De South Reviews: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

iPhone to be Sold at Radio Shack and Best Buy?

Mobile Mag is reporting that the iPhone 3G may be sold at Radio Shack and Best Buy. Best Buy we can see â€" Appleâ€™s already been making inroads there. Radio Shack, though, â€¦ugh. Sure, since the iPhone 3G is being sold pretty much just like any other smartphone now, itâ€™s not crazy that it could be sold by any of the usual suspects â€" Radio Shacks, Mall Kiosks, that one guy down the street who inexplicably has an AT&T store in his garage. Butâ€¦ Radio Shack? Maybe Iâ€™m old, but I remember a time

Kojinsha S130 Mini Notebook

After release mini notebook PC E8, Kojinsha unveiled their new mini notebook S130 on the Korea market with 7 inch touch screen. Powered by Intel Atom processor Z520 (1.33 MHz), memory 1GB and HDD 60 GB. The S130 notebook also equipped with GPS module, navigation map software which is not add at Asus EEE and RazorBook 400. Another feature with DMB function for a variety of dictionary content including English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Weighing only 798g, the S130 comes two different col

HOT TIP: Paul van Dyke Ditches Central Park For Pier 54 As His Summer Stage in NY

Paul van Dyke, the Berlin-based electronic music pioneer, has made Central Park the home of his annual summer concert in New York for 5 years running. This summer he breaks with tradition and holds his peerless outdoor bacchanalia river-side at Pier 54. Paul van Dyke @ Central Park Summerstage, Rumsey Playfield, NY 8/18/07 Here's the deets, courtesy of the lovely rephlektor ink peeps: For five consecutive years Paul van Dykâ€™s annual concerts in Central Park have been one of New York Cityâ€™

Losing Your Rights on the Cheap

Between now and last March 94 Congressman that call themselves Democrats switched their position on retroactive telecom immunity and flopped to the telecom side. How did that happen? What spectacular global event precipitated this mass migration to the dark side? You don't suppose money from the telecoms had anything to do with do? Our Congress persons are above that kind of stuff aren't they? Not so fast.House Democrats who flipped their votes to support retroactive immunity for telecom compan

The Clown Criminal Cabal's venture into broadcasting, with predictable results

Lost in Translation: Alhurraâ€"Americaâ€™s Troubled Effort to Win Middle East Hearts and Minds by Dafna Linzer An Arab-language television network and radio station, founded by the Bush administration to promote a positive image of the United States, has aired anti-American and anti-Israeli viewpoints, has showcased pro-Iranian policies and recently gave air time to a militant who called for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. So far, U.S. taxpayers have spent nearly $500 million to fund th

Local and the Future of Ad Serving

Last week I had two separate conversations that were very interesting thematically; both involved Yahoo! The first was with ShopLocal and the second was with Yahoo! itself regarding its deal with Publicis (specifically about mobile). The ShopLocal meeting was in part a discussion of the companyâ€™s recent Yahoo! deal and the mechanics of the dynamic ad serving and distribution of retailer content. Similarly, in the Publicis mobile case, Yahoo!â€™s platform is now going to determine the right ad t

Who will control your computers?

There is a broad disparity between the views of software manufacturers and their customers with regard to who is ultimately in control of the software running on the customer machine. Businesses (and consumers) like to think that they own the machines they have paid good money for, and that they are ultimately in control of what runs on the processors which they are paying to feed with electricity day in and day out. Software manufacturers view their creations as perpetually their own, regardle

Double Blue Impusle

On two occasions last year, we indulged my need for a "flying fix" by going to "Air Festivals" put on by Japan's Air Self-Defense Force featuring their aerobatic team "Blue Impulse". The Blue Impulse team flies Kawasaki T-4s, a Japanese designed and built jet trainer used by its Air Self Defense Forces (JASDF). Article 9 of Japan's Constitution prohibits the use of military force for any reason except self defense. This is why the armed services in Japan are not called "Navy, Army, and Air

David Caminer the first person to use Computers in business is no more.

David Caminer died at the ripe old age of 92, but he has left a rich legacy behind. He worked in one of the legendary chain of British tea shops Lyons, but his calling came when he a found the earliest ways to use a computer for business purposes, including standardizing flavorful, cost-effective cups of tea. The Leo Computers Society, whose purpose is to keep alive the memory of LEO, the computer Mr. Caminer helped develop for J. LYONS & CO, announced his death. Guinness World Records certifie

Billy Idol - Idolize Yourself

Billy Idol - Idolize Yourself Posted in Album Reviews, Billy Idol, Music on June 30, 2008 by rockofages Details : 2008, EMI, CD A new compilation sees former â€œGeneration Xâ€ frontman Billy Idol celebrate his career collecting together all of his solo hits and adding a couple of new tracks for good measure.Â Due out on July 17th there is also a deluxe edition that adds a DVD with 13 promos most of which will be remembered from heavy music television rotation towards the end of the 80s. Iâ€™ll be

Online Attacks for Political Reasons

It seems that the only time that state-sponsored online attacks are covered in the media is when someone wants to create a short term scare campaign that is focussed on driving business to a company, or on increasing funding or perceived relevancy for a government agency or group of agencies. Perhaps the best known case in the last few years was in Estonia, though there remains contention about who exactly was behind the attacks. Even though the official story is that an ethnic Russian in Eston

CitizenM Hotel Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Opening (3): Final Observations

I have uploaded my photos to my Flickr Account. Some final observations: The name Correctly spelled the name is CitizenM and not Citizen M. I cannot change this in my prior posts because of the archiving system I am using here. The Launch Party After the Press conference there was the official opening. Rattan Gandha and Micheal Levy held a speech and then everybody attending got a piccolo of champagne with the request to have the cork popping out at the same moment after a count down. The p

BitTorrent: An Educational Autopsy of the Hydra

The Disclaimer comes first The following post is a ton of fodder I have collected over the last year or two on BitTorrent and its implications for education institutions. This will all be fodder for an article in the EDUCAUSE Quarterly I have been promising for months, and the only way to get it out, was to blog it â€™cause Iâ€™m a sick addict. If you are brave enough to read through it all, feedback and some healthy peer review, additional sources, and perhaps a public flogging would be greatl

Piracy-lovinâ€™ librarians: How typical? Not very, as I see itâ€”but read e-novelist Cornelia Amiriâ€™s complaint

"We all love e-books because you can take that one download and send it to all your friendsâ€"so you have twenty of them instead of just one, and the publisher canâ€™t track you down or do anything about it.â€ Did a librarian from Baytown, Texas, really say that at a "Sci-Fi Fantasy Convention" in Houston? If so, whatâ€™s the full context, and might she want to apologize? The quote comes to us by way of Cornelia Amiri, a fifty-one-year-old novelist with 5,580 friends on MySpace. I donâ€™t know Corne

NEWS ALERTS 25.6.2008 15:00

25.06.2008 Has Google bitten off more than it can chew with Android? In the past few days, Google has had it rough with Android. While the 3G iPhone release date is approaching, Google has had to delay its plans for getting the Android platform onto mobiles, and in the meantime Nokia has just bought the leading smart phone operating system Symbian for â‚¬264m. â€¦ 25.06.2008 Spanish Point lands â‚¬400,000 OSI contract Irish start-up company Spanish Point has landed a â‚¬400,000 contract to provide Ord

Search Engines Preferred for Product Research

Just in case anyone out there was having a crisis of faith, the Opinion Research Corporation has good news for you: search engines are still the preferred method for conducting product/service research. In a survey of 736 adults released yesterday (PDF), ORC found that not only do most people prefer to use search engines for product research, they also read â€œonline customer feedbackâ€ heavily. That THAT, totally skewed Pew findings! 61% of respondents said they read â€œonline reviews, blogs and

Blogging Questions

Blogging Questions Iâ€™ve been researching student blogging in higher education. I find mainly 3 kinds of university blogging: 1.Student blogs run by either student services or admissions that aim to provide a â€œwindowâ€ into student life. I assume that these are supervised in some way. Perhaps the writers are even paid. These exist in abundance. 2.Completely open blog site where anyone can publish are much more rare. These havepolicies but individual blogs donâ€™t seem to be heavily controlled

White House illegalities: Worse than Nixon

FISA Compromise Bill Undermines Law Our laws matter, and they should be applied equally and fairly to the President, Congress, telecommunications companies, and every other citizen.By Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) June 23rd, 2008 There are many parts of this bill that I support. It reaffirms that FISA is the exclusive means for electronic surveillance, and it strengthens protections for Americans at home and abroad. If this was all that this bill included, I could support it. Unfortunately, the bill

CLS announces sale of one Leicester Square, WC2 ans Conventry House, SW1 for Â£57.2m

The Board of CLS is pleased to announce the sale of One Leicester Square and Coventry House, Haymarket to Aziz Family Trust Companies, represented by Criterion Capital, for a total price of Â£57.2m. One Leicester Square is a nine storey leisure and retail building occupying a prominent position on the north side of the square. It comprises 37,920 sq ft (3,523 sq m) and is let to Nickelodeon Huggins, Planright Limited, Sound Too Limited, Crest Trading and Empire Cinema. The property produc

Sony Ericsson Gets Best Marks In Greenpeace Green Electronics Guide

Having reported in an earlier journalistic lifetime on many of Hewlett-Packard and other electronics companies' efforts to green their products, it was a bit disappointing to go through the latest Greenpeace Guide To Green Electronics and see no one company can claim to be outstanding in designing, packaging, and safely recycling or disposing of the gadgets we all so rely on. Winner Sony Ericsson, for example, only recycles between 1 and 3% of its offerings. Wii not green In fact, tougher e-was

Bay Street Buzz

This information courtesy of Bill Vlaad, of Vlaad & Co.: â€œDoug Guzman has been promoted from the Head of Investment Banking, Canada of RBC Capital Markets (â€œRBC CMâ€) to the Head of Global Investment Banking. In New York, RBC CM has brought on seven investment bankers from Bear Sterns into their Municipal Finance Healthcare group. Kathy Costine, Rae Boylan and Nelson Luria are joining as Managing Directors while James LaVigne is a Director. Additionally, Marcella Finkel and Evie Wang are joini

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

This evening's Rescue Rangers are Got a Grip, Yashua, ezdidit, jlms qkw and noddem, with claude in the editor's chair. Momentous events this past week have led some Kogs to new, Political Insights NCrissieB shares their practical approach to politics in A pragmatist's view of principles, policy, and politics. (jlms qkw) fitz2 reflects on current news and their own views in A Week of Lessons About Politics. (jlms qkw) and some Recurring Concerns Humanity must come first. That is the argume

STORM FROM THE SHADOWS - Snippet 05

STORM FROM THE SHADOWS - Snippet 05: No one in Task force Eighty-Two â€" or anyone in the rest of the Royal Manticoran Navy, for that matter â€" had ever heard of the control system Shannon Foraker had dubbed "Moriarty" after a pre-space fictional character. If they had, and if they'd understood the reference, they probably would have agreed that it was appropriate, however. One thing of which no one would ever be able to accuse Foraker was thinking small. Faced with the probl

EZIO MEGA4

Phone features: â€¢ Camera and camcorder Use the camera module on your phone to take a photo or record a video. â€¢ Music player Play music files using your phone as a music player. â€¢ FM Radio and Recording Listen to FM Radio with search function and schedule FM Record â€¢ Bluetooth Transfer media files and personal data and connect to other devices using free, wireless Bluetooth technology. â€¢ Multimedia Message Service (MMS) Send and receive MMS messages with a combination of text, images, video, an

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Crime: Not Reported; Not Punished

It's not surprising that crime statistics in the U.S. show crimes against people and property are diminishing! A couple of personally-observed incidents make me realize that more and more crimes are not being reported to the police. These stories and other factors make me believe that significantly over 50 percent of crime is now unreported. Add to that the problem of relatively few captures of criminals and even fewer convictions, and you realize a huge and growing problem is not being dealt w

Rovio Wi-Fi Robot Webcam

Rovio an astonishing is compatible Wi-Fi robot webcam, moves easily in any direction and distance. It is by the same people, we led the field Robosapien and one of its developers has been done with the NASA space program. These costs novelty gadget can also be an additional cost to you at home and network security solutions. You can view and interact with the environment in Rovio by its streaming video and audio on his neck-mounted integrated digital camera of your own living room - or anywh

Porteur de Lâ€™Image - Through a Glass Darkly

Porteur de Lâ€™Image - Through a Glass Darkly Genre: Ambient, Electronica Don Hillâ€™s music project Porteur de Lâ€™Image is both strange and inspiring, sort of a â€œDark New Ageâ€ to coin a phrase. It appears that most consider this to be post-industrial, a description I will grudgingly concede. Through a Glass Darkly, which has the subtitle of â€œElectronic Sounds of Faithâ€, was originally released in 2003 from Epiphany records as a limited release but is now available as a free and legal MP3 album. O

â€œPrivate Market May Correct Over 3-6 Monthsâ€: KP Balaraj

Sequoia Capital India is clearly one of the largest funds in India - if not in terms of fund size but in terms of portfolio. They currently manage four funds (one of them being a growth stage private equity fund) with over $1 billion in assets. Half of the funds have been invested in 49 companies at last count. The money has gone into a variety of sectors such as IT/ITES, healthcare, financial services, retail, consumer internet, mobile and even FMCG and infrastructure sectors. Some of the rece

Blogging and Presenting at LegalTech West 2008

I was at the LegalTech West Convention in Los Angeles last week. There were several good presentations on e-discovery at this massive event, but the best by far was Craig Ballâ€™s E-Discovery Jeopardy. This was part of the Game Showtheme that he dreamed up for three e-discovery CLEs.Â If you think that is surprising, you might also be taken aback by the sign on the front row seats of each event: â€œReserved For Bloggers.â€ These seatsÂ were equipped with power strips to plug in blogger notebook com

How to choose an ecommerce product?

What is ecommerce? Ecommerce (www.ritecart.co.uk) can be described as a commerce conducted electronically. It is the whole process of being able to make a sale of the product over the World Wide Web. Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce (www.ritecart.co.uk) is g

Computer pioneer and tea-shop-automator David Caminer dies at 92

In today's NYT, an obituary for David Caminer, "the first corporate electronic systems analyst." He worked for the Lyons chain of tea shops in the UK, and developed early ways to use computers for business purposes in the 1950s, "including standardizing flavorful, cost-effective cups of tea." He died June 19 in London, at age 92. Snip: The death was announced by the Leo Computers Society, whose purpose is to keep alive the memory of LEO, the computer Mr. Caminer helped develop for J. Lyons &

EA brings Brain Quest to Nintendo DS in Autumn

EA brings Brain Quest to Nintendo DS in Autumn Posted in Screens, Nintendo DS, Games by Adam Riley on June 29th, 2008 at 22:21 For all those that are growing bored with the Brain Training duo, Big Brain Academy and the wealth of other copycat games that have so far flooded the market following Nintendoâ€™s success with its DS training titles, Electronic Arts may well have the perfect answer in the form of Brain Quest, a translation of a very popular book series. (moreâ€¦)

Tirupati Gomataram Conference

â€œThe entire culture of ancient India was based on cows and cow progeny.Â Cow Protection means to protectÂ the cows and bulls too from slaughter or physical harm According to Vedic standardsÂ cows and bullocks are â€œAGHNYAâ€,one which must never be killed.â€ The following is a bit of a long read but if someone is interested in cows, Vedic culture or varnashram, I think it is well worth the effort.Â This was received from Labangalatika dasi, former New Vrindaban resident and current cow protector

Korg DS-10 synthesizer in your pocket

Ok I was catching up with the 1up show and they had a segment on the Korg DS-10. Finally, one of the most powerful new drugs to hit the market is introduced for the very first time outside of Japan by Korg scientists Kazuhito Inoue and Masanao Hayashi. The DS-10 is set to out-perform even its predecessor, the mighty MS-10 thanks in part to its much smaller size, which leading musicology experts Torrey Walker and Ryan O'Donnell have declared to be "almost swallow-able!" Side-effects of the

Sonics Trial Is Done Son

After six days of draining testimony, the heated trial between the Seattle Sonics owner Clay Bennett and the City of Seattle officially ended Thursday, just hours prior to the NBA Draft. Judge Marsha Pechman announced she will issue a ruling by Wednesday of this coming week. The Judge will take all the testimony and evidence into account when deciding if the team will be forced to honor the lease at KeyArena and stay in Seattle for two more â€œlame duckâ€ seasons (according to Clay Bennett and his

Are Newspapers Doomed?--Posner

A newspaper is a bundled product. A bundled product is one that combines a number of products the demands for which may be quite different--some consumers may want some of the products in the bundle, other consumers may want other products in the bundle. (Another good example is the Windows operating system, a bundle of a number of different programs.) Bundling is efficient if the cost to the consumer of the bundled products that he doesn't want is less than the cost saving from bundling. A par

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: George Carlin, gone but not forgotten [Effect Measure]

This week we lost George Carlin. I only saw him once in person, sometime in the early seventies or maybe late sixties. He was already wildly popular and Mrs. R. and I weren't too flush with disposable income so we wound up sitting in the stratosphere of a gigantic theater, stuffed to the gills with Carlin fans. He was a tiny figure on stage from our altitude, but up close and personal with his hilarious routine. While electronic traces of that hilarious presence remain on YouTube and recordings

Sonyâ€™s Will Smith Stream Dreams

The Will Smith super-hero actioner Hancock hasnâ€™t even hit theaters yet, but Sony already has big plans for the movieâ€™s debut in your home. The company announced a new service that will deliver movies like Hancock directly to Internet-connected TV sets without the need for a set-top box or heck, even a cable or satellite subscription. The move is part of Sonyâ€™s overall vision to enable video downloading services to all of its main products like the PS3 (which has a video content service launc

Save a Tree or Two, Buy a Used Book

Iâ€™m usually an organized person. In the past, if I needed to find something, most generally I could have it in my hands within minutes. Thatâ€™s all changed. Although Iâ€™ve sorted, filed, packed away and gave away many items that I no longer use since my illness, Iâ€™m swamped. Iâ€™ve never been a materialistic person, and am consiously trying to simplify my life, and my surroundings. It doesnâ€™t take long for things to pile up. One area that needs a complete overhaul and sorting out is my collectio

What a Great Weekend....

It has been a great weekend. I just love the feeling of getting off work on Friday knowing the weekend is stretched before you and you have two days of freedom with no time schedule (except for church on Sunday). Saturday morning I woke up with feelings of PURE GLEE just getting to sleep in, which is usually never late. I was able to sip coffee and relax, not worrying about the clock. Saturday was cloudy and rainy at times. My kind of day as long as it is not like this EVERY day. I work

Review: Sony Mylo Personal Communicator COM-2

If you are wondering why Iâ€™m reviewing a gadget, itâ€™s because the Sony people sent me a unit. Iâ€™m guessing you guys are their target audience. The Mylo is an â€œinternet communication device,â€ which means itâ€™s a tiny laptop. The prime feature is you can use it like a phone with Skype because it has built-in wireless internet (there is a microphone and ear speaker). Mostly youâ€™ll be using it to surf the internet but add a Sony memory stick (no SD cards unfortunately) and you can use it to open fi

Featured: Marcus McFly

Itâ€™s imperative I bang on something or play something on a consistent basis. Not because Iâ€™m fearful of getting rusty, but because itâ€™s a major part of my life. Thereâ€™s no doubt in my mind Iâ€™ll be making music, in some capacity, my entire life. illRoots: Whatâ€™s up man? Marcus McFly: Peace fam. How are you? iR: Good, good. Do you have any new music coming? MM: Not in the immediate future, but Iâ€™ve been working on the EP behind closed doors. So I should have some demos wrapped soon. iR:

Sermon: Genesis 22:1-18

I have posted my sermon for today on my sermon blog. Itâ€™s based on Genesis 22:1-18 and entitled: Can You Pass The Test? I have never liked exams. I am one of those people that has â€œtest-itisâ€ when it comes to taking tests. I didnâ€™t look forward to exam week in school. I donâ€™t even like examinations by doctors. I donâ€™t even like those electronic tests they do on your automobile engines. Iâ€™m always afraid itâ€™s going to cost me a lot of money. Do you have â€œtest-itis?â€ Do you fear those mome

Marking work in Google Docs

What is the best way to give feedback on a piece of work produced in Google Docs? What formatting tools are most appropriate to use when leaving comments? How do you organise 30 to 60 pieces of work handed in to you? How do children hand in work? What new possibilities does this process uncover? These are some of the questions which will be driving my thinking in this post about assessing and giving written feedback on work that children have produced in Google Docs. It was at the beginning of

Cream Ibiza - Paul van Dyk

Cream Ibiza - Paul van Dyk Leading global clubbing super-brand Cream are proud to announce the latest Cream Ibiza mix album mixed by this yearâ€™s exclusive resident: Paul van Dyk. Grammy-nominated artist DJ, label owner and global megastar Paul van Dyk needs little or no introduction. Dominating electronic music charts and appearing at the top of Top DJ lists the world over it is clear to see why Paul is not only resident at the best club in Ibiza but has also been drafted in to mix their bran

Tired of Being Lied To

Are you tired of being lied to? I am. We supposedly live in a democracy. We supposedly have the mechanisms for an informed citizenry. We supposedly have mechanisms in place to protect the our health, security, and environment. Yet time after time we find we have been lied to. Unfortunately, the generally comes out way after the fact. What is even more frustrating is to be called names for trying to talk about the truth. While it may not silence those who are trying to inform and alert the popul

Orange Alert Music Minute

The backbone of hip hop is the DJ, and one of the best DJ's of the late nineties was a man out of Boston named Fakts One. His beats and scratches played a big role in the early albums by Mr. Lif among other Boston emcees, and he was a member of The Perceptionist. His solo debut album, Long Range, was scheduled to be released just after the first Perceptionist album back in 2005. However, the label stalled and finally folded before the album could reach the shelves. A devastated Fakts completely

Shopping for a Stove

Shopping for a Stove June 29th, 2008 As I think Iâ€™ve mentioned before weâ€™re in the process of putting on an addition to our house. Weâ€™re three weeks into the process and weâ€™ve taken hundreds of pictures. I really need to start posting about the processâ€"itâ€™s been very interesting. The new addition will, among other things, expand our little galley kitchen into a full eat-in kitchen. A few days ago we started considering new stoves actively and I must say Iâ€™ve found the process very discourag

Three from Brian Beletic

Basement Jaxx - Red Alert (1999, 10.5MB, 3:42) Fatboy Slim - Donâ€™t Let The Man Get You Down (2003, 9MB, 3:08) Lady Sovereign - Love Me or Hate Me (2006, 12.2MB, 2:43) Three videos from the funky fresh Brian Beletic. (Why doesnâ€™t a music video director have a website?) In any case, Beleticâ€™s work spans the last decade, these posted in chronological order. Basement Jaxxâ€™s video is conceptual: what if music was illegal? Love the idea and execution. The track itself takes me back to

The Crash Moderns: Where Did All The Scene Girls Go

(VOTE us to play WARPED TOUR!) â€œA mix of Pop/New Wave rock and modern sound, Goodnight Glamour Good Morning Disaster, the debut release from NYCâ€™s The Crash Moderns is full of catchy songs that will remain in your head for days. There are so many tracks on this album that have single written all over itâ€¦The electronic vibe, hand claps, and instant rock gratification is sure to turn your frown upside downâ€¦â€ [Melodic.net] Download | Subscribe | Subscribe in iTunes Links thecrashmoder

Search

Microsoft just made a 100 million acquisition of semantic search engine Powerset in its bit to improve existing Internet Searching Technologies for its Live Search. I use Live Search regularly and would say the results are now very comparable to Google and in the case of Image Search much better organised. Better search is always good, but as a lot of people have been expressing, searching in natural language (â€œwhat is the capital of France?â€) is not too useful for anyone who has used the Inte

Permanent link to Random Inspection of Your Laptopâ€™s Content at U.S. Border

Random Inspection of Your Laptopâ€™s Content at U.S. Border June 29, 2008 at 9:34 am Â· Filed under Politics, Gadget, Travel & Places Iâ€™ve travelled quite a bit in the past, but I didnâ€™t even know about this: US Customs and Border Protection agents can "randomly" seize your laptop, camera, cell phone and other electronic devices at the border for inspection - meaning theyâ€™ll take a peek at what youâ€™ve got stored in your machine: Bill Hogan was returning home to the U.S. from Germany in February

Some Photos form my office's Desktop

It is Sunday, and I'm checking my old photos... And then, I found my office's desktop photos. You may want to see them. Sometimes, my desk is clean but sometimes, it get horribly messy... This is the average looks of it. Working on these Wireless Rain Gauge development have build up my skills in linux bash programming and I learn a lot on how Single Board computer works. In the beginning, we just create a daughter board and attach it to a hacked LinkSYS WRT45GS board which I've installed Op

Sony PRS 505 E-Reader Reviewed

Itâ€™s been six months or so since I received the Sony PRS 505 E-Reader from my last employer as a generous going away present, and I forgot that I hadnâ€™t posted my thoughts on the device yet. After six months, I can safely say Iâ€™ve been relatively pleased with the device. For those that havenâ€™t seen or played with the device, the Sony PRS 505 is an electronic book, one of the first commercial application of â€œelectronic inkâ€, a passive display technology from E Ink Corporation. Unlike a traditio

Controlling the email monster

Intriguing account by Luis Suarez of IBMâ€¦ EARLIER this year, I became tired of my usual morning ritual of spending hours catching up on e-mail. So I did something drastic to take back control of my productivity. I stopped using e-mail most of the time. I quickly realized that the more messages you answer, the more messages you generate in return. It becomes a vicious cycle. By trying hard to stop the cycle, I cut the number of e-mails that I receive by 80 percent in a single week. Itâ€™s not t

Random Inspection of Your Laptopâ€™s Content at U.S. Border

Iâ€™ve travelled quite a bit in the past, but I didnâ€™t even know about this: US Customs and Border Protection agents can "randomly" seize your laptop, camera, cell phone and other electronic devices at the border for inspection - meaning theyâ€™ll take a peek at what youâ€™ve got stored in your machine: Bill Hogan was returning home to the U.S. from Germany in February when a customs agent at Dulles International Airport pulled him aside. He could reenter the country, she told him. But his laptop co

Plodding along in my slippers

I'm on the train headed for Manchester, NH and a work meeting. I always wonder why I choose the train right before I have to board at some ridiculous hour (because 3:15 am is indeed ridiculous). Nevertheless, once I claimed my seat this morning I was reminded of how pleasant the train can be. Unlike an airplane, my seats (because, let's face it, you can usually score a pair) are like my own private oasis. I have a plug for all of my electronic gadgetry, a seat that can recline and also not be b

Riding on the P.E.A.C.E. Scooter

Orin Oâ€™Neill photos I didnâ€™t get to meet Alix Bryan when her P.E.A.C.E. Scooter ride arrived in Seattle, due to scheduling difficulties on both our parts. Luckily, this year scheduling for both of us worked considerably better. A year has made a considerable difference. Where last year P.E.A.C.E. Scooter went from concept to departure in 40 days, there was almost a whole yearâ€™s worth of planning in this yearâ€™s ride, which follows a route designed to draw the circle in the peace sign. Expe

Mobile Phones Could Save the Airlines Millions

Filed under: Cell Phones, Summer Fun A consulting firm working with the airline industry seems to think that mobile phones are the secret to saving the beleaguered industry millions of dollars. The firm, SITA, says that if the airline companies learn to properly leverage the features on high-end cell phones, it could save $600 million in the next few years. SITA suggests using location-awareness functions like GPS to track passengers within the airport and to text message them with importa

NHS Scotland eHealth Strategy 2008 - 2011 Launched

The eHealth Strategy for 2008 - 2011 was formally launched by Nicola Sturgeon at this year's NHS Scotland Event. The vision for eHealth supports the goals as set out in the Better Health Better Care Action Plan. This is about exploiting the power of electronic information to help ensure that patients get the right care, involving the right clinicians, at the right time, to deliver the right outcomes. It is therefore as much about transforming traditional processes as it is about technology.

iGadget TY-425 Sudoku Electronic Puzzle Game $10 at Buy.com

Get the iGadget TY-425 Sudoku Electronic Puzzle Game for $50 - $40 instant discount = $10 shipped at Buy.com. The iGadget TY-425 is a portable Sudoku electronic push-button game with a backlit screen and 3 difficulty levels. It runs on two 'AAA' batteries (included). Sudoku is a puzzle game based around a 9x9 grid, divided into smaller 3x3 sections. Some cells are pre-populated with the numbers 1 to 9. Your task is to fill the remaining empty cells, so that each row, column and region contai

XtremeMac Tango Studio iPod Speakers Product Review

While it is not as portable as perhaps a headset, XtremeMac Tango Studio iPod Speakers weigh just over 1.5 kilograms and take up a space measuring only 16.5 centimetres in height, less than 30 centimetres in width, and under 10 centimetres in depth. Since it is not a large unit, some may find it lacking in the bass range, particularly at a distance. It is also lacking radio presets, although the next model in the line includes this feature for an additional Â£40 or so.

So Many Uses, So Little Crime

All for your own good, of course. MSNBCâ€™s Alex Witt talked to Newsweekâ€™s Michael Isikoff about a new proposal by the Bush administration to use satellites for domestic surveillance. Isikoff told MSNBC, â€œThe Homeland Security Department is talking about expanding the program to use military satellites really, for domestic purposes. They say the primary driver is natural disasters â€" like the recent flooding in the midwest â€" to pinpoint areas that are most hard hit and to help with responses, fir

Polivoks

images via this auction "The Polivoks is the most popular vintage Russian synth made in the early 80's - it was among the first synthesizers produced in the USSR. It had 2 oscillators with pulse or triangle waves, and 1 noise generator, the levels of which were controlled via the internal mixer. You could also connect an external input (guitar, electric piano etc) for mangling with the Polivoks' switchable high/low pass filter and LFO. Polivoks had been produced since 1982 by Formanta electroni

Obamaâ€™s Suspect Birth Certificate

After some questions about whether Barack Obama qualifies as a â€œnatural born citizenâ€ under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Barack Obama campaign released an electronic copy of what they purported to be Barack Obamaâ€™s birth certificate.Â Thereâ€™s a bit of a problem, however.Â The document that the campaign released does not appear to be legitimate, and officials of the State of Hawaii say they cannot authenticate it.Â At this point not only are some asking about whether he is lega

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Playing Indoors (Temporarily!)

One of the crazes that came after my childhood that never caught my attention was the video game in its various incarnations. Pong showed up when I was fifteen, followed closely by Space Invaders when I was eighteen. If I was going to get hooked, those were the primo ages to do it. It never happened. I always preferred pastimes that required physical involvement of real objects, rather than those electronically produced. I guess that's why I'm so baffled by the generations of kids who followed m

ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN AND HOWE - Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe (1989)

Some albums age gracefully, some do not. ABWH is in the later category. If you heard this back in 1989, when the only good prog releases were by relatively obscure bands, you were blown away by it. The classic Yes lineup (minus Squire but with the just as competent Levin) released an album that seemed to show an intention of getting back to their prog roots. Nowadays, when prog is much more easily found, this albums flaws are much more noticeable. Back in the day, though, this album generate

The mysteries of packaging

I sometimes wonder at the amount of packaging for certain products and how they are packaged. Why do they stuff paper inside shoes, for example? Why do plastic fruit juice containers have seals which need to be prised open with a crowbar? Why do electronic gadgets come in plastic thatâ€™s harder to open than a medieval maidenâ€™s chastity belt? Why does a tub of noodles, which is adequately sealed, have an extra layer of flimsy plastic to get through before you can remove the cover? Sigh.

Black Gold 360 2nd Album

Beluga Recordings are proud to announce the release of the album: â€˜SUITE 17â€™ by Black Gold 360 If you like dirty electronic jazz, youâ€™ll probably like Black Gold 360â€™s 2nd album â€˜Suite 17â€™. If you donâ€™t like dirty electronic jazz then you might like the album but you also might think itâ€™s a load of old toss, I donâ€™t know, just download and see anyways â€" itâ€™s free. Black Gold 360 AKA Beluga label boss Simon Sixsmith has teamed up with Hollandâ€™s finest jazz musicians to bring you this project.

Why We Shouldnâ€™t Ban â€œEnderâ€™s Gameâ€ From AP Reading Lists

I was interested to read about a recent kerfuffle erupting over Orson Scott Cardâ€™s Enderâ€™s Game. A parent protested the bookâ€™s status as required reading in AP English at a junior high school in Alvin, Texas (near Houston). The parent was concerned about violence and profanity in the book. It has been a while since Iâ€™ve read it, but I donâ€™t recall being annoyed by the level of profanity in Enderâ€™s Game. In contrast, I recently finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. This book was overly la

farewell, heads

Severed Heads are no more. This 5-disc boxed set collects a bunch of their earlier work. I only became a full-on fan at the start of the 90's (thanks, again, to a little show on 3PBS-FM that played lots of interesting electronic music on Sunday evenings), but collected whatever I could since then. There's plenty of other good stuff still available, too. It started with Cuisine - the CD shop at Monash Uni used to let you rent discs back then - I rented it, and ended up buying it. Bulkhead, a

Ladytron w/ Datarock, Sonar, Baltimore, 6/27

Ladytron w/ Datarock, Sonar, Baltimore, 6/27 Filed under Reviews/Live Show Review by Sam E. Running the sound for a live band is one of those thankless jobs where itâ€™s your assigned task to make yourself invisible. If youâ€™re doing it well, no one notices you â€" everyoneâ€™s attention is focused on the music. But should you fail, you become very, very visible, and you do it very quickly. I spent an awful lot of Ladytronâ€™s 6/27 show at the Sonar acutely aware of the sound guy. In fairness, I t

EA drops the ball

After almost a year and half year since the Wii launched, Electronic Arts has yet to produce a hockey game for the Wii, even though they have made numerous games for other sports.Â What makes matters worse is that EAâ€™s rival, 2K Sports, just announced recently that they will have an NHL game for the Wii ready by this October. I donâ€™t understand why Electronic Arts would not want to make this game. I think the Wii remote has the most potential in a hockey game than any other sport. You could b

Personal Health Records on the Hill

Last week, I joined the Project HealthDesign grantees in DC as they shared their projects on Capitol Hill. It was an opportunity for the grantees to brief members of Congress and their staff about personal health records (PHRs) and the importance of engaging patients in the design and functionality of PHRs. We've talked about Project HealthDesign before on this blog, so you may remember that Project HealthDesign focuses on the patient or end user. (Conversely, most PHRs available today respond

Good News

I get the occasional migraine, but I know people who are severely handicapped by almost-daily migraines. This would be a real boon to them: ScienceDaily (June 27, 2008) â€" A novel electronic device designed to â€œzapâ€ away migraine pain before it starts has proven to be the next form of relief for those suffering from the debilitating disease, according to a study conducted at The Ohio State University Medical Center. Results of the study, to be presented Friday (6/27) at the annual American Hea

My Town: SydneyThe Presets on Their Beach-City Paradise

The Presets, comprised of Kim Moyes and Julian Hamilton, have been taking the dance world by storm for several years. Known for hypnotic electronic pop beats, the boys from "Down Under," have moved many dance floors with their debut EP in 2003, Blowup and LP, Beams in 2005, the latter of which attained international acclaim and premier status within DJ circles. Their sophomore album, Apocalypso, released on Modular Records in May of 2008, topped with singles â€œThis Boy's in Loveâ€ and â€œMy People.

Used Cars

The price of new cars has steadily climbed over the past few years, making used vehicles more attractive than ever. Because new vehicles lose so much of their value as soon as theyâ€™re purchased, car shoppers are increasingly turning to previously owned cars as a smart financial alternative. Today, thanks to manufacturing and maintenance advances, used vehicles are better than ever and still a great value. Independent Used-Car Dealers - Independent used car lots are a potential source of afford

That sucking sound you've been hearing all week

It has been not quite a decade since Scott McNealy (then of Sun Microsystems) told a crowd of reporters, "You have zero privacy; get over it." That sucking sound you've been hearing all week is what's left of your privacy and freedom, circling the drain. Monday the postman brought a "privacy policy" notice from Verizon, our internet service provider, that reveals this company has granted itself the permission to monitor everything that passes from my computers through their servers, on the sus

UNKLE Goes Widescreen, Remixes X-Files

James Lavelle's electronic supergroup of sorts is back, and this time it's got an ear on cinema. It always has, to some extent: UNKLE's first effort Psyence Fiction, thanks to the able turntablist skills of DJ Shadow, kicked out the jams with audio from Star Wars and Blade Runner. This time around, UNKLE is without Shadow, but still neck-deep in sci-fi. Its latest effort is called End Titles...Stories for Film, and like every 21st-century musical release with a brain, it's going digital first

weekly legislative update (partial?)

Special note: There is a problem with the distribution of the daily legislative emails. Nothing has yet arrived for Friday and I think the legislature is in session this weekend also. If any bills were passed on Friday or this weekend a supplemental legislative update will follow. This may also be why only one of the legislative caucuses has posted a weekly update. This is a list of bills that passed the Pennsylvania House or Senate this week, and mention of any noteworthy resolutions. Standar

Al-Qaeda Chief U Freed To Remain In Prison

â€œSECOND AL-Qaeda chief to be freed in Britain,â€ screams the Times. Secret negotiations have taken place to arrange the release from a British jail of one of al-Qaedaâ€™s most important operatives in Europe, The Times has learnt. The prisoner, who can be identified only as U, is expected to be released from the high-security wing at Long Lartin jail next week. Itâ€™s too, too terrible. Times readers are outraged: The suicidal urges of the West are simply without historical precedent in the face

Interview: William Fowler Collins

There is nothing like driving across the country. Although it might sound a bit antisocial, I prefer to go it alone. There are no distractions, and nothing to stop you from completely losing yourself in your surroundings. Out of sheer desire (I assure you it is not boredom) you are compelled by unknown forces to try unusual new things and do what you would ordinarily choose not to do. I strayed from the beaten path whenever possible. I was constantly observing, listening to, and recording my c

Quon v. Arch: Curb Your Enthusiasm

The media got a little carried away with its praise of a recent federal court ruling that assigns certain privacy rights to text messages. The coverage, by and large, suggests that weâ€™re on the verge of a revolution in workplace wireless communications that will see workers rise up and seize control of their electronic content. Sounds like fun. But itâ€™s not gonna happen. Why not? Because the ruling in Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. is significant for some employees but less so for others.

U.S. gives Mexico no-strings $400 million for drug war

HUETAMO, Mexico - Victor de la Paz was riding back from school on a January evening with a friend, just three blocks from home, when uniformed men emerged from the darkness and motioned for them to stop. Moments later, a soldier opened fire with an assault rifle. De la Paz, 16, slumped to the ground in his bloodied school uniform, already fatally wounded as the soldiers wrestled his body from the car. The army said the boys ignored commands to pull over, but Victorâ€™s father said shots were f

Google Adsense Sucks

Well, I've lost my advertising here. Looks like Google is insistent that I validate my address by entering a PIN that they supposedly sent me. I've requested that it be re-sent twice, and still have not received one. They won't send me another. So I'm trying to deal with their customer service people, who apparently don't exist in any real form. My address is correct, I check the box a couple of times a week, and still nothing has arrived. They provide no other way for validating your existense.

British to Free Another Al Qaeda Leader

Clearly there's some sort of sick death wish going on here. Is there any adult supervision in the UK or did they put the Kos Kidz in charge?Secret negotiations have taken place to arrange the release from a British jail of one of al-Qaedaâ€™s most important operatives in Europe, The Times has learnt. The prisoner, who can be identified only as U, is expected to be released from the high-security wing at Long Lartin jail next week. Appeal Court judges ruled in April that the man, a 45-yea

If youâ€™ve got nothing to hide..

Two good (even entertaining, on a serious subject) articles in the Guardian: Jan Morrisâ€™s Davis fight is not just for liberty: It is for Britainâ€™s soul. (This was published a couple of days ago but itâ€™s well worth reading just to remind yourself that the whole world is not mad.) She says that Britain is becoming divided into two camps - those who care about freedom and those who are happy to give it up: of the contemporary two nations, it seems to me, by far the greater is giving up on liber

Yacht Insurance Is Necessary For Yacht, Since It Is Costly Like Charter Private Jets

Due to demand in business private jet there are many companies who are in aviation sector. The trend of flying in expensive private jets was set quite a long time ago. And there is also demand of yacht by many people.It is not uncommon for people to charter a yacht for only a few hours which isnâ€™t a real problem but those who decide on hiring of a day or more have certain things to think about. This can be an extremely enjoyable way to spend a few days but it is surprising how many people negle

"Five Myths About the New Wiretapping Law"

Patrick Radden Keefe (SLATE): Sometime today (maybe not-Howie), the Senate is likely to approve the most comprehensive overhaul of American surveillance law since the Watergate era. Unless you're a government lawyer, a legal scholar, a masochist, or an insomniac, chances are you haven't read the 114-page bill.. Don't beat yourself up: Neither have most of the 293 House members who voted for it last week. Ditto the mainstream press, who seem to have relied chiefly on summaries provided by the sam

Hey Kids: Less Electronic Media, More Make Believe

Psychologist Susan Linn believes that children are loosing touch with their natural ability to pretend and use their imaginations. In her new book, The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, she says that electronic gadgets and toys with a premade story are stifling kids exploration of new ideas. Creativity, empathy, learning and problem solving are all byproducts of make believe and Linn thinks weâ€™re boxing in and distracting the younger generation with all these commerc

Life with PlayStation yields news and weather

The Wii won't be the only console with news and weather channels. In the future Sony will release Life with PlayStation, a service with worldwide news and weather with a 3D Earth interface for the PlayStation 3. You can choose to read online news with Energetic, Relaxing, Dramatic, Happy, or Electronic background music. Alternatively, you can use your own music loaded on the PS3. It looks like the Sony presentation chose "Sunday Morning" from Maroon 5. "Everytime" from Britney Spears was ano

New Chemical Brothers album - Brotherhood

New Chemical Brothers album - "Brotherhood" Following their fifth consecutive number 1 album last year, the Grammy award winning 'We Are The Night', The Chemical Brothers return with 'Brotherhood' a best of collection with a kick and a twist, set for release on 1st September 2008. The Chemical Brothers have established themselves as true pioneers of electronic music and have become one of the most popular dance acts of all time. Now seems the perfect time to take stock of their seminal

BOWIE, DAVID - Changes One (1976)

Review Permalink | Submit a review for this album | Buy this album from PA partners Prog Folk (Studio Album, 1973) 3.12/5 (27 ratings) GRYPHON â€" Gryphon Review by ExittheLemming - A Third of the Way to the Court of the Crimson Queen - Hey Nonny No - Although Gentle Giant and Gryphon may appear rather strange bedfellows (and who fancies either cleaning up the feathers afterwards or sitting on the eggs ?) they do share some common ground by their use of source materials and derive

Disney shows off E3 titles that will earn it some gamer cred

LOS ANGELESâ€"Disney Interactive Studios previewed what it said was the best of its E3 video game trade show line-up last week, as part of a tour for game critics. After failing to garner critical praise for its re-launch of the dinosaur-shooting game â€œTurokâ€ earlier this year, Disney is going after the hardcore racing gamer with the off-road ATV game â€œPureâ€ on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This is the first title from Disney-owned, UK-based Black Rock Studio (formerly Climax Racing), which i

Credit Reporting Agencies

by Ray Lam Credit reporting agencies maintain electronic records of your credit activities. Today, there are three major national credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. If you are planning on applying for a loan or credit anytime in the near future, itâ€™s a good idea to obtain a copy of your credit report. There are three nationwide consumer reporting agencies, which compile the credit reports. These can also be purchased form any of these three agencies, or any other company, that

Michael Geistâ€™s 61 Reforms for C-61

p2pnet news P2P:- | Politics:- Ottawa, law professor Michael Geist has taken on an ambitious project. â€œToday marks the first day of the House of Commons summer recess, yet there are just 61 weekdays until it is scheduled to resume on September 15th,â€ he said on Monday, going on: â€œThere are just 61 weekdays until it is scheduled to resume on September 15â€³. So, â€œIn light of that numerical coincidence,â€ he launched the first of a 61 Reforms for C-61 series whichâ€™ll feature a, â€œnew necessary r

Letâ€™s make Northfield a train â€˜quiet zoneâ€™

In the Northfield soon to be without a cineplex discussion thread, Anne Bretts wrote about a theater chain owner/developer: When he was still excited about the project he said that the Q-block wouldnâ€™t have enough parking and the property owners werenâ€™t to sell. But he said the key problem was that he wouldnâ€™t put a movie theater next to railroad tracks because there was no effective way to soundproof the building. When Heidi Hamilton was City Engineer, she began pursuing the possibility of

Of many evergreen songs....

I was surfing through Youtube for many songs that were popular in the 90s. Since i did not have the means to purchase that many CDs back then, many of the songs were either played frequently on radio or I somehow managed to listen to friend's discmans and walkmans then. Those were considered luxury goods and to be able to afford 1 is certainly something. By the way, my Panasonic discman purchased in 1997 is still running strong and Angela is still using it today. Nowadays, electronic goods are n

OrtzRoka: Planets

And now for a head-trip around the planetary systems. From the UK, experimental electronic duo OrtzRoka has been recently described as â€˜half mental techno, half down tempo mint and waterâ€™ by Fluokids. I have no earthly idea what that really means although it sounds like a sobering glass of water to the face at the end of a mildly eye glazing headphone session on the summer patio. OrtzRoka cut their teeth DJing, and creating remixes for more established artists such as Simian Mobile Disco, Blo

MOVIE REVIEWS: Defending Your Life, ID4, Andromeda Strain

Movies I've seen recently, two on DVD, one recorded on the DVR. Defending Your Life (1991), lent to me by a co-worker, is an Albert Brooks movie, by which I mean he directs, writes, and stars in a film that's about what happens after one dies, a vaguely familiar version of one's earthly existence. But everyone gets to see the highlights and lowlights of their past and have to explain their actions. Brooks' character meets and falls for another of the recently deceased, played by Meryl Streep.

Japanese students using DS in English classrooms

Forget the Wii. The DS is the real revolution in Japan, where students at the Tokyoâ€™s Joshi Gakuen junior high school for girls are learning to spell in English using Paon Corp.â€™s English training DS software instead of the companyâ€™s textbooks. The school is getting free systems and software to serve as a trial run for the educational program, which has won over both school administrators and parents. A giggly class of 32 seventh-graders used plastic pens to spell words like â€œhamburgerâ€ and â€œc

The Economic Meltdown

Dickens opened his novel about the French Revolution â€" actually about much more, but set in that time â€" with those famous words about it being the best of times, and, simultaneously, the worst of times. Everyone knows that opening paragraph, which of course is about how all times seem extraordinary, and dire, at the time â€" but theyâ€™re not, really, expect when they are. His hero does go to the guillotine in the end, and does lose his head, so those particular times do count as extraordinary.Â

links for 2008-06-28

Chicago Reader Blogs: Chicagoland: Thereâ€™s a lot of ways to make money in this world, but I canâ€™t recommend mortgage fraud â€˜Whereâ€™d the money go? Um, that depends on what you mean by â€œmoney.â€ I wish I was kidding. When the wave started to break, Morris writes, â€œthe CFO of Citigroup did not know how to value his holdings.â€â€˜ (tags: economics) Chicago Reader Blogs: News Bites: Will Newspapers Survive? â€˜When someone in the audience asked the most pointed question of the evening â€" young people un

Okay, I know this is redundant, butâ€¦

Work with me. If itâ€™s at all unclear, Iâ€™m unhappy (wow, thatâ€™s a euphemism!) with the Rogers Wireless plans, and the general care and attention they pay to their clients. I mean, what other company, after months of knowing that theyâ€™ve scored the lucrative EXCLUSIVE contract with APPLE to sell their iPhone across Canada, and collect INSANE amounts of cash for the luxury of using said iPhone in our country â€" What other campany would leave their current clients in the lurch, and charge all clie

A quick peek under the apron, beagle attack and the 'return' of two old favourites

What an exciting week it's been for the massed lunatics of the far-right. This last week has seen Lee Barnes, the BNP's legal beagle, have a go at us because according to him we at Lancaster Unity are all racists, and the North West Nationalist blog getting into a frenzy at the news (?) that Nick Eriksen and Tony Lecomber had returned to the BNP fold. Oh yes, and that Nick Griffin's father Edgar has been a Freemason for the past sixty-odd years. Taking these in reverse order for no particular

No Friday Snippet

I guess that's not coming as a surprise. I said in my update to last week's snippet that I didn't paste in until Wednesday (sigh) night that if I hadn't squeezed another half a K out by Friday night I was going to skip the snippet this week. I can't be having that hanging over me for the Read-a-thon tomorrow. And Sunday? Well, do I have to spell it out? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I was starting to work on the snippet this afternoon. But then my niece came over. The one I've mention here so

U-Command Wall-E from Thinkway Toys

Itâ€™s been about a decade since Iâ€™ve played with any RC toys, because frankly, remote control things sucked when I was a kid. Like any young male, I had a remote controlled racecar or two, but while I was growing up, all RC cars suffered from Severe Battery Uselessness, or â€˜SBUâ€™, which is an acronym that I just made up. There was no cure. You could run an RC car for about 3 minutes on 37 D batteries or a clunky rechargeable battery, and out of nowhere, it would be stricken with immobility. The

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation: George Carlin's subtle taunting gets to the Supremes & we learn the meaning of Community Standards

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation: George Carlin's subtle taunting gets to the Supremes & we learn the meaning of Community Standards Submitted by HongPong on Tue, 2008-06-24 23:10. Given the circumstances in Minnesota - with Al Franken's writings back in the day - I have thought a lot lately about the classic Supreme Court First Amendment cases. The rules here are unique, and these days many spots in the world are moving closer towards regulating political speech. In 1972 George Carlin got ar

Gingold Talks Spore's 'Magic Crayon' Approach

[Ahead of covering the Blizzard Invitational in Paris for us, N. Evan Van Zelfden was kind enough to stop off in Holland to check out the NLGD show, and so he caught ex-Spore designer Chaim Gingold talking about the surprisingly complex, loving thought processes behind building things in the game.] Shortly following the high profile release of EA's Spore Creature Creator, former lead designer Chaim Gingold gave a keynote titled â€œMagic Crayons: Spore and Beyondâ€ at the Dutch Festival of Games,

Moodle: Make Assignment Description Optional

It's admirable that the Moodle development team wants to require a description for each assignment. The description field provides instructions to the student. It makes it easier to browse all the assignments for a course. However, I work with a lot of teachers who want to post as quickly as possible and who are not accustomed to a completely electronic, web-based course format. The solution? Make the description field optional, so that they are not required to enter something into this field fo

The digital answer to â€œthe skyâ€

Section: Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle It would appear the nature is slowly becoming obsolete. Who needs real plants when fake ones are easier to look after? Who needs real light when light bulbs, light balls and light walls are easily available? And who needs beautiful scenery when you can make it in Photoshop? It is becoming more common for people to just ignore nature, and instead replace it with expensive electronic gadgets. And it would appear that not even the sky is excluded

Chemical Brotherhood

To celebrate thirteen years at the top of the heap, The Chemical Brothers are to release a new two-disc best of album including some of their biggest singles - 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl' and Block Rockin Beats' to name only two. 'Brotherhood' will be released through Virgin Records on 1st September 2008. The second bonus disc compiles their shit-hot underground series of 12" only techno cuts, the rare and sought after 'Electronic Battle Weapons volumes 1-10'. The package will be preceded by a b

We can thank the car companies for the oil fix we're in

Look at the background of this cute Norwegian car called a Think: (my bold) Think's journey to the world market has been similarly full of detours. The company (previously called Pivco) began in 1991 and by 1998 had built more than 1,000 small and charismatic electric runabouts, sold mostly in Norway (where you still see a few on the road). Then, in 1999, the company was bought by the Yankee giant Ford Motor Co., which was scrambling at the time to comply with California's Zero Emission Veh

"Don't Trust The Fed"

"The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their

Friday, June 27, 2008

Dead Space: quite new space horror game

Dead Space: quite new space horror game 27th 2008f June 2008 A small video dedicated to the game Dead Space has been published in the net. This time the developers tell us what role in the project music and sounds play. Given that specialists are developing a horror, it is understandable that the game wonâ€™t do without great soundtrack. This game promises to be something totally new for Electronic Arts. Internal studio EA Redwood Shores is going to build a very intensive fantasy thriller, lik

Explosives Sniffing Police Dogs Offend Muslims..

Not only that, but their complaints are being taken seriously! Apparently there have been numerous complaints by Muslims over the use of sniffer dogs to detect explosives by British police in areas like airports and subway terminals because Muslim culture considers dogs to be unclean animals. There are even verses in some of the Hadiths calling for the killing of all dogs as a holy act unto Allah, and in case you didn't realize, this was what was behind Muslim cabbies here in America re

Text 100 APAC Blogging Survey

As part of our work in the new/peer media space Text 100 recently conducted an Asia-Pacific wide survey of bloggers to find out exactly how they like to engage with PR agencies and in turn corporations. On Thursday the survey findings were made public, hereâ€™s a bit of an overviewâ€¦ Key Points: In what is believed to be the first survey of its kind conducted in Asia Pacific, this survey highlights the similarities and differences between bloggers across APAC and their preferences for workin

Unmodified Contact Error Solution Guide

I just went through this whole problem and I learned alot. I thought I'd post a guide with all the steps (from easiest to a complete wipe) I gleaned from research. So, one day you're trying to join a server. It loads fine, but as soon as you attempt to press "Join" it freezes and then this lovely error comes up. "This Server Only Allows Players with Unmodified Content. Please Revert To The Latest Official Version." Or something like that anyway. This begins what can be a long proce

The best and worst third-party Wii publishers

Third parties, Iâ€™d like to apologize. I have been pretty scathing toward you lately. In fact, Jack and I have both been throwing rotten tomatoes at you vigorously over the last year or so, and although our chuckling behind the bushes may suggest otherwise, I feel pretty bad about it. After all, some of you are releasing really good Wii games, and it would be wrong to not recognize your successes on the same level we have pointed out your failures. I would like to make it up to you, or at leas

Daft Punkâ€™s Electroma Out On DVD

Daft Punkâ€™s Electroma - an art-house style movie that doesnâ€™t feature their music and is only thematically related to their other work - is now out on DVD. The movie follows the two Daft Punk robots, Hero Robot No. 1 and Hero Robot No. 2, on a road trip across the US Southwest. The film explores the idea of what it is to be human. While the movie got respectful reviews, it only got limited showings because of the nature of the film and the fact that the movie doesnâ€™t feature Daft Punkâ€™s music

Black Black Jocelyn

I guess it a great day, went back to dunman for npcc and had dinner with my jiejie(Jocelyn). I wanted to do my econs tutorial in the morning when I reached school but I did not realised that I fell asleep while sitting on the bench. Lucky the teacher did not go through the tutorial. I guess accounting is starting to get tough, the lecture was long and kind of dry. Aaron, kh and fred came to my lecture and skip theirs which was at 4pm. POM lecture was still ok except that me and jaymin were chall

Test Run - good results

My first run in over a decade but had years and years of practice before my break . I had started 4 and ended up with 2 chicks . I had and still have intentions of a 600HPS but had to buy a lawnmower as well as brakes and rotors for my car . I only want to go to the grow store once and want to have enough for everything including the proper exhaust so I decided to use my veg lights to see how it went . I have a 6 tube T5 and an assortment of larger CFL's . I decided while this was a small

Keyboard Choir - A Journey Through The History Of Electronic Music.

Keyboard Choir, a band described as â€œa journey through the history of electronic musicâ€ is a collective of six musicians who try to make music with the turbulence and dynamics of traditional â€˜ensembleâ€™ performance, using purely electronic sound sources and â€˜found soundâ€™. â€œWhen we started we toyed with the idea of being a loose, random collective with people coming and going but it didnâ€™t work, it was too loose and random. We got our act together and in late 2006/early 2007 we began recording

EA loves the Wii, announces â€œAll-Playâ€ series of games

Who will be on the cover of FIFA? When I tell friends Iâ€™m going to play video games for work they typically think Iâ€™m lying or just slacking off. Yesterday was one of those days where I did go and play games for work. I got a hands on with EAâ€™s upcoming line of â€œAll-Playâ€ titles for the Nintendo Wii. Titles included are NCAA Football 09 All-Play (release 7/15/08), Madden NFL 09 All-Play (8/12/08), Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 All-Play (8/26/08), NBA LIVE 09 All-Play (10/7/08), and FIFA Soccer 09

The best songs of 2008 so far

Photo from Corey Meredith Another half-year is through, and I'm feeling pretty hopeful. Thus far, it's been a promising six months with lots of great music originating from all sorts of sources. If you've been willing to put in the effort and diversify your tastes, rich rewards lurk in just about every niche. As this list of song list attests, my ear has been largely tuned to electronic and hip-hop in 2008, both of which are showing encouraging signs of life. Hip-hop in particular is on tr

FishWrap: Walt Mossberg's Pocket . . . It Takes Hundreds of Twos to Tango . . .

[Wrapping up the week in three dots . . .] Mark Adams COO Conversation Group . . . Mark Adams, the co-founder of Text 100 and Next15 Communications is taking over as COO at the Conversation Group. He'll be spending about a week every 6 weeks here in San Francisco. Last time I saw Mark he was over at Chris and Kristie Heuer's place figuring out how he could walk to SF airport the next day to catch his flight. No amount of cajoling could dissuade an Englishman with a mission. Mark took a ta

Buy Rock Band (PS2) for $110 at GameStop

Have a PlayStation 2? Want to be a rock and roll star? Canâ€™t afford real instruments or hours of demanding lessons and practice? Cheap? Well you and your friends are in luck! At your local Gamestop (Electronic Boutique, EB games, itâ€™s all one big conglomerate) until August 13 you can get your hands on the Rock Band PS2 bundle for only $109.99, which according to the advertisement and my own rudimentary math skills is $50 off the normal price. So if youâ€™ve been holding off because you couldnâ€™t

Crysis: Warhead Preview Trailer

Â Â Electronic Arts and Crytek have released a new trailer for their upcoming expansion pack, in-line sequel, Crysis: Warhead, and in a nutshell, it looks like more of the same.Â The graphics look good, and the action is there, but there seems to be nothing they are showing right now, that makes the game look any different from the first game.Â We will probably here more about Crysis: Warhead as it nears release, but as of now, I canâ€™t say that I am excited about this right now.

[$4.95] Electronic Sudoku Portable Game Unit 15,000 Puzzles by Yugster

Condition: Brand New in Box eSudoku 15K Portable Game Unit The Ultimate Numerical Challenge If you`re planning a trip this summer, leave the book behind and take up a REAL challenge Sudoku, a logicbased number placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9amp;amp;times;9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3amp;amp;times;3 boxes contain the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid. If you`re up for a little brainteasing, b

A luddite chalks

All may appear quiet here at JH Towers. But megalomania never sleeps. PC#1 is at the fixers for some serious motherboard welding. And this fall back laptop is being bolstered by a backup file server based on some surplus kit and a mega hard drive (you can NEVER have enough backups!) Then there's the time spent monitoring the response to the Wildcamping Petition, and working on the next steps along with the rest of the support team. So I went back to work today. This holiday lark only w

AirPiano Lets You Control Music With Wave Of Your Hands

Omer Yoshaâ€™s AirPiano is a new musical interface which lets you play and control software instruments by moving hands in the air. Above the AirPiano is a virtual matrix of keys and faders, each assigned with MIDI messages and ready to be triggered. The length of a triggered note is equivalent to the time a hand is placed on the corresponding virtual key. This is also confirmed by LED feedback Hereâ€™s a video of the AirPiano in action: The AirPiano is still in its prototype phase and its c

catch-up

I went from one insane, politically-charged project with a super-tight deadline to another. Hence the lack of posting. I am, in fact, actually working on said project right now. Well, to be absolutely precise, Iâ€™m taking a break for a few minutes. Thereâ€™s only so long you can stare at an electronic medical record before you stop seeing detail and start making mistakes. So, Leahâ€™s gone. Her visit was so wonderful - we adore that girl, and I just LOVE having her around. We have a lot in common,

It was Doomed from the Start

As many of you from Twitter know, yesterday I was in Oklahoma for work. While the presentation went well, the trip was filled with landmines, many of which I barely escaped. I'll explain. I arrive in Oklahoma City on Wednesday and head to the car rental company to pick up my vehicle. The woman at the desk informs me that all they have left is a Mercury Marquis. Ok. Sweet. I'll be driving my grandpa's car, I think to myself. I head out to the car, load up, get out my Google Map direction

I hate electrical equipment...

and it seems to feel similarly towards me. I bought my laptop - this laptop right here - three years ago. February of '05. Immediately after purchasing it, it did this thing were, if you moved it too quickly, it shut down. I thought, for a while, that laptops did that. A few months later, SisterJ purchased her laptop and I noticed "wow, you can move it without treating it like it is plutonium and it still works!" So I asked my HP people what was wrong with the puter and they said "Send it to

The world, it is a sponge

I am a crazy-deliberate Scrabulous player, which does not show in the words I play, since I so often lay down â€œWOâ€ or â€œET.â€Â But I have been playing uber-slow games with people for the past couple months, and in the last two weeks, I have started playing a little moreâ€¦ Iâ€™m about back at the level I was when I first got interested in it.Â Today around 5, I decided that Iâ€™d kill the pre-dinner hour with some live games, so I used the â€œhost a tableâ€ feature for the first time and started playing s

Noted California Expert Irwin Nowick on Supreme Court Decision Interpreting the Second Amendment on the Right to Bear Arms and How It May Affect Existing and Proposed Laws

By Irwin Nowick A number of folks have asked for my comment on the Supreme Courtâ€™s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. I generally agree with the analysis of Dr. Cavala in his Blog posting but I did want to comment on a couple of issues. First off â€" and I noted this in a March 2007 article - given the wording of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, the court upheld CA style licensing and registration in terms of most guns â€" in fact they went further than we go in allowing certain t

Purchase the Apple iPod Touch - What You Are Getting (and Why You Should Get It)

Though many of us aren't willing to get the new iPhone because it signs us into a two year contract with AT&T, it would still be nice to be able to reap the benefits of this amazing bit of technology. No worries, Apple has released for purchase the Apple iPod Touch 8GB (as well as 16 and 32GB for serious users). You may or may not know what's included when you purchase the apple iPod Touch, so this article will break it down for you.

4GB Samsung MP3 Player - Product Details

The 4GB Samsung MP3 Player comes in two guises, the Samsung YP-S5 and the Samsung YP-T10 both offer bluetooth wireless connections, but only the Samsung YP-S5 incudes slide out speakers. The YP-S5 looks a little like an open laptop with a base and angled screen, where the angled screen is actually hiding the speaker system while the YP-T10 looks more like a mobile phone with a large two inch screen for watching videos. The YP-S5 has the larger feature set including built in clock, FM radio recorder, 4GB internal memory and playing MP3 and WMA file formats. ...

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation: George Carlin's subtle taunting gets to the Supreme Court & we learn the meaning of Community Standa

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation: George Carlin's subtle taunting gets to the Supreme Court & we learn the meaning of Community Standa Submitted by HongPong on Tue, 2008-06-24 23:10. Given the circumstances in Minnesota - with Al Franken's writings back in the day - I have thought a lot lately about the classic Supreme Court First Amendment cases. The rules here are unique, and these days many spots in the world are moving closer towards regulating political speech. In 1972 George Carlin got

EA: Prepare For Peripheral-Based Sports Games

The success of peripheral-based games like Rock Band and Wii Fit has inspired Electronic Arts to release some sports titles that include specialty controllers. Gamasutra reports that EA Sports vice president David McCarthy, during a Q&A session following his address at Game Developers Conference Paris on Tuesday, said that such games will be released within the next 12 months. "You have to be careful with it, because Rock Band, that's a great peripheral, but it's a big expensive box," he

links for 2008-06-27

links for 2008-06-27 BUL-OL: Bulawan Online. Panitikan para sa Dangal ng Bayan Hunyo 2008 â€" BUL-OL: Bulawan Online. Panitikan para sa Dangal ng Bayan Ang Tagasulat ng Liham â€" BUL-OL: Bulawan Online. Panitikan para sa Dangal ng Bayan blogadeur.com - Kobe Bryant to lead US team in 2008 Beijing Olympics 10 SEO Tips http://www.makati.gov.ph/portal/news/view_news.jsp?news_id=1946 - Makati City Portal One day at a time: Electronic jeep launch! One day at a time My Life in Pictures

Animated Automata Greeting Cards with Sound

For some time now, many greeting cards have featured a small electronic sound device that is triggered when the card recipient opens the card. Greeting card maker Hallmark has introduced a new line of greeting cards that also incorporate motion. Their motion-related cards come in two forms. The motion-only variety feature a small finger-crank on the lower right face of the card that, when rotated, sets the design on the face of the card in motion. Hallmark has also introduced a few larger-form

More on Bingaman and FISA

I posted about Sen. Jeff Bingaman's vote for cloture on the FISA bill yesterday, and received a response from the Senator's staff providing an explanation of the vote. According to State Director Terry Brunner, Sen. Bingaman "believes it is reasonable to debate the bill to allow it to be altered." In that vein, Sen. Bingaman has drafted an amendment to the bill -- designed to fix problems with the telecom immunity provisions -- that's currently being circulated in the Senate to garner co-sponso

Are iPhone app devs getting a raw deal?

Filed under: Rumors, App Store We mentioned yesterday a rumor that Apple won't cut a check for iPhone application developers until the dev's share of the sales tops $250. A lot of commenters were upset about this, if it's true: TomWBrowning said "So if you make an app that costs $1 you won't see a penny even if 359 people buy it?" From the (indie) developer's perspective, this stinks. They've already paid at least $99 just to participate, and now they have to wait until they make (potentially

The Rising Price of Oil: How High is Up?

The Rising Price of Oil: How High is Up? June 27th, 2008 The price of oil continues to skyrocket with no clear end in sight: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) â€" Oil prices touched a record high above $142 a barrel Friday, before easing a bit, prompting several analysts to predict that the market is headed for an even greater milestone: $150. At 11;14 a.m. ET, light, sweet crude was up 70 cents to $140.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The front-month contract had hit an all-time high o

Priorities (UPDATED)

UPDATE: This has to go at the top because this post may be incorrect in its basic point. It seems thereâ€™s real question about whether the GA passed the $2 million request, or simply set up a fund that concerned Presbyterians could donate to, or something else all together. Iâ€™ll get clarification and post more on this later. UPDATE: This is the final text of item 3-21, which is the overture regarding legal fees: That the 218th General Assembly (200 do the following: 1. Provide funds to the

A lamp made of plates

With the population growing and the amount of trash piling up from it, weâ€™ve started finding a need to reuse old items.Â One new way to do so is to take old discarded plates and create something like this cute little lamp.Â This particular design was done by Denis Belenko and Dmitriy Nkolaenko and posted on their site this month.Â They created two different styles, one is extremely contemporary and the other much more childlike and playful.Â Which just goes to show with these little lamps you

Reading the Bible in Church

This is proving a popular topic for Baptist bloggers and those who write letters to the Baptist Time at the moment. I have to smile a very wry smile, and wonder what C H Spurgeon would have made of the more conservative churches whose overt use of the Bible is minimal whereas the more middle-of-the-road and liberal churches retain traditional patterns with reasonable chunks of Old and New Testament each week. Sorry CHS, my old mate, the downgrade wasn't where or what you thought it was! A lo

Oh Horror, Oh Woe, Oh Grief! Some Of My Stash Is Missing!

I'd better warn the faint of heart right from the beginning that the end of this blog is truly terrifying. Cocooned in your sheltered safe little knitting world, you may not know that there are threats and risks out there which could endanger the very heart of your home - that is, your closely-guarded and treasured stash. Free-floating, entirely random threats which could strike at any moment, when you least expect it. For you, gentle ones, read on if you will, but only to the 'BUT'. For the s

DIY Anti CCTV Glasses - hide your face from the nasty cameras with these digital hoodies

DIY Anti CCTV Glasses - hide your face from the nasty cameras with these digital hoodies posted by Nigel in gadgets...!, diy Fed up with being watched? Then you need to make yourself some Anti CCTV Glasses [video]. Not rocket science, just some ordinary shades with two UV LED lights embedded in the frame. Youâ€™ll need some electronic smarts and a drill. Of course youâ€™ll need to be facing the cameras head on for these to work, so try and avoid all those giveaway profile shots OK? And

Dirt Devil

Dirt Devil June 27, 2008 Are you suffering from the recent fuel price hike? Well, when the fuel price increases, energy cost will follow suit. Starting from next week, I need to pay 20% more for my energy bill and that is not a small increase because it is going to put a burden in my monthly expenditure. Therefore I really need to find other alternatives in saving my energy cost. When you add 20% to every month, youâ€™ll realize it is not merely one month increase. The cost will go even higher

Yup "another" electric bill thread

hi everyone! just thought i'd make my first post about electric bills since i been lurking for about 2 weeks and have seen how you like them so much:razz: anyway... can a HID light be dimmed with a dimmer switch? if yes is there some sort of electronic dimmer that can be set to increase the voltage over, oh, maybe an hour that way people won't have to be worried about the sudden spike associated with the 12/12 light cycle? or maybe the ballast has to put out full volts to star

Friday's Contests & Giveaways

For a list of my current giveaways, please see the sidebar. Just for Women Hip Mama's Place - Beatnik Bracelet from Twisted Silver (July 2nd)Seven Dogs and A Baby - Chumby Tee and Charm Set (July 3rd) Green Mom Finds - Skeeda Tote Bag (July 10th) Just for Kids dkMommy Spot - Dragon Bubble Wand (June 29th)Classy Mommy - Transformers DVD (July 2nd)Green Mom Finds - Think Green by eanine Behr Getz (July 4th) mod*mom - Tickets to Doof-A-Palooza at Google HQ (July 9th)MomReviews - Fancy Nancy

Logitech Harmony One Remote Review

Iâ€™ve been pretty content over the years with my Sony RM-AV3000 universal remote. However, a couple of my buddies have been really going on and on about the Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote. So I decided to give the Harmony another try. This is not my first Harmony remote. I had one of the earlier models and I just didnâ€™t like it. It wasnâ€™t very forgiving if anyone turned on or off a device by hand. It just seemed like it was more work than it was worth. This remote is much improved over

Walk Score

Weâ€™ve had some reasons to not be thrilled about where we live (no covered parking, very drafty, street noise, a neighbour that wants to be a drummer, primitive wiring), but it also has itâ€™s positives.Â We have a large fenced in backyard so the dogs can play.Â Itâ€™s on the way for a few of Johnâ€™s coworkers so itâ€™s easy to rideshare. For me, without a car and with some difficulty getting around â€" just about everything I need is easily within walking distance.Â I found WalkScore today and plugg

Treachery at the Japanese Steakhouse: Epilogue

â€œSo both Tag Larkin and Ninja Vicki left without paying?â€ I say. â€œYeah, and we had to cover their portion of the bill,â€ says Mikka. Weâ€™re sharing some post-date beers at the bar. â€œThis has completely ruined my budget for the week.â€ â€œCanâ€™t even take Samurai Cathy out on a Dollar Menu Date to McDonaldâ€™s, eh?â€ I say. â€œActually, I donâ€™t have to worry about taking Cathy out because shesâ€™s going on a week-long meditation sabbatical,â€ says Mikka. â€œAll because of Tag Larkin.â€ â€œSo I take it her fir

World In Conflict: Soviet Assault - My Next Drug of Choice

World in Conflict is by far the most addicting PC game Iâ€™ve played in my entire life.Â From jaw dropping graphics to realistic gameplay, there isnâ€™t a Real Time Strategy game (RTS) in the market that fully captures the essence of war.Â My addiction has gone so far, where I have to be literally pulled away from my PC to stop playing. Launch a napalm strike to decimate a forest or call in a nuclear missile to wipe out your enemies.Â Thereâ€™s an infinite amount of strategies a player can employ to

PopCap Games takes a stab at games in China

U.S. video game companies havenâ€™t done well in China. Stymied by piracy and sometimes unable to understand the tastes of Chinese gamers, theyâ€™re floundering in one of the fastest-growing game markets. But Seattle-based PopCap Games, which has pioneered the development of casual games such as â€œBejeweled,â€ hopes to buck the trend. The company is sending its long-time business development director James Gwertzman to Shanghai to head the companyâ€™s Asia/Pacific office. Gwertzman has studied the Chi

Obama is Grasping the Ring, and He Wonâ€™t Let Go

I urge you to read Barack Obamaâ€™s statement explaining why he supports H.R. 6304, a bill that authorizes a presidential administration to engage in electronic surveillance of communications as well as physical search of your property, all without so much as a warrant, outside meaningful judicial review. When I read this portion of Obamaâ€™s statement: It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safe

Electronic concrete

Electronic concrete Jon Husband has an excellent post on work design. Here's a taster:companies the world over have expended tens, scores, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on large integrated systems that have required the design of long, large and tightly designed work processes ... followed by the pouring of *electronic concrete* over these work processes, in the form of the large integrated systems. I think that processes are good and useful, leading to the standardization of work and

A Step Towards Peace: The Summit Between the Koreas on ENG!

Flash share by: vPIP Embed (copy & paste): close North Korea handed over its long-delayed nuclear program declaration toÂ Chinese diplomats on Thursday.Â President George Bush, who once branded North Korea as part of an â€œaxis of evil,â€ welcomed the move and said heÂ will remove the communist nation from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism. Bush said he will call for the lifting of sanctions against North Korea under the Trading With the Enemy Act and notify Congress

double trouble - moments (tup005)

Netlabel: www.this-side.net Style: house, deep/atmospheric house Double Trouble: Double Trouble aka Alexandros Akritopoulos is a 33 year old music lover that has been exploring the methods of music creation for the past ten years. Having as key influences the 80s electronic pop and the modern tech house scene and loaded with a computer, he has come to give form & direction to his ideas. He enjoys the evolution of greek electronic dance scene during the past 5 years and believes that ther

Facebank: A Super Creepy Piggy Bank That Eats Your Coins

Imagine Cookie Monster from Sesame Street developed an insatiable hunger for coins. Then remove the huggable blue body, add a blockish, unintentionally creepy robotic face for chowing down on metal, and youâ€™ll have something that resembles this Facebank. Created by, who else, but the Japanese, the Facebank is an exceedingly creepy piggy bank given human-like features. Using a special sensor in the devicesâ€™ eyes, the Facebank knows when youâ€™re about to insert a coin into its mouth. When you w

Ripple Barebone Mini Caramel PC

My Ripple Korea launch their barebone PC called Ripple Mini Caramel which is powered by Intel Atom processor 1.6 GHz with FSB 533 MHz. With the black color case the motherboard using Intel D945GCLF and memory using DDR2 533/667 up to 2 GB. The hard disk storage using second generation SATA port with Realtek Fast ethernet card for the network connection. The graphic card is enough with built-in Intel GMA950 chipset and the audio using Realtek. Thereâ€™s no price available yet fot the Ripple Bar

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp Update

We've got two sessions of Glenbrook's Payments Boot Camp coming up later this year. Registration for both sessions is now open. Glenbrook's Payments Boot Camp is an intensive, two day "deep dive" into the US payments systems - providing a unique cross-payments system view. We focus on ensuring you come away with an up-to-date understanding of how current trends and issues in electronic payments will affect the status quo and how new and emerging players may compliment - or threaten - today's in

Point Shoot Automatic 35mm Flash Camera $3.99 by Thing Fling

For all you people who a want a nice little inexpensive camera , b that is not disposable and ceasy to operate, here it is. At $3.99 this camera is perfect. It features focus free optics, automatic film advance and rewind, built in electronic flash, red eye reduction, and automatic DX sensor and a partridge in a pair tree. Ok, no partridge, but you get my drift. Great starter camera for kids and amateurs of all ages. Features: Extra large viewfinder; Builtin electronic flash; 3way automatic seso

Art Guidelines

Art Guidelines What to send us: Weâ€™re looking for art that complements the stories we publish: speculative, original and compelling. For each issue, weâ€™re looking for one color piece for our cover, and a few black and white or grayscale illustrations for the interior. We want art that tells a story and that pushes the boundaries of illustration in the same way speculative fiction pushes boundaries. A few things to note that will improve your chances: Know where the light source is coming fr

Alpha Magic Swing USB Card Reader

Most of the 3G mobile using microSD card like my mobile phone Sony Ericsson K618i. Usually if I want to transfer data using cable or via bluetooth. Now ByWise launch their new product which is called Magic Swing Alpha USB microSD card reader. The look is so cute, mini design with swing type like mobile phone. Itâ€™s very thin and I think it can be use for keychain. Thereâ€™s four color you can choose: white, black, orange and green. Thereâ€™s no available price yet. Post from: Computer Electronic

Female Pampering Take Time For Yourself

Female Pampering Take Time For Yourself As you all know, and I have said time and time again, I love to shop on line. I also love to catalog shop. One of the things that I use on line shopping for is personal female products. I'm a tad shy, (don't laugh I really am.) about going into a store to buy personal female products. One of the catalogs that I really love is Time For Me. They have everything, from Apparel to Shoe and Foot Care, Beauty Essentials, and yes even Intimacy. When it

Buying a car? Petrol may cost as much as your installments

For many who are contemplating about getting a car, the bad news is that petrol costs has risen so much that it will probably be as much as your installments that you will be paying for your car. The good news is, this may only be true for smaller cars - assuming that the installment is $290 per month and that a 22,000km drive per month costs $236. Of course, if you are driving a bigger car with higher fuel consumption, you may still end up paying just as much as your car installment - but real

New Rules Blogger Etiquette . . . What's OK to Publish?

I was at an evening reception Thursday and David Spark walked up holding his Flip up to his eye and I put my hand up to shield my face. He said why are you doing that? I said I didn't want to be filmed right now. "Why are you upset?" he asked. I said I wasn't upset but in fact I was upset by his rudeness. I'm not a media slut like many in this business. Everyone else jumps at any publicity. I'd rather be selective and I'd rather that someone ask me first. In today's age where everyone can pub

Carnival of Space No. 60

Hear ye, hear ye! Assembled here is the official Carnival of Space No. 60 wherein the written assemblage of the musings of many eminent natural philosophers are here provided for your amusement and betterment. In order of receipt by yours truly and in the own very words of the author, notwithstanding some minor editorial discretion, here, then, are the proceedings: From Slacker Astronomy: Hi Michael, Here you go - hot off the keyboard! Regulus - Just when you think you know a star Cheer

Ron Paul Revolultionaries Planning Sarah Steelman "Money Bomb"

Via Youtube comes an amateurish (that's part of the charm) web video from a member of the never-say-die Ron Paul internet dead-enders crew. The vid encourages viewers to contribute to a Sarah Steelman "Money Bomb" on June 27th. A "money bomb" is apparently a tactic used to great effect by the Ron Paul for President campaign, which raised $6 million in one day with its own money bomb earlier during the primary season. The video, set to unlistenable electronic dance music, interestingly takes ob

Computer Vs Banjo, free remix MP3

Computer Vs Banjo, free remix MP3 June 26th, 2008 by moose Another one in, hopefully, a long line of future electronic submissions, i.e. no brown package in the mail. The Moose, single-handedly saving trees one post at a time. Computer Vs Banjoâ€™s debut CD is out now. Official site and their MySpace. Computer Vs Banjo - Magazine Queen (Ninja Simone Remix) Share this Post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. MP3, Mash

Showing Well at Yahoo

Get More Clicks in the New World of Universal Search Richard Morochove, PC World (June 25) Here's advice to webmasters about Yahoo that searchers will want to know about -- "For many small-business owners, the easiest way to improve rankings may be to mark up existing Web pages with new, more descriptive tags that Yahoo will automatically pick up when it indexes pages. The use of tags is Yahoo's take on building a smarter, so-called Semantic Web, which permits easier, even automatic sharing o

Secure Your WoW Account With The Blizzard Authenticator [Account Security]

Speaking from experience, nothing sucks quite as much as logging into your World of Warcraft account to find your carefully cultivated level 70 character naked as the day he was born. Blizzard feels our pain, and has applied the magic of technology to the security issue to create the Blizzard Authenticator, a keychain device that generates a six-digit passcode that you can link to your account via serial number. Once the device is linked you'll have to enter the code from the Authenticator ever

Missing Sync for iPhone

Mark/Space, Inc. today announced immediate availability of a Windows version of their data transfer software, The Missing Sync for iPhone. Now PC users have access to powerful migration tools, to help ease the process of switching from a smartphone to the iPhone and iPhone 3G. And, current iPhone owners will benefit from the capability to archive SMS messages, call log and notes to their PC. Mark/Space has offered award-winning software products to Mac users for many years. The Missing Sync fo

A-Trak & Nikeâ€™s Running Man Workout Plan

A-Trak & Nikeâ€™s Running Man Workout Plan Two years ago, Apple and Nike married music with sports through a project called Nike+iPod. Through Steve Jobsâ€™s technology, a small device is inserted into one foot of your running shoes, and all the details about your workout (time, and distance traveled) are recorded on your iPod. All they needed was the music to match. Since linking up, theyâ€™ve already commissioned exclusive â€œOriginal Runâ€ mixes by LCD Soundsystem, Aesop Rock, and the Crystal Meth

No One Is Safe: The Real Low Down

Considering all the (righteous) hooplah concerning the capitulation on the FISA + "telecom immunity" + FISA "wide open", we should all be taking into account what FISA always was to begin with - an affront to the 4th Amendment of the Constitution of the U.S.A. (emphasis added): The act was passed in 1979, in the wake of the Church Hearings and other congressional action that exposed and shut down the FBI's COINTELPRO domestic spying program. From the late 1940s through the early 1970s, the FBI

diom - routines (sat008)

Netlabel: www.satellit-net.de Style: minimal tech DIOM: He started his way through music as an notoric freestyle rapper with his crew freak botique. For some years, nothing was more important than jumping on stages and holding micropones. Sadly he realised a strong negative change in the szene and he finally moved to his second love: Drum and Bass. Producing his own tunes became very important and the first Dj gigs happen. But he still wasnÂ¦t satisfied because the field of (basically electr

Gamucci Electronic Cigarette

gamucci is essentially an electronic smoking device or an electronic cigarette as it is sometimes referred to. It is a completely non-flammable product that uses state of the art sophisticated micro-electronic technology to provide users a real smoking experience without the tobacco and tar found in real cigarettes. It looks like, feels like and tastes like a real cigarette, yet it isnâ€™t, it is so much more. It is truly a healthier alternative. We at Gamucci really believe this is the future of

Electronic Giveaways

The debate about Kindle, electronic books, and the future of the printed word seems to be dominating the publishing landscape lately, especially among my agent colleagues. I don't want to dive into all of that again here, but I did want to mention an intriguing subplot in all of this, the e-book giveaway. As you may know, some publishers have allowed readers to access either chapters or an entire book electronically as a publicity measure in advance of publication. This has been done selectivel

RUMOR: Microsoft to License Xbox 360â€™s Heart

Electronic Gaming Monthly has, well, the best rumor ever. Their rumor guy is saying that one of Microsoftâ€™s big E3 announcements is going to be the licensing of Xbox360â€™s core technology to other firms, much like Blu-ray, DVD, and videocassette technology is licensed so that anyone can make players for those devices. Third parties would be able to make their own 360s or put them inside other products. This is so off the wall because, while common in the tech industry, it has never been done bef

Pistol Cam Shoots Video, Shoots You

Have you ever been unfortunate enough to view one of those grisly video productions called Faces Of Death? Basically they film people being killed, maimed, sliced or anything else which involves death and gore. The Pistol Cam might not help the production value at all, but it surely makes the filming easier. And we also hope that people donâ€™t think of actually making those sort of videos with this device. The Pistol Cam is basically a gun with a camera mounted on it. No, itâ€™s not meant to ca

Now I Know How Sausage Feels

aka The MRI Post So, today began the wonderful(?) adventure to find out why I drink/pee so much (sorry, but that's pretty much what it boils down to). I had a 3 p.m. date with Dave, the MRI Dude. For those of you out there who have never had the experience of an MRI, I'm here to tell you what an INTERESTING experience it is. First of all, if you are claustrophobic, you are seriously out of luck (unless you opt for an open MRI, but I was there for the original model). I kind of knew what I

Albert's Shed

Saturday was fab - my belated birthday celebrations, out with the gals, JH, HW and the glamorous C. A few rounds of drinks in Bar 38 in town, plenty of opportunities to people-watch. We then made our way to Albert's Shed, a very nice venue, excellent food, some weird people there though. The drink was getting to my head at this point and after visiting the ladies', I very nearly found myself lost and unable to find our table...oops! We were there for a couple of hours yet I can't remember a si

Army General Says Bush Guilty Of War Crimes.

I post these kind of articles for purely moral reasons and because some of our number believe that gaveling-into-order impeachment hearings is the only way to stop BushCo to from obliterating Iran. I'm not sure it would have that effect. It is clear we are not dealing with rational people. There are several reasons why I don't think Impeachment is our best option now.: 1) The Bushites are NUTZ and would not blink at taking out several hundred thousand American and Iranian lives to stay in pow

Lock It Up!

If you read my blog regularly, you probably read about the ton of locks I received from Schlage. Now that UPS has come and gone, taking all the extra boxes away, I can enjoy the one remaining lock. Remember, I am the woman who locked herself out of the house twice in one week last year, so when I heard about a new electronic lock that doesnâ€™t require keys, I jumped at the chance to try it out! If you have lived in your house for a few years, you know how many keys to your home end up floating a

Monopoles: Rainy Thursdays

Robokill Anyone else love flash games like I do? This gem is reminiscent of Smash TV. Itâ€™s very addictive, but short enough that it canâ€™t take over your life for long. How we read online â€œTo really get your attention, I should write like this: + Bulleted list + Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming + Short sentence fragments + Explanatory subheads + No puns + Did I mention lists?â€ How to nap The magnetic office was recently outfitted with a couch. Sierpinski Cookies â€œA few mon

Hey Girls! Become a Boogie Superstar! [Girls, Girls, Girls!]

Hey Girls! EA is trying to get your attention! They've got a brand new game coming to the Nintendo Wii, and it's just for you! Boogie Superstar allows girls to sing and dance their way to superstardom to the tune of the hottest hits for girls! Girl-favorite artists like Fergie, Alicia Keys, Good Charlotte, Britney Spears, and Kanye West are just some of the artists represented by more than 40 songs that girls can perform by themselves or with their girl-friends. â€œBoogie SuperStar promotes se

I don't think Bill has much to fear in the United States... apart from fear itself.

I would have posted this (or parts of it, at least) at Alison's, but she's got sick of swatting Luvvie-loathing trolls and has closed the relevant comments thread. I stumbled on the following and found it useful. I must say, I'm impressed the US code is so rational and unambiguous. The first chunk comes from a FAQ at Chilling Effects, the latter from the Law School at Cornell. (Do check out the Chilling Effects site if you're not familiar with the "clearinghouse".) Question: What is child

From our Dept of WTF?

The RIAA has really, seriously lost their collective mind. H/T to Chet at the Vanity Press for this gem. From Wired: The recording industry and U.S. radio companies have squared off for decades about whether AM and FM radio broadcasters should pay royalties to singers, musicians and their labels. But now the debate is getting meaner; there's more at stake as the recording industry seeks new income avenues in the wake of wanton peer-to-peer piracy and declining CD sales in part due to the iPod

The Manipulatrix

Eliza has picked up the habit of starting every single sentence she addresses to me with â€œMommy, mommy MOMMY!â€ This is simultaneously the cutest and most irritating thing in the world. Depending on where on the spectrum my mood happens to fall, my response ranges from â€œYes, sweetie, whatâ€™s up?â€ to {clenched teeth} â€œWhat?â€ {/unclench} The last two days, she has requested that we cuddle on the couch in the afternoon, a time during which I am treated like a jungle gym as she requests information

Tony Gosling arrest - a fishing expedition by the Police against a journalist ?

Spy Blog has a history of asking Questions about the treatment of various assorted people, whose views or actions we do not support, e.g. accused terrorist suspects or their families, computer hackers, etc., but who seem to have got caught up in the complexities of our Kafkaesque bureaucratic Police and Judicial system. We are usually worried about the precedent such cases set for the treatment of all the rest of us. Hence our worries about the arrest of Tony Gosling, who may well be a Conspir

Two brave senators ask Customs to stop searching laptops willy nilly

Did you know that itâ€™s perfectly legal for U.S. customs agents to search your laptop, cellphone and other electronic doodad without your consent, and without any suspicion of wrongdoing? That hardly seems American, or even French, but itâ€™s true. For the time being, that is, for two do-good senators have called on U.S. Customs and Border Protection to knock it off with he unreasonable searches and seizures. Whether or not Customs heeds Sens. Feingold and Leahyâ€™s pleas, who knows. Good to see

Publishing Ebooks with E-Junkie and PayPal

Time for another update on my new and revised ebook business. As I reported in an earlier post, my initial problems with customers not seeing the download link on e-junkie and sometimes losing the confirmation e-mail to spam filters was my fault. The fix was letting e-junkie show their "Thank You" page which includes a download link, rather than my own thank you page, which I'd set up years before for selling books direct with PayPal. Since I made the change last month, the sales process has bee

RIAA and MPAA on the warpath again OR how to shake down folks just like the MAFIA.

The RIAA has really, seriously lost their collective mind. H/T to Chet at the Vanity Press for this gem. From Wired: The recording industry and U.S. radio companies have squared off for decades about whether AM and FM radio broadcasters should pay royalties to singers, musicians and their labels.But now the debate is getting meaner; thereâ€™s more at stake as the recording industry seeks new income avenues in the wake of wanton peer-to-peer piracy and declining CD sales in part due to the iPod a

Free Electronic Issue of Woodworkerâ€™s Journal

I just received an email newsletter from Woodworkerâ€™s Journal. It looks like they are now offering a subscription to their magazine in digital format. And lucky for us, the first issue is free and you can view it right in your brower. August 2008 Woodworkerâ€™s Journal If you havenâ€™t tried reading a magazine on your computer, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Its better for the environment and you can save money on the subscription. Its also nice if you are visually impaired, since you can

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