hills Hotel. At
the charitable annual event, the
through their employer the chance to
join a publicly-run scheme.
But in the Senate negotiations have
stalled, with moderate senators
expressing opposition to both the tax
and the public plan proposed by the
House.
Both chambers need to agree on a
bill before it can become law.
Mr Obama had called on the Senate
and the House to agree their own
versions of a bill before the August
recess, but lawmakers missed the
deadline.
During the recess, a number of
healthcare "town-hall" meetings
hosted by Democratic politicians
have been targeted by conservative
opponents of reform.
The opposition has sometimes been
quite vocal, with anti-reform
Hollywood Foreign Press
Association presented over
$1,000,000 in financial grants to 29
film schools and non-profit
Top News/ Gadgets/ *
campaigners chanting slogans and
shouting down supporters of reform.
Proponents of reform say the
protests are being organised by well-
funded lobby groups, while
opponents say they are a genuine
expression of anger at Mr Obama's
proposals.
At the New Hampshire meeting,
which did not feature any angry
scenes, the president called on his
opponents to temper their behaviour.
"I do hope that we will talk with
each other and not over each other,"
he said.
Polls suggest that a majority of
Americans support many of the
administration's healthcare proposals.
Print Sponsor
organizations. Eva Longoria Parker,
Chris Pine, Warren Beatty and others
showed up to accept the HFPA grants
on behalf of the various
7
The Logitech Wireless
Desktop treats your
fingers to a new key
design
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:43:38 AM
If the Logitech blog post about the
new Logitech Wireless Desktop MK
700 is to be believed, the company
has came up with a new type of key
design. The Logitech Incurve keys
apparently “cradle your fingers for
greater comfort.” I’m all for
keyboard innovation, but I think my
standard white, full-size Apple
keyboard also has concave keys.
Whatever. The new MX 700 is a
wireless set and both the keyboard
and mouse operate on a 2.4 GHz
band. The top of the keyboard
features a narrow LCD that displays
the battery status, caps lock, FN,
scroll lock, number lock, and mute.
That battery status icon probably
doesn’t have to be there either as
Logitech claims that the keyboard
can run for three years on battery.
That’s impressive, folks. That
means you’ll probably only have to
install one set of batteries in the
keyboard as something is bound to
happen to the keyboard within three
years. I mean, you could drop it, spill
something on it, or just get plain
board with it and go Office Space on
it.
The set retails for $99.99 and will
be available later this month.
organizations. Take a look at all the
super fab styles!
8 Top News/ Gadgets/ *
Madoff finance boss pleads guilty
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 1:53:21 PM
Frank DiPascali, the former chief
financial officer of Bernard Madoff,
has pleaded guilty for his role in his
boss's $65bn (£40bn) fraud.
Mr DiPascali, who admitted all 10
of the fraud charges he faced,
apologised to the court in Manhattan.
He said he knew what he had done
was "wrong".
The 52-year-old, who worked for
Madoff for 33 years, added that he
had followed his boss too loyally.
Madoff, 71, was jailed for 150
years at the end of June.
Last month he decided not to
appeal against his sentence.
'All fictitious'
Mr DiPascali told the court that all
the transactions of Madoff's business
were "fake".
"It was all fictitious. It was wrong,
and I knew it was wrong at the time,"
he said.
Mr DiPascali added that he had
helped Madoff "and other people
carry out a fraud", but did not name
the other individuals.
He also told the court that "under
Bernie Madoff's direction" he lied to
the US financial watchdog, the
Securities and Exchange
Commission, about the activities of
Apple films commercial in diner for new product: Yeah,
right
By John Biggs (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:02:33 AM
Apple has just filmed a new
commercial in a california restaurant
Jax on the Tracks. It is a commercial
for a new, yet-unnamed device. The
owner of the restaurant, Bud Haley,
said “Apple found us, they’re trying
to show us as a hip and cool spot for
the 20-something crowd.”
Oh yeah, Bud? Is that how it went
the company, Bernard Madoff
Investment Securities.
At the end of the court hearing,
District Judge Richard Sullivan
ordered Mr DiPascali to be jailed
ahead of sentencing, but said he may
reconsider this decision in the future.
Prosecutors had asked for Mr
DiPascali to be kept free or under
house arrest so he could help them
with their continuing investigations.
The 10 charges Mr DiPascali
pleaded guilty to included
conspiracy, securities fraud, money
laundering and perjury.
He faces a jail sentence of up to 20
years, and a fine of up to $500,000
(£303,000).
Ponzi scheme
Mr DiPascali is the third person to
be charged in connection with the
fraud at Madoff's investment
business, following Madoff himself
and the company's external
accountant, David Friehling.
Mr Friehling is currently free on
bail after being charged in March
with aiding and abetting fraud, and
four counts of filing false audit
reports. He has pleaded not guilty.
Madoff admitted defrauding
thousands of investors through a
Ponzi scheme which he said had been
running since the early 1990s.
A Ponzi fraud works by paying
investors from money paid in by
down? Apple came up and said
“Hey, what’s up. Nice place. Wanna
record a commercial?” and you said
“Of course! Now I’m off to my
Internet News Record
other investors rather than real
profits.
It differs from pyramid selling in
that individuals all tend to invest with
the same person.
High profile victims
Madoff's firm was investigated
eight times by the US Securities and
Exchange Commission over the past
16 years, because it made exceptional
returns, but no irregularities were
found.
It was the global recession which
effectively prompted Madoff's
demise, as investors, hit by the
downturn, tried to withdraw about
$7bn from his funds and he could not
find the money to cover it.
The list of Madoff's victims
includes film director Steven
Spielberg's charitable foundation,
Wunderkinder.
UK banks were also among the
Samsung's Blue Earth solar
victims with HSBC Holdings saying
it had exposure of around $1bn.
Other corporate victims were Royal
touchscreen phone gets dubbed
Bank of Scotland and Man Group
and Japan's Nomura Holdings.
S7550, handled in Moscow
But it is not just the elite and large By Tim Stevens (Engadget) much real money it will cost, and
firms who were victims of the fraud. Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:24:00 AM
how many eco-chic celebs will be
School teachers, farmers, spotted talking on these while
mechanics and many others have also Samsung has been teasing us with drunkenly driving their Priora (it's
lost money. its Blue Earth solar-powered Latin, dig) into crowds of spectators -
Print Sponsor smartphone since February, and now - all bits of info we can't wait to
it's showing us a bit more of that learn.
sultry photovoltaic skin a mere day Filed under: Cellphones
after its budget-minded solar brother, Samsung's Blue Earth solar
the E1107, came out into the light.
This cerulean one has finally been
touchscreen phone gets dubbed
S7550, handled in Moscow originally
given an official name, the S7750,
but we're still missing many bits if
appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12
Aug 2009 09:24:00 EST. Please see
colonic!” crucial information, including how our terms for use of feeds. Read|
If this were an Apple product Bud effective that solar panel will be in Permalink| Email this| Comments
would be dead by now, pushed from the real world, when it will be
a second story window. When’s the available in that real world, how
last time Apple recorded a
commercial in actual meatspace?
Brain-Damaged Radar Alert Lacks User-Friendly
Probably 1984. Nav
via 9to5
By Brook Wilkinson (Wired Top "30," you don't know if you're going
Stories) 30 miles per hour or if there's a
Submitted at 8/11/2009 5:00:00 PM
camera 30 feet down the road. Up for
memorizing the owner's manual so
When this detector's display reads you can decode your data?
Internet News Record
Brazil TV host 'ordered killings'
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 9:21:03 PM
Please turn on JavaScript. Media
requires JavaScript to play.
Details of the accusations against
Wallace Souza
Police have accused a TV presenter
in Brazil of being involved in
organised drug trafficking and
ordering killings to get rid of rivals
and boost ratings.
Wallace Souza, who is also a state
legislator, says the claims are an
attempt by rivals to smear him and
that there is no evidence to back
them.
But the police say he ordered
killings in the state of Amazonas and
alerted TV crews to get them to the
scene first.
His TV show was halted late last
year as police stepped up their
inquiry.
If what the police say is true, then
this is the TV show that not only
reported crime, but was actually
behind it as well.
Son charged
The authorities believe that Mr
Souza commissioned at least five
murders in order to get rid of drug
trafficking rivals and to boost his
programme ratings.
They say he wanted to prove his
claims that the region he represented
in the state of Amazonas was plagued
with crime.
A local police chief told the
Associated Press that the order to
execute always came from the
presenter and his son, and that TV
crews were alerted to get to the scene
of the crime first.
State Security Secretary Francisco
Cavalcanti says the truth has now
become clear.
"On several occasions they
fabricated the facts, they fabricated
news," Mr Cavalcanti said.
Wallace Souza faces a variety of
charges, including drug trafficking
and weapons possession, but remains
free because for the moment his
political role gives him immunity.
His son Rafael, meanwhile, has
been arrested on charges of murder,
drug trafficking and illegally
possessing guns.
Lawyers for Wallace Souza, a
former policeman who was expelled
from the force, say the accusations
are an attempt to smear him and that
there is not one piece of material
proof to back the police claims.
Print Sponsor
Top News/ Gadgets/
Logitec DisplayLink-certified
USB-to-DVI dongle handles
QWXGA
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:46:00 AM
DisplayLink may not have the
rampant following you probably
thought it would when it was
originally introduced, but we'd credit
much of the indifference to the
inability of most adapters to hit the
magical 1080p mark. Up until now,
most USB-to-DVI dongles couldn't
support resolutions higher than
UXGA(1,600 x 1,200), but at long
last Logitec has stepped in to provide
an alternative that blows right on by
1,920 x 1,080 and stops at QWXGA
(2,048 x 1,152). If this here product
9
looks like just the thing you and your
spare monitor have been waiting for,
feel free to hit the read link and place
your pre-order for ¥12,980 ($136).
But hey, don't blame us if your
graphics card gets envious.
[Via Akihabara News]
Filed under: Displays, Peripherals
Logitec DisplayLink-certified USB
-to-DVI dongle handles QWXGA
originally appeared on Engadget on
Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:46:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
10 Gadgets/ *
Super-cute Hello Kitty USB flash drive
By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:40:08 AM
Sanrio, the company behind the
dream of millions of teenage girls
around the world, cartoon cat Hello
Kitty, is to celebrate the cat’s 35th
birthday on November 1st. Reason
enough to team up with design USB
flash drive maker Mimoco and give
us the Hello Kitty X Mimobot, quite
possibly the cutest USB stick out
there.
The USB drive you can see above
is actually just the first in a series of
Sanrio-branded Mimoco drives,
which will store between 2GB and
16GB of your data.
Expect the first models to come out
early next month. No prices have
been announced yet but you have to
love the detailed press release the
two companies put out and that I
copied below in its entirety.
Mimoco and Sanrio Global
Consumer Products Announce
Launch of Hello Kitty® x
MIMOBOT® in Celebration of 35th
Anniversary!
DVD Jon Posts His Apple Anti-
trust Subpoena
By MG Siegler (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:20:24 AM
As we've seen before, DVD Jon
loves messing with Apple. And now
he'll get his chance in a major way.
Jon Lech Johansen (better known as
DVD Jon), the co-founder of
doubleTwist, a company attempting
to circumvent the iTunes/iPod
ecosystem, has posted the subpoena
he's received to turn in documents
related to Apple in an anti-trust case
against them. The subpoena (posted
below), is basically a bunch of legal
speak, but it's pretty clear that the
court is interested in obtaining any
As part of Hello Kitty’s 35th
Anniversary celebration, Sanrio
Global Consumer Products is pleased
to announce a new partnership with
Mimoco, creator of the MIMOBOT®
line of contemporary character-based
USB flash drives. The collaboration
will transform SANRIO® characters
into MIMOBOT designer flash
drives, debuting in early September
with multiple Hello Kitty x
MIMOBOT designs produced and
released in time for the pop icon’s
35th Anniversary on November 1st.
“Our new partnership with Mimoco
brings forth an exciting collection
that infuses SANRIO characters with
the fun, pop-art world of
MIMOBOT” said Janet Hsu,
President of Sanrio Global Consumer
Products. “The launch collection
celebrating Hello Kitty’s 35th
Anniversary is sure to be a hit among
our fans and MIMOBOT collectors.”
The crossover collaboration with
Mimoco will begin with Hello
Kitty® and expand to include
SANRIO friends Badtz-Maru®, My
Melody®, Kuromi®, Keroppi®,
and all documents DVD Jon has that
may be relevant to the case
surrounding the legality of the entire
iPod/iTunes ecosystem. Specifically,
they are looking for documents from
January 1, 2003 onward.
Chococat®, and TuxedoSam™ in
MIMOBOT form ranging from 2GB
to 16GB capacities. The MIMOBOT
flash drives will also be bundled with
the mimoDesk™ personalization
suite of SANRIO-themed wallpapers,
screensavers, icons, and avatars, as
well as videos and other digital
Video: The Onion discovers new
Google ‘opt-out’ feature: Move to a
secluded village!
By Nicholas Deleon
(CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:00:21 AM
Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users
Protect Privacy By Moving To
Remote Village
We start the day off with a video,
because they’re fun and so, so easy to
embed. It’s from The Onion, and it
pokes fun at folks who think Google
is out to get them.
surprises. The line will be available
for purchase at MIMOBOT.com and
SANRIO.com, select SANRIO
boutiques and other specialty
retailers.
“We’re honored to be amongst
those licensees celebrating Hello
Kitty’s big party!” said Mimoco
And while I’m not Mr. Anti-
Google, per se, I do like the idea of
living a much simpler life, one
without having to check e-mail every
eight seconds (only to find it’s
political nonsense… how do I get on
these e-mail lists anyway?)
So yeah, like The Onion needs our
validation to know when it’s made a
good video, but this is a good one.
via Huffington Post
Internet News Record
CEO, Evan Blaustein. “We couldn’t
be happier to combine the sweet,
cute, friendly and legendary Japanese
icon with our data hungry
MIMOBOT fiends and flash drive
platform.”
Hello Kitty x MIMOBOT is one of
many special releases honoring 35
years of Hello Kitty. SANRIO is
celebrating Hello Kitty’s 35th
Anniversary with an exclusive
offering of commemorative products,
special brand collaborations and
‘Three Apples’, a three week, multi-
dimensional event that includes a
product retrospective & exhibition at
Royal/T in Culver City, CA.
Contemporary artists Gary Baseman,
Ron English, Buff Monster, Camilla
d’Errico, Luke Chueh, Deph, Yosuke
Ueno, FriendsWithYou, and Simone
Legno are just a few of the 40+
artists that will interpret their vision
of Hello Kitty in one-of-a-kind
pieces of art that will be for sale and
on display throughout the duration of
the ‘Three Apples’ event.
Via Akihabara News
Liam Neeson Walks
First Red Carpet Since
Loss of His Wife
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:20:00 AM
Liam Neeson walked his first red
carpet since his wife Natasha
Richardson passed away in March.
The actor stepped out Tuesday
night at a screening of his new film
'Five Minutes of Heaven' at the at the
Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York
City, the Associated Press reports.
According to the AP, The father of
two was asked at the screening to
describe his version of heaven,
Neeson said that it is being with his
boys, and that he's "kind of living it
at the moment."
Internet News Record
The HTC Touch Pro 2 is now
available at T-Mobile. Too bad it’s
$349.
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:15:18 AM
We’ve heard real good things about
the HTC Touch Pro 2. The 3.6-inch
WVGA screen is good, the slide-out
keyboard is apparently awesome and
HTC once again shipped a great skin
for Winmo 6.1. It’s just too bad that
at $349, it’s the most expensive
handset available at T-Mobile.
This means that only die-hard
Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ALL,
CMG, GRMN, IP, VRSN ...
By Eric Buscemi
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:40:00 AM
Filed under: Analyst reports,
Analyst upgrades and downgrades,
Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
• Goldman said International
Paper(NYSE: IP) is its top pick in the
group citing leverage to early cycle
containerboard. The firm upgraded
shares to Conviction Buy from Buy
Windows Mobile fans will use the
quality phone. No matter how good
the hardware is on the Touch Pro 2,
there isn’t any reason why someone
should spend an extra $150 on it over
the Android-power myTouch 3G.
Hopefully Verizon doesn’t make the
same mistake when the Touch Pro 2
launches in a few weeks on its
network.
and has a $26 target on the stock.
• Morgan Keegan upgraded
Healthcare Realty Trust(NYSE: HR)
to Outperform from Market Perform
citing valuation and better-than-
expected Q2 results.
• William Blair upgraded Harbin
Electric(NASDAQ: HRBN) to
Outperform from Market Perform as
it believes the Chinese economy is
likely to accelerate and the
company's balance sheet is
strengthened following the retirement
Logitech rolls out two new iPod
speaker docks
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:57:43 AM
There might be a few
hundred thousand iPod speaker docks
available for purchase, but Logitech
just added two more to the fray.
Neither are really anything special,
but they both seem to be priced right.
The $129 S325i can be used on the
included rechargeable battery for up
of debt.
• Allstate(NYSE: ALL) was
upgraded to Buy from Neutral at
BofA/Merrill.
• VeriSign(NASDAQ: VRSN) was
upgraded to Outperform from
Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Commercial Vehicle
Group(NASDAQ: CVGI) was
upgraded to Overweight from
Underweight at JPMorgan.
Continue reading Analyst
upgrades, downgrades and
Gadgets/ Business/
to 20 hours. Plus, the large speaker
dock will work with the iPhone. The
smallish S125i is, well, small which
is its claim to fame and the reason
it’s only $69. This one is not iPhone
compatible btw but can run off of 4
AA batteries. If either of these docks
do it for ya, you can pre-order them
now and expect delivery later this
month.
initiations: ALL, CMG, GRMN, IP,
VRSN ...
Analyst upgrades, downgrades and
initiations: ALL, CMG, GRMN, IP,
VRSN ... originally appeared on
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2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our
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11
Best Buy downgraded
by Goldman on fears of
Wal-Mart competition
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:30:00 AM
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and
downgrades, Best Buy (BBY) Best
Buy, Inc.(NYSE: BBY) shares were
downgraded by Goldman Sachs from
Buy to Neutral this week. Analyst
Matthew Fassler indicated that Best
Buy would continue to see increased
pressure from online retailers, as well
as mass discounters like Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc.(NYSE: WMT), which
continues to upgrade its consumer
electronics assortment and brand
selection.
On the Wal-Mart front, the largest
retailer in the world still is vastly
inferior to Best Buy in terms of brand
selection, assortment and even
pricing -- so Fassler may be calling
this a little too early. In the flat-panel
television and PC categories, for
example, Best Buy continually
outshines Wal-Mart in just about
every way from this writer's chair.
Perhaps Wal-Mart will get better.
Target Corp.(NYSE: TGT), on the
other hand, is nowhere close to either
Best Buy or Wal-Mart.
Continue reading Best Buy
downgraded by Goldman on fears of
Wal-Mart competition
Best Buy downgraded by Goldman
on fears of Wal-Mart competition
originally appeared on
BloggingStocks on Wed, 12 Aug
2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Read|
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12 Business/ *
Applied Materials beats in
Q3: Time to trade?
By Steven Mallas
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:20:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports,
Microsoft (MSFT), Applied
Materials (AMAT), Technology
I'm indecisive about Applied
Materials(NASDAQ: AMAT). The
semiconductor company, which also
works with solar photovoltaic cells,
is starting to look like a good trade to
me. However, I still shudder when I
examine the numbers. What I've got
to keep telling myself, I guess, is that
the market is a discounting
mechanism, and that now may be the
time to act.
According to the press release,
which was issued after the market
closed on Tuesday, net sales
decreased 39% in the third quarter.
Adjusted earnings came in at 0 cents
per share. That was obviously much
Atticus to cut two of three hedge funds
By Tom Johansmeyer
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: Recession, Financial
Crisis
What began as a $6 million
endeavor in 1996 is coming to a
(partial) close. Atticus Capital is
shuttering two of its three hedge
funds and is returning $3 billion to
shareholders. The move is strictly a
personal one, according to CEO
Timothy Barakett in a letter to
investors. Atticus is slicing its
less than the 17 cents per share
earned one year ago. According to
Reuters, which made a further
adjustment for equity-based
compensation, Applied Materials lost
3 cents per share. The market was
expecting a loss of 8 cents per share.
The top line beat projections as well.
Continue reading Applied
Materials beats in Q3: Time to trade?
Applied Materials beats in Q3:
Time to trade? originally appeared on
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2009 09:20:00 EST. Please see our
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flagship fund and a smaller one, but
is keeping its European Fund, which
has $1.2 billion under management.
Prevailing market conditions led
Barakett to begin liquidating many of
the Atticus Global portfolio's
holdings, an effort he expects to be
Cramer on BloggingStocks:
This bull is just biding his
time
By Jim Cramer (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Market matters, Toll
Brothers (TOL), Cramer on
BloggingStocks From TheStreet.com
Network
• Toxic Assets Antidote Remains
Elusive for Banks
• Toll's Signed Home Contracts
Rise 3%
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says
he believes we have a bit further to
fall, but he'll be buying again soon
after.
In a week we've gone from, "Prove
it, bears -- prove how crummy it
really is," to, "Bulls, give me a break
-- don't bother taking the futures up,
you're finished and you know it."
What caused the transformation? I
think price. The realization that the
moves have been so breathtaking that
it converted bulls to bears literally
overnight. I don't think this is the
"same old bear" that is growling.
Continue reading Cramer on
complete by the end of September.
Investors can expect to receive
around 95% of their money in early
October, with the rest being
disbursed after the fund's final audit
later in the year.
Continue reading Atticus to cut two
of three hedge funds
Atticus to cut two of three hedge
funds originally appeared on
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2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our
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BloggingStocks: This bull is just
biding his time
Cramer on BloggingStocks: This
bull is just biding his time originally
appeared on BloggingStocks on
Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Stars Check in at the HFPA Luncheon
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:42:00 AM
ET was at the annual Hollywood
Foreign Press Association
Installation Luncheon in Beverly
Hills, CA on Tuesday, where Eva
Longoria Parker, Warren Beatty and
Evan Rachel Wood were among the
stars who turned out to help present
grants to 29 film schools and
nonprofit organizations.
Internet News Record
Options Update: DuPont
and Eli Lilly calls active
on dividend play
By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:20:00 AM
F i l e d u n d e r :
duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Lilly
(Eli) (LLY), Options
DuPont(NYSE: DD) closed at
$32.57. August 11 DD options were
active on volume of 349,770
contracts into today's ex-dividend.
DD August option implied volatility
of 33; September is at 35; below its
26-week average 43 according to
Track Data, suggesting decreasing
price movement.
Eli Lilly(NYSE: LLY) closed at
$33.18. LLY goes ex dividend today
with a 49 cents dividend. On August
11 LLY options were active on
volume of 28,953 contracts. LLY
August option implied volatility is at
28, September is at 27; below its 26-
week average of 31, suggesting
decreasing price movement.
Options Update: Option Update is
provided by Stock Specialist Paul
Foster of theflyonthewall.com
Options Update: DuPont and Eli
Lilly calls active on dividend play
originally appeared on
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2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our
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Actress Rose McGowan and HFPA
President Philip Berk announced the
grants, which added up to roughly
$1.2 million in total.
Acceptance speeches on behalf of
the grants were made by Beatty,
Longoria Parker, Evan Rachel Wood,
Emmy Rossum, Jordana Brewster,
Hugh Dancy, Carla Gugino, Rex Lee
and Dylan McDermott, among
others.
Internet News Record
Sara Lee (SLE) beats the Street
by a nickel
By Beth Gaston Moon
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:40:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports, Sara
Lee Corp (SLE), Options Maker of
tasty pastries, lunch meat, and shoe
polish (?) Sara Lee Corp.(NYSE:
SLE) surprised Wall Street this
morning when it reported a fourth-
quarter loss of $14 million, or two
cents per share. Last year in the same
reporting period, SLE lost $672
million, or 95 cents per share.
Not only were these numbers an
improvement on a year-over-year
basis, but they topped analysts'
expectations as well. Excluding
charges related in part to its Spanish
bakery business, the firm banked 29
cents per share, topping per-share
estimates of 24 cents. Revenue was
off 10% during the quarter to $3.16
BREAKING: Facebook To
Launch Facebook Lite
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 11:51:24 PM
Update: For the latest on this story,
see FACEBOOK LITE: The Early
Details and Screenshots
- Facebook Lite. It’s not finished yet
Facebook’s clearly up to something
big. Facebook acquired Friendfeed.
Facebook rolled out realtime search.
And now, it looks like “Facebook
Lite” is coming, because thousands
of Facebook users have been chosen
to test out Facebook Lite, including
myself. And just as quickly, the
message disappeared. What it is
exactly…we’re not quite sure.
Here’s the full text you see on the
homepage if you were selected:
“You have been selected as a beta
tester for Facebook Lite!
We are building a faster, simpler
billion.
Continue reading Sara Lee (SLE)
beats the Street by a nickel
Sara Lee (SLE) beats the Street by
a nickel originally appeared on
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2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our
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version of Facebook that we call
and we have plenty of kinks to work
out, but we would love to get your
feedback on what we have built so
far.
Check out Facebook Lite now at
http://lite.facebook.com.”
The link doesn’t seem to work, but
this feels very much like a new and
direct shot over Twitter’s bow. We’ll
keep you updated as we learn more
about Facebook Lite.
Reviews: Twitter, facebook
Tags: facebook, Facebook Lite,
twitter
Pixorial: Bringing Sexy Back to
Online Video Editing?
By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:12:50 AM
The online video space is already
littered with a few casualties, most
notably Yahoo-acquired and later
shut down Jumpcut, Eyespot, Cuts,
and Grouper (acquired and turned
into Crackle by Sony). Jaycut and
Motionbox remain, but for a long
time it seemed like the wind had
gone out of online video editing’s
sails.
Today marks the launch of a new
hope in that department. Pixorial is
releasing its online collaborative
video service with several new twists
on the genre coupled with a business
model that might just give it the legs
to survive.
Put together by former executives
from Netscape and Oracle, Pixorial
has been in private beta since January
of this year. Its mission is to “help
people do more with video memories
than ever before,” and to that end
offers an interesting mix of digital
and analog video services.
To get footage into the site, you
have two options: send in your
physical media by UPS, or upload
digital video directly. You can ship
the following formats to Pixorial,
who will do the legwork of digitally
transcribing them for you: VHS,
VHS-C, Digital8, Hi8, Betamax,
miniDV, and 8mm, Super 8 and
Super 8 film with sound, DVDs, and
even memory cards up to 6 GB. You
pay a fee depending on the media
and the length, and can choose
whether to have the originals sent
back to you or recycled.
On the digital side, Pixorial
supports .avi, .flv, .mov, .mp4,
.mpeg, .dv, .rm, and .wmv uploads,
up to 768 MB at a time.
Business/ Social Net/
Once the footage is in your
account, a handful of easy to use
editing tools are at your disposal.
Your “Masters” are complete
recordings you can then cut into
shorter clips called Scenes using the
Pixorial Scene Maker. Anyone who’s
ever done linear editing will find the
playhead and scene marker tools
intuitive. Those who haven’t ever
done this sort of editing before will
likely have a short learning curve
because the interface is uncluttered
and easy to understand.
You can edit the metadata for both
Scenes and Masters, adding
keywords that make your clips easy
to find later via the site’s search
function. In the media browsing
window you can also sort your
footage by date, title or length.
Once you have your raw collection
of Masters and Scenes going you can
use the Pixorial Producer to put
together Shows, which are essentially
your edited versions of the footage.
Here too the interface is quite
pleasant to use, with simple drag and
drop sufficing to add or re-arrange
scenes in your show. The transitions
tab lets you add segueways in
between scenes including adding still
or scrolling titles, and though it’s still
“coming soon” an effects tab
promises some tools to help you
tweak your videos visually as well.
Where the collaborative aspect of
the site comes in is the ability to
share a link with friends or family
that gives them access to an editable
version of your video project. They
can then use the Pixorial editing apps
to work with your footage and assist
13
in the process of editing it down.
Your Masters are never altered in the
process, so there’s no worry about
someone else damaging the original
copy of the video.
So what can you do with your
Shows once you’d edited something
down and want to share it? Here too
Pixorial offers both physical media
and digital options. You can send out
a link, share on Facebook or embed
videos for free, and/or have media
produced for a fee depending on the
format. DVDs, Glamour DVDs
(more customization and nicer jewel
case), bulk DVD printing and high-
resolution downloads are available
for purchase.
In other words, Pixorial has a
business model than involves
something beyond advertising, which
seems like a wise idea based on the
history in this space and the economy
in general. They also have a
freemium business model for site
accounts, providing up to 10 GB
worth of storage for a free account.
An annual $24.99 membership nets
you unlimited storage, ad-free
applications and some other perks.
Color us impressed with what
Pixorial brings to the table. They’ve
got a clean and friendly user
interface, easy to use tools for video
editing and collaborating, and
flexible, source-agnostic methods of
getting video footage both into and
out of the service. Assuming the
market finds the pricing levels
acceptable and they can scale to meet
demand, the site could end up finally
finding a foothold in the rocky online
video editing landscape. Reviews:
JayCut, facebook
Tags: online video editing, pixorial,
video
14 Economy/ *
Business.view: Firmly hooked
(The Economist: Daily columns)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 6:57:22 AM
Business.view
Aug 11th 2009
From Economist.com Is it good if
bosses feel strongly for the firm?
GETTING bosses to act in the best
interests of a company’s shareholders
has long been one of capitalism’s
trickiest problems, identified early on
by Adam Smith. In “ The Wealth of
Nations” he worried that “Being the
managers of other people’s money
than of their own, it cannot well be
expected that they should watch over
it with the same anxious vigilance
with which the partners in a private
co-partnery frequently watch over
their own.” In the 1920s, Adolph
Berle and Gardiner Means followed
up on the problems of separating
ownership from control in their
classic study, “ The Modern
Corporation and Private Property”.
From the 1970s, this dilemma
acquired its own branch of
economics—agency theory, which
studied the problems that can arise
when “principals” (ie, shareholders)
hire “agents” (executives) to run their
firm.
Michael Jensen, one of the theory’s
fathers, argued that the key to
minimising “agency costs” is to set
the right incentives for executives, so
that in their decisions they identify as
much as possible with the interests of
shareholders. Others argued for
investment by shareholders in closer
monitoring of bosses—though this
could be costly and impractical. Mr
Jensen thus favoured private
ownership over public ownership,
defending buyout firms that
Handicapping Hazeltine: Regular Joes
By Shane Bacon (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:00:00 AM
by Shane Bacon
Filed under: PGA Championship
Getty Images
undertook controversial debt-
financed leveraged buyouts in the
1980s, and their later incarnation as
“private equity”. He also argued that
executives should have a significant
proportion of their wealth in shares
of the firm they run, and that much of
their remuneration should be in
company stock.
The bursting of the dotcom bubble
sowed doubt in Mr Jensen’s mind,
especially about one hugely popular
form of equity-based executive pay,
share options, which he dubbed
“managerial heroin”, because it
encouraged a focus on short-term
highs, regardless of the potentially
destructive long-term consequences.
Yet the notion of linking executive
pay to share-price performance—or,
rather, to long-term share price
performance—continues to have
widespread support.
Indeed, this has been a recurring
theme of those trying to reform pay
on Wall Street, where, they say, short
-term incentives were among the
main causes of the financial
meltdown last year. The recent bill
on compensation passed by
America’s House of Representatives
even gives financial regulators a duty
to vet the pay structures of financial
firms to ensure that they do not
encourage short-term behaviour that
could lead to the sort of systemic
crisis that we have just lived through.
Two new papers challenge this
assumption. The first, “ Bank CEO
Incentives and the Credit Crisis”, by
Rüdiger Fahlenbrach and Rene Stulz,
looks at the long-term incentive pay
of the bosses of banks wrecked
during the financial meltdown,
compared with those of bosses of
Just like we did with Augusta,
Bethpage Black, and Turnberry, we
present your Regular Joes who will
have a good chance at the PGA
Championship. Hazeltine National is
hosting its first major since the 2002
banks that were less badly damaged.
The study found that in
2006—arguably the year that the
decisions were made that made or
broke banks when things started to
go wrong in 2007—bank bosses
typically had very large long-term
equity incentives. The median value
of a chief executive’s equity stake
(taking into account options) in his
bank was $36m, worth, on average,
over ten times his compensation.
Moreover, the more significant the
long-term equity incentives, the
worse a bank performed during the
crisis. A bank’s return on equity in
2008 was negatively related to its
chief executive’s holdings of shares
in 2006. An increase of one standard
deviation in dollar ownership by the
boss was associated with
approximately 10% lower return on
equity. As for managerial heroin,
different mixtures of shares and share
options made no discernable
difference to the bank’s performance.
Using data on insider trading to
estimate sales of shares, the two
economists found that bank bosses
made extremely large losses on their
holdings of shares in their banks
because they typically did not sell
shares, and they also made large
losses on their options.
What to conclude from this? First,
that bank bosses had very high
incentives to maximise shareholder
wealth. Second, say Messrs
Fahlenbrach and Stulz, “this
evidence makes it implausible that
the credit crisis can be blamed on a
misalignment of incentives between
chief executives and shareholders.” It
is worth pointing out, as Richard
Posner does in his excellent book on
PGA Championship, and has been
extended to a ghastly 7,678 yards of
pure major championship nastiness.
Which players do we like to jump out
of the bottom of the pack and
contend over the weekend? Check
the crisis, “ A Failure of Capitalism:
The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent
into Depression”, that bank
shareholders may rationally support
actions by their managers that
involve some risk of bankruptcy, in
the hope of achieving higher
returns—which is why banking needs
an outside regulator to constrain
activities that pose a systemic risk.
The second study, presented at the
annual meeting of the American
Academy of Management on August
10th, takes a non-monetary approach.
In “Me or We: The Effects of CEO
Organisational Identification on
Agency Costs”, a team of
management professors led by Jim
Westphal of the University of
Michigan posed a series of questions
to the bosses of 793 large American
companies, to determine the extent to
which each boss’s “self identity is
intertwined with the fate of the
organisation, or the degree to which
the CEO defines him/herself in terms
of the organisation”. The statements
each boss had to respond to included
“when I talk about [the organisation]
I often say ‘we’ rather than ‘they’,”
and “when someone criticises [the
organisation], it feels like a personal
insult.”
Mr Westphal’s team found that
bosses with a high degree of
identification with their firms did far
fewer of the things for which bosses
are notorious: they were much less
likely to diversify into completely
new businesses, and were far less
likely to indulge in perks such as
corporate jets. For instance, a boss
who strongly agreed with the
statement “being a member of [the
organisation] is a major part of who I
back on your Sleepers as we present
the Regular Joes.
Handicapping Hazeltine: Regular
Joes originally appeared on Fanhouse
Golf Blog on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
09:00:00 EST . Please see our terms
Internet News Record
am” is 68% less likely on average to
use a company aircraft than one who
only somewhat agreed or somewhat
disagreed with the statement.
Strong social self-identification
with the firm greatly reduced the
need for monitoring through an
independent board of directors or
incentivising with lots of equity, the
study found. It argues that firms
could impose less burdensome
monitoring in cases where the boss's
self identity with the company is high
(although surely this would provide a
strong incentive for bosses to cheat to
get lighter oversight by pretending to
have a strong identification with their
firm). Unfortunately, the study has
nothing to say about how to
encourage such feelings.
Nor, in common with the first
study, does it offer a solution to the
Dick Fuld question. The boss of
Lehman Brothers (pictured) when it
went bust was heavily incentivised
with shares in the investment bank. It
is also hard to think of a company
boss, on Wall Street at least, whose
self-identity was more wrapped up in
the fate of his firm than Mr Fuld. Yet
none of this stopped him from
bankrupting Lehman. Indeed, so
dedicated was he to keeping Lehman
alive that he may actually have been
unwilling to accept offers of help
which could have saved it from
bankruptcy, and him from a great
fall. By the time Mr Fuld was
emotionally ready to sell, it was too
late.
Back to top ^^ Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your
views.
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Internet News Record
Firefox Tips: 5 Ways to Spice Up Your Sidebar
By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:18:14 AM
Originally intended to display your
bookmarks or browsing history, the
Firefox sidebar can actually be put to
many more uses. Airplane pilots and
World of Warcraft players alike
understand how valuable it can be to
get more information at a glance, and
a small amount of tweaking can get
your browser’s sidebar working to do
just that.
This guide gives you five ideas for
making good use of your Firefox
sidebar, but there are many more
options out there. What do you use
your sidebar to display? Let us know
in the comments. 1. Add Facebook
Chat or Google Talk
Want your Facebook or gTalk
sessions visible across your browsing
session? These are both simple to set
up. For Facebook, all you have to do
is create a new bookmark pointing to
facebook.com/presence/popout.php.
The important key is to check the
box marked “Load this bookmark in
the sidebar,” as shown below:
Then, anytime you launch the
bookmark it will load in your sidebar
and be available no matter which
open browser tab currently has your
attention. With some small changes
this tip actually works in Opera as
well.
For Google Talk, there’s simply an
extension to install called gTalk
Sidebar. This extension also provides
a handy way to send off quick emails
from the sidebar too. 2. Add a Video
Player
If you’re a web video fan, this
Bouncin' Around: With This Schedule, Magic Won't Need Lewis To Start
By Tim Povtak (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:30:00 AM
by Tim Povtak
Filed under: 76ers, Lakers, Magic
Bouncin' Around is NBA FanHouse's
weekly insider notebook.
There is a good reason the Orlando
one’s for you. The YouPlayer add-on
adds both a video player and a
Winamp-style playlist to the sidebar.
Adding items to the playlist is as
simple as dragging and dropping
from the list of supported sites,
including YouTube, Metacafe,
MySpace and Google Video. Local
video is supported as well, so you
can queue up vids from your desktop
just as easily.
If you’re one of those people who,
like me, is always stumbling on
videos you want to watch but don’t
have the time just then, YouPlayer
can help you gather a queue up
throughout the day to watch later on
when you finally find the time. And
if you do find the time, let us know
where it was. And send us some. 3.
Add a Feed Reader
If you use Google Reader and
Firefox, there’s a simple trick that
can bring gReader nicely into your
browser sidebar. The mobile version
of Reader works visually very well in
the relatively small width of the
Firefox sidebar, so simply create a
new bookmark for
google.com/reader/i/. As with the
Facebook chat tip above, you’ll want
to check the “Load this bookmark in
the sidebar” box here, as well.
You can also tweak it to open to a
specific tag, which is handy if you
have a ton of feeds and want to open
the interface to a specific, frequently
used topic. To go even further, you
can install the Stylish extension and
drop in your own CSS to customize
the look and feel.
If you don’t use Google Reader, or
just want a lightweight sidebar to
Magic don't seem too concerned over
losing Rashard Lewis for the first 10
games of the regular season because
of his suspension for violating the
NBA's Anti-Drug Agreement.
They won't need him.
Of those 10 games, only two will
be against teams with a record last
show a few feeds perhaps separately
from your main reader of choice, you
might want to check out Sage. It’s a
popular and easy-to-use lightweight
feed reading add-on that supports
OPML import/export and integration
with the Firefox bookmark system. 4.
Add Google Docs
If you do a lot of work in the
Google Docs cloud, you might want
to try out this handy extension.
gDocsBar features drag and drop
support to upload files simply by
dropping them onto your sidebar.
Allowing you to search and filter to
locate your documents, gDocsBar
also includes smart folders, templates
and webclips for a very full-featured
document management experience all
from the convenience of your
browser sidebar. 5. Use It For Tabs
If you find yourself having to make
an appointment with your eye doctor
for bifocals just so you can read the
miniscule text on the 87 browser tab
labels you have open, this sidebar tip
may be for you. Tree Style Tab is an
extension that does a couple of very
season that was better than .500. Yes,
useful things: moves your tab
collection into a sidebar and arranges
the tabs vertically instead of
horizontally, and establishes a
Windows Explorer-style hierarchy
amongst the open pages to make it
easier to show or hide entire
collections of tabs.
Not only does it make the tab labels
a lot easier to read and thus find the
open tab you’re looking for, but it
makes it possible to close a related
collection of tabs in one fell swoop,
or hide it to get it out of the way in a
large collection of open pages.
And actually, this tip doesn’t
technically make use of the “real”
sidebar at all, so you can still double
this trick up with any of the above
suggestions, or another Firefox
sidebar extension of your choosing.
As always, have another great
Firefox sidebar tip to share with other
readers? Get thee to our comment
form! More Firefox resources from
Mashable:
- 20+ Great Twitter Tools for
Firefox
- 20 Simple Productivity Tools for
Bloggers
- 16 Great Music Add-Ons for
Firefox
- HOW TO: Make Firefox Your
Productivity Machine
- 40+ Add-Ons for Managing
Firefox Tabs Reviews: Firefox,
Google Docs, Google Reader,
Google Video, MySpace, YouTube,
facebook
Tags: facebook chat, Firefox,
firefox tips, google talk, GTD, Lists,
productivity, sidebar
it would have been great to have your
best shooter in the lineup for that one
ESPN game against the Cleveland
Cavaliers, but they could beat New
Jersey and Oklahoma City with
Dwight Howard and four Summer
League players.
Bouncin' Around: With This
Social Net/ * 15
'Grey's Anatomy''s
Kevin McKidd: This
Season Starts in Grief
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:11:00 AM
It is no mystery that George ( T.R.
Knight) will not be back for the next
season of "Grey's Anatomy." Now,
Kevin McKidd, who plays Dr. Owen
Hunt, talks to ET about life on the hit
medical drama without Knight and
what the future holds for Cristina
Yang ( Sandra Oh) and Owen.
"This is a dark season. It starts in
grief," he tells ET. "I think [George's
death] will affect Hunt a lot, because
he mentored him and got him up on
his feet as a trauma surgeon. He
really felt that O'Malley was going to
become the next trauma star at the
hospital. He encouraged him to join
the army. He thought it was the
honorable thing to do. I think he feels
the loss of him a lot. I think he saw a
huge potential in O'Malley when
others didn't, even O'Malley."
Hunt, who suffers from PTSD, will
not, however, blame himself for
O'Malley's death. It might be
different if O'Malley had been killed
in Iraq or Afghanistan, but McKidd
says that even Hunt would find it
hard to pin himself with that one.
Schedule, Magic Won't Need Lewis
To Start originally appeared on
Fanhouse NBA Blog on Wed, 12
Aug 2009 08:30:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Linking
Blogs| Comments
16 Social Net/ *
FACEBOOK LITE: The Early
Details and Screenshots
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 1:14:15 AM
We just broke the news earlier
tonight that Facebook is launching a
newer, simplified version of the
Facebook platform, called Facebook
Lite. This news comes only a day
after Facebook made its blockbuster
acquisition of FriendFeed and rolled
out its Realtime Facebook Search.
You may be asking yourself “what
the heck is Facebook Lite?” or
maybe “why would Facebook launch
a stripped-down version of its
website?” We’re here to answer
those questions, and we have
screenshots of the new Facebook Lite
to help us out.
1. What is Facebook Lite?
A: It is a completely stripped-down
version of the Facebook platform.
From what we can tell, it is almost
like a Twitter stream: you can see
your most recent status updates and
the updates of your friends. There is
a left-hand navigation with four main
categories: Wall, Info, Friends, and
Photos & Videos. It does little more
than that.
2. What does Facebook Lite look
like?
Gina Carano Talks Cris Cyborg Fight and The
Growth of Women's MMA
By Michael David Smith
(FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:00:00 AM
by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse
Exclusive Gina Carano will step into
the cage Saturday night against
Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos in the
main event of a MMA card that has
been billed as the biggest event in the
history of female fighting. And while
Carano declines to predict herself as
the winner, she says she's certain that
A: Here is what we believe to be a
screenshot of Facebook Lite,
courtesy of Hacker News:
Very stripped down, very basic,
very reminiscient of Twitter and
FriendFeed.
3. Is this Facebook integrating with
FriendFeed?
A: Most likely not. The deal is still
new to integrate their technologies in
this way, and we’re hearing reports
that these tests have been ongoing for
the last 2-3 days. That would put its
development well before the
FriendFeed acquisition
4. What’s the point of Facebook
Lite?
A: Speculation says it’s a direct
assault on Twitter. Facebook
continues to find ways to make itself
whoever walks out of the cage with
the first Strikeforce women's belt will
be a great champion.
In an interview with FanHouse,
competitive with Twitter. This is why
Facebook has been launching
features such as public profiles,
profile fans, public status updates,
and realtime search. Twitter is
simple, so Facebook’s fighting back
with the same.
However, we don’t know for sure.
They may just be making a speedier
version for slow connections. We’ll
find out more from the Facebook
team soon.
5. How can I access it?
A: It’s a limited test for only a
subset of users. The fact that
thousands, if not millions of users got
the test notice was a bug. Most likely
Facebook will open up the test to
more users very soon, especially
since everybody now knows about it.
We’ve contacted Facebook and are
awaiting a response on this
development. In the meantime, we
want to hear your thoughts. Do you
think it’s a good idea? What do you
think is the social network’s goal is
with Facebook Lite? And will people
use it? Reviews: FriendFeed, Hacker
News, Twitter, facebook
Tags: facebook
Carano also discussed her strategy
for fighting Cyborg, her training
methods and her life outside the
cage. The full interview is below.
Gina Carano Talks Cris Cyborg
Fight and The Growth of Women's
MMA originally appeared on
Fanhouse MMA Blog on Wed, 12
Aug 2009 03:00:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Linking
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Etsy Founders Launch
New Company: A
Ping.fm for Business
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 9:23:43 PM
Etsy is quietly one of the world’s
most popular websites. Buying,
selling, and talking about crafts and
handmade items is apparently big
business. Behind the scenes though,
it’s been rocky. After drama over
Etsy’s leadership in August 2008,
two of its founders, Haim Schoppik
and Chris Maguire, left the company
along with a number of employees.
Since then, we haven’t heard much.
So what have they been up to?
Building a social media company,
it seems. We were recently informed
about a new project by Etsy’s Haim,
Chris, and David (former Etsy
product manager). That project is
Postling, a “tool for small businesses
to market, listen, and respond to their
customers using social media.” So
what exactly have the Etsy founders
built?
Postling Does Its Job, But…
When we first arrived on Postling,
one company immediately came to
mind: Ping.fm, the tool that lets you
update all of your social media
accounts all at once. Postling
performs a similar function. The goal
of the new social tool is to simplify
social media for businesses by
making it easy to post to not only a
company blog, but to Twitter, Flickr,
and a range of other social media
websites.
Postling seems to provide a rich
media interface to create, edit, and
Judge: DVD Copying Software is Illegal
By David Kravets (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 4:07:00 AM
A federal judge ruled rules that it is
Internet News Record
build blog posts. After they’re
published (Wordpress, Tumblr,
TypePad, Blogger, and others are
options), you can then update your
status on Facebook, Twitter, and
elsewhere in one swoop. The last
step is that you can post your photos
to Flickr from the interface.
That’s really about it. It doesn’t
have the FriendFeed ability to
receive information from these social
networks, something that would
make the service a lot more useful.
It’s essentially a beefed-up version of
Ping.fm for business, which is why
they don’t offer this product for free.
Postling costs $9 a month.
Postling’s good….but not great. Is
the service worth $9 per month to a
business? Probably. However, if they
know about the free options, then
there’s really no point to Postling at
the moment. Still, it boast an all-star
team with venture backing and it has
only been a week or two since it went
live. We hope Postling steps up its
game and makes a more compelling
case for businesses to spend their
hard-earned cash on its services.
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr,
FriendFeed, Ping.Fm, Tumblr,
Twitter, TypePad, WordPress,
blogger
Tags: Etsy, postling
unlawful to traffic in goods to copy
DVDs in a decision that declares
RealNetworks’ DVD copying
software was illegal.
Internet News Record
Judge: Microsoft Banned from
Selling Word in the US
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:42:00 AM
Welcome to the world of surprising
patent lawsuits. A Texas judge ruled
Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell
Word– yes, Microsoft Word, the
cornerstone of Microsoft Office – in
the United States.
Toronto-based i4i Inc won an
injunction against Microsoft
regarding the company’s XML
patents. In the words of i4i, the
injunction “prohibits Microsoft from
selling or importing to the United
States any Microsoft Word products
that have the capability of opening
.XML, .DOCX or DOCM files
(XML files) containing custom
XML”. Microsoft has been given 60
days to comply, reports Seattle PI.
The injunction reads:
Microsoft Corporation is hereby
permanently enjoined from
performing the following actions
with Microsoft Word 2003,
Microsoft Word 2007, and Microsoft
Word products not more than
colorably different from Microsoft
Word 2003 or Microsoft Word 2007
(collectively “Infringing and Future
Mind Games Wearing Down Harrington
By Greg Couch (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 11:25:00 PM
by Greg Couch
Filed under: PGA, PGA
Championship The inside of a
golfer's mind is a scary place. It's not
cobwebs so much as fried circuits
and burned out synapses. Somehow,
they manage to put on a calm face
and khaki pants.
Not a brain surgeon nor an
electrician, I can not pretend to know
the details of what's happening
behind the smile of Padraig
Harrington.
But he's the defending champ of
Word Products”) during the term of
U.S. Patent No. 5,787,449:
1. selling, offering to sell, and/or
importing in or into the United States
any
Infringing and Future Word
Products that have the capability of
opening a .XML,
.DOCX, or .DOCM file (“an XML
file”) containing custom XML;
2. using any Infringing and Future
Word Products to open an XML file
containing custom XML;
the PGA Championship, which starts
Thursday. Roughly this time last
year, he had won three majors over
13 months, ending a horrifying string
3. instructing or encouraging
anyone to use any Infringing and
Future Word
Products to open an XML file
containing custom XML;
4. providing support or assistance
to anyone that describes how to use
any infringing and Future Word
Products to open an XML file
containing custom XML;
and
5. testing, demonstrating, or
marketing the ability of the
Infringing and Future
Word Products to open an XML
file containing custom XML.
This injunction does not apply to
any of the above actions wherein the
Infringing and Future Word Products
open an XML file as plain text.
Needless to say, Microsoft won’t
pull Word off the market. The
company has said it plans to appeal,
and i4i actually sells XML products
for Word, making that company
reliant on the ecosystem. An
agreement will be reached: probably
one involving Microsoft signing a
big check.
of second-place finishes and finally
win a big one.
Now, he has gone into a free fall.
It's so bad that exactly the thing he
was criticized for throughout most of
his career, finishing second when he
could have won, earned him praise
and, worse, sympathy this week.
More: Harrington's History of Slow
Play| PGA Championship Sleepers
Mind Games Wearing Down
Harrington originally appeared on
Fanhouse Golf Blog on Tue, 11 Aug
2009 23:25:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Linking
Blogs| Comments
Social Net/ * 17
Twitter Not Suing
Developer, But Spam
Apps Should Watch Out
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 4:54:59 AM
The developer of MyTwitterButler,
a $10 auto-follow application for
Twitter (eg. follow thousands of
people on Twitter so they follow you
back), is claiming today he’s been
“sued” by Twitter.
It’s not true: the letter he published
under the title “I’m Being Sued by
Twitter!!” is a cease and desist
asking him to stop breaking the subject of the Twitter trademark
Twitter TOS (auto-follow is not itself, Biz Stone wrote:
permitted, nor is creating an app to Regarding the use of the word
Twitter in projects, we are a bit more
auto-follow, since the only real use
case is to spam) and to stop using wary although there are some
exceptions here as well. After all,
“Twitter” in his product name and
domain name due to confusion with Twitter is the name of our service
and our company so the potential for
Twitter’s trademark. Drawing the
Line confusion is much higher. When
folks ask us about naming their
That one tidbit is the only
interesting chapter to the story: application with “Twitter” we
generally respond by suggesting
Twitter has typically turned a blind
eye to Twitterholic, Twittercounter more original branding for their
project. This avoids potential
and hundreds of legitimate Twitter
applications using the Twitter name. confusion down the line.
It seems increasingly clear where
Going after these legitimate
applications would create bad PR, the line is drawn: creating spammy
apps may not go down well, while
even though Twitter is indeed
obligated to defend its trademark or
risk losing it.
those creating new applications
would be best to use something more
novel than “ Twitter” in the app
In fact, Twitter has won plaudits
for allowing its ecosystem to name.
We’ve put a note in to Twitter’s
blossom in this way. And after filing
to trademark the word “Tweet”, the lawyers asking for clarification, and
we’ll update if we get more details.
company was very clear that it would
not be chasing down app makers who Reviews: Twitter
used the word in their names. On the
Someday, A Tiny Subway Will Deliver Your
Groceries
By Keith Barry (Wired Top study for the Urban Mole transit
Stories) system last week, we had no idea
Submitted at 8/12/2009 4:19:00 AM
how much time and effort people
have spent on trying to deliver small
When we showed you the design parcels through underground tubes.
18 Social Net/ *
Guy Catches Laptop Facebook tweaks its terms to address
With His Butt: YouTube ads, privacy
Video Raises Eyebrows
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:28:36 AM
Computer manufacturer MSI is
doing a big promotional push for a
series of notebooks called the X-
Slim. As you might expect, their big
selling point is their size: they’re less
than 3 pounds and, according to the
ads, are less than an inch in
thickness.
Core to that promotion is a
YouTube contest to win a trip to the
Great Barrier Reef and a new
notebook. The goal is to create an
“extreme crazy video” with an MSI
notebook; the company will then
choose 15 winners.
However, it isn’t the contest that’s
making buzz, but apparently one of
the insane demo videos. One where
acrobats catch laptops with their
butts.
Yes, seriously. The video, launched
two days ago (August 10th) has
become a viral sensation, growing to
over 75,000 views – this is up from
just 7000 a few hours ago. The video
literally depicts one man in tights
using his rear to grasp onto laptops
thrown at him.
The video’s so insane that many
YouTube commenters think this is a
Diebold Quietly Patches Security Flaw in Voting
Software
By Kim Zetter (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:05:00 AM
Premier Election Solutions,
formerly Diebold, has quietly
patched a serious security weakness
fake video or that the footage was
done backwards. How you’d throw a
laptop out of your butt though…we
won’t even begin to speculate.
Regardless, this is great publicity for
MSI. Clearly it’s a slim laptop if you
can catch it where the sun don’t
shine.
Form your own opinion by
watching the video below and telling
us what you think. Is this a smart
campaign? Do you think this is real?
Are you as disturbed as we are? Let
us know in the comments.
Reviews: YouTube
Tags: MSi, youtube
in its widely used election-tabulation
software. No word on whether the
company plans to tell states that a
safer version of the software is
available.
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 4:11:00 PM
Facebook on Tuesday proposed a
new version of its Statement of
Rights and Responsibilities
document, which acts as a terms of
service for its users.
One of the larger changes is clearer
language of Facebook's share to
everyone feature, which is now an
integral part of the social network's
updated search engine. The new
wording makes it pretty clear that
anything users post with the
"everyone" designation can be seen
by the entire world, not just users on
the service.
The company also added a new
section which details proper use of its
pages features, including who is able
to administrate them, and provisions
that require all content on the pages
Pixorial collects your video, sells it
back to you
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:00:00 AM
The family video site Pixorial opens
up to the public Wednesday. It solves
two problems most people will
probably relate to. First, it's a nice
little video editor for piecing together
clips from digital cameras and the
like. Second, if you send Pixorial
your old analog media (VHS tapes,
Super 8 film, other formats), the
company will convert them to digital
so you can edit them into new films.
Once your film is edited, you can
then press it to DVD ($9.99) or just
view it online in smallish window. If
you want to download the full, high-
resolution video, that's $1.99
to be public and able to be indexed
by search engines.
On top of that, the company is
locking down sponsored status
updates. These are user updates
which have been paid for by an
outside company, effectively turning
users into marketing mouthpieces.
What's unclear, however, is how
Facebook intends to police items that
are not known advertising schemes,
such as people's personal businesses.
Although under the updated
document, it's a little clearer that that
has to be done on Facebook pages
instead.
Some other changes include:
&#149 Not being able to place a
You can upload and store video for
free, but you only get 10GB of space
and 60 days of storage. Pro accounts,
for $24.99 a year, get unlimited
uploads and archival storage. The
company makes additional money
selling DVDs. It also charges for the
digitization of media--about $7 per
hour, CEO Andres Espineira told me.
I gave the editor a quick run-
through. It appears basic but
functional and more importantly easy
enough to use by anyone who's able
to put old VHS tapes in the Pixorial
mailing box. Users can also invite
Internet News Record
"become a fan" widget inside of an
advertisement (however you can still
place it next to one).
&#149 Clearer language on what
kind of information third-party
applications get access to.
&#149 A ban on attacks that could
disable the service (such as DDoS
attacks, which are all the rage right
now).
&#149 A ban on pyramid or
multilevel marketing schemes.
As with all other proposed changes
to the Rights and Responsibilities
document, Facebook offers users a
chance to provide feedback before
the new rules are made final. To view
an older version of the updated
document, you can hit Google's
cache.
Originally posted at Web Crawler
friends and family to collaborate on
edits. There are no length limits on
videos.
The Pixorial editor is not fancy, but
it's good for creating archives of
family videos.(Credit: Screenshot by
Rafe Needleman/CNET)
Mostly, I like the business. No
freebies here and that's appropriate.
People will pay for a simple, reliable
way to edit and preserve their old
videos and movies.
See also: MotionBox and
iMemories. People with only digital
movie files might find happiness
with Windows Movie Maker or
Apple's iMovie.
Originally posted at Rafe's Radar
Internet News Record
Memeo Send: Like a digital UPS for businesses
By Jessica Dolcourt
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:00:00 AM
Memeo Send uses Outlook
integration and drag-and-drop to
keep file transfers simple.(Credit:
Memeo)
Memeo Send (for Windows| Mac)
is a brand-new application aimed at
business professionals in small-to-
medium size companies who
frequently need to transfer large files
to colleagues--including photos,
videos, PowerPoint presentations,
and hefty design files from InDesign
and Adobe Illustrator.
Where Memeo Share (Windows|
Mac), the company's free-to-try
photo- and video-sharing app,
focuses on gallery organization and
consumer media, Memeo's impetus
with Send is much more on tracking,
management, and bulk deliveries.
Memeo Send opens as a simple, yet
attractive desktop application that
uploads files two ways: you can
browse the file tree, or can drag and
drop from an open folder to the
Memeo Send interface. After that,
selecting recipients and jotting down
an optional description are all that's
left to ship out your parcel of files.
To anticipate the needs of its
business users, Memeo Send
integrates the Microsoft Outlook
address book into the 'Send to' field--
just the personal Contacts portion,
mind you, not a global corporate list
if your company has one. You can
also type or paste contacts' names by
hand. We'd like a way to create new
T.O. Sprains Toe, Misses Practice, Tweets; Bills Claim Not to Worry
By Dan Graziano (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 9:22:00 PM
by Dan Graziano
Filed under: Bills, NFL Interviews,
NFL Training Camp The NFL season
is a little more than four weeks away,
so FanHouse is at Bills training camp
today for Stop 4 and Mile 768 of Dan
e-mail groups in Memeo to quickly
access a recurring knot of recipients,
in addition to accomplishing the task
by creating a new Outlook group.
Immediately after beginning the
transfer, Memeo Send navigates you
to the Track tab, which, in the style
of physical packages, produces and
then hangs on to a tracking number.
The app keeps stats on the date and
time the files were sent, the number
and size of the files, and on their
sending and delivery status. A
separate pane monitors the content
and status of the file packs that you
have received in return, viewable in
Graziano's five-camp, 1,100-mile
road trip.
PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- While the
Bills were enjoying an evening
practice under the lights at St. John
Fisher College, star receiver Terrell
Owens was back in the trainer's
room, tweeting about the sprained toe
that kept him from being on the field.
icon or list form.
Memeo Send tracks upload and
download status and produces a
tracking number.(Credit:
CNET/Screenshot by Jessica
Dolcourt)
If your Internet connection falters
for any reason, Memeo Send can
pick up at the location in the delivery
stream where it left off.
In addition to managing transfers
through the desktop client, Memeo's
Web site is a second location for
monitoring and downloading files
sent to and from your account.
Recipients can download incoming
"Just finished treatment!! Done 4
the day!" Owens tweeted just before
files via Memeo.com without
registering for a Memeo account.
Pricing
Instead of paying lump sums and
subscriptions fees, Memeo adopts a
modified pay-as-you-go structure
based on credits. You'll get the first
three sends free, but after that, you'll
buy transfer privileges in clusters.
Roughly $10 gets you ten 99-cent
credits. One credit buys you one
'package', which is worth up to 2GB
in size and/or up to 5 recipients.
Whiles there is no limit to what you
can send, you do pay more for larger
packages and more recipients. For
8:30 p.m., in his first injury-related
tweet of the day. "Every day is a
good day. I'm definitely tahnkful."
(Give him a break. It's hard to type
on those things.)
T.O. Sprains Toe, Misses Practice,
Tweets; Bills Claim Not to Worry
originally appeared on Fanhouse
NFL Blog on Tue, 11 Aug 2009
* 19
example, a 15GB parcel sent to one
person uses three credits; a 1GB file
sent to 9 people uses two.
Memeo Send is undeniably easy to
execute, which for many, will make
it an attractive alternative to zipping
and e-mailing large files, or
uploading them to an FTP site,
especially if the company decides to
foot the bill. Regardless, some
conveniences would make Memeo
Send more user-friendly still. It
should calculate your file size and
credit cost before a send, so you can
adjust your haul as needed. It would
also be nice to have control over
which folder hosts your inbound file
transfers. The default setting brings
them to the file path My
Documents\Memeo Send\Received
Packages.
While Mac users can also abort
downloads as they're received,
Windows users will need to wait
until Memeo Send completes the
delivery to delete it. For larger
packages, this can take a few solid
minutes.
Though there are a few soft spots,
Memeo Send's cross-platform
support, secure transfer, digital
package tracking, and limitless size
allowances could make it a solid
workplace replacement for a desktop
file-transfer client like YouSendIt
(Windows| Mac).
Originally posted at The Download
Blog
21:22:00 EST . Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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20 * Internet News Record
Google Caffeine: Newsier, by a nose
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 2:56:00 PM
Google is running a public
experiment of a new search
technology, code-named
Caffeine(link takes you to the beta
search engine). There are visible
changes in search results, but they
are so subtle that you likely won't
notice differences between the old
Google and the beta Google unless
you run queries side by side.
Caffeine is a test version of the
Google indexing and ranking system,
not an upgrade of the Google user
interface. For many queries that I ran,
the top entries were identical, and
result pages look the same.
For example, when searching for
"Google Caffeine," the top 10 results
were the same with one minor
exception: The fourth and fifth
results were reversed between today's
Google and Caffeine. Results on
following search pages diverged
more, but are obviously a lot less
important, since most people use the
results from the first page of search
hits.
In searching for a news item,
"Great America roller coaster," the
results were different this morning,
with the old Google neglecting
Monday's news about people getting
stranded 40 feet up when the coaster
uTorrent prepares for version 2.0
By Seth Rosenblatt
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 3:20:00 PM
The first beta of the next generation
of the uTorrent client is available and
contains some useful upgrades that
address how torrenting has changed
in the past few years.
uTorrent 2's bandwidth cap options
panel.(Credit: Screenshot by Seth
Rosenblatt/CNET)
A transfer cap feature has been
jammed. In later testing, the results
converged toward the same set of
hits, and both Google and Caffeine
had the news item at the top of the
page.
Google's "Caffeine" search engine
put news at the top of its results page
before the old Google did.(Credit:
Screenshot by Rafe
Needleman/CNET)
The current version of Google
didn't rate the Great America news
highly enough to put it at the top of
its results page until later in the
added, which will allow users who
have cap-limited bandwidth to
throttle down their torrenting habits
and stay away from overage charges
or having their service shut off. The
feature offers graphs and can show
your upload and download usage by
megabyte. Most importantly, you'll
be able to set it to shut down
uTorrent once your limit has been
hit. It's also configurable, so you can
set it to turn off uTorrent by either
upload limit, download limit, or both.
morning.(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe
Needleman/CNET)
In a broader test, "Health Care
Obama," the top two results were the
same. The third result was a news
item on both versions, although it
was from CNN on the current Google
and from The New York Times on
Caffeine. The Caffeine results
diverged substantially from current
Google after that, showing results
from less well-known sources like
TheHealthCareBlog and
RealClearPolitics. On the current
uTorrent also supports UDP
trackers, which are a new kind of
Google, only one result on the first
page was from a non-mainstream
news site.
In a query for product information,
"Nikon d300 review," results differed
between the old and beta Google
more noticeably, although I wouldn't
say that the new beta Google was any
better than the old Google.
Google execs say Caffeine searches
execute more quickly, but I noticed
no speed difference in anecdotal
testing. Caffeine reports different
numbers of results between the two
protocol for tracker communication
that uses noticeably less processing
power. As more trackers use UDP, it
will allow them to continue to
function on lower-end machines,
which should result in faster transfers
as the client itself won't be slowing
down the torrent.
Another back-end change for
version 2 is support for uTP, an
alternative communication method
for torrent traffic that allows the
client to automatically regulate
versions, but since most people don't
go beyond the first page or two of
results for most queries, that number
has no real bearing on the quality of
hits.
One thing I am hoping to see on
Google Search eventually, but did
not see in Caffeine, is more
sensitivity to real-time results from
sources like Twitter. Bing has a very
slight advantage in this regard,
pulling in recent Twitter posts from
some users if you search for their
twitter handle (e.g, "@rafe"). No
standard search engines have yet
figured out how to incorporate news
that comes in via Twitter, however.
See also: Facebook gets Twitter-like
search.
The bottom line: While it's good to
see Google working to improve
search quality, the changes visible in
the Caffeine test so far are more
curious than eye-opening. Currently,
Google is a very good search engine.
Caffeine might be slightly better in
some cases, but it does not yet appear
to be a breakthrough in quality.
For more on what's behind
Caffeine, read Google's Caffeine: A
jolt to search rankings?
Originally posted at Rafe's Radar
bandwidth usage so that your local
network isn't adversely affected.
Unlike the bandwidth cap, which is a
cutoff point, uTP will make sure that
other locally-running programs can
still use your Internet connection
without taking forever to resolve
sites.
The full list of changes can be read
here.
Originally posted at The Download
Blog
Internet News Record
Facebook launching Twitter-like 'Lite' site?
By Caroline McCarthy
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:38:00 AM
Is this Facebook's big assault on
Twitter?(Credit: Screenshot by Jason
Baptiste)
Facebook, it appears, was not about
to let Google get this week's award
for shadowy new projects. On
Tuesday night, a number of users--
including Mashable blogger Ben Parr
--received notifications that they
were beta testers for something
called "Facebook Lite."
Aug. 12, 1883: Quagga's Extinction a Nasty Surprise
By Tony Long (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 9:00:00 PM
The last quagga dies in captivity,
The notifications, as well as the site
hosted on the subdomain
lite.facebook.com, disappeared
within minutes. It seems to have been
rolled out prematurely by mistake.
From what it looks like, Facebook
Lite is a simpler version of the site
and pares down profiles to basic
information and a stream of status
updates. The easy conclusion is that
this would make Facebook's service
look a whole lot like Twitter. And
given the fact that Facebook had
attempted to acquire Twitter, got
snubbed, and then acquired the
but no one realizes that it's the last
animal of the line until much later.
significantly smaller real-time
streaming site FriendFeed this week,
a Twitter-like service would be rife
with implications.
Blogger Jason Baptiste said he
managed to get screenshots. I've
contacted Facebook to verify their
authenticity.
The obvious guess is that this is yet
another attempt on Facebook's part to
stay abreast of Twitter in the race to
own the "real-time streaming Web."
There are, potentially, other reasons
for launching a simplified site:
For use on slower connections.
For stripped-down computers in
developing markets, where the
250,000,000-member Facebook
wants to make inroads.
As a more "portable" profile that
could potentially tie into Facebook's
aim of being all over the Web rather
than a destination site.
It just isn't clear yet. Got any
guesses, speculation, or conspiracy
theories? Comments are welcome.
Originally posted at The Social
* 21
Rick Pitino Reportedly
Concedes Affair as
Melodrama Plays Out
By Chas Rich (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 11:52:00 PM
by Chas Rich
Filed under: Louisville, Big East,
Coaches, Police Blotter There's
something like 10 kinds of crazy in
the ever-expanding story on
Louisville coach Rick Pitino and his
relationship with the alleged
extortionist Karen Cunagin Sypher. It
didn't take a rocket scientist to figure
out that the information she was
holding over the married Pitino's
head involved an extramarital affair.
Still, this is now approaching pure
soap-opera levels of melodrama.
The latest, as reported by the
Courier-Journal, is that Pitino
admitted to police investigators that
he did have sex with Sypher. It took
place after-hours at a restaurant
where he had been drinking at the
bar. According to the interview,
Pitino strongly suggested that he may
have been drunk. He told the police
this after Sypher had recently made
allegations that he raped her back in
August 2003.
Rick Pitino Reportedly Concedes
Affair as Melodrama Plays Out
originally appeared on Fanhouse
NCAA Basketball Blog on Tue, 11
Aug 2009 23:52:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
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22 * Internet News Record
Netflix to follow up its
million-dollar contest
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 6:14:00 PM
(Credit: Netflix)
Netflix is in the process of readying
the second iteration of its million-
dollar algorithm contest.
The original prize, which began in
late 2006 and recently reached its
final deadline, had both teams and
individuals striving to better Netflix's
algorithm for recommending movies
to users--all in the hopes of winning
a $1 million prize. This was later
split up into smaller prizes as the
contest dragged on.
According to the Associated Press,
which sources a Netflix forum post
by Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil
Hunt, the next contest is set to debut
next month along with the unveiling
of the winner of the first contest
(which has yet to be announced).
Hunt said that the new contest
would not only be shorter than the
last one (6-18 months instead of two-
plus years), but could also have
Isaiah Washington Films PSA for
Gay Marriage Rights
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
ET is bringing you behind the
scenes of Isaiah Washington's new
PSA in support of gay marriage
rights.
Washington made the public
service announcement for the NO H8
campaign, which was launched by
photographer Adam Bouska and
partner Jeff Parshley in opposition to
the passage of Proposition 8, which
teams working on ways to improve
other aspects of the service--not just
movies that are recommended to
users based on ratings and viewing
habits. That could literally be
anything, from creating an algorithm
to suggest other users to befriend, or
helping the company better
determine which movies to purchase
to meet demand.
The effect of these contests
eventually filters down to Netflix
users who enjoy a better service. In
the case of the first contest, an
improved recommendation algorithm
meant more accurate movie
suggestions, something that could
ultimately keep users subscribed to
the service for longer periods of time,
while taking business away from
competitors with less accurate
systems.
Originally posted at Web Crawler
banned gay marriage in California.
A number of celebs have also
posed for NO H8 campaign photos,
including Ashlee Simpson-Wentz
and hubby Pete Wentz, director
Bryan Singer, Fran Drescher and
John McCain's daughter Meghan, as
well as hundreds of private citizens.
The photos feature subjects with duct
tape over their mouths, symbolizing
their voices not being heard, and NO
H8 painted on one cheek in protest.
Mashups pit search
engines against each
other
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 5:48:00 PM
Can't decide which search engine to
use? Use several. At once. After I
covered Google's "Caffeine" beta
search engine I got a link, in the
story's comments, to a clever hack
that puts old Google and new Google
results side by side, so you can use
both: CompareGoogle. Useful? Not
really. But kind of entertaining if
you're a search geek.
I prefer, though, the blind taste test
of search, BlindSearch, created by
Microsoft employee Michael
Kordahi. You enter your query and it
gives you three panes of search
results, from Google, Bing, and
Yahoo, but in a random order and
with nothing telling you which is
which. You find out what's what
once you tell it which result set you
like best. How scientific. I ran it
several times and found Google to be
my preferred engine, although Bing
was close behind. (Thanks, SFGate.)
Tell BlindSearch which results you
like and then it will tell you where
they came from. (Screenshot edited:
ads removed.)(Credit: Screenshot by
Rafe Needleman/CNET)
Other side-by-side search mashups
include YahoogleSearch(Google vs.
Yahoo); Twingine(also Google vs.
Yahoo); Bing-vs-Google(guess);
Blackdog's Google-Bing(Google vs.
Bing in multiple languages); and
BingTweets(Bing plus Twitter
Search);
There are also several services that
grab results from multiple engines in
the background and present them in
one collated list. Examples include
Dogpile, which I used to use when
Google didn't give me what I wanted,
and Clusty. See also our overview of
metasearch engines.
Originally posted at Rafe's Radar
What Distraction?
Nothing Will Bend
Steelers' Steely Resolve
By Terence Moore (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 1:00:00 AM
by Terence Moore
Filed under: Steelers, NFL Training
Camp, NFL Analysis
LATROBE, Pa. -- That Ben
Roethlisberger thing?
A distraction?
Please.
Those who aren't into black and
gold when it comes to the NFL
should hold their glee. I mean, here is
why that Roethlisberger thing is
insignificant: If the Pittsburgh
Steelers don't capture their third
Super Bowl in five seasons come
February, they'll finish within a
Terrible Towel of doing so. More:
Don't Tell the Steelers It's Hard to
Repeat -- They Remember
What Distraction? Nothing Will
Bend Steelers' Steely Resolve
originally appeared on Fanhouse
NFL Blog on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
01:00:00 EST . Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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History Offers Hope
Swine Flu Won't Gain
Strength in Fall
By Hadley Leggett (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 3:30:00 PM
A new analysis of past pandemics
suggests spring waves of flu are not
often followed by a more contagious
or deadly fall flu, as many believe.
Internet News Record
Tiger Woods Courts
Controversy, but
Brilliance Radiates
By Jay Mariotti (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 11:20:00 PM
by Jay Mariotti
Filed under: Golf Tiger? Is that
you? The man who avoids
controversy like Kate avoids Jon, the
man who is apolitical and non-
confrontational and quite possibly the
dullest megastar in the history of
sports, is abandoning his equilibrium
to criticize the PGA Tour? All
because an official decided that
Woods and Padraig Harrington were
dawdling too long Sunday -- 17
minutes behind, to be exact -- and put
a clock on them for the last three
holes at Firestone?
Of all times to walk on the wild
side and boogie down, this is odd.
What I took from Woods' 70th career
title is that he was typically
unbothered by the edict, issued by
European Tour chief referee John
Paramor. After he and Harrington
were told of the slow-play violation
on the tee at No. 16, Woods
responded with one of the epic shots
of this or any other golf season, a 178
-yard rainbow with an 8-iron that
crept to within inches of the hole.
While he was fashioning a birdie,
Harrington was hurrying because of
the clock issue and choking away a
RealDVD Killed Off in Court [DVDs]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:00:00 AM
RealDVD, the bold attempt by Real
Networks to offer a legal DVD
ripping solution, was shelved in
October and has now lost its first
court case. The judge didn't rule on
rare chance to outduel Woods, hitting
a shot over the green and then
plunking a flop shot into the water.
PGA Championship Preview:
Regular Joes| Sleepers
Tiger Woods Courts Controversy,
but Brilliance Radiates originally
appeared on Fanhouse - Jay Mariotti
on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:20:00 EST .
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whether consumers have the right to
make backup copies of their media,
Spoiler: What Lies Ahead on
'Desperate Housewives'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:11:00 AM
A new family moves onto Wisteria
Lane when "Desperate Housewives"
returns this season, and ET gets the
inside scoop from Jeffrey Nordling,
who plays Nick Vitale, husband to
Angie Vitale ( Drea de Matteo).
"He is not from these parts,"
Nordling tells ET. "He doesn't really
Apple, Record Labels
Diverge Over Next-Gen
Full-Album Music
Format
By Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 3:18:00 PM
Apple and the four major labels
prepare music formats containing full
albums and related goodies in a
digital bundle that's meant to be as
rich an experience for consumers as
the vinyl people used to buy. It's also
more profitable for the labels.
but stated that Real Networks didn't
have the right to sell them a tool to
do so. Real's antitrust suit against the
movie giants remains in play; in the
meantime, be glad you're able to rip
full DVDs on your own.
* TechTips/ 23
belong [on Wisteria Lane]. There is a
dark secret in their past, which you
don't quite figure out in the
beginning. But something happened.
It is not quite witness protection, but
…"
Nordling says the hardest part of
his role is getting the syntax right,
because the characters don't talk "as
proper as the writers write."
Use Firefox's Spell Checker on
Any Page [Firefox]
By Jason Fitzpatrick Not only can you see the errors, but
(Lifehacker) because the bookmarklet sets the text
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:30:00 AM
content of the page to editable you
can actively correctly the mistakes so
Firefox only: Firefox has long had a when you cut and paste the text the
handy built-in spell checker, great for errors are fixed. It's a handy way to
proofreading emails, blog posts, and
other communications. What if you
proof a draft sent to you via email or
make some corrections to a text
want to use the built-in spell checker you're copying and pasting.
on a static web page however? Use Have any handy
this bookmarklet. bookmarklets—Firefox-centric or
By dragging and dropping the otherwise—to share? Throw them in
simple bookmarklet below to your the comments below. Use Firefox's
bookmark toolbar, you can activate Spellchecker Anywhere![Firefox
the spell checker on any static page. Facts]
Spell check
24 TechTips/ Gizmos/
How to Build a DIY Dorm-Legal
A/C [Back To School]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 5:00:00 PM
Ed. note: We've covered the
homemade air conditioner territory
before on Lifehacker, but
HackCollege's Kelly Sutton offers
this awesome video guide to the
DIY, dorm-legal air conditioner to
help students (or anyone trying to
save a few bucks) stay cool.
Many campuses have strict policies
regarding portable air-conditioners.
Because A/C ain't cheap, schools
worry that students would overcool
their rooms and increase the
electricity bill (after all, you don't
pay utilities for your dorm room)—or
maybe admins are worried about
improperly affixed units falling off
the sides of buildings. Either way,
some campuses are unbearably hot
during the earlier parts of fall and
give students no way to remedy the
situation. Until now. When you have
no other option, just build it yourself
Believe it or not, it's possible to
build your own air conditioner for
about $40. Well technically, it's not
an air conditioner; it's more of a heat-
concentrator. It will cool even the
hottest dorm room to a nippy 60
degrees Fahrenheit in no time. To get
started, you'll need to make a trip to
the hardware store.
You will be building a unit that
absorbs heat into some water,
How Much of Your Phone Bill Goes Toward Lobbyist Scum for Verizon and AT&T? [Cellphones]
By matt buchanan (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:30:27 AM
A new administration means
revamped lobbying operations from
Verizon, AT&T and other carriers.
allowing you to quickly dispose of
that water outside. Materials
• A floor-standing fan like this
one(although not as expensive)
• Some 1/4" copper tubing. 10 ft.
• Some 1/4" inner-diameter rubber
tubing
• About 50 zip-ties
• 2 small hose clamps
• 2 buckets
• Tools
Instructions
• Detach the face of the fan and put
it on your work bench or table.
• Grab your zip-ties and copper
tubing. Start coiling the copper
tubing around the face of the fan. Use
the zip-ties about every 6 inches to
attach that section to the fan face.
Make sure that both ends shoot out
the bottom of the fan's face.
• Take your hose clamps and secure
the rubber tubing onto either end of
the copper tubing. If you need to cut
your copper tubing, don't forget to
Last year, Verizon spent $9.3 million
on lobbying, while AT&T spent $8.2
million. The WSJ says they're
already on track to spend more this
year as they beef up their
operations—and you gotta figure the
sand the edges before you start
working with the tubing. Freshly cut
copper is very sharp.
• Fill up one of your buckets with
water.
• Position the bucket full of water
on a ledge or a desk—someplace
above ground level.
• Siphon the water through the
contraption to the bucket on the
floor. (Bernoulli's Principle in
action!)
• Turn on the fan.
After a few minutes, all of the
water will drain into the bucket on
the floor. You can now dispose of
this lukewarm bucket as you see fit.
Repeat a few times to get your room
extra chilled. Many ways to skin a
cat
This is just one way of creating a
dorm room cooling device. You can
also create something more akin to a
"swamp cooler" if you're looking for
something a tad simpler. A swamp
cooler is just a device that usually
just moves air over a body of water
to aid in evaporation and spreading
the chill. This isn't so great if you're
looking to keep the humidity down.
Or you can always just seek
inspiration from Mr. Freeze.
The school-bound productivity nuts
at weblog HackCollege will be
joining us all week to offer their
perspective on making the most of
your Back to School regimen.
way the new chairman Julius
Genachowski jumped on the Google
Remains of the Day: Google
Opt-Out Village Edition
[For What It's Worth]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 4:00:00 PM
Privacy-concerned users wrestle
their privacy back from Google in the
1984-esque opt-out village, iTunes 9
rumors suggest a new, more social
music player, and Chrome and Opera
users are left out in the cold with
Office Web Apps.
• The Onion: Google Opt-Out
Village See video for a little Google
satire. [via Google Blogoscoped]
• First reported screenshots of
iTunes 9 emerge; Facebook, Twitter
and Last.fm integration showcased
Rumors have been floating around
about iTunes 9 getting "social,"
supporting integration with the likes
of Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm.
• Firefox 3.6 on November, focus
on Personas and responsiveness
Looks like Firefox 3.6 will hit
servers sometime in November, so
expect an initial beta sometime in
September and a second later that
month—and expect a less large-scale
release, with more focus on speed
and stability than features. [Mozilla
Links]
• Facebook Search Improved for
Everyone Facebook gets real-time
search à la Twitter—adding a feature
to Facebook that I consider the best
reason you should be using Twitter.
Voice iPhone rejection, he officially
scares the unholy pee out of them, so
Internet News Record
[Facebook Blog]
• Microsoft to roll out IE 8 with new
defaults on Patch Tuesday Upgrading
to IE8 using the Express Settings was
previously setting IE8 as the default
browser without asking; after a patch
today, IE8 will ask like a polite
browser. [ZDNet]
• Labels make album format after
Apple rejection The major music
labels are trying to keep the album
interesting in the digital age by—you
guessed it, creating a new proprietary
format for albums. [Electonista]
• The Office Web Apps Love Your
Browser When Microsoft Office
Web Apps finally launch for
everyone, they'll officially support
IE7 and 8, Firefox 3.5, and Safari 4.
That means that while they may very
well work on Chrome and Opera,
they're still not going to be officially
supported. [Office Web Apps Blog]
• Engineering POV: IE6 Folks have
been down on IE6 a little more than
normal lately, and Microsoft's
IEBlog issues their response.
[IEBlog]
• Safari 4.0.3 is available for your
software updating pleasure Safari
lovers, hit up Software Update for
some minor stability improvements
and fixes in Safari 4.0.3.
they're likely gonna spend even more
to try to keep him off their slimy
backs. [ WSJ]
Internet News Record
Pastie Speeds Up iPhone Email with Pre-
Formatted Text [Downloads]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:00:00 AM
iPhone: Emails can be unique, but
sometimes you just need to tell the
boss you're "Running 10 minutes
late," or ask a spouse what they need
from the store. Pastie makes sending
common text blocks to contacts fast
and easy.
Pastie gives you a space to type out
common messages, then decide
whether you want to assign those
messages a specific contact and
delivery method (email or SMS), or
decide when you click the "Pastie."
For non-email and SMS purposes,
Pastie also allows for quick clipboard
copies of your text snippets to be
How Much Do You Pay for Your Cellphone Plan? [Reader
Poll]
By Azadeh Ensha (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 4:30:00 PM
Having a cellphone is de rigueur,
but not all service providers are
created equal. According to a new
report by Nielson, pricing is the
number one consumer concern when
signing up for a mobile plan. So how
much do you pay?
Photo by mujitra.
According to the report, getting
cheap service beats out other
concerns like whether a provider
offers a family plan and prepaid
Time Drive Does Incremental Backup Across Networks [Downloads]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:30:00 AM
Windows/Mac/Linux: Inspired by
our post on Linux backup utility
Back in Time, but finding it lacking
encryption and network powers, Rob
Oakes wrote his own Python-based
pasted into any other app. The
free/Lite version limits users to three
text blocks, while the $1.99 full
version does no such thing.
Both apps, annoyingly enough,
service options. The current
economic recession has only
exacerbated consumers' desire for an
affordable plan. In fact, every month
25,000 wireless customers cite price
utility to back up Windows, Mac, or
Linux machines across local
machines or networks.
Rob's app is styled a lot like Back
in Time and other backup utilities,
with simple folder adding and
backup buttons to get the job done,
and it offers scheduling for
refuse to install on iPod touch
models, claiming they "require a
microphone"—hence the stock
screenshot used here. To see Pastie in
action, check out video
demonstration (or click over to its
Vimeo page for an impressively tall
version):
Pastie Lite and Pastie are free and
$1.99 downloads, respectively, and
both require an iPhone running at
least 3.0 firmware If you're giving it
a try, tell us about your most useful
text snippets in the comments. Pastie
Lite
Pastie[iTunes Store (direct link) via
CNET]
as the number one reason for
choosing their current carrier.
All this talk about money makes us
wonder, how much do you pay for
your plan and what do you get in
automated, incremental backups. The
TechTips/ Entertainment/
More Mad Men video goodness
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:04:00 AM
AMC is starting to post more and
more videos at their Mad Men site in
anticipation of this Sunday's third
season premiere. Below are two
videos from the Mad Men premiere
party that was held recently.
I like the life lesson that Alison
return?
How much do you pay your
cellphone provider for your plan?(
survey)
Choose your range in the poll
above, and tell us what you get for
your money (unlimited nights and
weekends, number of minutes, free in
-network calling, and so on) in the
comments. What Do Cellphone
Users Want Most? Cheap
Service[Bits Blog]
key features, though, are its support
for backing up over secure SSH/SCP
connections, WebDAV, or standard
FTP. Installing and configuring Time
Drive requires a bit of command line
work and Python, but nothing
requiring any programming
knowledge, and Rob explains the
25
Brie (Trudy Campbell) thinks the
Sesame Street Mad Men parody will
try to instill in kids.
Continue reading More Mad Men
video goodness
Filed under: Video, Celebrities,
Reality-Free, Mad Men
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
WTF is up with the
Gossip Girl WTF
promos?
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:30:00 AM
The CW has a series of WTF
promos for the new season of Gossip
Girl, which premieres on September
14. Here's another one below.
Oh, and if you think WTF stands
for "What the ***," then you just
have a dirty mind.
Filed under: Video, Reality-Free,
Gossip Girl
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
step-by-step of installation and use at
his site.
Back in Time is a free download
for Windows, Mac, and Linux
systems. Time Drive[Apolitically
Incorrect]
26 TechTips/ Web/
Learn the Basics of Regular
Expression Searches [Search
Techniques]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 4:45:00 AM
Regular expressions are seriously
powerful tools, but most folks
without serious IT experience aren't
familiar with them. A helpful blog
post details eight useful expressions
and how they work.
If you're a regular Lifehacker
reader, you've probably seen regular
expressions mentioned as a supported
feature of software, such as the
Automatic Save Folder Firefox add-
on or Everything for Windows. The
Nettuts+ blog guides beginners
through what regular expressions are,
how they all work (reading
backwards and forwards at the same
time is a little mind trip, just for
starters), and how you could use
them to find files, passwords, text, or
other important things on your
system.
Got your own ways of creating or
understanding regular expressions?
Tell us about them in the comments.
8 Regular Expressions You Should
Know[Nettuts+]
The Top 100 Search Terms Queried
by Kids
By Sarah Perez
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:04:41 AM
Security firm Symantec has
identified the top 100 searches
conducted by children online.
Popular items in the list include some
expected entries like YouTube,
Facebook, and MySpace as well as
queries for popular pop idols like
Michael Jackson and Miley Cyrus.
However, what's surprising about the
children's list is how similar it looks
to that of any other online adult -
something which seems to imply that
our online activities aren't all that age
dependent after all.
Sponsor
Trend #1: Some Search Terms are
All Grown Up
Online websites like YouTube,
eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, and
MySpace were popular online
searches performed by children.
YouTube actually ended up in three
spots. Not only was the query
"YouTube" the number one search
term, it also landed spots 11 and 12
with "You Tube" and
"YouTube.com" respectively.
Actually, YouTube also earned spot
#9 as well, if you count the query for
"Fred," a popular fictional character
whose YouTube channel is a current
big hit with kids.
While there are a lot of indications
that this is, indeed, a children's list
thanks to searches for pop stars,
games, music, and the phenomenon
that is "Twilight," there are also a lot
of similarities between this list and
the one which you might expect to
see if adults searches were culled in
the same manner. The most shocking
example of these similarities comes
in at number 6: "porn." Ranking
higher than the other innocent entries
like Club Penguin (#22) and the
online world of Webkinz (#16), it
seems that kids, too, are drawn to this
darker side of the internet. And
"porn" isn't the only sexual term to
make the list. Spots 4, 28, 72, 86, 88,
89, 91, 92, 94, and 95 also refer to
queries for...well...lets say "various
parts of the human anatomy" or other
general search sex-related terms like
"XXX."
Of course, this list may not be
entirely representative of what all
children search for online as the data
is pulled from OnlineFamily.Norton,
a family safety service provided by
Symantec. It's possible that parents
who chose to implement this type of
service in their home are already
dealing with children who are using
the internet for inappropriate
searches and this is their attempt to
stop those from occurring. However,
the results are based on 3.5 million
searches made between February and
July of this year, which is too large a
number to entirely discount the
findings. Trend #2: Searching Instead
of Entering URLs
Another somewhat unexpected
insight gained by examining this data
is the fact that kids are searching for
easy-to-remember URLs including
Facebook, MySpace, YouTube,
Yahoo, MSN, and even Google. Why
Internet News Record
search when simply adding a ".com"
on the end will take you directly
there? Some may say that this points
to children not entirely grasping the
way internet addresses work, but it's
more likely an example of the trend
where search has replaced typing in
URLs for navigating the net.
We made note of this trend back in
May of last year when we noticed an
advertisement suggesting we do a
search for their company name
instead of providing their URL.
Apparently, this is already par-for-
the-course in Japan, where search
boxes filled with recommended terms
have replaced URLs in
advertisements. Then there's
Google's Chrome web browser, the
newest one to hit the scene, which
has done away with the search box
entirely in favor of an address bar
which accepts both URLs and search
queries (taking you to Google.com of
course).
It looks like today's kids are onto
this trend as well. The habits they're
forming now will most likely stay
with them as they grow older, too,
creating a whole new generation of
searchers who forgo the "www' and
the ".com" entirely. Top Searches
The top 10 searches on the kids' list
are as follows:
1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. MySpace
6. Porn
7. Yahoo
8. Michael Jackson
9. Fred
10. eBay
For the complete list, go here.
Image credit: flickr user
pixelrobber Discuss
Internet News Record
Pixorial: Old Home Movies Live Online with
Editing, Limitless Hosting, and More
By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:59:50 AM
Startup video service Pixorial
allows users to upload, edit, and
share their videos from VHS, Beta
Max, Hi-8, and other analog sources
as well as standard digital files. The
uploading process for analog formats
does require users to mail in "primary
documents," i.e., the physical tapes
themselves, for conversion. And HD
downloads might not be the free-for-
all that users experience on other, all-
digital sites.
Still, for the ability to digitize old
home movies without any constraints
on file length and edit and combine
those files once they're online, we
think Pixorial deserves the attention
of any users with memories on tape
to save and share.
Sponsor
The Big Idea
Pixorial is the brain child of former
Netscape and Oracle executives. The
team launched in private beta in
January 2009.
"Like so many people, my family
had boxes of VHS, Hi-8, and beta
tapes full of memories; and there was
no simple way of playing, let alone
of sharing, those memories with
others," said CEO and founder
Andrés Espiñeira. By allowing users
secure storage of those memories in
Pixorial's cloud of redundant servers,
Espiñeira found a way to increase the
Nintendo Opens SDHC to Bootable DLC [Wii]
By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:33:27 AM
Nintendo's decision to eschew a
standalone Wii hard drive for the
support of SDHC was a good one, as
users can buy tiny and cheap 32GB
SDHC cards to expand storage. But
what just you could store was in
ease and decrease the costs and
resources for digitizing and sharing
those video files in a modern fashion.
From a marketing perspective, too,
Pixorial works. "The personal media
and scrapbooking industries have
boomed alongside web video and
social media," said co-founder Gina
Miccio.
"Pixorial brings all those
components together into something
that early adopters and baby boomers
will love." The User Experience
Accounts operate on a freemium
model with free accounts allowing
for 10GB of uploads and 60 days of
archived analog video and pro
accounts that give users unlimited
uploads and storage.
Linking and embedding videos
created on the Pixorial site is free, as
is sharing them on Facebook. But
downloading your own copy will
cost you around $2 per video, and
DVDs run the gamut from around $6
per disc for bulk orders to around
$15 each for "glamour" DVDs.
Users can expect a 3-day maximum
turnaround time for physical media
to be converted.
Once media is uploaded, said
company rep Melissa Hourigan in an
email yesterday, "Scenes are
determined by the creator. You can
also tag portions of the video with
metadata. You can mash scenes from
different formats and different users."
These "scenes," or clips, can be
question.
For instance, you could certainly
store small, downloadable Virtual
Console games and stream them
from from the card. But what about
full-game expansions, gigs of data?
Traditionally, these couldn't just load
from SD as you'd expect.
According to IGN, Nintendo has
created from masters and edited by
anyone the user shares them with, as
well.
And when users collaborate, they
grant one another access to full-
resolution videos. "When someone
mixes your video with theirs and
creates a DVD, they're getting the
highest quality possible," said
Espiñeira, giving an example of a
soccer league wanting to create an
overview of their season using
footage from different parents of
players.
Customizable media players are not
available right now, but pro users
will get larger player sizes for their
videos. Espiñeira also revealed that
allowing users to create video
scrapbook-type websites, similar to
the offering from Fliggo, has been
discussed as a distant destination in
Pixorial's roadmap. In-Browser
Editing
Editing features currently include
the ability to designate, split, and
trim video segments in Pixorial's
Scene Maker product and to add
separate scenes, titles, and transitions
into a single video in their Producer
application. Effects are coming soon,
as are more features to add stills and
audio to the mix. Here's a look at the
editor as it stands - simple, with a
opened SDHC storage to developers
for DLC that can boot naturally with
user-friendly interface and
streamlined features:
Or you can watch the magic in
action here:
Finally, here's an example of the
finished product, showing titles and
transitions to great effect:
Security Versus Discoverability
In general, said Espiñeira via phone
yesterday, Pixorial's demographic is
an older, more private crowd who
want to share their family memories
with a select few, a far cry from the
hoards of early-adopting Google
whores who want their every waking
move to be indexed and searchable.
"We take huge pains with security,
and we take privacy very seriously,"
he said.
"The way we've architected the
system, you need to be an owner or
to be granted access before you can
see the videos at all, and you have to
be logged in. And only a handful of
employees in the company handle the
hard copies of media content. The
rest of the time it's here, it's in a
locked cabinet. The developers don't
have access to any of the media."
Needless to say, then, social
profiles and video channels are not
part of Pixorial's current plan, but
ensuring that their servers and users'
data remain virtually unhackable is
high on the list of priorities. Discuss
the game, straight from SDHC with
no hard drive middle ground.
The reason you'll want a new SD
card is pretty simple; SD streaming
will kick off with GH5. All the tricks
used for both Guitar Hero and Rock
Band in the past – leaving internal
memory open– is gone. Instead,
straight-up booting off the SD card is
Web/ Gizmos/ 27
Logitech MK700
Wireless Desktop
Features Concave Keys
to Cradle Your
Fingertips [Logitech]
By Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 4:00:00 AM
Logitech's new wireless desktop
keyboard/mouse set, the MK700, is a
nice-looking, if standard, Logitech
offering. It's got a little LCD, shiny
black finish and efficient batteries.
But it's also packing Logitech's new
"Incurve" concave keys to
sensuously caress your fingers.
Logitech promises that its new
"Incurve" concave keys and wrist-
rest properly cradle your fingers in a
way we suppose flat keys can't. We
haven't gotten a change to use it, but
it sounds interesting to have a little
gully for fingertips. The MK700 also
has improved battery efficiency that
yields some impressive results: The
keyboard will last about three years,
and the mouse about 12 months.
Otherwise, it's a pretty standard set,
clocking in at $100 when it ships
later this month. [ Logitech]
available, and that means easier
downloads, larger expansions, and
quicker loads when bringing in song
data from the SD card into GH5.
It's good to see that Nintendo is
making SDHC a real solution for the
system. [ IGN via Kotaku]
28 Web/ Gizmos/
How To: Backup And Search All Your Friends'
Tweets In Google Reader
By Marshall Kirkpatrick
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:00:12 AM
I just set up an automatic backup of
all 3000 of my friends' Twitter
messages and became able to search
through their Twitter history two
years into the past with just five
minutes of easy clicking. Only two
things are required: Dave Winer's
new Twitter OPML tool and a
Google Reader account.
Twitter's search engine only goes
back about a week and a half.
Sometimes you want to retrieve a
message you saw, or get a feeling for
what your circle of friends said about
something, from longer ago than that.
We wrote yesterday about 10 Ways
To Archive Your Tweets. The next
step is to archive the Tweets of
everyone else you find of interest,
and make them searchable.
Sponsor
Last week RSS forefather Dave
Winer wrote and posted a little tool
for pulling any Twitter user's friends
list out of Twitter and saving it as an
OPML file. It's part of his broader
open real-time messaging project
called RSS Cloud.
OPML stands for Outline Processor
Markup Language and in this case it's
just a bundle of RSS feeds than can
be moved around in bulk. It's a
beautiful idea that has a lot more
potential than has been realized, but
Apparently, DVD Copying Software Is Illegal [DVDs]
By matt buchanan (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:50:00 AM
Ruling against the RealNetworks in
the trial of sooo last century, a
federal judge said that it was illegal
to sell or make DVD copying
software under the DMCA. But what
about actually ripping DVDs
you'll see how it comes in handy
here.
It's all about pulling down an
OPML file of your Twitter friends'
feeds and slapping that file into
Google Reader. Then it's archived
and searchable. It's very easy to do.
How to Make it Happen
It couldn't be much simpler. Just
put your Twitter username into this
link, instead of mine, and load it up
i n y o u r b r o w s e r :
http://tw.opml.org/get?user=marshall
k&folder=1
It may take just a minute, but the
end result will be an OPML file. You
can either go up to your browser's
File menu and select "save as" or you
can View Source and copy and paste
the source of the page into a text
document. Save it with a memorable
name and either .xml or .opml as the
file type. It's really quite easy.
Now if you want to put this puppy
into Google Reader just log in, click
on "manage subscriptions" and find
the import/export button. Import that
file into Google Reader and you're
ready to rock and roll! What Can
You Do With This?
Do you want to read Tweets
through Google Reader? Probably
not. But do you want to archive,
retrieve and search that way? It
works remarkably well! Especially
because of the social nature of
Google Reader. If anyone you're
following has had their RSS feed
yourself?
When it comes to making personal
copies, U.S. District Court Judge
Marilyn Hall Patel left that totally
gray—that is, she chose not to rock
the boat on whether or not making
personal copies actually falls under
the " fair use" doctrine of the DMCA.
Lots of "mays" and "whiles" in there:
read by anyone in Google Reader,
ever, the system will have an archive
of their tweets that goes far beyond
what's immediately available in their
RSS feed right now. Thus my ability
to pull up tweets from two years ago
in a search.
You may want to create a separate
Google Reader account for this (I
did) so the Tweets don't clutter up
other feeds you like to read.
There are certainly other little
things you can do with easy OPML
files of Twitter followers as well.
You can't import them directly into
Twitter clients (yet) but you can
share and trade them into an RSS
reader as a preview mechanism
before deciding to subscribe in
Twitter proper. (My favorite tech
analysts on Twitter, informative
LGBT activists on Twitter, etc. in
OPML format - collect 'em all!)
These are the kinds of things that
make simple protocols for dynamic
information delivery, like RSS and
OPML, so much fun.
You could create and share OPML
files of your favorite twitter users
concerning a particular topic. You
could build an OPML file of a group
of twitter users and have their RSS
"So while it may well be fair use for
an individual consumer to store a
feeds automatically displayed on a
page on your website.
You could assemble different
groups of people into different
OPML files, saved in different
folders in your Google Reader
account, and then limit searches to
one folder or another in order to get a
sampling of what various groups of
people have to say about a topic.
That would be hot!
The possibilities are endless, but
the most basic use cases of archiving
and search are already worth doing.
We'd love to know how you can
imagine using tools like this together.
Caveats
It's not clear how quickly Google
Reader is updating its record of
tweets and it is definitely missing a
lot. We searched for some specific
twitter messages from several months
ago from people whose Tweets are
being subscribed to in Google
Reader, but that it didn't retrieve. I
hope that won't happen with user
feeds I've subscribed to myself now,
but take it with a grain of salt.
Google Reader isn't really a terribly
serious product, anyway. It could
come in quite handy, but there is a
larger value here in getting your
hands on an OPML file of your
Twitter friends' messages.
How can you imagine putting an
OPML file like this to use? Discuss
backup copy of a personally owned
DVD on that individual's computer, a
federal law has nonetheless made it
illegal to manufacture or traffic in a
device or tool that permits a
consumer to make such copies."
So DVD ripping is kind of like
laws about pot in some places: It's
sorta legal to possess in certain
Internet News Record
NESynth iPhone App
Pumps Out Nintendo-
Style Chiptunes
[IPhone]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:05:00 AM
Like the 8Bitone synthesizer app,
NESynth lets you create 80s-style
music with 8-bit sounds. But the
coolest part: You can control it all
with an on-screen NES-style
gamepad. Watch the rockin' video
after the jump to see what I mean.
Also fun is the $2 app's use of the
iPhone's accelerometer to pitch-bend
sounds, and its ability to let you jam
along with a friend—and hear what
they're playing on your phone.
As you'll hear in the video below,
NESynth has built-in classic sound
effects (jump, fire, laser, etc), and an
arpeggiator to help build up melodies
using the on-screen piano keyboard.
(For the synth geeks out there:
sound generation comes from 3 pulse
waveforms, a triangle waveform, and
white noise.) [ NESynth| iTunes
Store]
circumstances, but not kosher to sell
it. Thanks for clearing that up, judge.
What that means for Real, and their
long-term plans—a box that archives
DVDs—is even murkier. [ Wired,
NYT]
Internet News Record
Gartner Hype Cycle 2009: Web 2.0
Trending Up, Twitter Down
By Richard MacManus
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 8:36:49 PM
Analyst firm Gartner has just
released its latest Hype Cycle white
paper, detailing some of the biggest
trends in technology this year.
According to the report, cloud
computing, e-books and Internet TV
are at the "Peak of Inflated
Expectations," while this year's
biggest hit Twitter is said to have
"tipped over the peak" and is just
about to enter the infamous "Trough
of Disillusionment." Social software
suites and other microblogging
services are likewise starting their
downward trend. Interestingly, web
2.0 is deemed to be nearly past the
Trough and entering the "Slope of
Enlightenment."
Sponsor
One of our current topics of
interest, RFID, is stuck right at the
bottom of the Trough of
Disillusionment. But another RWW
hot topic, Augmented Reality, is on
the rise.
Web 2.0, cloud computing, Internet
TV and RFID are all labeled
"transformational" by Gartner,
meaning that they are predicted to
have a big impact on the market.
Microblogging is only ranked
"moderate," so Gartner doesn't think
that Twitter is a very meaningful
technology.
We can't help but feel that Gartner
may be underestimating the impact
of microblogging. It remarks that
services like Twitter enable "new
kinds of fast, witty, easy-to
assimilate exchanges."
Microblogging is rated as having a
"moderate" impact on business,
however Gartner does not analyze
the over-arching trend of Real-time
web that microblogging exemplifies.
They do make a good point that
"channel pollution" is a current issue
with these services, however this is
where the ecosystem of search and
filtering products - around Twitter
especially - are proving their worth.
See also our post earlier today about
the new distributed forms of
microblogging that may rise to take
Twitter's place over time.
Gartner states that Cloud
computing is "changing the way the
IT industry looks at user and vendor
relationships." It points to vendors
such as Amazon.com, Google,
Microsoft and salesforce.com.
Regarding eBooks, Gartner has a
bob each way: "This technology is
potentially revolutionary if the issues
that have suppressed adoption are
addressed." It lists Amazon.com,
Fujitsu, Plastic Logic and Sony as
sample vendors.
Gartner's conclusion about RFID is
similar to our own- that it's moving
slowly. Gartner notes that "the
number of leading retailers working
with it [RFID] did not grow greatly
through 2008 and will not grow
significantly during the next two
years."
On Web 2.0, Gartner archly notes
that "the Web 2.0 hype has peaked as
constituencies vie for the next
generation of the Web." However it
also puts Web 2.0 in the "early
mainstream" and is bullish on its
future. Note: we reviewed the latest
attempt at the next buzzword, Web
squared, last week.
Overall, this report is an interesting
high level view of the state of
technology. It's quite business
focused though, so Gartner perhaps
overlooks some of the more exciting
new consumer Web trends that we've
been writing about this year on
ReadWriteWeb: real-time Web,
Internet of Things, mobile web, to
name a few. Discuss
De-Mock-cracy In
Action: Facebook's
Open Governance
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 9:22:27 PM
Following February's slew of
complaints regarding Facebook's
Terms of Use amendment, founder
Mark Zuckerberg launched an"Open
Governance" model and wrote, "If
[Facebook] were a country, it would
be the sixth most populated country
in the world. Our terms aren't just a
document that protect our rights; it's
the governing document for how the
service is used by everyone across
the world." Today Facebook
redrafted its Statement of Rights and
Responsibilities and while users /
citizens have until August 18th to
comment, we can't help thinking the
system is a bogus democracy.
Sponsor
After a week of acquiring
Friendfeed and launching a real time
search engine, the blue nation
appears to be growing at an alarming
rate. In order to address the growth
and new promotional ecosystem,
notable changes to the Bill of Rights
incorporate bans on citizen marketing
abuse. Facebook hopes to stop
spammers from overrunning the site
and as pointed out by Inside
Facebook, prohibit companies like
Magpie, Twittad and Sponsored
Tweets from starting profile
sponsoring programs. Other
marketing-related points included the
phrases, "You will not engage in
unlawful multi-level marketing, such
as a pyramid scheme" and "You will
not offer any contest, giveaway, or
sweepstakes ("promotion") on
Facebook without our prior written
consent."
Web/ 29
As citizens of this vast country, it's
nice that we can smite the spammers
and illegal pyramid schemers that
plague our great nation. And then I
remember, this isn't ACTUALLY a
country. It's a company. If it were
really a nation, we would know
where we're supposed to offer our
comments pre-August 18th and each
of the "Rights" would have been
spelled out separately as amendments
to a pre-existing document. In fact,
by now all of this info should have
arrived in our mailboxes as a poorly
designed pamphlet full of cheesy
stock photography.
While Facebook's "Open
Governance" redraft is an admirable
attempt to encourage crowd sourced
decision-making, it lacks the
feedback mechanism to make it a
success. Critics will argue that this is
intentional, but it feels more like the
system (or lack thereof) was rushed
to the public after the TOS uproar in
February. While this amendment to
the Facebook Bill of Rights is a fairly
tame one, consider joining the Bill of
Rights group for future updates and
leaving a comment. At this rate, if
Facebook acquires anymore
companies or services, you might
find your entire online identity living
in one social networking landscape.
It's not like the administration is
going to change, let's just hope a loud
majority can usher in a better system.
Photo credit: David Drexler
Discuss
30 Web/ Entertainment/
Tiny App Confuses, Delights: Check Facebook Goes Lite and
Out Robo.to, Next-Gen Animated Tests Twitter-Like
GIFs Version of Itself
By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 7:31:28 PM
From "massively small products"
shop Particle, itself a startup newly
out of stealth mode, comes a new
app: Robo.to, pitched to us as a
digital calling card.
Although the app first struck us as
a skinnier Retaggr with an animated
GIF-esque Flash avatar slapped on
the top, something quirky and cute
drew us back and elicited deeper
digging. We read on the Particle blog
that their goal was "to design
something a user can easily navigate,
without really thinking too hard
about it." We turned back to the
adorable Robo.to app; had we simply
been thinking too hard?
Sponsor
After a few initial minutes of
tinkering around the site, we were
able to generate this:
The resulting badge appears in a
narrow, mobile-friendly form and
links to a page with any pointers we
choose to direct visitors to our other
online homes. Robo.to let us record a
few soundless seconds of video and
was then kind enough to help us
share that information with a limited
amount of text in a few other places
on the social web, such as Facebook
and Twitter. The app also allows for
mobile uploads via email.
It's an amuse-bouche for the
America's Got Talent: Performance show two
By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:30:00 AM
(S04E15) Before I comment on this
week's performances, in case you
missed it, I posted the list of the eight
wild cards that they judges picked. I
feel robbed of talent that should have
Internet stalker's palate, and it's
delightful.
The only two questions that
remained after Robo.to won our heart
are as follows, and they're the same
questions we'd ask any free-to-a-
good-home puppy:
1. How will it generate revenue?
2. How we will remember to feed
it?
The social web is, metaphorically
speaking, an ocean of apps. Some are
better designed, some are more
functional, some are better integrated
with our existing online lives. Within
the sea, there are continents
(Google's suite of apps, Facebook,
YouTube), and there are islands.
been given the chance to be part of
the now Top 48. I promise you,
however, that it's the last time this
season you'll have me say that the
America's Got Talent judges made oh
so wrong decisions, which, based on
some of your comments, actually had
people stop watching. Now that I
Each of us has our own particular
haunts in that regard, sites that
warrant a weekly or daily check-in or
post. I've adopted Yahoo! Meme as
one of mine to keep an eye on, and I
get around to Last.fm just about as
often.
Then there are the apps that, while
nifty, don't have the power to become
a continent or an island because they
can't consistently draw users back.
They become digital jetsam, and
adoption declines after initial rounds
of publicity are over.
We're not damning Robo.to to this
particular fate, but we want to know:
Why will we return to Robo.to and
continue to upload content? What
will remind us? Is returning even
necessary? Has the Particle team
succeeded in creating an app so tiny
it's virtually invisible?
And without consistent user traffic
prompted by that sticky, infectious
property the best new apps have (hel-
lo, Twitter!), how will Particle have
the leverage to generate revenue?
Also, our Internet friends were way
confused on why there's no sound in
the video clips.
What do you make of Robo.to so
far? Are you more confused or
delighted? Let us know in the
comments, and be sure to link to your
newly created profile on the site so
we can watch your clips. Discuss
know who is part of the Top 48, I've
By Frederic Lardinois
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 1:28:55 AM
Tonight, a number of Facebook
users reported that they received beta
invitations to a 'lite' version of the
popular social networking service.
Details about this simplified version
of Facebook are still sparse, but we
know that the site will be available
on http://lite.facebook.com and will
offer users a "faster, simpler version
of Facebook." Judging from what we
have seen so far, Facebook Lite turns
Facebook into a very Twitter-like
experience.
Sponsor
Currently, the lite.facebook.com
link doesn't go anywhere and the
invites have disappeared again, but
just a few days ago, at least this
Twitter user got to see it in action
(hat tip to MG Siegler for finding
this). Attack on Twitter?
It is interesting to see that
Facebook is working on this now,
especially given that it only
announced the acquisition of
decided to embrace these acts and
stop complaining. Otherwise, I'll end
up not enjoying the season.
Last week, Arcadian Broad (judges'
pick), Acrodunk, Drew Thomas
Magic, Kevin Skinner, and Grandma
Lee made it to the Top 20 -- I got
four out of five right. You? Who will
Internet News Record
FriendFeed yesterday. If these
screenshots turn out to be true, then
this would be a full-force attack on
Twitter. FriendFeed was often
heralded as a potential challenger for
Twitter, though it never quite got the
mainstream traction to fulfill this
promise.
Earlier this year, Louis Gray
argued that in order to succeed,
FriendFeed would have to offer a
simplified version of itself. Now that
FriendFeed is part of Facebook,
maybe the FriendFeed team will get a
chance to do just this.
Overall, stripping down Facebook's
interface to the bare essentials doesn't
seem like such a bad idea. The
current interface is getting rather
cluttered and if Facebook really
wants to emphasize the stream, this is
definitely a step in the right direction.
Discuss
join them this week? My comments,
Piers' Xs and predictions coming up!
Continue reading America's Got
Talent: Performance show two
Filed under: OpEd, Episode
Reviews, America's Got Talent
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Internet News Record
Fear and Impatience are Killing the
Nabaztag Bunnies
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
In the latest Gartner Hype Cycle
report, ReadWriteWeb commented
on RFID as being stuck in the
"Trough of Disillusionment". While
the report argues that RFID is likely
to emerge in 5-10 years for inventory
purposes, this far off glimmer of
hope is not enough to hold back the
tidal wave of ennui washing over the
industry. According to a recent
article by Engadget, consumer RFID
company Violet has filed for
bankruptcy. Best known for
programmable RFID rabbit
Nabaztag, Violet needs another
company to step in before September
4th or unfortunately its rabbits and
mirrors will be nothing more than
inanimate plastic.
Sponsor
While RFID tags are primarily used
for inventorying purposes, the
concept has also been used to create
games and track bicycles, passports
and luggage. Nevertheless, just as the
RFID is currently inappropriate for
warehouse use, it's also inappropriate
as an entertainment device or a
security measure.
Hunt for pirates after ship goes
missing
By Peter Walker, Haroon
Siddique (World news and
comment from the Guardian |
guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:41:32 AM
Maritime officials mystified over
location of cargo vessel Arctic Sea
amid reports of boarding by armed
party
Speculation continues about the
Before Nabaztag, Mattel's
HyperScan was an RFID scanning
game incorporating character cards
and video game play. Launched in
2006 and discontinued in 2008,
reviewers complained that the system
took more than 20 seconds to scan
and load each individual battle. And
if adult reviewers didn't have the
patience to play, you know the
targeted 8-12-year-old audience
found it infuriating.
As for security, there have also
been several attempts to use the
RFID as an asset tracker. ImmobiTag
encourages users to track their
bicycles, FKI Logistek integrates
fate of missing vessel the Arctic Sea,
feared taken in Europe's first
significant case of maritime piracy in
living memory after it was reportedly
boarded by an armed group.
Theories include the ship being
given a false identity to steal other
vessels' cargos, or that Russian
gangsters are using it to smuggled
illegal arms. But an expert has
suggested it may have been seized as
RFID in airport baggage handling,
and in a widely disputed move in
2006, the US government began
issuing passports with RFID chips
embedded in them. While all of these
solutions were originally employed
for security purposes, a recent video
by whitehat hacker Chris Paget
builds a great case against the RFID
tag.
The problem with a programmable
chip is simply that it can be cloned
and reprogrammed. In the case of the
passports, what was once criticized
as being a Federal invasion of
privacy, is now a security concern on
its own. Suddenly the RFID chip has
become the internet underground's
bubonic plague. Duct tape wallet
talisman and microwave rituals are
being used to ward it off.
In a time when surveillance and
identity theft are real concerns, the
sweet little Nabaztag bunny simply
couldn't break free of the negative
connotations that RFID conjures. In
this day and age, the world's simply
too paranoid or impatient to follow
the white rabbit.
Thanks to Daniel Williams for the
tip! Discuss
part of a commercial dispute.
The 98-metre Russian-crewed
cargo ship set off from Finland on 23
July carrying timber worth about
£1m and bound for the Algerian port
of Bejaia.
In the early hours of the next
morning, in the Baltic Sea near the
Swedish island of Oland, the ship
Hundreds found alive
after mudslide in
Taiwan
By Tania Branigan (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 1:19:37 AM
Officials say 700 have survived in
remote villages but many more may
remain buried after typhoon Morakot
About 700 people have been found
alive in the remote villages of
southern Taiwan hit by a mudslide
after typhoon Morakot, officials said
. "If I had been left there any longer I
The officials warned there was no
way of knowing how many more had
been buried in the disaster, which
struck at the weekend.
Survivors from several villages
including Hsiao-lin, believed to be
the worst affected, escaped to higher
ground before walls of mud and rock
swept over their homes, said Hu Jui-
chou, an army official involved in the
rescue attempt.
About 200 people from Hsiao-lin,
in Kaohsiung county, and several
more from the nearby Namahsia
village had been found alive, he said.
"They had already left the main
village and gone to another one ... we
don't need to rescue them," Hu told
Reuters. "We can just send in food."
Lee Chin-lung, the police chief at
the Cishan rescue base, said it was
nearly impossible to estimate how
many people, might still be in Hsiao-
lin, either alive or dead under the
rubble.
"We've got some people out but it is
extremely hard to know how many
remain there," he told the Associated
Press.
Official figures show the village
has up to 1,300 inhabitants, but many
are thought to be living elsewhere.
Some villagers said up to 600
people were buried alive when the
Web/ World/ 31
mudslide hit, while the National Fire
Agency put the figure at 100.
With land access to many areas cut
off by collapsed bridges and blocked
roads, helicopters dropped supplies
to stranded survivors and rescue
teams in rubber dinghies crossed
raging, muddy rivers.
"I have to say I feel pretty good to
be alive," Lin Dong-wen, who was
rescued from Namahsia, told the
Associated Press.
wouldn't have made it. I saw the
mudslide coming, which was really
huge, and I passed out.
"When I woke up, there was mud all
over ... I climbed out of it."
Morakot has killed at least 93
people – 22 in the Philippines, eight
in China and 63 in Taiwan where
authorities say a further 61 are
missing.
The figures do not include people
from Hsiao-lin and the surrounding
area.
Li Wen-cheng, an official in the
area's fire department, said all three
people on board a helicopter that
crashed into a mountain on a rescue
mission in Pingtung county had been
found dead.
The typhoon dumped up to 2.5
metres (8.2ft) of rain on Taiwan, with
parts of the south seeing the worst
flooding for half a century.
• Natural disasters and extreme
weather
• China
• Japan
Tania Branigan
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
32 World/ AppleBlog/ Tech Games/
China holds 11 over activist's trial
By Tania Branigan (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:16:30 AM
Bird's Nest stadium designer among
those held for supporting Tan
Zuoren, who investigated Sichuan
quake deaths
Chinese police are holding 11
people who planned to attend today's
trial of an activist who investigated
the death of schoolchildren in last
year's Sichuan earthquake, a high-
profile artist and government critic
among the detainees said.
Ai Weiwei, a contemporary artist
who designed the Olympics Bird's
Nest stadium, said he and six others
were detained at their hotel, while
four others were taken to a police
station. Police punched him on the
jaw and roughed up another man, he
said.
They were in Chengdu to attend
this morning's trial of Tan Zuoren, a
Sichuan activist charged with
subversion, apparently in connection
to his inquiry into how many children
died when school buildings collapsed
due to the earthquake and essays he
wrote about 1989's student-led
demonstrations in Tiananmen
Square.
Critics blame the high death toll on
poor building work, linked to
corruption. In some cases, schools
First Look: Memeo Send with special deal for TUAW readers
By Steven Sande (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:00:00 AM
Filed under: Software, Cool tools,
Odds and ends, Internet Tools,
Reviews, Deals, First Look Do you
need to send large files to clients or
friends? Sending those big files
through email can be a problem,
since sometimes the receiver's ISP
limits the size of files that can be
received. It's slow and expensive to
crumbled while nearby buildings
stood firm.
Ai, who has led a group of
volunteers attempting to list the
names of all the students who died,
said Tan's lawyer had asked him to
give evidence about the deaths and
poor building work. When the court
barred him from appearing as a
witness, he decided to watch the trial
anyway, along with 10 volunteers.
Speaking from his hotel, he said: "I
wanted to show my support for Mr
Tan. I feel nowadays less and less
people stand up for truth and justice
[and] it is hurting the truth and
dignity of the law.
"At around midnight, about 20 or 30
policemen and plainclothed officers
came shouting and knocking at the
door. I did not open it at first and
asked how they could prove their
identities. But [several] forced the
door open and told me that's how
they proved it. I insisted on them
showing me their police
identification and during the chaos I
was punched on my chin."
Police originally told him and other
volunteers they could leave at noon
but as the deadline passed they
remained in detention.
"We are now sitting here while Tan
is given unjustified judgment in the
court 100 metres away. This is not
the first time things like this have
happened in Sichuan, with witnesses
send files on external hard drives,
USB flash drives, or DVDs through
express mail shipping methods. If
you've ever tried to explain the
simplicity of FTP to someone who is
less than computer-savvy, sending
huge files through FTP becomes a
problem.
Enter Memeo Send, which was
announced today. The application is
free to download (you can also send
or receive files from a web browser)
and with your free download you are
disappearing or being detained
during trials," said Ai.
The artist said he had asked police
to take him away with the four
volunteers who were sent to the
police station but they refused. He
said that once he was free to go he
planned to sue the police for beating
him up and return to Beijing.
Xia Lin, one of Tan's lawyers, said
the trial took place this morning and
he expected a verdict in around a
week.
Pu Zhiqiang, the other defence
lawyer, said: "None of our witnesses
were allowed in the court and the
prosecution brought no witnesses.
We prepared a very moving short
video but were not allowed to present
it. Even Mr Xia's words in defence
were interrupted many times. I think
the whole trial is humiliating to the
Chinese legal system.
"I feel there was no big difference
whether our witnesses were allowed
into the court or not – actually I am
not sure whether even us coming
here can make any difference. I
believe Sichuan is a civilised place
and I feel very disappointed with the
way the whole issue has been
handled."
The Chengdu public security
bureau did not answer calls.
Last week the trial of another
activist, Huang Qi, ended without a
verdict after a three-day closed-door
given the opportunity to set up 3 file
deliveries. At the end of that time,
session. He was detained in June
2008 for "illegal possession of state
secrets" after helping bereaved
parents and posting articles about
structural failings at collapsed
schools.
His lawyer said he had not received
medical treatment despite
complaining of lumps in his
abdomen and chest and frequent
migraines.
Several human rights groups have
called for the government to cancel
the trials.
"These trials are not about a
reasonable application of the law, but
about silencing government critics
whose work has considerable public
benefit and sympathy," said Sophie
Richardson, Asia advocacy director
at Human Rights Watch, before the
trials began.
"There is no evidence to suggest
that Huang and Tan did anything
more than embarrass the Chinese
government."
• China
• Natural disasters and extreme
weather
Tania Branigan
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
you can purchase extra deliveries for
about US$1 each. If you don't need to
send files very often, you won't pay
much -- Memeo Send is strictly pay-
as-you-go.
Read on for more information,
including a special offer to the first
400 TUAW readers who use Memeo
Send.
Continue reading First Look:
Memeo Send with special deal for
TUAW readers
TUAW First Look: Memeo Send
Internet News Record
Wolfenstein RPG
escapes onto the
iPhone
By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:02:00 AM
After a premature release on the
App Store back in May, Wolfenstein
RPG is now officially available for
iPhone/iPod Touch. TouchArcade
reports the release of the game was
held off because of possible customer
confusion with Wolfenstein 3D,
which was released a little while
back.
Wolfenstein RPG on iPhone
features improved graphics from its
original mobile incarnation, and all
that turn-based Nazi killin' can be
yours for $5.
Wolfenstein RPG escapes onto the
iPhone originally appeared on Joystiq
on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:02:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read| Permalink| Email this|
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with special deal for TUAW readers
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Transfer Protocol- Web browser-
TUAW- USB flash drive
Internet News Record
Challenge against Aung San Suu Kyi term
By Justin McCurry (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 3:05:27 AM
Move comes as world leaders
condemn 18-month term imposed on
pro-democracy leader
Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi
said they would appeal against the 18
-month sentence imposed for
breaking the terms of her house arrest
as world leaders stepped up criticism
of the Burmese regime.
The sentence – announced
yesterday after a court had initially
sentenced the 64-year-old pro-
democracy leader to three years' hard
labour – means she will play no part
in elections the country's military
junta has promised to hold next year.
After being driven home in a six-
car convoy last night, Aung San Suu
Kyi found a barbed wire fence had
been erected near the entrance to her
home while she was standing trial. A
member of her National League for
Democracy (NLD) had tied yellow
ribbons to her front gate and nearby
trees.
The US president, Barack Obama,
joined other world leaders in calling
for her immediate release.
Obama said the court's "unjust
decision reminds us of the thousands
of other political prisoners in Burma
T-Mobile stops offering prepaid Sidekick data service to unlocked
iPhone users
By Joachim Bean (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/11/2009 11:00:00 PM
Filed under: iPhone,
Jailbreak/pwnage Over the past
week, some T-Mobile iPhone
customers noticed that their data
service suddenly stopped working.
Users with unlocked iPhones had
who, like Aung San Suu Kyi, have
been denied their liberty because of
their pursuit of a government that
respects the will, rights and
aspirations of all Burmese citizens.
"They, too, should be freed.
Suppressing ideas never succeeds in
making them go away."
The condemnation was not
universal, however. China called on
other countries to "fully respect
[Burma's] judicial sovereignty",
while Singapore – a key economic
partner – described the verdict only
as "disappointing".
The Association of Southeast Asian
Nations went further, expressing
"deep disappointment" in a statement
issued by its current chair, Thailand.
The UN security council was
unable to agree on a statement
condemning the court ruling, with
Chinese and Russian delegates
saying they needed more time to
consider the wording.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-
general, said he "strongly deplores"
the verdict, urging Burma's leaders
"to immediately and unconditionally
release" Aung San Suu Kyi.
The European Union said it would
increase sanctions, while 14 Nobel
laureates including the Dalai Lama
and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
called on the security council to take
tougher action against the military
been paying $1 a day for unlimited
data and text messaging using the
Sidekick data plan. It was a great
value.
Customers who contacted T-
Mobile support received mixed
answers. Representatives stated that
service was down in their area or that
they needed to upgrade to their
normal data plan.
Yesterday, T-Mobile sent a tweet
regime.
Gordon Brown said he was
"saddened and angry" at the
conviction.
The British prime minister called
the sentence "further proof that the
military regime in Burma is
determined to act with total disregard
for accepted standards of the rule of
law and in defiance of international
opinion".
"This is a purely political sentence
designed to prevent her from taking
part in the regime's planned elections
next year."
Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi's
co-defendant, John Yettaw, said they
would appeal against his seven-year
prison sentence, which includes four
years' hard labour, for violating the
terms of the pro-democracy leader's
house arrest and two other offences.
It was unclear whether Yettaw,
who triggered the case after
swimming a lake to her hous and
spending two days uninvited there in
early May, spent last night in his cell
or a prison hospital.
The 53-year-old, who has diabetes
and a heart condition, was recently
treated in hospital for epileptic
seizures.
"I will do my utmost to get my
client deported as quickly as
possible, especially because of his
health condition," said his lawyer,
on their official Twitter account that
they would no longer service iPhone
customers using the prepaid Sidekick
plan. So just like AT&T cutting off
prepaid GoPhone service to iPhone
customers, T-Mobile has now
eliminated an affordable data option
Khin Maung Oo.
Yettaw – described as an eccentric
by his family – said he had visited
Aung San Suu Kyi to warn her she
was about to be assassinated by
terrorists.
She pleaded with him to leave but
relented after he said he was too
weak to swim back across the lake.
Opponents of the Burmese junta,
which has ruled since 1962, said
Yettaw's stunt had been exploited to
keep Aung San Suu Kyi out of the
public eye during multi-party
elections. As the leader of the NLD,
she represents the most serious threat
to the generals' hold on power.
The opposition party won an
overwhelming victory in the last
elections in 1990 but the junta
refused to accept the result.
Almost two decades later, more
than 2,000 opponents of the military
regime remain in Burmese prisons.
• Aung San Suu Kyi
• Burma
• United Nations
• European Union
• Gordon Brown
Justin McCurry
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
for unlocked iPhones. At this time, it
appears that Android-specific data
plans remain unaffected.
TUAW has contacted T-Mobile for
an official statement on the matter
but we have not heard anything back
yet.
Thanks Gabe for the tip!
TUAW T-Mobile stops offering
prepaid Sidekick data service to
unlocked iPhone users originally
World/ AppleBlog/ 33
HUNT
continued from page 31
was boarded by up to 10 armed men
dressed in police uniforms, according
to reports from the Russian news
agency Tass.
The raiders tied up the crew as they
searched the vessel and stole a few
items, including a satellite phone,
before leaving in their rubber dinghy.
Three crew members were reportedly
injured.
The attack does not seem to have
been reported immediately and only
emerged 10 days later when Interpol
issued an alert. By this time the
Maltese-registered ship had vanished.
Its last confirmed contact with the
outside world came just before 3pm
British time on 29 July, when it
radioed the British coastguard to say
it was in the Dover straits and
heading for Algeria. Signals from the
ship's automatic identification system
(AIS) beacon confirmed the position.
The communication raised no
suspicions, but within hours an
international police appeal was
relayed to the coastguard suggesting
the ship may have been hijacked.
Mark Clark, of the Maritime and
Coastguard agency, said: "It is
possible that the person who spoke
was either a pirate or a member of
the crew speaking under duress."
Alternative theories have sprung
HUNT page 34
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Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Aug
2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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-Mobile
34 World/
Iraq murder suspect 'should get UK
trial'
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:25:12 AM
Lawyers for Danny Fitzsimons
write to director of public
prosecutions to say Briton would not
get fair hearing in Baghdad
Lawyers for the British private
security guard accused of shooting
two colleagues dead in Baghdad have
written to the director of public
prosecutions calling for him to be
tried in the UK rather than Iraq, it
emerged today.
They have told Keir Starmer QC
that they do not believe Danny
Fitzsimons, a former paratrooper,
would not get a fair hearing if went
on trial in Iraq.
His solicitor, Trevor Linn, said he
was concerned that Fitzsimonswould
be "made an example of" and
executed if found guilty of murdering
Paul McGuigan, a Briton, and
Australian Darren Hoare.
Fitzsimons is under arrest in
Baghdad after being accused of
killing his ArmorGroup security firm
co-workers during a drunken brawl.
He claimed he was acting in self-
defence but could be the first
westerner to face an Iraqi trial on
murder charges since a new security
pact came into effect on 1 January.
The agreement lifted the immunity
HUNT
continued from page 33
up, including the notion that criminal
gangs or someone connected to the
crew had been smuggling drugs or
another illegal consignment amid the
timber. Russian maritime officials
have dismissed any notion of crew
complicity, saying those on board
were experienced and trusted.
Nick Davis, the chief executive of
the Merchant Maritime Warfare
Centre, told BBC Radio 4's Today
programme: "It's not carrying a
foreign contractors have had for
much of the last six years.
In his letter to the DPP, Linn
argues that British prosecutors can, in
law, ask local authorities – not only
in Iraq but also elsewhere in the
world – to allow British subjects to
be sent home for trial and should do
so in this instance.
Linn also revealed that 29-year-old
Fitzsimons had suffered from
"adjustment disorder" after seeing
active service with the Paras.
The lawyer said the doctors who
had diagnosed him in the UK would
be unlikely to travel to Iraq to give
evidence, making a fair trial
impossible.
If Fitzsimons does stand trial in
Iraq, Linn said ArmorGroup should
pay for a legal team to travel to
Baghdad to represent him.
Details of Fitzsimons'past have
continued to emerge.
Most seriously, he faced a possible
jail sentence in the UK after pulling a
gun on children near his home in
Middleton, Greater Manchester.
Neighbours said teenagers had
been causing trouble outside his
ground floor council flat when he
pulled a flare gun and fired it into the
air in an attempt to scare them off.
He was convicted of a public order
offence over the incident, which
happened on 1 April this year, and
valuable cargo ... [a] small [amount
of] timber between the Baltic states
and Algiers is not a high-value cargo,
so I strongly suspect that this is
probably a commercial dispute
between its owner and a third party,
and they have decided to take matters
into their own hands."
According to websites that monitor
live AIS signals, the Arctic Sea, built
in 1992 and owned by a Finnish
company, disappeared from tracking
had yet to be sentenced at Bolton
crown court.
His father, Eric, and his
stepmother, Liz, agreed he should be
returned to the UK to face trial.
"If he has done this crime then
obviously he has to stand trial, but
we would just want him to stand trial
here," she said.
"Our legal system is fair ... we feel
he would get a better trial because
there are other things to take into
account in this."
The security guard's father said his
son had witnessed friends and
colleagues being killed or wounded.
"It's obviously had a very traumatic
effect on him," he said. "You could
just imagine your best friend – one
minute he's alive and one minute he's
dead.
"I know in the armed forces you
have to got accept that happens, and
if you become a mercenary, which
Daniel became, you have to accept it
as well. But it doesn't make it any
easier."
• Iraq
• Gun crime
• Steve Morrison
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systems in the early hours of 30 July
off the northern French port of Brest.
This does not necessarily mean the
system was turned off, as tracking
coverage can be patchy.
The ship was later spotted by a
patrol aircraft off the Portuguese
coast, Clark said. And then, nothing
– the ship and its crew seemingly
disappeared into thin air. The vessel
Obama to award medal
of freedom to 16
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:32:18 AM
Physicist Stephen Hawking and
Desmond Tutu among those
receiving America's highest civilian
honour
Barack Obama will recognise the
accomplishments of actors, activists,
athletes and the world's foremost
living theoretical physicist today
when he awards the presidential
medal of freedom to 16 people.
Among recipients of the United
States' highest honour for a civilian
will be Stephen Hawking, the
Cambridge University physicist and
mathematician known for his work
on black holes; former Irish president
and one-time UN human rights
commissioner Mary Robinson, and
retired Anglican Archbishop
Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a
Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Other recipients include Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Muhammad
Yunus of Bangladesh, a leader in
global anti-poverty efforts who
pioneered providing "microloans" to
provide credit to poor people who
lack collateral.
Film star Sidney Poitier, civil rights
leader the Rev Joseph Lowery and
tennis legend Billie Jean King were
also among those to receive the
medal as well as Democratic senator
Edward Kennedy, who has been
battling brain cancer, and Sandra Day
O'Connor, former US supreme court
justice.
Kennedy will remain on Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, following the death
of his sister, Eunice Kennedy
Shriver, but the senator's spokesman
Internet News Record
said his children will attend the
ceremony and his daughter, Kara,
will accept the award on his behalf.
Obama, awarding his first
presidential medals, also will make
posthumous awards to Jack Kemp of
New York, the football quarterback-
turned-politician who died in May,
and gay rights activist and San
Francisco politician Harvey Milk,
who was assassinated in 1978.
The White House has said the
individuals were selected for their
work as "agents of change".
US president Harry Truman
established the medal of Freedom in
1945 to recognise civilians for their
efforts during the second world war.
John F Kennedy reinstated the medal
in 1963 to honour distinguished
service.
Other recipients are: Joe Medicine
Crow, the last living Plains Indian
war chief who fought in the second
world war wearing war paint beneath
his uniform. Chita Rivera, an actor,
singer, dancer and winner of two
Tony Awards for Broadway roles.
Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G
Komen for the Cure, a leading breast
cancer grass-roots organisation. Dr
Pedro Jose Greer Jr, assistant dean of
academic affairs at Florida
International University School of
Medicine. Dr Janet Davison Rowley,
professor of medicine at the
University of Chicago.
• Obama administration
• Barack Obama
• Stephen Hawking
• United States
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Internet News Record
Bali bomber escaped deadly police
siege
By Haroon Siddique (World
news and comment from the
Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 1:52:16 AM
Tests show that dead man was not
Noordin Mohammed Top, also
wanted for last month's attacks on
Jakarta hotels
A man killed in a 17-hour siege on
Saturday was not Indonesia's most
wanted militant, Noordin
Mohammed Top, police said today.
Top, blamed for the Bali bombings
in 2002 and 2005, which killed more
than 200 people, was believed to be
dead after counterterrorism officers
stormed a mud-walled farmhouse in
central Java.
But tests comparing the body's
DNA with members of Noordin's
family came back negative, said
Eddy Saparwoko, the head of the
national police victim identification
unit.
The manhunt for Noordin
intensified after he was named as the
main suspect in last month's twin
suicide hotel bombings in Jakarta, in
HUNT
continued from page 34
was due at Bejaia more than a week
ago but never arrived. Spanish
reports say it was never seen passing
the Straits of Gibraltar, meaning it
could have been taken down the west
coast of Africa.
"I would strongly feel that the
vessel is now down off the west coast
of Africa, somewhere even further
down towards the Nigeria way and
the vessel will probably be renamed,
repainted and the crew sort of
dropped off at a port somewhere,
probably safe and well, to then sort
of hand themselves in and say 'We
were the crew of this vessel and we
want to go home'," said Davis.
The Russian navy has sent ships
from its Black Sea fleet to the
which nine died and 53 were injured.
Saparwoko said the man who died
in the shootout was a florist
identified only as Ibrohim. He made
floral arrangements at the Marriott
hotel and Ritz-Carlton where the
suicide bombers struck on 17 July.
Nanan Sukarna, the national police
chief, identified Ibrohim as "a
planner and arranger of the
bombings" and said five other
suspects in the blasts remained at
large including Noordin.
Police showed CCTV footage
where Ibrohim, who called himself
Boim at work, appeared to be
surveying parts of the lobby and
restaurant in the hotel. He
disappeared immediately after the
attacks.
Ibrohim had been seen
accompanying one of the suicide
bombers at the hotel and had helped
smuggle in bombs to room 1808 at
the Marriott where they were
assembled, police said. He had been
a member of Jemaah Islamiyah since
2000, according to police.
Media reports quoting police
Atlantic to hunt for the Arctic Sea,
according to the country's defence
ministry, while Portugal is carrying
out its own search.
"We don't know what has happened
but it is possible the ship was
attacked by pirates," said a
spokesman at the Maritime Rescue
Co-ordination Centre in Lisbon. "We
are searching with planes and boats,
but so far there is no sign of it."
If the case does turn out to be
piracy, it would be an unprecedented
situation, according to Jeremy
Harrison, from the UK's Chamber of
Shipping. "It's extraordinary. This
just doesn't happen. These are
heavily patrolled waters," he said.
If boarders had turned off the AIS
sources said Top probably fled a few
hours before the anti-terrorism unit
raided the house. The Malaysian
national, a former accountant and
maths teacher, had become one of
Asia's most wanted men. He is a
former leader of Jemaah Islamiyah
who recently formed his own splinter
group allied with al-Qaida.
His campaign of violence in
Indonesia began when he fled from
Malaysia with Azahari Husin – killed
in 2005 by the same elite unit
involved in Saturday's shootout –
after the 9/11 attacks to escape an
expected crackdown on Islamic
militants. The pair split from Jemaah
Islamiyah following a disagreement
over Noordin's insistence on
increasingly hardline methods.
• Indonesia
• Global terrorism
Haroon Siddique
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signal, finding the vessel could prove
hard, Harrison said. "It can take a
long time even to find boats in
trouble, even when the general
location is known. If the vessel is still
afloat and is trying to hide – well, it's
a big ocean."
• Piracy at sea
Peter Walker Haroon Siddique
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Brazilian TV host
'ordered killings'
By Tom Phillips (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:18:49 AM
A Brazilian politician who fronts a
popular television crime show is
being investigated for allegedly
ordering a series of executions in a
bid to boost his ratings.
Wallace Souza, a former police
officer who used his lunchtime
television slot to rail against the
violence sweeping the jungle city of
Manaus, is suspected of
commissioning at least five murders
to prove his claim that the region is
awash with violent crime.
"Manaus can no longer live with
this wave of crime," Souza, 50,
frequently told the audience of his
daily show Canal Livre. "Nowadays
everyone is killing."
In a 2008 speech at Manaus's local
parliament, Souza boasted that Canal
Livre enjoyed complete editorial
freedom and was conducted with
"journalistic responsibility".
But prosecutors in the remote
Amazon city say the politician's
actions went far beyond the call of
journalistic duty, accusing Souza of
links to drug trafficking, death
squads and organised crime, and
possessing illegal arms.
"Our investigations indicate that
they went as far as creating facts,"
Thomaz Augusto Correa, the local
police intelligence chief, told a
Brazilian news channel. "Crimes
were committed in order to create
World/ 35
news for the group and for the
programme."
Souza was the most voted-for
politician in the last elections in the
state of Amazonas and is in his third
term. But his transformation from
politician and TV presenter to
suspect began last October when his
former security guard Moacir Jorge
da Costa, an ex-police officer, was
arrested and accused of nine murders.
Costa reportedly confessed that at
least one of the murders had gone to
air on his employer's TV show.
The arrest triggered a police raid on
Souza's house that uncovered more
than £100,000 as well as an arsenal
that included several high-calibre
assault rifles. So far nearly 20 people
have been arrested in connection
with the case, including Souza's son
and several senior police officers.
Francisco Balieiro, Souza's lawyer,
said that his client denied the
charges, blaming them on a political
campaign against him. Souza's
private secretary, Isabella Siqueira,
told the Guardian yesterday that
Souza was being targeted because of
his involvement with investigations
into the smuggling of drugs and
weapons into prisons in Manaus.
• Brazil
• Television
Tom Phillips
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36 AppleBlog/ Gizmos/ Entertainment/
Developer's iPhone boycott rates an answer from
Phil Schiller
By Michael Rose (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/12/2009 1:15:00 AM
Filed under: App Store First, there
was the Ninjawords dictionary, and it
was good. Well, it would have been
good, except it self-bowdlerized in an
effort to get accepted into the App
Store; and there was much wailing
and gnashing of teeth.
Then, in response to said
gnashing/wailing, a voice spoke out
of the cloud: Phil Schiller, Apple's
senior VP of Worldwide Product
Marketing, sent an on-the-record
email to John Gruber discussing the
situation. More than the actual
explanation (which had to do with
the timing of parental controls on 3.0
vs. the release date of this app, and
the choice by the developers to clear
out the dirty words rather than wait
for the option of a 17+ rating), the
simple fact of a top Apple exec
speaking with some frankness and
detail about App Store approvals, to
someone with a fairly large soapbox,
was quite astonishing.
Now, it seems that Mr. Schiller has
clearly located the Send button in
Mail.app, because another Philogram
has landed in a prominent mailbox.
Steven Frank, a co-founder of Mac
developer Panic, had announced on
his personal blog last week that the
Google Voice rejections were the last
straw: he was boycotting the iPhone
on principle until things straightened
out in the App Store. Although Frank
Project Runway's new life or the beginning of the end?
By Annie Wu (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:03:00 AM
In preparation for its big August
20th season premiere on Lifetime
(and, evidently, to interrupt me when
I'm trying to watch a few episodes of
is not an iPhone developer, he is an
iPhone owner and user.
Over the weekend, much to his
shock and surprise, he got an email
from Phil. While the full content
hasn't been published, the gist was
"we're working on it" with regard to
the App Store issues.
One point in the email that Frank
received which he did repeat has to
do with ebook app approvals, a
subject we wrote about one week
ago. While we were told by the
Frasier and Will & Grace), Project
Runway has been running endless
ads, loud and proud. I'm sorry, did I
say "loud and proud"? I meant
"weirdly sentimental and full of slow
-mo."
The commercials featuring
developer of a rejected ebook app
that his rejection notice cited the
entire category of ebooks on the
store, Apple PR quickly responded --
and Phil reiterated to Steven -- that
the company continues to approve
ebook readers and ebook titles to the
App Store. In the case of the app in
question, apparently the possibility of
iPhone-to-iPhone sharing of book
titles was what triggered the
rejection, and the rejection email
overstated the case and set off alarm
individual designers from the
bells.
Is this enough to reverse the one-
man boycott [as our commenters
note, Michael Arrington and Om
Malik have also publicly disavowed
the iPhone]? Maybe, maybe not. It's
one thing to talk about changes and
improvements, but another to
actually achieve them on the ground
and in the store. As an addendum to
his post, Frank notes:
Upon further reflection, I think the
true litmus test will be how Apple
and AT&T formally respond to the
FCC inquiry about Google Voice.
That is due no later than the 21st; a
week from Friday. That decision
really cuts to the crux of the whole
thing for me, and the great thing (for
us users) is everyone has to come out
and say something about what
happened. No more speculation. If
sending personal emails to people
who are frustrated about the App
Store is now an official part of Phil
Schiller's job description, he may be
pretty busy over the next few weeks.
[via Techmeme]
TUAW Developer's iPhone boycott
rates an answer from Phil Schiller
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:15:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: AppStore-
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upcoming season were almost
touching enough to confuse me. I
mean, I'm used to the super-catty "I
didn't come here to make friends, I
came here to be the snarky queen
bee" sort of ads. Are these just to reel
in the average Lifetime viewer, or is
Internet News Record
Judge Orders Permanent
Stop of Microsoft Word
Sales Within 60 Days
[Microsoft]
By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:53:27 AM
This will probably be settled or
appealed until it reaches the Supreme
Court, but Judge Leonard Davis—of
the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Texas—has
ordered a permanent injunction
against Microsoft Word. According
to plaintiff's attorneys:
The injunction prohibits Microsoft
from selling or importing to the
United States any Microsoft Word
products that have the capability of
opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM
files (XML files) containing custom
XML
This comes after a federal jury
declared that Microsoft Word 2003
and Word 2007 custom XML tagging
infringed on the plaintiff's—Toronto-
based developer i4i—patents,
ordering Microsoft to pay $200
million in damages.
This injunction—to be executed
within 60 days—orders the payment
of another $40 million for "willful
infringment," and prohibits any sales,
testing, and demonstration of any
Word version containing the custom
XML tagging feature. [ Cnet]
this an early indication of Project
Runway's slightly new voice?
Continue reading Project Runway's
new life or the beginning of the end?
Filed under: Other Reality Shows,
OpEd
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Internet News Record
App Store Lessons: App
Emergencies
By Erica Sadun (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:00:00 AM
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone,
App Store, SDK, App Review Bad
things happen. Despite all your user
testing, sometimes an iPhone app
release hits the wild with unexpected
results. I recently heard about one
application upgrade that passed
Apple review, but that crashed when
run on handsets that had a previously
installed version of the app. Another
app experienced data corruption
when incoming phone calls
interrupted file write operations.
So you're a developer, and this
happens to you. What do you do?
Developer Emanuele Vulcano
issued some recommendations in a
recent iPhoneSDK e-mail group post:
• First, brace yourself for user rage.
Customers aren't going to be happy
even though you're going to treat this
situation as proactively as possible.
• Update your application
description immediately. Explain
what is wrong with the update and
why users shouldn't upgrade. Put the
word IMPORTANT in capitals.
• Submit your bug fix and then
contact the escalation/approval team
email from the developer help pages.
Explain what happened. If your
situation is critical, they can speed up
the review process. Just take into
account any time they'll spend before
looking at your e-mail.
This situation recently cropped up
for TUAW reader and iPhone
developer Mahmoud and his app
BargainBin. "The 3.0 update made
BargainBin the only app to monitor
App Store price changes and provide
push notifications to each user when
the apps they care about went on
sale. We were so preoccupied with
making sure the push notifications
and user watch list worked properly,
that we overlooked a critical bug.
How critical? Well, every time
BargainBin was launched to any
screen other than the 'Watch List,' the
user was presented a screen that said
'no items' rather than the relevant
price changes."
Absolutely devastated by this error,
Mahmoud and his colleagues
immediately worked on a bug fix.
"We updated the code in about 15
minutes to fix this critical bug. But
now it was back to the submission
process." This was an update that
affected critical application
performance. So after submitting his
BargainBin bug fix on August 6th in
the afternoon, he sent an e-mail to the
escalation team.
And he got results. Apple's iPhone
Developer Program expedited the
review, making a one-time exception
to their normal process. By the
evening of August 7th, the update
went live in the App Store -- less
than 30 hours later, rather than the 7-
14 days for a normal upgrade review.
As Mahmoud writes, "Kudos to
Apple. This [should make] a nice
change from the 'how broken [is] the
App Store approval process' articles."
TUAW agrees. Way to go, Apple.
Want to read more about the story?
Pop over to this write-up over at
Mahmoud's company blog.
TUAW App Store Lessons: App
Emergencies originally appeared on
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW) on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: appstore-
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Magic trick developers
find the trick is on them
By Mel Martin (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/11/2009 7:30:00 PM
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion,
Bad Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod
touch Just when you thought the App
Store approval process could not get
any weirder comes word that the
developers of magic tricks for the
iPhone are coming under increased
scrutiny from the gatekeepers at
Apple.
According to the iTricks website,
developer Chris Kenner's Rising
Card app has been sitting in App
Store limbo after Apple suggested
the app might violate their
guidelines.
Which guideline might that be?
Consumer confusion of course. The
developers respond that many tricks
rely on confusing the consumer,
that's how people get fooled.
The dust-up is causing many magic
trick developers to have second
thoughts about the App Store. They
may re-do their trick as a web app, or
work to find some way around
Apple.
One magic developer, Hotrix, is
selling so called 'Premier' apps that
don't require the App Store at all. It
works well, but I'm not at liberty to
divulge how they are doing it.
One of my colleagues quite
correctly points out that Apple has
not been overly long in the approval
process, and the apps are likely held
up because they mess with some of
the strict iPhone interface guidelines.
Apple is setting the 'confusion' bar
pretty low, but one can understand
both sides in this controversy.
Gerald Kirchner, who runs Magic
City and has produced some first
class magic apps, sees the dilemma.
"Apple has a point when they say the
AppleBlog/ 37
spectator would be confused, as the
iPhone is not "working correctly".
Apple is all about the "Apple
experience", in a way, we magicians
are taking that "Apple experience"
away. There is an app in Cydia that I
love that makes it look like your
friend breaks your phone and cracks
the screen. It is great fun, but does
Apple really want to condone
software that makes it look like you
broke their device. It sucks, because I
make a lot of these tricks, but I
understand Apples views."
Still, it would be nice if the App
Store had consistent guidelines.
We've been all over that topic, but
the issues remain.
Advice to Apple: Be careful about
messing with someone who has a
magic wand.
Thanks Harrison for the tip.
TUAW Magic trick developers find
the trick is on them originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Aug
2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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38 AppleBlog/ Gizmos/
Florida school may trash 200 Macs
to go PC-only
By Mike Schramm (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Desktops, Cult of Mac,
Odds and ends This could be the
saddest thing I've seen all week (and
I've watched a few Cubs games): a
Florida school is declaring itself PC-
only, and apparently was planning to
toss almost 200 Macs in the trash to
get new Windows computers for the
kids and teachers. Hearing that kids
will have to use Windows is sad
enough, but tossing out working
Macs, even if they're old G3 models?
Not cool at all. The teachers were
apparently also told originally that
they couldn't buy them or give them
away to kids either -- it was the trash
bin for these machines.
Cult of Mac also updates with
pictures of the Macs, and we warn
you, if all of those machines really
are headed for the landfill, it's a little
scary to look at. Fortunately, the
outcry has caused school officials to
reconsider (or at least state their
position more clearly), and it looks
like what they'll be doing is assessing
the machines to see if they can be
refurbished and then given away or
sent off to a recycling center. The
other problem apparently lies in the
software -- giving away the machines
is no problem, but the school has to
make sure all the software is cleaned
off of the computers, as they don't
have licenses to distribute software
that way. And as the school
administrator says, the computers
aren't much good without an OS on
them.
But surely we can save these guys.
Apple, want to step in here and grant
this school some licenses to keep
these computers (208 in total, many
of which are likely workable, even at
"five to ten years old") in the hands
of people who can use them? It
would be a shame if the school had to
toss working computers because their
hands were tied by OS X software
licenses.
TUAW Florida school may trash
200 Macs to go PC-only originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 12 Aug
2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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Netflix Will Continue To Farm
Its Research Out To Cash-
Strapped Nerds [NetFlix]
By John Herrman (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:20:00 AM
Netflix's last foray into research
bribery, a million dollar prize for
anyone who could improve the
company's recommendation
algorithm by 10%, was a success,
both as a programming project and a
spectator sport. Naturally, they're
doing it again.
Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at
Netflix, dropped this on the Netflix
forum:
The advances spurred by the
Netflix Prize have so impressed us
that we're planning Netflix Prize 2, a
new big money contest with some
new twists.
Here's one: three years was a long
time to compete in Prize 1, so the
next contest will be a shorter time
limited race, with grand prizes for the
best results at 6 and 18 months.
While the first contest has been
remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2
Internet News Record
will be more challenging, more fun,
and even more useful to the field.
He doesn't give any meaningful
clues as to what the second challenge
will be about, but CNET, having
either talked to Hunt or simply just
made a bunch of stuff up, seems to
think it could be all manner of
objectives, from "creating an
algorithm to suggest other users to
befriend" to "helping the company
better determine which movies to
purchase to meet demand." But hey,
why not just do this for everything?
It'd be like having an endless army of
unusually eager, underpaid
employees, except without all those
pesky "labor laws" and "benefits."
Details of the second contest
should come on September 1st, when
the company will also announce
who's getting the cash from the first
contest, after that more-fun-than-it-
had-any-right-to-be nailbiter of a
finish. [ AP via CNET]
Internet News Record AppleBlog/ Gizmos/ 39

Win a copy of Distant Suns for your

iPhone and show us your Perseid
meteor shots
By Victor Agreda, Jr. (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/11/2009 5:30:00 PM

Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone,

iPod touch The Perseid meteor
shower should peak tomorrow,
August 12, and stay spectacular for a
few days after. If you've got the
means, I highly recommend you
check it out. Quite a show. I'm not
sure an iPhone camera would do it
justice, but you can prove me wrong
by submitting your Perseid meteor
shower shots on our TUAW tumblr
page. They don't really have to be
taken with the iPhone, so if you have
a nice telescope, don't be shy.
To celebrate the Perseids we're
giving away 25 copies of Distant
Suns, a nifty astronomy app for the • The comment must be left before available soon.
iPhone and iPod touch (which we've Friday, August 14, 11:59PM Eastern TUAW Win a copy of Distant Suns
covered before), in one of our
patented random giveaways. As
Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
for your iPhone and show us your
Perseid meteor shots originally Apple's Phil Schiller Continues
usual, this is limited to the US
(sorry!), you must be over 18, and so
• Twenty-five winners will be
selected in a random drawing.
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Aug Quelling Faithful's App Store
forth. Full rules down below. To • Prize: Promo code for one copy of 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our
enter, just leave us a comment telling
us whether you've seen the Perseids.
Distant Suns for iPhone, US$5.99
value
terms for use of feeds.
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Unrest With Polite Letters [Apple]
• Open to legal US residents of the • Click Here for complete Official Comments By matt buchanan (Gizmodo) because of the "toxic" ecosystem.
50 United States and the District of Rules. Sponsored Topics: IPhone- Submitted at 8/12/2009 6:20:00 AM
Steven didn't republish Phil's letter,
Columbia who are 18 and older. Note: The current version of IpodTouch- Apple- TUAW- United but he says it was a "courteous,
• To enter leave a comment Distant Suns is iPhone OS 3.0-only, States Apple's head of marketing Phil polite, and reassuring email," the gist
indicating whether you've seen the but a pre-3.0 version should be Schiller—of Philnote of which was "we hear you." Lovely.
Perseid Meteor Shower. fame—apparently continues his tour It's great that Apple hears the
of the blog universe to calm the grumbling—now they just need to
unrest of Apple faithful disillusioned actually do something about it.
by the App Store's garbage approval Admittedly, that's no small task,
process. since the entire App Store model is
This time, he stops by the blog of on the verge of shattering completely
Steven Frank of Panic (maker of the anyway. [ Steven F via Mac Rumors]
excellent FTP client Transmit), who
said he was ditching the iPhone
40 AppleBlog/ Entertainment/
Apple issues patch to speed up Airport after
troublesome 10.5.8 update
By Kevin Harter (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/12/2009 12:30:00 AM
Filed under: Airport, Software
Update, Macbook Pro, MacBook
Apple has just released a patch to
the AirPort client to remedy the
wireless performance problems
stemming from the recent Mac OS X
update to 10.5.8. Some users had
been forced to downgrade or replace
the wireless-specific kernel
extensions to clear up the issues.
The update, weighing in at a svelte
1.4MB, purports to solve an issue
found on certain MacBooks and
MacBook Pros. Affected machines
suffered from significantly slower
wireless network speeds while
operating on battery power.
Here's the official description from
tonight's Airport Client Update for
MacBooks and MacBook Pros,
version 1.0:
This update is recommended for
some Intel-based Macintosh
computers running Mac OS X 10.5.8
and addresses an issue with AirPort
performance while running on
battery power. It may only be
installed on:
MacBook (13-inch, Late 2007)
MacBook (13-inch, Early 2008)
MacBook (13-inch, Late 2008)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early
2008)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early
2008)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2008)
While I do own a potentially affected
MacBook Pro, I did not experience
the performance issues, so I can't
vouch for the update's effectiveness.
Have you installed the patch and
noticed an improvement (or not)?
TUAW Apple issues patch to speed
up Airport after troublesome 10.5.8
update originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:30:00 EST.
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Sponsored Topics: Mac OS X-
Apple- Update- Macbook Pro-
TUAW
Internet News Record
No surprise there ...
Doctor Who season
five on BBCA
By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:03:00 AM
In a victory for nerdy Brit-philes
everywhere, BBC America has
announced the acquisition of U.S.
broadcast rights for the fifth season
of Doctor Who starring the 11th
Doctor, Matt Smith. This is on the
tail of announcing record ratings for
the American broadcast of the Doctor
Who episode Planet of the Dead and
the mini-series Torchwood: Children
of Earth.
This is all the more reason to curse
my cable company for not actually
carrying BBC America and having to
resort to other means to watch one of
my favorite programs of all time.
You know when a network tells you
to call your cable company to carry
your favorite stations? I will
personally testify in a court of law
that it accomplishes jack squat.
There are no other television
stations that could correctly carry
Doctor Who in the states. SyFy? Oh
please. Their first run with the series
was lukewarm at best. The Doctor is
home, and I look forward to catching
his new adventures however I can.
Filed under: Programming, OpEd,
Doctor Who, Pickups and Renewals,
Reality-Free
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Internet News Record
Align the interests of: 1. Users and 2. Warehouse 13: Burnout
Investors.
(Scripting News)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 2:28:07 PM
Last night Marshall and I did a flash
call-in version of the Bad Hair Day
podcast to discuss the acquisition of
FriendFeed by Facebook. It was the
first time I used BlogTalkRadio's call
-in feature, and I liked it, and I want
to do it again.
Toward the end of the show Brian
Hendrickson of Portland called in to
say that he was launching a
replacement for tr.im called rp.ly.
Then somehow the subject turned to
how to build a sustainable thing out
of his daring act. I gave a lame
answer. In my defense, I wasn't
prepared. After much more thought I
know the answer and I'd like to share
it here.
Before giving the answer let's be
clear on what the question is.
Brian is a young ambitious hard-
working creative persistent
developer. I can vouch for all that.
He lives in Portland, but when we
have events here in the Bay Area, he
comes. He never gives up, never
flames, and his stuff works. He's got
all the attributes you look for in an
entrepreneur.
The question is this -- how to build
a sustainable user-oriented business
around Brian's talents so that it
doesn't let the users down as the
investors' interest diverges from the
users' interest. That's what's going
with FriendFeed and Twitter, when
you really drill in. Some of it is
incompetence and fear. Twitter's
SUL is just plain dumb, it's not in
anyone's interest. But FriendFeed
getting acquired and not protecting
the users, that is simple divergence.
Their stockholders and the users had
different interests.
Anyway, when you frame the
question this way the answer is very
clear. You have to align the interests
of the users and the investors.
Think about that for a minute.
Align the interests of: 1. Users and
2. Investors.
How to do that?
Well, they need to be the same
people.
Get ready for some non-linear
thinking folks, because this is not the
20th Century. It's not Kansas and
Twitter isn't Toto and the VCs aren't
the Wicked Witch -- they're just
business people following their
training and instinct the best they
can.
To understand how this can work,
back up a few years and then a few
years more.
Why did Google get such an
outrageous market cap when they
IPO'd? I maintain it's because they
had a huge number of users who
understood their product and were
very excited about it.
Okay back up another generation.
Before Netscape went public the
assumption was they needed revenue
at a 20 percent pre-tax margin. They
squeaked by if you looked at the
numbers the right way in the right
light, and squinted. But in the end
none of that mattered. The stock
didn't end up pricing based on the old
metrics. Why? Same thing -- they
had a huge number of users who
undestood their product and were
excited about it.
We're now in the same place again.
The question is this -- okay Brian
isn't a Google or a Netscape. Neither
is tr.im. Neither are the handful of
developers who are excited by
rssCloud and the idea of a loosely-
coupled distributed 140-character
message network. But who says
public offering have to be mega-size.
They don't. Sometimes they're very
small affairs.
And that imho is the answer -- we,
the users, need to own a technology
company -- and have it work to serve
our interests. It has to help us achieve
our goals to do what we are excited
about. I believe the users are worth
betting on, much more than I believe
that Marc Andreessen or Larry and
Sergey really had any idea how to tap
into the potential of their inventions
(with no disrespect to any of these
brilliant people). The visionaries
were the people who believed their
stock was worth a lot more than
anyone in Silicon Valley did.
So that's what I'd like you all to
think about -- founding a People's
Software Company whose first act is
to IPO and pool the financial
resources of users who believe there
is a gap in what Silicon Valley is
providing using their old models for
corporate structure. We're living in
the proof that the gap exists, with all
the failures of the centralized system
in just the last week. See if your
imagination takes you to the same
place it takes me.
Tech Musings/ Entertainment/
By Mike Moody (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:48:00 AM
Thank God for Eddie McClintock
and Joanne Kelly. Warehouse 13's
two appealing leads add a certain
spark to their characters that clearly
isn't on the page. It takes talented
actors to brighten up a show that's
unfortunately hog-tied by trite
dialogue and boring mysteries of the
week. Same goes for Saul Rubinek
and new cast member Allison
Scagliotti-Smith. These two have a
great chemistry that helps liven up
the show's never-ending exposition
scenes. The great cast is the best
thing about Warehouse 13, and it's
probably the only reason I'm tuning
in every week.
This week, Pete and Myka
discovered the dead body of a former
Warehouse agent. The agent's life
was drained by a parasitic artifact
that jumped from host to host feeding
on human aggression. The artifact
apparently was a metaphor for the
Rescue Me: David
By Jonathan Toomey (TV
Squad)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 11:00:00 PM
( S05E19)"This is all above board.
It's underground of course, but it's
above board." - Needles
41
Warehouse itself. It takes and takes
until you have nothing left to give,
another former agent, Rebecca, told
Myka in the closing scene. Rebecca's
warning to Myka brought up a
number of questions I've had since
the show's premiere: Who is
controlling the Warehouse? Are they
baddies or good guys? What is the
ultimate plan for Pete and Myka?
Continue reading Warehouse 13:
Burnout
Filed under: Other Sci-
Fi/Supernatural Shows, Episode
Reviews, Reality-Free
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What's that old saying? Chances
are someone else has already said it
better than you... or something like
that? Well, this whole season of
Rescue Me I've been looking for the
42 Entertainment/ Tech Games/
Big Brother 11: Power of Veto #5
By Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 8:23:00 AM
(S11E15) On Sunday we saw Lydia
and Russell nominated for eviction
from the Big Brother 11 house. I'm a
bit torn between the two. You see, if
Lydia goes, great looks like this one
above will be over. She's all but
summoning the ghost of a twisted
tattooed Lucille Ball. Lydia has
intriguing good looks, but she's also a
chameleon running the gamut in
appearance from Betty Boop to punk
rocker. She's not my favorite hamster
in the house, but I enjoy seeing what
look she'll come up with next. On the
other hand, Russell never does much
with either his hair or his make-up.
Continue reading Big Brother 11:
Power of Veto #5
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother
(US), Episode Reviews
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
RESCUE
continued from page 41
right words to describe just how
exactly I felt about it. There hasn't
been a bad episode this season and I
doubt any of the final three will
disappoint either, but still -
something has just been off.
Well, leave it to the show's co-
creator, Peter Tolan, to put it in
simple English at the TCA: when
dealing with a shorter season (as in
13 vs. 22 episodes), you can focus on
the quality of each episode (rather
Get in the Game initiative
offers grants to PSN devs
By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 7:00:00 AM
If you've got a great concept for a
downloadable PlayStation Network
title -- one you feel rivals the genius
of overweight royalty, tumbling
rectangles and pixel-sized pollination
-- then your chance to shine is
approaching. Sony, in conjunction
with Pixel-Lab and Northwest Vision
and Media are offering £10,000
grants to companies who have great
ideas for PSN games as part of their
second annual Get in the Game
initiative.
You can prepare your brainchild
for adjudication during a three-day
"pitching and concept development
workshop" from October 14 through
16. If you think you've got a shot at
than being forced to move on to the
next immediately). That's what I
meant to say.
Continue reading Rescue Me:
David
Filed under: OpEd, Rescue Me,
Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
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the big leagues, you can submit your
concept to Get in the Game's
producers in November. Five
entrants will receive the grant, which
they'll use to polish their ideas into
something playable before presenting
their projects to Sony in March. If
they're not terrible, they might get
released, and we might end up
writing about them, creating some
sort of beautiful gaming journalism
circle of life.
[Via GamesIndustry]
Get in the Game initiative offers
grants to PSN devs originally
appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug
2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our
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Internet News Record
Midway UK and
France offices bought
for 1 euro (combined)
By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:00:00 AM
In a move that leaves us scratching
our heads, ex-Midway Europe
managing director Martin Spiess has
purchased the Midway UK and
France executive offices for a
combined amount of one euro.
According to the SEC filing, Mr.
Spiess formed Spiess Media Holding
UG to purchase the companies, in
what MCV UK calls a "management
buyout." Additionally, Midway
Germany's general manager, Uwe
Fürstenberg, has purchased the
German branch for an undisclosed
amount.
The kicker on all of these business
dealings? In buying the UK and
France offices, Spiess has tied his
company to "a payment of
approximately One Million Seven
Hundred Thousand Dollars
($1,700,000) from [Midway Games
Limited] to [Midway USA]" at the
"closing of transactions." Spiess has
90 days to turn around the Midway-
branded stock. Good luck, Mr.
Spiess! From what we've seen of
Midway over the past six months,
you're going to need it.
[Via MCV UK]
Midway UK and France offices
bought for 1 euro (combined)
originally appeared on Joystiq on
Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST.
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Internet News Record
Next Team Fortress 2 update
to be completely classless
By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:30:00 AM
No, the next major update for
Valve's oft-expanded FPS Team
Fortress 2 won't be without elegance
and social graces -- they adequately
covered that base with the Sniper
update's piping hot jars of urine.
Rather, the update won't favor any
particular class over another,
distributing goodies to every class,
and adding new maps into the ever-
growing mix.
The first of these non-class specific
additions is -- brace yourself -- new
hats. Eighteen new hats, to be
precise, which presumably add two
new hats to each of the game's nine
classes' wardrobes. (Math'd!) The
Street Fighter IV joystick phone straps push our buttons
By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 5:00:00 AM
Japanese phone strap retailer
StrapyaNext just started accepting
pre-orders for the most awesome cell
phone accessories ever (next to the
Hello Kitty/Space Invaders charm, of
course). These tiny joysticks, in Ryu,
first map to be revealed is Arena
Offblast, a tricky little battleground
perched atop a shear mountain cliff.
Players will need to stay wary of the
cliff's edges, lest they plummet to
their death, and stain their lovely new
hats with gray matter.
Stay tuned to the TF2 blog-- they
should be adding more information
about the classless update in the
coming days.
Next Team Fortress 2 update to be
completely classless originally
appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug
2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our
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Ken, Dhalsim, and Chun Li versions,
play Street Fighter IV voice clips in
response to the correct button
command.
For example, if you input down,
right, and punch on the Ryu Real
Voice Action Cell Phone Strap, it
will play "Hadouken!" The same
movement on the Dhalsim charm
Let's go shopping in the
Avatar Marketplace!
By Dustin Burg (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 9:30:00 AM
You'll find screenshots of every
single item that's purchasable via the
newly launched Avatar Marketplace
conveniently placed in a few galleries
below. Not only did we diligently
snap photos of each and every item,
but we also catalogued each item's
name and pricing information and
even put together a text-based list of
all collected information. We were
bored, okay?
Feel free to browse the virtual
clothes racks, take a gander through
our hand-picked 20 Most Interesting
Avatar Items and (if you're daring)
navigate through photos of all 132
will play "Yoga Fire!" And then you
Avatar items. Fun fact: if you were to
purchase every single item available,
the total damage would amount to
17,680 or roughly $221.
• 20 Most Interesting Avatar Items
Gallery
• Avatar Marketplace - All Items
Gallery
• Avatar Marketplace - All Items
List Gallery: Avatar Marketplace -
All Items
Let's go shopping in the Avatar
Marketplace! originally appeared on
Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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can tell the person you're talking to
on the phone that you need to hang
up because your close, personal
friends Ryu and Dhalsim have
arrived.
These straps, limited to 1,000 each,
will also be sold at the Ikebukuro
Tokyu Hands shop, and at the Tokyo
Game Show, for¥1,260 ($13).
Tech Games/ 43
Infernal: Hell's
Vengeance is a
choking hazard
By David Hinkle (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 2:02:00 AM
When creating a game called
Infernal: Hell's Vengeance, you may
catch some flak. Whether it's from
Bible-thumpers or those protesting
the inaccurate depiction of a vengeful
underworld (seriously misunderstood
place, folks), you just have to be
prepared for some backlash. Well,
that isn't the only thing developer
Playlogic will have to handle, as this
Amazon listing for the game is bound
to bring out the anti-choking activists
around the globe.
Sure, we could blame Playlogic for
deciding to add "a small ball" to the
package or for the game's "small
parts," both of which present a pretty
big choking risk for children under
three years of age, but the company
is putting out mature content here. If
Playlogic stopped to think about
INFERNAL: page 44
[Via GAME Watch]
Street Fighter IV joystick phone
straps push our buttons originally
appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug
2009 05:00:00 EST. Please see our
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44 Tech Games/ Sports/
Rumorang: PS3 Slim to be
revealed at Gamescom
By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/12/2009 10:00:00 AM
Hong Kong gaming magazine
GameWave is reporting that the PS3
Slim will be revealed at Gamescom
next week. This comes following
French media site JVN's report,
which also indicated that the new
model would be revealed at the
European conference. The image on
the magazine's cover isn't the real
console, so don't get too excited.
Also, thank goodness.
We'll level with you: the buzz is
that the PS3 Slim will be revealed in
U.S.
continued from page 44
And in the New Yorker, Paul
Goldberger writes about the
preservation efforts for old Yankee
Stadium.* * *
Michael Vick is still looking for
work. Vick, a No. 1 draft pick in
2001 who was imprisoned for his
role in a dog-fighting ring, hasn’t
been signed by any NFL team despite
talk of interest and the fact that some
teams need quarterback help. But
don’t think there’s collusion to keep
Vick out of the league, the Kansas
City Star’s Jason Whitlock writes.
Cologne next Tuesday at Sony's
Gamescom press conference.
However, with Sony remaining tight-
lipped, we're still waiting for the
official announcement or solid
images at this point.
[Via Examiner; Thanks,
SpiderMike]
Rumorang: PS3 Slim to be revealed
at Gamescom originally appeared on
Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
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“There are logical, sound reasons for
NFL teams to exercise restraint
before offering Vick a roster spot.
And I’m not even talking about the
fact he may not be eligible to suit up
for a game until Halloween,”
Whitlock writes. “He plays
quarterback, the most difficult,
highest-profile and influential
position in all of sports. Last I
checked, nothing about Leavenworth
Penitentiary prepares a person to play
INFERNAL:
continued from page 43
every child in the world while
creating games, then we'd never get
to see what Hell got so pissed about
to begin with. And, in the end, who
does that really help?
Infernal: Hell's Vengeance is a
choking hazard originally appeared
on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug 2009
02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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U.S. Soccer’s Historical House of
Horrors
(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Submitted at 8/11/2009 7:54:52 AM
The Americans have viewed
playing in Mexico as an almost no-
win situation. There was that one
time when they tied, to go with their
22 south-of-the-border losses. All of
which provides context for
Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier at
Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium, a
105,000-seat venue that’s been
America’s House of Horrors over the
years. Getty Images Other than the
heat, the altitude, the noise, the
pollution and the history of the
series, Landon Donovan and his U.S.
teammates have nothing to worry
about Wednesday in Mexico City.
The U.S. has made great strides in
soccer — the team is ranked 12th in
the world — but winning in hostile
venues in soccer-mad countries isn’t
easy even for the best of teams.
“The concept of trying to intimidate
the visiting team is a constant across
sports, of course,” the Journal’s
Matthew Futterman writes. “But
when it comes to soccer, the world’s
most popular sport, there is nothing
quite like the combination of open
hostility and relentless pressure fans
bring to bear in World Cup
qualifiers. Ask Giorgio Chinaglia, the
U.S.
continued from page 44
Morgan, whom they acquired along
with reliever Sean Burnett in a trade
with Pittsburgh. “Pre-Morgan, the
Nats were 21st in the majors in runs
scored. Since Morgan’s arrival,
they’re third,” the Washington Post’s
Tracee Hamilton writes. “Their on-
base percentage has increased 18
points. They were 23-54 when he
arrived. They are 17-18 since.
Morgan’s numbers here: a .362
average, a .407 on-base percentage
and a .449 slugging percentage, with
18 steals. He has a .981 fielding
former striker for the Italian national
team, which country is the most
difficult to play in, and his immediate
answer is England. Then he
reconsiders and says Holland. Then
he suggests Germany. Then Spain, or
perhaps France.”
Mexico’s recent 5-0 whitewash of
the U.S. in the Confederations Gold
Cup final doesn’t look good either,
even if many of the top American
players sat out that game. Yahoo’s
Martin Rogers says coach Bob
Bradley must have the players
believe they can beat Mexico in the
afternoon heat at high-altitude Azteca
Stadium. “In the past, so many
American squads have traveled to
Mexico with high hopes, only to see
them dashed in quick time,” Rogers
writes. “This game will not be won in
the first 20 minutes, but it can
certainly be lost. Confidence,
aggression and a refusal to be
Internet News Record
percentage, with two errors.”
In Chicago, the White Sox’s
acquisition of Alex Rios from the
Toronto Blue Jays shows the AL
Central team is serious about
winning a World Series this year,
Sports Illustrated’s Ted Keith writes.
Still with baseball, and a problem
we’ve read all too much about
recently, the Washington Post’s John
Feinstein says it’s time for baseball
to admit its drug problem.
U.S. page 44
intimidated will all be critical
factors.”
Forward Landon Donovan will be
an important part of the American
attack. “Both teams have capable
players throughout their lineup. In
Donovan, though, the U.S. has one of
the very few players on either side
who can decide the outcome in a
single play,” Grahame L. Jones
writes in the Los Angeles Times.
“One burst of speed that shreds the
Mexican defense, one dramatic
volleyed goal such as the one he
scored for the Galaxy at New
England on Saturday, and the game
can be won. That’s why Mexico
should fear Donovan. It knows his
potential.”
Goal.com’s Andrea Canales says
five factors favor a U.S. upset of
Mexico.* * *
The standings don’t lie. The
Washington Nationals are baseball’s
worst team. But they’ve played better
of late, and are on an eight-game
winning streak heading into
Tuesday’s game against Atlanta.
That leaves the Nats a mere 32
games under .500.
One reason for the Nats’
resurgence is centerfielder Nyjer
Internet News Record
U.S.
continued from page 44
quarterback in the National Football
League. Before entering prison,
Vick was a mediocre passer, the
primary skill for an NFL quarterback.
There isn’t one reason to believe he’s
a more accurate thrower now.”* * *
Tiger Woods, who earned his 70th
PGA win on the weekend, learned to
play golf from his dad on a municipal
course. And ever since Tiger’s first
win, in the Masters in 1997,
programs have sprouted up to teach
inner-city kids a game that has few
players of their background at the
highest levels. In the New York
Times, Bill Pennington writes about
the First Tee program, which has
introduced almost three million
youngsters to the game since 1997.
In the Orange County Register,
45
Mark Whicker chronicles the
contributions of Bill Powell, who
built the Clearview Golf Club in East
Canton, Ohio, in the late 1940s. The
92-year-old African-American will
be honored Wednesday with the
PGA’s Distinguished Achievement
Award.
– Tip of the Fix cap to readers Don
Hartline and to fellow Fixer David
Roth.
Found a good column from the
world of sports? Don’t keep it to
yourself — write to us at
dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider
your find for inclusion in the Daily
Fix. You can email Garey at
ris84rap@gmail.com.