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Tuesday, July 7, 2009
About California Travel: Cool in Summer
About Home Theater: Accell HDMI 4x4 Matrix A/V Switch - Review
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VentureBeat
VentureBeat |
- Consumer electronics sales rebound in second quarter
- Judge dismisses parts of billion-dollar Viacom - YouTube lawsuit
- MobileBeat drumbeat: NYT’s Stone, Android’s Chu, Getjar’s Laurs and more…
- Internet radio reaches deal with record industry, Pandora saved
- Plato Networks rakes in $7.5M for energy-efficient chips
- Firefox imitates Chrome with crash-proofing feature
- Relievant Medsystems raises $20M to treat lower back pain
- Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals
- Michael Jackson memorial drew 6,000 messages a second on CNN/Facebook site
- Fotoglif lets sites publish and profit from professional photos
- Apple’s iPhone apps: 62,965 and counting (or is it?)
- Google finally rips the beta label off Gmail and other Google Apps
- Want to improve your odds? Think hardware
- Palm lines up carriers to launch Pre in Europe, Canada
- StayHealthy launching calorie-tracking devices; iPhone app to follow
| Consumer electronics sales rebound in second quarter Posted: 07 Jul 2009 04:51 PM PDT
The data is consistent with sales reports in the chip industry, which also saw sales grow in the second quarter, compared with the first quarter. Both industries are key bellwethers for judging the health of the tech economy. The second quarter sales are a big improvement from the first quarter, when sales fell 25.8 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. The sharp decline was more pronounced than usual because of the recession. But conditions are starting to improve in the consumer electronics business, said Sheri Greenspan, senior analyst at iSuppli. In the third quarter, sales are forecast to rise 12.5 percent sequentially over the second quarter, and fourth quarter sales are expected to rise 10.2 percent over the third quarter to $88.2 billion. Overall, 2009 will see sales decline to $307.6 billion, down 8.2 percent from $335.2 billion in 2008. Prices are falling in many popular categories, from digital cameras to flat-panel TVs and game consoles. Unit sales are increasing somewhat. In the second quarter, unit sales were up 5 percent from the first quarter. The third and fourth quarter unit sales are expected to rise 16.1 percent and 14.1 percent respectively. For the year, unit sales will be down 4.8 percent in 2009. The market research firm tracks 19 different consumer electronics items. Most categories saw unit sales increases. The categories that saw drops in the second quarter were handheld video games, game consoles, camcorders and rear-projection TVs. iSuppli forecasts that consumer electronics revenues will rise 2 percent to $313.7 billion.
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| Judge dismisses parts of billion-dollar Viacom - YouTube lawsuit Posted: 07 Jul 2009 04:44 PM PDT
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Stanton wrote that the DMCA “”bars statutory damages for all foreign and domestic works not timely registered.” Stanton’s interpretation would disqualify Viacom’s claims for copyright infringement on Britain’s Rugby Football League and music copyrighted by the British National Music Publishers Association. Judge Stanton also decreed that the plaintiffs in the case could not seek punitive damages. [Photo
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| MobileBeat drumbeat: NYT’s Stone, Android’s Chu, Getjar’s Laurs and more… Posted: 07 Jul 2009 04:02 PM PDT I’m delighted to announce the latest speakers at MobileBeat2009, our mobile industry conference for executives next Thursday (July 16):
David Marcus, chief executive, Zong (middle above)– Zong is a significant player in mobile payments. He’ll be speaking on the mobile social panel, where payments can help grease the wheels of the emerging mobile games industry. Andrew Lacy, co-founder and chief operating officer (above right)– Tapulous is parent company of some leading mobile game companies on the iPhone, including Tap Tap Revenge.
Ilja Laurs, founder and chief executive of GetJar (above middle) — Getjar is the world's largest independent mobile application store, something that has been forgotten with the emergence of the gee-whiz iPhone App store. Getjar operates mostly outside of the U.S., however, which is why it isn’t as well known here. But it’s the service is partly why Mig33 has become one of the most downloaded apps. Every month, 35,000,000 downloads are served from GetJar site and its network of OEM and carrier partners that include Vodafone, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry.
We’ve got a great time in store for MobileBeat. Our start-up competition has proven competitive, and we’ll be seeing 10 companies launch with brand new products. Buy tickets here. We’re thrilled to have sponsorship support from so many mobile industry leaders: Qualcomm, Velti, AdMob, GetJar, Symbian, beamME, Sun Microsystems, Cc:Betty, Greystripe, Mozes, Nvidia and SGN.
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| Internet radio reaches deal with record industry, Pandora saved Posted: 07 Jul 2009 01:39 PM PDT
“Pandora is finally on safe ground with a long-term agreement for survivable royalty rates,” said Pandora Chief Technology Officer Tom Conrad in an email sent out earlier today. “The unresolved licencing issues have hung over us like a dark cloud for two years. It’s a great feeling to have the road cleared of that obstacle.” The Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN) has more details on the agreement, which lasts until 2015. But the crux is that SoundExchange will reduce royalty fees in exchange for a percentage of revenues. It’s an opt-in system (meaning a company could choose to pay the higher royalty rates and not share revenue), and the terms change depending on the size of the company. Since Pandora is a “large” webcaster (meaning it makes more than $1.25 million annually), it gets a 40 to 50 percent cut in royalties and in return gives SoundExchange 25 percent of US revenue. Conrad added that the deal still sets Pandora’s royalty rates at a level “much higher than any other form of radio.” To bring in more money, the Oakland, Calif., startup is limiting its free service to 40 hours of listening a month. People who want to listen more than that (they account for 10 percent of users right now) have to pay $0.99 or upgrade to the $36-a-year Pandora One service. The first companies to sign the agreement were AccuRadio, Digitally Imported, and RadioIO, RAIN says. [Are you an entrepreneur or executive active in mobile? Join us at MobileBeat 2009, our mobile conference for industry leaders, where Pandora's Conrad will be one of the speakers. Sign up soon.] [photo:flickr/flattop341]
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| Plato Networks rakes in $7.5M for energy-efficient chips Posted: 07 Jul 2009 01:18 PM PDT Plato Networks, maker of chips used to make data centers more energy efficient, brought in $7.5 million of an anticipated $10 million round of preferred stock. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., the company previously raised $20 million in a second round of financing from Crosslink Capital, Granite Ventures and STIC International.
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| Firefox imitates Chrome with crash-proofing feature Posted: 07 Jul 2009 01:15 PM PDT
Google’s motivation, according to the promotional comic strip created by popular cartoonist Scott McCloud, was to goad other browser makers — Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple — into making changes in their browsers to keep up. McCloud’s comic may have worked. Ars Technica explains that Firefox is “considering the possibility” of adding multi-process browsing, a feature Chrome has had from the start. In multi-process browsing, each tab in the browser window is assigned its own process inside the server. So if one application crashes, its process gets shut down, but other browser windows aren’t effected. “Adapting Firefox to make it support multiprocess browsing will not be an easy task,” Ars Technica writer Ryan Paul wrote on his blog. Many fundamental components of the browser’s underlying infrastructure will have to be modified.”
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| Relievant Medsystems raises $20M to treat lower back pain Posted: 07 Jul 2009 01:00 PM PDT Relievant Medsystems, maker of minimally invasive procedures used to treat chronic lower back pain, has brought in $20 million in private equity from Morgenthaler Ventures, Canaan Partners, Emergent Medical Partners and ONSET Ventures. Based in Redwood City, Calif., the company has conducted a small pilot study testing out the effectiveness of its lead procedure and has seen positive results. The device used allows spine surgeons to relieve nerve pain in just the lower back without damaging any other vertebrae.
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| Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals Posted: 07 Jul 2009 11:06 AM PDT
GigaOm first reported the news last night, after obtaining a copy of the email chief executive Max Levchin sent to the team and confirming the news with Levchin. The PayPal co-founder said that, financially, it makes more sense for Slide to pursue the bigger ad campaigns and sponsorships (in the $500,000 range), rather than spend time and energy on smaller deals. Lily Lin, Slide’s director of communications, sent me a few more details:
We’ve reported that Slide is currently making around $20 million a year in advertising. The company has raised a total of $58 million in venture backing — back in January 2008, it raised most of that money at an eye-opening $550 million valuation. (Shortly afterward, competitor RockYou raised a round at what we heard was a $200 to $230 million valuation.) Of course, the economy and ad market have changed dramatically since then, but I would imagine Slide’s feeling pressure to at least partially justify those numbers.
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| Michael Jackson memorial drew 6,000 messages a second on CNN/Facebook site Posted: 07 Jul 2009 10:55 AM PDT
After a few seconds of video, the picture on CNN.com stalled. Clearly, the site was choking. But viewers seemed to be having fun with the Facebook widget, which let them post status updates and watch the short messages scroll by alongside the video on the CNN web site. They were sending messages expressing marvel at the real-time conversation happening among people from around the world. CNN said hundreds of thousands of people were logged into the Facebook widget and 6,000 status updates were coming in every minute. That was more than during the Obama inauguration. I cut over to Hulu.com, which showed me a 30-second video ad before starting. They were on commentary, so I switched to Justin.tv, which handled the live streaming for E! Online. The sites seemed to be handling the traffic well, but my sense is they flowed even smoother once it was clear the ceremonies were delayed. Smoky Robinson came on stage to talk (apparently reading condolence letters from singer Diana Ross and statesman Nelson Mandela). The crowd applauded when the family came in. Then the audio cut out from Staples Center. We couldn’t hear anything. The commentators said Jesse Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Brooke Shields, Robert Townsend and a host of other celebrities were spotted inside. The TV networks managed to get people to tune in early by running live video of MJ’s motorcade moving down a completely cleared Los Angeles freeway (filmed from helicopters). Inside the darkened Staples Center, the crowd of 17,500 was silent, according to commentators. Finally, the memorial service resumed at 10:35 am. A gospel choir came on and sang a song with the refrain, “We are going to see the king.” Jackson’s pastor Lucious Smith came on and said, “We come together in this space where only days ago Michael sang and dance and brought his joy as only Michael could.” Singer Mariah Carey came out on stage next and sang “I’ll Be There,” accompanied by Trey Lorenz. CNN briefly cut out of the song and then returned to it, for an unknown reason. On Facebook, snarky and sentimenal comments rolled by. Many said they were crying. Another said, “Thank God she had Trey. He saved her performance.” Queen Latifah reminisced about how she tried to repeat the moves of the Jackson Five. She said, “Michael was the greatest entertainer that ever lived.” On Facebook, people echoed the comment. Keynote Systems, which monitors the performance of major news web sites, said it did see some slowdowns among the sites that it monitors on a regular basis. But it said the Internet appeared to function OK. Ustream said that it served 4.6 million video streams from around the world in partnership with CBS. Ustream said that viewers participating in the chat rooms left 12,000 messages per minute. Ken Godskind, chief strategy officer for web performance firm AlertSite, said that E!Online saw its response time for its ome page reach as high as 20.75 seconds, while TMZ’s home page response time hit 10.41 seconds during the memorial. Both suffered some page errors during the memorial service. People logging into Twitter during the memorial service saw login failures about half the time.
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| Fotoglif lets sites publish and profit from professional photos Posted: 07 Jul 2009 09:00 AM PDT
The company licenses photos from a bunch of photo agencies and embeds those photos with ads (see example below). Web sites can use the photos for free, and Fotoglif shares 50 percent of the ad revenue with the pro photographers, 20 percent with the site publisher, and it keeps 30 percent for itself. It also records usage metrics. Mike Betts, chief executive of Fotoglif, expects that sharing revenue with bloggers and other web sites that use Fotoglif photos will incent those sites to forego using pirated photos. The Toronto, Canada-based company is announcing its site today. It currently has three million photos in its library with about 15,000 new ones coming in every day. Fotoglif has partnered with the world’s leading photo agencies, including Getty Images, Thomson Reuters, Splash News, the European Press Agency, Newscom, Zuma Press and others. It hosts and manages the content itself, organizing the photos so content publishers can find what they want quickly. It also makes photos available in real time, so that recently-taken photos can be used quickly — for example, it has a current photo of President Obama in Russia. Rivals aren’t doing exactly the same thing. PhoTrade embeds ads in photos, but it’s soliciting photos from general users not professional photographers who submit photos to photo agencies. GumGum is a more direct rival, but you need multiple logins and passwords to access multiple photo agencies. GumGum also does not share revenue with site publishers. By contrast, Fotoglif is more like a single destination site for multiple photo agencies. Content publishers sign in with one password and get access to all of the photos. The company has been testing the site for a few months, gathering more photos and partners in the meantime. Fotoglif was founded in early 2008 and has 6 employees. It was funded by angels, friends and family. But more recently it raised $1 million from SunWah high-tech, a company in Hong Kong. Betts, the founder, is a photo studio owner himself.
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| Apple’s iPhone apps: 62,965 and counting (or is it?) Posted: 07 Jul 2009 08:27 AM PDT
That number became fixated in everyone’s heads. But now it’s time to move on. Less than a month later, there are now 62,965 apps on the iPhone, according to Mobclix. The number of games is now 13,030. Back on June 24, we noted that there 59,073 apps, including 12,403 games. That means there are 299 apps — including 48 games — coming out every day. The acceleration is due in part to the release of iPhone 3.0 software, which as of June 16 allowed a lot of developers to release enhanced apps. In some ways, that shows how healthy the ecosystem is. More than a billion apps have been downloaded. (That number is obsolete, as Apple crossed it on April 23). But observers are asking questions. How many of those apps are free? (There are 14,242 free apps, including 3,561 free games). How many of the billion-plus downloads are free? How much revenue are they generating? What are the profits? Who is building a sustainable business on the iPhone? Some apps makers such as Mark Pincus of Zynga have said that profits have been elusive so far on the iPhone platform. [Update: Busted Loop says its count is much different. The company says that Mobclix is double-counting apps between categories. The real numbers should be 55,977, with 10,175 games. Go figure.] What do the numbers mean? Apple has created a relentlessly Darwinian marketplace. New developers are piling in. Companies are developing their own tricks on how to get noticed. Production values have to be higher if the apps are to stand out. Marketing and advertising may very well become a necessity, even for apps that are viral hits. Publishers may have to get used to the idea that their apps may sell for a couple of weeks and then fall off a cliff. The numbers are stunning in a lot of ways, but I don’t think anyone fully appreciates what they mean yet. [Are you an entrepreneur or executive active in mobile? Join us at MobileBeat 2009, our mobile conference for industry leaders. Sign up soon.]
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| Google finally rips the beta label off Gmail and other Google Apps Posted: 07 Jul 2009 08:00 AM PDT
Well, the future is here. Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Talk — bundled with the already-out-of-beta Google Sites and Google Video under the name Google Apps — are all leaving beta. So what’s the difference between Apps in beta and Apps out of beta? In terms of features, not much. Rajen Sheth, senior product manager with Google Apps, tells me the company set a variety of benchmarks for when Apps could be taken out of beta, involving “usage, utilization, and overall quality.” For one thing, he noted that over the past few months Apps has taken some serious steps towards addressing the requests of big corporate users, such as adding offline access for Gmail, improving BlackBerry support, synchronizing with Outlook, and improving contact management. In that vein, Google is also announcing a few more features today aimed at those enterprises — email delegation so assistants can screen and send emails on behalf of others, email retention so IT administrators can decide when emails get deleted from the system (an important regulatory requirement for some businesses and government agencies), and live replication of data at other locations. But this may be more a question of perception than of features. Sheth notes that some potential customers who were leery of the “beta” description, despite the fact that when Apps is sold to businesses, it isn’t considered a beta product, and it includes things like guaranteed uptime. But it can be a challenge to convince someone that a package of services (Apps) is not in beta when most of the component products (Gmail, Docs, etc.) are. And the reason it’s a challenge is because it doesn’t make any sense. So this move should help businesses see Apps as a mature set of services that they can count on. Part of the confusion comes from the fact that Google Apps serve both consumer and business users. I asked Sheth whether consumer needs or business needs are guiding the product roadmap, and he said it’s actually both. It’s true that some features are really meant mainly for one group or the other, but “the vast majority” are meant for all users. “The consumer world is actually advancing much more quickly in terms of innovation,” Sheth said. “Things like, for example, group calendars and public calendars have been appealing across the board. There aren’t very many examples of features that originally started in the consumer world that aren’t appealing to enterprises.” On the pricing side, nothing’s changing, Sheth added — the consumer applications will remain free and ad-supported, there will still be a free version of Apps, and Google will continue to offer a premium version for $50 per user per year. There may be opportunities to charge for specific add-ons later, but he said, “Our philosophy to date has really been to continually enhance the functionality as is around the existing price point.” Using that approach, Apps is already serving 1.75 million businesses and bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue, according to Google. As for where Gmail and the rest go from here, Sheth offered a few general thoughts. Google wants to add more features that make Apps feel familiar to enterprise administrators and users, but it also wants to continue “innovating in completely new directions,” he said. Meanwhile, the next time Gmail goes down, you can expect a chorus of bloggers and Twitter users to cry, “I thought it wasn’t in beta anymore!”
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| Want to improve your odds? Think hardware Posted: 07 Jul 2009 07:41 AM PDT When I founded NewDealDesign nine years ago, the axiom in Silicon Valley was that software was the only way to go for new entrepreneurs. Things haven’t changed much since then. That traditional thinking ignores some ugly realities, though. Software and Web markets are so filled with dominant players that they are actually relatively difficult to break into. Standard category leaders control 60 percent of the market. Runners-up to those leaders are left with 30 percent. And the crumbs are fought over by others in the category. You don’t need to look much further than social networking sites, browsers or operating systems to understand this breakdown. No matter how hefty the investment, the odds of success are high. Hardware products, though, (particularly in the consumer electronics field) have a little more wiggle room. Rather than a market that is run by two or three primary competitors, you can thrive with as many as 12-15 companies with a similar focus. The cell-phone and laptop businesses are perfect examples. While the consumer hardware market has always been diverse, making it easier for newcomers to get on the shelf and begin building sales, recent trends have made it even more appealing. One key factor is that the manufacturing industry has grown in China and become more readily accessible to entrepreneurs. If you have a completed design, the manufacturers and component suppliers there are ready to help you begin building. Also, electronic components are smarter, faster, more powerful and less costly than ever before, making it cheaper and easier to build a smart gadget. There’s also a lot of room for innovation. Broadband internet connections are pervasive and allow for new market categories and profit opportunities. The recent rise of netbooks is a good example. The small PCs took the market by storm, accounting for 12 percent of sales in December 2008, the month they became readily available. You don’t have to come up with a market defining idea to be successful, either. You can be the 20th netbook company in the category, and still be making a profit relatively quickly. The Economics of Consumer Hardware Many new consumer electronics ventures can flourish in a state of semi-success, selling product for profits and reaching a break-even point faster than software startups. This is because the economics of consumer hardware are not incredibly complicated. The return on investment is a much clearer process. Roughly one-third of the suggested retail price of an item is direct cost (buying components, shipping, and inventory). Another one-third goes to the retailer. The rest is profit. Let’s go back to our netbook example. Say your product sells at $300 (meaning a $100 profit on each sale). If you spend $4 million up front — including industrial design and your direct costs — you only need to sell 40,000 units to break even. Your core technology, something that makes the product unique to your company, will be your biggest expense. When it comes to product design (or concept development), the general rule of thumb is this should amount to 3 percent of your research and development costs. (This number shifts, though, from company to company.) The most important money you will spend, though, is on industrial design (establishing the aesthetics of the final product). Good design can dramatically boost your sales, while bad design will end up costing you money (as you’ll inevitably have to go through a redesign down the road). When approaching an industrial design firm, know your goals, especially if you are a small company. Because small companies do not have large ad budgets, your product will often convey the attitude and positioning of the firm. You also need to be careful to ensure your management and board of directors are unified on the vision for your product. (Unofficial arbiters between the two sometimes galvanize different views of a product.) Another place where the value of your product design investment can help “sell” the product is in the fundraising process. Objects have power - they capture attention. The right object can be a showstopper - and an investment winner when you’re talking with VCs. When selling an idea (whether to backers or manufacturers), tangible prototypes are infinitely more effective than flat sketches. While Silicon Valley’s mentality hasn’t changed much in the last nine years, the opportunity in consumer electronics may be even greater. The ‘long tail’ theory is true here more than any other industry. A “magic product,” such as the iPhone, may be at the front of the curve, but it’s followed by everything else that people want and need. Take a walk down the aisles of Target, Wal-Mart or any big box store, and you’ll see how many products that are out there that are not revolutionary, but evolutionary. Gadi Amit is the founder and principal designer of NewDealDesign. He has been in product design for over 20 years and is responsible for the design of such devices as the Sling Box, Fitbit, Glide TV and Dell Studio Hybrid.
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| Palm lines up carriers to launch Pre in Europe, Canada Posted: 07 Jul 2009 07:38 AM PDT
O2 will exclusively launch the Pre in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany, while Movistar will launch the phone in Spain. The Pre will also debut in Canada on the Bell Mobility network in the second half of the year. The European rollouts will be ready in time for the holidays. Palm hasn’t detailed how many Pres Sprint has sold since the device debuted on June 6 in the U.S. But the company says that the Pre broke Sprint’s previous first-weekend sales records. Palm has been setting the stage for European expansion for months. Chief executive Jon Rubinstein said interest in the Pre has been brewing since the company showed it off at the Mobile World Congress in February. Palm has been pushing the Pre in the U.S. as a smartphone for the rest of us. Its ads note that it costs $1,200 less to own over a two-year period than the iPhone. The Pre features a slide-out physical keyboard and a new operating system, webOS, that gives the phone a lot of computer-like functions, such as the ability to run rich applications and to handle multiple tasks at the same time. Pricing and specific launch dates in the new territories haven’t been announced yet. [Are you an entrepreneur or executive active in mobile? Join us at MobileBeat 2009, our mobile conference for industry leaders. Sign up soon.]
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| StayHealthy launching calorie-tracking devices; iPhone app to follow Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:25 PM PDT
So obsessive iPhone e-mail checkers may soon be able to apply that tenacity to their calorie count. “We think that information is key for people taking control of their health and the question is how do you make it most conveniently accessible?” said StayHealthy president Brian Baum. “We recognize that people don’t want to walk around with a half-dozen devices and the most ubiquitous device from a market perspective is the iPhone.” StayHealthy focuses on body composition, which is measure of a person’s bone, muscle and fat levels, over weight because it is a more accurate gauge of health, Baum said. Because muscle is easier to lose than fat, a dieter may inadvertently lose more lean mass if they just cut back on calories without any exercise. When a person is measuring their body composition, they grip StayHealthy’s device with two hands. It sends an electric pulse through one hand and measures the time it takes to pass through the entire body and into the other hand. Because water conducts electricity well, a slow response time might mean the person has a higher level of fat. StayHealthy’s second device is a calorie tracker and uses an accelerometer you wear on your waist to gauge how active you’ve been during the day. The devices relay that information privately online so users can keep track of their goals and how far they’ve progressed. They can also let outsiders like doctors or fitness trainers monitor their data to bring on extra pressure to meet health goals. StayHealthy isn’t focused on marketing its devices directly to consumers and is instead partnering with fitness centers, health providers and weight-loss centers to sell its products. Baum said the company had sales of the devices in the “low thousands” so far and that this is the year it will focus on deployment. The company is privately held and has raised $12 million since its inception in 1995. A few other companies are in the health and wellness space on mobile phones, including Bones in Motion, which lets athletes track the distance and speed of their training regimens using GPS technology, iHeartRate, which tracks heart rate and has a calorie burn calculator, iFitness, which shows images of more than 230 exercises sorted by body region or target muscle group, and Tap & Track, which lets users follow the calories they ingest and burn.
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In a sign of economic life, global consumer electronics sales rose 4.2 percent to $71.1 billion, compared to $68.3 billion in the first quarter, according to market researcher 
Brad Stone, New York Times (at left)– Stone, a leading reporter in the 
Eric Chu, head of Android App store, Google (left)– 
Internet radio companies have been complaining for a while about the high royalty rates they pay for music — they said the rates set in 2007 didn’t make sense given the small amount of money they’re making. Pandora, which 
Slide
Like millions of others, I tuned in at 10 am Pacific time to watch the Michael Jackson memorial service, live over the web. While I wanted to share the experience and remember MJ, I also wanted to see how the Internet held up under the weight of so much video traffic.
Web sites that use photos for free have been the bane of professional photographers. But Fotoglif has a solution that can make it easier — and more lucrative — for web sites to use the highest-quality photos with proper licenses.
Apple 
Google’s charming refusal to take the “beta” label off web applications like Gmail and Google Docs has become something of a joke. Not only did that imply serious kinks were still being worked out, it also made the idea of a beta test seem almost meaningless. Recently, 
Expanding its attacks on Apple’s iPhone empire, Palm said today
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E-News: Italy's the Place to Stop Nukes
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About Romantic Travel: Summer Love Guide
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About Today: Are We Twittered Out Yet?
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“A Decisive Regulator Built on a Firm Foundation” NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko, the Heritage Foundation, July 7, 2009
Young Single Adult Gems
Young Single Adult Gems |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 12:00 AM PDT "The voice of the Lord is clear and unmistakable. He knows you. He loves you. He wants you to be eternally happy. But according to your God-given agency, the choice is yours. Each one of you has to decide for yourself if you are going to ignore the past and suffer the painful mistakes and tragic pitfalls that have befallen previous generations, experiencing for yourself the devastating consequences of bad choices. How much better your life will be if you will follow the noble example of the faithful followers of Christ such as the sons of Helaman, Moroni, Joseph Smith, and the stalwart pioneers—and choose, as they did, to remain faithful to your Heavenly Father's commandments." M. Russell Ballard, "Learning the Lessons of the Past," Ensign, May 2009, 33 Topics: Example |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2009 12:00 AM PDT "Early Church leaders in this dispensation confirmed that adhering to the covenant path provides the reassurance we need in times of trial:" 'It was [the knowledge that their course in life conformed to the will of God] that enabled the ancient saints to endure all their afflictions and persecutions, and to take . . . not only the spoiling of their goods, and the wasting of their substance, joyfully, but also to suffer death in its most horrid forms; knowing (not merely believing) that when this earthly house of their tabernacle was dissolved, they had a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Cor. 5:1.)' (Lectures on Faith [1985], 67)."They further pointed out that in offering whatever sacrifice God may require of us, we obtain the witness of the Spirit that our course is right and pleasing to God (see Lectures on Faith, 69–71). With that knowledge, our faith becomes unbounded, having the assurance that God will in due time turn every affliction to our gain. Some of you have been sustained by that faith as you have endured those who point fingers of scorn from the 'great and spacious building' and cry, 'Shame!' (see 1 Nephi 8:26–27), and you have stood firm with Peter and the Apostles of old, 'rejoicing that [you] were counted worthy to suffer shame for [Christ's] name' (Acts 5:41)." D. Todd Christofferson, "The Power of Covenants," Ensign, May 2009, 21 Topics: Covenants Topics: Obedience |
| Posted: 01 Jul 2009 12:00 AM PDT "While testimonies can come as dramatic manifestations, they usually do not. Sometimes people think they need to have an experience like Joseph Smith's vision before they gain testimonies. If we have unrealistic expectations of how, when, or where answers come, we risk missing the answers which come as quiet, reassuring feelings and thoughts that most often come after our prayers, while we are doing something else. These answers can be equally convincing and powerful." Allan F. Packer, "Finding Strength in Challenging Times," Ensign, May 2009, 18 Topics: Testimony |
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CrunchGear
CrunchGear |  |
- Soundblock: Elecom to roll out cute mini-speakers for your iPod
- CrunchDeals: Native Instruments Komplete 5 for $399
- Daily Crunch: Refraction Edition
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- Ogg Theora and H.264 battle it out for HTML 5 standard
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- iPhone 3GS: too hot or not too hot?
- Embrace the coming of Chalkbot
- A solid-steel iPhone case I can actually get behind
- Fake iPod headphones almost like the real thing
- The return of the TV-B-Gone
- Review: Klonoa for the Wii
- Video: A Nintendo Wii tune put to dance
- Valve on Left 4 Dead 1-2 cross-play: “That’s something we’re trying to work out”
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- Video: iPhone time lapse video
- Garmin announces the BMW Motorrad Navigator IV GPS
- Review: Suunto t6c training watch
| Soundblock: Elecom to roll out cute mini-speakers for your iPod Posted: 07 Jul 2009 04:59 AM PDT
Japan-based Elecom today announced the Soundblack [JP], an iPod dock connector/speaker for use with a number of iPod models (iPod 5G, iPod touch 1/2G), iPod classic and iPod nano 1/2/3/4G). The 0.04W mini system doesn’t support the iPhone though.
The Soundblock will be available from the middle of July exclusively in Japan, but Geek Stuff 4 U already accepts preorders from people living outside this country (price: $42+shipping). Users are able to choose between 10 colors.
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| CrunchDeals: Native Instruments Komplete 5 for $399 Posted: 07 Jul 2009 03:17 AM PDT
KONTAKT 3 - the industry-standard sampler with a 33 GB library
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| Daily Crunch: Refraction Edition Posted: 07 Jul 2009 12:00 AM PDT |
| OWLE: A Mount That Turns Your iPhone 3GS Into A Mobile Video Workhorse Posted: 06 Jul 2009 08:02 PM PDT
Fortunately, an answer is on the way for all you mobile videographers. A new startup called OWLE (Optical Widgets For Life Enhancement), is currently working on a mount that should resolve most of these issues. The mount, which you can see in the images and videos below, gives you a much more stable way to hold the phone, making it much less prone to bumps and shakes. The mount also improves your recording quality by including a 37mm camcorder lens and a front facing microphone, which plugs into the phone’s headphone/mic jack. There’s also planned support for external lighting and power. All in a package that could slip easily into a backpack or laptop case. In short, this is exactly what you need if you frequently use the iPhone for video. Unfortunately, it will still be a while before you can get your hands on one. OWLE plans to have a limited production run completed by late August, which it will distribute to bloggers and other press to help get the word out. A full production run is currently slated to be completed by Christmas, at a retail pricepoint in the $30-50 range, including the accessories. There are also a few shortcomings from the hardware side: because the included microphone plugs into the phone’s mic jack, it only supports mono. The company is planning another version that will plug into the phone’s 30-pin adapter (which would enable stereo recording) but that won’t make this model. In the demo video below, OWLE also pleads with Apple to begin fully supporting Qik on the iPhone 3GS — something that we’ve also been hoping for, and would make the device even more appealing. You can sign their petition here.
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| Get a netbook for a buck? Sounds too good to be true. Posted: 06 Jul 2009 07:30 PM PDT
It’s a bundle deal from Best Buy. And it varies, depending on what carrier you actually prefer. You can choose Verizon or AT&T instead of Sprint, but expect the cost to go up to $199.99 if you go with one of them. You can also just buy the thing outright for $389.99, which is a better deal if you look at the total price of basic purchase vs. 24 months at $60 for a data plan. [via Tom's Hardware]
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| Ogg Theora and H.264 battle it out for HTML 5 standard Posted: 06 Jul 2009 07:00 PM PDT  With YouTube and other video sites serving up over a billion streams a day, it's beyond contention that web-based video is not only mainstream, but has become fundamental to the web experience. Why, then, is a huge majority of web video in a wrapped in a proprietary Flash candy coating — essentially making Adobe the gatekeeper of video content? It's worked okay so far, but it's hardly a fertile ground for innovation, not to mention the fact that Flash is a real dog on OS X and any kind mobile browser (if it's even supported). So what's next?
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| Palm Pre, she is not doing so well Posted: 06 Jul 2009 06:09 PM PDT  My, how time flies in the tech world. It was only one month ago today that the Palm Pre launched to the public, giving users their first chance to try out WebOS first hand. Critical response to the device was generally positive, though much of this stemmed from the phone's impressive operating system rather than the hardware itself. Still, it was exciting to see a genuinely compelling product come out of Palm for the first time in years, and many of us viewed it as one of the first worthwhile competitors to the iPhone. And then the iPhone 3GS came out, selling 1 million devices in a single weekend. Since then, the Pre has largely fallen under Apple's shadow. But there have been murmurs that Palm has still managed to sell far more devices than most analysts were expecting — a recent report from Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder suggests that Palm is still unable to meet demand, and that the company will ship one million phones to Sprint during the device's first quarter in production. Today we've gotten a report that indicates that this may be pretty far from reality.
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| iPhone 3GS: too hot or not too hot? Posted: 06 Jul 2009 05:30 PM PDT
It’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility, but there are steps to be taken to prove it. The FrenchiPhone post suggests that a quick wipe with some alcohol takes the color right off. Is this the solution? A cheaply dyed leather case might transfer its color to the iPhone and account for wipe-able stains, but we’ll wait for the other users with toasty iPhones to give it a shot. [via Wired]
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| Embrace the coming of Chalkbot Posted: 06 Jul 2009 04:30 PM PDT Say what you will about Lance Armstrong, his “LIVESTRONG” motto and subsequent foundation does some really great things for people with cancer. On that same thread, fans of the Tour de France frequently write messages of inspiration to the riders or other fans to see. Enter the Chalkbot: designed to combine the inspirational messages of the LIVESTRONG foundation with the tradition of leaving messages of hope and support on the road of the Tour de France.
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| A solid-steel iPhone case I can actually get behind Posted: 06 Jul 2009 04:30 PM PDT
I love everything about it. The lines are nice, completely reshaping the iPhone to a meatier machine, the construction looks great (check out the screws), and who couldn’t use a wide-angle adapter now and again? Unfortunately it’s a bit pricey at $200, and lenses come separately. For that price you could get a quarter ounce of gold! Beautiful, beautiful gold!
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| Fake iPod headphones almost like the real thing Posted: 06 Jul 2009 04:00 PM PDT
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 03:35 PM PDT
While the original TV-B-Gone wasn’t exactly clunky, some people just can’t leave well enough alone. So we end up with a smaller model of the same technology, again capable of causing all kinds of mayhem and foolishness at your local electronics retailer. Now for the bad news. This is a experimental product, not necessarily available at your local gadget retailer. Where it is available is online, with a brief set of instructions to help you build your own, including where to buy the parts and how to modify the original schematics. [via Hack-A-Day]
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 03:00 PM PDT
Everything you loved about games from the NES era are present in Klonoa with the added twist of 3D levels. I loathe any sort of dialog in games and the same goes for Klonoa and his little pal Hewpoe, but you can skip the dialog unlike Mario Galaxy, which would have been an awesome game if I didn't have to sit through 100 hours of chitchat. Gameplay is smooth, graphics are vibrant and the combination of 2D and 3D play is top notch. The only thing I can fault Namco for is the level of difficulty. It's downright atrocious as you progress through the game. It's ridiculously hard. As you trudge through the levels, however, the boss battles can be quite easy and rather simple. That's not to say the game is horrible and as I said before, I have a love/hate relationship with this game.
You must be precise with your jumps and be on your toes at all times or you'll fall to your death and want to break your Wiimote. Speaking of which, I play this game with the Nyko Wing rather than the Wii Remote or Wand from Nyko. It's much easier with a controller than a stick of butter (aka Wiimote).
I won't bore you with details of the story as I've given up on trying to recount minute details about this and that for any game I review for CG. But I will say that Klonoa is a classic platformer and the story could have revolved around making a sandwich and I'd still love it. I may have been nilly-willy about Wii games in the past, but pubs are finally releasing worthwhile games for the platform this year. Klonoa happens to be at the top of my list of most games played on the Wii. Everything about it is fun and exciting and I can't stop playing it. Kudos to Namco for rebooting a classic in a non-janky manner. Looks can be deceiving, but put all of that aside and you’ll quickly realize how challenging Klonoa can actually be despite the kiddie aesthetics.
Klonoa [Official Site]
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| Video: A Nintendo Wii tune put to dance Posted: 06 Jul 2009 02:30 PM PDT
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| Valve on Left 4 Dead 1-2 cross-play: “That’s something we’re trying to work out” Posted: 06 Jul 2009 02:00 PM PDT
This interview with Valve’s Doug Lombardi offers him a chance to explain what’s going on, and also to address the possibility of cross-game play. I played Left 4 Dead 2 at E3, and while it was certainly fun, it was far from the level of improvement we’ve come to expect from a Valve sequel. The improvements are there, but 20 new weapons? What? The guns I used were new models for the old weapons. And the melee weapons, while fun, are limited in use because they don’t allow for headshots (that I know of), a critical trash-talking point. But this isn’t the place for that. Lombardi says of cross-platform play:
Not exactly forthcoming, but at least he didn’t say “No, we made a game and we’re stickin’ to it.” I’m not sure how they could enable cross-platform play without making a purchase of one or the other pointless, but I guess we’ll find out soon. It takes a big man to admit he’s wrong, and Valve is… well, getting there. This is really their first mistake if you think about it, so it may take a bit for them to set it right.
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 01:31 PM PDT
Yeah, that's pretty much what I kept asking myself while I unwrapped Sega's Let's Tap for the Wii. By placing the Wii Remote on a box and tapping the surface, the Wiimote's accelerometer miraculously picks up on the vibrations and translates them on-screen. It's a novel idea, sure, and I'm astonished that it actually works. I've finally replaced Wii Sports as my party game when friends are over and the girls are sick of the boys shooting aliens all night drunk on Pabst. With only five mini-games (Tap Runner, Silent Blocks, Rhythmn Tap, Bubble Voyager, Visualizer) the game can get old in a short amount of time, but the control scheme is actually what kept me playing and not what was happening on screen. How the hell does this thing actually compute my drunken taps on a box into appropriate actions on screen? I don't get it! Well, I do and I don't. Tap Runner was the clear winner of the five mini-games. As Rowan Atkinson's character in Rat Race would say, "it's a race." Challenge three others to a race riddled with obstacles in the hopes of being crowned the best drunk gamer in all the land. But, seriously, Let's Tap is surprisingly well put together and utilizes the mechanics of the Wii system like no other and that includes Nintendo. Kudos to Prope and big ups to Sega for only wanting to charge $30. I give it two thumbs up and suggest you pick it up as well. Not everyone wants to flail around like a jackass trying to hit a baseball or tennis ball and some folks shouldn't be allowed to touch fake musical instruments either. Just sayin’. Let’s Tap [Sega]
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| Japanese cell phones for the world: NEC and Panasonic plot new overseas sales plans Posted: 06 Jul 2009 01:00 PM PDT  Japan, the world's second largest economy with the third biggest Internet population, and the many, many early adopters of technology inhabiting this nation could be heaven for the domestic cell phone industry. And it was for years, until sales started slowing dangerously (minus 30% last fiscal year), and the overall population is poised to shrink and age dramatically in the future. These two developments made a handful of Japanese cell phone makers think about moving away from creating all those fancy Nippon-only phones they've been producing for years. Now NEC and Panasonic seem to be finally ready to export some models - as early as next fiscal year, according to Japan's biggest business newspaper Nikkei.
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| Video: iPhone time lapse video Posted: 06 Jul 2009 12:30 PM PDT By using the Timelapse iPhone App, a Tyrolean photographer took a time-lapse video of the Wattens near Innsbruck. It’s quite striking footage mostly because of the setting and the delicate way the clouds gather and dissipate. I’m impressed but as Hannibal Lecter once said our generation equates grace with slow motion. But then again he did eat someone’s brains.
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| Garmin announces the BMW Motorrad Navigator IV GPS Posted: 06 Jul 2009 12:00 PM PDT
It's unclear what the "expanded relationship" is between Garmin and BMW Motorrad, but I'm pretty sure the announcement of the BMW Motorrad Navigator IV GPS is the extent of that whole business. Anyway, the Navigator IV was built specifically for BMW motorcycles with a 4.3-inch touch-screen that's glove-friendly and comes preloaded with the BMW dealer database among many other POIs. Turn-by-turn voice prompts can be transmitted via Bluetooth (A2DP) without the hassle of having to remove your gloves or helmet. A four-button mount exclusive to BMW allows for "many quick-key functions for extra control and usability." Specific routes can be sent to other Navigator IV units via Bluetooth. You can even peep the Nav IV's trip info page for speed, heading, altitude, or a customizable fuel gauge based on your BMW. Look for the BMW Motorrad Navigator IV to drop in Q3 in NA and Europe.
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| Review: Suunto t6c training watch Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:30 AM PDT
So When Suunto sent me the t6c I was pretty excited. The watches I tried so far have had a fatal flaw - maybe the footpad was too big or the connection was poor or the heart rate monitoring was flakey at best. During my runs I’d constantly go back to the Garmin Forerunner 405, one of my favorite watches, simply because it had GPS built-in along with HR monitoring, making it considerably more useful than anything else I’ve used. So how does this watch compare? Well, the Suunto is much lighter and with an optional foot pod you can assess distances run with a high degree of accuracy. The Suunto watch also as a special feature called Training Effect. The watch gives you a 1-4 rating of your current effectiveness. There’s a little book included that tells you all the tips and tricks. I won’t go into those here. It also has an altitude monitor to watch your ascents and descents in real time and customizable screens that allow you to add different settings to the watch face. The heart rate monitor includes min and max heart rate alerts along with training tools like a countdown timer, stopwatch, split times, and, with the foot pod, vertical speed. It is water resistant to 330 feet. Now - the big differences. Well, first there’s the price. The watch without foot pod costs $429 although I’ve seen it for about $325. The 405 is $299.99 and the 405CZ, the next-gen watch, is $369.99. All of these prices will fall by an order of magnitude in real settings, but off the bat I’m leaning towards the Forerunner. The Triathlon pack with foot pod, bike pod, and cadence pod, costs $629.95 at Amazon. However, there is build quality. I’ve seen the Suunto factory in Finland and I came away impressed: for a mass-market, commodity device there is a lot of care put into the manufacture of these pieces. The t6c is much lighter and more compact than the 405 and when you’re running ever gram counts. The user interface is also slightly more streamlined than Garmin’s cascade of menus. Sadly there is no OS X support for Suunto products, another ding against this watch. Bottom Line
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We’ve made no secret of our 
On the surface, this sounds like an okay deal: buy a Compaq Mini 110c-1040 DX netbook for $1.00, and sign up for mobile broadband with Sprint on a two year contract. Just make sure you don’t go 
There’s a bit of a kerfluffle arising from the 
Just when you thought it was safe to go to a consumer electronics show, some clever individual has come up with a way to make that most infamous of TV remotes, the TV-B-Gone, even smaller. Now you have a few more choices on where to conceal your weapon of mass distraction as you are searched by a security guard.
It seems like Valve is hitting on some unexpected obstacles with its sequel to last year’s smash zombie hit, Left 4 Dead. Although they must have expected it, since every one of their games has featured huge differences between “1″ and “2,” as well as expansions (free or paid) that were worth the money. Left 4 Dead 2 seems to be little more than a medium-sized expansion for the original, and its billing as a full-fledged sequel is 
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The Latest from Boing Boing
The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Cardboard Tube Fighting League comes to NYC, Philly
- Fallout cosplay scene in Russia
- Get-together July 9 in Chicago
- Pirate Party comes to Canada
- Spherical pocket watch
- Famous and obscure musicians benefit from free downloads
- Friends promote debut novel of writer who has post-stroke aphasia
- Don't Copy That Floppy sequel promises prison beatings for copying
- HOWTO make delicious, beautiful unhealthy food out of gross, unhealthy fast-food
- North Carolina "sewer monster" is not a new Chris Cunningham video
- Honduras: Photo-essays of ongoing crisis by James Rodriguez
- Haystack, anti-censorship tool specifically for users in Iran, to launch soon.
- Pez Candy Inc sues Museum of Pez Memorabilia for copyright infringement
- Reverse-engineering SSNs from publicly available data
- @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com)
- First music video shot on iPhone 3GS? Reyna Perez, "Love Love Love."
- Justice Department to review wireless carriers for anti-competitive practices
- From Odessa to the Future
- Guest blogger: Marina Gorbis
- Little Brother wins the Prometheus Award for libertarian science fiction
- Author Michael Stackpole: I don't worry about pirates
- Photos of prison DIY tech
- Farewell, Joel Johnson
- Amazing hot rod auction
- MAKERS, my next novel, serialized online
- Recently on Offworld: Twitter in WoW, trains in games, Clockwork Orange in 8-bits
- Canadian ISPs say identifying traffic is inevitable, no, wait, impossible
- Sony patent for any object as vidgame controller
- John Keel (RIP)
- Artwork and book about clouds
| Cardboard Tube Fighting League comes to NYC, Philly Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:52 PM PDT Ravin sez, "Hello, I'm Ravin Pierre, I'm not an actor but I portray one on the television. I'm co-founder of Cardboard Tube Fighting League out of Seattle. One weekend only, I'm traveling to the east coast (again, Tube Fight - Washington DC 2008) to seed new groups in Philly and NYC. I'm big into DIY and creative costume enthusiasm, as most Boing Boing readers are, I'm hoping they will show up in their best cardboard costume and battle." 7/12: Cardboard Tube Fighting League Tournament - New York City, NY (McCarren Park) (Thanks, Ravin!) |
| Fallout cosplay scene in Russia Posted: 07 Jul 2009 01:38 AM PDT Check out the astounding, elaborate Russian cosplay scene for the game Fallout II ( Fallout 2009 «Ничто человеческое» (Thanks, Bill!) |
| Get-together July 9 in Chicago Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:41 PM PDT I'll be in Chicago on July 9 to see a production of the highly praised theatrical adaptation of my novel Little Brother. The July 9 show is sold out (performances run until July 18), but Bill Massolia, who wrote the play and runs the company, has organized a get-together beforehand. If you're in Chicago, I'd love to see you and say hi! Meet Cory Doctorow before the show.I love the name of the Wine Bar -- though I worry about it being not found. |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:36 PM PDT  Robbo sez, "With the CRTC [ed: Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Canada, analogous to Ofcom or FCC] holding hearings on network management, the arrival of the Pirate Party movement in Canada can only be welcome news to those of us participating in the copyfight. While it's not likely they will have much clout within the halls of parliament, the conventional rules of *mis*representation don't apply when a party, political or cultural movement is driven by such a focused issue. It is enough to acheive the means by which it can be raised in debate - not just in parliament but also the media and the streets - so as to ensure public awareness of the actions of elected representatives and to subsequently steer them to the public's will and not be merely (and silently) beholden to the influence of corporate lobbies. Arrrrr, eh?" Free music, movies for all? Copyright-fighting Pirate Party comes to Canada. (Thanks, Robbo!) Previously:
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| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:31 PM PDT Watchismo's got a freakish and wonderful new pocket watch, the Eris: Eris Planetary Sphere Watch (Thanks, Mitch!) Previously:
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| Famous and obscure musicians benefit from free downloads Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:28 PM PDT "Shot in the Back of the Head," the top-selling iTunes track off Moby's new, self-released album "Wait for Me," is also the song he released as a free download, which has been available for months and remains available as a free download. In related news, Henrik sez, "Imagiro explains why they released their debut album What to Do and How to Do It (yes, the title is inspired by an old BoingBoing post) on a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license and made it freely available at the same time as they market it through the ordinary channels of music distribution. They did this with the blessing of KODA, the Danish rights-holders society. It is available in mp3, ogg and flac formats, the latter of which via bittorrent." First of all, releasing What to Do and How to Do It on a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license is a very clear way of communicating to the users of the album what uses we think are fair. We love when people make remixes and mash-ups and thus combine old works to create new ones. By allowing non-commercial uses and derivatives everyone can use our music, e.g. as background for a Youtube-video or post remixes on a blog. However, if you want to use the music for a commercial or release the remix commercially, you'll have to ask us first and agree to a contract.Free Download an iTunes Shot In The Arm For Moby (Thank, CF and Henrik!) |
| Friends promote debut novel of writer who has post-stroke aphasia Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:22 PM PDT Greg sez, "Albert Borris' debut novel, a YA book called Crash Into Me, comes out today... but back in December, Albert suffered a massive stroke that left him unable to get words out on paper or verbally in the proper order. He's a writer unable to write... and currently unable to help promote his own book. Fellow young adult and middle grade debut authors in the Class of 2K9 of which Albert had been co-president, are working together along with others to help spread the word so that Albert's novel gets the attention it deserves... and which he is unable to help generate." Crash Into Me Press Release -- Albert Borris, Crash Into Me (Thanks, Greg!) |
| Don't Copy That Floppy sequel promises prison beatings for copying Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:23 PM PDT The sequel to the venerable Don't Copy That Floppy video (an embarrassing 1992 rap video about the evils of software piracy, produced by the Business Software Alliance) is apparently ready to ship, and it's a doozy. Taking a page out of The IT Crowd's playbook, suggesting that copying your friends' music, movies and code will lead to you being imprisoned and then forced into brutal slavery by other cons (seriously). The BSA are, of course, big proponents of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which would require signatories to send noncommercial copiers to prison, so I suppose that there's something to this threat. I wonder if anyone at the BSA ever sits down and says, "You know, if we keep making stuff like this, eventually people are going to start thinking that giving us money for software only funds more efforts to imprison their loved ones, and thus they should really pirate stuff, if only to starve us of cash for these batshit excursions into private law."
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| HOWTO make delicious, beautiful unhealthy food out of gross, unhealthy fast-food Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:07 PM PDT The Fancy Fast Food blog is dedicated to remixing horrible fast food so that it looks and tastes great, even it still has all the nutritive value of a sack of greasy, heavily salted fiberglass. Here's tortellini made from a pair of Taco Bell Fancy Burrito Supremes: Fancy Fast Food (via Kottke) |
| North Carolina "sewer monster" is not a new Chris Cunningham video Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:10 PM PDT I first encountered the video embedded above last week, but shrugged it off as (a) someone's colonoscopy home movie repurposed for internet lulz, (b) stealth marketing campaign for a Cloverfield sequel, or (c) a portrait of Sarah Palin's soul. As usual, I was wrong. Snipped from i09's post with the delightful title, "Public Utilities Group Confirms "Sewer Monster" Is Real, But Doesn't Know What It Is" -- [The] city of Raleigh, North Carolina, is responding as the viral video of a seething blob in the city sewers made its way across the internet yesterday. Marti Gibson is the Environmental/EMS Coordinator for Public Utilities in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, and she has been as confused as the rest of us. When she first looked at the video, she emailed our anonymous source to say it was a slime mold that was in the phase of its lifecycle where it looks like a throbbing, breathing animal (see io9's report on slime molds from a few weeks ago where we talked about this exact thing).Click for the rest of the story, including pictures that will probably make you hurl. Spoiler alert: IT'S A SEETHING MASS OF DISGUSTING GRODY WORMS, WRITHING IN BUSBY BERKELEY-STYLE SYNCHRONIZED SQUIRMEOGRAPHY, BATHED IN WARM, DELICIOUS RAW SEWAGE. You're welcome! |
| Honduras: Photo-essays of ongoing crisis by James Rodriguez Posted: 06 Jul 2009 10:26 PM PDT  Photojournalist James Rodriguez, whose work in Guatemala I've blogged here before, is in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, covering the popular response to the coup d'etat that occurred on June 28th. I share with you a special photo-essay about yesterday's tragic events at Toncontin Airport, in Tegucigalpa, where the Army opened fire against civilians killing at least 4 and injuring dozens. (...)Tragedy at Toncontin: Army Shoots and Kills Protesters / Tegucigalpa, Honduras. (MiMundo.org) See also this related, recent photo-essay from Honduras by Rodriguez: Mel, Our Friend, the People are with You! / Tegucigalpa, Honduras (MiMundo.org)
Previously:
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| Haystack, anti-censorship tool specifically for users in Iran, to launch soon. Posted: 06 Jul 2009 08:11 PM PDT Cyrus Farivar blogs, Here's the Haystack site (nothing there at the time of this blog post). Related reading: Clerical Leaders Defy Ayatollah on Iran Election (NYT) |
| Pez Candy Inc sues Museum of Pez Memorabilia for copyright infringement Posted: 06 Jul 2009 08:43 PM PDT  (Photo by Plug1 of whatimseeing.com) Oh, this is stupid and sad. Pez Candy Inc., makers of pixel-y candy dosed out in those iconic character dispensers, is suing the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia for copyright infringement. Doctor Popular blogs about it over at Laughing Squid: The suit, filed last week, claims that the museum deceives the public into believing they are operating under the authority of Pez and asks that the museum’s 7 foot tall replica of Pez dispenser be destroyed. The lawsuit also takes issue with the museum’s sales of toy truck Pez dispensers which had been modified with Obama and McCain logos during last years elections. The museum has been opened since 1995 and is said to be the only place in the world were you can see every Pez dispenser ever made.Pez Suing Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia (Laughing Squid)
Previously: |
| Reverse-engineering SSNs from publicly available data Posted: 06 Jul 2009 07:24 PM PDT Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have figured out how to predict Social Security numbers from publicly accessible birth data with frightening accuracy. The researchers analyzed a public information source known as the "Death Master File," which includes birth data and SSNs for people who have died. The scientists found that in many instances, if you know the date and state in which a person was born, you can deduce their SSN. Social Security Numbers Deduced From Public Data (Wired Science) Predicting Social Security numbers from public data: Abstract (text) and full article (PDF) (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) |
| @BBVBOX: recent guest-tweeted web video picks (boingboingvideo.com) Posted: 06 Jul 2009 04:53 PM PDT (Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)
More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com |
| First music video shot on iPhone 3GS? Reyna Perez, "Love Love Love." Posted: 06 Jul 2009 04:26 PM PDT Ari Kuschnir of m ss ng p eces has co-directed what I am fairly certain is the first "pro" music video shot entirely on the new iphone 3GS: "Love Love Love," by Reyna Perez. My capsule review: I love love love. About the artist, and the making of: Reyna Perez has embraced the concept of digital collaboration with her self-titled EP. She recorded each song in Brooklyn on acoustic guitar at a home studio and emailed the tracks to producer Michael Maurice (Curio Sound) in Denver. Over the course of 2 months, Maurice mastered her songs into full fledged productions using Logic software and his own instruments. "I've given them a warm analogue sound, without using any actual analogue equipment; it's a testament to the times, and I'm very happy with the results," says Maruice.Here's the video, and here's Reyna on Facebook, and here she is on reverbnation.com.
Previously: |
| Justice Department to review wireless carriers for anti-competitive practices Posted: 06 Jul 2009 02:59 PM PDT The DOJ is reviewing large American telecoms including ATT and Verizon over concerns the companies have abused the increasingly centralized market power they've gained in recent years, according to an item in the Wall Street Journal today: The review of potential anti-competitive practices is in its very early stages, and it isn't a formal investigation of any specific company at this point, the people said. It isn't clear whether the agency intends to launch an official inquiry.DOJ Opens Review of Telecom Industry (WSJ.com) |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 02:16 PM PDT  Guestblogger Marina Gorbis is executive director at Institute for the Future. At the end of workshops at the Institute for the Future we often ask participants to sum up their experience in one word or one sentence. Applying the technique to myself, I would sum up my whole life in one phrase: From Odessa to the Future. Right around my 50th birthday I found myself in a position of Executive Director of IFTF, a venerable 40-year old think tank in Palo Alto, California. An honor, for sure, but an honor that for me meant many hours of reflecting on an amazing arc one's life can take, an arc that in my case started in a three room (not three bedroom, three room) apartment I shared with my mother, sister, and grandparents on a street named after a radical and obscure left-wing German politician and historian Franz Mehring in a city most famous for its steps forever immortalized in Sergey Eisenstein's movie Battleship Potemkin. This arc has brought me to the heart of Silicon Valley and to the most unlikely of occupations--a futurist. Although in a funny way, my past may have given me the best training for a futurist, at least the kind of futurism we practice at IFTF. It taught me on a visceral level a lesson that we always try to impart on others: no one can predict the future. If you asked me or anyone around me 35 years ago what would I be, the most likely answer would've been an "engineer." A good bet since most educated Russian Jews are engineers, many of them here in Silicon Valley. I did spend one unhappy year studying naval engineering (this may explain my decision to emigrate at the age of 18). No one around me knew any futurists other than the gypsy fortunetellers regularly trolling the streets of Odessa. You can think of me becoming a futurist as one of those black swan events Nassim Taleb writes about. My personal experience has also led me to wonder about the unintended consequences of most things we do or that happen to us. I have come to believe that Steven Johnson's apt book title Everything Bad is Good for You applies to many realms much beyond video games and popular culture. I am finding that many things we strive for or think are desirable are actually bad for us and vice versa, things that we thought were bad turn out to be good (unless they kill you, of course). Or to be precise, I don't think they are good or bad per se but that when we make judgments about something being good or bad, we simply cannot foresee the totality of consequences and that among this totality of consequences there are necessarily some good things and some bad. Prosperity and abundance that we all strive for and that many people have come to America for bring with them huge environmental and oftentimes social costs; lower living standards are simply more sustainable. Abundance of opportunities leads to stress and tyranny of choice, which we experience on a daily basis, from our shopping experiences to the kinds of stressful choices our young people are facing when deciding on colleges or careers. Compulsory education turns many kids off learning. In contrast, kids deprived of educational opportunities, treasure schooling. Just read stories of Afghan girls who were banned from schools under the Taliban and how exalted they were at being able to go to one-room crammed schools. Compare it with kids in many American schools who think of going to school as a punishment. I often think of Solzhenitsyn who once remarked that the freest he ever felt was in the gulag. Who could've thought that in the most oppressive of places one can attain great spiritual freedom? By no means do I advocate depriving people of incomes or kids of schools. I also would not recommend taking spiritual vacations to the gulag. I just like to think about complexity of outcomes and possibilities that often go against the grain of conventional wisdom or clear-cut solutions. I guess this would make me a bad politician. But this is what I like to think about, write about, and debate about, and this is what I hope to engage the awesome Boing Boing community in conversations about. |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 02:03 PM PDT I'm pleased to introduce our next guestblogger, Marina Gorbis. Marina is executive director of Institute for the Future, a 40-year-old non-profit thinktank in Palo Alto where I'm a research director. IFTF helps companies, governments, foundations, and other organizations think about longterm future trends to make better decisions in the present. Marina a terrific thinker, an effective administrator, a generous person, and a humble soul. She's also very funny, a tad cynical, and a hardcore bluegrass fan -- all traits I appreciate in a friend and mentor. I'm delighted that Marina's agreed to spend some time with us. From Marina's bio: Marina Gorbis at IFTF |
| Little Brother wins the Prometheus Award for libertarian science fiction Posted: 06 Jul 2009 01:06 PM PDT Wouldya lookit that! I've won the Libertarian Futurist's Society's Prometheus Award for my novel Little Brother! As with all the other awards LB has been up for this year, I'm even more honored by the company I'm in than the award itself; this year's Prometheus nominees included Charlie Stross's Saturn's Children, Matter by Iain Banks, The January Dancer by Michael Flyn, Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove, and Half a Crown, the wrenching conclusion to Jo Walton brilliant Farthing/Ha'penny alternate history trilogy. And this year's Prometheus Hall of Fame winner was Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. These books and these writers are all incredibly humbling company to find oneself among. The Prometheus will be given out at the WorldCon, and the award includes an actual, no-fooling gold coin. So yes, I'll be walking around the Montreal Worldcon with a pocket full of gold, don't tell anyone. |
| Author Michael Stackpole: I don't worry about pirates Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:37 AM PDT Bestselling novelist Michael Stackpole says he's making great money selling fiction directly off his site; he doesn't worry about pirates, "People downloading my stories from the big torrent sites were never going to buy them anyway. It's no money out of my pocket." and "He even admitted to downloading some of his own books from bittorrent sites if he didn't already have a digital copy, saying it was far easier than scanning it in himself." Rather than simply changing the method of delivering stories to readers, Stackpole believes digital formats will change the nature of the stories themselves. At the very least, authors should tailor their work to these new mediums. He cited what he referred to as "the commuter market," people who read two chapters per day on their half hour train ride to work. It's an ideal market for fiction broken into 2,500 word chapters, and could presage a resurgence of serial fiction. "It's kind of like a return to the Penny Dreadfuls," he said. "But the readers today are more sophisticated, so we as writers need to put more work into it."The Best Way To Break Into Science Fiction Writing Is Online Publishing |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 11:54 AM PDT   I've always found DIY prison culture to be absolutely fascinating. Inmates are makers by necessity. In 1999, photographer Marc Steinmetz created this fascinating series of photographs depicting DIY tech found in prisons. The series is titled "Escape Tools." From the artist's site: (Above left), Rope Ladder with wooden rungs disguised as chess pieces; found and confiscated in an inmate's cell in Wolfenbüttel prison, Germany, around 1993.Escape Tools (via Street Use) |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 10:17 AM PDT  Joel Johnson, who led the launch of Boing Boing Gadgets and Offworld, is moving on to work on other projects. We're grateful for all of Joel's hard work and passion and we're eager to see what he does next. He is truly a unique signal worth paying attention to in a very noisy space. Thanks for everything, Joel. We'll miss you. - The Boingers |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 10:04 AM PDT   These two amazing hot rods will be up for bid in September's Icons Of Speed & Style auction at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Many of the vehicles look like rad Revell plastic model kits or Hot Wheels. That's because those scale models and Hot Wheels were based on some of these actual cars. From the auction listings: 1850 'Boothill Express' Custom Show Rod: Built by Ray Fahrner, Boothill Express is based on the 1850s funeral coach that reportedly carried James Gang member Bob Younger to his grave. Powered by a 426 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi with extra-tall Hilborn fuel injection stacks, it has been the subject of numerous scale models and is certainly one of the wildest and most iconic custom creations to come from the show rod era of the 1960s.Icons of Speed & Style auction |
| MAKERS, my next novel, serialized online Posted: 06 Jul 2009 10:13 AM PDT Pablo from Tor has the details on a cool new promo they're doing to promote my next book, Makers, which'll be published in the fall (HarperCollins UK will publish it in the UK, Australia, NZ, and other parts of the commonwealth). Makers tells the story of a group of hardware hackers who fall in with microfinancing venture capitalists and reinvent the American economy after a total economic collapse, and who find themselves swimming with sharks, fighting with gangsters, and leading a band of global techno-revolutionaries. The first 50,000 words of Makers were serialized on Salon some years ago under the title Themepunks. I'm planning on repeating the tribute to booksellers I made with the free release of Little Brother, introducing every section of the serial with a little hymn to some bookstore or other; booksellers are clearly on the side of the angels (I speak as a former bookseller!). However, I'm doing this one a little differently; rather than write up my favorite booksellers, I'm asking for your favorite bookstores -- in the comments for each section of the serial, I'd like you to write up testimonials for your favorite stores. I'll pick three every week to add to that week's installments, by way of spreading the love around. Announcing Cory Doctorow's Makers on Tor.com Cory Doctorow's Makers, Part 1 (of 81) (Thanks, Pablo!) |
| Recently on Offworld: Twitter in WoW, trains in games, Clockwork Orange in 8-bits Posted: 06 Jul 2009 09:11 AM PDT  Recently on Offworld we found a rapid-fire set of developments to kick off a long weekend, including the launch of TweetCraft which is, as you might imagine, World of Warcraft's first in-game Twitter client (above), and which ensures that you'll never have to leave the comfort and still irresistible allure of Azeroth. We also watched the first 17 minutes of Double Fine's hard metal adventure Brutal Legend, as narrated by LucasArts legend Tim Schafer, and saw indie devs Polytron finally officially announce that their debut game Fez is headed to Xbox Live Arcade in early 2010. We also found two pair of custom Legend of Zelda low-top sneakers, Donkey Kong played on the side of a building in Post-Its, a website completely devoted to the mis-uses of trains in games (!), an upcoming unmissable chiptune showcase in Montreal, and finally understood the gnawing wolf-at-the-door drama of spending $17,500 on a single NES game. And finally, our themed 'one shots' for the day: Wii Fit as an Atari 2600 game, and, even more wonderfully, an Atari 2600 version of A Clockwork Orange (and Dostoevsky and Kant and Proust [!]). |
| Canadian ISPs say identifying traffic is inevitable, no, wait, impossible Posted: 06 Jul 2009 07:30 AM PDT Michael Geist sez, The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hosts long-awaited network management hearings this week, pitting Canada's telecom and cable companies against a broad range of consumer, creator, and technology groups in a fight that may help clarify whether Canada has - or should have - net neutrality laws.CRTC Net Neutrality Hearings Open Amid ISPs' Conflicting Claims (Thanks, Michael!) |
| Sony patent for any object as vidgame controller Posted: 06 Jul 2009 06:32 AM PDT  Sony has filed a patent for a system that allows any object, from a coffee mugs to a book, to be mapped and used as a controller in a video game. Rob has more over at Boing Boing Gadgets. "Sony files patent on any-object motion control" |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 06:27 AM PDT    Legendary Fortean author John Keel has died. A personal influence on my own interest in anomalies and fringe theories, Keel is best known for his 1976 book The Mothman Prophecies, an investigation into strange phenomena that reportedly occurred around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966-1967. Of course, that book was made into a Hollywood film in 2002. However, The Mothman Prophecies just scratched the surface of Keel's experiences in the realm of high weirdness. Keel's friend and fellow Fortean author Loren Coleman has written an obituary over at Cryptomundo. "John A. Keel has died" |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 12:40 PM PDT  Martin John Callanan, artist-in-residence at University College London's Environment Institute, used satellite data to create a small 300mm terrestrial globe depicting cloud coverage from a single second in time. He first showed the work, titled A Planetary Order, last week at an event also celebrating the publication of Extraordinary Clouds, a new book by the UCL Environment Institute's writer-in-residence, Richard Hamblyn. The cloud-themed projects are profiled in a short video from the university. "UCL writer and artist-in-residence look to the skies" Previously:
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Either way, this watch, designed by students from l'Ecole d'Arts Appliqués Genèva is a 100 % Swiss made product by Pierre Junod Switzerland and can be worn as a pocket watch, pendant or used as a small desk clock. The Materials are white hour hand & orange minute hand, anthracite anodized aluminum case, laser engraved figures, mineral glass, Swiss quartz movement, each watch is sold with a natural rubber strap to hang from your neck, a wall, anything you wish to have time fly by. 
A native of Odessa, Ukraine, Marina is particularly suited to see things from a global perspective. She has directed international programs and led international development projects for SRI (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in China, Japan, Vietnam, India, and Eastern Europe. Marina has also authored publications on international business and economics, with an emphasis on regional innovation and competitiveness. 
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- Sarah Palin Will be On Fox News Tomorrow Morning
- Robert McNamara: Back To The Future
- Politics Is Not A Science
- Tea Party Weekend
| Sarah Palin Will be On Fox News Tomorrow Morning Posted: 06 Jul 2009 08:22 PM PDT Mark Halperin reports that Sarah Palin will be on Fox News tomorrow morning. I'm assuming she will discuss her decision to step down from the governorship of Alaska as well... |
| Robert McNamara: Back To The Future Posted: 06 Jul 2009 07:58 PM PDT With the passing of Robert McNamara it's instructive to remember the legacy of one of the "best and the brightest" of another administration that was ushered in with great pomp... |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 08:48 AM PDT The fact that Barack Obama was elected President is a pretty clear indicator that Politics is not scientific. That is, with all due respect to the President, his resume was... |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2009 07:44 AM PDT Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds has assembled a great roundup of photos and summaries from dozens of July 4th Tea Party protests around the nation. The overall turnout for these... |
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