There was plenty of hype around the launch of the Palm Pre, which by all accounts is a pretty damn good phone (I've played around with it, and like it). However, Palm and Sprint made two huge mistakes in marketing it. First, they didn't have a really well-developed developer community building apps for it, so the app store is pretty weak. Apple did this with the iPhone when it launched (and we dinged them at the time as well), but Apple got away with it for two reasons: Apple is leading the field in such smartphones, and it's Apple, who seems able to bring developers to the table with cultish enthusiasm and loyalty.

Palm doesn't quite have that.

If the problem was that the SDK wasn't ready, Sprint and Palm should have waited. Launching before the phone was really ready was a mistake, and the company may be paying for it with rather weak sales after an initial burst. However, one analyst has a suggestion that I think makes a lot of sense, saying that Sprint should drop the price of the Palm Pre to $0.99. Basically, let Sprint subsidize more of the phone -- which it would easily make back in service fees (since the phone requires a two year contract with its most expensive data plan). Pricing the phone at $199 makes it a direct comparison to the iPhone, and that's the last thing that Palm or Sprint should want. But dropping the price to $1 (or, hell, give the damn phone away for free with a two year plan), would get it a lot of attention, and give people a real reason to switch away from other carriers or other phones, and give the Pre a shot. Trying to compete with the iPhone by just saying "but we're better" doesn't work. Rather than spending tons of money on creepy TV commercials that make no sense, why not use that ad budget to subsidize the phone in a way that really builds up a lot of attention and serious buyers? If Sprint did that, I'd go sign up for a Palm Pre that very day.

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redsoxh8r writes "Online criminals have taken to a decidedly low-tech method for distributing the latest batch of targeted malware: mailing infected CDs to credit unions . The discs have been showing up at credit unions around the country recently, a throwback to the days when viruses and Trojans were distributed via floppy disk. The scam is elegant in its simplicity. The potential thieves are mailing letters that purport to come from the National Credit Union Administration, the federal agency that charters and insures credit unions, and including two CDs in the package. The letter is a fake fraud alert from the NCUA, instructing recipients to review the training materials contained on the discs. However, the CDs are loaded with malware rather than training programs." According to the linked article, the infected CDs were (or at least may have been) part of a penetration test, rather than an actual attack.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wahha Go Go via jwz.

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adeelarshad82 writes "It's been just a little over a month since Apple blocked iTunes sync with Palm Pre, and now Apple takes that strategy one step further by blocking Snow Leopard sync with Palm-OS powered smartphones. Even though Palm has officially retired Palm OS and is now focusing hard on its next-generation WebOS in the Palm Pre, the company is still selling Palm OS-powered smartphones; two current models are the Treo Pro on Sprint and the Centro."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Crapification of Everything is Just Beginning @cryptogon...

Becky did lots of research into finding a handheld blender that wasn’t crap. She eventually found an article in a consumer magazine that said that there are no handheld blenders that aren’t crap and to just buy the cheapest one available, expect it to crap out, and when it does, buy another one or use the warranty. As absurd as that situation is, that’s the situation.

She bought a NZ$14 (about US$9.50) handheld blender at the Warehouse (the Warehouse is a New Zealand version of WalMart). Warehouse mostly sells garbage from China, and if you want a cheap appliance that you can count on to break down, or not work properly in the first place, Warehouse is the place to go in New Zealand.

She used that handheld blender for nearly a year and then it crapped out, as expected. She went back to Warehouse with the receipt and got another handheld blender (the same as the last one) for free. As crappy as that stuff is, Warehouse backs it for a year.

I wonder how many products have become commodified to the point where a quality version no longer exists at any price?

And...

The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine @ Wired...

I think this is interesting, it's worth noting that there is a growing trend of people also fixing thing themselves as opposed to just tossing or trying return a crapgadget.

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(Ed. Note: The Boing Boing Video site includes a guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. We'll post roundups here on the motherBoing.)

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More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

I wish the desktop version of Facebook was this simple, fast and elegant.



Update: Believe it or not I actually had lunch yesterday with Joe Hewitt, the developer of this app. I said that if Facebook wanted to compete with Twitter they needed a vastly simpler version of Facebook. Little did I know that 24 hours later I'd be looking at it.

I'm no expert on plant nutrition or hydroponics, so I can't vouch for the effectiveness of this idea or of the particular system, but aesthetically I really like these rotating hydroponic gardens with the plants growing inward. The idea is to minimize radiant losses from the bulb, which is the expensive part of an indoor garden to operate, and hence to maximize cost efficiency. The design saves on floor space, too.

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Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that thousands of high school students in Prince George's County missed a third day of classes Wednesday, and school officials said it could take more than a week to sort out the chaos caused by a computerized class-scheduling system as students were placed in gyms, auditoriums, cafeterias, libraries and classes they didn't want or need at high schools across the county and their parents' fury over the logistical nightmare rose. 'The school year comes up the same time every year,' said Carolyn Oliver, the mother of a 16-year-old senior who spent Wednesday in the senior lounge at Bowie High School. 'When I heard they didn't have schedules, I was like, "What have they been doing all summer?"' When school opened Monday, about 8,000 high school students had no class schedules and were sent to wait in holding spaces while administrators tried to sort things out." (More below.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've talked about cargo cults in the past around here, and Boing Boing points us to a great video of a talk by Jeff Veen, which argues that copycat innovators are a form of a cargo cult: The point he's making is one that we've tried to make here many times in the past -- though his analogy is much better than most we've used. Basically, it's easy to just copy what you think is cool about a product, but that's rarely (if ever) enough to actually get people to buy. This is an issue we see all the time when people get upset about our position on patents. They say that, without patents, someone would just come in and "steal" the idea, and then where would you be? But, the fact is, just being able to "copy" the product isn't enough to get it sold.

If you're truly innovative, then you not only understand your product better than some random copycat, but you also understand what makes your market want your product.

That can't be copied. Not easily. Yes, the copycat may win over some customers, but it's not the same. And, by knowing the product and the market better than anyone else, you should also be able to stay ahead of the curve and keep innovating. The copycat just has to catch up -- they're running towards where they think you were, when you may already be well past that.

But the comparison to a cargo cult is quite accurate. The cargo cultists built up their faux airports, thinking that it would bring in the same wonders as the real wartime airports did. Companies make copycat iPhones because they think that people will suddenly rush to buy them like they bought the iPhone. But it doesn't work that way.

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Talinom writes "AnandTech has a writeup on how ClearQAM appears to be headed for an early death. From the article — 'At this point there's no reason to believe that cable companies won't deploy Privacy Mode across their networks, so it's a matter of "when," not "if" this will happen. It goes without saying that if you're currently enjoying the use of a ClearQAM tuner to receive EB tier channels, you'll want to enjoy what time you have left, and look in to other solutions for the long-haul. At this pace, it looks like cable TV and computers will soon be divorcing.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sandy, from Hamilton, New Zealand, has created an entire fleet of amazing cars, hot rods, and buggies, all made out of aluminum soda and beer cans.

From his website:

I have always religiously recycled but often spent time looking at the graphics on the can and looking at the shape of the bottom thinking "That could make a really cool wheel". After having an accident which left me with some time to use, I decided to put pencil to paper and try and make a racing car using the bottoms of cans as its wheels, and the graphics as the decoration for the body.

He's devoted a page to each creation, and offers photos, plans, and details on each build, including how many cans each took, and sometimes, who drank the beer ("This is my wife's favourite one. She drank the Guinness, I made the car!!")

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Carla and I had a nice time at the 2009 San Francisco Zine Fest on Sunday. This week and next, I'm sharing some of the photos I took of the zinesters who came to sell their comics and zines. I'll post a new photo each day.

This is Doctor Popular, a professional yo-yoist and cartoonist. I bought a couple of "24-hour" comic books from him, which are 24-page comic books that were created in 24 consecutive hours. My favorite is Robots Don't Know Anything about Twitter. Doc Pop made the comic by tweeting "Robots don't know anything about..." and used the answers that his friends tweeted back as the panels for the comic. Fun!

I don't know if he sold out of the print version of Robots Don't Know Anything about Twitter, as it had a print run of 100 copies (each cover was hand colored!), but he is giving it away as a free PDF. What a swell guy that Doc is.

Previous San Francisco Zine Fest photos:

Sean Logic and his zine, The Great MySpace Swindle

Hellen Jo and Calvin Wong

Amy Martin

OMFG. So, over at Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger has a very scary/funny post about an extreme right-wing African-American media personality many are calling "the Black Glenn Beck." In the clip above, he seems to be inciting white people to start a race war, using talking points from white supremacist organizations. "White people are being kicked around, having their rights kicked to the curb, having their tax dollars fund prostitution... y'all gonna push these white folk 'til they can't take it no more?"

Richard says:

His favorite thing to call the President, however, is “the long-legged Mack Daddy.” Manning also hates Michelle Obama, has called her ugly, a slut and has even suggested she visit the same plastic surgeon as Michael Jackson. Manning’s Trinity of Hell is comprised of Obama, Oprah Winfrey and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It should probably come as no surprise that he’s been a guest on Sean Hannity’s Fox News and radio shows.

Manning is proud to call himself an extreme right winger and is beloved of birthers, survivalists, Obama haters, the NRA and other assorted wingnuts. On his five days a week, three hours per day talk show, which he co-produces with his wife, he does bizarre and extremely unfunny “mock interviews” with Fidel Castro, prays fervently for Bristol Palin and he even had “author” Lawrence W Sinclair (“Brother Lawrence” as Manning calls him) of Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? infamy on as a guest.

THE BLACK GLENN BECK: THE HON. JAMES DAVID MANNING, PHD (Dangerous Minds)

You probably recall that Amazon holds a rather infamous patent, on one-click ordering online, that has been involved in a fair amount of controversy (and ongoing review). However, less well-known was that, back in 2006, another company, Cordance, claimed that it actually held a patent on one-click ordering and sued Amazon for violating its patent. I hadn't heard much else about the case since, but Michael Scott alerts us to the news that Amazon has won the lawsuit, after a jury found that the company didn't infringe on two of the patents in question, and that the third patent was invalid. The key to victory? Apparently, Amazon explained that the patents in question actually described a process that involved two clicks rather than one.

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ChronoDragon writes "The Wall Street Journal points out that it is possible to make a successful web series without the backing of a studio. With the release of a music video, Do you Wanna Date My Avatar, and the start of Season of 3, the web series The Guild is ready for even more success. The Guild, created by Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible), is a low-budget comedy series about a group of MMORPG gamers and their interactions both online and off. While there are a lot of references that will be instantly recognized by gamers, the show is still very accessible to non-gamers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ChronoDragon writes "The Wall Street Journal points out that it is possible to make a successful web series without the backing of a studio. With the release of a music video, Do you Wanna Date My Avatar, and the start of Season of 3, the web series The Guild is ready for even more success. The Guild, created by Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible), is a low-budget comedy series about a group of MMORPG gamers and their interactions both online and off. While there are a lot of references that will be instantly recognized by gamers, the show is still very accessible to non-gamers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Health care is a lot like a fire department or police department. You never know when it's your house that's going to be on fire, that's why everyone pays equally for protection, and the person whose house burns gets the "benefit" if you can call having your house burn a benefit (or getting very sick).

The main difference is that very few houses burn, but eventually everyone needs life-saving or end-of-life care. Every responsible person must pay for care, and basically only the truly rich (multi-millionaires) can afford to self-insure.

If you assume that everyone has to pay for health insurance, then the question is how much do you want to pay. In the US, our current system costs 16% of GDP and we get less care, in some cases much less care than other rich countries that pay as little as 9% of their GDP.

So we're making poor choices here.

Obama's plan is less comprehensive than the German, Canadian, French or Japanese plans. In each of these other rich countries, health insurance is a non-profit business. That doesn't mean insurance companies don't make money, they do, but not from health insurance. Obama isn't promoting that (although it's not clear why).

And for 40 million Americans they might as well live in the third world, for them health care is based on their ability to pay out of pocket. As long as they just get colds, they survive. As soon as they need more care, they either go bankrupt or become disabled, or die. This is their country too, they get a vote in how our system works. You're related to some of these people (unless you have no family). They're the ones who should be standing in anger at the town halls. And they're not all poor, many of them are middle class or upper middle class, they just happen to not be profitable for the insurance industry. These are the people whose houses burn to the ground when they catch fire.

The people who would vote against universal health insurance are stupidly cocky, because they will all need health care some day and for many of them it will not be there. Sometimes they're people who don't smoke or aren't obese, who don't have any personal bad habits. People get sick for a lot of reasons that no one understands. Maybe just bad luck or bad genes. In the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bottom-line, we could spend a lot less money on health care and take care of everyone. Instead we're opting on the worst approach, we spend a lot more, and a huge portion of the populace isn't cared for and the rest of us are treated not as patients but as profit centers. If you happen to need health care, you can't get it. This is some kind of way to run a country? Yikes.

If you want to understand what our options are, I highly recommend listening to the FreshAir interview with T.R. Reid, who has just written a book on health care systems around the world.

An anonymous reader writes "The country that has bought Sukhois, tanks and 100,000 AK-103's, is planning to build a manufacturing plant of Russian rifles, and oppresses peaceful marches has decided to ban 'violent' video games because they 'promote violence and can alter the behavior of children.' The new legislation in Venezuela says, 'The violence found in video games is translated into the real world.' This new law affects people who sell, 'use,' produce, import and distribute these games. Video games as a whole have been labeled as 'a consequence of savage capitalism' by PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), which is the political party led by Hugo Chavez. Days before this law was approved by the National Assembly, Chavez promoted the use of traditional toys like the Yo-Yo and Trompo, and suggested that electronic toys like 'the Nintendo' be put aside because they promote 'egoism, individualism and violence.' Just today the AFP released a report showing Caracas as the second most violent city on the planet — even more violent than Baghdad. I guess all those violent gangs in Venezuela are addicted to video games."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Will sends us "a site of avowed atheists who will, for a nominal fee, look after your pet when you have taken in the rapture."

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

We are currently active in 20 states and growing. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet's natural life.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA (Thanks, Will!)

We're among those who think it's quite questionable as to whether or not the acquisition of The Pirate Bay by GGF will ever really go through. GGF's CEO Hans Pandeya has had a lot of trouble answering basic questions ever since the deal was originally announced. The company has had trading in its shares halted twice now, and many of the "big name" people that Pandeya used to show he was legit have separated themselves from the company -- often questioning Pandeya's ability to do this deal. So, lots of people are interested in the news that GGF shareholders have apparently "approved" the deal. But, that's somewhat meaningless as there still remains little evidence that GGF can actually scrape together the money needed to complete the purchase. This whole thing has been pretty questionable from the start, and there's nothing yet that suggests there's a real deal here at all.

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Ask MAKE is a weekly column where we answer reader questions, like yours. Write them in to becky@makezine.com or drop us a line on Twitter. We can't wait to tackle your conundrums!

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This week's question comes from back-to-college student Andrew:

My class schedule this semester has me riding home at night, so I need some safety lights. The lights at the bike store are not only expensive, but unattractive. How can I make them myself?

I can't imagine a better combination than bikes and LEDs. You could build your bike light from scratch, or you could hack a dollar-store gadget to blink a few LEDs. We have lots of bike light projects here on MAKE to get you started. Be sure to keep an eye on our bicycle archives for the latest bike projects, too!

Battery-powered lights:

• How-To Tuesday: Mini bike light
• Make a LED Bike light system
  
• How-To: Make the ultimate 18v bike light!
  
• Antique bike light LED mod
  
• Tape case bike light
  
• How-To: Build a simple Luxeon LED bike headlight
  
• DIY: NES controller bike light
  
• DIY: High power LED bike light
  
• Convert your vintage bike light to LED power
  
• LED Bike helmet
  
• Home Depot homebrew bicycle headlamp AND a huge LED array
  
• HOW TO - Make a 40-LED bicycle light
  

Blinky lights! Use a 555 timer chip to make your rear light blink:

• 41 LED Flasher circuit using 555 IC
• The Biggest Little Chip from MAKE, Vol 10
• More 555 timer projects
  

Alternative energy bike lights:

• Contactless dynamo bike light
• How-To: Make a solar bike light
  
• No-friction bicycle dynamo light kit
  

Style points:

• Monkeylectric LED bike wheel lights
• Light up animated Pac-Man bicycle wheels
• RGB SpokePOV
  
• Obama SpokePOV
  

Show us your bike lights! Post up a link to your styling safety lights in the comments.

This week's Ask MAKE has been sponsored by Jameco Electronics.

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carusoj writes "Computer scientists in Japan say they've developed a way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers in about one minute. Last November, security researchers first showed how WPA could be broken, but the Japanese researchers have taken the attack to a new level. The earlier attack worked on a smaller range of WPA devices and took between 12 and 15 minutes to work. Both attacks work only on WPA systems that use the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) algorithm. They do not work on newer WPA 2 devices or on WPA systems that use the stronger Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I recently purchased a signed William S. Burroughs art print on eBay. Turns out, the seller, Bruce Webb, is a researcher, collector, and dealer of art and artifacts related to fraternal organizations and secret societies! He also has a gallery in Waxahachie, Texas, where Burroughs exhibited before he died. Webb has a deep interest in "old handmade items such as painted or repaired objects, fraternal lodge items, carnival banners, tramp art, memory jugs, quilts, and just killer oddball stuff." In fact, the current Webb Gallery show is "Art of the Secret Society," which runs until November 8. I love when a simple eBay purchase opens up a portal into another weird micro-universe of fascinating people and things.
Webb Gallery

As a follow-on to his software-based waveform synthesizer, Sebastian of the Little-Scale blog made this hardware-based waveform permutation machine. Using just some simple logic chips (no microcontrollers!), this project will play through every possible waveform with a length of 4 and a resolution of 4 bits. That's some pretty cool sound from just 16 bits!

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Last year, we talked about some language in a contract being used by a company that was supposedly trying to help copyright holders track down content being shared online, for the purpose of sending out threatening "pre-settlement" letters. The contract appeared to indicate that the copyright holders were giving the tracking company permission to put their works on file sharing programs, for the sake of "catching" people downloading the content:

To achieve the purpose outlined in clause 1, LICENSOR grants DIGIPROTECT the exclusive right to make the movies listed in Appendix 1 worldwide available to the public via remote computer networks, so-called peer-2-peer and internet file sharing networks such as e-Donkey, Kazaa, Bitorrent, etc. for the duration of this agreement

This seemed highly questionable. Considering that this was in association with a law firm that had been known to send out a large number of these pre-settlement demand letters, but never filed a lawsuit, one could make an argument that the companies had worked out quite a system: purposely put your own content online, watch who downloads it, then send threatening letter demanding payment. Of course, there were denials all around, and people insisted that this sort of language was really only necessary so the tracking company could download the content themselves.

And yet... Michael Scott points us to a lawsuit in Germany that indicates someone may be using this very trick. It's unclear from the writeup if this is the same company (probably not), but a guy who's been accused not just of copyright infringement, but a criminal charge of distributing pornography, is claiming this is what happened to him. His explanation is rather compelling. He claims that he was using a modded version of file sharing software that did not allow upload capability. In doing so, it means that he never distributed anything (which might make the "distribution" charge pretty hard to prove). But, of course, if he never shared anything, then how would his IP address get flagged? The only real option is that whoever he downloaded it from provided the IP address back to the copyright holder -- or was the copyright holder itself.

Of course... if that's the case, one could make a pretty strong argument that the content itself was also authorized, since it was put up on the file sharing network by the copyright holder. And, on top of all this, the guy claims that the files he downloaded had misleading titles, and he didn't intend to download pornography. Whether or not you believe any of that (or his intentions), it certainly suggests that at least some content owners may be putting their own content up in order to catch downloaders and hit them with lawsuits or settlement letters. It's difficult to see how that's legal.

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bheer writes "BusinessWeek profiles a call center company called iQor which has grown revenues 40% year-on-year by (shock) treating employees as critical assets. It's done this not by nickel-and-diming, but by expanding its US operations (13 centers across the US now), giving employees universal health insurance, and paying salaries and bonuses that are nearly 50% above industry norms. The article notes that outsourcing will continue and globalization will continue to change the world's economic landscape. 'But the US is hardly helpless. With smart processes and the proper incentives, US companies can keep jobs here in America, and do so in a way that is actually better for the company and its employees.' Now if only other companies get a clue as well."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thinking about dimensions other than the three we're used to can rattle one's mind. That's why it's usually left to stoned conversationalists and theoretical physicists. To help the rest of us navigate flatland, fractal landscapes, and hyperspace, New Scientist put together a concise and fun tour titled "Beyond Space and Time." From New Scientist (spacetime curvature illustration from Wikimedia Commons):

What is a dimension?

The most intuitive description is the oldest one: the number of dimensions a system possesses is the number of independent directions you or anything else can move in. Up and down count as only one dimension because up-ness and down-ness are two sides of the same coin: the further up you go, the less down you are. The same connection exists between left and right, and forwards and backwards, but not between up and right, down and backwards, and so on. Thus, the geometers of Ancient Greece recognised, we live in a three-dimensional world.

So far, so simple, but then things start to unravel. Our place in the cosmos is defined as much by time as it is by space. As long ago as the late 18th century, the Frenchmen Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Joseph-Louis Lagrange recognised that the mathematical language needed to address time was very similar to that which described space. Time, the mathematicians of the day rapidly came to agree, was a fourth dimension.

That opened the floodgates. Once untethered from its origins in physical space, the concept of a dimension began to lose its focus. It came to be used as a general term to describe the number of independent coordinates or variables needed to determine the state of any object.

"Beyond space and time: Fractals, hyperspace and more"

Alek O. Komarnitsky says

My wife works at an Adventure Travel company, and due to a very fortunate set of circumstances (plus her encouragement and willingness to watch the kids), I was able to go on a 19-day expedition voyage to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica.

The amazing wildlife and spectacular scenery provides a "target rich environment" that is a photographer's ultimate fantasy.

In addition to that summary page, there are sub-pages for each day with pictures of (literally) millions of penguins and other wildlife, more icebergs than you can imagine, a Google Map of our voyage, and more.

I was incredibly lucky to be able to do this phenomenal experience and am back to being a boring middle-aged suburban Dad, making school lunches for the kids, playing baseball with 'em, etc. 

Photos from trip to Falklands & South Georgia Islands and Antarctica

A prized moon rock belonging to the Dutch national museum has turned out to be, er, petrified wood. The rock's provenance goes back to 1969, when William Drees, the late prime minister of the Netherlands, received it as a gift from former US ambassador J. William Middendorf. The precious stone worthless rock was presented to the prime minister during a visit by the Apollo 11 astronauts shortly after the first moon landing. From the Associated Press:

Middendorf, who lives in Rhode Island, told Dutch NOS news that he had gotten it from the U.S. State Department, but couldn't recall the exact details.

The U.S. Embassy in the Hague said it was investigating the matter.

The museum had vetted the moon rock early on by checking with NASA, (Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra) van Gelder said.

She said the space agency told the museum then that it was possible the country had received a rock: NASA gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries in the early 1970s, but those were from later missions.

Researchers from Amsterdam's Free University said they could see at a glance the rock was not from the moon.

"It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone," Geologist Frank Beunk said in an article published by the museum.

"Prized 'moon rock' in Dutch national museum is a fake"

An anonymous reader writes "TiVo's quarterly call was a bit more dramatic than usual. While they continue to lose customers and innovate "at a very unhurried pace," TiVo seeks a repeat DISH Network performance in going after AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) for infringement. Basically, TiVo's current business model appears to be ad sales and patent trolling."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guus Oosterbaan tore this radio straight out of Fred Flintstone's dash with a mammoth-tusk crowbar. How he really did it is here. [via Hack a Day]

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Simon Simpkins of Pontefract, West Yorkshire became angry with a shop manager who sold him "pornographic" candy.

"The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter," Mr. Simpkins told a reporter for The Daily Mail. "The lime, whom I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face."

The green gentleman appears on other flavors of Haribo MAOAM sour candies, too, including cherry, as shown here.

Father's fury over children's 'pornographic' sweet wrappers

Apparently Facebook is trying to patent the idea of crowdsourced translations of its service. The actual patent application was filed in December of 2008, but the real priority date (I believe) is December of 2007 (when I think the company filed a provisional patent).

This one caught my attention for a few reasons -- with a major one being that way back in March of 2006, some friends of mine were working on a startup called Gabbly, which did online chat, and they had amazing success with crowdsourcing translations. Now, the Facebook patent is a little more advanced, because beyond just asking people to translate, it includes a voting mechanism. But, still, the evolution of crowdsourced translations shows the total silliness of even trying to throw patents in the middle. Almost immediately after Gabbly started doing crowdsourced translations, another online chat provider, Meebo, did the same. Gabbly used a forum. Meebo tried a wiki. Others picked up on the idea and did slightly different variations, and everyone kept innovating, and no one felt the need to own the concept of crowdsourced translations or to prohibit others from doing it.

But now, suddenly, there needs to be a patent on the concept?

I'm confused how anyone could think this meets the criteria of "promoting the progress." After all, plenty of others had figured out how to do crowdsourced translations earlier, and each one improved on the process a bit as they went. It's pretty obvious that including little voting mechanisms is an obvious next step (they were already popular on sites like Digg). So what benefit does the patent provider here other than to slow down innovation? It's difficult to believe that this "innovation" would not have occurred but for the patent system -- or even that it would have taken longer to happen but for the patent system.

Hopefully, the USPTO quickly dumps this, but just the fact that Facebook and its lawyers felt this was worth patenting shows you something about the ridiculous state of the patent system today.

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In 1975 Rodney Davies met Kathleen "Johnny" Symonds, who had been Aleister Crowley's (AKA "The Great Beast 666" and "The Wickedest Man on Earth") landlady during the last months of his life in 1947. Here's his entertaining piece about it.

Crowley brought with him some special gold coins, which he claimed had magic powers and was anxious about keeping safe, and a 'box of (I Ching) sticks'. He made frequent use of the latter. 'When he had an appointment for the dentist, for instance, he threw the sticks in the air. And once he called me and said, "Phone the dentist immediately! The sticks have told me not to go." The dentist was very amazed.'

The Great Beast soon settled into a regular daily routine. At nine each morning the housekeeper Miss Clarke took him his breakfast, and at ten, if the weather was fine, he would take a stroll in the garden, where Johnny kept some beautiful plump white rabbits, which he nicknamed 'The Chrysanthemums' and would love to watch. When the sun shone he would often sit with his hands held heavenwards.

Crowley then spent most of the rest of the day sleeping in his room, where he also took his other meals. His favourite snack was sardines sprinkled with curry powder. He roused himself as darkness fell, and sat up all night either writing letters, reading or indulging in his heroin drug habit.

'He had a ration of heroin which was allowed him,' Mrs Symonds said. 'It used to come down from a chemist called Heppel's in London. But the police knew about it. I've often watched him stick a needle in his arm. He didn't mind.'

...

According to Johnny, Aleister Crowley was an easy-going, trouble-free resident, who not only spent much of his time in his room, but who rubbed along well with the other visitors and with her and her husband. Indeed, her feelings about him were entirely positive: 'I liked him,' she said. 'He was great fun.'

The last days of Aleister Crowley (Via Further: Strange Attractor & beyond)

blackbearnh writes "With the release of the 3.1 iPhone OS, application developers will finally be able to develop augmented reality (AR) apps. In other words, Terminator Vision is right around the corner. O'Reilly Media recently talked to Chetan Damani, one of the founders of Acrossair, about how they developed their new AR application, Nearest Tube, which displays the closest London Tube stations over a live video overlay on an iPhone 3GS. According to Damani, developing AR applications on the 3GS is dead easy, and the real trick will be developing good augmented reality apps. 'It's all about who's going to have the most amount of data and the most valid data. So there's the obvious types of apps which you're going to launch and those are the find me my nearest bar, find me my nearest event, find me the nearest tube stop, find me the nearest ATM. And those sorts of apps are all going to be around. But they're only going to be useful for when you're trying to look for things. So if we want to get users to use augmented reality a little bit more, we have to start introducing other bits of functionality, things like show me the offers available in a particular high street. Show me when I'm walking down a high street if there's a table available at a particular restaurant. And it's that sort of interactivity and providing that real-time data in this augmented reality view which is going to start getting people to use it a lot more rather than just for show me where the nearest area is.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Instructables user Patented made this pencil lead potentiometer, which is great for illustrating the concept to students.

In the Maker Shed:

Drawdio Kit

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A bunch of folks have sent over a post on Slashdot detailing how a mandatory US gov't briefing on "information security" uses incredibly hyperbolic and inaccurate information, including the idea that all music downloads are theft and insecure. You can see the (flash-heavy) video briefing. The actual part with the music downloads is pretty far into the presentation (you can jump forward through the chapters), when it hits an interactive bit where you get to go through "real-life scenarios" of "threats." In the bottom left corner, there's a scenario involving a colleague who says he's found a "cool site" from which you can "download music" and asks you how do you respond: The choices?

1. I'd rather download the music from home -- email me the link
2. Is it safe to download?
3. Since we're on our lunch hour, I see no harm. Here's my thumb drive!
4. That's stealing.

Choices one and three seem obviously wrong, but choice two actually does seem like the most relevant. After all, the "cool site" in question could be any number of "cool sites" that offer up legal free music, like Jamendo or CCMixter. But what happens if you select the second choice and ask if it's safe to download? You're told no, that's wrong: And then are scolded, saying that it's illegal and prohibited, followed up by another lecture about how not only is it illegal and prohibited, but unethical and "may result in criminal" liability. Someone should tell the folks at that cool Jamendo site.

Now, to be fair, it's rather obvious that the briefing is designed to keep gov't employees from using file sharing programs and potentially exposing confidential gov't documents via file sharing. And that's reasonable. But why not be accurate and honest about it? Lying about it makes no sense.

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galaxy writes "Nokia releases their first Linux mobile handset, the N900 The handset is based on the latest release of Maemo, the Nokia mobile Linux platform, and includes e.g. GSM and 3G access (with HSPA, giving datarates of up to 10Mbps downlink and 2Mbps uplink on suitable networks), WLAN, Bluetooth, camera, assisted GPS and, most importantly, a touchscreen complemented by a hardware QWERTY under a slider. The beast is powered by an ARM Cortex-A8 processor at 600 MHz, has PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support, 32GB internal memory etc."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

chriswaco writes "A federal appeals court ruled that database records are not 'in plain sight' when other records in the same database are subpoenaed. The case involved Major League Baseball drug test results, but the implications are far wider."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is a first. In the trial that the movie studios have brought against torrent search engine Isohunt, the judge has pushed back on the MPAA's claims, noting that it has failed to show any evidence of actual infringement by US users. In the past, groups like the MPAA and the RIAA have been able to get by without ever proving real infringement, but just by suggesting it must be happening. So this is quite a surprise. It makes the Isohunt case one to watch more seriously. The company may still lose the lawsuit, but at least the judge seems to want to see actual evidence, rather than having Hollywood execs insisting that these sites are killing their business just because they say so.

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From the mitemite unnecessary objects lab comes an item that seems potentially quite helpful, and likely remake-able. The anti-crime macbook case is basically just a laptop sleeve with plasti-fabric newsprint camouflage exterior. Hmmm … getting a convincing print on sufficiently sturdy material might prove a bit tough to DIY - hey, there's always actual newspaper (avoid rain).
yeah I know what you're thinking, but don't try using a pizza box. Everybody loves pizza (especially thieves). Plus you'd have to carry it horizontally & pretend you're hungry all the time … yah, anyway … [via BBG]

Related:

Jimmie's uglified camera

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I really like these "Metabots" posable mecha kits from EnjoyMobil. They are inexpensive but well-made, and the coolest part is that each of the seven printed designs is also available in an all white "prototype" version so you can decorate it yourself.

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SpuriousLogic writes "Scientists have discovered a planet that shouldn't exist. The finding, they say, could alter our understanding of orbital dynamics, a field considered pretty well settled since the time of astronomer Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. The planet is known as a "hot Jupiter," a gas giant orbiting the star Wasp-18, about 330 light years from Earth. The planet, Wasp-18b, is so close to the star that it completes a full orbit (its "year") in less than an Earth day, according to the research, which was published in the journal Nature. Of the more than 370 exoplanets — planets orbiting stars other than our sun — discovered so far, this is just the second with such a close orbit. The problem is that a planet that close should be consumed by its parent star in less than a million years, say the authors at Keele University in England. The star Wasp-18 is believed to be about a billion years old, and since stars and the planets around them are thought to form at the same time, Wasp-18b should have been reduced to cinders ages ago."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Just Posted: Our hands-on preview of the Sony DSLR A550. The recently announced (and reviewed) A380 and its A330/A230 variants were not met with universal approval. With the launch of the DSLR-A500 and A550, the bigger picture starts to become clearer, with Sony producing five sub-$1000 DSLRs tailored to a variety of needs. The Alpha 5 series is much more clearly aimed at the photography enthusiast, so we have prepared a 10-page preview detailing its specifications, features and changes. Is this the camera to put smiles back on the faces of the Alpha crowd?

Sony has released a full-frame 28-75mm F2.8 SAM lens to accompany its new Alpha DSLR-A850 digital SLR. The constant F2.8 lens offers a less expensive alternative to the Sony Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 ZA for A850 and A900 owners looks for a fast standard zoom. Construction is made up of 14 elements in 16 groups, including four aspherical elements. It features the SAM (Smooth Autofocus Motor) in-lens autofocus technology, rather than the SSM system used in the ZA lens. Priced approximately at around $800 USD, it will start shipping from November 2009.

Sony has also added to its consumer-level DSLR range, with the A500 and A550 taking the count to five cameras. The DSLR-A550 and DSLR-A500 digital SLRs are based around new CMOS sensors and add a manual focus confirmation live view mode using the main imaging sensor, in addition to Sony's secondary-sensor Quick AF live view system. Both cameras feature Sony's better noise reduction, include an Auto HDR mode and offer sensitivity of up to ISO 12800. The 14.2 MP A550 features a high resolution 921k dot 3" tilt-angle LCD, while the 12.3 MP A500 comes with a 230k dot resolution 3"tilt-angle LCD.

Sony unveiled its second full-frame digital SLR in the shape of DSLR-A850. It offers almost all features of the company's flagship full frame DSLR A900, but at a more affordable price. It is built around the same 24.6MP CMOS sensor and incorporates A900's 3.0 inch 921k LCD, sensor-shift image-stabilization and Dual Bionz processors. The only compromise is a 98% viewfinder coverage against A900's 100% and slower continuous shooting. To complement the A850, Sony has also announced a mid-priced 28-75mm constant F2.8 SAM lens to fit with the A850's affordable full-frame ethos. The A850 will start shipping from September 2009 with the 28-75mm lens available from November 2009.

And now, your moment of zen horrifying surrealism!!

Developed by the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, the theatrical robots Thomas and Janet rehearse their kiss scene, part of a performance of Phantom of the Opera.

See what happens when you don't use an understudy? Yup - more than mere makeout machines these two are following their acting dreams. More of the story and on-stage clip over @ IEEE Spectrum [via Engadget]

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Hugh Pickens writes "Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. argue in Scientific American that although depression is considered a mental disorder, depression may in fact be a mental adaptation which provides real benefits. This is not to say that depression is not a problem. Depressed people often have trouble performing everyday activities, they can't concentrate on their work, they tend to socially isolate themselves, they are lethargic, and they often lose the ability to take pleasure from such activities such as eating and sex. So what could be so useful about depression? "Depressed people often think intensely about their problems," write the authors. "These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time." Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas and there is evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test (PDF). "When one considers all the evidence, depression seems less like a disorder where the brain is operating in a haphazard way, or malfunctioning. Instead, depression seems more like the vertebrate eye--an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a specific function.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This one ought to infuriate some of the IT folks, but Farhad Manjoo, over at Slate, is making the case for why corporate IT folks should give up trying to control everyone's computers. He says it's silly for them to dictate which apps you can and cannot use, what websites you can and cannot visit and what mobile devices you can and cannot use. He argues that doing so only restricts employees from actually doing useful and innovative stuff and also can make employees significantly less productive.

The response from IT folks will always be about the cost of maintaining all of this -- noting (perhaps correctly) that any time there are any problems, people will call up IT folks who will have to try to service all sorts of things, rather than having a standard list. And, of course, they'll say that users are often dumb, and prone to doing things that put computers and networks at risk. Thus, locking stuff down isn't only cost effective, but it's prudent to protect the company.

In the end, though, if that prevents important work from getting done (or done quickly), that seems like a problem. In the past, we've pointed out study after study after study suggesting that those who are actually allowed to do personal surfing at work are happier and more productive. Manjoo makes that point as well, mentioning recent studies that have shown the same thing and suggesting that companies that trust their workers on these sorts of things tend to get much more out of those employees.

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This is an follow-up to an earlier post about yanking the lens from an old DVD player and using it with a cameraphone to take close-up photos.

It just so happens I have a need for a macro lens for something other than snapping picts of coins and PCB's. I'm working on a project that involves QR codes and thought this might help me out when dealing with fixed focus cameraphones. Alas, the focal length of DVD optics are meant for things measured in millimeters, so it isn't going to work for barcode scanning. Fortunately, after doing a little digging around, I found this handy Instructables project that uses the lens from a viewfinder of a disposable camera, a cheap rubber case, and a paper fastener, that seems like a viable solution.

[via Instructables]

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MAKE contributor Michael Una cooks up some particularly head-bobbing beats with help from an old arcade sound effects chip (plus a 4017 sequencer). The SN76477 "complex sound generator" IC is best known its work in Space Invaders arcade cabinets - the chips' onboard LFO, VCO, and noise generator combine to produce all manner of blippy goodness. The bad news is it's no longer produced :( Though some surplus and rare-chip sellers have them from time to time.) So if you do score one, a drum machine project sure seems like a worthy home!

Related:

25 year old box of sounds

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adeelarshad82 writes "The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said it would launch a mobile financial service next year targeting consumers, mainly in emerging markets, with a phone but no banking account. Nokia's Money service was based on the mobile payment platform of Obopay, a privately-owned firm that Nokia invested in earlier this year, and it is now building up a network of agents. Obopay, which uses text messaging and mobile Internet access, charges users a fee to send money or to top up their accounts."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

adeelarshad82 writes "The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said it would launch a mobile financial service next year targeting consumers, mainly in emerging markets, with a phone but no banking account. Nokia's Money service was based on the mobile payment platform of Obopay, a privately-owned firm that Nokia invested in earlier this year, and it is now building up a network of agents. Obopay, which uses text messaging and mobile internet access, charges users a fee to send money or to top up their accounts."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

That's right, it's 2009 and there are now Stainless steel Sharpies with refillable ink cartridges and a laser etched logo... I kinda want one next time I need a replacement. Whatcha think, cool or overkill?

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Jesus Diaz looks at the $1.92m fine Jammie Thomas faces for downloading 1700 songs and compares it to the penalties for other crimes in America (valuing jail time at $50,233, the median US household income in 2007):

• Child abduction: Fine of $25,000 and up to three years in prison, which can be accounted as $50,233 per year (that was the median household income in 2007, probably down because of the economic crisis). Total: $175,699.

• Steal the CDs: A total of $275,000, $52,500 fine for the CDs.

• Steal a lawnmower from your neighbour: A total of $375,000.

• Burn someone's house while playing The Doors: Another $375,000.

• Stalk a Gizmodo editor (yes, you know who you are): A Class 4 felony that will result in just $175,000.

• Start a dogfighting ring: $50,000.

• Murder someone on the second degree, a Class 1 felony: $778,495, which accounts for a $25,000 fine and four to 15 years in prison.

Second Degree Murder and Six Other Crimes Cheaper than Pirating Music (via O'Reilly Radar)

Michael Geist sez,

The Canadian copyright consultation has one of its biggest days today with a major town hall in Toronto, a roundtable hours before, and increased media coverage. The consultation has attracted growing attention in recent weeks as the chart on submissions below demonstrates. There are now over 3,000 submissions with the overwhelming majority of them speaking out against Bill C-61, anti-circumvention rules, and for stronger fair dealing.

However, it now appears that the government has effectively been altering some of the submissions. This issue has arisen because of the large number of Canadians that have chosen to use the CCER submission form service.

Every Canadian who takes the time to speak out - whether a single paragraph, a long essay, or a form letter - deserves to have their voice count as a submission. Obviously any modified letter should be posted in its original form and I would argue that the same is true for a submission based on a form letter.

Regardless of the approach taken, there are just over two weeks to join the thousands of Canadians who have spoken out. Canadians need to speak out on copyright today!

Government May Be Altering Copyright Submissions Without Consent (Thanks, Michael!)

War Powers is the seventh collection of Brian Wood's ground-breaking war-comic DMZ, which tells the tale of a civil war in America that turns Manhattan into a free-fire zone trapped between US and rebel troops and mercenaries from Trustwell, a thinly veiled version of Blackwater or Halliburton. The story follows Matty Roth, who begins as an intern for a cable-news network, trapped in the DMZ after the newschopper is shot down, but who becomes the only truly independent journalist in Manhattan.

Only now, Matty's independence is crumbling. Under the influence of Parco Delgado -- a charismatic gang-leader who wins a surprise victory in an NYC election that was meant to give legitimacy to the USA's hand-picked Paul Bremmer figure -- Matty now finds himself playing the role of political operator, putting his ethics and his life on the line in the service of something he clearly hopes is justice.

As with previous volumes, War Powers grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and didn't let go until I turned the last page. Brian Wood is exploring the place where journalism and advocacy intersect (or collide), and in so doing, he is holding up an important mirror on our own times.

DMZ is my favorite graphic novel since Transmetropolitan, a relentless adventure story, a sharp political allegory, and a damned good read.

DMZ Vol. 7: War Powers

Previous collections: Vol 1: On the Ground, Vol 2: Body of a Journalist, Vol 3: Public Works, Vol 4: Friendly Fire, Vol 5: The Hidden War, Vol 6: Blood in the Game, Vol 7: War Powers

Why bother competing in the market when you can just sue everyone else? That appears to be TiVo's big strategy these days. Just a month after winning a big court victory over EchoStar/Dish over a patent that the USPTO is not really sure it should have issued, TiVo has moved on to sue both AT&T and Verizon in a nearly identical lawsuit. And, of course, you know exactly how the negotiations on this one start. TiVo will point to the headlines about the millions the the court has told Dish to pay. Whatever happened to the good old days when companies competed in the marketplace rather than in court? TiVo is a great and innovative product, no doubt. While not really the first such product, it did a great job convincing the market of the value of DVRs. But then others innovated as well, sometimes making their product even better. That's called competition and it should drive everyone to make better products. It appears TiVo would rather that the competitors be kept out of the market, rather than bothering to innovate in the market.

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The Maker Shed is continuing our summer clearance sale featuring a wide range of products. The sale will run for the rest of the summer, but only while supplies last. Be sure to check back regularly since we will be adding daily specials throughout the summer on some of our popular products.

More about the Maker Shed summer clearance sale

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CWmike writes "The Free Software Foundation today launched a campaign against Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, calling it 'treacherous computing' that stealthily takes away rights from users. At the Web site Windows7Sins.org, the Boston-based FSF lists the seven 'sins' that proprietary software such as Windows 7 commits against computer users. They include: Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies concerned about movie and music piracy, and invading privacy. 'Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files,' said executive director Peter Brown. And if Microsoft's Trusted Computing technology were fully implemented the way the company would like, the vendor would have 'malicious and really complete control over your computer.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CWmike writes "The Free Software Foundation today launched a campaign against Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, calling it 'treacherous computing' that stealthily takes away rights from users. At the Web site Windows7Sins.org, the Boston-based FSF lists the seven 'sins' that proprietary software such as Windows 7 commits against computer users. They include: Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies concerned about movie and music piracy, and invading privacy. 'Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files,' said executive director Peter Brown. And if Microsoft's Trusted Computing technology were fully implemented the way the company would like, the vendor would have 'malicious and really complete control over your computer.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Is Apple's upgraded OS totally awesome, yawn-worthy, or a bit of both?

Find out what reviewers at the NYT, WSJ, Gizmodo, Wired and others think, over at BBG.

photo by Tambako

Over and over again we've seen folks on the tech side of ISPs admit that basic network upgrades can handle whatever traffic growth is happening on the network, without resorting to draconian efforts to slow down traffic. Apparently, there's an ISP in the Netherlands that didn't get the message. Broadband Reports is noting that Dutch ISP, UPC is slowing down all traffic to "high bandwidth services" from noon to midnight every single day. They're cutting bandwidth to these services by 2/3. So, apparently, if you have to do high bandwidth stuff, get it done in the morning.

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Ikea's corporate structure is insanely complicated. It is technically owned by a Dutch charitable nonprofit -- a strategy that allows the group to pay 3.5% tax on annual profits of €553m. However, the charity itself appears to do almost no charitable giving. Most of the money disappears into generic line-items like "other operating charges" which it refuses to explain.

In 2004, the last year that the INGKA Holding group filed accounts, the company reported profits of €1.4 billion on sales of €12.8 billion, a margin of nearly 11 percent. Because INGKA Holding is owned by the nonprofit INGKA Foundation, none of this profit is taxed. The foundation's nonprofit status also means that the Kamprad family cannot reap these profits directly, but the Kamprads do collect a portion of IKEA sales profits through the franchising relationship between INGKA Holding and Inter IKEA Systems.

Inter IKEA Systems collected €631 million of franchise fees in 2004, but reported pre-tax profits of only €225 million in 2004. One of the major pre-tax expenses that Inter IKEA systems reported was €590 million of "other operating charges." IKEA has refused to explain these charges, but Inter IKEA Systems appears to make large payments to I.I. Holding, another Luxembourg-registered group that, according to The Economist, "is almost certain to be controlled by the Kamprad family." I.I. Holding made a profit of €328 million in 2004.

In 2004, the Inter IKEA group of companies and I.I. Holding reported combined profits of €553m and paid €19m in taxes, or approximately 3.5 percent.[22]

The Berne Declaration, a non-profit organization in Switzerland that promotes corporate responsibility, has formally criticized IKEA for its tax avoidance strategies. In 2007, the Berne Declaration nominated IKEA for one of its Public Eye "awards," which highlight corporate irresponsibility and are announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.[24]

Corporate structure

h.ross.perot writes "Like a page from Larry Niven's Known Space series, here is a real report of criminals' organs being harvested for 'profit.' From the article: 'China is trying to move away from the use of executed prisoners as the major source of organs for transplants. According to the China Daily newspaper, executed prisoners currently provide two-thirds of all transplant organs. The government is now launching a voluntary donation scheme, which it hopes will also curb the illegal trafficking in organs. But analysts say cultural bias against removing organs after death will make a voluntary scheme hard to implement.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I like this lamp, the "Pour Lighting," made by stuffing an Ikea fibre-optic Vedum lamp into an Ikea watering-can:

Here's what I did:

(1) sawed off the tip of the watering can with a hacksaw.

(2) cut off two of the legs of the base tripod (couldn't cut them all off because the wire runs through one of them and I didn't want to risk damaging the rubber shielding).

(3) Pushed the fiber optic spray portion of the lamp through the spout, hiding the tripod inside the can.

Pour Lighting (via Ikea Hacker)

John sez, "These are photos from a Gundam themed wedding in Japan that featured a life-sized giant Gundam robot. It is awe inspiring in its sheer enormity. If only our country would allocate more funding for truly incredible works of art like a life-sized giant robot to stand inside a city park somewhere."

Odaiba Gundam Wedding (Thanks, John and everyone else who suggested this!)

Here's some shots of the 1965 Ikea catalog, which advertised itself as the world's most printed book after the Bible (I think Mao's Little Red Book actually held that honor in 1965). Some lovely stuff here -- wonder if they saved the patterns?

IKEA Catalog anno 1965 (via Kottke)

The first Dorkbot NYC meeting of the season is upon us, just one week from today!

Featuring the silvery and highly reactive:

Gaelen Hadlett: Electric Home Ec

While lending a hand at a couple local elementary schools, I work with kids on all sorts of projects involving engineering, science, and programming mixed in with everyday arts and crafts. I'll share highlights and missteps of past projects and the kids' responses to the advanced subject matter.

Hye Yeon Nam: The Sound of Kiss

The Sound of Kiss facilitates an amorous ambience in which couples digitize their love while kissing. One wears a headset and the other's tongue is affixed to a magnet. When they kiss, the magnet and the electro-magnetic sensor interact to create spontaneous music. The musical composition depends on how far one's tongue is away from the other's lips/tongue and their style of action.

Ben Woodeson: The Health and safety Violations

Trained in Glasgow, Scotland, Ben Woodeson now lives in London, England. His practice revolves around absurd and quietly confrontational sculptures; the works set out to challenge the viewer and the exhibiting institution in a playful kind of art chicken. Since December 2008 he has been working on a new series of "deliberately dangerous" works entitled "The Health and safety Violations" and as part of Location One's Virtual Residency programme he has been collaborating with the artist Ursula Endleicher, they have never met but will spend the last week before the exhibition opens on 9/9 finalizing works together. He has shown throughout Europe, Canada, and America and he has an upcoming solo show at Electrohype in Malmo, Sweden.

Dorkbot NYC

Wednesday, September 2 at 7pm

Location One, SoHo

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I have to admit, these days, we're getting overwhelmed with people submitting really cool, unique and fun business models being done by various creative folks. I simply can't post all of them, but will try to dip in and post a few examples here and there. Scott Walker points us to some info on a "crowd-sourced" film called Artemis Eternal, where they're offering various tiers of support -- similar to what we've seen with Josh Freese, Jill Sobule and others. But, since this is a movie, rather than music, the things you can get are even more integrated into the movie -- such as the ability to appear in the movie itself, including the marketing of the movie (being on a billboard for a month in LA) among other things. Of course, with something like this, you'd have to imagine there's a risk that the movie never actually gets completed, so it's a bit more difficult to pull it off. But, still, should be a model worth watching to see what happens.

Also in the movie space, Joshua Jones sent in (a while back now, sorry) the fact that the folks behind the movie Visioneers took a different sort of approach as well. Rather than freaking out about "piracy" or people watching the movie in their homes, they realized that obscurity was a much bigger problem than "piracy." So they asked people to host their own screenings -- and even said it was fine for you to charge people to attend. Oh, and if you sent in photos of the screening, you had a chance to win a contest. Again, this isn't a huge step, but it is a neat little promotion, showing that there are unique ways to get some additional attention for your creative efforts, and have the fans help you in the process.

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Gerald Coley @ Texas Instruments for EDN has a great article about open source hardware. It's impressive to see TI jumping in with articles and supporting projects like the BeagleBoard...

Many designers are familiar with open-source software, such as Linux, in which the source code is available to all. However, fewer are familiar with organizations offering open-source hardware. These organizations release free information, including schematics, BOM (bill-of-materials) information, and PCB (printed-circuit-board)-layout data, covering the overall hardware design. Designers with this information can build or add to a freely available design. In many cases, open-source software supports the original design, providing additional advantages. Some aspects of open-source hardware go beyond the sharing of the design itself. These aspects can save time and money for not only hardware developers but also PCB designers and fabricators, contract manufacturers, and even software developers.

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TechPolitik writes "The ACLU has sued the US Customs and Border Protection agency under the Freedom of Information Act, aiming to obtain records on the agency's policy of searching laptops at the border. Under the policy, the CBP can search through financial records, photos, and Web site histories, and retain that information for unspecified periods of time. The ACLU is arguing that the information is necessary to understand whether the CBP may be violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable and unwarranted searches. The agency has so far not responded to requests for comment."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You may recall earlier this year that Google was accused of invisibly deleting entire blog posts on Blogger when the RIAA would send takedown notices alleging that the blog posts contained unauthorized music. This was troubling for a few different reasons. First, on the RIAA side, there seems to be something of a double standard here, as many of the record labels purposely send MP3s to music bloggers to help promote their music... but then they decide to take some down? But the bigger issue was the way that Google was handling the whole issue. Bloggers were upset that entire blog posts just seemed to disappear entirely without any notice at all. Google claimed that it was alerting the bloggers, but it didn't seem to be doing a very good job of it, and making entire posts completely disappear based on the sayso of the record labels seemed to be a bit extreme. So it's good to see that Blogger has entirely revamped its takedown process for Blogger posts that get takedown notices.

First, for those issuing the takedown, they've switched from a manual (send a fax or letter) process to an electronic one -- which has the side benefit that Google can now get those takedown notices to ChillingEffects.org much faster. Google always passes along takedowns to ChillingEffects, but when the notices were faxed or typed it took a while before ChillingEffects could get them up, meaning that if content was taken down, there was often no way for the blogger in question to understand what happened (Google says it always emails the bloggers, but not everyone's email address is up-to-date).

On top of that, Google not only will notify people via email, but will put a notification in the Blogger admin dashboard, so the next time the blogger logs in they'll see it. Finally, and most importantly, to handle the "takedown," rather than totally deleting the posts as before, the posts are switched to draft mode, which allows the blogger to see the post and change it (if necessary). This seems like a much better policy than what Blogger/Google was doing before.

The one that that still seems to be missing (at least in this description) is the counternotice process. The process described in the announcement says that bloggers can adjust their post... but what if they don't believe it's actually infringing (fair use, authorized copy, different content, etc.)? It would be nice if Google also offered an easy counternotice procedure from directly within the Blogger admin as well -- so that a Blogger who has been falsely accused of a copyright violation can quickly counternotice and get the content back up.

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My 60-pound Samoyed mix Sugar is my best friend, but she can be a handful sometimes. A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to dogsit for one of her best friends, Blaze, who is also a Nordic breed and is about 80 pounds. Walking the two of them together certainly helped tone up my arms, but I kept thinking I should try and put all this power to use somehow. Then I remembered the tandem dog cart DIY by Adam Thornton and Amy Horton from the pages of MAKE Volume 04. Adam and Amy have two Greater Swiss Mountain dogs and had two carts, each designed to be pulled by a single dog. In this DIY, they show how they designed and made a cart for two, as shown above. They also offer advice for training and resources. With winter season just around the corner, I'm going to have to figure out how to ditch the wheels, strap a couple of old snowboards to the base, and get free rides to the backcountry.

Here's the full project in our Digital Edition. You can also still pick up a back issue of Volume 04 in the Maker Shed.

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We've covered some other innovate uses for a cdrom drive, but this one surely takes the cake! This would be a great way to teach young children about re-purposing obsolete technology. If you want to try it for yourself, here is the script (written for a Linux machine) that is used to keep opening and closing the door:

#!/bin/sh
while [ 1 = 1 ]
do
#eject cdrom
eject

#pull cdrom tray back in
eject -t
done

[via boingboing]

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Earlier this week, we wrote about how some Federal Courts were sending out misleading emails warning people about RECAP, the Firefox extension that would help make public domain PACER documents freely available. The warnings from the courts were scare tactics... but Paul Alan Levy spoke with Michel Ishakian, the Deputy Chief for IT Policy and Budget at the Administrative Office of the United States courts, who is apparently saying that the US courts are now perfectly fine with RECAP. That doesn't quite explain the scare tactic emails that have been sent out, but it's nice to know that (hopefully) the courts are coming around to see the value of RECAP. In fact, Ishakian apprently had a call with Ed Felten, who oversaw the RECAP project, and apparently everyone's on the same page. That's definitely good news.

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coondoggie writes "The US Army this week showed off its latest high-tech blimp laden with powerful radar systems capable of detecting incoming threats 340 miles away. The helium-filled blimps, or aerostats, are designed to hover over war zones or high-security areas and be on guard for incoming missiles or other threats. The Army wants them to reduce some of the need for manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights. The aerostat demonstrated this week is known as the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Sensor System (JLENS), which is designed to fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet. According to GlobalSecurity.org., the $1.4 billion JLENS is a large, unpowered elevated sensor moored to the ground by a long cable. From its position above the battlefield, the elevated sensors will allow incoming cruise missiles to be detected, tracked, and engaged by surface-based air defense systems even before the targets can be seen by the systems."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

iFanboy interviewed Darwyn Cooke, the author and illustrator of Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter, which is probably the best graphic novel in the last few years.

San Diego Comic-Con 2009: Darwyn Cooke

Marque Cornblatt of Gomi Style crafted these sweet miniature gardens in Altoids tins. Marque used tiny succulent cuttings and small herbs in organic potting soil, and suggests misting them a few times a day. My favorite is the little garden he made for Buddha:

There are tons of cool project ideas that involve Altoids tins, and this is a great twist.

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