Boing Boing Video (formerly Boing Boing TV) has been selected as a nominee for the 13th Annual Webby Awards in three categories, and has been selected as an Official Honoree in a fourth category.

Huge, heartfelt, and humble thanks to everyone who made this possible, all contributors, cast, crew, and partners, past and present.

In this blog post (above, below, and after the jump) we've embedded the highlights reels we submitted to the Webby Award judges for consideration.

Above, TECHNOLOGY (Download MP4 here), and below, VARIETY (Download MP4 here).

After the jump, WEIRD/EXPERIMENTAL (Download MP4 here), and BEST HOST ( Download MP4 here).

The Webby Award recipients are selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, but the online public chooses the Webby People's Voice Award. Online voting for that award is under way, and ends April 30.

If you dig the work we've done over the past couple of years in original video content, I hope you'll consider voting for Boing Boing Video here.

RSS feed for new episodes here, YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

BOING BOING WOULD LIKE TO THANK all the Boing Boing Video / Boing Boing TV cast, crew, production team members, contributors, and partners, past and present. We would also like to express gratitude to everyone at DECA who helped us launch Boing Boing TV; to the team at Federated Media; to delivery and distribution partners including Episodic, YouTube, Apple iTunes, Virgin America, and Castfire. And very special thanks and respect to Dr. M.X. Quetzalkanbalam.

Above: Boing Boing Video's highlights reel for "Best Reality/Variety Host"

Above: Boing Boing Video's highlights reel for "Weird and Experimental."

If you have an old Nokia 1100 phone, maybe it's time to dust it off and try selling it in Germany where hackers claim to have figured out a way to use certain Nokia phones to steal authentication codes for bank transactions. There are a few reports that these old phones (if they were made in a very specific factory, not just any old model...) are selling for ridiculous amounts -- ranging from $700 to $30,000 -- presumably because the handsets are so hard to find and are valuable to hackers prone to crime. So far, Nokia says it can't imagine any way for these old phones to be hacked for banking fraud. But not surprisingly, security vendors are quick to point out the plausibility of this type of phone hacking -- since security firms can obviously benefit from unfounded fears that encourage consumers to buy security software regardless of the actual need for it. Is it really that hard to ask a security vendor what the likelihood would be for a criminal to actually succeed in such a scam? Hopefully, the odds of actually stealing any money with these ancient phones are approaching zero -- especially now that the tools to implement the fraud are known and apparently getting quite expensive. Perhaps the real suckers in this story are the gullible hackers who are buying old phones in shady forums for prices that are well more than the phones are worth?

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Mike writes "It's official: Yahoo is pulling the plug, and GeoCities is dead. GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined. Awful, eye-punishing graphics, lack of relevancy, and 'lowest-common-denominator design' are believed to have contributed to it's demise. GeoCities was 15 years old." There is doubtless a lot of funny and informative stuff on there that's worth saving (not just Jesux, which pudge has now migrated).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I absolutely loved Chris Barton's book, The Day-Glo Brothers, The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors. It's a children's book about the two brothers who invented fluorescent paint and Day-Glo paint. Joe Switzer wanted to be a magician when he was younger and he started fooling around with a black light that he and his brother Bob learned to make from a 1930s issue of Popular Science (I'm guessing it was this PopSci article from 1932).

They shined the light on the chemicals lining the shelves of their father's pharmacy and noticed that some of them glowed vibrantly. They started buying and mixing chemicals and eventually developed a number of different kinds paints that gave fluoresced under black light. Later, after much experimentation, the stumbled on paint that fluoresced under white light, which they dubbed "Day-Glo." The discovery made them very rich.

The book is illustrated by Tony Persiani, and it makes good use of Day-Glo ink, natch.

The world needs more fun history books like this!

The Day-Glo Brothers, The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors

J. L. Tympanum writes "I used to ignore spam but recently I have been using the opt-out feature. Now I get more spam than ever, especially of the Nigerian scam (and related) types. The latter has gone from almost none to several a day. Was I a fool for opting out? Is my email address being harvested when I opt out? Has anybody had similar experience?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dino Segovis, of DinoFab.com, shows you how easy it is to turn a RumbleBot robot toy (available for $5-20 on eBay) into an Arduino-controlled robot, which opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Rumble Robot Arduino Hack

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Of the broadband providers out there, Verizon has certainly been better than others in terms of actually trying to create a much better product, rather than focusing on ways to just squeeze more for less out of their customers. I've always thought that Verizon made the right move six or seven years ago, when it decided to invest heavily in providing fiber to the home, while other providers said it was too costly. While it was costly, at some point (say: now) it would give Verizon a real leg up on the competition in offering a much better service. While I have plenty of disagreements about some of Verizon's other positions, the company has at least focused on providing value.

So, I was hopeful that when Verizon weighed in on the whole "broadband cap" debate, it would take a much stronger position than simply claiming that broadband caps are a sign of "highly competitive markets with companies trying to come up with more value, innovation and differentiated offerings to help them attract customers." While the discussion does make it clear that Verizon is focused on investing in adding more value, it's a bit disingenuous to claim that the caps are somehow a sign of a competitive market. If anything it's the opposite. The public reaction to the caps shows that the problem is the lack of competition, allowing these providers to move forward with such plans, knowing customers in many cases can't switch to a competitor. Also, it's difficult to see how providing less service for more money is "coming up with more value [and] innovation."

So, Verizon is right to point out (as it does), that it's more focused on providing higher quality service, rather than caps, but it's not being entirely honest in saying that this is a sign of competition. It's not.

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Ian Lamont writes "The idea of migrating people from free online news content to paid subscriptions has been dealt a blow. A venture meant to fill the void left by the print Rocky Mountain Times has attracted 3,000 subscribers — just 6% of its original goal of reaching 50,000 paid subscribers by Thursday. InDenverTimes.com is currently free, but the plan was to have gated premium content starting next month for a $5/month subscription. The project has entrepreneurial backing and articles from journalists who used to work for the print-focused Rocky Mountain News, which closed last month. However, a lack of paying subscribers and low online ad rates means that the venture might have to scale back its ambitions."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Comcast (a BB sponsor) is holding a contest in which you design your own virtual apartment in "Comcast Town." They invited Boing Boing to judge but, even more fun, they asked us to suggest some Boing Boing furniture that people could use to decorate their pads! Above is the living room I designed. (I'm obviously not eligible to win. Sniff, sniff.) Notice the steampunk computer, carnivorous plant, and Flying Spaghetti Monster statue. I think the illustrator did a terrific job. In fact, I wish it was my real living room! The grand prize winning design gets a real-world room remodel, 40-inch HDTV, a new laptop, and a digital phone. I'm just helping select the ten finalists -- then it's up to The People. Comcast Town (Flash site)

Just last night, I got into a conversation with someone about the rise and fall of various social networking sites. The key point was that they all seem to come and go -- and we were noting how MySpace and Facebook were following that trend. I brought up that it was the same thing that had happened in the past with SixDegrees and Friendster as well... when the guy I was talking to pointed out that I shouldn't forget GeoCities. In many ways, GeoCities was the original social network. It's where I got my very first website way back in 1996 or so (when the company was still called Beverly Hills Internet, and the service was GeoPages, not GeoCities). I learned HTML in order to figure out how to set up and manage my site on GeoPages (now long gone, of course). In 1999, Yahoo bought GeoCities for a bit less than $3 billion -- and, as big companies are known to do with hot startups -- did pretty much nothing with it (other than quickly laying off most of the employees and pissing off users).

I actually knew the site was still operating, because just a month or so ago, I came across the GeoCities site of a friend of mine who had first convinced me to use GeoCities -- and his page was still up, looking pretty much the same as it did in 1996. However, Yahoo has now announced that it will be shutting down GeoCities as part of its ongoing effort to consolidate and concentrate. Still, as Rich Skrenta points out, it's rather ridiculous to just shut down a property that gets 11 million unique visitors per month. Rich is offering to simply take over the site for Yahoo, promising to give them back 50% of any revenue. I wonder if others would want the same. Could you imagine a bidding war for GeoCities in 2009?

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The Pinewood Derby Designs and Patterns book from the Maker Shed is on sale now as part of our Spring-cleaning sale. This book is loaded with great designs for making the ultimate pinewood derby racer.

Build the coolest car in the pinewood derby! In this ultimate design guide, Troy Thorne - woodworker, artist and derby-winning dad - shares his expert tips, techniques and amazing patterns so parents and scouts of any skill can build a jaw-dropping, prize-winning car that's quick out of the gate. Officially licensed by the Boy scouts of America, this valuable guide provides 34 amazing patterns and designs along with step-by-step instructions for building a High-Wing Racer, a Stock Car and a Vintage Racecar. Techniques and tips for creating custom decals, applying a high-quality finish, and prepping the car's wheels, axles, and weight for the race are also included.

Check out the Pinewood Derby Designs and Patterns book from the Maker Shed

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Mike writes "A network of hackers, most based in China, have been making up to 70,000 attempts a day to break into the NYPD's computer system, the city's Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, revealed Wednesday. Kelly suggested that 'perhaps it is because of the NYPD's reach into the international arena' that they are being targeted for computer hacking 'in much the way the Pentagon has been.' The hackers are apparently using a botnet to make up to 5,000 attempts a day at various unsecured portals into the NYPD's files. China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang denied involvement in computer espionage. 'Some people outside of China are bent on fabricating lies of so-called Chinese computer spies,' he said last month. The obvious question is, why are the Chinese so interested in the NYPD computer network?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mike writes "A network of hackers, most based in China, have been making up to 70,000 attempts a day to break into the NYPD's computer system, the city's Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, revealed Wednesday. Kelly suggested that 'perhaps it is because of the NYPD's reach into the international arena' that they are being targeted for computer hacking 'in much the way the Pentagon has been.' The hackers are apparently using a botnet to make up to 5,000 attempts a day at various unsecured portals into the NYPD's files. China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang denied involvement in computer espionage. 'Some people outside of China are bent on fabricating lies of so-called Chinese computer spies,' he said last month. The obvious question is, why are the Chinese so interested in the NYPD computer network?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Happy Birthday to the father of quantum physics! Born Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck, or Max, as he was known from age 10, was born on this day in 1858 in Kiel, Germany. He studied at the University of Munich before working as a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Kiel and the University of Berlin. He became close friends with Albert Einstein, with whom he played music often. Most physics students know Planck through the Planck's constant, which is used to relate a photon's energy to its wavelength. He's easily one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century, and today we celebrate his birthday! Check out his biography at the Nobel Laureates website. His Wikipedia article is also notable.

Image from MaxPlanckFans.com.

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Jim Leftwich says: "Musical remixing of the news by brothers Michael and Andrew Gregory. The Katie Couric part (at about 1:20, above) is pretty awesome."

Here's another episode of Auto-Tune the News.

I didn't know there was a real life inspiration for the Amy Sedaris's character Jerri Blank in Strangers with Candy. Here's Florrie Fisher talking to high school students about drug addiction. (via Save vs. Death)

Gareth Branwyn says: "In this adafruit video, Limor demonstrates how to set up Xbee modules to wirelessly control both standard-type and latching relays."

While conceptually, I think many people appreciate President Obama's stance against bringing lobbyists into his administration, in all practicality, the rule has been a combination of meaningless or troubling. Tom Barger points to a NY Times article where many people are upset that some extremely qualified folks who worked for non-profit human rights organizations are being denied positions in the administration. There's been some pushing to get the administration to make an exception for human rights and non-profit lobbyists, noting that the intent of the rule was to bar corporate lobbyists from gaining too much influence, but the administration has struck down those suggestions, saying it leads to a slippery slope.

But, of course, in reality, we know that slippery slope already exists. That's because the ban on "lobbyists" is really only being used for folks who were officially registered as lobbyists. That leaves out tons of people who worked for these corporate entities or even for the lobbyist groups themselves, but weren't officially registered lobbyists themselves. We've already seen how the Justice Department is, for example, being filled with lawyers who regularly worked with the RIAA, MPAA and BSA -- three of the biggest copyright lobbying organizations, and those individuals have wasted no time in expressing their desire to continue pushing those industry's viewpoints in their new positions.

So the idea that lobbyists are being kept out is pretty silly. As the NY Times article notes, all this really does is encourage lobbyists not to register themselves as lobbyists, but to focus on lobbying unofficially, so that they can still get administration positions at a later date. That creates less openness and transparency, and a larger risk of regulatory capture, rather than a diminished one. We all like the idea of trying to keep corporate influence out of the law making (and law enforcement) side of government, but a blanket ban on all lobbyists, while letting non-lobbyist lobbyists in the back door isn't exactly reassuring.

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CWmike writes "Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday introduced the latest member of its Phenom II X4 family of high-performance quad-core CPUs, which the No. 2 chip maker said it had run as fast as 7 GHz in extreme overclocking tests. Out of the box, the new X4 955 Black Edition, which is aimed at gamers and hobbyists, runs at 3.2 GHz, giving it similar performance to Intel's fastest desktop chips at lower cost, AMD says. The company was able to more than double the CPU's speed during its tests using extreme cooling technology that is not safe at home, said Brent Barry, an AMD product manager. The Web site Ripping.org notes that hobbyists with early access to the X4 955 chip have been able to clock it at up to 6.7 GHz. AMD said the chip was safe with fan cooling at up to 3.8 GHz."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brady Forrest writes:

A katana (commonly called a samurai sword) is a marvel of art and technology. In this week's Ignite Episode, Jonathan Kahan walks us through its creation and usage. This was filmed at Ignite NYC 3.

The katana is made of steel that's been folded up to 20x which produces hundreds of thousands of layers. To function as a sword the blade needs to be able to hold an edge, but also be flexible. This is achieved through the quenching process where clay is used to form the two types of steel necessary. The work of art is then polished to bee as smooth and reflective as glass. Jonathan walks us through the process.

Jonathan Kahan on Samurai Swords as Cutting Edge Technology

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Al writes "Technology Review has a in-depth article about the anonymous networking software Tor and how it is helping dissidents spread information in oppressive regimes such as Syria, Zimbabwe and Mauritania, and opening up the unfiltered web for users in many more countries. In China, for instance, the computers found in some web cafes are configured to use Tor automatically. Interestingly, some police agencies even use the software to hide their activity from suspects. As filtering becomes ever more common in democratic countries such as the US, perhaps Tor (and similar tools such as I2P), will become even more valuable."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In this adafruit video, Limor demonstrates how to set up Xbee modules to wirelessly control both standard-type and latching relays.

Using Xbees to control relays

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A few months back, we wondered why it was so difficult to opt out of copyright. Soon after that, Creative Commons added its CC0 license, which gets you a long way towards putting your content in the public domain (there are a few issues related to it, but it's better than nothing). With patents, the issue isn't quite the same. With copyright, you're automatically given a copyright on creative works. Obviously, that's not the case with patents. However, people have wondered how they can put their invention in the public domain, such that (a) others can benefit from it and (b) it prevents others from patenting it at a later date. Tragically, the US Patent Office tends to look pretty narrowly at what counts as prior art and requires that the information be "published," (something that is also defined very narrowly) so simply declaring an invention to be in the public domain isn't always good enough to prevent others from making a claim on it.

I was thinking about the Slashdot post above for a bit, wondering if it was worth writing this post up, when someone else pointed out that some folks have now set up Public Domain Ideas, a wiki designed for just this purpose: to put your ideas into the public domain by publishing them in that wiki. There have been some efforts in the past to create a database of obviousness, but that's pretty difficult. The big problem with obvious ideas is that they're often so obvious, no one even thinks to put them down, until it's too late, and someone has patented an "invention" based on that idea. But the idea of a wiki for public domain ideas is much more interesting -- if people really do decide to make use of it -- and if the Patent Office recognizes it as a source of published inventions for prior art. In the meantime, if you've got some good ideas to share, why not check it out?

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Hugh Pickens writes "The Governator revealed this week that he may appear in the upcoming "Terminator Salvation" but when he said he didn't want to act, he left many fans scratching their heads. Turns out Schwarzenegger has been secretly working with helmer McG and the effects team to reprise his signature role ... without lifting a finger. 'I made it very clear that I don't have the time to do the movie,' says Schwarzenegger. 'I said that I would be willing to be in the movie if they get the technology together, and so they are working on that right now.' A body-cast mold of Schwarzenegger, created when he first appeared as the muscle-ripped cyborg, provided the basis for a digital-effects version of his famous character so the figure can appear in "Terminator Salvation" as a living, breathing actor. Warners first screens the movie in early May and opens it May 21. 'I think it's cool to continue on with the franchise . . . in case I want to jump over again and get into the acting after I'm through here,' adds Schwarzenegger."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bette Calman is a yoga instructor at age 83. She teaches as many as 11 classes a week and has no plans to retire. From News.com.au:

"Even a basic posture, or just going to a window and breathing deeply, can have big benefits."

It's that spirit that has made Mrs Calman a legend. The author of three yoga books was a pioneer of the regime in Australia in the 1950s, ran yoga centres interstate for 33 years and made regular TV appearances in the 70s.

"Yoga instructor Bette Calman still going strong at 83" (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Kaliann writes "Toys that respond to brainwaves are the next generation of unique user interfaces. The Washington Post looks at the current market appeal and future uses of technology that can meaningfully respond to the thoughts of a user. Currently the toys have a fairly simple basic idea: the harder you concentrate the more the object moves. A sensor on the forehead picks up brain waves that are associated with concentration, then levitates a ball in response: basic biofeedback. While this may seem to be a rather humble beginning, progress in this field could have astounding consequences in the advancement of technologies devoted to thought-controlled devices. As the author points out, Jedi Beer Pong is within our grasp."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

While hardly a month goes by without yet another indignant opinion piece arguing about how video games are corrupting our youth, it seems that some are now exploring the moral panics around other sorts of children's entertainment. Jedipunk points us to a brilliant tongue-in-cheek parody of all those anti-video game "think of the children" stories... but applying the same logic to the board game Monopoly.

For all the modern angst about violent computer games, this innocent-looking board game has probably had a more corrosive influence on western morals. For starters, Monopoly brazenly encourages players to plunder their savings and put every last penny into property.... Most pernicious of all Monopoly's venal influences, however, is surely the Community Chest card that says, "Bank error in your favour, collect £200." There's no suggestion you should alert the bank to its mistake when you can buy a couple more houses and profit by some idjit's error.

Indeed. Alert the politicians!

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Andrea Wachner sent an erotic dancer, named Cricket, to impersonate her at her ten year high school reunion. The dancer wore a hidden ear piece to stay in communication with Wachner. A film crew was on the scene pretending to film a documentary about artists, including Wachner. Of course, they were really documenting Wachner's brilliant prank. When she posted clips to YouTube, some of her classmates weren't too happy they'd been duped. Now Wachner has a manager shopping her story as a reality show or feature film. From ABC News:

Cricket told the reunion attendees that she'd had reconstructive surgery and also suffered from amnesia. It wasn't completely unbelievable, because some had already heard that the real-life Wachner was in an accident after high school -- her car was totaled and she had been injured, but she had never suffered from amnesia.

Most of them had not seen or talked to Wachner since high school, but many found her new profession suspect: Cricket as Andrea said she was working as a stripper to help pay her graduate school tuition.

Daniel Wolowicz, 32, who had been an acquaintance of Wachner's in high school, said he was immediately suspicious.

"She was just so different. You have to understand the community we had come from," he said. "Everyone was questioning who this person was.

"I had asked her a very specific question about seeing her at a bat mitzvah when I was 15 years old," he said. When Cricket answered his question correctly, Wolowicz said he assumed it was Andrea or "someone else who had been given a lot of information."

It would be awhile, however, before he learned the full truth.

As the night progressed the drinks flowed, and Cricket, always outgoing, was getting ready for the climax of the evening: a striptease performed to what Cricket described as "one of the worst songs of the '90s," Lisa Loeb's "Stay."

"Stripper Impersonates High School Alum: Classmates Learn About Reunion Prank on YouTube" (Thanks, Gil Kaufman!)

Hugh Pickens writes "NPR reports that owners of ships that ply the dangerous waters near Somalia are looking at options to repel pirates including slippery foam, lasers, electric fences, water cannons and high-intensity sound — almost anything except guns. One defense is the Force 80 squirt gun with a 3-inch nozzle that can send 1,400 gallons a minute 100 yards in any direction. 'It is a tremendous force of water that will knock over anything in its path and will also flood a pirate's ship very quickly,' says Roger Barrett James of the the Swedish company Unifire. Next is the Mobility Denial System, a slippery nontoxic foam that can be sprayed on just about any surface making it impossible to walk or climb even with the aid of a harness. The idea would be to spray the pirate's vessel as it approached, or to coat ropes, ladders, steps and the hull of the ship that's under attack. The Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, a high-powered directional loudspeaker allows a ship to hail an approaching vessel more than a mile away. 'Knowing that they've lost the element of surprise is half the battle,' says Robert Putnam of American Technology Corp. The LRAD has another feature — a piercing "deterrent tone" that sounds a bit like a smoke detector alarm with enough intensity to cause extreme pain and even permanent hearing loss for anyone directly in the beam that comes from the device. But Capt. John Konrad, who blogs for the Web site Gcaptain.com, says no anti-pirate device is perfect. 'The best case scenario is that you find these vessels early enough that you can get a Navy ship detached to your location and let them handle the situation.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

It is not as simple as merely being able to count to three paces. Take it from Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset; a duelist who followed every fine tradition that accompanied killing someone over a bruised ego, came away a winner (i.e., alive), and still managed to end up with a bit of egg on his face.

First: Get Embroiled in a Love Triangle
Lord Edward Bruce loved Venetia Stanley. But so did Edward Sackville. This being 1613, the disagreement quickly turned to impassioned slapping, which was, of course, an invitation to duel to the death.

Second: Evade the Wrath of Frustratingly Anti-Duelist Political Leaders
Besides commissioning a translation of the Bible, England's King James I is also well-known for disliking the "barbaric" traditions of dueling. (Progressive leader, or pansy worried about losing? You be the judge.) In fact, he banned duels in England during his reign, so when Lord Bruce and the Earl of Dorset wanted to fight, they had to take the grudge match overseas. Naturally, they chose Holland.

Third: Die With Dignity
It is a shame pay-per-view was not around in those days, because the fight turned out to be pretty evenly matched, with both men severely wounding each other. Finally, though, the Earl managed to stab Bruce straight through...twice. After that, Bruce was pretty much done for, and the fight broke up so both sides could seek medical attention. But, while the Earl was busy with his wounds, Bruce's doctor attacked him from behind. This was not looked upon kindly by either contestant. At the time, doctors were thought of as little better than maids, and Bruce couldn't bear being avenged by someone so low on the social totem pole. From his deathbed, he demanded that the "rascal" doctor halt the attack and, thus, died honorably...if somewhat pointlessly.

Fourth: Survive, But Wonder Whether Perhaps You Missed a Step Somewhere
Victorious, the Earl of Dorset headed back to England to claim is lady love ... Only to find out that, while he and Bruce had been busy paying attention to each other, Venetia Stanley had gone off and married somebody else.

You can read about three other noteworthy historical duels--involving, respectively, two high-class ladies; the founder of the Royal Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and George W. Bush--in my book, Be Amazing

alphadogg writes "Security researchers demonstrated how to take control of a computer running Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 operating system at the Hack In The Box Security Conference (HITB) in Dubai on Thursday. Researchers Vipin Kumar and Nitin Kumar used proof-of-concept code they developed, called VBootkit 2.0, to take control of a Windows 7 virtual machine while it was booting up. 'There's no fix for this. It cannot be fixed. It's a design problem,' Vipin Kumar said, explaining the software exploits the Windows 7 assumption that the boot process is safe from attack. While VBootkit 2.0 shows how an attacker can take control of a Windows 7 computer, it's not necessarily a serious threat. For the attack to work, an attacker must have physical access to the victim's computer. The attack can not be done remotely." Which makes me wonder why I'm posting this :)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You knew it was going to happen. Following the stories about the guy in Boston who was allegedly killing women he found via Craigslist (leading some to refer to him as "the Craigslist killer," eventually people were going to start incorrectly suggesting that Craigslist deserves some of the blame. Mark sends in the news that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has stepped up to the challenge. While she starts off by noting how helpful Craigslist can be in tracking down criminals, she quickly changes tone and suggests the company may be a part of the problem:

"I can't say they haven't been helpful. On the other hand, they are the enablers. It's all well and good to say we'll help when we're called upon . . . but in light of what's happened in Boston and around the country, it may be time for a little closer look or oversight."

Of course, that makes no sense. Crimes of this nature have gone on for ages. In fact, the details sound quite similar to the famous Jack the Ripper story. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jack didn't use Craigslist, did he? Nor did anyone think to blame the street corners where Jack the Ripper found the prostitutes he murdered. So why are we suddenly blaming the digital equivalent?

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Shed friendly artist Elena Thomas asks, "I am an artist currently working on a shed project which involves me covering sheds with fabric. do you have a shed that you want covered?"

Do you want your shed covered in Fabric? (Thanks, Uncle Wilco!)

Glyn sez,

Against widespread dissent and controversy MEPs in the European Parliament voted this morning to allow copyright term extension to pass a first reading.

4 out of the 7 main groups (ALDE, GREENS/EFA, NGL, IND/ DEM) together with a cross party platform of MEPs voted to reject the proposal. Internal opposition threatened the group positions of the two largest parties (PSE and EPP) as several national delegations and key MEPS also joined the fight to reject. We understand that, in total, 222 voted in favour of rejection, 370 against. The final vote was 317 in favour, 178 against, 37 abstentions. A key amendment to ensure benefits accrued only to performers was also rejected.

The proposal now moves forward to the Council of Ministers where it is currently blocked by member states. The fundamental problems remain: how to include a workable use-it-or-lose it clause; agreeing to deliver real benefits to the vast majority of performers; how to avoid breaking the respect necessary for a functioning IP system by simply taking money from the pockets of consumers.

Discussions on the proposal will be held in the Council of Ministers and you can find out how to contact your government's relevant IP body here. (We understand the blocking minority is currently made up of Slovenia, Portugal, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Slovakia, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Romania).

Parliament buckles: copyright extension goes through to Council of Ministers

narramissic writes "The good people of Wilson, NC pay $99/month for 10/10 Mbps internet service, 81 TV channels and telephone service. How'd they manage that, you ask? Well, the city-owned and operated cable service called Greenlight came into being when the City of Wilson approached TWC and local DSL provider Embarq and requested faster service for the area. 'TWC refused the request. And so Greenlight was born,' says blogger Peter Smith. 'Now Time Warner Cable and Embarq are upset that they've got competition, and rather than try to go head to head with Greenlight on price and service, they've instead been lobbying the state government of NC to pass laws to put Greenlight out of business. Apparently they're having some success, as the NC State Senate has proposed bills that would do TWC's bidding.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Come out to central Denver to meet other makers, tour the Club Workshop public machine shop, discuss project ideas, learn and be inspired. I'll also be giving a talk on some of my projects (electronics, machining, and carbon fiber), with lots of hands-on props to pass around.

Link: Denver Maker's Group
Date: Tonight - Thursday, April 23th, 2009 - 7pm. Free.
Location: Club Workshop 999 Vallejo St. Denver 80204 (centrally located near I-25 & 8th Ave., on the East side)

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MAKE contributor Michael Una posted this vid documenting a triggering problem he ran into while developing his homebrew sequencer. The project, based on a 4017 decade counter chip (which are awesome, btw) benefitted from the addition of some PNP transistors. Though he doesn't mention exactly how the fix was implemented mayhaps he used them in conjunction with that LED signal to gate those triggers. [via GetLoFi]

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Instructables user technoplastique writes:

Use 3D modeling/printing, laser cut acrylic, resin casting, UV reactive pigment, LEDs and some simple wiring to make a high style and retro cool space invaders chandelier or lamp. I've included a nice trick for making curved corners out of laser cut acrylic, a lot of info on making the relatively difficult molds to cast the parts and a fairly complete blender tutorial for building your own printable shapes.

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brumgrunt writes "Friday marks the 50th day on general release for what was the long-awaited Watchmen movie. But how much money has it made, and how has it measured up to Warner Bros' expectations? Has it, bluntly, been worth the gamble, expense and hassle? "

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Obama administration continues to give in to pretty much every wish of the entertainment industry. At an MPAA-sponsored dinner, VP Joe Biden repeated a bunch of Hollywood talking point myths as fact, and promised stronger intellectual property enforcement. He incorrectly referred to file sharing as "pure theft," claimed that it hurt the economy (with no evidence to support that) and said that it caused lost jobs. Of course, the industry has been putting out bogus studies claiming such notions, but they're easily debunked when you look at the details. Biden also promised that the "IP czar" would be "the right person," which (given the audience was Hollywood execs) almost certainly means someone who will roll over and obey the industry, rather than focus on actually increasing innovation and protecting consumer rights.

Earlier at the event, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke noted that the recent leak of Wolverine "underscores the problem the industry faces," while saying that he "believes in the full and impartial enforcement of the law." Again, as has been discussed widely, the leak of Wolverine doesn't demonstrate any problem at all. Plenty of people will still go see the movie in the theater, and if the industry had reacted intelligently, it could have turned the leak into a marketing coup. Instead, it acted stupidly, and because of that, the administration is going to bend over backwards to help the industry keep acting stupid rather than adapt. What a shame.

These moves represent a real loss to the economy, society and culture. For whatever reason (money has a lot to do with it), the administration seems to have bought into the totally unsubstantiated claim that there is only one business model for entertainment (selling content), and thus it needs to create laws to make sure that such a business model works. In doing so, it's creating massive inefficiencies, decreasing content production and making it even more difficult for new and innovative business models and services to thrive.

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After successfully making his own delightfully funky but functional US$5 wooden tonearm, German maker Charles Altmann decided to keep a-goin and try his hand at creating a wooden turntable to go with it. He built the whole thing for around $50.

The Altmann DIY Turntable [via No Tech Magazine]

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Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

Researchers at Seoul National University in South Korea have successfully made transgenic puppies, according to New Scientist. The baby beagles carry a gene normally found in sea anemones, which means....yes....these fuzzy-wuzzy little puppykins glow in the dark. Thank you, science.

What, you may ask, is the point of a glow-in-the-dark dog? Er, well, this seems to be the point where everybody starts shuffling their feet and staring awkwardly up at the ceiling. One member of the research team says the experiment is basically just a proof-of-concept. What they really want to do is make transgenic dogs that could serve as research models for human disease. But while the other scientists interviewed in the article seem to agree that glowing puppies are a pretty damn awesome accomplishment, they're less convinced on any near-term practical applications of the technology.

New Scientist quotes Greg Barsh, a geneticist at Stanford University who studies dogs as models of human disease:

"I do not know of specific situations where the ability to produce transgenic dogs represents an immediate experimental opportunity,"

And Nathan Sutter, a dog geneticist at Cornell says it's not on his horizon at all, partly because of the expense of making and caring for the dogs...but also because the public still isn't really ready to accept that transgenic puppies won't someday rise up and kill us all.

Oh, well. They're still cute as all get out and way nifty. Go take a look. New Scientist has both "lights on" and "lights off" pictures.

BTW, this team is tangentially related to the guy who turned out to have faked a lot of human cell cloning data. But New Scientist says these puppies (and the cloned dog that came before them) are legit.

Mohamed Zaian writes "Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, announced today that Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition is free to download from Thursday 23 April. Also announced were the simultaneous releases of Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition and Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix (UNR) Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition delivers a range of feature enhancements to improve the user experience. Shorter boot speeds, some as short as 25 seconds, ensure faster access to a full computing environment on most desktop, laptop and netbook models. Enhanced suspend-and-resume features also give users more time between charges along with immediate access after hibernation. Intelligent switching between Wi-Fi and 3G environments has been broadened to support more wireless devices and 3G cards, resulting in a smoother experience for most users."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Cute, pink puffy speakers -- for those who speak Chinese

• A day with the email-only Peek Pronto

• Star Wars cupcakes that look a little chewy

• Glowing Swarovski crystals in mesh sacks make awe$ome lamps

• A rig that lets you hang your guitar in the closet (where it belongs)

• An hour with Griffin's TuneFlex AUX

• Summer to do: build a tiny house, finally

• Did you know you can now stream Nova on PBS.com?

• Earth Day alert: "Wasting money on a gadget I don't need just doesn't seem smart."

• LEDs that make your home glow like a Virgin-Atlantic cabin.

From the MAKE Flickr pool

The behavior of yamamo2's "Self-Propelled Toy Car" is eerily reminiscent of rodent navigating a maze -

Like a beastie, this car is able to run on its own. I made by applying studying of chaos, complex system and neural network. The character of this car is very simple electric circuit. I only used PIC, three distance measuring sensors and two FET modules. I want to commercialize this!! So please contact me(picnome[at]tkrworks.net) if you're interested in.

Now all it needs is some digital cheese to track down. More project info available on his blog.

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viktor.91 writes "Sun Microsystems announced three new MySQL products: MySQL 5.4, MySQL Cluster 7.0 and MySQL Enterprise Partner Program for 'Remote DBA' service providers." which showed up in the firehose today next to Glyn Moody's submission where he writes "Michael Widenius, founder and original developer of MySQL, says that most of the leading coders for that project have either left Sun or will be leaving in the wake of Oracle's takeover. To ensure MySQL's survival, he wants to fork from the official version — using his company Monty Program Ab to create what he calls a MySQL "Fedora" project. This raises the larger question of who really owns a commercial open software application: the corporate copyright holders, or the community?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Via Martin Thornkvist, we find out that Swedish Public radio has discovered that the judge in The Pirate Bay case apparently has some ties to the copyright lobby (that's a Google translation -- if you know Swedish, the original is here). Apparently, he's a member of a few organizations that work towards strengthening copyright laws, and even holds a board position in one of those organizations. The lawyers representing the entertainment industry also belonged to one of the pro-copyright organizations in which the judge is a member. Experts quoted in the article note that this is highly irregular, and the judge should have recused himself for conflict of interest. The judge, of course, claims that he doesn't believe he was biased at all, but others note that any hint of bias is a problem in such a legal case (let alone such a high profile one).

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From the MAKE Flickr pool

From the fine folks over at Oomlout comes this elegantly visible LED matrix born from laser-cut acrylic. The scrolling Valentine's Day greeting is a tad belated but doesn't lessen the coolness factor here at all. Check out the relevant design files over at Thingiverse.

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maglo writes "The judge who handed down the harsh sentence to the four accused in the The Pirate Bay trial was biased, writes Sveriges Radio (Sweden Public Radio): sr.se (swedish). Google translation. The judge is member of two copyright lobby organizations, something he shares with several of the prosecutor attorneys (Monique Wadsted, Henrik Pontén and Peter Danowsky). The organizations in question are Svenska Föreningen för Upphovsrätt (SFU) and Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättsskydd (SFIR)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Denney Cole, founder of TechShop Portland, wanted us to let all makers from Portland and surrounding areas know about the TechShop Portland Grand Opening, this Saturday, April 25, 2009, starting at 3:00 PM. You'll have a chance to check out the cool tools and machines, talk with Denney, TechShop's founder Jim Newton, and the Portland staff. Instructors will also be there to help you "Build Your Dreams."

This event will be safe and fun for people of all ages, so feel free to bring family and friends.

TechShop Portland

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blackbearnh writes "One of the biggest problem that a platoon on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan faces is that when a new unit cycles in, all the street-sense and experience of the old unit is lost. Knowing where insurgents like to plant IEDs, or even which families have a lot of domestic disputes, can spell the difference between living and dying. In response to this, DARPA created TIGR, the Tactical Ground Reporting System. Developed as much on the ground in active warzones as in a lab, TIGR lets platoons access the latest satellite and drone imagery in an easy-to-use map based interface, as well as recording their experiences in the field and accessing the reports of other troops. In this O'Reilly Radar interview, two of the people responsible for the development of TIGR talk about the intel issues that troops face in hostile territory,the challenges of deploying new technology meant for combat areas, the specific tricks that they had to employ to make TIGR work over less-than-robust military networking, and how TIGR is impacting platoons in their day to day operations"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

My Dorkbot DC cohort Jon Singer sent me a link to a webpage of a buddy of his, a Croatian laser-hacker, who grew his own KDP (Monopotassium phosphate) crystals for use in a Nd:YAG laser. He had a time getting the crystals to grow, but was able to finally get some suitable growth and to find the right angle and alignment to get decent SHG and a pretty green beam. Apparently, this is not commonly and easily done with KDP, so it's a bit of a triumph on this fellow's part.

Homegrown KDP crystal and successful SHG attempt [Thanks, Jon!]

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A bunch of readers have been sending in the story of Time Warner and Embarq working overtime to try to stop a small city in North Carolina, named Wilson, from offering its own broadband service. These types of stories aren't new at all. The incumbent telco and cablecos have spent tons of time, money and effort trying to fight muni-broadband plans. Of course, the story is almost always the same. The incumbents have done little to actually provide state of the art broadband, so the municipality comes up with a plan to compete by offering a better service. The incumbents flip out and try to get the competition legally blocked. The whole thing is silly. The incumbent providers always are operating thanks to gov't subsidies and rights of way, and have often abused those positions to offer inferior service. A municipality deciding to compete is a perfectly reasonable response when the incumbent providers have not lived up to their end of the bargain by misusing those rights of way and failing to offer a competitive service. And, of course, if the incumbents are really concerned about muni-competition, they could just take some of that money they dump into legal fights and put it towards (gasp!) improving the broadband they offer.

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A video showing a member of the United Arab Emirates' royal family torturing a man with whips, electrocution and a nail-spiked board has been released. The Minister of the Interior (one of the torturer's brothers) reviewed the recording and concluded "all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department."

A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man's wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.

In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.

ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh (via Digg)

Canon has released firmware updates for its 50D, 450D and 1000D digital SLRs. Firmware versions 1.0.6, 1.1.0 and 1.0.5 for EOS 50D, Rebel XSi (450D) and Rebel XS (1000D) respectively, support the AF assist beam feature of Canon's latest Speedlight 270 EX flashgun. Additionally, the 50D update rectifies other issues including vertical banding noise.

A bunch of folks have been sending in Scott Rosenberg's wonderful response to those who keep incorrectly claiming that Google is somehow to blame for the decline of news, and should "pay" newspapers. The whole thing is worth reading, but there's one key message towards the beginning: Google is providing newspapers with "qualified leads," normally considered the most valuable type of leads in any sales operation. These are people who actually want what a newspaper is offering... and rather than thank Google for sending them such qualified leads (and figuring out ways to provide enough extra value to have anyone want to pay, the newspapers are whining and complaining about this process.

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An anonymous reader writes "TTVK, a Finnish national copyright lobby, is threatening a book rental service called Bookabooka for allegedly running the 'Pirate Bay for Books.' Bookabooka however does not offer a torrent tracker service, nor does it enable a user in any way to download eBooks; it simply provides a place for book owners to rent textbooks to each other via the traditional mail service. It is mandatory that all textbooks must be originals. The service is used by a lot of School and University students, and it does not handle the shipping or returns of the textbooks. Nevertheless, the Finnish book publishers' association (Suomen Kustannusyhdistys) is convinced the service is breaching the copyright laws and threatening their business. TTVK has given Bookabooka until Friday to cease operations or face a lawsuit. Bookabooka's founders have vowed to keep the service online and ignore the threat."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "TTVK, a Finnish national copyright lobby, is threatening a book renal service called Bookabooka for allegedly running the 'Pirate Bay for Books'. Bookabooka however does not offer a torrent tracker service, nor does it enable a user in any way to download eBooks; it simply provides a place for book owners to rent textbooks to each other via the traditional mail service. It is mandatory that all textbooks must be originals. The service is used by a lot of School and University students, and it does not handle the shipping or returns of the textbooks. Nevertheless, the Finnish book publishers' association (Suomen Kustannusyhdistys) is convinced the service is breaching the copyright laws and threatening their business. TTVK has given Bookabooka until Friday to cease operations or face a lawsuit. Bookabooka's founders have vowed to keep the service online and ignore the threat."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AWARE, a 25-year-old Singaporean women's right organization, recently found itself in turmoil after a coup orchestrated by conservative fundamentalist Christians who signed up in large numbers just before the annual general meeting, then elected a new executive that immediately purged the organization of all its traditional leadership down to the subcommittee chairs.

AWARE held its annual general meeting (AGM) on 28 March 2009. There were over 100 people present. Of them, about 80 had only joined the organisation between January and March, one to three months before the meeting. Nine out of 12 executive committee (EXCO) places, including four Office Bearer positions, went to newcomers, who were voted in by wide majorities. There are wide-ranging suspicions that this "leadership grab" has been orchestrated by a well-organised group who do not share AWARE's values and who are seeking to use the name and the resources of a well-respected institution to further their own agenda. These concerns have been expressed not only by onlookers, but by older members of Aware...

# The new president, Josie Lau and 5 other Exco members belong to the same church, Church of Our Saviour. Given this, it is very likely, in our view, that they have acted in concert to take over AWARE. We do not know why as they have refused to disclose their reasons to either members of AWARE or to the press and this makes us even more worried. They, or persons whom they have been associated with, have written homophobic letters to the press. While that is their personal conviction to which they are entitled, we do not want AWARE to be made into a vehicle for any hidden agenda.

# Josie Lau, was in charge of the DBS Charity Drive in support of Focus On The Family, US-based Christian organisation that is opposed to abortion and equal rights for sexual minorities. This created a controversy last year which was well-documented.

# 160 members, including former AWARE committee members and founder members, petitioned for an extraordinary general meeting to consider a vote of no confidence in the New Exco on the basis that the New Exco has not acted and is not acting in the best interest of AWARE; does not appreciate or share the values of AWARE and does not have the requisite experience of carrying out AWARE's work or is otherwise inadequate to further AWARE's objectives. An EGM will be held on 2 May 2009.

WHAT HAPPENED (via IZ Reloaded)

According to Swedish National Radio, the judge in the Pirate Bay trial is a board member for a copyright industry lobbying group, and this conflict of interest may result in a mistrial. The Swedish article has been translated into English on Freeform 101 by a Dane, and is a little rough:

There are different types of ____ ('jäv', translation help needed). The most obvious case is if a judge is related to one of the inflicted parties. This is not the case here. But the concept of _____ ('delikatessjäv', translation help needed) exists, and that means that you as a judge must not have any reason to be deemed partial.

"But I do not think that I can be deemed partial because of these engagements," says Tomas Norström, judge in The Pirate Bay trial.

How do you explain that several law experts disagree with you?

"You will have to ask them that yourselv. Every time I am presented with a count, I access if I see myself as partial. That I have not in this case," says Tomas Norström.

But it does not matter what the judges thinks himself. This thinks Erik Bylander, associate professor in law practice at the Gothenburg Business College.

"Regardless of the judge's viewpoint, it can seem highly questionable. In a high profile lawsuit such as this one, I am _____ ('förvåna', translation help needed) that the court has not been more careful," he says.

The Pirate Bay trial invalid?

Rättegången kan tas om (Thanks, ChristianVillum and Zacqary!)

An anonymous reader writes "Germany's government has passed a draft law for censorship of domains hosting content related to child pornography. A secret list of IPs will be created by the BKA, Germany's federal police; any attempted access to addresses on this list is blocked, logged (the draft seems to contradict press reports on this point) and redirected to a government page featuring a large stop sign. The law has not yet passed the assembly, however five of the largest ISPs have already agreed to voluntarily submit to the process even without a law in place. Critics argue that with the censorship infrastructure in place, the barrier for blocking access for various other reasons is very low. The fact that the current block can easily be circumvented may lead to more effective technologies to be used in the future. There are general elections as well as elections in several of the states later this year."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I missed this story last week, but it's an important one to cover. The entertainment industry has been bragging about its various "wins," but when you look closely at them, many of them are questionable. For example, there were some news stories recently about how the operator of a file sharing site called InfoPSP in Spain was sentenced to 6 months in jail. However, TorrentFreak looked more closely at the case, and realized that the guy in question didn't actually commit a crime at all and was simply pressured into a plea bargain. That's because Spanish courts have made clear that it's not illegal to just link to infringing content. However, after recognizing the costs to fight this in court, he simply agreed to the plea bargain deal:

So a deal was done. Kuve would admit to being a criminal and accept the court's decision with the assurance that he wouldn't be chased through the civil courts by the plaintiffs. Kuve and his lawyer decided that it would make sense, financially at least.

"I am a student and therefore do not have the financial resources needed to hire a defense expert that could ensure results in the trial. Besides, continuing with the trial meant that the civil courts could convict me and I would be forced to pay financial compensation which I couldn't cope with," said Kuve.

"I would have loved to defend my interests to the end and it is for this that I wish all the people in my situation who can afford to stay and fight for something that affects us all, the best of luck."

It's quite troubling that the entertainment industry was able to send someone to jail, despite him not committing a crime, and can then use that "example" to try to show people how they, too, can go to jail. For an industry that keeps trying to take the moral high ground, you have to wonder how it can claim it's moral to send someone to jail despite not having broken the law?

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Mark sez,

Bookarmy.com is a London-based start-up aiming to be the last.fm of books â€" and we're gathering steam on our mission to link every book and every author on earth.

A month into public beta, the site's already throwing up some curious connections. Neil Gaiman and Lewis Caroll? Ray Bradbury and George Orwell? Charles Stross and Fyodor Dostoevsky? Anything goes: Bookarmy recommendations are generated by members themselves, who can mix and match similar reads from a full bibliographic database. The site also give readers space to host online libraries of their favourite books -- and compares their tastes to refine its recommendations.

Big-name authors already active on Bookarmy include 'Alchemist' author Paulo Coelho and 'Jumper' scribe Steven Gould. Publisher HarperCollins recently took a stake in the business, which should mean not just bags of multimedia on the way but potentially access to all manner of great content as the ebook revolution gathers pace!

Book Army (Thanks, Mark!)

VP Joe Biden stood up in front of a bunch of Hollywood execs and promised to appoint a copyright czar, and furthermore, that this would be the "right" person to protect their interests. I would have voted Dem in the last election, if I got a vote, but make no mistakes: the Dems are the party of stupid copyright laws. From Hollywood Howard Berman on down, they've got a terrible track record on technology and copyright policy.

"It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and as a consequence of loss of income," Biden said, according to a White House pool report.

Biden blasted China, saying its intellectual property laws remain "largely ineffective" and will end up "strangling their own creative juices," and compared it to what he described as India's more effective anti-piracy regime. He singled out Canada, a close U.S. ally, as needing stronger laws; it never signed the treaty that led to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and a proposal to adopt anti-circumvention restrictions was never adopted.

He also addressed President Obama's forthcoming decision about who will be named the intellectual-property enforcement coordinator, better known as the copyright czar. Copyright industry lobbyists sent a letter Monday to the president asking him to pick someone sympathetic to their concerns, while groups that would curb copyright law sent their own letter urging the opposite approach.

We "will find the right person for intellectual property czar," Biden said.

Biden promises 'right person' as new U.S. copyright czar (Thanks, Timothy!)

Warren Ellis has written a new series of GI Joe cartoons, reimagining the infra-dumb 80s toy-sales vehicle as a serious war comic. Adult Swim has the original episodes, but they're blocked outside of the US, so if you're in the UK like me, you can watch 'em on YouTube.

GI Joe Resolute (YouTube) GI Joe Resolute (Adult Swim)

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Jason Kottke's got a good, link-dense post about several efforts to re-imagine media packaging -- video game boxes that look like Penguin covers, notional Nintendo DS tie-in games for movies -- basically, making stylish boxes for the lowbrow stuff we all love.

Media packaging mashups

Sean Ragan made this easy spinning top toy from a CD and a few screw-together lamp parts. He classed it up by customizing the CD with his Lightscribe drive which allows you to etch designs on the surface of CDRs.

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Apologies for the terrible photo, it was packed!

Great job to everyone who gave presentations at tonight's Ignite Minneapolis event. There were some insightful, funny, and useful presentations, but huge kudos to Make: television's very own Bill Gurstelle who kicked off the night with an energetic manifesto on the "art of living dangerously". The take away was, according to Bill, many of the world's best engineers and leaders have blown off at least one thumb by living dangerously, and a lot of innovation and merit comes along with taking big risks. Look for more this summer when his book comes out, Bill can explain it much better.

For those who are unfamiliar with the format of these events...

Ignite is a community-driven event comprising a series of speed presentations. Ignite events skew toward the geeky and wonkish, are usually innovative and fresh, and always involve drinking.

Basically, a person prepares a brief presentation on any topic. They get exactly 20 slides to tell their story, and each slide displays onscreen for exactly 15 seconds. So that's 5 minutes per presenter.

LINK

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Last year, we were dismayed that newspapers seemed to be willing to agree to certain rules placed on how they could report on sporting events, as per the National Football League and Major League Baseball. In both cases, these involved significant restrictions on what and how they could report. At the time, we suggested that newspapers stop accepting the restrictions, even if it meant they were no longer granted a press pass -- but every newspaper we know of gave in. Covering baseball and football was just too important -- even though these newspapers could easily still report on games without the benefit of a press pass. You don't need a press pass to report on an event.

That said, while it's on a much smaller scale, it's nice to see the Redding Record Searchlight stop covering the local rodeo over this same issue (found via Romenesko). The rodeo decided that it would only give press passes to those who were "willing to work with us," which meant covering things in a way that was favorable to the rodeo. Good for the Redding Record Searchlight. Hopefully some other newspapers will get up enough courage to tell other (bigger) sports what they can do with their restrictions as well.

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Corporate Troll writes "Robotic penguins were unveiled by German engineering firm Festo this week. Using their flippers, the mechanical penguins(video) can paddle through water just like real ones, while larger helium-filled designs can "swim" through the air. The penguins are on show at the Hannover Messe Trade Exhibition in Germany. Each penguin carries 3D sonar which is used to monitor its surroundings and avoid collisions with walls or other penguins."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

John Maushammer writes on the Make Blog:

Ever since the first TechShop opened in the San Francisco bay area, I've been dying for one in Downtown Denver. Well, my dreams have been answered - Club Workshop is a well-equipped public access workshop, where you can craft your projects using their machine tools, rapid prototyping machine, laser engraver/cutter, woodworking tools, and welding equipment. Naturally, they also offer classes so you can learn how to use these tools.

This maker-friendly spot will host the first meeting of the Denver Maker's group, and I've been invited to be the guest speaker. I'll give a presentation on the build process behind my Pong/Asteroids Watches and discuss some of my projects, including how to tinker with carbon fiber.

Link: Club homepage
Date: Thursday, April 23th, 2009 - 7pm
Location: Club Workshop 999 Vallejo St. Denver 80204 (centrally located near I-25 & 8th Ave., on the East side)

Last night in Los Angeles, Throbbing Gristle performed a live soundtrack accompaniment to Derek Jarman's film In The Shadow of the Sun. Boing Boing Video, Richard Metzger, and friends were at the show. By all accounts, it was a provocative, challenging, and mindbending experience. Watch this space for a full multimedia report soon. Meanwhile, above is "TG: Psychic Rally In Heaven," a short film Jarman made for Throbbing Gristle in 1981. Best viewed at high quality, in a darkened room, with headphones.

Jim Leftwich says on Twitter:

Amazing video short by Stink Digital: "Carousel" It's a frozen moment of cops vs. clowns in a hospital shootout.

We've seen all sorts of nasty fees and sneaky tricks by broadband companies to try to get you to pay more, but Broadband Reports highlights how RCN not only raised its rates, but then told customers it would cost them a "$5 downgrade fee" to switch their plan to a less costly option in response to the higher rates. And there are people out there who still wonder why so many subscribers hate their broadband providers?

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What better way to celebrate Earth Day than with a flashback to some clean, green wind-powered goodness. Back in MAKE Volume 05, Abe and Josie Connally shared a detailed DIY on how to make their Chispito Wind Generator (Spanish for "little spark"). The Connallys are knee deep in creating an off-grid homestead in Mexico, and they love to share their knowledge and experience online at Vela Creations. Below is an illustration from the article that shows the basics in detail:

The Connallys made the Chispito out of mostly reclaimed parts, including a treadmill motor. Since publication in MAKE, the project has been posted on Instructables (with over 200 comments) and is also available on Vela Creations, with lots of helpful build tips.

Below, watch John Park build the Chispito on Make: television:

The Chispito isn't going to single-handedly get you off the grid, but it's a great project to get you started. Happy Earth Day!

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Hugh Pickens writes "Vice President Joe Biden lauded Hollywood at a gala dinner in Washington, assailed movie piracy, and promised film executives that the Obama administration would pick "the right person" as its copyright czar. Biden warned of the harms of piracy at the private event organized by the Motion Picture Association of America in the sumptuous, newly renovated Great Hall of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. "It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and as a consequence of loss of income," Biden said, according to a White House pool report. Biden addressed President Obama's forthcoming decision about who will be named the intellectual-property enforcement coordinator, better known as the copyright czar. Under a law approved by the U.S. Congress last October, Obama is required to appoint someone to coordinate the administration's IP enforcement efforts and prepare annual reports. Copyright industry lobbyists sent a letter to the president asking him to pick someone sympathetic to their concerns, while groups that would curb copyright law sent their own letter (pdf) urging the opposite approach. We "will find the right person for intellectual property czar," Biden said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thanks to Chris Maresca for sending in the story that Amazon.com is trying to block the trademark registration of a "social collaboration" website called Amazee. As the Register notes:

Amazon.com is an immensely popular online storefront that sells everything from books and groceries to virtual timeshares of its extensive data center infrastructure.

Amazee is a Switzerland-based, social "collaboration website" made for social activists and protestors to organize, promote, and fund their public uprisings and Earth-saving efforts.

Those seem quite a bit different, don't they? It seems unlikely one would confuse Amazee (who says it's name is derived from "amazing," rather than a South American river...) with the world's largest online retailer. Who knows if there's more behind this, but it seems like yet another case of overly aggressive attempts to defend a trademark that only serve to waste time, effort and money from organizations.

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