An anonymous reader writes "In a mouse and cat game, Hulu the popular online content provider of shows, movies, and more has blocked Boxee yet again from accessing the Hulu content from the Boxee application. Just as Boxee added RSS feeds to include Hulu content, Hulu responded with blocking Boxee users from accessing the content via RSS feeds the same very day. RSS feeds are publicly available and it's really disappointing to hear that a site would block certain applications from accessing their content in such a manner. I would assume that the Boxee development team is currently working on disguising its browser to look like Firefox, Internet Explorer, or some other known browser in an attempt to fool Hulu."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

theodp writes "Over the past 20 years, there's been much speculation about what the convergence of computers and TV would ultimately look like. Paul Graham says that we now know the answer: computers. 'Convergence' is turning out to essentially be 'replacement.' Why did TV lose? Graham identifies four forces: 1. The Internet's open platform fosters innovation at hacker speeds instead of big company speeds. 2. Moore's Law worked its magic on Internet bandwidth. 3. Piracy taught a new generation of users it's more convenient to watch shows on a computer screen. 4. Social applications made everybody from grandmas to 14-year-old girls want computers — in a three-word-nutshell, Facebook killed TV."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

People sometimes ask us what's the big deal with the Maker's Notebook. Why should they care about a book largely filled with blank pages. Well, obviously we think there's all sorts of reasons to care. We spent a lot of time designing a book optimized for makers. It's hard-bound, sturdy, contains high-quality engineering graph paper, has 20 pages of useful (and/or entertaining) reference material in the back, it's beautiful (we think), etc. But one of the main things we were conscious of, and got lots of input on, was making the book laboratory-compliant. You may not be aware of it but science and engineering labs technicians, inventors, and others doing research, experimentation, and design that might become novel discoveries or products, have to keep notebooks that meet certain legal standards. For example, they must have pre-numbered, non-removable pages. They must have a place to date, sign and have witnessed each page of work. So we made our notebook to conform to these standards.

In this Flashback column, we excerpt the "Maintaining a Laboratory Notebook" section of Bob Thompson's Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. This section details everything you need to know to keep a laboratory notebook to a professional standard.

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Maintaining a Laboratory Notebook
A laboratory notebook is a contemporaneous, permanent primary record of the owner's laboratory work. In real-world corporate and industrial chemistry labs, the lab notebook is often a critically important document, for both scientific and legal reasons. The outcome of zillion-dollar patent lawsuits often hinges on the quality, completeness, and credibility of a lab notebook. Many corporations have detailed procedures that must be followed in maintaining and archiving lab notebooks, and some go so far as to have the individual pages of researchers' lab notebooks notarized and imaged on a daily or weekly basis.

If you're just starting to learn about chemistry lab work, keeping a detailed lab notebook may seem to be overkill, but it's not. Although this book provides tables for recording data and spaces for answering the questions it poses, that's really for the convenience of hobbyist readers. If you're using this book to prepare for college chemistry, and particularly if you plan to take the Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry exam, you should keep a lab notebook. Even if you score a 5 on the AP Chemistry exam, many college and university chemistry departments will not offer you advanced placement unless you can show them a lab notebook that meets their standards.

Laboratory Notebook Guidelines
Use the following guidelines to maintain your laboratory notebook:

• The notebook must be permanently bound. Looseleaf pages are unacceptable. Never tear a page out of the notebook.
• Use permanent ink. Pencil or erasable ink is unacceptable. Erasures are anathema.
• Before you use it, print your name and other contact information on the front of the notebook, as well as the volume number (if applicable) and the date you started using the notebook.
• Number every page, odd and even, at the top outer corner, before you begin using the notebook.
• Reserve the first few pages for a table of contents.
• Begin a new page for each experiment.
• Use only the righthand pages for recording information. The lefthand pages can be used for scratch paper. (If you are lefthanded, you may use the lefthand pages for recording information, but maintain consistency throughout.)
• Record all observations as you make them. Do not trust your memory, even for a minute.
• Print all information legibly, preferably in block letters. Do not write longhand.
• If you make a mistake, draw one line through the erroneous information, leaving it readable. If it is not otherwise obvious, include a short note explaining the reason for the strikethrough. Date and initial the strikethrough.
• Do not leave gaps or whitespace in the notebook. Cross out whitespace if leaving an open place in the notebook is unavoidable. That way, no one can go back in and fill in something that didn't happen. When you complete an experiment, cross out the whitespace that remains at the bottom of the final page.
• Incorporate computer-generated graphs, charts, printouts, photographs, and similar items by taping or pasting them into the notebook. Date and initial all add-ins.
• Include only procedures that you personally perform and data that you personally observe. If you are working with a lab partner and taking shared responsibility for performing procedures and observing data, note that fact as well as describing who did what and when.
• Remember that the ultimate goal of a laboratory notebook is to provide a permanent record of all the information necessary for someone else to reproduce your experiment and replicate your results. Leave nothing out. Even the smallest, apparently trivial, detail may make the difference.

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Slatterz points out a brief mention at PC Authority of a story at Torrent freak about using watermarking embedded in movies' soundtracks to reveal the exact location of camera-wielding bootleggers in a theater; the inventors (here's an abstract of their paper) claim it's accurate to within 44 centimeters.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

dAzED1 writes "My little brother is heading for training at 29 Palms as a Navy Corpsman with FMF. He gets a [Sailor|Soldier|Marine]'s pay, so while he can't afford gadgets, I can; since he'll be in a LAR unit, I was thinking of getting him a small video camera, an IPod, and some sort of solar recharger. Whatever he takes he'll have to be able to carry in his pack, which is already going to be heavy with his medic gear. Other than the weight issue, I am having problems finding a solar recharger that doesn't get wildly differing reviews as to basic quality. He'll have plenty of sun, few clouds, but it needs to be light, effective, and robust. With price not being much of a concern, what would you suggest for accomplishing this? Advice on a small robust video camera would be appreciated as well."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Photo from Bill VanLoo on Flickr

The ITEA is an organization for teachers of MAKE-style education.

The International Technology Education Association (ITEA) is the professional organization for technology, innovation, design, and engineering educators. Our mission is to promote technological literacy for all by supporting the teaching of technology and promoting the professionalism of those engaged in these pursuits. ITEA strengthens the profession through leadership, professional development, membership services, publications, and classroom activities.

Bill was a presenter in 2008 and writes about the ITEA conference

My presentation was entitled "Using Technology for Independent Professional Development", and centered around the idea that technology educators can use new tools like free/cheap Web hosting, Flickr, blogs and RSS readers to develop both their professional identity and their teaching skills.

Overall, the ITEA conference last year was a fantastic experience. The keynote speakers were excellent; NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan gave a wonderful presentation about her experiences in space, and Dr. Robert Ballard gave an inspirational address about how we can use technology to inspire a new generation of explorers and scientists. Dr. Ballard is the scientist whose team discovered the Titanic wreck. His speech, especially, was a huge inspiration.

One interesting piece about the ITEA conference, for me, was the chance to meet ITEA members I'd corresponded with over e-mail via the ITEA IdeaGarden list. There are lots of great technology educators who participate in sharing ideas and lending support to one another via the IdeaGarden list.

Here are Bill's presentation notes, and his photos from the 2008 conference:

Have you attended recent ITEA conferences? Are you planning on going this year? What are the best reasons for going? What are the best ways for Make style teachers to find out more? Who do you know who is using MAKE, its projects and the MAKE Owners' Manifesto in the classroom? How do you teach MAKE? Do you have a teacher who inspires you to be more creative and clever? Add your ideas to the comments, and contribute your photos and video to the MAKE Flickr pool.

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RichardDeVries writes "Three weeks ago, I contacted Google about had a bug in Google Docs that shared documents without permission. The issue has been resolved and affected documents have had their collaborators removed. The documents' owners have been notified: 'To help remedy this issue, we have used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as being affected. Since the impacted documents are now accessible only to you, you will need to re-share the documents manually.' See my journal entry for details on my contact with Google. Although I think Google handled the issue admirably, this raises questions (again) about cloud computing, as well as Google's eternal beta-status for a lot of their services."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the reasons everyone should have a blog is that when a company pushes you around, you have a place to post your side of the story, publicly, so future customers have a chance to benefit from your experience. Over the years I have written up experiences with Travelocity, American Airlines, Comcast, a now-defunct ISP, a Bay Area plumber. Now I'd like to tell you about a problem I'm having with BMW.

I bought a new BMW in July of 2007. It's my fourth BMW and I love it. It's powerful and fast, incredibly responsive. I don't drive much, but when I do, it's still a pleasure. That's saying a lot after having a car for almost two years; I still look forward to driving it. BMW makes a fantastic product.

But -- then we've been having all this rain this winter, and it turns out the car leaks. Water is coming into the cabin, the carpets are wet, they're not drying out even though the weather turned nice a few days ago. So I brought it in for service on Wednesday. The dealer said it was my fault the car is leaking, and wanted $800 to fix it. Now this is a car that has a four year warranty that's supposed to cover everything. I've owned a lot of cars over the years, even a rusted-out Wisconsin junker (that I loved anyway) and I've never had a car leak water. I didn't believe for a minute this was my fault. I told them I live on a normal street, not on a hill, with not many trees (but some) and I could check with my neighbors, but I didn't think any of their cars were leaking. He suggested I call BMW of North America customer service to see what they say, and they said the same thing. I should pay for this because it was caused by an "outside influence" (the rain, I guess).

Then at breakfast on Thursday a friend who also has a BMW says this dealer is notorious for ripping off customers. Once he brought his car in for service, they failed to fix it three times, and each time wanted to charge him for the repair. He paid, cause what are you going to do, they have your car. Meanwhile they were pressuring me to either return the loaner, or agree to the $800 charge. I told them I was waiting for a return call from BMW of North America. (Three days later I still haven't heard from them.) \

So I went back to the dealer, got my car, returned the loaner, got their writeup of the problem (now the estimate was $625), and took it to a local independent BMW repair shop that gets good reviews (deservedly, it turns out). They showed me a BMW-issued service note, from January 2008, explaining that the 5-series has a problem with water leaks.

I scanned and uploaded the service note: p1, p2, p3.

It's so outrageous. They knew the car has this problem, yet they still wanted $800 to fix it.

10:15AM: I have a wet car that smells bad. I have a call into another BMW dealer to see what they want to do about it.

11:15AM: Got a call back. They want to see the service note. I've emailed him a link to this blog post.

Craig writes "DCEmu has released an article detailing the current state of the homebrew scene on all game consoles, from the Sega Dreamcast to the Nintendo DS to the Nintendo Wii. It even covers unreleased consoles such as Pandora and GP2xWiz. The article explains what is needed to run emulators and games, and whether or not it's worth bothering for each console."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

At an anti-gay marriage rally Tuesday in Raleigh, North Carolina, David Gibbs III, the Christian fundamentalist lawyer who fought to keep brain-damaged Terry Schiavo on life support in 2005, publicly expressed his deep-seated fear of machine love. From the News & Observer:

(Gibbs) told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

"Marriage rally draws 1,000"

nodialtone writes with a Reuters report that Rod Beckstrom, director of the National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC), has tendered his resignation, citing clashes between the NCSC and the NSA with regard to who handles the nation's online security efforts. In his resignation letter (PDF), he made the point that "The intelligence culture is very different than a network operations or security culture," and said he wasn't willing to "subjugate the NCSC underneath the NSA." He also complained of budget roadblocks which kept the NCSC from receiving more than five weeks of funding in the past year. Wired has a related story from late February which discusses comments from Admiral Dennis Blair, director of National Intelligence, who thinks cyber security should be the NSA's job to begin with.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CommonCraft has a neat way of explaining complex ideas. They use a simple format of paper cutouts and figures with a voiceover. Recently, there has been a bunch of buzz about Twitter, and a number of references have been made to their work explaining how Twitter works.

Here they explain Google Documents:

There are so many things that the people around us don't yet know about. It is nice to be able to point somebody to a good resource that explains the concepts or process quickly and effectively. With the tools we have for communication, photos, video, wiki, instructables, blogs and more, we have many possibilities for helping others understand and learn. Add your ideas to the comments, and contribute your photos and videos to the MAKE Flickr pool.

How have you used modern tools to explain things? What is your killer app for social media in education? What is the best way to explain something complex? Have you made video products similar to these? What software and hardware would you use to make instructional video? Show us your video if you have. Join the conversation in the comments, and add your photos and video to the MAKE Flickr pool.

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The New York Times reports that Cablevision Systems is testing a new project in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and some areas of New Jersey to bring targeted advertising to television audiences. "The technology requires no hardware or installation in a subscriber's home, so viewers may not realize they are seeing ads different from a neighbor's. But during the same show, a 50-something male may see an ad for, say, high-end speakers from Best Buy, while his neighbors with children may see one for a Best Buy video game." The test deployment includes 500,000 households, and separates viewers by demographic data from Experian. "Experian has data on individuals that it collects through public records, registries and other sources. It matches the name and address of the subscriber to what it knows about them, and assigns demographic characteristics to households. (The match is a blind one: advertisers do not know what name and address they are advertising to, Cablevision executives said.)"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

David Gerard writes "Microsoft tried to make Vista secure with User Access Control (UAC). They relaxed it a bit in Windows 7 because it was such a pain in the backside. Unfortunately, one way they did this (the third way so far found around UAC in Windows 7) was to give certain Microsoft files the power to just ... bypass UAC. Even more unfortunately, one of the DLLs they whitelisted was RUNDLL32.EXE. The exploit is simply to copy (or inject) part of its own code into the memory of another running process and then telling that target process to run the code, using standard, non-privileged APIs such as WriteProcessMemory and CreateRemoteThread. Ars Technica writes up the issue, proclaiming Windows 7 UAC 'a broken mess; mend it or end it.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit SparkLab founder and designer Syuzi Pakhchyan, a maker who explores the new frontier of high tech and fashion with her space age handiwork. In the Workshop, John Park shows us how to build a guitar out of a piece of wood, some string, nails and a cigar box. Then he "makes it rock" by wiring it to a buck-fifty cassette-player amp. In a Hidden Treasures segment, Mister Jalopy opens up his Chevy Camaro's cassette player to show us the beauty and value of clear schematics for makers like him. The Maker Channel features a sunlight-triggered poem, a pedal-powered blender, a time lapse photography rig, and a handmade theremin.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, or watch in HD on Blip.

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Here's the torrent of Episode 10 of Make: television!

Episode 110: Wearable Technology & Cigar Box Guitar:
Visit SparkLab founder and designer Syuzi Pakhchyan, a maker who explores the new frontier of high tech and fashion with her space age handiwork. In the Workshop, John Park shows us how to build a guitar out of a piece of wood, some string, nails and a cigar box. Then he "makes it rock" by wiring it to a buck-fifty cassette-player amp. In a Hidden Treasures segment, Mister Jalopy opens up his Chevy Camaro's cassette player to show us the beauty and value of clear schematics for makers like him. The Maker Channel features a sunlight-triggered poem, a pedal-powered blender, a time lapse photography rig, and a handmade theremin.

Find PDFs to our projects and a guide to all of the previous episodes at makezine.tv.

Make: is available in HD on Public Television, Vimeo, Blip, and YouTube.

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Visit SparkLab founder and designer Syuzi Pakhchyan, a maker who explores the new frontier of high tech and fashion with her space age handiwork. Syuzi attaches LED's and audio recording devices to clothing to craft unique sound and light wearables. Then see the very first maker of electric fashion.

Learn more about Syuzi Pakhchyan at http://www.sparklab.la.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

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With a piece of oak, some string and a cigar box, John Park creates a three-stringed guitar. The cigar box acts as the resonating soundboard for the instrument. John then wires the guitar to a buck-fifty cassette-player amp and makes it really rock.

Check out the PDF for this project.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

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Check out the details for Cigar Box Guitar and learn how you can turn a piece of oak, some string, eyebolts, and an empty cigar box into a rocking 3-string guitar.

Give this build a shot, and let us know how it turned out. We'd love to hear your feedback (or mad cigar box guitar-playing skillz!) or see your pictures. Email us at maketelevision@makezine.com.

Watch the Maker Workshop - Cigar Box Guitar segment.

Or check it out on Vimeo, Blip, or YouTube.

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In this Hidden Treasures segment, Mister Jalopy opens up his Chevy Camaro's cassette player to show us the beauty and value of clear schematics for makers like him.

Check out Mister Jalopy's blog, Hoopty Rides.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

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Make: television presents:

• Sunlight Poem - Ji Yeon Song's one-day poem projector made of cardboard and sunlight.
• Pedal-Powered Blender - David Butcher outfits a bike with a generator that can run a blender.
• Handmade Theremin- Lorin Parker's theremin works great and sounds even better.
• Time-lapse Camera - Jay Burlage hacks into a clock to create an inexpensive way of taking panning time-lapse photography. Watch more of Jay's videos at his YouTube channel.

[Trouble Maker] Cellphone Jammer - Limor Fried made a handheld RF emitter that can disrupts cellphone signals. Never overhear awkward conversations again!

Submit a video of your own project at makerchannel.org.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

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An anonymous reader sends this quote from the Associated Press: "Reversing an eight-year-old limit on potentially life-saving science, President Barack Obama plans to lift restrictions Monday on taxpayer-funded research using embryonic stem cells. ... Under President George W. Bush, taxpayer money for that research was limited to a small number of stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001, lines that in many cases had some drawbacks that limited their potential usability. But hundreds more of such lines — groups of cells that can continue to propagate in lab dishes — have been created since then, ones that scientists say are healthier, better suited to creating treatments for people rather than doing basic laboratory science. Work didn't stop. Indeed, it advanced enough that this summer, the private Geron Corp. will begin the world's first study of a treatment using human embryonic stem cells, in people who recently suffered a spinal cord injury. Nor does Obama's change fund creation of new lines. But it means that scientists who until now have had to rely on private donations to work with these newer stem cell lines can apply for government money for the research, just like they do for studies of gene therapy or other treatment approaches."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CNet is running an article that looks at the growing parallels between the major movie studios and some of the most successful game publishers, which have gradually turned into the juggernauts of the industry as they've absorbed a variety of smaller developers in recent years. "If we consider Hollywood — the model to which the video game industry is always compared — it doesn't take long before we realize that it's dominated by a handful of studios that effectively control a large percentage of the industry, while the independent studios are left trying to defy the percentages and get their innovative and artistic films to the masses. Since most fail, it's the big studios that enjoy profits as the independents try to find some way to stay alive." Gamasutra has a related piece suggesting the opposite trend: "Smaller, less expensive games made by smaller, more agile teams seem like a very logical step, now that the industry structure is better able to support it, with no less than three venues on which to distribute content as a small team. These are downloadable console, direct to consumer PC downloads via Steam-like services, portals, or direct sale, and iPhone and potentially DSi downloads."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Attendees at the last Make:NYC meet-up created and tested a whole fleet of mini sailboats from just cardboard, cups, and glue. They churned out a wide variety of designs each with it's own approach to harnessing a breeze. Check out a bunch of good pics from the event in the Flickr set.

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Marcy Gunther is the producer of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, a reality game show featuring a Host Dog and six real life kids as contestants. Ruff always seems to have something going wrong in the doghouse, and he has the kids help him learn about how to solve the problem with science and engineering.

Have you or your kids seen Fetch? What do your kids think of Make:TV? What are some of the best shows on tv to help kids become more creative and competent? How can adults cultivate kids' interest in science and technology? Join the conversation in the comments, and contribute your photos and video to the MAKE Flickr pool.

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Here's some brain-scanning humor from the University of Western Ontario's Psych department site:

9. While pouring syrup on your Eggo waffles, you note that you missed a few voxels.

8. Your knowledge of brain anatomy exceeds your knowledge of geography. As in, "The transverse occipital sulcus intersects the intraparietal sulcus near the level of the parieto-occipital fissure" and "The Sahara is in Afghanistan, I think."...

5. Friends wonder how you can run a four million dollar scanner and still fail to program a VCR.

4. You suffer frequent left/right confusion and find yourself saying things like, "Make a left turn at the lights... No, I meant a *radiological* left!"

Top Ten Signs You've Been Scanning Too Much (via Beyond the Beyond

Iddo Genuth writes "At precisely 10:49 p.m. EST, NASA's 'Kepler' telescope was successfully kicked off into space, embarking on a mission that the agency says 'may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself.' The telescope will search the nearby region of our galaxy for the first time looking for Earth-size planets, which orbit stars at distances where temperatures permit liquid water to endure on their surface — a region often referred to as the 'habitable' zone."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The message of these lovely anatomical armchairs seems to be, "Tain't no sin, to take off your skin and laze around in your guts."

Flow armchair by AK-LH (via Cribcandy)

krebsatwpost writes "The Washington Post ran a piece earlier this week that confronts the myth that cyber criminal gangs in Russia and Eastern Europe avoid attacking their own, pointing to numerous examples of late that counter this common misconception. The story draws on data from Team Cyrmu about distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) that target Russian and E. European organizations, intel from McAfee about Russian banks and federal agencies that appear to be under control over cyber gangs there, and tens of gigabytes of data stolen via keyloggers that disproportionately impact Russian systems, including that of a top Gazprom official. The piece begins: 'If you ask security experts why more cyber criminals aren't brought to justice, the answer you will probably hear is that US authorities simply aren't getting the cooperation they need from law enforcement officials in Russia and other Eastern European nations, where some of the world's most active cyber criminal gangs are thought to operate with impunity. But I wonder whether authorities in those countries would be any more willing to pursue cyber crooks in their own countries if they were forced to confront just how deeply those groups have penetrated key government and private computer networks in those regions?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Instructables user mariosk8s writes:

After having to drill a bunch of circuit boards, i came to the conclusions that there had to be a better way to perform target practice. So i ordered a laser pointer and dug out an old broken set of helping hands. The helping hands were really helping this time.

Drill press laser pointer tutorial on Instructables

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Earlier this year, we wrote about the rather ridiculous situation that filmmaker Nina Paley was put in, where copyright on some songs she used in a movie she made herself was being used to kill the film. It made no sense, no matter how you looked at it. The songs were all from the 1920s, and getting them new attention could only serve to renew interest in the music, likely creating new opportunities for the copyright holders to profit. Yet... they didn't care. They were demanding thousands and thousands of dollars for the use. After folks like Roger Ebert picked up the cause, the copyright holders finally lowered their demands to a mere $50,000 -- but included numerous additional fees should she ever make a dime off the movie. Thus, she's realized that she cannot make any money from the movie and is instead giving it away for free under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license.

Still, now that the agreements are signed -- even though she doesn't have all the funds to pay the fees yet (she's still raising money) -- she is apparently able to release the movie with just the agreements. Rich now alerts us that, despite the restrictions on some of the music, Nina has put up a full website for the movie which links to an Internet Archive page where you can stream it or download it in a variety of formats. And, of course, she's set it up to be downloaded via BitTorrent, as well. I'm downloading a copy now, and hope to watch it this weekend while flying to Scotland.

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Blue whales are the planet's largest creatures, yet we hardly ever see them. Their calls travel thousands of miles, but we can barely hear them. Now, National Geographic embarks on a mission to witness what nobody ever has in these waters; blue whales eating and giving birth. Click to Learn More natgeotv.com/bluewhale

DigitalDame2 writes "PCMag Security Analyst Neil Rubenking has always praised Symantec's tech support. Lately, though, a number of readers have reported problems with chat support, so he investigated. Rubenking was trying to install Norton 360 version 3.0 on a malware-infested system when the computer crashed with a blue screen error. He connected with Symantec tech support and was told that they could fix the problem, but for a fee of $100! (Here is the transcript and screen-captures of the chat.) Even more, Symantec support suggested that he use a malware-removal tool that wasn't even made by Symantec."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For the supporters of net neutrality, an Obama White House, Genachowski FCC and Democratic Congress seemed to be the magic combination to ensure an open, non-discriminatory Internet. However, one of the key proponents, Representative Boucher, has recently suggested that he is switching tactics, "scrapping the idea of pursuing legislation mandating an openly accessible Internet in favor of negotiations with stakeholders aimed at reaching a comprehensive accord." An agreement upon industry best practices could, in theory, be a good way to protect net neutrality, but there are causes for concern.

As Techdirt contributor Tim Lee pointed out in his paper on net neutrality, the unintended consequences of legislation may be costly and inefficient. So, voluntary agreements could create a flexible, realistic approach to protecting an important principle. Something similar happened with the Global Network Initiative that brought together Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!, along with academics and human rights organizations, to agree to a set of principles and enforcement mechanisms to protect and promote free expression and privacy around the globe. But the motivating factor of this agreement was the threat of legislation following very humiliating Congressional hearings on American Internet companies' dealings in China. By creating a voluntary set of best practices, the Global Network Initiative sidestepped the unintended consequences of poorly drafted legislation. The ISPs could do similarly, but by publicly stating his change of tactics, Boucher may have removed the motivating factor.

Another key to any agreement would be competition in the ISP marketplace. In Norway, where they recently created a similar agreement between ISPs and consumer protection agencies to mandate non-discrimination of networks and endpoints, the ISPs are in a competitive sector. Because ISPs there recognize the competitive advantage of staying neutral, there is a force pushing them in that direction. In the United States, the driving force was largely the threat of legislation, and hopefully that is still there as Boucher guides the ISPs towards his comprehensive accord.

Kevin Donovan is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Kevin Donovan and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Today's story of patent insanity comes to us courtesy of Wysong, a small natural pet foods company that came up with a method to put probiotics in foods in the early 80s. The company used the technique to sell pet food biscuits that supposedly have certain health benefits. As its products became more popular, the company saw copycats come into the market, but figured it helped everyone (including the pets), and there was nothing wrong with that. Then... fifteen years later, Nestle, the owner of Purina, happened to patent the very same process and, a few years later, sued Wysong, demanding royalties all the way back to when it got its patent. Wysong's owners responded, pointing out that their product had been on the market since long before Nestle's patent... to which Nestle responded with a threat to sue Wysong in federal court. Knowing Wysong probably didn't have the millions of dollars it would take to fight a patent lawsuit, Nestle tried to pressure them to just give in and settle right away. The company is fighting back (and has been able to stop Nestle from getting an identical patent in Europe thanks to its prior art), but it's a costly battle.

The patent system defenders who are always quick to comment on this site like to talk about how they're really defenders of "small inventors" against evil "big businesses" who are trying to steal their work. I'm curious what they think about this case, where the exact opposite is happening?

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Phil Clandillon sends this music video of The Mentalists playing Kids, originally by MGMT.

The Mentalists are an all female act based here in London. They've done this unusual cover of MGMT's "Kids" played entirely on their iPhones and iPod Touches, using apps from the application store.

What kinds of great music can you play on your iPhone, iTouch or Android phone? What other interactive applications work great on smart phones? Have you made a holder for your phone so its easier to play? Add your thoughts to the conversation in the comments, and please contribute your photos and videos to the MAKE Flickr pool.

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Back in January, we noted that the EFF had scored another hit in its ongoing patent-busting project, getting the USPTO to re-examine a patent held by Seer Systems. It appears that Seer Systems doesn't much like being targeted by the EFF and decided to threaten the group with a defamation lawsuit over how it described Seer's actions. For example the EFF claimed that Seer was "threatening small companies" and Seer disputes the EFF's definition of small. That seems like pretty fine tooth nitpicking there, and hardly defamatory. It certainly feels like a threatened SLAPP, and (luckily) California has a pretty good anti-SLAPP law, which the EFF's attorney has suggested that Seer Systems acquaint itself with before moving forward with any lawsuits. Either way, it's fairly amazing that anyone would think it's a wise move to threaten the EFF with defamation based on something as weak as whether or not some startup is "small" or not.

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An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from CNet: "Federal regulators said Thursday they are going into 'search and rescue' mode to help the millions of consumers unprepared for the phased transition to digital television, which culminates with the June 12 transition deadline. The millions of consumers waiting for coupons for digital converter box coupons will finally receive them within the next two and a half weeks, thanks to emergency funding for the coupon program provided in the stimulus package, said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, an administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The NTIA is also ratcheting up its outreach to consumers most likely to be unprepared for the transition... FCC commissioners said their agency is also intensifying its outreach, but they acknowledged that while one third of television stations have already dropped their analog signals, the hardest part is yet to come." We previously discussed the DTV coupon program when it ran out of money in January. The $650 million from the stimulus packages adds to the $1.3 billion that's already been spent.

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A bunch of folks have been sending in the news of a woman who, after a fight with her boyfriend, posted a note on Craigslist posing as him, asking men to call his office number and "talk dirty." She's now been charged with a felony for identity fraud. At least (unlike some) no one's blaming Craigslist for this one...

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Blue whales are the planet's largest creatures, yet we hardly ever see them. Their calls travel thousands of miles, but we can barely hear them. Now, National Geographic embarks on a mission to witness what nobody ever has in these waters; blue whales eating and giving birth. Click to Learn More natgeotv.com/bluewhale

Derek Bledsoe, Boing Boing Video producer, is blogging daily Boing Boing Video episodes while Xeni's on the road in Africa.

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Flash video embed above, click "full" icon inside the player to view it large. You can download the MP4 here. Our YouTube channel is here, you can subscribe to our daily video podcast on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are the archives for Boing Boing Video.

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Les Claypool is a man of many dimensions. Known for gathering an eclectic mix of talented musicians from around the world, Les has fronted a number of projects including the Frog Brigade, Colonel Claypool's bucket of Bernie Brains, Sausage, and Electric Apricot.

But, when Les visited the Boing Boing Video studio, we asked him about the band he didn't get to play for. In 1986, before Primus came into fame, Claypool auditioned for a heavy metal band called Metallica after their bassist Cliff Burton was killed in a tragic bus accident.

BB Video pal Matty Kirsch got the inside scoop on all things Les: past, present, and future. Since boingers seemed pretty jived about the interview we posted earlier in the week, we thought we'd give you a little more Les love.

An anonymous reader writes "Wired has a story about Rob Spence, a Canadian filmmaker who plans to have a mini camera installed in his prosthetic eye. 'A camera module will have to be connected to a transmitter inside the prosthetic eye that can broadcast the captured video footage. To boost the signal, he says he can wear another transmitter on his belt. A receiver attached to a hard drive in a backpack could capture that information and then send it to another device that uploads everything to a web site in real time. ... Even though his project is still in its early stages, Spence says many people have already told him they wouldn't be comfortable being filmed. "People are more scared of a center-left documentary maker with an eye than the 400 ways they are filmed every day at the school, the subway, the mall," he says. He hopes he will help get people thinking about privacy, how surveillance cameras and the footage they record are being used and accessed.'" Spence runs a blog for the 'Eyeborg Project,' as he calls it, and has recently posted a video about the progress they're making.

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Galactica has one jump left before it becomes useless as a starship so they jump back to the home planet that was destroyed by the Cylons at the start of the show.

They arrive, and as predicted the ship is a mess.

They send a landing party down to the planet, but when they come back, they die within hours. Autopsies reveal that the planet no longer supports human life. Only one person from the landing party is unharmed, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. Now they have to figure out why.

They study her blood and discover by accident that it is identical to the little girl who is half Cylon and half human, the one who saved the President's life with her blood. They send the President down to the planet and sure enough she survives. They send the little girl down and she survives too.

I forgot to mention that the planet kills pure-breed Cylons too.

So they now have a plan. Lots of cross-breeding between Cylons and humans forming a new hybrid race. Kara is the new leader, the prototype, the only adult among them who's healthy (the President is still dying and the kid is too young, everyone else who will survive hasn't even been born yet).

Fade out. Battlestar Galactica is over.

The End.