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About Xbox Games: Left 4 Dead 2 Review (X360)

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:23:00 +0000

	Xbox Games

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Eric Qualls

In the Spotlight

Left 4 Dead 2 Review (X360)
On the surface, Left 4 Dead 2 seems like the same game as the original L4D as the gameplay and setup and everything are awfully familiar. When you dig a... Read more

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		Gaming Culture Cheats, FAQs, and Hints and Tips for Xbox Games Xbox Resources Microsoft Xbox news Previews X360 Backwards Compatibility List Top 10 Xbox 360 Games

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review (X360)
Never before has a game shaped the release landscape like Modern Warfare 2 has. Other publishers were scared of Activision and Infinity Ward's latest project and delayed their own games... Read more

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast Review (X360)
My secret shame as an Anime fan is that I have always really liked Dragon Ball and DBZ. I know it's not particularly deep or well animated, but darn it,... Read more

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NRC Monitoring Companys Response to Three Mile Island 1 Nuclear Plant Contamination Event

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:06:00 +0000

About Spas: How To Get a Better Brazilian Wax

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:15:00 +0000

	Spas

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	from Anitra Brown I've had two Brazilians -- one left me swollen for a week, the other was relatively painless. And as an esthetician I'm aware of sanitation issues that most people don't even think about. Find out how to get the best Brazilian waxers, what happens during a Brazilian wax, and how much it should cost.

In the Spotlight

How To Find The Best Brazilian Waxers
How do you get the best Brazilian wax job? Find a great Brazilian waxer. The skill and experience of the waxer makes ALL the difference between a torturesome experience and something that is mildly uncomfortable.

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		Follow Me On Twitter Home Spa Spa Professional Romantic Spas Best Spas In The World Top 10 Reasons To Go To A Spa How To Get The Best Spa Deals!

What Is A Brazilian Wax?
A Brazilian wax means most or all of your pubic hair is removed, including the hair around the very sensitive skin of the inner labia, anus, and testicles. (Yes, men get them, too!) The reason? Better sex!

How Much Does A Brazilian Wax Cost?
Find out how much a Brazilian wax costs, and why you shouldn't go with the cheapest price!

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VentureBeat

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:20:00 +0000

VentureBeat

Feedtrace Shows Who, What is Popular on Twitter (+Invites)
Zynga crosses 100 million users and expands beyond Facebook games
Silicon Valley Rocks on December 9
LinkedIn’s platform gives Facebook Connect a professional spin
Android gobbles up 20 percent share of U.S. smartphone market, says AdMob
Backflip proves indie iPhone developers can create multiple hits — and make money
Sacrifice your health for your startup
Intel and Sprout launch a consumer-powered Facebook promotion
Roku adds 10 new free content channels for its set-top video players

Feedtrace Shows Who, What is Popular on Twitter (+Invites)

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 10:31 AM PST

With all the information available today, wading through everything to find out what you really need to know is hard. But there are also a few options for weeding out the noise in your information stream. Feedtrace is a new one, and one with some promise.

When you visit the Feedtrace site and sign up, you sign in with your Twitter username – Feedtrace doesn’t store your password, or really anything about you. Then, once it has your information, Feedtrace shows you a list of what’s popular on Twitter at the moment: the most-discussed, most-retweeted links.

But there are plenty of services that do that – Tweetmeme, Twitturls, and Retweet have all been doing this for a while. Where Feedtrace tries to do one better is in personalizing the information to you, and bringing you a better social circle.

Over time, as you retweet and read links, Feedtrace will figure out what you’re interested IN, and start to personalize recommendations to you. The service also creates a “suggested following” list, full of people who write about the links you click, or tweet similar links. The recommendations FOR ME were generally surprisingly good, though it did occasionally tell me to follow someone I already followed. You can also narrow down your list of popular links to show only links from people you follow, which does wonders at keeping out the stuff you don’t care about.

But the really great thing about Feedtrace, and what will keep both publishers and readers interested in it, is the ability to see only what’s popular on a given website. For a lot of websites, Twitter is an excellent metric of what’s popular and what’s being discussed, and Feedtrace taps into that extremely well.

At the top of the Feedtrace sidebar, users can type in a URL and show popular items only from that site. It works on everything from news sites to blogs, and is essentially a way of creating Trending Topics for any website. It makes sites more accessible, helps users figure out what’s important, and weeds out whatever’s in between.

In January, Feedtrace will launch an API that lets anyone use their real-time filtering engine, meaning that Feedtrace’s way of filtering Twitter, geared toward the individual, could potentially be applied all over the Web–which would do wonders for the problems of information overload.

Feedtrace isn’t perfect, and definitely still has its issues. You have to do all your surfing from feedtrace.com, and the URL bar never changes to let you know where you are. The recommended links are also imperfect, but they’re improving. Generally, though, Feedtrace has potential to be a great way of weeding out informational noise, and making sure you only see and find what you need to know about — whether it’s all over Twitter or on any other site you can think of.

Feedtrace received $200K in funding from Angel Investors this summer.

Feedtrace is still in invite-only private beta TEST, but we’ve got 140 invites especially for VentureBeat readers. The first 140 people to sign up for Feedtrace with the invite code venturebeat will get in before it launches to the public.

Zynga crosses 100 million users and expands beyond Facebook games

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 09:32 AM PST

Zynga said today it has crossed more than 100 million unique monthly users for its social games on Facebook.

Thanks to the popularity of its casual Facebook games such as FarmVille, which has more than 65 million players, the San Francisco company has become the biggest developer on Facebook and the leading company in the emerging social games market.

That’s a pretty good achievement for a startup founded in 2007 and one that is surrounded by multi-billion-dollar video game companies. All of its games are simple two-dimensional titles that are popular because friends can play them with each other, even if they have limited time for games.

The speed of growth for the newest games is amazing. Cafe World, a Zynga game launched in September, has grown to 9 million daily active uses. That means in a given day, nine million users will log into the game. FishVille, launched earlier this month, already has six million daily active users.

All told, Zynga has more than 200 million monthly active users. Of those, more than a million users are paying for virtual goods with real money. They’re buying things like FarmVille tractors that allow them to grow crops faster. With FarmVille, more than 26 million users log in every day. In an expansion beyond Facebook, the company has recently launched FarmVille.com, a web site dedicated to the game. It’s for players who want to enhance their FarmVille experience. And it also draws in audiences who don’t use Facebook.

All of the growth is continuing in spite of an offer scandal around special offers considered to be deceptive. The problem got so bad that Zynga said it was stopping all use of offers until the problem could be fixed. The company has resumed using offers now. Zynga said recently that offers accounted for less than 20 percent of its business. But today, the company said that direct payments from consumers now add up to 90 percent of revenue, leaving offers at 10 percent of the total business.

Silicon Valley Rocks on December 9

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 09:29 AM PST

Editor’s note: This post is sponsored by Silicon Valley Rocks.

Tech professionals by day, rockers by night – on December 9 at the Great American Music Hall, they'll pick up their instruments and venture onto the big stage to let their alter egos shine… for a good cause and the love of music.

Silicon Valley Rocks 2009 will bring together the Valley's tech community – from VCs and entrepreneurs to bloggers and software developers – to raise money for Music in Schools Today (MuST), a Bay Area non-profit that seeks to rescue music programs from budget cuts. The second annual showcase will once again feature Silicon Valley bands and original rockers who will entertain your entire social graph.

VentureBeat readers can save $5 on tickets at all pricing levels here.

LinkedIn’s platform gives Facebook Connect a professional spin

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 08:59 AM PST

LinkedIn aims to be an even more central part of your professional identity, by expanding its platform today with the site developer.linkedin.com.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based professional networking site already offers a platform for third-party developers, allowing them to build widgets and apps that run in LinkedIn itself. What it’s announcing today is another piece of that platform, one that’s arguably more exciting — the site is allowing developers to access your LinkedIn data from their own external business applications. The idea is that LinkedIn could become your professional identity across applications, in the same way Facebook wants Facebook Connect to be your social identity across the web.

“We’re very opinionated,” said Adam Nash, vice president of search and platform products. “We believe that any business application that someone builds in 2010 that doesn’t integrate with us is going to be an anachronism.”

You can get some sense of what LinkedIn has in mind with already-announced integrations like its Social Connector in Microsoft’s email and contacts program Outlook. LinkedIn is adding new partners today, including Twitter application TweetDeck, simple blogging startup Posterous, and BT-owned voice-over-Internet company Ribbit. Other application-makers can now register at the developer site.

This move is more consistent than LinkedIn’s previous platform features with how I, at least, use the site. I’m much more interested in accessing my LinkedIn profile and data regardless of what application I’m using than I am in tinkering with a bunch of different applications on the site itself.

Nash said LinkedIn is opening its data via “about a dozen” application programming interfaces (APIs), which will enable three types of applications: Apps that let users view their LinkedIn profiles; apps that allow users to take actions, such as sending a message to a LinkedIn contact; and apps that access LinkedIn’s search. Users will log into LinkedIn using the OAuth authentication standard.

LinkedIn says it has more than 50 million users.

Android gobbles up 20 percent share of U.S. smartphone market, says AdMob

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 07:20 AM PST

AdMob, the mobile ad network that Google plans to acquire for $750 million, today released their October 2009 Metrics Report examining market share for top devices and the operating systems that run on them.

One stat in particular caught our eye. In the US, Android had 20 percent share of smartphone traffic, up from only seven percent six months before. Now that there’s proof that these phones are selling, Android may solidify its spot as a go-to operating system for device makers looking to get into the lucrative smartphone market.

In line with Admob’s findings, last month Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney highlighted for Computerworld a research report spotlighting Android Operating System would be the second most used OS, grabbing 14 percent of the global smartphone market share by 2012. That would be second only to the Symbian Operating System that is widely used by Nokia in countries outside the U.S.

For those methodology junkies, here’s how Admob’s metrics report works.

Backflip proves indie iPhone developers can create multiple hits — and make money

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 07:00 AM PST

Backflip Studios has managed to defy the odds on the iPhone by coming up with games that have become big hits over and over.

The Boulder, Colo.-based game studio has just six employees and has been around only seven months, but it has already made more than $1.75 million — by selling game applications in multiple forms, serving ads in them, as well as offering virtual goods. The success shows that with the right games and right business model, even small developers can score big amid the noise of 118,000 apps on Apple’s AppStore.

“Sales come and go in spikes,” said Julian Farrior, chief executive of Backflip. “But ad revenue is steady and I can build a business on that.”

The success of Backflip’s apps is similar to the hit game Pocket God, a perennial iPhone hit that is updated every week. Pocket God, created by Bolt Creative, has sold well over a million copies and it was the subject of an earlier case study we did.

Farrior will be one of our speakers at DiscoveryBeat, a conference on how to get apps noticed. It will be in San Francisco on Dec. 8. Since Backflip has disclosed its sales numbers, it also makes an excellent case study.

Farrior spent more than seven years at Yahoo in a variety of management roles. Then he moved to Boulder as an investor and executive at Earthscape, an app maker which saw early success on the iPhone. Amazed by the rapid growth of the iPhone, he started Backflip in April. He said the impetus for starting his new company was to create new kinds of games that his wife, his mother, or his three-year-old daughter would play.

Farrior hired five developers — a mix of game and Internet company veterans — and they built the first game, Ragdoll Blaster, in just six weeks. After the game shipped on May 14, it became a hit. Backflip followed up with Paper Toss, a free game where you toss a wad of paper into a garbage can using the flicking feature on the iPhone’s touchscreen. That game quickly generated a whopping 5 million downloads, helping it gain the No. 1 position on the top free apps on the AppStore.

The company followed up with Paper Toss World Tour, a 99-cent app. It also did a free version of Ragdoll Blaster. And most recently, the company launched Harbor Havoc 3D.

The result of this frenzy of activity in six months has been multiple No. 1 hits and more than 13.5 million game installs. More than 10 million of those are free downloads of the Paper Toss game, which is still growing in popularity and is seeing 30,000 to 35,000 downloads a day.

But the paid installs have generated more than $1.25 million in sales. Those paid sales happen because the paid apps are cross promoted inside the company’s free apps. If someone wants to buy a cross-promoted app, they can do so with a few swipes of the finger. That is why the hot free game Paper Toss became a “distribution channel” unto itself. Thanks to the additional attention from the free apps, sales of the paid version of Ragdoll Blaster surpassed 7,500 per day.

One of the brightest ideas the company had to was to insert ads into its free Paper Toss game. Farrior already knew Jason Spero, an executive at AdMob, a maker of a platform that inserts ads into iPhone games.

So Backflip inserted the AdMob ad platform into the Paper Toss game after it had already become popular, as you can see from the chart above. Now the ads are generating 50 percent of monthly revenues for the company, with more than $125,000 in ad revenues coming in each month on a steady basis. The ads have boosted total company revenue in seven months to above $1.75 million. Farrior also used Google ads to compare the performance of the AdMob ads, but Google’s platform didn’t perform as well (which is why Google paid $750 million to buy AdMob).

“We thought we would count on app sales alone,” Farrior said. “But we backed into this ad-based revenue model.”

The great thing about having a high-ranking hit with the free Paper Toss is that the company can cross promote its other paid games. That helped raise Ragdoll Blaster into the rarefied list of the top 50 ranks of paid apps and it stayed in the top five for seven weeks. In August, Ragdoll Blaster was the highest grossing app on the AppStore. The app saw an even bigger spike when Apple featured it on the AppStore, and it also got a boost when the company launched a free version, Rag Doll Blaster Lite. Inside the Lite version, about 3 percent of the players click on an ad for the real game. That is much higher than the typical 0.25 percent click-through rate for web banner ads. And the paid app got a spike in sales when Backflip cut the price from $1.99 to 99 cents.

Farrior credited word-of-mouth for helping the game spread as well. It is easy to create game reviews on the iPhone platform, and fans have created more than 50,000 reviews of Paper Toss. That helps it get noticed more easily among on the AppStore.

Now Backflip is using the free app to promote Harbor Havoc 3D, Backflip’s newest app which sells for $2. That game, where you have to guide ships in a harbor using the iPhone’s touchscreen (much like the collision-avoidance game Flight Control), also has in-app purchases, meaning you can buy virtual goods in the game for real money.

The new game also uses Ngmoco’s Plus+ platform, which lets players challenge each other in multiplayer contests and compare their progress to a leaderboard. Plus+ can also cross promote Backflip’s games to more than 20 million players who play other Ngmoco games. That should only strengthen Backflip’s audience, which now amounts to more than 4 million users a month.

Can the team keep producing hits? Farrior notes with some confidence that “there is a lot of mediocrity in the AppStore.” Farrior has thought of shifting to Android, but right now it makes the most sense for him to get more bang for his buck by putting developers to work on more iPhone games. He would like Apple to improve the platform, but his motto is “cry less, work more.” At some point, he will move to other platforms to spread out his risk.

In 2010, Farrior is doubling the size of his team to 12 people. Farrior believes he can grow Backflip into a larger company. If he can pull of his current expansion, then he will consider raising money, but he doesn’t want to do that if he doesn’t need the money. Farrior says that running Backflip is the best job he ever had, but it remains to be seen if it will graduate from the lifestyle improvement business to a more viable game business, which might mean expanding the business in other territories such as the Bay Area. Ragdoll Blaster 2 is coming in January.

“I can self fund a 10 to 12 person shop for now,” he said. “From there, we’ll see. Can I scale it? That’s what I am testing now. I want to prove to myself I can do that before I take $3 million from a VC.”

In summary, Farrior’s advice includes:

– assemble talented team
– give away something of value for free
– keep production cycles short

– design for the medium
– make fun games. play test lots
– do not be afraid to move on if something isn’t working
– design for the audience
– meet the press
– beg apple for whatever you need
– and listen to users.

[The excitement in this industry is one of the reasons why we're holding an executive event called DiscoveryBeat on Dec. 8 in San Francisco. The event will explore the secret recipe for getting your social game or mobile phone application "discovered" in an age of increasing noise. Get your ticket today].

Sacrifice your health for your startup

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 06:00 AM PST

(Editor's note: Jason Cohen is an angel investor and the founder of Smart Bear Software. This story originally appeared on his blog.)

The Internet is full of good advice about how to lead a healthy, balanced work/home life.

If you don’t have your health and your family, it generally says, nothing else matters. On your deathbed, will you wish you had worked longer hours or been a better parent? Will you wish you had spent more time Twittering or more time exercising, extending your life by five years?

Compelling thoughts. And yet, in my experience this attitude is not the path to success in small business.

Maximizing your chance for success means sacrificing health and family.

This sounds controversial, but it’s not just me:

Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategist: “How do I Keep Up?” This is one of the most common questions I get from folks, or a variant: “Do you sleep?” or “Do you have a family?” I can answer succinctly: “I don’t, in shifts, and yes… I think.” … I’m lucky I fell into my passion. It comes with costs however, I’m out of shape, stressed, I don’t sleep well, and my blood pressure is up.
Mark Cuban, self-made millionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks on how he acheived success: “I slept on the couch or floor … Because I was living on happy hour food, and the 2 beer cover charge, I was gaining weight like a pig. But I was having fun. … Every night I would read [software manuals], no matter how late. … I remember sitting in that little office till 10pm … I would get so involved with learning that I would forget to eat …
More from Mark in an interview with YoungMoney Magazine: Question: “Did you have to sacrifice your personal life in order to become a business success?” Answer: “Sure, ask about five of my former girlfriends that question. I went seven years without a vacation. I didn’t even read a fiction book in that time. I was focused.”

“So what,” you could argue, “just because many successful entrepreneurs are workaholics doesn’t mean that’s the only path to success.”

Indeed, study after study has shown that “working more hours” doesn’t translate into “accomplishing more shit.” If you’re not getting enough sleep, for instance, working extra hours doesn’t make up for your foggy brain.

Also, optimizing how you spend your time can increase productivity several times over — an increase you couldn’t possibly match by working more hours.

Yeah, but here’s the problem.

The “Rule of Closets” is that the amount of crap you own will expand to fill all available closet space. You can create more space by adding shelves and organizers, but then you’ll soon discover you have more stuff.

Well I have a “Rule of Time in Startups”: How much time does a bootstrapped company take? All of it.

Even ten people could hardly keep up with everything you do in small business — creating, consulting, designing, fixing, self-promotion, blogging, networking, bookkeeping, taxes, customer support and cultivation and all those little crappy things like losing an afternoon troubleshooting your fancy outsourced IP phone system that was supposed to let you “work from anywhere.”

One, two, or even three people can’t do everything, so of course it takes all your time. If you’re working a day job while starting something on the side, of course you don’t have time to exercise or play with your kids before bed.

It takes obsession to make a little company go. Forget “passion” — everyone’s favorite word — it’s “obsession.” It’s not just that you love working, it’s that you can’t stop working. You’re putting your entire self on the line — your finances, your career, your ideas.

The obsession is there even when you’re away from the office, having lunch with a friend or reading to your kids. As my wife would frequently point out in the early years of Smart Bear, my “mental and emotional bandwidth” was entirely consumed. You’re physically there, but you’re not really there.

Read those quotes above again and you’ll see not just passion but self-destructive devotion. You don’t put yourself through this meat grinder just because you “like something a lot.”

“If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?”

Exactly.

Of course those life-coaches are still correct: This isn’t a great way to live your entire life. You need to accept that this is going to happen and ask whether it’s OK to incur this penalty right now. For me, I did all this in my 20’s when I had no kids, I had enough savings to risk everything for a while, and I had a wife who had her own business and who therefore understood how much work it took and why I was spacing out over dinner.

Bottom line: Every successful bootstrapper I know puts work before self. (Until financial freedom is achieved.) I did too.

(Curious what Jason’s wife thought about this? Check out her rebuttal.)

Photo by a.drian via Flickr

Intel and Sprout launch a consumer-powered Facebook promotion

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 05:00 AM PST

Facebook reaches so many people now that big brands are trying to figure out how to reach its audience. Intel is using social media firm Sprout to launch a different kind of marketing campaign today.

In the Sprout created campaign, consumers sign up to be fans of Intel’s latest page on Facebook. The more people sign up to become fans, the more Intel drops the price of its featured laptops. It’s an example of letting fans exert their newfound power on the Internet to achieve a collective good.

The page features “ultrathin and light” laptops from Toshiba, Acer and Asus. The laptops all feature Intel’s latest Core 2 Duo microprocessors. San Francisco-based Sprout has created a technology platform aimed at enabling online conversations through social media. The more fans sign up, the lower the price of the laptops will be when they go on sale on Cyber Monday, on Nov. 30, which signals the start of the e-commerce holiday buying season.

Carnet Williams, co-founder and chief executive of Sprout, said that the campaign exploits the viral-ready nature of the Facebook platform. It’s a clever use of Facebook and shows how the medium itself is changing the way brands interact with their customers. Sprout was created to engage audiences with new kinds of social media. The company is based in Honolulu and is funded by Polaris Ventures.

Roku adds 10 new free content channels for its set-top video players

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 06:00 PM PST

Roku offers a trio of set-top boxes that can download movies and TV shows from the web and show them on your TV. Now the company is adding 10 new free content channels to its service.

You can use a Roku box with a Netflix subscription or the Amazon Video on Demand service to watch movies or TV shows on your TV. You connect a Roku box to both your TV and the web. Then you can cruise through the Netflix catalog and watch movies instantly as they stream via Wi-Fi or Ethernet to your TV set.

Now Saratoga, Calif.-based Roku is adding access to these sites: Blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3 and TWiT. The sites cover everything from Internet audio to video podcasts to professional web content and photo sharing. You can access all of the sites on the TV using the Roku Channel Store. The aim is the give consumers more choice and control over their Roku player experience, said Anthony Wood, chief executive and founder of Roku.

Roku has opened up its channel store to developers who can add their own content channels in the future. Consumers can access the store by creating a Roku account, which lets them manage their channels and personalize their entertainment options. Roku customers can add or delete channels as they wish, and they can browse through new channels as developers create them.

Roku’s three players are the Roku SD, the Roku HD, and the Roku HD-XR. All are compatible with the Roku Channel Store. The store will be delivered to all existing Roku customers in the next two weeks. The company, founded in 2002, launched its first box in May 2008 and updated the models in October. The Roku SD sells for $80.

Roku has 50 employees. It competes with Apple TV, Vudu, Tivo, and connected Blu-ray movie players, not to mention cable TV services. The company’s investors include Wood, Netflix and Menlo Ventures. The company says it has sold hundreds of thousands of units.

IN 2009-30 Findings From The NRC Initiative To Assess Materials Licensees' Compliance With NRC Decommissioning Requirements (ML090920401)

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:14:00 +0000

Attached is an PDF version of Information Notice 2009-30, Findings From The NRC Initiative To Assess Materials Licensees' Compliance With The NRC Decommissioning Requirements, dated November 6, 2009 (ML090920401), that has been posted to the NRR GCC Web, along with the URL for Web access to generic communications files on the NRC Homepage: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-notices/2009/.

To subscribe or unsubscribe send an email to lyris@nrc.gov , no subject, and use one of the following commands in the message portion:

subscribe gc-nrr (first and last name)
unsubscribe gc-nrr (first and last name)

thanks
Cathy

About Web Humor: Neil Patrick Harris Joins Twitter and More!

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:40:00 +0000

	Web Humor

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Lukas Kaiser Enjoy some funny stuff from all over the Internet and have a happy Turkey Day!

In the Spotlight

Neil Patrick Harris Joins Twitter!
Neil Patrick Harris is a self-deprecatingÂlegend. Sure, he started his career in a somewhat self-serious role as the titular character of the child genius-becomes doctor drama Doogie Howser MD,... Read more

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		Stupid But Funny Blogs, Tweets & Emails The 20 Funniest Celebrities on Twitter

Twitter Account Becomes Sitcom?!
The popular (and profane) Twitter account Shit My Dad Says is now being turned into a CBS sitcom (and a book!), according to The Hollywood Reporter. If you're not familiar... Read more

Video - The Body Flex Daily Workout
Sure, fashion, music and movies from the 1980s might be in style right now. But no one wants to do those crazy '80s aerobic workouts. Especially none called "The... Read more

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Sign up for more free newsletters on favorite topics. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Web Humor newsletter as raveereckl.adiposity@BLOGGER.COM. If you wish to change or remove your email address, please visit: http://www.about.com/nl/usgs.htm?nl=humor&e=raveereckl.adiposity@BLOGGER.COM About respects your privacy. Our Privacy Policy. Our Contact Information. 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2008 About, Inc.

About Country Music: Tim McGraw and Friends Work the Red Carpet for His New Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:36:00 +0000

	Country Music

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Sean Dooley

In the Spotlight

Tim McGraw and Friends Work the Red Carpet for His New Movie
Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Lady Antebellum, Julianne Hough and a host of other Nashville celebrities worked the red carpet for Tim's upcoming movie with Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (release... Read more

		More Topics
		Country Music Photos Country Music Trivia Country Music Interviews Country Music Tours & Festivals Country Music Audio / Video Reba McEntire - Country's Ultimate Diva How Miranda Lambert Found Her Groove

Taylor Swift Makes CMA History
Wow! Some people saw it coming, while others, including myself, predicted that Music City's political machine might make Taylor Swift pay a few more dues before giving her the big... Read more

Taylor Swift Earns Top BMI Honors
Taylor Swift, Kris Kristofferson, Brooks and Dunn and others were honored last night at the 57th annual BMI Country Awards. The invitation-only black-tie event was attended by a who's who... Read more

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About TV / Video: California Passes TV Energy Efficiency Restrictions

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:26:00 +0000

	TV / Video

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Forrest Hartman Happy Monday everyone, and thanks for continuing to read my TV/Video newsletter. I hope you check out some of the stories featured in this edition and visit my site regularly during the week. I'll be keeping an eye on Black Friday deals and I'll be sure to pass the best ones along to you.

In the Spotlight

California Passes TV Energy Efficiency Restrictions
The California Energy Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to place energy efficiency restrictions on televisions being sold in the state. The restrictions, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2011, will... Read more

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		Glossary TV Basics LCD Televisions Plasma Televison Affordable Gifts for TV Lovers Blu-ray FAQs What Is an Internet-Enabled TV?

Amazon to Start Black Friday Deals Today
Online retailer Amazon.com has announced that it will kick off the holiday shopping season early by rolling out the first of its 2009 Black Friday deals today. The company isn't revealing many details... Read more

Expert: Sub-40" Sets Will Be Best Buys
As we get closer to Black Friday, I keep reading more and more about the TV price wars we're likely to see this holiday season. The latest article to peak... Read more

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About Portable Electronics: An Amazon Sales Tax? Plus the New Kids Gift Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:24:00 +0000

	Portable Electronics

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Jason Hidalgo This week marks the debut of the latest version of our Kids Electronics gift guide. Do check it out - for the children. We'll also be touching on the whole Amazon sales tax debate plus the latest update on the Google Books lawsuit. Read on below:

In the Spotlight

The Kids Electronics Holiday Gift Guide
Gadgets aren't just for grownups. As today's kids get more sophisticated, so does the list of devices made specifically to cater to them.

		More Topics
		Barnes & Noble OK's eCash for eBooks LeapFrog's Text & Learn The Portable DVD Buying Guide eBook Buying Advice Portable Radios Portable CD Players Other Devices

Should Amazon Pay Sales Tax?
Amazon's fight against an online sales tax came to the forefront yet again after the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report slamming the online giant's arguments ... Read more

Google Books Settlement Gets Preliminary Approval
What happens if you try googling "Google books" and "preliminary?"

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About Wii Games: Energizer's New Charger Reviewed

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:23:00 +0000

	Wii Games

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Charles Herold It's been a very practical week at the Wii games channel. I review Energizer's excellent flat panel Wii remote charger, explain how to browse the Internet on your Wii and explain necessary and optional accessories (an article suggested by a reader).

In the Spotlight

Energizer Flat Panel Induction Charging System - Accessory Review
Recently I raved on and on about how Nyko finally succeeded in creating an almost perfect Wii remote induction charger after so many others had fallen short. It took years from the Wii console's release for someone to make a really great charger, but it has taken only a few weeks for a second to appear: Energizer's Flat Panel Induction Charger.... Read more

		More Topics
		Nintendo Wii Accessories Top Picks Wii Living Nintendo Wii Video Game Screenshots Wii Shopping - Games and Channels 2009 Wii Game Previews The Wii Gift Guide

How to Browse the Internet on Your Nintendo Wii
Did you know you can use your Wii as a web browser? If not, here's how.... Read more

What Accessories Do I Need to Play Wii Games?
What accessories should you buy when you buy a Wii Console? What accessories do you need to play specific games? A reader wrote in asking just that, and this is what I told her.... Read more

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About Digital Cameras: Olympus Stylus 7010 Review Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:19:00 +0000

	Digital Cameras

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Kyle Schurman

In the Spotlight

Olympus Stylus 7010 Review Posted
A few years ago, the thought of finding a camera for less than $200 with a large resolution and zoom lens would've been a futile prospect. It still isn't an... Read more

		More Topics
		2009 Digital Camera Holiday Gift Guide Advanced Digital Cameras: Beyond the Basics Buying Guide: Keys to Shopping for a Digital Camera Reviews: Advice on the Best Digital Cameras Accessories: Increase Your Digital Camera's Versatility Best Cameras Under $200 Learn About Extended Warranties

New Casio Camera Is Tough, Looks Good
Don't let the Casio Exilim EX-G1 point and shoot camera's sleek looks fool you: The EX-G1 can handle rough photography environments, no matter how good it looks. In introducing the EX-G1... Read more

Nikon D5000 Wins DIWA Award
The Digital Imaging Websites Association (DIWA) recently selected the D5000 as a winner of its DIWA Gold Award, thanks to what DIWA called ... Read more

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About Today: 10 Tips for Writing a Holiday Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:13:00 +0000

	Today

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Jen Hubley Holiday newsletters really make me wonder if I'm a good person. It's just so hard to read them without doing funny voices, as if I were reading a monster story to a small child. It's the only thing that makes the whole thing interesting. Otherwise, it's usually endless repetitions of: "Can you believe all my children are honors students, and that I lost five pounds and found fifty dollars in the sofa?"

In the Spotlight

10 Tips for Writing a Holiday Newsletter
The trouble is, our holiday newsletters always seem fascinating ... to us. The trick is to include only the information that other people would want to hear. (Also, that fifty dollars, if you're sharing.)

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		Best Board Games for Family Gatherings Board Games How to Plan Your Wedding Weddings Bill Silencing Loud TV Ads Moves Forward US Government Info Tips for an Eco-Friendly Thanksgiving Environmental Issues How Rich is Vince McMahon? Professional Wrestling How to Pay Bills Online Banking Follow Us on Twitter About.com

How to Make Your Own Greeting Cards
Less is more when it comes to the holidays. I'm a big fan of the card with a lot of decoration and a little space to write in. That way, you can send your holiday wishes without turning into a David Sedaris story.

How to Simplify Your Holiday Card Routine
Ultimately, it's important to remember that all of this is supposed to be fun. If you catch yourself cursing in time to holiday music, perhaps it's time to streamline your routine.

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Young Single Adult Gems

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Young Single Adult Gems

It Is Time to Be Prepared

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 11:00 PM PST

"We live in a most exciting and challenging period in human history. As technology sweeps through every facet of our lives, changes are occurring so rapidly that it can be difficult for us to keep our lives in balance. To maintain some semblance of stability in our lives, it is essential that we plan for our future. I believe it is time, and perhaps with some urgency, to review the counsel we have received in dealing with our personal and family preparedness. We want to be found with oil in our lamps sufficient to endure to the end."

L. Tom Perry, "If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear,'" Ensign, Nov. 1995, 35

Topics:

[NuclearCalendar] Nuclear Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:37:00 +0000


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Nuclear Calendar

November 23, 2009

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Nov. 9-?	Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller and Russian Foreign Ministry's Security and Disarmament Department director Anatoly Antonov hold an eighth round of negotiations on a strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty. Geneva.
Nov. 21-29	House and Senate Thanksgiving recess. (Senate recess began Nov. 22. The House reconvenes on Dec. 1.)
Nov. 23	10:30-11:30 a.m., Corey Hinderstein, Nuclear Threat Initiative, "Nonproliferation and Nuclear Material Security: Action from the Non-Governmental Community." Harvard University, Fainsod Room, Littauer 324, Cambridge, MA.
Nov. 23	Noon-1:00 p.m., John Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran, "Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History." Middle East Institute, Boardman Room, 1761 N St., NW, Washington. RSVP online.
Nov. 23	8:15 p.m., former Sen. Dan. Coats (IN), former Sen. Chuck Robb (VA), and Gen. Charles "Chuck" Wald (retired), "Time Is Running Out: What Now for the US and Iran?" 92nd Street Y, Buttenwieser Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave., New York. Registration online.
Week of Nov. 23	Iran responds to the International Atomic Energy Agency's proposal on supplying nuclear fuel for its Tehran Nuclear Research Center (possible). Vienna, Austria.
Nov. 24	3:00-4:30 p.m., Georgiy Mamedov, Russian ambassador to Canada, "U.S.-Russian Arms Control in the 1990s: Experiences and Lessons Learned." Brookings Institution, Saul/Zilkha Rooms, 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington. RSVP online.
Nov. 24	Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets with President Obama. Washington.
Nov. 26	Thanksgiving (holiday).
Nov. 26-27	International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meeting. Vienna, Austria.
Nov. 27	President reports to Congress on whether North Korea meets the criteria as a state sponsor of terrorism (Public Law 111-84, Sec. 1255).
Nov. 30	2:00-3:30 p.m., Linton Brooks, former Undersecretary of Energy for Nuclear Security, and Steven Pifer, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, "The Future of U.S.- Russia Arms Control Efforts." Sponsored by the Hudson Institute and the Partnership for a Secure America. Hudson Institute, 1015 15th St, NW, Sixth Floor, Washington. RSVP to Richard Weitz by email.
Week of Nov. 30	Senate floor action on the START I Treaty Inspections and Monitoring Protocol Continuation Act of 2009, S. 2727 (estimate). Broadcast and video and audio webcast on C-SPAN2.
Nov. 30-Dec. 4	Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons annual meeting. The Hague, Netherlands.
Nov. or Dec.	Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hearing on the nomination of Laura Kennedy to be U.S. Representative to the Conference on Disarmament. 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington. Video webcast on the committee website, video and audio webcast on OpenHearings.org and audio webcast on CapitolHearings.org.
Nov. or Dec.	National Nuclear Security Administration conducts three underground subcritical nuclear experiments. Nevada Test Site, NV.
Dec. 1	10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Heritage Foundation, "A START Follow-On Treaty: Russian Nuclear Doctrine, Arms Control Objectives, and U.S. Policy Response," with six speakers. Heritage Foundation, Allison Auditorium, 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE, Washington. RSVP online. Webcast on the Heritage Foundation website.
Dec. 1	Energy Department submits a classified report to Congress on the current and projected (1) number of nuclear weapons of each type in the active and reserve stockpiles, (2) strategic rationale for each type, and (3) past and projected future total direct lifecycle cost of each type (House Report 110-921, p. 125).
Dec. 1	Yukiya Amano, new International Atomic Energy Agency director-general, takes office. Vienna, Austria.
Dec. 2	Morning, House Foreign Affairs Committee, hearing on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, with former Defense Secretary William Perry; Sidney Drell, Stanford University; and another witness TBA. 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington. Video webcast on the committee website.
Dec. 2	Noon-1:00 p.m., John Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran, "Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History." Wilson Center, Sixth Floor Moynihan Board Room, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington. RSVP online. Webcast on the Wilson Center website.
Dec. 3	8:30-9:30 a.m., John Harvey, Principal Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense, "Managing the Nuclear Stockpile and Modernizing the Supporting Infrastructure." Center for Strategic and International Studies, Fourth Floor Conference Room, 1800 K St., NW, Washington. RSVP to Andrew St. Denis by email or at (202) 887-0200, ext. 3416.
Dec. 3-4	Secretary of the State Hillary Clinton attends the NATO foreign ministers meeting. Brussels, Belgium.
Dec. 3	Noon-2:00 p.m. Stanley Foundation, "International Perspectives on Securing Vulnerable Nuclear Materials." National Press Club, Holeman Lounge, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington. RSVP online.
Dec. 4	6:30-9:00 p.m., ICAS annual dinner, with former U.S. ambassador to South Korea James Laney. Caucus Room 325, Russell Office Building, Washington.
Dec. 5	START strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty expires.
Dec. 7-11	Biological Weapons Convention annual meeting. Geneva.
Dec. 8	3:30-6:00 p.m., Kenneth Brill, Lawrence Kerr, Melanie Elder, and Chris Deeney, "Countering WMD Proliferation in an Age of Globalized Science and Technology." American Association for the Advancement of Science, Auditorium, 1200 New York Ave., NW, Washington. RSVP online.
Dec. 8	Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative on North Korea, meets with Kang Sok Ju, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister. Pyongyang, North Korea.
Dec. 9	President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign a START follow-on agreement. Geneva, Helsinki, or Reykjavík (possible).
Dec. 10	1:00 p.m. CET (7:00 a.m. EST) President Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. City Hall, Oslo, Norway. May be broadcast on CNN.
Dec. 10	12:15-1:30 p.m., Greg Thielmann, Arms Control Association, topic TBA, University of Maryland, 1107 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD.
Dec. 11	Hanukkah begins at sundown. Through Dec. 19.
Dec. 12	National Nuclear Security Administration submits to Congress a 10-year plan for use and funding of the National Ignition Facility, Livermore National Laboratory, CA; Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM; and Z Machine, Sandia National Laboratories, NM (Public Law 111-84, Sec. 3141).

An email version of the Nuclear Calendar is published every Monday morning when Congress is in session. Subscribe on FCNL's website. Unsubscribe on FCNL's website, or send an email to nuclearcalendar-unsubscribe@fcnl.org.

The editor is David Culp. The publication is made possible by generous contributions from the Colombe Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Lippincott Foundation, the Nuclear Threat Initiative the Ploughshares Fund, and the individual contributors and supporters of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the FCNL Education Fund.

About Cell Phones: Job Opportunity: About.com Seeking Niche Writer for Cell Phone Accessories

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:23:00 +0000

	Cell Phones

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Adam Fendelman In addition to our site-specific guides, About.com is now seeking a new kind of writer: the contributing writer. These writers hone in on a subtopic within a guide's topic. My site is now hiring one specifically for cell phone accessories. Think you've got what it takes? Apply now! Also this week, smartphone adoption is on the rise, but so is mobile crime. Finally, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 with Wi-Fi calling is now on sale at T-Mobile.

In the Spotlight

Job Opportunity: About.com Seeking Niche Writer for Cell Phone Accessories
Do you love and know cell phones like the back of your hand? Have you ever wanted to write for About.com? Now's your rare chance to love cell phones and get paid to write about them for the New York Times Co.! Read more

		More Topics
		All the Basics About Cell Phones Cell Phone Reviews & Cell Phone Profiles Cell Phone Accessory Reviews Latest Cell Phone News Cell Phone Text Messaging Samsung SPH-A640: The No-Frills Phone Music & Calling? The Upstage

Study: As Smartphone Adoption Soars, Increase Anticipated in Mobile Crime
As more and more people are using smartphones with mobile operating systems, hackers who first attacked computers are now being compelled to do the same with smartphones. Read more

BlackBerry Bold 9700 Goes on Sale at T-Mobile With Wi-Fi Calling
The BlackBerry Bold 9700, which features Wi-Fi calling, is now on sale at T-Mobile. The handset, which is an upgrade to the initial BlackBerry Bold, is T-Mobile's first high-speed 3G BlackBerry. Read more

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CrunchGear

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:12:00 +0000

CrunchGear

Ringz: First (free) Android app with in-app purchase
Nintendo Japan launches (paid) on-demand video service for Wii
Roku announces Roku Channel Store, adds Facebook and Pandora (and maybe porn!)
Have you defraggled your motherdisc lately?
CrunchGear Week in Review: New Milkman Edition
Can smoking void your computer’s warranty?
Sunday Giveaway: A Movie Wedge for you, a Movie Wedge for me!

Ringz: First (free) Android app with in-app purchase

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 04:20 AM PST

Apple made it possible for iPhone developers to offer in-app purchase five weeks ago, an option Android devs currently don't have. But now Shanghai-based mobile technology company Urbian found a work-around to enable in-app purchase, saying they're the first developers that did. The app in question is Ringz, a puzzle game that's available for free on the Android market (the iPhone version is in review by the way).

Nintendo Japan launches (paid) on-demand video service for Wii

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 03:40 AM PST

Nintendo started offering a video distribution service for Japanese Wii owners this May, attracting about 800,000 customers by late September in this country. In the same month, Nintendo promised their free channel will be made available to Non-Japanese Wii owners next year, at the same time announcing they’ll start offering paid content (in Japan) very soon. And since the weekend, we have that fee-based streaming video service [JP] over here.

A lot of the content is still free, but the new service makes it possible to view popular TV programs and some Wii-exclusive content on your console. Wii users can now watch Disney and Pokemon anime, Sesame Street, movies, soccer games and other content. Wii-exclusive content includes a bunch of educational programs.

Nintendo initially managed to gather 15 content providers, for example Warner Entertainment and Disney, that will deliver about 250 different programs by next month. By next year, Wii owners are supposed to be able to choose between a total of 1,000 titles. Prices vary heavily, with titles costing between $0.11 and $11 (10 yen and 1,000 yen).

It’s not yet clear whether Nintendo will offer those paid services outside Japan next year as well.

Roku announces Roku Channel Store, adds Facebook and Pandora (and maybe porn!)

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 05:59 PM PST

Your Roku box just got a whole lot more interesting. Roku, if you remember, makes the Roku player, a small device that sits next to your TV and plays Netflix, Amazon Video, and MLB selections. Roku has just added ten new channels to that line-up and built a fascinating platform for adding more down the line.

The current channels will include: blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3 and TWiT. More channels will be available here shortly.

The channels require you to authenticate with the service provider – you don’t enter any passwords on the Roku box, at least in most cases – and will eventually allow protected and pay-per-view access to channel providers. Roku spokesperson, Brian Jaquet, also mentioned at some providers could protect their content behind a hidden pay wall, like Netflix, and offer delightful content like distance learning and pornography. While both of those are self explanatory, it behooves us to note both modes of content are the interface between or among two or more individuals centered on a shared goal.

He said:

While the Roku Channel Store won't distribute porn publicly, there are some hidden channel features whereby partners can make a channel available using a code. This could be used for things like distribution to vertical markets like education and training videos that can be pushed to private groups for viewing on the TV on demand instead of having to set up a satellite feed or send DVDs.

The upgrade will hit in the next two weeks and will work on all Roku boxes including the SD, HD, and HD-XR.

How does it work? I tried the Facebook was request a token from Facebook for login. You then typed the token into the Roku box and all of your photo albums appeared on the browser, available for playback in whatever resolution you uploaded.

Roku Creates Open Platform for Delivery of Content to the TV; Announces 10 New Content Channels

Blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3 and TWiT all now available on the Roku player

Saratoga, Calif. – November 23, 2009 – Roku, Inc., maker of the popular and award-winning family of Roku players, announced today the Roku Channel Store and the addition of 10 new FREE channels for Roku customers to enjoy on their TVs. From internet audio to video podcasts; professional web content to photo sharing; personal video content to children's entertainment, the Roku Channel Store provides an open platform for delivering quality content to the TV. The new channels now available for customers to add to their Roku experience via the Roku Channel Store include: blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3 and TWiT. For a complete list of channels and specific channel descriptions and features, please go to www.roku.com/channelstore.

"Our customers now have more choice in content and even greater control over their Roku player experience with the introduction of the Roku Channel Store and our 10 new content partners," said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, Inc. "The Roku Channel Store already includes a robust offering of content that will appeal to a wide variety of customer tastes, which in turn will open new customer acquisition avenues for Roku. Because we have created an open platform for development, customers can expect even more new content channels in the near future making the Roku player an even more valuable component of a customers' home entertainment system."

To access the Roku Channel Store and subsequently add or remove channels from the home screen, customers will need to create a Roku account. With a Roku account, customers now also have the ability to manage their channels and personalize their entertainment options in a way that has not been possible before. Roku customers can add as many channels as they want. Conversely they can also remove all channels that do not interest them, leaving only the channel or channels they access on a regular basis. And because it is a channel store, new channels will arrive all the time for customers to consider.

All Roku players, including the Roku SD, Roku HD and Roku HD-XR, are compatible with the Roku Channel Store. Our flagship content partners, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Video On Demand and MLB.TV, will continue to be available to existing customers regardless of whether or not they set up a Roku account. However, in order to browse the Roku Channel Store and add and remove channels from the Roku player, customers first must create a Roku account.

Pricing and availability
The Roku Channel Store will be delivered as an automatic and free upgrade to all existing Roku customers over the course of the next two weeks. New customers will automatically be upgraded when they first install their Roku player. To browse and use the Roku Channel Store, existing customers will be prompted to create a Roku account. Existing customers who do not want to wait for their Roku player to update automatically can manually update their Roku player immediately. Detailed instructions can be found in the Help section of Roku's website under the Roku Channel Store tab at http://www.roku.com/support/faqs.

Have you defraggled your motherdisc lately?

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 04:28 PM PST

I’d advise against following the directions given in this guide to defraggling, but it’s an interesting read.

[via Reddit]

CrunchGear Week in Review: New Milkman Edition

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 01:00 PM PST

It's… a self-rolling ball
Customized streetmap clocks from FluidForms
USB-powered Alien figure with illuminated tongue
The Aptera 2e gets pushed back to 2010, millionaire tree huggers shed a tear
Udder pitcher makes me want a glass of moo

Can smoking void your computer’s warranty?

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 12:45 PM PST

It seems that a few Apple warranties have been deemed void due to the fact that the owner was a a smoker, and consequently their Macs were contaminated. The Applecare contract says nothing about this, and the list of toxic materials includes other such dangerous household items as talcum powder and isopropyl alcohol. There’s a long discussion of consumer rights and nanny laws and all that sort of thing just waiting to be pulled out of this story, but let’s not and say we did.

I’m really more interested in whether any of these ostensibly dangerous materials actually do have an effect on your computer’s hardware. In my experience, the most lethal thing in the house is just the dust and fluff that gets sucked into your fan intakes. That or coffee.

Sunday Giveaway: A Movie Wedge for you, a Movie Wedge for me!

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 11:53 AM PST

If you ever sit next to me on a plane you will notice that I have a small ritual that I prepare every time I reach cruising altitude. I begin by pulling out my iPod touch and then my Movie Wedge. The Movie Wedge is a little bean bag with a lip for holding up MP3 and video players. That’s it. It’s amazingly great.

We talked about the Movie Wedge a while back and we’re happy to report that they’ve decided to give us 10 to give away to all and sundry.

To win, simply leave a comment below. We’ll give out ten of these wee fellows on Tuesday. Why? Because we love you and want you to be happy.

Don’t forget: we also have a printer to give away. Get crackin’!

The Latest from Boing Boing

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:10:00 +0000

The Latest from Boing Boing

Beautiful transparent sea-cucumber from the ocean depths
Shackleton's Antarctic whisky found
Murdoch-Microsoft deal in the works
Spectacular slow card-flourishes from Dimitri Aleri
Associated Press loves fair use (we just wish they'd share)
Short papercraft film on the beauty of the book
16 Golden Retrievers Teach You About Atoms

Beautiful transparent sea-cucumber from the ocean depths

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 03:28 AM PST

Have a gander at this magnificent transparent sea cucumber, found in the sunless ocean depths by the Census of Marine Life and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Thousands of strange creatures found deep in ocean (Thanks, Brandon!)

(Image: Larry Madin / AP)

Shackleton's Antarctic whisky found

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 10:45 PM PST

Photo: PDVos In 1909, British explorer Ernest Shackleton aborted an attempt to reach the south pole. He abandoned two cases of scotch at base camp. A century on, we've found it.

Whyte & Mackay, the drinks group that now owns McKinlay and Co., has asked for a sample of the 100-year-old scotch for a series of tests that could decide whether to relaunch the now-defunct Scotch. Workers from New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust will use special drills to reach the crates, frozen in Antarctic ice under the Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.

Thought discovered in 2006, conservation guidelines impose strict rules on how the ice-embedded bottles may be recovered. Whyte & Mackay's master blender says it will taste extactly as it did 100 years ago. Company Wants To Drill For Whiskey Lost In Antarctic [CBS]

Murdoch-Microsoft deal in the works

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:09 PM PST

Microsoft is ready to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to remove its news content from Google, according to the Financial Times. Microsoft has also approached other "big online publishers" with similar deals.

"One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan 'puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them",' wrote the FT's Matthew Garrahan. "... Microsoft's interest is being interpreted as a direct assault on Google because it puts pressure on the search engine to start paying for content."

This he calls a "ray of light to the newspaper industry."

Now, every site in Google is currently there by choice. As it could conceivably change its mind and shank Balldock and Murmer with fair use, let's assume that they're planning on exclusivity. End-user license agreements, paywalls, spider-blocking, that sort of thing. Maybe even encryption and plugins and other delights. Sayonara, RSS!

In any case, participating publishers have to become invisible to search engines who don't pay up. Think of all the gambles encoded in that decision: that the U.S. ad market won't rebound enough to go it alone. That subsidized foreign competitors like the BBC aren't a domestic threat. That people will change their surfing habits to find them. And so on.

But there's one gamble which does make some twisted sense: that Microsoft is an irrational consumer. It's easy to believe that it may spew senseless riches into publishers' pockets, radically distorting the news market, just to spite Google. In this case, Murdoch could be wringing cash out of a market he knows is doomed to implosion or assimilation. And he doesn't even have to be an evil genius, either: he just has to be smarter than Steve Ballmer.

Previously:

Spectacular slow card-flourishes from Dimitri Aleri

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 03:07 AM PST

PeaceLove sez, "My buddy Chris 'Orbit' Brown just hipped me to this lovely video of one Dimitri Arleri doing some amazing card flourishes, set to an unidentified piece of ambient opera. Most flourish videos are rapid-fire montages of jaw-dropping excellence (ie. the brilliant Buck Twins) but this guy slows the pace and goes for a more flowing, elegant style. Magicians are taking note. Watch to the end; it's killer!"

Card Flourishes: Dimitri Arleri - "Opera" www.thecuso.info (Thanks, PeaceLove)

Previously:

Associated Press loves fair use (we just wish they'd share)

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 10:58 AM PST

The Associated Press, a organization with so little respect for fair use that they expect you to pay for a license to quote as little as five words from its articles, describes how it relied on fair use to do reporting on Sarah Palin's memoir Glowing Rouge:

"The AP was determined to get the first copy," Oreskes [a senior managing editor] wrote, detailing how the writers learned a store had "inadvertently placed the book on sale five days before its official Nov. 17 release date." "They bought a copy, ripped it from its spine and scanned it into the system so it could be read and electronically searched," he wrote.

As Rebecca Tushnet notes, this is fair use. And so is quoting the AP.

Actually, the AP likes fair use after all (via @CathyGellis)

Previously:

Short papercraft film on the beauty of the book

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 10:51 AM PST

Going West is a beautiful short film illustrating the worlds in a book, incorporating papercraft to make something dreamlike and wonderful. It was animated by Andersen M Studio.

NZ Book Council - Going West (via @GreatDismal)

16 Golden Retrievers Teach You About Atoms

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 11:59 AM PST

I've often found that, when I can't understand a concept in science or math, putting it into pictures will make everything make more sense. It's like magic. Now, none of the visualizations I used as a kid involved a cadre of trained golden retrievers, but maybe that's a flaw the Kansas school system needs to correct.

(Thanks, Mark Day!)

Wizbang

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:07:00 +0000

Wizbang

China more concerned about U.S. deficits than Obama and his minions
Martha Stewart: Sarah Palin is boring and dangerous
Finally! Transparency in Government
Growing signs of Hasan terror conspiracy?
Patrick Kennedy banned from Communion? (UPDATED)

China more concerned about U.S. deficits than Obama and his minions

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 12:39 PM PST

A week ago, in The New York Times: In a July meeting, Chinese officials asked their American counterparts detailed questions about the health care legislation making its way through Congress....

Martha Stewart: Sarah Palin is boring and dangerous

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 10:44 AM PST

Someone will have to help me with how anybody can be both dangerous and boring but... whatever: Based on the back and forth between the Hollywood talking heads in the...

Finally! Transparency in Government

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 09:14 AM PST

During the campaign, Barack Obama promised a new era of transparency in government. It took a while, but Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) finally came to his aid. Landrieu was one...

Growing signs of Hasan terror conspiracy?

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 07:21 AM PST

Ynetnews has the common sense details: A massacre at a Texas army base that left 13 people dead is increasingly looking like part of a terror conspiracy rather than an...

Patrick Kennedy banned from Communion? (UPDATED)

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 06:50 AM PST

Associated Press: Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for...

About Budget Travel: Big Travel Mistakes at Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:30:00 +0000

	Budget Travel

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Mark Kahler Read and know before you go!

In the Spotlight

Top 10 Budget Travel Errors
Read about 10 common travel miscues that grow even more serious during hectic holidays. Read more

		More Topics
		Save on Holiday Shopping Trips Destinations for Winter Budget Travel Deals for the Week A Travel Gift Buyer's Guide Shop for Travel Accessories for Packing Travel Books Make Great Gifts Winter Travel Deals

Tips for Holiday Budget Travel
As you depart on a Thanksgiving trip, consider a few simple principles designed to make your trip more enjoyable and less expensive. Read more

Airport Parking on a Budget
Few travel expenses provide less pleasure than parking fees. How much are you willing to pay for such satisfaction? Budget travelers have pursued a number of strategies designed to minimize -- and in some cases eliminate -- parking expenses. Read more

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About DVD: New DVD Releases - November 24, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:29:00 +0000

	DVD

In the Spotlight | More Topics |

	from Ivana Redwine Welcome to this week's DVD newsletter. Find out what DVDs are hitting shelves this week and are coming to DVD soon.

In the Spotlight

New DVD Releases - November 24, 2009
The new DVD releases include Angels & Demons, Four Christmases and Funny People. You can also take a look at additional releases of interest and next week's movies on video/DVD.

		More Topics
		'Funny People' DVD 'Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian' DVD 'Paper Heart' DVD 'Terminator Salvation' DVD 'Sugar' DVD Review 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' DVD Review 'Julie & Julia' DVD Review

'Angels & Demons' DVD
Adapted from the Dan Brown novel, the thriller Angels & Demons is the follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, and Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, while the director is again Ron Howard. This time around there's nothing controversial as Langdon helps the Catholic Church during a crisis: the Pope has died, and someone has taken the preferred successors hostage and is threatening to blow up the Vatican. Read more

'Four Christmases' DVD
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in this holiday movie that starts out as a comedy and gradually turns serious. The supporting cast includes Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Kristin Chenoweth and Sissy Spacek. Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) are a happy unmarried couple who set out to avoid their relatives at Christmas by going to Fiji. Read more

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VentureBeat

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:09:00 +0000

VentureBeat

16-yr old launches Vye music-sharing site. Another Napster?
5 O’Clock Roundup: Nook sold out, Sony launches online store, Bing gets slammed
Week in review: Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie on apps, Al Gore at GreenBeat

16-yr old launches Vye music-sharing site. Another Napster?

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 09:23 AM PST

With the help of close friends and family, 16-year-old Charles Allatt, has launched Vye Music, an online meta search app for music files around the Net.

The site pulls search results from other music sites — including Skreemr, MP3Codes, and 4Shared Music, sites which in turn index hundreds of thousands of sites, blogs and artist pages.

Vye collates all of this content for the user and applies a simple, AJAX-based interface to let you build playlists, stream songs, and download them.

Letting users share and download music for free is what got Napster in trouble for copyright violations back in 2001 and led to the end of that free service. But Allatt claims that the distinction between his website and Napster is that his site is legal, despite the download availability. (An inability to download music has been the legal distinction that other sites in the music-sharing space have used to stay out of court. Streaming is considered a broadcast — as in radio — whereas downloading is a product, something that was well-defined during the Napster trials.)

Allatt says that as a search engine, “Vye Music permits users to download the content, operating under the premise that exterior copyright controls (ie. the copyright compliance of our APIs and content hosters) as well as users’ own judgment will let users stay well within the law.”

In other words, Vye doesn’t actually have any direct control over the content that appears on the site. The control is with the ultimate host of the music being streamed or downloaded. Vye merely links to those hosts through a search index. Allatt does say he plans to comply with copyright law: “DMCA takedown notices are forwarded to the relevant API providers, and the direct hosts of content wherever possible.”

It remains to be seen how well Allatt’s legal claims might hold.

The site interface and features are, however, nicely done. You can use the simple, intuitive interface without login, but you’ll need a username if you want to access more advanced sharing and storing features. Supposedly DRM-free music tracks can be downloaded directly from their links as well. I say “supposedly” because a search for Metallica brings up several download-able tunes whose only connection to Metallica is that it was the front band for the RIAA lawsuits that covered the news a couple of years ago.

As with most search tools of this nature, some of what is returned is not what you asked for and, I found, is also often not the full song. Worse yet, songs are often “Rick Rolled” to be something entirely different from their titles. This, of course, is not necessarily Vye’s problem, but it is a problem endemic to search-based apps.

As for potential competitors, the site’s closest competitors are the very same sites it pulls content from.

Allatt, who’s Australian and based on Australia’s Gold Coast, developed and maintains the site under the auspices of his company VEXiS Media. He self-funded the company, and several friends and family members assist him with the site for free.

He previously started failed music site iZaRia.us. It’s possible he’ll have better luck with this newest venture, since there are some indications the music industry may take more kindly to free online downloads than it has in the past.

Many around the Web have been saying that the RIAA lawsuits were a turning point in which the paradigm of artist-label-distributor was broken and shown to be outdated. Some artists, most notably Pearl Jam, have foregone the larger record label almost entirely, pursuing a more open approach. Up-and-coming bands often put free copies of entire albums online for download and dissemination, making money through paying gigs, concerts, and donations. The Isosceles Project in Canada is an example of that model. With the advent of high-speed data connections for most of the modern world, the days of the album and record label may be coming to a close. These new models of music distribution are likely the early versions of the new paradigm. So, perhaps Vye Music is part of those beginnings.

5 O’Clock Roundup: Nook sold out, Sony launches online store, Bing gets slammed

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 03:01 PM PST

We’ve been a little behind with roundup lately. Our apologies. Here’s the latest action:

Barnes & Noble Nook sold out — The bookseller’s entry into the eBook reader market is under way. The B&N Nook is out of stockk on the company’s web site and it is now taking orders for devices that will ship next year. Analysts say that the Nook wasn’t ready for shipment in huge quantities and B&N probably launched it anyway to head off sales for Amazon’s rival Kindle eBook reader. Well, there’s always Spring Design’s Alex.

Sony to launch online store – Sony executive Kaz Hirai says that the Japanese electronics giant will launch its own online store modeled after its successful PlayStation Network store. The store will include connections between Sony’s consumer electronics devices and its digital content.

NY Times columnist slams Bing over China — Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the Gray Lady, called for a boycott of Microsoft’s Bing search engine today for failing to stand up to Chinese government censors. If you type Tiananmen and other controversial search subjects in simple Chinese characters in a Bing search, you get government propaganda instead of real search results. Google handles the problem in a different way, but Kristof says he isn’t buying Microsoft’s response.

Behind the FAA’s flight plan glitch — eWeek has a lengthy article describing the router failure that brought down the nation’s air traffic control system.

Oracle’s acquisition of Sun looking dim — Bloomberg reports that the European Union is likely to block Oracle’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Suny Microsystems. The hangup seems to be Sun’s ownership of the MySQL database software, which competes with Oracle.

McAfee warns of 12 scams of Christmas — Beware of everything from fake electronic greeting cards to charity scams that steal your identity and credit card data. McAfee offers the warnings in a podcast.

AOL to cut 2,500 jobs — AOL is asking a third of its work force to volunteer to end their jobs. If it can’t get the volunteers, it will resort to layoffs.

EA shuts down Pandemic – Electronic Arts has shut down its Pandemic game studio amid much criticism. EA bought BioWare/Pandemic from Elevation Partners for $800 million in 2007. John Riccitiello, who left Elevation to become CEO of EA, recused himself from that purchase decision because he stood to benefit from it. Now, faced with declining demand for its games, EA is making drastic cutbacks of 1,500 jobs — including 200 at Pandemic, which was about half of the original acquisition. The decision is understandable, since Pandemic had a string of weak games, including the Lord of the Rings Conquest game we panned. But the Riccitiello critics don’t seem to care about that.

Week in review: Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie on apps, Al Gore at GreenBeat

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 02:05 PM PST

Here's our rundown of the week's business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie: Apps don’t make your phone special — “It's not the applications available on the various platforms that will be the differentiators, Ozzie said, even though that's what many companies and writers seem to focus on.”

Microsoft’s Xbox Live chief on banning modders and browsing Facebook photos on TV — “It's a cat and mouse game. These were people that were pirating software.”

Modern Warfare 2 continues to blow away entertainment records — “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has set the all-time entertainment industry record, generating $550 million in sales in its first five days on the market.”

Updated: Modern Warfare 2 banned in Russia due to civilian massacre scene — “Activision Blizzard released this statement today: Reports that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been banned in Russia are erroneous.”

Former Microsoft evangelist Don Dodge joins Google, discovers Gmail — “Don Dodge, the Microsoft startup evangelist whose layoff earlier this month was much-bemoaned in the tech community, has landed on his feet, and then some.”

And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun, including coverage of our Smart Grid conference GreenBeat 2009:

GreenBeat: Live-blogging Nobel Prize winner Al Gore — “The single largest solution is efficiency and the Super Grid, or the Smart Grid, plays a crucial role in several aspects of a comprehensive plan to solve the crisis.” (You can also check out our summary of Gore’s remarks.)

Politics and policy needed for the smart grid. Soon. — “At GreenBeat 2009's Politics and Policy session, the prevalent theme was the need for a simple, efficient legislation and regulation package for the U.S. power system.”

Twitter COO Dick Costolo: Revenue is on and advertising is coming soon — “The big takeaways are that Twitter is making more than $4 million a year, but won't specify how much, and that's through the recent data-sharing deals with Microsoft and Google.”

Google aims to release Chrome OS netbooks by holiday season 2010 — “Although there's been some hope that Google might launch the operating system in early 2010, Vice President of Product Marketing Sundar Pichai said Google plans to work with manufacturers to bring Chrome OS netbooks to market in time for next year's holiday season.”

Offerpal Media sets standards to lock out scam offers — “Burned by a scandal in its offer business over inappropriate promos, Offerpal Media is moving to set standards that forbid offers that are misleading, deceptive or otherwise objectionable.”

The Latest from Boing Boing

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:32:00 +0000

The Latest from Boing Boing

Brits: sign petition to kill three-strikes law
Augmented reality rig that turns you into a character in a third-person game
Sex advice from D&D players
Redhead 12-year-old assaulted over Facebook message citing South Park episode?
The Glenn Beck Party?
Fantastic faux-floor illusions
Thus you shall go to the stars: Michæl Paukner
Hugo Chavez, cannibalism apologist
Witch bottle from the 18th century
Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
Heroes and sociopaths: behavioral twins?
Traffic cameras used to harass and limit movement of peaceful protestors
Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Microwave Lava
Owner of trendy Manhattan restaurant Paradou plumbs new depths of evil bad-bossitude

Brits: sign petition to kill three-strikes law

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 05:04 AM PST

Britons: here's a petition to the Prime Minister to abolish the new Digital Economy bill's provisions that will require ISPs to cut off your household's internet access if anyone living there (or using your network) is accused of three acts of copyright infringement:

This petition has been set up in response to the Government's proposal to cut off internet access to those who are caught illegally downloading copyrighted files. We think this has one fundamental flaw, as illegal filesharers will simply hack into other peoples WiFi networks to do their dirty work. This will result in innocent people being disconnected from the internet. What's more, such a punishment should be dealt with in the proper way, in a court of law. This guilty until proven innocent approach violates basic human rights.

Tell your friends.

Petition to: abolish the proposed law that will see alleged illegal filesharers disconnected from their broadband connections, without a fair trial

Previously:

Augmented reality rig that turns you into a character in a third-person game

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 04:59 AM PST

Marc Owens's augmented reality project "Avatar Machine" puts its users in VR helmets that display the world around them as though they were playing a third-person game, so that their own body is seen from behind. Owens theorizes that "The system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment."

Avatar Machine (via Beyond the Beyond)

Previously:

Sex advice from D&D players

Posted: 22 Nov 2009 04:54 AM PST

Nerve is running "Sex Advice From Dungeons & Dragons Players," answering questions about RPGs, role-playing, and finding mating opportunities among the nerdy. It's a delight.

What's the best way to pick up a D&D player?
If you're a geek and you see a girl geek browsing the comic books and players' manuals, don't make assumptions. Nothing irritates me more than having someone tell me what I'm holding. I know what I'm holding. Aside from the fact that I came in here specifically looking for it, I CAN READ. Instead, try a trivia tidbit or a commentary on the quality/author/whatever. Your goal is to sound interested, not condescending. For the non-geek, we're really not that strange and different, but we tend to be a little defensive. Be willing to listen, stumble through some conversation you don't have the lingo for. Don't mock. Unless your romantic candidate starts talking about their characters in detail. No one finds that interesting. Really. Get out while you still can.

Sex Advice From Dungeons & Dragons Players (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Previously:

Redhead 12-year-old assaulted over Facebook message citing South Park episode?

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 05:18 PM PST

LA County detectives are investigating an assault on on a 12-year-old boy which may have been incited by a Facebook group message referencing a 2005 South Park episode. "The boy was kicked and hit in two separate incidents (...) by as many as 14 of his classmates." The attack followed a Facebook message promoting that date as Kick a Ginger Day." Sadly, not the first time for such stupidity.

The Glenn Beck Party?

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 03:13 PM PST

Fox News spokesdouche Glenn Beck is seeking a more direct role in American politics, though it sounds mostly like a clever marketing campaign: "He will promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of conventions across the country featuring conservative speakers, all leading up to a rally in Washington in August to coincide with the release of his book on conservative proposals for the country."

Fantastic faux-floor illusions

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 04:45 PM PST

I was reading a Cool Tools review of a company that puts any image on blinds, wallpaper, or flooring, and one of the comments led me to some fantastic illusions made using photo prints on the floor. More info on the bathroom floor and elevator from the Amazing Illusions blog.
UPDATE: Turns out the bathroom was for a Photoshop contest and so, is faux. I hope somebody makes it real though! (Thanks, Dean Putney!)

Thus you shall go to the stars: Michæl Paukner

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 01:44 PM PST

Sic itur ad astra = Latin for "thus you shall go to the stars". Yet another beautiful work from artist Michæl Paukner. "I used some scans of old astronomy maps from the 17th century," he says. You can buy prints of his work now! I want the Aztec Calendar print so bad. And Luna, too. I want every single one he's selling, but then I'll need to buy some more wall space, too.

Previously:

Hugo Chavez, cannibalism apologist

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 12:52 PM PST

Is Bruce Vilanch writing for Hugo Chavez now? 'Cause the Venezuelan leader's comedy material is pretty good lately: now he's a cannibalism apologist. In a recent speech, Chavez praised Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the late Ugandan dictator Idi "Butcher of Uganda" Amin. Said Chavez: "We thought he was a cannibal... I don't know, maybe he was a great nationalist, a patriot." (thanks Antinous)

Witch bottle from the 18th century

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 01:11 PM PST

Above is an 18th century "witch bottle," used to fend off evil spirits. Discovered at a construction site in the London borough of Greenwich, this example is particularly rare because it's still corked. Retired chemistry professor Dr. Alan Massey analyzed the bottle and its curious contents. From Fortean Times:

(The bottle) contained 12 bent iron nails (one of which pierced a small leather heart), eight brass pins, 10 adult fingernail pairings (sic) (not from a manual worker, but a person "of some social standing"), a quantity of hair and urine with traces of nicotine, indicating it had come from a smoker. There were also traces of sulphur, then known as brimstone, and what is thought to be navel fluff. The brimstone recalled the passage in Revelation where the beast and the false prophet were "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone".

"Discovery of witch bottle used to drive away evil spells"

Previously:

Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 01:46 PM PST

In this video clip from New York University's annual talent show four years ago, Stefani Germanotta — aka Lady Gaga — performs two songs she wrote herself. She came in third place. At the end of her performance, one of the judges says: "Norah Jones, look out!" Little did she know that Lady Gaga would not be making Norah Jones-ish music at all. After the jump, a music video from her new album, The Fame Monster, which comes out Monday.

via Mat Honan's Twitter

Heroes and sociopaths: behavioral twins?

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 08:41 AM PST

Behaviorally speaking, heroes and serial do-gooders have a lot in common with sociopaths, according to this paper on psychology and neuroethics: "their personality traits are very similar, with only a few features to distinguish them."

Traffic cameras used to harass and limit movement of peaceful protestors

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 05:14 AM PST

Britain is full of license-plate cameras, cameras used to send you tickets if you're caught speeding, or driving in the bus-lane, or entering London's "congestion-charge zone" without paying the daily fee for driving in central London. And because of Chekhov's first law of narrative ("a gun on the mantelpiece in act one will go off by act three"), the police have decided to also use these cameras as a surveillance tool, to "catch terrorists" (and other bad guys). So any police officer can add any license number to the database of "people of interest" and every time that license plate passes a camera, the local police force will receive an urgent alert, and can pull over the car, detain the driver, and search the car and its passengers under the Terrorism Act.

And, of course, police officers are less than discriminating about who they add to this list. For example, "Catt, 50, and her 84-year-old father, John" were added to the list because a police officer noticed their van at three protest demonstrations. And now Catt and John get pulled over by the police and searched as terrorists.

Environmental activists tend to be pretty forgiving of license-plate cameras, because they're a critical piece of congestion-charge systems that charge people money for driving instead of using public transit. This kind of regressive tax (the £10 charge in London is a pittance and no disincentive to the wealthy, and is crippling to the marginal and the poor) is also much beloved by the law-and-economics crowd, who assume that rational consumers will all be equally disincentivized by a little friction in the system.

But congestion charges require license plate cameras, and license plate cameras are an enormous piece of artillery to hand to the world's police, who are increasingly pants-wettingly afraid of any sort of public protest -- including environmental protests. I support reducing driving as much as the next green, but environmental change will require lots of protest, and that protest will get exponentially harder with the growth of the traffic cameras that are absolutely integral to congestion charge schemes.

The two anti-war campaigners were not the only law-abiding protesters being monitored on the roads. Officers have been told they can place "markers" against the vehicles of anyone who attends demonstrations using the national ANPR data centre in Hendon, north London, which stores information on car journeys for up to five years.
Senior officers have been instructed to "fully and strategically exploit" the database, which allows police to mark vehicles with potentially useful inform-ation such as drink-driving convictions.
The use of the ANPR database to flag-up vehicles belonging to protesters has resulted in peaceful campaigners being repeatedly stopped and searched.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal Kent and Essex police deployed mobile ANPR "interceptor teams" on roads surrounding the protest against the Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, last year.

Activists repeatedly stopped and searched as police officers 'mark' cars (via Beyond the Beyond)

(Image: control, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from Secret London's photo stream)

Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Microwave Lava

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 11:41 AM PST

Parents, romantic partners and roommates of America: I am not encouraging your child, partner or person you share living space with to do this. At least, not in your good microwave. They should buy their own for this sort of thing. And for the love of Pete, they should wear protective eye covering.

I am so very serious about the protective eye coverings.

(Thanks, Greg Laden!)

Owner of trendy Manhattan restaurant Paradou plumbs new depths of evil bad-bossitude

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 06:28 AM PST

Vadim Ponorovsky, the owner of the restaurant Paradou in ~~trendy Park Slope~~ Manhattan's meat-packing district, sent his employees an email in which he called them "lazy motherfuckers" because they failed to extract enough email addresses from their customers (he has a spam list and he makes it his servers' duty to get email addresses out of diners). Ponorovsky went on to call his employees "fucking lazy disrespectful assholes," "fucking children," and said, "Effective immediately, any server or host who fails to collect at least 20 emails per week, will be fined $100. Anyone failing to collect at least 20 emails for two weeks in a month will be fired immediately. No matter what. No matter who you are."

He also threatened to fire his entire staff, saying, "I have absolutely no respect for any of you," and "Go find another place to work."

And now, he's sent along a followup to the trade press, saying that this is just the way he talks, that "if you talked to anyone who ever worked for me, I could say without any sense of self-aggrandizement that they'd say I was the best boss they've worked for." In support of this he cites the fact that he's never missed payroll (e.g., he pays his employees the wages they earn), that he lets them work for him again after their vacations, and that they get to eat for free at the restaurant where they work.

He also declares himself to be a Reaganite and villifies anyone who disagrees with his treatment of his employees, who can only become wealthy if he gets rich first, through the magic of "trickle-down."

"If my staff has the ability for self-reflection and seeing the big picture, they should ask, 'Why would one of us fuck the rest of us so badly by damaging our ability to make money?" Ponorvosky says. "The first casualties of this will be the people who all of these protesters are 'defending.' No thought is given to 'the trickle-down,' to use Ronald Reagan's favorite expression." As for the people who are vowing to shut Paradou down, Ponorvsky says, "These people have no sense of rightness or goodness."

Paradou Owner Says Tirade Against Staff Was a Restaurateur's 'Howl'

Restaurant Owner's Email to Staff Belongs in Tyrant Hall of Fame

(via Making Light)

(Image: New York City - Paradou Brunch, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image)

CrunchGear

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:20:00 +0000

CrunchGear

Can New Forms of Media Distribution Save Porn?
Lazy Saturday long read: trying to vanish in the digital age
Union Square Best Buy: Your Exclusive Keytar Dealer
Saturday giveaway: Kodak 5250 all-in-one printer, just for you
Review: Nyko Wand Action Pak
Daily Crunch: Fireside Edition

Can New Forms of Media Distribution Save Porn?

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 08:40 PM PST

Porn is all about instant gratification. A business reliant on bringing its customers the goods fast, this industry has always had a history of being on the forefront of new technologies as they emerge for better products and faster distribution. Revolutionizing porn and how its enjoyed with the adoption of the VHS home video, the porn industry grew from a seedy underground sex scene into a $10 billion dollar a year business. Nowadays, the very same industry that once helped mainstream VHS win the battle against Betamax in the 70s and 80s, is facing the problem of staying relevant in today’s “I need it NOW” society. Porn, one of the earliest adopters of e-commerce and Internet broadcasting, is being threatened by the very instant gratification that has made it so profitable. Torrents and free video sites have seriously threatened the porn industry’s business model. Now anyone with a web cam and computer can be a porn star on the Internet. Are people willing to pay for porn anymore? What is the porn industry doing to set themselves apart from all the amateur porn makers out there? Looking towards future tech like mobile streaming, smart phone apps, and instant downloads to VOD systems, porn leaders are changing their business model in an attempt to stay relevant and profitable.

Sony’s Betamax video format was introduced in 1975, to be followed by JVC’s VHS a year later. Arguably a better video format, Betamax never took off much in part thanks to the porn industry’s involvement with the distribution and sale of VHS videotapes. It was said that porn was scarcely available on Betamax, possibly because of Sony’s stance against its production. On the other hand, porn was readily available on VHS because it was a cheaper medium for distribution, ultimately helping VHS win the battle over betamax in late 1980s. Offering consumers affordable movies to rent and movies to own, VHS helped build porn into a $10 billion dollar industry, and it made porn an at-home experience rather than forcing the consumer to visit a strip club, peep show, or adult movie theater. Enter the Internet and e-commerce in 1995, and the low-cost DVD in 2001, porn was becoming cheaper, more available, and easier to duplicate. File sharing became common place and the very technology that had made porn available to the masses both online and for rent threatened to take down the entire industry. Another threat that arose was the celebrity standard: the homemade sex tape. In a world where anyone can make a porno or be a porn star (re: Paris Hilton, Carrie Prejean, Pamela Anderson), how can porn as an industry compete? Porn producers have been forced to adopt higher production value and find new ways to reach their audience aside from the standard pay-per view or DVD model.

One new frontier in their quest for profitability is HD video. Consumers love seeing their favorite porn stars in HD because it makes them feel like they’re a part of the action more than ever before. Porn stars on the other hand? Not so much. Time to bust out the HD makeup. The same porn actresses that made seedy sexy, are being held to a higher Hollywood standard now that they’re in HD. Aside from new makeup, lighting, and post production techniques, porn directors like “Joone” are giving porn stars tips to stay HD ready, "I tell the girls to work out more, cut down on the carbs, hit the treadmill.” In an industry that made bleach blond, super tan, and “realistic” action from every angle the norm, could porn become more like a Hollywood film? Does this mean the end of hardcore as we know it with a movement towards over produced soft core style hardcore scenes in an attempt to set themselves apart from the amateur porn film makers? Aside from that – higher production costs also mean that porn is going to get pricey and no one wants to pay for pricey adult entertainment when you can get a fix for free online.

Aside from pursuing HD and better production value, porn makers are looking for new ways to monetize their product. One way they’re doing this is by jumping on the Video on Demand trend. Video on Demand is not new when it comes to porn, but it is becoming more athe norm when it comes to renting and viewing adult content movies online and on your TV. Creating online adult channels through VOD systems like Vudu, porn makers are breaking into VOD for instant distribution. Although, porn has not been fully integrated into the VOD scene. Companies like Sony aim to bar porn’s entry into VOD markets especially when it comes to Playstation 3. Aside from VOD, porn producers are looking to cash in on smartphones, iPhones, iPod Touch, and game consoles that can stream media or download media. Catering to the mobile phone industry are prepackaged micro SD cards that store porn to be viewed on any smart phone or computer. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook have also revolutionized the conversation around porn. Once a dirty secret, Twitter users such as @AdultNewsWire aggregate porn news and spit it out to their list of followers to create an actual conversation around porn and its lovers. There are also the hard-to-find adult video games that always aim to titillate an adult gamer like Bonetown for instance, which featured a cameo by larger than life porn legend Ron Jeremy. Once an industry that had enough power to sway an entire nation towards VHS technology, the porn industry is now struggling to stay in front of new technological trends. Some may argue that technology has grown too big for the porn industry. But is the produced porn industry relevant when there is so much porn available online for free? The majority of us don’t really pay for porn anymore. If I wanna watch porn, I am probably going to go to a free site like RedTube or YouPorn for my fix. But then again I’m not too picky. However, the less technologically savvy or more old school consumer who are more willing to pay for their porn, will play a big part in keeping the porn industry alive. But between the new way and old way of getting your fix, as long as porn production companies stay ahead of the curve (no pun intended) with new distribution and sharing trends that keep these companies relevant in how entertainment is enjoyed, then porn as an industry will be just fine.

Guest columnist Lydia Leavitt writes about sex and, oddly enough, social media. For more information on the latest intimate technology, check out 69adget.com.

Lazy Saturday long read: trying to vanish in the digital age

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 02:37 PM PST

Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Because you’re not going anywhere for a while. Wired has a great article up right now that reminds me of Wired magazine content in their glory days in the early 2000s. The object of the piece is to examine the feasibility of disappearing completely in the digital age. They gave writer Evan Ratcliff a month’s head start to plan his means of vanishing, then set the entire internet on him once he’d executed his plan.

I’m only about halfway through it right now but it’s an easy recommendation if, like me, you’re lolling on the couch, sipping coffee and browsing the net. The conclusion is not too difficult to imagine; I haven’t read it yet, but I’m guessing that some circumstance or minor slip-up caused Ratcliff to reveal his location — an emergency cash withdrawal, a particular item delivered to a PO Box, or something like that. After that it was just a matter of time before those on his trail ferreted him out.

Of course, it’s one thing to track a person used to living and working online, with known habits and telltale tendrils extending all over both the real and virtual region. I suspect that if you took the measures he took (which you can read in the article), the trail would eventually fade; after a year of living on cash, under a fake name, and being paid under the table, it would be nearly impossible to locate someone without some serious inside information.

[photo: Joe Pugliese/Wired]

Union Square Best Buy: Your Exclusive Keytar Dealer

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 10:30 AM PST

So is everyone totally freakin’ stoked about the new Best Buy in New York City?! Yeah, I didn’t think so. But if you need a late night electronics fix and you’re around Union Square, the brand-new flagship store is open 24-hours a day. First one in the world, actually.

Did anyone else miss out on the fact that Best Buy sells musical instruments now? I had no idea, but apparently over 80 stores across the country now carry your standard rhythm section fare of drums, guitars, and basses, along with a full DJ gear section and live sound equipment. They seem to be working towards crafting the store into a venue as well. Past performers at the Union Square position include 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, will.i.am, and Rihanna. But playing a show in a Best Buy? Is that’s what cool these days? Cool enough for pop music I guess. You can follow the store on Facebook for updates on whose playing.

But the best part about all this (yes there is a best part) is that this store has an exclusive deal with Roland to carry the Roland Ax-Synth. That’s right. Keytars are back in business baby!

Saturday giveaway: Kodak 5250 all-in-one printer, just for you

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 10:30 AM PST

Good afternoon, readers! What does Santa have in his bag for you today? Interestingly enough, he was unable to bring his bag because this printer is far too big for it. We present, for your inspection, the Kodak 5250 all-in-one: a scanning, printing, faxing, photofinishing machine that can best the big boys in the printer race.

Best of all, the 5250 has built-in WiFi so you can stick the printer on your network and print from any computer in the house. Take a look at Kodak’s 5250 product page and then click through to figure out how to win.

Wireless printing in seconds—it's simple!

With the KODAK ESP 5250 All-in-One Printer you can print vivid color documents and lab-quality photos at home for much less than what you're paying now thanks to our low-cost, high-quality pigment ink cartridges. And with the convenience of Wi-Fi built-in, we've made printing as easy as it is affordable. Say goodbye to overpriced ink for good. Print, copy, scan, and save every day with Kodak.

To enter to win this delightful printer, simply comment below about what you intend to print with your new printer. Describe it in detail, because we don’t want this printer to fall into the hands of one of those people who buy a printer and then simply admire it. This is a workhorse and deserves to end up in a deserving home.

Good luck!

Review: Nyko Wand Action Pak

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 10:03 AM PST

Although only a few Wii games support the light gun concept, if you’re a heavy player you may want to look into getting the $39.99 Wand Action Pack if you’re planning on adding a controller to your line-up.

This kit includes Nyko’s Wand Wiimote – essentially an exact clone of Nintendo’s product – along with a sleeve and gun attachment for light gun games.

Nyko seems to have been forced to create a controller that is functionally identical to the Wiimote but cosmetically different. Purists will be off-put by the bright red and square A button and the odd placement of the home button over the plus and minus keys. The cross keypad is also a bit odd with strange corners sticking out between the three directional keys. However, considering the WiiMote costs $39.99 on a bad day and $35 on a good one, you’re getting a bit more for your money with this pack.

Bottom Line
I’ve had little trouble with Nyko devices and their chargers are first rate. The purists among you – you know who you are – will balk at the styling but the bargain hunters among you will realize it’s a pretty good deal, especially if you play gun games.

Product Page

Daily Crunch: Fireside Edition

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 12:00 AM PST

Shh! World's largest radio telescope network goes live
Space adaptive HUMANITARY INVENTION detects things and then calls you about them
USB-powered Alien figure with illuminated tongue
For your holiday consideration: A little truck that poops dominoes
New PogoPlug adds four USB ports, and more

Fastsearcher

About Xbox Games: Left 4 Dead 2 Review (X360)

NRC Monitoring Companys Response to Three Mile Island 1 Nuclear Plant Contamination Event

About Spas: How To Get a Better Brazilian Wax

VentureBeat

IN 2009-30 Findings From The NRC Initiative To Assess Materials Licensees' Compliance With NRC Decommissioning Requirements (ML090920401)

About Web Humor: Neil Patrick Harris Joins Twitter and More!

About Country Music: Tim McGraw and Friends Work the Red Carpet for His New Movie

About TV / Video: California Passes TV Energy Efficiency Restrictions

About Portable Electronics: An Amazon Sales Tax? Plus the New Kids Gift Guide

About Wii Games: Energizer's New Charger Reviewed

About Digital Cameras: Olympus Stylus 7010 Review Posted

About Today: 10 Tips for Writing a Holiday Newsletter

Young Single Adult Gems

[NuclearCalendar] Nuclear Calendar

Nuclear Calendar

About Cell Phones: Job Opportunity: About.com Seeking Niche Writer for Cell Phone Accessories

CrunchGear

The Latest from Boing Boing

Wizbang

About Budget Travel: Big Travel Mistakes at Thanksgiving

About DVD: New DVD Releases - November 24, 2009

VentureBeat

The Latest from Boing Boing

CrunchGear

NRC Monitoring Companys Response to Three Mile Island 1 Nuclear Plant Contamination Event