An anonymous reader writes "It looks like IBM isn't much of a friend of Microsoft's anymore. Today IBM announced an extension of its Microsoft-Free PC effort together with Canonical Ubuntu Linux. This is the same thing that was announced a few weeks back for Africa (a program that began a year ago), and now it's available in the US. The big push is that IBM claims it will cost up to $2,000 for a business to move to Windows 7. They argue that moving to Linux is cheaper."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Do you smell a terrorist? Did you know that "terrorism is a crime?" This iWatch PSA stars a cast of pretend-earnest actors encouraging you to rat out your neighbor, "if you see, hear, or smell something suspicious." Don't hesitate -- "let law enforcement determine if it's a threat, (says this fellow, who plays a sex-crazed Mr Pringles when he's not playing a fear-mongering alarmist)" and "let the experts decide." Be sure to report on anyone drawing important buildings, a favorite tactic of terrorists with an artistic bent!

Here's Fox News' pretend news story that explains iWatch.

Do you recognize any of the other actors in this waste of money PSA?

UPDATE: Am I wrong, or is the guy who says he's "Chris Matthews" in the iWatch campaign (left) the same guy who calls himself "Michael Busch" at UCBComedy (right)? It seems suspicious. Should I let law enforcement determine if it's a threat, and let the experts decide?

iWatch PSA

Mokurai sends a heads-up about Sequoia Voting Systems, which seems to have inadvertently released the SQL code for its voting databases. The existence of such code appears to violate Federal voting law: "Sequoia blew it on a public records response. ... They appear... to have just vandalized the data as valid databases by stripping the MS-SQL header data off, assuming that would stop us cold. They were wrong. The Linux 'strings' command was able to peel it apart. Nedit was able to digest 800-MB text files. What was revealed was thousands of lines of MS-SQL source code that appears to control or at least influence the logical flow of the election, in violation of a bunch of clauses in the FEC voting system rulebook banning interpreted code, machine modified code and mandating hash checks of voting system code." The code is all available for study or download, "the first time the innards of a US voting system can be downloaded and discussed publicly with no NDAs or court-ordered secrecy," notes Jim March of the Election Defense Alliance. Dig in and analyze.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've been having some discussions lately about the FTC's new guidelines for "disclosure," and some of our regular critics have been gleefully insisting that the reason I don't like those rules is because I don't disclose stuff, and I'm scared the FTC is going to crack down on the site. I find this pretty funny, because I am a huge believer in the importance of disclosing stuff, and on the rare occasion we've been in a situation where disclosure was necessary, we have no problem disclosing, even to the point that it's almost silly. Almost nothing in those rules impacts us directly. My real complaint with the rules is that the FTC rules aren't needed and raise serious First Amendment issues. First, most blogs and other social media efforts are conversational, not publishing, and a whole different set of social cues matter there. Second, anyone stupid enough not to disclose their affiliations on certain things is going to face pretty serious backlash when it comes out (as it certainly will).

Take, for example, the backlash today on the news that AT&T's chief lobbyist sent out an email to all AT&T employees urging them to protest any new net neutrality laws and hide their AT&T affiliation as they do so. AT&T has confirmed the email, which has numerous factual errors (and remember, I actually agree that net neutrality laws don't make sense). But, more importantly, the mainstream media is now calling AT&T out for this outrageous effort to have employees pretend they're not employees in protesting these rules.

Transparency on conflicts makes a lot of sense. It's something that people should do because it makes you more trustworthy -- not because the FTC threatens to fine you. The problem with the FTC rules is that it creates a weird chilling effect and threat of action on things where the rules aren't at all clear. As AT&T is learning today, trying to hide that kind of thing just creates a lot of backlash. It makes AT&T appear like it doesn't have a strong legitimate case, and needs to resort to underhanded techniques to make its argument.

Oh, and to make the FTC and our critics happy: Full Disclosure: I use AT&T DSL at home, and while I pay for it, a few years back there was a long outage, and AT&T agreed to give me a credit of $35 off my next bill. I also know some people who work at AT&T. My wife uses an iPhone, which I assume must run on AT&T's network, but it's provided by her employer (oh, crap, do I need to disclose who that is too?), and so we never see the bill -- so maybe the FTC thinks it's provided for free? I once sat on a panel with a representative from AT&T, and while I disagreed with him on most things policy-wise, I thought he was a nice guy, and at times I've talked to him about why AT&T should be more involved in online conversations (like this one!). Anything else?

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An anonymous reader writes "Andy Ritger, who leads the NVIDIA UNIX Graphics Team responsible for creating drivers on Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris has answered many questions at Phoronix about the state of Linux graphics, gaming, and drivers. Ritger shares some interesting facts, such as: the Linux graphics driver download rate is 0.5% that of their Windows driver downloads at NVIDIA.com; how the Nouveau developers are doing an incredible job; creating an AMD-like open-source strategy at NVIDIA would be time intensive and unlikely; and development problems for the Linux platform. Also commented on are new features that may come to their Linux driver within the next twelve months." Like all stories at Phoronix, in common with most other hardware review sites, this one is arbitrarily and maddeningly spread across 8 pages.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to the US Department of Justice, over 2,000 children are reported missing every day. And while most of them don't stay missing for that long, it's a terrifying experience for any parent or guardian to go through. For the past quarter century, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private non-profit established by Congress, has acted as a resource for people who have lost a child. One of cool things the Center does is age progression — the creation of computer rendered images that show what a child might look like now. We saw this most recently with the horrible case of Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped in 1991 by a sick criminal who kept her captive and raped her for 18 years. Last week, People Magazine revealed the first real photo of Dugard at her current age, and it was strikingly similar to the age progressed photo that the NCMEC had created. The NCMEC has a 97% recovery rate of all missing children reported to it, with over 900 safely returned children whose age progressed photos were advertised on TV and on milk cartons. So how do they do it? Turns out there's a small team of retired forensic detectives using Photoshop and fine art skills to re-imagine what these children might look like as they grow older. Joseph Carson was abducted by his non-custodial dad as a toddler and was missing for about five years when a customer at an auto parts store saw that a PSA showing his age progressed image was strikingly similar to a kid who just happened to be in the store at that exact time. Glen Miller, NCMEC:

I supervise the forensic imaging unit here at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I'm a retired police forensic artist — I've been here since 1992. As a detective in the police force, I often created composites from witness memories of bank robbers and rapists. Here at the Center, the emphasis is on aging faces of long-term missing children. It's different than working from memory, but there isn't a software available that automatically ages photos. When a child goes missing, we usually get a photo with the report. As time goes on, though, the photo becomes less and less valuable, especially if the child was very young when he went missing. That's where age progression comes in. To come up with the best possible progressed image, we begin with a photo of the child and of the biological parent &mdash the father if it's a little boy, the mother at if it's a girl — at the age that the child would now be. My colleague Joe Mullins worked on the most recent image of Jaycee. He had to study 11-year old Jaycee's face closely, and become familiar with all her unique features — the eyes, the eyelids, the shape of the nose. 80% of likeness is recognizable in the eyes. We're constantly dealing with the subtleties of aging. What makes someone appear 15 and not 29? He battled that while holding onto the unique facial qualities that set Jaycee apart.

When Jonathan Ortiz was just two years old, his mom ran off with him to Guadalajara Mexico, after attempting to kill his dad by feeding him a milkshake laced with pesticide. She was arrested and extradited back to the US eight years later, but Jonathan wasn't with her. Here, you can see that the age progressed image of 10-year old Jonathan (middle) created from a photo of him as a one-year old is quite similar to the actual photo taken (far left) when he was found — especially around the mouth.

We use Adobe Photoshop CS4 to manipulate the photos. We stretch the face to approximate growth, blend it with parental photos, and put a hairstyle on each child. The clothes are transformed to be more appropriate for that age. We use powerful Macs with lots of memory and speed, and drawing tablets instead of mouses. With this technology, we can complete one age progression in about three hours. When we look at the child's face and family photos, we pretty much know what we're going to do with it right away. We try to do an age progression every two years until age 18, and then every five years after that. We continue to age progress children unless we're specifically told not to or until the child is located. Last quarter, we produced 131 age progressions. I enjoy seeing the transformation as I manipulate the photos. We build faces in virtual environments for people to recognize, but the only way we really know we're successful is by having results. We can compliment each other on how great an age progressed image is, but the public is the true test of success. To say we love feedback is an understatement. We crave it. It encourages parents of long term missing kids that there's hope, and that's one of the most important things about what we do. We're giving people their identity back.

John Boiles, he of the iPod-controlled RC car, also produced this sweet wirelessly controlled light dimmer, which he demonstrates in this video, controlling different sets of X-mas lights by shaking his iPod. See it work around 1:40, then be sure to check out the dance party at 2:40. The iPod is enclosed in the "law book" prop everyone is shaking around, together with their booties, while they rock out to vintage Bon Jovi, et. al.

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We've recently covered how beverage company Hansen's hired a company called Continental Enterprises, who has a long history of abusing trademark law for profit (i.e., getting big companies to allow it to send threat letters to anyone who in any way uses a mark, even if it's clearly not a violation of trademark), and because of that, a small Vermont brewery and a beverage review website found themselves on the receiving end of legal threats.

Apparently, the monster madness doesn't stop there. Andrew points us to the news that that Continental Enterprises, on behalf of Hansen's and Monster Energy Drink has also threatened a working actor who was in a monster movie a few years ago, and had a photo taken of himself in costume holding a Monster Energy Drink. This amusing joke photo is apparently too much for the fine folks at Continental Enterprises, who insist it's "advertising and/or selling products that are confusingly similar to Monster Energy Drink" and demand that he cease and desist.

At what point does Hansens and Monster Energy Drink realize that in this deal to outsource trademark bullying to Continental Enterprises, they've done significantly more harm to their own brands?

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I pitched a simple idea at yesterday's GigaOm meetup, one that is easy to explain verbally but I've not yet attempted to explain it in writing. So here goes.

When the Mac came out in 1984 it had a file system that worked much like a Unix or PC file system, it was hierarchic, had volumes, folders and files. But files had two "forks:" 1. Data and 2. Resource. The data fork was like a regular file, but the resource fork was really cool and different. It was like a file system within a file, but not quite.

Resources had a type and an id. The type was a four-character string, and the ID was a number. There were standard system types like WIND and MENU, and in them you put designs for windows and menus. There was a resource editor that shipped with the OS that had tools for the standard system types, the menu editor let you add a command to a menu or delete a command. The window editor let you set the default size of the window, its initial title, and what WDEF routine was responsible for drawing it. A big part of learning how to program the Mac was learning what all the resources were and how to set them up. Then you'd write C or Pascal code to open the windows or draw the menus.

But that wasn't all you could do with resources -- because -- and this is the key point -- you could define your own resources. You didn't have to get anyone's permission (okay theoretically you did, but we never bothered). So if I wanted to write a DAVE resource to my file I could. And then I could tell you what a DAVE resource contains and your app could read and write them, and all of a sudden we've just enhanced the platform. Pretty cool! And we did this kind of stuff all the time.

So why shouldn't tweets also have resource forks? Then if I wanted to attach a picture to a tweet I'd just pack it up in a blob and shoot it up to Twitter as part of a PICT resource along with the 140 characters which would then be a description for the picture. Or why not have a menu go with a tweet? Or a bit of HTML? Or whatever the fuck.

This would get Ev and Biz out of the loop, they could just kick back and run a storage system and stop worrying about what features to add to the platform. You see the users get to innovate inside the 140 characters, but there would be so much more action if the developers could innovate outside the 140.

Several readers sent in the news that AT&T's top lobbyist sent a letter to all 300,000 employees urging them to give feedback to the FCC as it gears up for rulemaking on net neutrality. He even supplied talking points approved by the PR department. The lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, suggested that employees use their personal email accounts when they weigh in with the FCC. Pro-net-neutrality group Free Press has now likened Cicconi's letter to astroturfing: "Coming from one of the company’s most senior executives, it’s hard to imagine AT&T employees thinking the memo was merely a suggestion."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"A is for Atom" is a 1953 science cartoon with a snazzy soundtrack and a genially authoritative narrator. It's about 12 minutes long. A downloadable version of "A is for Atom" is available at Archive.org.

Welcome to the uncanny mogul: Bojan Nemec at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia developed this skiing robot.

It consists of two computing systems, one that acts as a vision and route planning system, and the other for stabilization and steering. Besides using it to make funny videos, they also plan to use it to test ski equipment and to build virtual reality models of the winter sport.

Skiing robot

Researchers at the Jozef Stefan Institute built this fun skiing robot. It consists of two computing systems, one that acts as a vision and route planning system, and the other for stabilization and steering. Besides using it to make funny videos, they also plan to use it to test ski equipment and to build virtual reality models of the winter sport. I just hope it can move fast enough to avoid the abominable snow monster!

There doesn't seem to be a web site to document the robot, however the folks at IEEE Spectrum have a nice writeup of the conference talk it was presented at, and the paper is here (behind a paywall). [via neatorama]

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Eight years ago, police investigating the robbery of a 71-year-old Tasmian woman found a leech at the home. They took a blood sample from the leech and now have used DNA gleaned from the sample to convict Peter Alec Cannon of the crime. He has since admitted guilt. From the BBC News (Wikimedia Commons image):

When police came to investigate the robbery, officers found a leech near the safe, and the resulting DNA sample was recorded in the Tasmania Police DNA offender database.

Cannon would probably have got away with the crime had he not been charged with drug offences late last year, and asked to give a DNA sample - which matched that from the crime scene.

"Leech convicts Australian robber" (Thanks, Antinous!)

Toe, The writes "Today Apple announced several new hardware offerings, including a new Mac mini, their (almost-literally) pint-sized desktop computer. In a bizarre twist, they are now also offering a Mac mini with Mac OS X Server bundled in, along with a two hard drives somehow stuffed into the tiny package. Undoubtedly, many in the IT community will scoff at the thought of calling such a device a 'server.' However, with the robust capabilities of Snow Leopard Server (a true, if highly GUI-fied, UNIX server), it seems likely to find a niche in small businesses and even enthusiasts' homes. The almost completely guided setup process means that people can set up relatively sophisticated services without the assistance of someone who actually knows what they are doing. What the results will be in terms of security, etc. will be... interesting to watch as they develop." El Reg has a good roundup article of the many announcements; the multi-touch Magic Mouse is right up there on the techno-lust-inspiration scale.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I first heard about the Icecreamist's "Sex Pistols: God Save the Cream" ice cream + absinthe monstrosity (served out of an IV drip?!?) a few weeks ago when my friend Jean had one for breakfast (wait... breakfast?!?). Either way, it was amusing to see ice cream go punk rock/extreme. However, apparently the rights holders for the Sex Pistols are none too pleased. Lawrence D'Oliveiro (without a link!) alerts us that the Sex Pistols are threatening legal action over the ice cream. Now, my guess is that the Pistols have a decent enough trademark claim here. The menu in Jean's photos clearly show the drink called "The Sex Pistol" with the tagline "God Save the Cream" (a play on the Pistol's "God Save the Queen"). However, it doesn't seem particularly punk rock to be filing trademark infringement lawsuits, does it? As the Icecreamists are saying:

"We are a bit dumbfounded that a group that made its reputation for being banned is trying to ban one of our ice creams and claim copyright over the national anthem and the Queen."

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(Download MP4 video or Watch on YouTube, or view with subtitles on Dotsub).

Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsystems and Boing Boing Video to co-host the Digital Open, an online tech expo for teens 17 and under around the world.

In this video, you'll meet awesome 16 year old Nick Brenn. His crafty Altoids tin hacks led to a winning "Electronikits" project for the Digital Open, which sells electronics kits for pocket-sized tin-mod flashlights and other DIY oddities.

I loved his answer to the "Who is this project for?" part of the Digital Open Questionnaire: "Anyone with a passion for being a DIY-er and a fiend for building cool projects. Who wouldn't want a sweet Altoids LED Flashlight? You could have the freshest flashlight on the block! Or an Altoids night-light! It is rare to find someone with such cool projects as you would have!"

Nick tells us more about how "Electronikits" came to be, below and after the jump:

It all started with instructions that I posted on Instructables.com, on how to build a "Super Awesome Altoids MINI Flashlight." Soon after winning a contest on Instructables, I was contacted by a sales associate at the science supply company Edmund Scientific. I was like, "WOW!", someone wants to buy kits from me that I don't even have! This was an opportunity too good to pass up.

I created my business known as NGB Enterprises. To sell to Edmunds, I needed a tax i.d, and since I was a minor, I created a "dba" (doing business as), under my mom's business. So in just months, I had established a business based on instructions I submitted that could be viewed by the whole world! So I then bought the necessary components for the kits that Edmunds wanted to buy, and I shipped them out to the company. I was paid, I had a profit and life was good! I wanted to keep this going, and I did not want this to be a one time thing. So in order to keep with "openness," I did not take down the instructions that I posted on the Instructables website, because I was confident that I did not have to worry about anyone trying to do something silly with my work, and I used those instructions for my kits.

Read more of Nick's story here, with links to features about his projects at HowStuffWorks and other science-y sites.

Read more about the youth competition in IFTF's press release announcing Digital Open winners.

A new update in the legal battle over Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama poster, following Friday's surprise revelation by Fairey (BB post here) -- this time, no surprise:

The Associated Press today filed a motion seeking to amend its Answer, Affirmative Defenses and Counterclaims from last March in the lawsuit filed against the news cooperative by Shepard Fairey and Obey Giant Art, Inc., based on Fairey's recent revelations that he fabricated and destroyed, or attempted to destroy relevant evidence and other newly discovered information in the lawsuit. The AP disputes Fairey's most recent allegations that he made a "mistake" about which AP photo he used to create the Obama Hope poster, saying such allegations are "simply not credible."

Today's AP release, in entirety, here. The federal court filing and related material are here.

Previously: Legal battle over Shepard Fairey Obama poster takes an unexpected turn.

Earlier today, we looked at why leaves change color--or, more specifically, why some trees change to red and some to yellow. Now, we turn our attention to the skies.

So, birds fly south for the Winter. But how do they pull off a trip like that, while you and I (or, maybe, just I) have no idea which way is north outside our hometowns? Actually, nobody knows for certain. But Matt Soniak at mental_floss has summarized three of the theories. My favorite:

A particularly cool study showed that migratory birds also use "celestial navigation" to find their way around in the dark. Captive birds placed in a planetarium changed their directional orientation when the star pattern on the ceiling shifted and became confused when the images of stars were dimmed. The scientists conducting the experiment suggest that birds use the layout of constellations in the sky as a compass.

I just like to imagine the phone calls between the bird guys, and the owner of the planetarium, both before and after the experiment.

Image courtesy Flickr user Corey Leopold, via CC

Beginning at noon PDT today, and closing at noon PDT tomorrow, we will be accepting comments, below, describing the Halloween-y use (or uses) to which you would put the prize bundle consisting of one Microchip Technology PIC10F Cap Touch Demo Board and one MCP1650 Multiple White LED Demo Board.

For this giveaway, the prompt is: "How would you use the prize bundle in a Halloween costume?"

The winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon at the bottom of the comment thread. Be sure to include a valid e-mail address.

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

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Researchers have designed micro-unmanned aerial vehicle inspired by a maple seed. The University of Maryland engineers studied the spiral flight the seeds take when they fall from a tree and created what the university claims is the "world's smallest controllable single-winged rotocraft."

In the 1950s, researchers first tried to create an unmanned aerial vehicle that could mimic a maple seed's spiraling fall. Ever since, their attempts have been foiled by instability, resulting in a lack of control over the tiny (less than one meter) vehicles, which were easily knocked off course by wind.

The Clark School (Aerospace Engineering) students have solved the steering problem and provided a solution that allows the device to take off from the ground and hover, as well as perform controlled flight after its initial fall to the ground after being deployed from an aircraft. The device can also begin to hover during its initial descent, or after being launched by hand.

"Spiraling Flight of Maple Tree Seeds Inspires New Surveillance Technology"

GeekZilla sends coverage from Wired's Gadget Lab on the Nook, Barnes & Noble's first e-book reader. "Sleek, stylish and runs the Android OS. What's not to like about Barnes and Noble's new e-book reader? Despite the odd name, the Nook looks like an eBook reader that would actually be a worthwhile investment. Best feature? The ability to loan e-books you have downloaded to other Nook owners. The reader, named the 'Nook,' looks a lot like Amazon's white plastic e-book, only instead of the chiclet-keyboard there is a color multi-touch screen, to be used as both a keyboard or to browse books, cover-flow style. The machine runs Google's Android OS, will have wireless capability from an unspecified carrier, and comes in at the same $260 as the now rather old-fashioned-looking Kindle." Here is the B&N Nook site, which is still not visible on their front page and has a few non-working links. (Nook.com isn't set up yet.) Their comparison page takes dead aim at the Kindle. Among the advantages in the Nook's column: Wi-Fi, expandable memory via microSD, MP3 player, and PDF compatibility. (But remember the cautionary note B&N struck six years back when they got out of the e-book business.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In response to the boy-in-a-hot-air-balloon fiasco of last week, SFGate has a story about a contractor in Marin who really did get whisked off by a hot air balloon 45 years ago.

In 1964, (Dan) Nowell was a skinny 11-year-old who volunteered to help launch a hot air balloon in Mill Valley. But when the balloon abruptly lifted off, his fingers became entangled in the rope. As a horrified crowd of 200 spectators watched, the sixth-grader from Tamalpais Valley Elementary School was hoisted 3,000 feet into the air. ...As his feet flew off the ground, one of his father's friends grabbed his legs and tried pulling him down. The yank wasn't strong enough to bring the balloon back, but it did cinch the rope tightly around four fingers of his hand. ...Nowell says it hurt so much he was trying to reach his pocketknife, thinking he would cut the rope, even if it meant dropping from the sky.

Lucky for Nowell, he was able to get the attention of the balloon's pilot (there was one, he was just unaware that there was a kid hanging from it) and he landed relatively safely on a nearby plum tree. There's a picture of him in mid-air here. Bay area's balloon boy scaled heights of fame

And I thought the days of companies claiming "unlimited" data plans when they really were very very limited had died out after Verizon Wireless got fined and started backing away from claiming "unlimited" data for plans that were actually quite limited. However, with Walmart teaming up with TracFone to offer the misleadingly-named "Straight Talk" mobile phone service, some are noticing the return of very limited mobile data offers advertised as "unlimited." As is pointed out in that link, beyond simply being flat-out wrong and more than a bit deceiving, it's pretty ridiculous for a brand called "Straight Talk" to lie in its advertising, and hide the details in the very very fine print.

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Andrew Plumb is a really active member of the MakerBot community, and there's a nice interview with him about his experiences up on the MakerBot blog. I'm writing a piece about MakerBot for Make: 21, and found his story particularly interesting.

I was fortunate to be going through university in the early ’90s right when Linux was making the rounds – Math and Engineering, Control and Communications Systems program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. (Cool! There wasn’t a Control and Robotics option back then.) That box of a hundred-odd 3.5? floppies landed on my desk and I was plunged into the second emerging wave of Open Source software – the first being the BSD origins of UNIX. With healthy wiki, forum, google group and twitter extended participation (to name a few channels), the RepRap+MakerBot+Thingiverse projects feel like they could be leading a third wave of open source innovation and community.

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miller60 writes "Google never says how many servers are running in its data centers. But a recent presentation by a Google engineer shows that the company is preparing to manage as many as 10 million servers in the future. At this month's ACM conference on large-scale computing, Google's Jeff Dean said he's working on a storage and computation system called Spanner, which will automatically allocate resources across data centers, and be designed for a scale of 1 million to 10 million machines. One goal: to dynamically shift workloads to capture cheaper bandwidth and power. Dean's presentation (PDF) is online."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Good morning. Getting back to work after a half-day at a conference followed by a five-hour baseball game. The conference was at Om Malik's and was the first tech conference I'd been to since the disaster at Gnomedex in 2007. This one was much better. I got to talk with a number of people I'm working with on RSS-related projects, and met a few developers with interesting projects. Om gathers an interesting group, that's for sure. And the mood at Om's place is respectful and collegial. We got some work done. Nice.

I told Om I'd like to try out the flash conference idea at his new 2nd St office. Great location and a good size. So next time there's a rush to get people's ideas on some new tech development maybe we can get together to talk about it at Om's place.

The baseball game was the third in the ALCS between the Angels and the Yankees. I'm really liking the way the Angels are playing, and of course I'm always up for rooting against the other New York team.

There will be more baseball and I'm speaking at Jeff Pulver's 140 character conference next Tuesday, a week from today. It's in Los Angeles. I can invite the regulars at Scripting News as my guest, so if you'd like to come, send me an email or post a comment, and I'll send you a link that gets you free admission. Jeff was very kind to let us party on his dime in LA.

Meanwhile, two really interesting articles you all should read:

1. Wired: How Users Took Over Twitter.

2. Mediate: We Keep Finding Historically Significant Photos. Will Our Grandchildren?

The latter question was the punchline of yesterday's Rebooting The News podcast, which has yet to appear in the feed. The irony is that we could be doing a better job at archiving our thoughtstream, but we're actually doing a worse job. Our pictures, movies, recordings, thoughts have never been more ephemeral.

Yesterday at Om's we wasted (imho) a time talking about seredipity. The time could have been better used working on more mundane topics like maintaining a memory that lasts more than a year at a time. We love the latest and greatest stuff, but don't recognize the patterns, we've seen this before. It's like the recurring theme in BSG, it's happened before. But we threw out the archive! Oy gevilt.

I refuse to solve the problem only for Scripting News, because I don't want future generations to think I was the only one writing in the early part of the 21st century. One of our bloggers is the next Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner, Willa Cather or Emily Dickinson. Let's make sure we have their earliest emails, Flickr-ings and tweets.

BTW, this guy at Yahoo is surprisingly funny. I didn't know they were allowed to hire people with a sense of humor. Hate to say it, but I've never seen anyone at a big tech company, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook or whatever that had a sense of humor. I have an idea, they should make being funny one of the requirements to work at the Bigs. Who knows the software might be more er uhhh you know -- fun.

ThinkGeek has these fun maternity t-shirts perfect for parents who want their kids to be labeled as geeks even before they are born. I love the Loading... Please Wait design — unfortunately, the progress bar does not actually move. ThinkGeek

Gio writes in to tell us about his latest vacuum tube-based audio amplifier design, the
5751 SRPP / EL84 (6BQ5) Push-Pull Tube Amp. If you've been itching to try your hand at building such a thing, this looks like it could be a good place to start. The circuit has been designed to have high enough gain to connect directly to an MP3 player, and they are using simpler parts to keep the cost of the project down.

Curious about what all those things in the name mean? Well, 5751 and EL84 are the model numbers for the vacuum tubes used in the project, and push-pull refers to the type of audio amplifier circuit that the project is based around.

Circuit schematics are included, however you need to be careful when working with this and any other vacuum tube projects, as the high voltage required to run them can be deadly.

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An anonymous reader writes "I am a n00b system administrator for a small web development company that builds and hosts OSS CMSes on a few LAMP servers (mostly Drupal). I've written a few scripts that check out dev/test/production environments from our repository, so web developers can access the site they're working on from a URL (ex: site1.developer.example.com). Developers also get FTP access and MySQL access (through phpMyAdmin). Additional scripts check in files to the repository and move files/DBs through the different environments. I'm finding as our company grows (we currently host 50+ sites) it is cumbersome to manage all sites by hacking away at the command prompt. I would like to find a solution with a relatively easy-to-use user interface that provisions dev/test/live environments. The Aegir project is a close fit, but is only for Drupal sites and still under heavy development. Another option is to completely rewrite the scripts (or hire someone to do it for me), but I would much rather use something OSS so I can give back to the community. How have fellow slashdotters managed this process, what systems/scripts have you used, and what advice do you have?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The entertainment industry continues to insist that its antipiracy campaign is largely an "educational" campaign to get people to realize that file sharing is evil and "theft" from content creators. Of course, pretty much anyone who thinks about it in any amount of detail recognizes the difference between "theft" (something is taken and the original owner no longer has it) and "copying" (you made a copy, but the original owner still has his or her original). Apparently a new study in Sweden suggests that the entertainment industry is badly losing its battle to convince people that file sharing is "theft." The study shows that a rapidly decreasing number of Swedes thinks of file sharing as theft, down to only 30% from 38% just a year ago. Time to rethink that education campaign. Perhaps, next time, don't start with the assumption that most people are too clueless to recognize the obvious differences between theft and copying.

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BREAKING NEWS: Stephen Hawking's successor named. We had a contest to guess who it would be, no one got it, some great guesses though!

Cambridge University has named the man who will succeed Professor Stephen Hawking in one of the world's most prestigious academic positions. The celebrated physicist, who has motor neurone disease, completed his last day as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics on 30 September. The university said Professor Michael Green had been elected as the 18th person to take up the position.

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Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that as the number of swine flu cases grows to levels unprecedented for this time of year, health officials predict a shortfall in the supply of swine flu vaccine. Forty-three children have died from swine flu since August 30 — about the same number that usually die in an entire flu season.' These are very sobering statistics,' says Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, 'and unfortunately they are likely to increase.' Projections of the supply of swine flu vaccine have widely varied. During the summer, health officials said 120 million doses would be ready in October but later dropped the estimate to 40 million doses. Now officials expect only 28 million to 30 million doses, adding that the exact number is impossible to predict and could change daily as vaccine manufacturers report that production was behind schedule. 'Vaccine production for influenza is pretty complex,' says Schuchat explaining the delay, 'and the complex process this year is taking a bit longer than we had hoped.' Schuchat warned parents with sick children to be alert for signs that medical attention is required including not eating well, difficulties breathing, and turning blue or gray. A particularly important sign is when children start to get better, then have a relapse, usually a sign that pneumonia is developing, and immediate treatment should be sought."

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It's like a pop-up book, kind of, except way more complicated and expensive and made of Lego elements by YouTube user talapz. Words fail me, too. [via The Brothers Brick]

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More Dorkbot Austin goodness! John Boiles demonstrated this radio-controlled car steered using his iPod's built-in accelerometer via its built-in WiFi transmitter. All you have to do is tilt the iPod, and the car goes. It starts to move around 1:10.

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Just posted! Our lens review of the Panasonic Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm F2.8 Macro ASPH Mega OIS (or, obviously, the H-ES045 for short). Rounding off our Micro Four Thirds mini-season, we take a look at this latest marvel of miniaturization, which shoehorns 1:1 macro focusing and optical image stabilization into a lens just 2.5" in each dimension. Click through to found out if it's a hat-trick of hits for Panasonic's September releases.

Jonathan Worth is a talented commercial photographer (he shot me for a feature in Popular Science a few years back) who was recently asked for his shots by National Portrait Gallery in London, and asked if he could come and take my pic for it, offering to give me the right to use the resulting print for publicity, book jackets and so on.

The National Portrait Gallery's crazy copyright stance sparked an interesting conversation about copyright with Jonathan (who also shot some killer photos!) and in the end, he agreed to license the photos he took of me for the exhibition under a very liberal Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, one of the most liberal licenses, allowing for both commercial uses and remixes.

One of Jonathan's pictures showed me in my office, and I went a little Flickr-crazy marking up the photo with notes explaining what everything was. I tweeted the photo, and lots of people came by to see it -- several thousand, some of whom ended up offering Jonathan paying work. It was a win all around.

This got us to talking about how producers of images and other works that are well-known digitally can use that familiarity to sell physical objects (I give away my books as ebooks to sell the print books), and Jonathan decided to try an experiment, producing 111 prints of the iconic image (without the Flickr notes!). I kicked in the 111-page initial manuscript printing of my forthcoming (April 2010) young adult novel For the Win, which I had just finished a week before. I had printed ten copies of the manuscript to pass around, and I had one copy left, and so I signed every page and handed it off to Jonathan.

Jonathan is selling his prints on a sliding scale depending on which manuscript page you get with it -- high numbers are cheaper -- and the one-of-a-kind super-premium offering is page one accompanied by a 100cm x 140cm special edition print that include the contact-sheets from the shoot (proceeds from this go to a local school raising money for new buildings).

I think that this is just too cool for words. Jonathan's a professional shooter who's also an artist, and the portrait shots are fantastic enough. But he's also experimenting with new business-models for photography that leverage, rather than fight, the Internet. I don't receive any of the money from this -- Jonathan did the work and sank in the capital, so it's his reward to reap.

Etsy: Photographs by Jonathan Worth

Blog: Giving things away Pt II

Cosina has announced the availability of its first Voigtländer branded lenses for Canon EF mount, in the shape of Color Skopar 20mm F3.5 SL II Aspherical ultra-wide angle lens and Ultron 40mm F2 SL II Aspherical pancake lens. Measuring just 24.5mm lengthwise, the Ultron lens is probably the most compact lens available in an EF mount to date. These two manual focus lenses are now available at a retail price of 58,000 yen and 53,000 yen respectively.

alphadogg writes "Oracle should resolve antitrust concerns over its acquisition of Sun Microsystems by selling open-source database MySQL to a suitable third party, its cofounder and creator Michael 'Monty' Widenius said in a blog post on Monday. Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun is currently being held up by an investigation by the European Commission. The Commission's main concern seems to be MySQL, which was acquired by Sun in January 2008 for $1 billion. A takeover by the world's leading proprietary database company of the world's leading open source database company compels the regulator to closely examine the effects on the European market, according to remarks made by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes last month. The key objective by Widenius is to find a home outside Oracle for MySQL, where the database can be developed and compete with existing products, including Oracle's, according to Florian Mueller, a former MySQL shareholder who is currently working with Monty Program AB on this matter." Richard Stallman agrees.

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It's one thing to try to influence politicians and laws to protect an incredibly obsolete business model. It's another thing to try to shut down innovative companies who are better serving the market than you can. But it's in an entirely different class of evil to go after individuals personally for the actions of companies, in an attempt to bankrupt them. Stand up and take a bow, EMI, for not just doing the latter, but then paying a witness, getting her to change her deposition and get a lawsuit reinstated against an individual after the judge had already tossed it out. EMI has leapfrogged to the front of the line for the most despicable record labels out there. No wonder their artists are jumping ship as fast as possible.

You may recall that EMI not only sued Michael Robertson's most recent company, MP3Tunes, but also sued Robertson personally, which is an intimidation technique that creates tremendous chilling effects for any executive or founder of any company. We thought it was good news a year ago, when the court dismissed the part against Robertson directly. The whole lawsuit seems crazy anyway. MP3Tunes isn't set up for infringement -- it just sets up a way for you to store your own songs online in a music locker for your own personal access. So the whole lawsuit is questionable anyway, but seems to be part of EMI's greater strategy of suing every innovative music startup.

However, a new ruling has apparently put Robertson personally back in the firing line, after MP3Tunes' former president gave a new deposition (after she was fired, and well after her original deposition). The new testimony apparently convinced the judge to reinstate the personal lawsuit against Robertson, though the judge doesn't seem to discount the fact that Emily Richards had been fired by Robertson (so her new testimony should be suspect already) and the rather interesting fact that EMI paid Richards $10,000. That combination of facts should raise plenty of credibility questions, but apparently did not.

So, once again, we're left with an incredibly chilling situation, where execs of companies are being sued personally -- exactly what the entire corporate structure is designed to prevent. So, congrats, EMI, for reaching a new low in misguided copyright-related lawsuits.

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A century ago, farmers relied on these big, steampunk-y contraptions called threshing machines to bring in the harvest. The machines were portable, and expensive--they were usually owned by a third party, or by a cooperative of farmers. The threshers traveled from farm to farm, region to region, separating grain from stalk and turning crops into commodities.

Pictured: This threshing machine's body lies a mouldering in a barn, but its spirit is marching on. From Flickr user exfordy, via CC.

Now, researchers from the University of Minnesota are hoping to repeat history with a portable machine that could turn prairie grasses, small trees and corn stalks into liquid biofuel. It's a nifty idea that could be great for both the environment and rural economies...provided the boys in the back room can work out a few bugs.

Portable microwave pyrolysis could be the future's answer to the threshing machine. Obviously, what's being made is different, but the basic idea is the same: Take this big machine around from farm to farm and use it to help farmers turn plants into a higher-profit product.

Pictured: A higher-profit product.

Pyrolysis is all about using heat to break down organic materials into a form better suited to usable, commercial energy. To get things cooking, the University's system relies on microwaves, stronger versions of the same technology you use to make popcorn and heat up leftover pizza. It's a handy, and somewhat outside-the-box, approach. Typically, before any material is put into a pyrolysis system, it has to be ground into tiny pieces to improve the transfer of heat through the mass. But as you may have noticed, microwaves heat up the center of a solid object just fine. If you're cooking on the stove, it saves time to break a chicken breast into smaller chunks. But microwave that breast whole, and the center cooks at about the same rate as the outside. Same principal applies here. Using a well-established technology like microwaves also means the University's pyrolysis set-up could, potentially, produce fuel for less upfront cost compared to typical pyrolysis systems, and some of the other biofuel-making methods.

The main product of the University's system is a liquid fuel. It does produce enough combustible syngas that, once started, it can power itself. But, in general, liquid is what comes out. On one hand, this is a bit limiting. Other methods of breaking down organic material focus on producing just the syngas, a veritable chemistry Christmas present of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Syngas can be burned like natural gas. You can use it to make certain chemicals that normally have to be derived from fossil fuels, like the ones used in agricultural fertilizers. Or you can turn it into a liquid fuel. Whatever you want. If alternative fuel production were baking, syngas would be the water and flour.

The liquid fuel produced by pyrolysis, on the other hand, is more like ending up with cupcake batter. Still nice, but you'll only be making dessert. On the other hand, if you really want cake, microwave pyrolysis gets you to that endpoint in fewer steps.

But biogas also needs some cleaning up. An engine will run on fresh biogas, but over time the acidic fuel will tear it apart. Paul Chen, senior research associate in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, is one of the researchers working on the University of Minnesota microwave pyrolysis system. He says his team is working with chemical catalysts that can make biogas more engine-friendly, but they're still trying to figure out the best way to tackle the problem.

Another kink that still needs to be worked out in the portable pyrolysis plan: The whole "portable" part.

Pictured: Not a portable system.

Right now, the University's machine is a Rube Goldberg-like mass of conveyors and pipes that stands almost two stories tall with a floorplate that would fill a three-car garage. It is innovative, but it's not quite ready to load on a truck. Chen and company say they're close to working out a design for a smaller pyrolysis system they could take on the road. Armed with a $500,000 grant, they hope to have the pilot version built by early next year. If it works, the system could give farmers a relatively easy way to produce fuel for use on their own farms or, if it traveled with a tanker truck, that they could sell through local farming cooperatives, which already have a license to sell and ship fuel.

Rachel @ CRAFT writes:

This collection of space-inspired quilts from artist Jimmy McBride have left me breathless. What really has me excited, though, is his post about his next project. I'll give you a hint: Pillars of Creation. Check out the diagram and fabric selection he's put together. Amazing.

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omlx writes 'The last developer milestone ( DEV300m60) of OpenOffice.org has been released. The next version of OpenOffice.org 3.2 has more than 42 features and 167 enhancements . The final version is expected to be available at the end of November 2009. Many companies have contributed to this version like RedHat, RedFlag, and IBM, making OpenOffice more stable and useful. I couldn't stop myself from seeing new features and enjoying them. So I downloaded the DEV300m60 version. After playing with it for many days I could say that OpenOffice developers have done very good work in it. Well done!"

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Footnote.com collects 59,818,947 (Why yes, that is a very exact number, isn't it?) scanned historical documents, from places like the National Archives and Library of Congress. But that can be a little overwhelming when you don't have a specific item you're trying to find.

Enter "Unfortunate Cookie", Footnote.com's random document generator that pulls up some great, eye-catching news headlines (and full stories) from decades past, such as:
Woman Becomes Insane on Train (San Francisco Chronicle, 1907)

Murdered in His Bed: Aged Roanoke Man Victim of Stealthy Assassin: Head Cut Open With an Ax (The Washington Post, 1906)

Wheel Gone, Santa Flips His Car (Florida Today, 1969)

I'll confess, I'm not sure why the site includes a fortune cookie theme, the documents are interesting enough without it. But in general, it's a great (and quickly addictive) peek into the past.

Lev Grossman's novel The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I've read this century. Quentin Coldwater is a nerdy, depressed, high-achieving Brooklyn kid who finds himself hijacked from his Princeton interview and whisked away to Brakebills Academy, a school of magic upstate on the Hudson. He passes the entrance exam and begins his education as a wizard.

This is a familiar-sounding setup, but Grossman's extremely clever hack on the fantasy novel is in his complete lack of sentimentality about magic. Quentin has lived his whole life waiting to be taken to an imaginary magic kingdom ("Fillory," a thinly veiled version of Narnia) but he quickly discovers that real magic -- like stage magic -- is about an endless grind of numbing practice in the hopes of impressing someone -- anyone. All of Brakebills, from the faculty to the student body, is broken in some important way, and Quentin is no exception. In a place of scintillating minds and bottomless commitment to craft, Quentin's life is not substantially better than it is in Brooklyn. Brakebills isn't Hogwarts (at one point, the narrator notes that magic wands aren't used at Brakebills, being regarded as a kind of embarrassing prosthesis -- like a sex toy for magic).

Quentin's cycle -- mundane, magic student, magician in the world, questing adventurer -- serves as a scalpel that slices open the soft, sentimental belly of the fantasy canon, from Tolkien to Lewis to Baum, but still (and this is the fantastic part), it manages to be full of wonder. Wonder without sentimentality. Wonder without awe.

Grossman is a hell of a pacer, and the book rips along, whole seasons tossed out in a single sentence, all the boring mortar ground off the bricks, so that the book comes across as a sheer, seamless face that you can't stop yourself from tumbling down once you launch yourself off the first page. This isn't just an exercise in exploring what we love about fantasy and the lies we tell ourselves about it -- it's a shit-kicking, gripping, tightly plotted novel that makes you want to take the afternoon off work to finish it.

It must run in the family; Lev is the identical twin brother of Austin "Soon I Will Be Invincible" Grossman, another one-of-a-kind novelist.

I read the paper edition of The Magicians, but I'm delighted to see that there's an unabridged audio edition on DRM-free CDs. This is the kind of fairy story I could seriously dig having read aloud to me the second time around (and I don't think I'll be able to read this one just once).

The Magicians: A Novel

Sometimes you just shake your head and wonder what people are thinking. Just as German Chancellor Angela Merkel came out against the Google Book settlement, European Commission Information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding declared that Europe needs to speed up digitizing books. Except if Google is doing it. Why? Well, as Copycense points out, it seems that some Europeans are trotting out the moral rights issue. Moral rights on copyright are not accepted under US copyright law, but are standard in Europe. But, again, this seems to show the problems of bringing morality into copyright law. Europe wants to get books digitized. The fastest way to do that is to let Google keep doing what it's doing (and feel free to do separate digitization projects as well -- but Google has a nice headstart). So, how is it "moral" to keep more books offline and unsearchable? According to German academic Roland Reuss in that Publishers Weekly story above about moral rights, "academics have gotten by just fine for the past 500 years under the old system of publishing." Yes, and people were fine having to walk everywhere or ride horses before cars came along too. Who knew progress was immoral? Ned Ludd is alive and well apparently.

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An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Wired: "In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It's part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using 'open source intelligence' — information that's publicly available... Visible Technologies crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn't touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what's being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords. 'That's kind of the basic step — get in and monitor,' says company senior vice president Blake Cahill. Then Visible 'scores' each post, labeling it as positive or negative, mixed or neutral. It examines how influential a conversation or an author is. ('Trying to determine who really matters,' as Cahill puts it.) Finally, Visible gives users a chance to tag posts, forward them to colleagues and allow them to response through a web interface."Apropos: Another anonymous reader points out an article making the point that users don't even realize how much private information they're sharing over these services.

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wiseandroid writes "It's not even a year ago that the HTC Dream G1 became the first Android enabled phone to be released publicly (on October 22nd, 2008) and now we have listed more than 50 Android phones expected in the near future." Of the 51 phones on this list, 12 (from nine manufacturers) are currently available.

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Jesse of Bent-Tronics kindly posted a four-part video series introducing newcomers to the art of circuit bending. The first half of the series provides a helpful intro to the necessary tools and parts while the second two vids gets into the actual bend process - good stuff! [via GetLoFi] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this!

As the FTC still wants to stick by its questionable guidelines concerning bloggers "endorsing" products, I found it interesting that the NY Times was profiling a new online service that more easily allows brands to sign endorsement deals with star athletes. Basically, they just need to fill out a few forms, and within hours, that athlete may be the face of the local car dealership. Now, I don't see anything wrong with this, but I'm curious as to why this is somehow okay, but when a blogger fails to mention that he or she got a book for free, the FTC will consider fining them? Does anyone actually believe that the star football player shops at the local Ford dealer?

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c1oud writes "At the last Real-Time Linux Workshop, held in September in Dresden, there has been a lot of discussion about the possibility of enhancing real-time capabilities of Linux by adding a new scheduling class to the Linux kernel. According to most kernel developers, this new scheduling class should be based on the Earliest Deadline First (EDF) real-time algorithm. The first draft of the scheduling class has been called 'SCHED_EDF,' and it was proposed and discussed on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) just before the workshop. Recently, a second version of the scheduling class (called 'SCHED_DEADLINE,' to meet the request of some kernel developers) has been proposed. Moreover, the code has been moved to a public git repository on Gitorius. The implementation is part of a FP7 European project called ACTORS, and financially supported by the European commission. More details are available."

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As alluded to last week with the release of Amanita's hand-drawn opus Machinarium, the era of the point and click adventure -- which reached its pinnacle throughout the 90s thanks to genre-defining works by LucasArts, Sierra and Cyan -- seemed all but forever over in the decade following, as PC prowess pushed first- and third-person to the fore. But a new wave of adventures has recently arisen, ushered in by the re-introduction of more cursor-y consoles and handhelds (think: the literal pointing and touching of both the Wii and the iPhone), the proliferation of digital distribution channels (lowering the barrier away from gun-shy publishers unwilling to invest heavily in 'nostalgia'), and a dedicated core that's never let the classics die (via grey market ports of Lucas's SCUMM engine to basically every piece of hardware with a display device). And so, a brief introduction to those new adventurers, and a quick guide to re-playing the classics in new ways. Ben There, Dan That / Time Gentlemen, Please [Zombie Cow, PC] Apart from Amanita (covered exhaustively last week), the top team keeping the spirit of click alive is the UK's Zombie Cow -- founded by Dan Marshall and aided by a small crew of consultants, most notably co-writer and -designer Ben Ward. The pair are, as you might have guessed, the stars of Zombie Cow's first adventure outing, Ben There, Dan That, a game that manages to infuse the best of indie spirit (lean, economical, and highly stylized art and design) with the best of what LucasArts taught us made these journeys so great: razor-sharp wit and dialogue, self-aware and -referencing (and, here, Lucas-classics referencing as well) at every turn, never afraid to break the fourth wall and let the player in on the jokes. The duo have followed in that same tradition with the recently released Time Gentlemen, Please a sequel that can be demo'd and purchased either from Zombie Cow itself or via Valve's Steam (BT,DT remains a free download). Both come highly, highly recommended, and serve as a nice tide-over while you await the studio's third chronicle: Revenge of the Balloon-Headed Mexican. Windosill [Vectorpark, web/PC/Mac] At the opposite end of the spectrum is Patrick Smith's Windosill, a game written up at greater length in the past at Offworld. Part of his Vectorpark series of gorgeously hyper-surreal click-toys, Windosill is as far from a character-driven narrative adventure as you can come. Instead, Smith pulls you into his somehow at once super-flat and mind-bogglingly physical and living worlds that writhe and bounce and squish at every prod. Each screen presents a new diorama to be explored, and while you'll get a good taste via its demo version, do move on to the full, paid version to see the screen I've been squirming for months to not spoil online (when you've reached a room with three residents, you'll know you're there). Play online at windosill.com -- where you can also get the PC/Mac downloadables -- or find it at Steam. Host Master and the Conquest of Humor [Double Fine, web] And, even as a one-off joke, a special shout-out to Host Master, a throwback from Brutal Legend creators Double Fine which sees studio head Tim Schafer -- himself one of the genre's top artists with his past work creating Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango -- prepping for his GDC 2009 awards show role in classic form, which, if nothing else, proves that he's still 'got it'. The Best of the Rest: If you haven't had your fill with the above, your next best ports of call are the continuing episodic efforts of Telltale Games, who remain the highest profile studio keeping the form alive: their Sam&Max and Monkey Island revivals are essential plays, alongside their work with Wallace & Gromit and Strongbad, and they're one of the few that have managed to infiltrate the Wii with downloadable ports. LucasArts has also re-dedicated itself to the form with their Special Edition remake of the original Monkey Island coming to Xbox Live Arcade, PC, and the iPhone, and their offering of Loom, The Dig, and Indiana Jones adventures on Steam. The iPhone has also seen shrunk-down but no less playable versions of Cyan's Myst and Revolution Software's cyber-fantasy Beneath a Steel Sky (still free on PC via Good Old Games). And finally, for more indie offerings, see Silver Wish's Axel and Pixel, just brought to Xbox 360 via 2K Play, rabbinical adventure The Shivah and fellow Wadjet Eye works Puzzle Bots (and the original Nanobots) from Montreal's Erin Robinson. There's likely several handfuls more great indies that I've left off above: leave any additions overlooked via the comments below!

Lexar has announced the Professional 600x (90MB/s) UDMA CompactFlash memory card in 32GB, 16GB and 8GB capacities. The fastest CF card from Lexar to date, it is compatible with the new generation of UDMA-enabled DSLR's. The company has also introduced a new Professional ExpressCard CompactFlash reader, supporting read/write speeds of up to 133MB/s (886x). In addition, Lexar has also upgraded it's Image Rescue image recovery software to version 4.

The UK-based electronic instrument maker known simply as the Sonic Manipulator demonstrates some of his unusual audio devices for the fine people of Earth -

The Claude-a-tron - sort of a throttle-synth that seems surprisingly playable, with "pitch & volume, with oscillator modulation, bass & percussion control"

… and the Rap Rod, a push/pull controlled audio scratching device, which appears to use a handheld cassette playhead with tape samples (though more likely an advance alien technology?)

Check out the Sonic Manipulator's site for his (its?) full collection of instrument demos. [via Create Digital Music]

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destinyland writes "There's a new experiment from the British researchers who created a robot controlled by cultured rat neurons. They're now using a line of human brain neurons to control robots. The neurons are placed onto a multi-electrode dish that registers the neurons' electric signals. 'Every time the robot nears an object, the electrodes generate signals to stimulate the brain. In response, the brain's output is used to drive the wheels of the robot left and right so that it avoids hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer — its sole means of control is from its own brain.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

joeszilagyi writes "In a major battle in Washington State, anti-gay rights groups created and got R-71 on the 2009 election ballot. This is a public initiative to put same-sex civil unions up for public vote. The real legal war then erupted: activists created WhoSigned.org to take advantage of WA state's Public Records Act, and put the names of all people who publicly endorsed R-71 on a public, SEO-optimized website. Lawsuits quickly followed, and today it reached the United States Supreme Court, in a matter of months. The records appear to have always been public, but have only been available in digital form since 2006. An assault on civil rights, an assault on marriage, or an assault on sunshine laws and freedom of information?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gordan Savicic and Gottfried Haider of DSbrut fame have tipped us off that they've just released their DS Bluetooth adapter for the Nintendo DS.

Almost two years in the making, we're happy to finally release our DS Bluetooth adapter. The tiny Slot-1 cartridge allows you to hook up the Nintendo DS wirelessly with other devices such as GPS-receivers, robots and so forth. Today we're making all materials of the project openly available, including the schematics and a GPL-licensed software library for the Nintendo DS, because we believe in open hardware design and want to encourage collaboration in the hardware hacking community.

If you've got a homebrew Nintendo DS project that we should know about leave a link in the comments.

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The Engadget Show takes a trip out to Madison, WI to visit the workbench of console-modder extraordinaire (and Make contributor) Mr. Ben Heck. Can't wait to see the finished Paxton pinball!

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Canon has announced the development of a firmware update for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR. The updated version will enable full frame high definition (1080p) video recording at 24 and 25 frames per second.The new firmware is expected to be made available for download in the first half of 2010.

Writer Cory Doctorow has long been a leading thinker/experimenter when it comes to issues of copyright and content creation -- having long put his works under very permissive Creative Commons license, and making sure that his books were available in all sorts of different formats. However, for the most part, he kept using the same basic business model. However, it looks like he's jumping on board our favored "tiered" CwF+RtB model. Reader Russell sends in the news that Doctorow will not just be self-publishing his next book, but is also offering various "tiers" for support. The ebook and the audiobook will be free, but the physical book will cost money. On top of that, there will be a limit of 250 specially bound limited edition hardcover versions for $250. He also sold a $10,000 commissioned story, which was already sold before he announced this (he thinks he priced it too low). Finally, he may experiment with ads in the book as well. It will be interesting to see how well this works, though I think the tiers could include some more options/creativity, as most people don't have many options outside of the basic book. Still, it's great to see these tiered direct-to-fan CwF+RtB offerings getting closer and closer to being mainstream.

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CNETNate writes "UK customers have been reporting that they received their copies of Windows 7 in the mail today. Currently the British postal service is threatening industrial action over pay, and planned walkouts may result in Windows 7 not being delivered on its release date. It is understood that Microsoft has agreed to let some retailers send out copies early to avoid disappointment, and to make the UK the first country in the world to have Windows 7 in customers' hands."

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The Gakken Cross Copter EX has two contra-rotating rotors, driven by one small electric motor that's connected via a cord to the hand-powered generator. Build one of three different configurations, or try one of your own!

Easy to build -- instructions are in Japanese but feature highly detailed assembly pictures (sorry, no English translation at this time). MAKE is proud to be the exclusive distributor in North America for these brilliant kits from Gakken.

Note: The original video is 45 seconds long....YouTube seemed to add a second just to make us look silly!

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OK, I admit it: I was pretty excited about getting to use the word "corpsification" in any context. But that doesn't mean this tutorial from the folks at Yard Haunt about how to make a clean, sterile, white plastic skeleton into a nasty, rotting, reeking bag o' bones is any less cool. In case you're wondering, the "Bucky" skeleton referred to in this and many other haunt prop tutorials is a brand name of Anatomical Chart Company, which sells serious anatomical models to educational institutions but also does a tidy trade in "4th quality" seconds on the Halloween market.

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

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Canon has announced two new Wireless File Transmitters for the new EOS-1D Mark IV and EOS 5D Mark II digital SLRs. The WFT-E2 II (for the EOS-1D Mark IV) and WFT-E4 II (for the 5D Mark II) allow photographers to transfer image files securely to a computer or server, control the camera remotely and connect to Wi-Fi enabled devices to view images directly from the camera. Unfortunately there's still no support for the faster 802.11n standard.

Canon has announced the long-awaited successor to the EOS-1D Mark III. The EOS-1D Mark IV features a totally new 45-point autofocus system that's claimed to fix all the issues reported with its predecessor, and has been extensively tested by professionals prior to launch. The new model also sports 10 fps continuous shooting, a new 1.3x crop (APS-H) 16.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and 1080p HD video capture. Like the recently announced Nikon D3S, the EOS-1D Mark IV pushes the sensitivity barrier with a top rating of ISO 102,400.

I have to admit that I don't follow the "spam" world as closely as I used to, but I remember back around 2003, one of the hot topics was whether or not the various spam blacklists went too far at times. The anti-spam fighters behind those lists would often take a rather... inclusive attitude to putting IP addresses and address ranges into their lists, and plenty of giant ISPs relied on the judgment of those spam fighters by simply plugging in their lists. This often resulted in significant collateral damage, as perfectly legitimate emails would get blocked as coming from a "spam IP." Of course, those lists needed to change frequently, but at times, they would just suddenly disappear. That last link was about a popular anti-spam blacklist from Osirusoft that was shut down -- with its owners changing the settings to include all addresses. The idea was to make it clear to ISPs who didn't pay attention, to stop using the list, but in the meantime, think of all the damage?

It looks like that same sort of thing may be happening six years later. Michael Scott points us to the news of another long-abandoned blackhole list, called blackholes.us, that was abandoned a couple years ago -- but which some ISPs still rely on. However, whoever now controls the nameservers where blackholes.us used to be, apparently decided to set up a new "list" that (again) includes the entire range of IP addresses -- so every query is returned as being a spammer IP.

Again, the idea is to force ISPs to stop using that blacklist -- and perhaps you can make the argument that (unlike the Osirusoft situation) these ISPs have had two years to stop relying on the "zombie" blacklist, but it still seems unwise to create so much collateral damage, just to force the issue.

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An anonymous reader writes "Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling (aka fourzerotwo), in an interview with BashandSlash.com on October 17th, announced that one of the mainstays of PC multiplayer gaming, dedicated servers, won't be in IW's upcoming sequel to Call of Duty 4. Instead, players will use the unknown 'IW Net' for matchmaking purposes. No dedicated servers means no player mods, no player maps, no organized competitive play, no clan servers, etc., and strips away what makes PC gaming different from console gaming. Many vocal gamers have canceled their pre-orders, and a petition to reverse this decision is already past 86,000 signatures."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rebecca from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday October 22nd at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco in a fundraiser honoring the 2009 Pioneer Award winners. Awarded every year since 1992, the Pioneer Awards recognize leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier. This year's winners include hardware hacker Limor 'Ladyada' Fried, e-voting security researcher Harri Hursti, and public domain advocate Carl Malamud. EFF will also present a 2009 Cooperative Computing Award to Mersenne Research, Inc., Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, for finding a record breaking prime number. Tickets are $60."

I am a previous Pioneer Award recipient and was doubly honored this year to be a Pioneer Judge. Congrats to all the winners on their much-deserved honor!

Join EFF for the 2009 Pioneer Awards fundraiser honoring: Limor "Ladyada" Fried, Harri Hursti and Carl Malamud

Publisher's Weekly just announced (on the cover, no less!) my forthcoming DIY short-story collection, With a Little Help, a print-on-demand book that explores pretty much every "freemium" model for turning a free, well-known digital object into a bunch of highly sought and profitable physical objects. There's four different covers on the print book, a hand-bound limited hardcover whose end-papers come from the paper ephemera of various writer-friends; a free audiobook read aloud by voice actor/writers and a for-pay CD-on-demand of the same thing; a donation campaign, and even a one-of-a-kind super-premium chance to commission a new story for the book for $10,000. All the financials for the book will be disclosed online and bound into the books on a monthly basis.

Here's the pitch: the book is called With a Little Help. It's a short story collection, and like my last two collections, it's a book of reprints from various magazines and other places (with one exception, more about which later). Like my other collections, it will be available for free on the day it is released. And like my last collection, Overclocked, it won't have a traditional publisher.

Let me explain that last part: Overclocked was published in January 2007, just weeks after Advanced Marketing Services, the parent company of Publishers Group West, which distributed Thunder's Mouth, the publisher for Overclocked--went bankrupt. You remember Advanced Marketing Services. What a mess. First, a senior executive was arrested and convicted of fraud for falsifying the company's earnings, then the company tanked, and the resulting whirlpool threatened to suck half of New York publishing down with it. As a result, Thunder's Mouth went though a series of mergers and acquisitions. My editor and then his replacement both left or were let go (I never found out which). By spring, no one was communicating with me.

Later that year, I did a kind of self-financed minitour, piggybacking on speaking gigs, and every time I went into a bookstore it seemed like I was seeing another edition of the book with a different publisher's name on the spine. The book's currently listed in Perseus's catalogue, for which I am glad. The royalty checks keep coming, and the book continues to do well, but I could no longer be said to have any particular relationship with this publisher. As far as I can tell, it is listing the book in its catalogue and filling orders, but not much else.

This makes Overclocked into a fine control for my little experiment. It is a good book. It sold well and was critically acclaimed. But it is solidly a midlist title, a short story collection published by a house turned upside down by bankruptcy. It will be the baseline against which I compare the earnings from With a Little Help. And those earnings will be diverse--like the musicians who've successfully self-produced albums in a variety of packages at a variety of price points (Radiohead, Trent Reznor, David Byrne and Brian Eno, Jonathan Coulton), I have set out to produce a book that can be had in a range of packages and at a range of price points from $0.00 to $10,000.

Doctorow's Project: With a Little Help

In today's XKCD strip, "Bag Check," Randall explores the limits of reason in dealing with airport security.

Bag Check

Ever since the latest round of newspaper paywall/micropayment suggestions have come up, we've been asking why none of the newspapers/reporters pushing these plans can explain what added value will make people buy. And that's because almost none of them are actually thinking about this. They just keep thinking that if they add a mechanism to get people to pay, that people will magically pay, rather than go elsewhere. The problem, of course, is that readers have made it clear: if their local paper charges for online access, they'll just go elsewhere.

The newspapers, like the recording industry, seem to be under the delusion that they're somehow owed money from consumers, rather than needing to actually give them a reason to buy. Mathew Ingram points us to a Columbia Journalism Review article by Jan Schaffer that finally makes this point by saying it's time to look at the demand side of these newspaper business models, while noting that the problem isn't a lack of paywalls, but a lack of interest in what is called "journalism" these days:

In looking to reconstruct journalism, I'd start not by asking how do we get money for what we've always done. I'd ask instead: How do we provide something worth paying for? As a long-time news consumer, I have recoiled at much of what we are rendering as "journalism."

What if it's not just the business model of journalism that is broken? What if the way we are doing our journalism is broken, too? How are some of the new media makers trying to fix that?

None of this is particularly new, but it's great to see CJR finally realize that's the issue, rather than how to best structure the paywall.

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Chris sez, "Mercedes Lackey's agent, who also represents a 'persuasive little gnome' named Cory Doctorow, has been talked around to the Creative Commons point of view. Hence, Misty has announced she is going to permit fanfic as long as it is released under a Creative Commons license (presumably a noncommercial one, though she does not explicitly spell this out on the site)."

Misty Lackey's work is well-loved by fanfic writers; this allows them to come in from the cold and produce their work (which celebrates her work) without fear of legal reprisals. Good move all around (and my agent, Russ Galen, is a smart cookie!).

What this means is: NO, you cannot make money on it. NO, you cannot self-publish a fanfiction novel of Valdemar (or any of my other stuff) and try and sell it on Amazon. And NO, I still am not going to read it, because I am already so far behind on my research reading I barely have time to read that.

But YES, you may write and post away, folks, so long as you license it as derivative and under Creative Commons. If it is anything other than PG-13, please take all the proper precautions to stick it somewhere that innocent souls won't be corrupted. Do not scare the children or the horses. Have fun!

News: Concerning Fanfiction: (Thanks, Chris!)

David Weinberger sez, "The Berkman Center, under the guidance of Yochai Benkler, has produced for the FCC a 200-page report on broadband around the world. The report is now open for public comment. In an interview on the Berkman site, Benkler gives the "take-away":

I think there are two pieces of news that will be most salient for people as they look at this report. The first is a response to the question: 'how are we [the U.S.] doing?', and the answer is that we're overall middle-of-the-pack, no better. The second responds to the question: 'What policies and practices worked for countries that have done well?', and the answer to that is: there is good evidence to support the proposition that a family of policies called 'open access,' that encourage competition, played an important role.

PDF: Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband Internet transitions and policy from around the world (Thanks, David!)

A reader writes, "A man on Hornby Island, BC built a spiral staircase around a 75-foot cedar tree. He put a platform on the top to get a view of the ocean. This video shows what it's like to climb up and then down the staircase."

My Dad's Treehouse

bth nods an AppleInsider story on a patent troll who has gotten hold of fundamental Ethernet patents and is wielding them broadly. Three guesses which US Appeals Court the lawsuit was filed in. "A Texas company has targeted a number of technology companies, including Apple, in a new lawsuit regarding a handful of computer networking patents issued in the 1990s. ... 3Com Corporation was granted four patents from 1994 to 1998 pertaining to network adapters. Two deal with the automatic initiation of data transmission, and one addresses 'host indication optimization.' ... The company's Web site states that U.S. Ethernet Innovations was founded 'to continue 3Com Corporation's successful licensing program related to a portfolio of foundational patents in Ethernet technology.' A press release from the company states that it is the 'owner of the fundamental Ethernet technology developed and sold by 3Com Corporation in the 1990s,' suggesting it purchased the patents. ... In addition to Apple, the lawsuit names Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Sony, and Toshiba as defendants."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson recently had a great post where he calls out a bunch of his colleagues in the venture capital business (not by name) for insisting on owning a certain percentage of a company in order to invest. Fred notes, correctly, that it's not the percentage that matters, but the actual value (and the appreciation of it) of the equity that one holds. In simplest terms: owning 10% of a $1 billion company is always going to be a hell of a lot better than owning 40% of a $1 million company.

But, what I find amusing -- and what Wilson doesn't mention -- is that this very argument is quite commonly presented to entrepreneurs from VCs. That is, when an entrepreneur frets about giving up a portion of his or her company, a VC will often make the point that "with our investment, we can take your company's valuation way up -- so even if you own a smaller percentage, your absolute value will increase." And it's a true argument (if the value increase happens). And, in many cases, it's the very same VCs who will use a line like this that then insist on owning a certain percentage. It makes you wonder if they believe what they're saying themselves, or if they're just using all of it as a negotiating tactic to take a larger cut of the deal.

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Dyne09 writes "The BBC is running a video report about a group of Swiss and Italian scientists who have created the 'Smart Hand,' a robotic hand with forty sensors that 'connect directly to the brain.' Though fuzzy on the details, the report says the hand provides sensor feedback to a willing test subject, a 22-year-old man who lost his hand to cancer three years ago. How long until we have access to Star Wars-esque robotic limbs?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've been following artist Shepard Fairey's work here on Boing Boing for some time now. A disclaimer, first: I love his work, we have mutual friends, he strikes me as a stand-up guy.

Last year, Pesco was among the first to blog the Obama "Hope" poster which quickly grew far more popular than anyone anticipated. The iconic artwork spawned street cottage industries worldwide, and became an official element in the presidential campaign.

Then, the Associated Press (the same DRM-happy copyright bullies who threaten their own affiliates and try to shake down bloggers over 5-word excerpts) threatened Fairey over claims the poster was based on an AP photo, and violated their copyright. Fairey and his supporters fought back. They argued the poster was permitted under the concept of fair use because the artwork was significantly changed from the reference photo. Additionally, they added, the poster was not based on the specific photo the AP claimed -- but on a different image that required more cropping and alteration, further supporting the fair use argument.

On Friday, that high-profile case took a turn nobody expected that I did not anticipate. Fairey confessed to having made false statements to a federal judge about exactly which AP photo he used. He also admitted having fabricated evidence. Snip from his statement:

The new filings state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used as a reference and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment and I take full responsibility for my actions which were mine alone. I am taking every step to correct the information and I regret I did not come forward sooner.

The attorneys representing Fairey will soon step down. Nobody knows what will happen in the case. The question of which photo was used was a minor, tangential issue before -- but Friday's revelation is not minor. As David Kravetz says in his account at Wired News, "Everybody agrees the case is now tainted and that Fairey's courthouse actions could undermine his case, even if he did not commit copyright infringement." But for those who believe in the merits of the original fair use argument, there is still hope.

Read Kravets' story (some interesting links between this case and that of the BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy), and check out Marquette University professor Bruce Boyden's blog post here. Here's Shepard's mea culpa. Here's the AP's statement - and a note on that: I found it odd that many news organizations were sourcing that statement and a subsequent report from the AP as if they were regular wire service items, without regard for the fact that the AP is also a plaintiff in the case, and therefore inherently biased.

More awesomeness from Terra of Halloween Forum. The UV-reactive bubble juice is from Tekno Bubbles.

More:

• Highlights from TransWorld Halloween show 2009
• Post-apocalyptic pneumatic werewolf

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

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It wasn't that long ago that Gartner was spreading FUD about the use of social networking tools at work, saying it didn't think the technology would be beneficial within corporations. It seems that Gartner has a new tune. Just a week or so after we pointed out how silly it was to block social networks at work, Gartner has come out and said the same thing, pointing out that such blocks don't really work, and most people now use such tools for important forms of communication, which would be harmed by IT decisions to cut them off. Of course, some of us have been saying that for years. Good thing companies are paying billions to Gartner for its advice, right?

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(click for larger image). Sweet baby Jesus and biscuits, I can't hardly believe my eyes. Above, the truly awesome cover of a 1980 issue of Wild Mook, one of many fanzines produced in the early 1980s by the late Haruo Mizuno. "Mook" refers to a type of publication that's kind of halfway between a magazine and a book. Matt Alt (who I reached out to for comment in this BB post today) says

[Mizuno was] so obsessed with American cops that he actually managed to talk the NYPD and LAPD into letting him ride along with officers. This amazing book is but one of dozens he authored on the topic. None sum up the Japanese fascination with the American power aesthetic as much as this fetish-like pastiche of uniform, hamburgers, weapons, and mountains of french fries, though.

More on Matt's blog. Man, if anyone out there has a copy of Wild Mook, please scan it and share online. I want a hard copy so bad!

Such art direction, too! I mean, just look at the pile of fast food surrounding the cop (or model) on the cover, above. I count six Big Macs, a couple Filet-o-Fishes, 5 metric craploads of fries, and at least one jumbo gordito taco supremo with guacamole.

He is RESTING HIS BILLY CLUB ON THE FRIES. The billy club may actually be PROTECTING THE FRIES. And there's that steely gaze in his eyes... as if to say, "You touch my hamburger, punk, and it'll be your last."

Below, scanned covers from two other issues.

Diamonddavej writes "The BBC reports that researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) somehow makes trees grow faster. GCRs vary according to the 11-year solar cycle, with more GCRs hitting the Earth during solar minimum when there is a lull in the solar wind, which normally acts to protect the inner solar system from external galactic radiation. The mechanism might have something to do with GCRs increasing cloud cover, which diffuses sunlight and increases the efficiency of photosynthesis. Nevertheless, the researchers remain mystified and are requesting further ideas and research collaboration to test hypotheses. (How about Radiation Hormesis, AKA 'Vitamin-R?')" Here is the paper's abstract at the journal New Phytologist. The researchers say: "The relation of the rings to the solar cycle was much stronger than to any climatological factors. ... As for the mechanism, we are puzzled."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nice work Ian.

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Need extra bling on your bike? How about some human powered, light-up pedals? Rather then drawing power from a wheel-mounted generator, each of these pedals actually has a tiny generator built in. Neat! [via Gadget Lab]

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A spectacular specimen of traditional Japanese yokai (mythic "monster") art has popped up on eBay. Wow, talk about where the wild things are! From what I can tell, this scroll may be a vintage copy of a centuries-old original, and really ought to be in a museum.

I hope the auction stays up for a while, and someone takes some time to copy the images elsewhere -- each one of these detail shots is so full of personality and mischief! The "Buy it now" price? $15,000.

I asked Yokai Attack author Matt Alt to tell us what we're seeing in this monstrous tableau, and he kindly obliged. His analysis below (with more after the jump).

The Haykki Yako (????), literally "the night parade of a hundred demons," is one of the most famous tales in Japanese folklore. It first appeared in a Buddhist text in the 13th century, and is the story of a nightmarish evening during which legions of yokai, oni, and other fearsome creatures erupted from their usual hiding places to openly terrorize the world of the living. According to one version, they paraded down Kyoto's Ichijo-dori avenue in the late 1100s. The Hyakki Yako (also spelled "Yagyo") inspired countless generations of Japanese artists, including Toriyama Sekien, who penned an influential series of yokai guides in the 1770s; woodblock artists of the 1800s; and manga masters such as Mizuki Shigeru in the 20th century.

A handful of illustrated scrolls depicting the event are known to exist, mainly from the early Edo period (1603 - 1868). They weren't created as fine art but rather as entertainment, passed around and scrolled through together with friends, just as people enjoy comic books, television shows, or video games with friends today.

And now, somewhat incredibly, one has appeared on eBay -- tattered, worm-eaten, but its yokai and creatures marching along the page clear as the day they were painted. The opening bid? A cool $15,000.

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of seeing the original, authenticated Hyakki Yako scrolls when they were briefly displayed at the National Museum of Japanese History. (We covered the event for a special Yokai and Yurei episode of NHK's Tokyo Eye show: video part 1, part 2, part 3.)

This eBay specimen is very much in keeping with their style. The depiction of "tsukumo-gami," or "artifact-spirits" -- everyday objects and tools taken haunted, sentient form -- is a hallmark of the genre. And that is precisely why I have such mixed feelings about seeing it put up on the auction block.

Who painted this scroll? When did they paint it? Is it even real? If it really is a vintage scroll -- something we won't truly know until a real expert authenticates it -- it is a part of Japan's cultural heritage. To quote a certain archaeologist-adventurer, "it belongs in a museum!"

But that said, anyone have $15K they just have lying around and want to buy this for me, I promise I will get it authenticated and put it somewhere where the world will enjoy it instead of locking it away in my closet.

"Japanese Antique Rare Scroll : "HYAKKI-YAKO" @b666" (eBay, Thanks for the heads up, Darren Garrison!)

Nokia got a lot of attention when it launched its "Comes With Music" concept -- where you buy a phone that comes with "free" all-you-can-eat music downloads for one year. Of course, the music comes wrapped in annoying DRM, though the music will keep playing (thankfully), after the year is up. Still, it seems like people aren't buying for the most part. A recent report shows only 107,000 users worldwide. This must be a blow to the major record labels who always seem to insist that "free music" drives pretty much every other business model. For example, BPI continues to insist that ISPs are basing their own business model on people sharing "free music." And you have record labels who are pissed off because they think that video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero aren't paying enough for all the benefit they get from the music. And, of course, there are all those collection societies claiming that every business that plays any kind of music needs to pay more, because it must be all that music that brings in the business. Well, it looks like Nokia is proving them all wrong. The music, by itself, doesn't seem to attract all that much business at all. Perhaps everyone should be asking for a refund.

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TechReviewAl writes "A US company and its Chinese partner are piloting a bus powered by ultracapacitors in Washington DC. Ultracapacitors lack the capacity of regular batteries but are considerably cheaper and can be recharge completely in under a minute. Sinautec Automobile Technologies, based in Arlington, VA, and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, have spent the past three years demonstrating the approach with 17 municipal buses on the outskirts of Shanghai. The executive director of Sinautec touts the energy efficiency of this approach: 'Even if you use the dirtiest coal plant on the planet [to charge an ultracapacitor], it generates a third of the carbon dioxide of diesel.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It looks like copyright holders, in their non-stop effort to make themselves look even more evil, are now aggressively going after university copy shops. Up in Canada, Access Copyright hasn't just won a legal dispute against a Toronto copy shop, but has gleefully seized the photocopiers from the shop. Then, not all that far away in Eastern Michigan, a court found a copy shop to be directly liable for copies made by students. As the post at the Exclusive Rights blog explains, you would expect the copy shop to be liable for secondary infringement, rather than directly liable... but not in this case. And that's problematic for a variety of reasons. Even the publishers in question didn't seem to think they had a chance on direct liability, and only mentioned it in one sentence, while most of the complaint focused on secondary liability. So why is this a problem?

The reason this matters is that to find someone to be liable under secondary infringement (contributory liability), a plaintiff must show that the defendant had knowledge or reason to have knowledge of the direct infringement. This is one of the two mechanisms, along with fair use, that shields libraries from liability if they keep a copy machine by their shelves. If an entity can be directly liable for providing and maintaining a copy machine, and taking payment for copies made on the machine, then libraries have lost a not insignificant shield.

So, watch out librarians. You may have just acquired a bunch of liability. Look out for copyright holders stopping by to seize your photocopiers.

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What Bildr is attempting to do is very admirable. It makes good sense. It will be glorious, if it happens. Something similar has been talked about in tech DIY circles for years. The idea is to create a visual Web-based library of componentized instruction sets, "building blocks," for doing various hardware and software constructions. Put a bunch of these components together, and you have all of the instructions you need to execute a multi-part project. It's extraordinarily ambitious, but when you look at other crowdsourced creations, such as Instructables and Wikipedia, it just seems so doable. But to make it happen, it'll need LOTS of love, care, sweat-equity, money, and people power. Let's hope it happens, 'cause... how cool would such a resource be?

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