Zaurus writes "Apple has replaced its ZFS project page with a notice that 'The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly.' Apple originally touted ZFS as a feature that would be available in Snow Leopard Server. A few months before release, all mention of ZFS was removed from the Apple web site and literature, and ZFS was notably absent from Snow Leopard Server at launch. Despite repeated attempts to get clarification about their plans from ZFS, Apple has not made any official statement regarding the matter. A zfs-macos Google group has been set up for members of Apple's zfs-discuss mailing list to migrate to, as many people had started using the unfinished ZFS port already. The call is out for developers who can continue the forked project." Daring Fireball suggests that Apple's decision could have been motivated by NetApp's patent lawsuit over ZFS.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Watch Senator Al "Kick-Ass" Franken wipe up the floor with this health-care-lobby shill from the Hudson Institute who claimed that universal healthcare would increase medical bankruptcies. This is the perfect mix of being sensible and being devastatingly sarcastic, and I love him for it. Go Al!

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies

So it looks like the "timing" on Barrie McKenna's ridiculous Globe & Mail column spewing a bunch of recording industry propaganda wasn't so random after all. Just after it came out, the new US ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, made a point of scolding Canada for its copyright laws, and sticking by the decision to put Canada on the "watch list" in the USTR special 301 report. Once again, despite early suggestions that the new administration might actually take an evidence-based approach to intellectual property, it looks it's instead decided to simply act as an enforcer for Hollywood make believe. Too bad.

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Security expert Ben "OpenSSL" Laurie went into a Barclay's bank to transfer a large sum of money ("enough money to fund a small country") and discovered an incredibly lax, brittle security system that focused on meeting compliance requirements instead of keeping deposits safe. I'm in the process of switching from Barclay's to the Co-Op, after years of frustration, insane fees, and terrible service. The Co-Op has its own security issues (they won't let you use random passwords, instead forcing you to use much-more-easily hacked passwords that contain no repeated characters) but they're nowhere near as bad as Barclay's.

When I got there we sat down with a bank employee who asked me for my cash card. He stuck it into a PINsentry and asked me to type my PIN. On that evidence alone, we proceeded to transfer enough money to fund a small country. I find this a little scary. Anyway, when I reviewed the documentation, which I had to sign, it had a little box about ID verification, into which he'd typed "PIN xxxx + SRS" - "xxxx" was (part of?) the code from the PINsentry. I asked him what "SRS" meant and he explained it meant he'd checked my signature. In fact, he hadn't, but he proceeded to do so at that point, commenting that he already knew what my signature looked like, presumably to explain away why he hadn't done the check before...

Anyway, at this point my wife mentioned that we were rather expecting them to check ID and stuff, to which he responded in a way I feel sure was not authorised by the bank: "well, we used to be more secure but now the bank believes that PINs are the highest level of verification". I explained to him why I disagreed with the bank. He didn't argue with me.

Oh yes, the signature check? He wasn't even in the room when I signed. For all he knew I carefully copied it from a crib sheet. So, all that's standing between me and complete emptying of my bank account is my PIN. But hey, the only way anyone other than me could know that is if I told them, isn't it? So it would serve me right, obviously.

"We Used To Be More Secure"

Jon Taplin takes a close look at the small print from the gold merchants pimped on Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck's shows and discover a whopping 30-35 percent spread between their buy and sell rates.

Obviously all these new boiler room high pressure sales groups that used to be pushing sub-prime refinancings are now trying to convince the unsophisticated listeners of right wing talk that they better buy gold before the dollar becomes worthless because of Obama's reckless spending. But how do firms like Goldline make money? Well it's all there in the fine print of their sales agreement.

Goldline's "bid" is the price it pays to clients for a product. Goldline's "ask" is the price it charges clients for a product. Goldline has a price differential or "spread" between its bid (buy-back) and ask (selling) prices for precious metals, rare coins and rare currency...

The price of Goldline's semi-numisimatic and numismatic coins and currency include the bid/ask spread that ranges between 30% and 35%.

OMG! An average stock broker commission is 2% and these scammers are getting 35% off the top. Where is the FTC and the CFTC in investigating this fraud? Why are Limbaugh and Beck propagating this scam?

The Gold Scam Fear Merchants

Play This Thing reviews Brutal Mario, a Tarantino-esque Super Mario World hack that sounds like an incredible hoot to play:

This is obviously a labor of love, as the developer knows her stuff. This game is highly allusive and drops constant references to other works like its Gaiman's Sandman. Super Mario World is its core, but set pieces, backgrounds, and enemies from assorted titles and other Mario games all make appearances. These additions are far from being a cut-and-paste hodgepodge though, as they're carefully woven together to create an enthralling experience. The nod to Tarantino and Shinichiro Watanabe is duly earned. Instead of being a pure homage, though, the game throws constant curveballs at you. I played one level where the On/Off switch actually changed the enemies in the level, and another one that was fully destructible via Mario's fireballs. These subversive quirks are made all the more apparent because they're within the Super Mario World engine, something that is so well-known and played.

The boss battles are what this hack is best known for, and they're reason enough for a download. Bosses are typically the one shortcoming in the Mario franchise, but not here. There are dozens of encounters and they're all throwbacks to various 16-bit games. Oh, and they are a lot of fun too. There is the occasional level that drags a bit, but other than that Super Nintendo fans shouldn't pass this up.

Brutal Mario

Craig sez, "This post looks at an overlooked essay by Lewis Hyde, author of the cult-classic The Gift. 'Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property' is fascinating--not only for its content, which ranges from John Adams to MP3s, but also for its [ed: tragic] reception: only 7 Google hits in the last year (and this for an essay published online under a CC license)."

Since 1983, when The Gift came out, Hyde has stayed busy, writing a second book, Trickster Makes This World, and various longer essays, the most recent of which is "Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property." Starting with George Lakoff's idea that conservatives "frame" issues better than liberals, Hyde explains how "the entertainment industry has also been very good at framing its issues." The entertainment industry asserts that downloading an MP3 is the same thing as shoplifting shoes, and anyone who disagrees has to do so in and through their terms.

coverIn the rest of his essay, Hyde tries to describe an alternative: "the democracy frame" imagined by Jefferson, Madison, and Adams. Hyde begins at the beginning, tracing the previous "frames" for art and creativity--they're gifts from the gods, a God, a muse, and on down the line. But Hyde really gets going in the early modern period, when people started talking about intellectual property through "land" metaphors like the "commonwealth," the "estate," and "monopoly." Eventually, Hyde works in ideas like civic republicanism vs. commercial republicanism, feudal titles vs. allodial titles, and legal privileges vs. natural rights. It all ties in to the creative commons--it really does--and you should read the whole thing.

Framing the Issue: Copyright from John Adams to mp3s

Frames from the Framers: How America's Revolutionaries Imagined Intellectual Property

(Thanks, Craig!)

Tony sez, "The Sofanauts hosted a fascinating discussion, centered on the SF magazine, Asimov's. Guests included both Editor and Managing Editor, Sheila Williams and Brian Bieniowski. Writers, Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Tolbert also joined host Tony C Smith. Contrary to growing opinion in the SF community, things are not all doom and gloom for the magazine. Digital sales are up and new methods of delivery are being explored. Yet some things, like website and digital submissions continue to be touchy subjects. Don't miss this frank and engaging roundtable focusing on one of the most established magazines in SF!"

The Sofanauts No 30 The State of Asimov's Special (Thanks, Tony!)

The Internet Archaeology project is a wonderful collaboration between artists, designers, and tech-minded people around the world, started by an artist named Ryder Ripps in New York.

"Essentially we're going through older, overlooked websites and archiving content," says participant Stefan Moore, "But the main difference between this and archive.org is that here, there's a focus on showcasing what we find."

Old-school webhost Geocities will be shutting down later this month, so the site seems particularly timely right now.

"We just finished archiving and curating a bunch of geocities flash sites," says Stefan, "Check it out under the section marked 'webgrabs."

internetarchaeology.org and internetarchaeology.tumblr.com.

An anonymous reader writes "A neural implant that connects to muscle-stimulating electrodes has given monkeys the ability to grasp a ball and drop it into a hole even though the monkey's arm has been anesthetized. The approach is another step towards 'rewiring' the brains and limbs of paralyzed patients. The research, presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago this week, uses a technique called functional electrical stimulation (FES), in which implanted electrodes deliver electrical current to trigger muscle contractions, providing a way to reconnect this loop."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "A neural implant that connects to muscle-stimulating electrodes has given monkeys the ability to grasp a ball and drop it into a hole even though the monkey's arm has been anesthetized. The approach is another step towards 'rewiring' the brains and limbs of paralyzed patients. The research, presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago this week, uses a technique called functional electrical stimulation (FES), in which implanted electrodes deliver electrical current to trigger muscle contractions, providing a way to reconnect this loop."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

With France passing its new law to kick accused file sharers off the internet based on accusations rather than due process, you may wonder how that could possibly square with the EU Parliament's position from earlier this year that no one should be kicked off the internet without due process, and should only be allowed in "exceptional circumstances." Well, it looks like the lobbyists and the French gov't put enough pressure on the EU Parliament that it's now ditched that clause, even though 88% of Parliament agreed to it the first time around. Forget gov't for the people, the EU Parliament has shown that it's now the gov't for an entertainment industry that doesn't want to innovate. Sad. In the meantime, we're back to asking the basic question that no one in the industry ever answers: how will kicking fans of your content offline make them want to buy anything? It may get some to stop file sharing, but it won't make them buy. It seems the industry has become so confused that it actually thinks stopping file sharing is more important than making money.

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itwbennett writes "Taking an aspirin a day will keep you headache-free but it can also reduce your risk of heart attack. You're definitely getting your money's worth out of that bitter little pill. But experts say you can also get additional ROI from security, business continuity, disaster recovery and compliance investments, writes Daniel Dern in a recent article. In fact, you can get 'double or triple the value from "side effects,"' observes Jim Cuff, VP of strategy, Iron Mountain Digital. For example, tools purchased for compliance management can also help identify redundancies and other inefficiencies. Security appliances don't just provide security; they can also be used for performance and bandwidth management, and enforcing acceptable use policies. Or take the next step and use disaster recovery resources 'for part of your active environment, like load balancing, test and develop and QA, and backup, not something you have just in case,' urges Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst of the StorageIO Group. And for the ultimate bang for your buck, take your facilities and knowledge and turn them into an external business offering."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

faceless writes "Xbox Live's Major Nelson (aka Microsoft's Larry Hyrb, Director of Programming for Xbox Live) announced on his blog that the newest Xbox 360 Dashboard update will block unauthorized 3rd party memory devices. These 3rd party items are big sellers because Microsoft charges $30 for a 512MB Memory card and $130 for a 120GB HDD. A 3rd Party 2GB Memory Card is $40 and is also expandable as it supports Micro SDHC cards. A 3rd party HDD is $70, and the Microsoft HDD's are just 2.5" drives in a proprietary enclosure.

Consumers having larger memory devices is good for Microsoft, since more space means people can buy more Xbox Live Arcade games and more Downloadable Content such as new map packs, levels and expansions for retail disk based games, as well as buying and renting Movies and TV Shows via the Xbox 360's online marketplace. Another important factor is these devices have been sold for years. In the case of the hard drives, the Microsoft and 3rd party devices look identical, so many consumers may not even know that they have purchased an unauthorized device.

People on various videogame forums, such as NeoGAF are worried about the content they bought not working and not even being able to get online on their Xbox 360 console if their memory device is locked out by the update."

Once again, this seems incredibly short-sighted by Microsoft. The idea of breaking legitimately purchased hardware that makes the core of Microsoft's profit center (the games) more valuable, this only serves to piss off Microsoft customers and drive them away from Microsoft. Blocking out third party hardware -- especially without a detailed explanation for why -- goes against the basic right to do what you want with your own, legally purchased, hardware.

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The PopTech conference is currently underway in Camden, ME. We sent some emissaries from MAKE, namely Zach and Kim DeBord, Mike Gould, and Stuart Gaines. Zach is an artist and BEAMbot builder. He did the awesome bots (and photos) for my "Pummer, Dude!" [PDF] piece in MAKE, Volume 08. Mike Gould has a project, "Lunchbox Laser Shows," in the upcoming "Kids of All Ages" issue, Volume 20, of MAKE. Stuart Gaines writes:

In Camden Maine this week, the annual PopTech conference has taken over the town's beautifully-restored 18th century opera house where an "A-list" of speakers contemplates the "re-invention" of America.

Just down the block, on Elm St., in a converted auto garage, two master makers are demonstrating how to take everyday objects, found in the techno-trash or commonly sourced on eBay, and re-invent them as high-tech gadgets with new purpose. It's a mini-Maker Faire amidst the dazzling fall foliage. All day long, a steady stream of PopTech attendees wander into the garage. In the first bay, they meet Mike Gould and learn how he embeds red, green, and blue lasers into lunchboxes and slide projectors. In the next bay, Zach DeBord and his wife Kim are fashioning buzzing, twittering toys, soldered together from junked calculators, spare motors, wires, and postage stamp-sized solar cells.

Just down Route 1, in nearby Rockland, a lucky group of PopTechies got a chance to pull a spoke-shave at The Apprenticeshop, one of the oldest traditional boat-building schools in the country. Lance Lee, founder of the Apprenticeshop, was on-hand to explain the joys of working with wood, and his boat-building projects, including a smaller version of Tremolino, a 19th Century lateen-rigged Mediterranean workboat used by Joseph Conrad.

Back at PopTech, speakers expound on the impact of new technologies with a thought-provoking mix of optimism and fear. A disturbing contrast to "creative re-use" was photographer Chris Jordan's photographs of seabirds brought down by plastic refuse. Jordan has just returned from Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His photographs were literally "breathtaking." The opera house audience was left speechless by his story of the destructive impact of these everyday materials. See "Midway: Message from the Gyre" on his site.

PopTech runs through Saturday, October 24.

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Some years ago, a conversation with my old friend Billy Baque turned to the subject of adapting board games for sightless play. When it came round to Go, Billy mentioned having read of an antique Korean board, hollow inside and strung with wires along the lines of the grid, the wires being tuned such that each intersection produced a unique musical interval when a stone was placed upon it. Whether this was simply an aesthetic embellishment or a means to make the game more accessible to sightless players, he did not know.

I was fascinated, and made every effort to run down Billy's original reference, which I eventually determined was R.C. Bell's Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, Revised Edition. From p.100:

Traditional Japanese boards are made of a solid block of wood about eighteen inches long and sixteen broad, and some five inches thick, fitted with four detachable feet about three inches high. The board and feet are stained yellow. A square depression is cut into the underside of the board to lighten it, and also to increase its resonance; the pieces making a pleasant click when placed upon it. The Koreans have gone a stage further and some of their boards have wires stretched beneath to produce a musical note when the stones are played.

"A musical note" tends to suggest that the board as a whole played a single tone, interval, or chord, rather than a unique tone or interval for each playing position. Still, it seemed worthwhile to try to run down Bell's original reference, which, thanks to his meticulous bibliography, I eventually found was Stewart Culin's 1895 Korean Games with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan, which is out of copyright and available in its entirety on Google Books. From p. 91:

The Korean board, pa tok hpan, differs from that of Japan, in being made in the form of a small hollow table, while the Japanese board consists of a solid block of wood. The Korean board is resonant and by an arrangement of wires stretched within emits a musical note when a piece is played. A specimen in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania (Fig. 96) is eleven inches high and about sixteen inches square.

Again, "a musical note," but the language in both cases is ambiguous.

Culin's Figure 96 is reproduced at the top of this post. I've contacted The Penn Museum to see if collection number 16,431 still exists and/or if they have any record of it. I was hoping, at least, to show you all a photograph. Can't seem to get anyone to respond, however. If anyone has any information about this artifact or about musical go boards in general, I would love to have it. Please drop us all a comment or e-mail me directly.

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1sockchuck writes "As more networks prepare for the transition to IPv6, we're seeing the first peering disputes (sometimes known as "Internet partitions") involving IPv6 connectivity. The dispute involves Cogent, which has previously been involved in high-profile IPv4 peering spats with Sprint, Level 3 and Telia. Hurricane Electric, which has been an early adopter on IPv6, says Cogent won't peer with it over IPv6. Hurricane has extended an olive branch by baking a cake bearing a message of outreach for Cogent."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You may recall that we recently wrote about the effort by Hansen's drink company to stop a small Vermont brewery from offering Vermonster Beer, claiming that it infringed on the trademark they held for Monster Energy Drink (because any moron would confuse beer with an energy drink). That situation got a ton of publicity (all of it negative towards Monster Energy Drink and Hansens), and Brendan alerts us to the news that it looks like Hansen's has backed down. And the guy behind the Rock Art Brewery (maker of Vermonster) has put up an open letter with the timeline of events (pdf) -- thanking everyone for creating the public pressure that got Hansens to back down.

Of course, it looks like Hansens only backed down in this one instance. Yet, as we noted, Hansens appears to have contracted with notorious abuser of the trademark system, Continental Enterprises, who likes to send cease-and-desist letters to anyone even mentioning a trademark name. Just recently, beyond the whole Vermonster situation, Hanses -- via CE -- has gone after a beverage review site (which had a negative review of Monster Energy Drink) and an actor who was a movie monster.

Will Hansens call off Continental Enterprises from its abusive practices?

It's great that public pressure got the company to back down on Vermonster beer, but those other situations didn't get nearly as much attention.

Matt Nadeau, from the Rock Art Brewery is asking how we can continue to use the community that came together to help him to do more to protect other small businesses from the same thing. As a starting point, why not point them to these other abuses by Hansens and CE and get Hansens to back down? After that, it would be great to get people to recognize that we need serious trademark law reform that brings trademark law back to its intended purpose: acting as a consumer protection technique against appropriation and confusion, rather than what many believe it's become: a property right and a monopoly.

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Now back to your regularly scheduled nifty, blinky things. Like these LED-enhanced false eyelashes designed by artist Soomi Park. They're hooked up to a motion sensor, so as you tilt your head in different directions, they turn on and off.

Thanks to Chris Tackett at Treehugger!

Here's a neat physical computing project coming to London. The Bus-Tops project is planning to install around 40 LED screens on the tops of bus stations around the city, and is inviting the public to develop content to put on them. Since the screens will be on the roof, they will only be visible from double-decker buses and from buildings.

I like that they are taking advantage of their two-level transportation system. Think it will encourage more people to use it, or is that not an issue in the UK? Either way, it looks like fun, and way cooler then just putting some ads up there. [thanks Dale!]

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carstene writes "The NASA Centennial Challenge Powered Beaming competition, to develop technology for uses such as a space elevator, or to power a rover in a shadowed creator on the moon, was delayed indefinitely due to trouble setting up the kilometer high race track. It has now had the kinks worked out and is rescheduled for the week of November 2nd. The competition involves using a high power laser to beam power to a robot that climbs a kilometer high cable attached to a helicopter. The competition was previously covered on Slashdot."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I was invited to show a piece in the Natural Resources show, produced by Bigshot Toyworks and Mike Burnett. My piece is above. Here are some of the other fine pieces in the show.

From Shoparooni:

We are super duper excited for the coming opening of "Natural Resources", an absolutely amazing group show featuring wooden DIY toys created by Mike Burnett & Bigshot Toyworks, and customized by over 40 artists!

The Shoparooni Annex will be the launch-pad for this amazing traveling show and the opening will also be the retail launch of the "Average Joe Schmoe" DIY wooden figures designed by Cleveland artist Mike Burnett and produced by Bigshot Toyworks.

Come check out some absolutely incredible custom figures by Lola, Chris Ryniak & Amanda Spayd, Mark Nagata, Sean Mahan, Ryan Bubnis, Brian Morris, Mark Frauenfelder, Le Merde, 64 Colors, Julie West, Martin Ontiveros, Mark Murphy, MAD, Jeremiah Ketner, Ken Keirns, and many many more!

The opening party will be Friday, November 6th starting at 7 PM. Some artists will be in attendance.

Natural Resources
Nov. 6th - Dec. 5th
Shoparooni
15813 Waterloo Road
Cleveland, Ohio

A ton of readers here have been submitting various versions of stories claiming that Hulu is getting rid of free content. I'd been ignoring the story, because it's a non-story at this point. But people keep submitting it, so let's go through the details. Basically, at a Broadcasting & Cable event, News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey basically said that free content isn't the best way to monetize and that Hulu "concurs." Here's specifically how B&C reported it:

"It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online," he said. Carey said that while everyone cites the infamous Jeff Zucker quip that "We'e exchanging analogue dollars for digital dimes," the industry continues to do exactly that. The strategy needs to be more than just fighting piracy and Google, he says.

"I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value," Carey said. "Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business."

AdVerse had a quick chat with Carey too and posed the question, when exactly does Hulu start charging then? Carey, who says he's only been to one Hulu board meeting since arriving at News Corp., suggests there is still no timeline but supposes it's at least in 2010. Carey says that while throwing up a pay-wall around all content is not the answer, it doesn't mean there wont be fees for some specially-created content and TV previews

So... this is really no different than what was said a few months back, when News Corp's Jon Miller started saying that Hulu should add subscription offerings. It's the official News Corp. position, ever since Rupert Murdoch suddenly flip flopped and decided free content online is evil. All News Corp. execs have now been making noise about trying to charge for content.

But... Carey is just one board member, not Hulu management, and has only been to one board meeting -- this is hardly an official announcement. He even admits that a paywall is not the answer. This isn't anything official from Hulu. So, before we freak out about how dumb this is, let's wait and see what Hulu actually does. As we've been seeing the ad rates on Hulu can be quite impressive, and the site itself is still somewhat new. So, yes, giving up on free content would be dumb, and would just drive people back to file sharing for TV shows. But until we see what Hulu is actually planning, the claim that Hulu is giving up on free content simply isn't supported by what's been said.

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Our friend Jeff Diehl has a new blog called Spots Unknown that's devoted to "exploring & infiltrating the forgotten places, events, and histories of San Francisco." It's off to a promising start. The most recent post is about 1958 film footage of the city (shown above).

A film colorist at a local Chicago production house inherited a bunch of 16mm Kodachrome film shot in the late '50s by his grandparents. Cars driving down Lombard Street. The silhouette of the guy smoking the cigar in the window is classic. I also like the moody accompanying music.

Spots Unknown

Subscriber Michael Williams wrote in with this clever modification of the traditional pumpkin incision. He explains the logic:

For years now I've been unhappy with the choices for cutting open a pumpkin for Halloween. If you cut the top off in the traditional manner, you end up with singed hand hairs (at best) when attempting to place/light a candle. If you cut the bottom off, you can get the candle in OK but you're stuck picking up nearly the whole pumpkin each time and it never sits quite right. This year is different - I've found the perfect pumpkin cut!

Thanks Michael!

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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moogied writes "SparkFun.com, a electronics component provider, has been sent a cease and desist letter by Sparc in response to the lengthy trademark process that SparkFun is participating in. The letter states 'Because the dominant portion of the SparkFun mark, namely, SPARK, is phonetically identical and nearly visually identical to SI's SPARC mark, and because it is used in connection with identical goods, we believe confusion is likely to occur among the relevant purchasing group.' SparkFun.com has provided the entire contents of the letter, with a breakdown of points it feels are most relevant."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

Meet the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray. This hunk o' plastic with a fancy name must be A) brilliant in its simplicity, or B) hopelessly dumb. But I can't quite decide which. Either way, the grab bag of serious sarcastic/ambiguous product reviews is enjoyable. One customer writes, "This has been a total lifesaver. It allows me to prop my sheet music against the wheel, allowing me to play the guitar with both hands while driving." Deadpan humor? Perhaps... or it might just be this guy.

(via Random Good Stuff)

Back in 1997, the band Aqua released a song called "Barbie Girl," that was actually somewhat critical of "Barbie doll" culture. Mattel, famous for its rather aggressive intellectual property stance, wasted little time in suing the band, claiming the song infringed on the company's rights. In 2002, everyone's favorite appeals court judge (seriously, the guy never fails to entertain) Alex Kozinski told Mattel too bad, parody songs are a part of what you get for being a cultural icon -- and included the classic line: "The parties are advised to chill."

It took seven years since that decision, but apparently Mattel had decided to heed Judge Kozinski's suggestion. Reader Sallo alerts us to the news that Mattel has actually licensed the song for a commercial -- though, they "adjusted" some of the lyrics to make it a little more pro-Barbie, rather than mocking-Barbie. Still, that's quite a jump: from suing the band for infringement to actually licensing and using the song in just a few years.

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Wow, this is crazy... Nate writes-

SparkFun is all about open. Whether sharing the pcb design files for our products or posting pictures from the office on flickr, we're pretty open about what it's like to work here. Today we'd like to share with you a cease and desist letter we received from SPARC Industries. Here's a link to SPARC on wikipedia in case you don't know who SPARC is.

SPARC Industries' attorneys seem to think SPARC looks and sounds an awful lot like SparkFun. Tuesday morning we received a cease and desist letter from K&L Gates law firm. Amongst other things they demand that we "immediately take steps to transfer the sparkfun.com domain name to [SPARC International]."

I think SparkFun is going to win this one.

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oranghutan writes "Computerworld is reporting Canonical has made available the Release Candidate of its latest Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu 9.10, on the same day Microsoft launched the long-awaited Windows 7. 'The upcoming Canonical release, which is code-named Karmic Koala, is the latest version of the popular flavor of the Linux OS. The development release on Thursday pushed the OS one step closer to final release, which is due on Oct. 29, according to the company's release schedule Web page. An image of the OS is available for download on Ubuntu's Web site. Test versions of Karmic Koala RC available for download include the server, desktop and netbook versions'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you've built one of the marshmallow shooters from MAKE, vol 02, this Saturday's Marshmallow Civil War is for you. Actually, there's still plenty of time to head to the hardware store and make one in time for the event:

A historical reenactment in New York of questionable accuracy. With marshmallows. Many years ago, widespread unrest in the region and a perplexing overabundance of marshmallows led to a soft armed conflict between opposing sides. More moderate citizens flew the flag of Yellow, while the more radical aligned themselves with Red.

Marshmallow pistols, jet-puffed assault rifles, bow-and-mallows and Peep grenades decimated each army until no soldier was left alive. This is a reenactment of that epic battle.

Sides will be chosen, marshmallow weapons will be loaded, and chaos will ensue.

Commenter Shawn Q has set the tone quite nicely by saying "PH34R MY P33P GRENAAAADEZ." [Thanks, Fil!]

More:

• Powerful air-powered marshmallow cannon
  
• Marshmallow blaster
  
• Killer marshmallow gun

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Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

This video about a young woman who suffers from dystonia and can only walk backwards is really interesting, but I offer it up with a sprinkling of disclaimers. 1. It's a clip from the evening news, so naturally it reeks of sensationalism. 2. This shouldn't necessarily discourage you from getting the flu vaccine. 3. Some numbskull tweaked about a second of this video so that it sounds like the reporter is saying this should discourage you from getting the flu vaccine.

If you want to explore some neurological case studies that represent patients as actual people, rather than as tragic spectacles, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks is a great read.

Barence writes "PC Pro has got its hands on Acer's Aspire One D250 with both Windows 7 and Google Android installed. Anyone who's played with an Android phone had better get ready for a let-down: Android is far from ready for netbooks. The review laments the lack of a proper Marketplace, the poor implementation of both the inbuilt browser and Firefox, and the general pointlessness of it all in its current incarnation as a quick-boot alternative. Yes, it will get better, but at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You may recall last year that the head of Warner Music Group, Edgar Bronfman Jr., demanded that music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band weren't paying enough for the music they used in the games, saying that the success of such games was "entirely dependent on the content we own and control." As we mentioned at the time, this is the usual fallacy of the entertainment industry, to assume that the entire value of the product is in the content itself, rather than other aspects of it -- such as the gameplay. It looks like the initial sales results of the massively overhyped Beatles Rockband is helping to prove this point. Despite all the attention and press and the fact that this was the Beatles' music being offered in such a game for the first time, reader Eric alerts us to the news that sales of the game have massively underperformed expectations. Sales were less than 60% of what most analysts expected, and some of the quotes from people suggest why:

"[It] felt like an expansion to me, not a full release... [It was] cool, but not quite enough to be a stand alone game ($60) purchase."

That's just one quote, but others have expressed a similar sentiment. The music... that's nice, but you can get Beatles' music all over. It's the game that makes this worth buying -- or not worth buying. And just adding new music to an old game wasn't nearly as exciting as many people hoped it would be. This isn't to say the music is "worthless." But it does suggest -- yet again -- that the entertainment industry overvalues the contribution of the content itself.

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Let's start this off with a quick clarification. When I say "LED light", I'm not talking about the nifty, little blinky things that are frequently part of the ingredients list in Make projects. I'm talking about the Big Show: An LED light that can replace the incandescent bulbs and/or CFLs you have lighting up your home right now. To do it right, you don't just need a single LED that works, you need an array of them...and you need them to produce enough light, and the right color of light, reliably enough that people can buy an LED bulb and know what they're getting into.That ain't easy. But it is getting easier.

LED lighting really is more than a toy. This is the library of the new Wit Hotel in Chicago. It's not lit entirely by LED, but lighting designers Lightswitch Architectural did use the technology in the coves around the ceiling and walls. Unfortunately, getting this look at home isn't as simple as it's often made out to be.

Trouble is, they're being oversold, like whoa. For about two-and-a-half years, I've been reporting on LED lighting for a trade magazine called Architectural SSL*. During that time, I've watched mainstream press and enviro blogs tout LEDs as the green energy miracle light. Often, with a level of enthusiasm seldom seen outside rooms full of puppies. Don't get me wrong. LEDs are pretty cool. There are places where they're useful now, and places they probably will be soon. But if you're just hearing about the awesome, you aren't getting the full story. And, as more LED products start showing up on store shelves, that really starts to matter.

Join me, won't you, as we put on our Sober Assessment Goggles and take a peek at the current state of light bulb of the tomorrow...

*The glamorous life of a freelance writer, everybody. That said, if you are thinking about freelance, I recommend convincing a trade magazine or two to love you. The work is steady, the pay is decent and the people are good. And that is a better situation than you'll get from a lot of things you could do to pay the bills. /unsolicitedwriteradvice

1. There Are Good LED Lights Out There; But You Probably Can't Afford Them
A Twitter friend lamented the other day that LED lighting technology just isn't getting any better. And that's wrong. Right now, if you were a city manager, the owner of a fine hotel (like the Wit) or somebody with enough cash to hire a lighting designer to pick out the fixtures in your living room, you could go drop some money on LED lights that would work great, look beautiful and (depending on your project) give you some big savings on energy use. The obvious problem here is that, with a few exceptions, you are likely none of those things.

No, what you see is the stuff for sale at Home Depot. And that, my friends, is usually not worth your time or money. Not yet, anyway. Buy 'em if you want, but prepare for disappointment...Christmas tree lights that say "white" and turn out to be blue...$20 lightbulbs that conk out after two weeks. That's a lot of what's out there. Case in point: A couple weeks ago, I was at an LED conference and one of the speakers told a story about buying 10 screw-in LED lightbulbs from his local Costco, just to see what they'd do. The box claimed they'd last 30,000 hours. Within two weeks, four were dark, and one had changed colors and started blinking. Less than two months later, all the lights had dimmed out enough to be useless. I've heard that same, basic story about 50,000 times now. Sure, there may well be good, affordable products out there. But you have no way of telling the difference, which brings me to....

2. Trust No One
See, the LED industry is kind of in this awkward teenage phase right now, where it's doing the business equivalent of tagging public buildings and sneaking cigarettes out behind the barn. There's a lot of misrepresentation and a lot of flat-out lies, and just because a box says something that doesn't mean you can believe it (more so than boxes of other things). In fact, up until last year, there weren't really any useful standards to compare LED lights. Anybody could make any claim they wanted to and even the professionals had nothing to judge it by. That's changing, but for now, assume you're dealing with the early 20th-century patent medicine industry.

Again, yes, there are good products and there are honest companies. But finding them takes a LOT of research. Last year, at that same LED conference, I watched a discussion panel devolve into (literally) tears and yelling over this very topic. The phrase, "Pull up your big boy pants," was shouted. This isn't yet a place where average consumers can just walk in and grab something off the shelf.

The DOE is trying to fix that, though. One way they're fighting back is with CALiPER, basically a secret-shopper program with a lab experiment twist. Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (and other labs) purchase LED bulbs and fixtures anonymously (often via third-parties) and run them through an extensive testing process to see whether they live up to the claims on the box. The majority still don't, though it's getting better. More than 175 products have been tested since 2006. But, while CALiPER is improving the overall situation, it won't help you a lot. The reports are fairly technical--they're written for lighting designers and engineers--and the DOE doesn't name names. CALiPER can tell you whether, in general, you can seriously consider a certain type of LED bulb. But it can't tell you what specific products are bunk.

3. Keep a Close Eye On that "Energy Efficiency" Thing
The biggest selling point--at least for average consumers--is that LEDs are more energy efficient than any other kind of lighting. They'll slash your bills and save the planet! Rejoice!

You can probably guess where this is going. The fact is, LEDs are pretty damn efficient. Much, much more so than the old, incandescent Edison bulbs. But they aren't always a greener choice compared to fluorescent lamps. The thing to look at is lumens per watt, a fancy term that basically just refers to how much light you get out vs. how much energy you put in. The more lumens per watt, the better the energy efficiency. The kind of fluorescent lamps used in offices--the long, narrow ones that are called T-5 or T-8s in Technicalland--regularly get more than 100 lumens per watt. An LED T-8 lamp tested by CALiPER last year got 42.*

Plus, the lumens per watt rating of the LED itself doesn't necessarily mean that a lamp made with an array of LEDs will get the same rating...or that a fixture made with a couple LED lamps will even get close. You lose efficiency each time you add other parts to the system. And many times, when you hear about super-efficient LEDs, you're hearing about just the single LED, not about its efficiency in a complicated system.

If you do happen to be in a position where you can buy LEDs, and you care about the environment, this is something you need to be really critical about. A good green PR campaign isn't the same as actually green numbers.

Again, I want to stress that LEDs don't suck. And where they do suck, they're getting better. But I don't want you to get burned by hype. And right now the amount of hype surrounding these things would make Flava Flav blush.

*Yes, fluorescent lamps contain mercury. But so does the pollution from coal-fired power plants. This is part of what makes the green-ness of LEDs so complicated right now. If you get your energy clean, it might well be more green to buy an LED over a fluorescent, even if it uses more energy to produce the same amount of light. But if your energy comes from coal, that could change the equation, especially when you consider the fact that a lot of cities have good fluorescent recycling programs.

Thumbnail photo: Goins

I am digging these photographs of very large turbans -- perhaps for ceremonial occasions? -- worn by holy men of the Sikh faith in India. If someone is more familiar with their traditions than I, do pop in the comments and tell us more about what we're seeing.

"Check Out These Enormous Sikh Turbans" (urlesque, thanks Stephen Lenz!)

The cellphone business is patented up to its eyeballs. Dumped at ground zero in the wasteland of owned ideas, newcomers typically have to pay as much as ten percent of sales to the old guard. Apple declined Nokia's invitations to give it money, and as a result is now the target of a lawsuit filed by the Finnish manufacturer.

From Reuters:

Apple, a latecomer to the cellphone industry, has won a considerable share of the higher end of the market, but it has limited intellectual property assets compared with rivals, when all vendors work under cross-licensing agreements.

Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics said Apple could have to pay Nokia anything between $200 million and $1 billion for patents used in 34 million iPhones shipped so far.

The funny part, I suppose, is the implied conceit that if it weren't for Apple's illegal appropriation of its technology, Nokia's own chrome-trimmed touchscreen iClones might have existed (or even, heaven forbid, been released) within years of the iPhone's debut. It's weird to compare the ostensible purpose of patents with the fact that Apple devised a product Nokia would never have cooked up in a hundred years.

Reuters quotes an analyst as saying "It is almost inconceivable that someone can produce a mobile phone without using Nokia patented technologies." Doesn't this sound like a casual, almost unconscious acceptance of the idea that intellectual property exists to prevent competitive innovation?

Nokia could seek up to $1 billion for iPhones: analysts</a [Reuters]

Here's what looks like a great, culturally sensitive way to tear down old buildings. D-Build, a project started in Syracuse, NY, is aiming to document and catalog entire decommissioned buildings as they are taken apart.

All well and good, but what does this have to do with makers, you ask? Well, the other half of their equation is to provide a market where you can purchase the raw materials taken from the houses, and even sell things back that were made with them.

This seems like a excellent way to recycle usable building materials, that would probably otherwise just end up in a dump. [via core77]

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I'm a great fan of Bill Willingham's Fables comics and its numerous spinoffs (nutshell description: all fictional characters, legends, and fables are actually alive, always have been, and are living in secret exile in New York, having been chased out of Fableland by "The Adversary," a rapacious conqueror).

One of the most fun of these is the Jack books, which feature a set of parallel adventures of Jack -- as in "Spratt" and "and the Beanstalk" and many other tales. Jack is handsome, womanizing, preternaturally lucky and cheerfully amoral doofus of a fable who is forever incurring the wrath of the Fable establishment by violating their rules by, say, pursuing a career as a Hollywood executive (he fits right in in Tinseltown, naturally).

In Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War , Jack finds himself heading the Fable/Librarian army against the vicious Bookburner, who would destroy all of fabledom for his own reasons. Jack takes this command with the help of his sidekick and pal The Pathetic Fallacy (AKA "Gary"), an immortal "Literal" who changes the world to suit his moods.

Jack is a terrible commander, but a very funny one, and he doesn't distinguish himself much as a general, but he does an admirable job of evincing yuks from the reader; and Willingham uses the story to make some really thought-provoking points about the dark and primal nature of stories and the danger and blood that lurks in their hearts.

The Big Book of War would probably stand alone reasonably well, but if you just read this volume, you're really missing out. The whole Fables canon deserves your attention (and will reward it handsomely). It is both gripping and thought-provoking; philosophically substantial and sparklingly funny. Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War

eldavojohn writes "If you live in the EU, you probably enjoy low broadband costs. If you live in Finland, it's even a legal right. If you live in the states, you probably pay a moderate cost. But if you live in the developing world, a UNCTAD report paints your picture pretty grim. Ridiculously high bandwidth costs are inhibiting developing nations from enjoying productive use of the internet — like online banking and market tools."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The title really says it all. Follow this link to see a metric crap-ton of fruit bats (the largest such gathering in the world) converge on a remote swamp in Zambia--an area only about the size of two or three soccer fields.

To take the shots, BBC camera crew had to swoop in on a powered hot-air balloon. Because there were so many bats that a helicopter couldn't fly. Oh. My. God.

Image by zrim via Flickr When I got a bag of chile peppers in our CSA delivery last week, I had a really hard time trying to figure out how to cook them. I tried putting them in pasta, but that turned out numbingly spicy. And then I remembered that chile peppers = togarashi in Japanese, and that they are a key ingredient in one of my all-time favorite spices — shichimi togarashi, a Japanese spice mix commonly found at home dinner tables and yakitori restaurants that is designed to enhance the natural flavors of high quality meat and veggies. For this week's Taste Test, I thought I'd share a simple recipe for shichimi and give you some tips on other ways to use it. Chile peppers contain capsaicin, a chemical that induces warmth, so you can stick it in your shoe or mitten to keep toes and fingers warm. It is apparently also useful for keeping rice from becoming bug-infested — a colleague of mine once sent me a plastic chile pepper with chile oil in it sold in Japan for that precise purpose. Capsaicin has also been tested on rats for things like pain relief, cancer cell reduction, diabetes prevention, and weight loss. Okay, so here's how you make shichimi togarashi, a delicious seven-ingredient Japanese spice mix, at home, via a recipe I found on Chow.com:

1 tbsp ground chile pepper 1 tbsp black peppercorns 1 tbsp dried tangerine peel 2 tsp flaked nori 2 tsp black sesame seeds 2 tsp white poppy seeds or black cannabis seeds 2 tsp minced garlic Combine all the ingredients in a small container, then grind together using a grinder or a wooden seed-grinder.

Of course, there are many other ways to make the chile pepper a part of your diet — it's great in salsas, hot sauces, and on pizza — I'm sure many of you have your own favorite uses for the versatile fruit. If you just don't like the taste of chile peppers at all, it makes a lovely Christmas tree ornament. Every installment of Taste Test will explore recipes, the science, and some history behind a specific food item.

Danny Sullivan has an excellent analysis of some of the more ridiculous statements from WSJ managing editor, Robert Thompson, trashing pretty much everything online. Most of Sullivan's analysis focuses on how ridiculous it is for Thompson to claim that Google makes news readers "promiscuous," so I won't address that again (though, you really should read Sullivan's writeup). Instead, I wanted to focus in one little bit that Sullivan mentions, but doesn't explore too much (other than to mention how insulting it is). Thompson declares that there are "three types of people" online, starting with:

There are the net neanderthals who think everything should be free all the time.

Pretty scary that someone who's the managing editor of the most well known and well-respected business newspaper out there thinks this, huh? First off, I don't know anyone who thinks "everything should be free all the time." People are more than willing to pay for scarce goods of value. Where they fundamentally have issues is with being charged for content that can be made free at no additional cost. And that's not "neanderthal" thinking, it's good old classic economics -- the kind we thought the WSJ supported.

And, of course, this also shows Thompson fundamentally not understanding the debate. For many, many years there's been plenty of "free content" in the terms of "free to the consumer" but which is supported in other ways. As Sullivan points out, News Corp., which owns the WSJ, also owns Fox -- which delivers free content, over the air, to consumers, but supported by advertising. Is that a Neanderthal opinion?

It really makes you wonder what they're thinking over at the WSJ or what sort of business smarts they have when they both consider Google to be a problem and think that basic economics on content pricing is "Neanderthal." It should call into question their thinking on other business topics as well. And, remember, this is the same company that is lashing out at "aggregators" like Google News, at the very same time that it's offering its own aggregator as well. If Thompson thinks Google News makes people promiscuous, why does his own site offer something similar?

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patentpundit writes "On April 18, 2008, Apple Computer applied for a patent relating to an 'invention' that allows for showing advertisements within an operating system. The first named inventor on the patent application is none other than Steve Jobs. The patent application published and became available for public inspection on October 22, 2009. If implemented, the invention would make it possible for advertisements to be displayed on a variety of devices, including desktop computers, cell phones, PDAs, and more. In one alarming aspect, the device could be disabled while the advertisements run, thereby forcing users to let the advertisement run its course before the system would unlock and allow further use. In an even more invasive scenario, explained in the patent application, the user could be required to do something, such as click to continue, in order to verify that they are actively watching the advertisement and haven't simply walked away while the ad runs. Whether Apple would implement such an invention is unknown, but it is possible that they think there are others out there who might want to implement such invasive advertising. It is possible Apple wanted to get ahead of the curve and file this patent so that if any company is silly enough to engage in Big Brother advertising, then Apple will get a royalty. I sure hope this is not the future of advertising."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

My cell phone has a little eye molded into the case for attaching a lanyard strap. I want my A/V remotes to have the same thing so that if I should decide that I want to tie one of them to ,say, the leg of my coffee table, I won't be driven to the same lengths as this guy.

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Embedded video from CNN Video

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout met with Noridan, a South Korean band that makes its instruments from cast-off objects.

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binarybits writes 'I've got a new article analyzing the unfortunate tendency of libertarian and free-market organizations to attack free software. The latest example is a policy analyst at the Heartland Institute who attacks network neutrality regulations by arguing that advocates have 'unwittingly bought into' the 'radical agenda' of the free software movement. I argue that in reality, the free market and free software are entirely compatible, and libertarians are shooting themselves in the foot by antagonizing the free software movement.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's a video for a new book that I received from the publisher a couple of days ago called Rules for My Unborn Son, by Walker Lamond, based on his entertaining blog 1,001 Rules for my Unborn Son.

The Lamond's rules are good advice for sons, as well as anyone else, really. I wish my wife would remember the rule, "Never under any circumstances ask a woman if she is pregnant," which she has broken several times with embarrassing consequences.

More of Lamond's rules:

After writing an angry email, read it carefully. Then delete it.

Stand up to bullies. You'll only have to do it once.

If you trip in public, don't blame the sidewalk. Pick yourself up and pretend nothing happened.

Your best chance of being a rockstar is learning the bass.

Thank the bus driver

Don't gloat. A good friend will do it for you.

Don't spit

A few of the rules on his blog I don't recommend (e.g., "All drinking challenges must be accepted") but most of his rules offer specific tips for living a life of kindness, politeness, and preparedness.

Rules for My Unborn Son

Katherine Sharpe at ReadyMade did an interview with Doug Repetto, founder of Dorkbot, Artbots, and the director of Columbia U's Computer Music Center, focusing on how he got where he is today.

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A bunch of folks have sent in different stories about Disney's new "Keychest" technology offering, which would (in theory) allow users to purchase content that would be stored online, and which they could then access from any "participating service."

With Keychest, when a consumer buys a movie from a participating store, his accounts with other participating services--such as a mobile-phone provider or a video-on-demand cable service--would be updated to show the title as available for viewing. The movies wouldn't be downloaded; rather, they would reside with each particular delivery company, such as the Internet service provider, cable company or phone company.

The idea, supposedly is:

to address two of the biggest hurdles blocking widespread consumer adoption of movie downloads: the difficulty of playing a movie back on devices other than a PC or laptop, and limited storage space on those computers' hard drives.

Now, while you must admit that allowing people to access the same content after a single purchase on multiple devices is definitely a step up from the "old" way of doing things, it does kind of ignore some important points: such as the fact that, for the most part, you could already do this on your own. As we know, it's legal to rip your CD's and then store that content on an iPod or on your computer and listen to the music how you want to do so. And, even though this is perfectly legitimate fair use of content for movies as well, Hollywood has used the worst provision in the DMCA -- the anti-circumvention provision -- to block people from doing what is accepted fair use with movie and television content.

So all Keychest really seems to be doing is giving you back your fair use rights on content -- but also wrapping it in additional DRM, such that it only works on "participating services." Oh, and it could include other limitations as well:

And Keychest would allow movie studios to dictate how many devices, connected to which distribution networks, a given title can be played on.

So, kudos to Disney for recognizing that people hate having to buy the same content over and over again and hate being limited on what devices they can view content on... but, creating a new, more permissive DRM solution, just to give back some of an individual's fair use rights, isn't really a huge win.

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The Rat Race Trap blog has a look at one aspect of the irrational decision-making process humans employ, based on the book Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. "Professor Ariely describes some experiments which demonstrated something he calls "arbitrary coherence." Basically it means that once you contemplate a decision or actually make a decision, it will heavily influence your subsequent decisions. That's the coherence part. Your brain will try to keep your decisions consistent with previous decisions you have made. I've read about that many times before, but what was surprising in this book was the the "arbitrary" part. ... [In an experiment] the fact that the students contemplated a decision at a completely arbitrary price, the last two digits of their social security number, very heavily influenced what they were willing to pay for the product. The students denied that the anchor influenced them, but the data shows something totally different. Correlations ranged from 0.33 to 0.52. Those are extremely significant."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Embedded video from CNN Video
My friend Kristie Lu Stout, a CNN International anchor, visited a number of street hawker stalls in Seoul to sample a variety of treats, including honey strings mixed with nuts, a spiral cut fried potato on a stick, and this french-fry encrusted hot dog on a stick that Kristie photographed and posted to Twitter last week.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout goes on a street food safari

We've been talking a lot lately about flu vaccines. Now an anonymous reader sends us to a Technology Review piece on two human trials involving so-called virus-like particles vaccines, which promise to be much faster to churn out than traditional vaccines. (Here's a single-page version but without the useful illustration.) VLP vaccines use a protein shell, grown in either plant or insect cells, that look just like real viruses to the body's immune system but that contain no influenza RNA genetic material. A company called Medicago grows its VLPs in transgenic tobacco plants, while another called Novavax uses "immortalized" cells taken from caterpillars. Providing they pass safety muster, both techniques should be able to produce an influenza vaccine more quickly than current methods, using just the DNA of the virus.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Cove, the provocative film that documented the hidden dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Japan, made its Japan debut at the Tokyo International Film Festival this week, and director Louie Psihoyos was there to bear witness to its unveiling. I talked to him just two hours after he got off the airplane from Narita on Thursday morning. Here's what he had to say about his experience in watching the film with the actual dolphin killers in the audience:

All the bad guys there, front row center. The mayor, the International Whaling Committee delegate, fishermen dressed up in suits...I couldn't have dreamed of a better screening. They had all come to Tokyo with their lawyers to see if there would be any kind of litigation against the film. The screening sold out within a few hours, so I offered to give them tickets. At one point, the mayor stormed out, and the IWC delegate held his head in his hands.

I thought I might get arrested when I got off the airplane in Tokyo — there are arrest warrants out for me in Taiji for things like trespassing, conspiracy to disrupt commerce, and photographing undercover police. I was invited by the TIFF, though, so that's probably what kept me safe. Stories about dolphin hunting have been taboo in Japan for the past 30 years. The only reason this film was able to show there this week was because the Liberal Democratic Party was voted out. The government is a major sponsor of the film festival, and about two weeks after the regime change, the festival's director contacted me and said, "Given the 'environment' theme of this year's film festival, it would be hypocritical not to show The Cove." Still, the festival did seem to bury it — we had a 10:30AM screening and not a single promotional poster in sight. All the Japanese who approached me about the film had very positive things to say about it. It was mostly young people, 18-35 year olds. They said, how can I help you get this film out in Japan? I think many were in shock. I told them that this was just the Disney version of what really happens at the cove. During the Q&A session, I pointed out that this is not just an animal rights film, but that these dolphins have about 5000 times more mercury than allowed by Japanese law. Unfortunately, it's not enough to argue that these are the only animals in human history that have saved humans. The only way we can save them is by reminding people that human beings have made their environment so toxic that we can't eat them anymore. The question of intelligence of other animals as judged by our own intelligence is such a specie-centric thing. We're about to go through our sixth major extinction now, so how smart does that make us really? I think the most important thing that could happen is that the film would show in Taiji. I've sent them a formal letter to see if they'd like to do an ocean-themed film festival at a national park that would include The Cove. I also told the Taiji mayor and councilmen that all profits generated from the film in Japan would go directly to the dolphin hunters if they stopped their dolphin hunting. I would gladly support them if they switch to crab hunting or whale watching. I was only in Japan for two days — the whole thing was so surreal. At Sundance earlier this year, people thought that this movie would never screen in Japan. Now there are two major distributors in Japan negotiating for the rights. And flying back over the Pacific today, I knew there are now several thousand dolphins swimming free because of this movie.

By subjecting nationalist toad Nick Griffin to the Two-Minute Hate, the U.K.'s media establishment turns a fool into a victim. His dismal performance on the BBC's Question Time would have been satisfying were it not for the hand-wringing hostility that turned it into a circus. Coming next to Britain's inane tabloids: Nazis portraying themselves as victims of oppression.

It's no wonder he smirks so much, when his presence induces demands that his political party be banned, his speech suppressed and his opinions abolished. These instincts represent everything his followers want Britain to become: perhaps the irony is not lost on him.

To paraphrase one noted humanitarian, a civilized society would either kill him or give him his bookings.

The BBC disclaims the appearance as part of its duty to impartiality, then spins around to congratulate itself for orchestrating Griffin's public "humiliation." Paradoxically British! But the whole mess only goes to prove a simple fact: no-one has ever been so inadvertantly adept as the well-breakfasted BNP leader at poking holes in our pretentions to democratic toleration.

Public convulsions over the BNP's inconsequential electoral successes make the country appear more divided and insecure than it is. But the BNP's advances are trivial: proportional representation, a changing media landscape and voter disgust merely reveal the exact form of a longstanding political presence on the fringe.

Freaking out over it just creates a narrative that can be exploited and expanded into yet another bestselling British moral panic. The BNP is like salmonella, satanic abuse and paedogeddon all in one: yummy! And Griffin is thimerosal in your vaccination against media bullshit.

The repsonse to these far-right nutjobs reveals not a principled objection to racism and fascism, but rather the weakness of a political culture built on tradition and the expectaton of common sense. Shouldn't a democractic society accept a plurality of idiots?

We were just talking about how one of the worst tricks of DC lobbyists is to get various special interest groups to send letters on your behalf, even though those are really written by the lobbyists themselves. The quote in that original article that highlights the practice shows how it works:

"You go down the Latino people, the deaf people, the farmers, and choose them.... You say, 'I can't use this one--I already used them last time...' We had their letterhead. We'd just write the letter. We'd fax it to them and tell them, 'You're in favor of this.'"

Indeed. Well, it looks like in the process of faxing and telling a senior citizen's group what they were in favor of, AT&T's anti-net neutrality lobbyists forgot to do a bit of searching and replacing. Karl Bode points us to a hilarious letter filed with the FCC about net neutrality (pdf), officially on behalf of the Arkansas Retired Seniors Coalition -- the exact type of group often used in these astroturfing campaigns -- which suggests that someone didn't proofread the letter first: Right in the first paragraph, it looks like the Arkansas Retired Seniors (or perhaps the lobbyist directly) forgot to change out the boilerplate statement: "XYZ organization shares this concern." XYZ organization, huh? Here's an editing tip for AT&T's lobbyists: when crafting such letters with boilerplate language that's supposed to get changed at a later date before being sent off to the FCC, you should highlight that text in a different color. Saves embarrassing mistakes like this one.

In researching this further, Karl also can't find any other evidence that the Arkansas Retired Seniors exist. Separately, he found another mistake by the lobbyists when it sent a different anti-net neutrality letter from Grumman Shipbuilding (ship builders against neutrality?). This one wasn't as egregious, but the lobbyists forgot to remove the header info that says "Governor/PUC Letters to FCC on Net Neutrality" with the neat little classification system the lobbyists use: "Letter 2: Specific to Investment and Employment." Wonder what the original header for XYZ organization was?

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shrik writes "Slate has a look at the efforts of Emily Owens, in 2005 a Ph.D student in economics at the University of Maryland, who 'came across thousands of inconsistencies and errors in the sentencing recommendations provided to judges' by the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy. Quoting: 'The sentencing guidelines for judges were based on a work-sheet [PDF] that "graded the severity of a convict's crime and his risk to society", ostensibly to make the rulings meted out more objective in nature. But on carefully studying her data, Owens noticed something wasn't adding up — the system seemed to be producing 1 error in every ten trials. She also realized that this "recommendation system" actually mattered: crimes and criminals analyzed to be quite similar were resulting in systematically different punishments correlated with the work-sheet.' The source of these discrepancies was ultimately found to be a simple, but very significant, PEBKAC: 'More than 90 percent of errors resulted from the person completing the work sheet [usually the DA, but signed off by the defense attorney] entering the figure from a cell next to the correct one. ... The remaining errors came mostly from incorrect choice of criminal statute in calculating the offense score and from a handful of math errors (in operations that were literally as simple as adding two plus two).' Timo Elliott's BI Questions Blog lists the morals of the story."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

No photos yet. That's a homework assignment for the bubble chemists in the audience. But I couldn't resist sharing my excitement over this paragraph from US patent 5,246,631 for glowing soap bubbles:

An example of practice of the present invention involves using a liquid dish such as LEMON JOY available from Procter & Gamble Company (Cincinnati, Ohio). Although the LEMON JOY may be diluted with varying amounts of water, it is preferred that the dishwashing liquid be used at full strength. Approximately 9 milliliters of CYALUME solution made in accordance with the manufacturers instructions are added to approximately 120 milliliters of the dishwashing liquid. Although this particular mixture may be used to produce adequate self-illuminated bubbles, it is preferred that 3 to 4 drops of glycerin be added to the solution as a bubble hardener. The solution is then ready for use to form self-illuminated bubbles.

I've never actually measured how much Cyalume (Wikipedia) is in a standard glow-stick, but I'm betting you could come up with 9 mL of the stuff by cutting open two or three at most.

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Schneier has a blog piece about Joanna Rutkowska's "evil maid" attack, demonstrated earlier this month against TrueCrypt. "The same kind of attack should work against any whole-disk encryption, including PGP Disk and BitLocker. ... [A] likely scenario is that you leave your encrypted computer in your hotel room when you go out to dinner, and the maid sneaks in and installs the hacked bootloader. ... [P]eople who encrypt their hard drives, or partitions on their hard drives, have to realize that the encryption gives them less protection than they probably believe. It protects against someone confiscating or stealing their computer and then trying to get at the data. It does not protect against an attacker who has access to your computer over a period of time during which you use it, too."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The "tools" section of media artist Karl Klomp's website documents an impressive amount of bent, hacked and homebrew hardware for video manipulation. Devices such as the Failter (seen above)series go through a number of incarnations while Karl experiments with different hardware and uncovers its glitch-ability. The retro-simple feel of the enclosures give give it all a nicely 'scientific' almost medical feel. Be sure to check out his device gallery/ project list for more examples. Thanks to Becky for pointing this one out!

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Here is an easy to make ancient yet modern device that hurls spears at up to 100mph.
Thanks go to Daryl Hrdlicka for the original article in MAKE, Volume 12.
To download The Atlatl video click here and subscribe in iTunes.
Check out the complete Atlatl article in MAKE, Volume 12
and you can see that in our Digital Edition.

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Here is an easy to make ancient yet modern device that hurls spears at up to 100mph.
Thanks go to Daryl Hrdlicka for the original article in MAKE, Volume 12.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE Magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.

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jjohn24680 passes along word that a federal judge has thrown out a local sheriff's lawsuit accusing the online classified group Craigslist of facilitating prostitution. We discussed the case when it was filed back in March. Here is the decision (PDF). "As was pretty clear at the time, Craigslist is the service provider and is quite obviously protected by Section 230 immunity. ... Even after all of this was clearly explained to Sheriff Dart, he still insisted that his lawsuit made sense. It looks like the court system, however, does not agree. As expected, the case has been dismissed on Section 230 grounds."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There was a lot of news a few days back when notorious pranksters, Yes Men, set up a fake press conference pretending to be the US Chamber of Commerce, announcing that it had changed its controversial stance on climate change -- which had recently driven some large companies, including PG&E and Apple, to leave the CoC. The fake press conference, along with a fake website and fake press release, apparently fooled some in the media -- including Reuters -- until someone from the real Chamber of Commerce burst into the room and confronted the pranksters. The video is great: Part of the hoax was a fake website at www.chamber-of-commerce.us, and apparently the real Chamber of Commerce has sent a DMCA takedown on the site. The EFF is responding in support of Yes Men, saying that the site is a parody, which is protected fair use. While I think that the Chamber of Commerce is pretty dumb to issue the takedown -- only giving the Yes Men more attention -- I'm not sure that the parody defense will stick here. While the site is for the purpose of criticism, the site is most certainly not an obvious parody. It's designed to look real. Thus, the bigger issue may actually be trademark infringement, not copyright infringement, as the site could certainly confuse users, but there are other ways to deal with such things that don't involve a DMCA takedown.

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Stretta managed to build a fully functional (and apparently quite fun) foosball table from LEGO parts -

My son is really attracted to foosball tables, and, if I'm honest, I'd have to say I am too. I considered the idea of buying a small, tabletop unit, but I was unsure how much use it'd see. I was afraid it might become one of those things you play with for a bit, then collect dust. Once again, I see a solution in the form of Lego.
[…]
I personally prefer the design and building stage, and my son enjoyed that too, but he REALLY enjoys playing with it and now insists we play a couple matches every night.

Seems he's not exxaggerating about that urge to solve problems with plastic bricks. See exhibit A: When a new synth module didn't quite fit rackmount specs, Lego made it all better -

Yaknow, that actually makes for a pretty nice aesthetic!</P Read more | Permalink | Comments | Digg this!

ceswiedler writes "The FCC has begun crafting rules for network neutrality. The full proposal hasn't been released yet, but according to their press release (warning, Microsoft Word document) carriers would not be allowed to 'prevent users from sending or receiving the lawful content,' 'running lawful applications,' or 'connecting and using ... lawful devices that do not harm the network.' There will be a three-month period for comments beginning January 14, followed by 2 months for replies, after which the FCC will issue its final guidelines." Reader Adrian Lopez notes that US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain has introduced legislation that "would keep the FCC from enacting rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Internet content and applications." McCain called the proposed net neutrality rules a "government takeover" of the Internet.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reminder! Tonight's the launch for my latest novel Makers at Forbidden Planet London from 6-7. Forbidden Planet's happy to take your pre-orders for inscribed copies if you can't make it, and they'll cheerfully ship 'em wherever you are.

Forbidden Planet Megastore: Cory Doctorow signing Makers

If you live in Canada or the US, click below for more info:

I'll also be coming to Canada and the US next month for a quick book-tour, kicking off with a signing and reading at the Merril Collection in Toronto (Nov 12, 7pm, The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy, 239 College Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R5, +1 416 393-7748), and Bakka Books, the bookseller, is also glad to take orders for inscribed copies beforehand. I'll sign them all for shipping on the day.

After that, I'll be coming through NYC, NJ, Boston and Philadelphia -- details are still a little shaky, but if you drop me an email, I'll send you a mailout once I have them in hand.

Here's a little more about Makers, courtesy of Publishers Weekly: "In this tour de force, Doctorow (Little Brother) uses the contradictions of two overused SF themes--the decline and fall of America and the boundless optimism of open source/hacker culture--to draw one of the most brilliant reimaginings of the near future since cyberpunk wore out its mirror shades. Perry Gibbons and Lester Banks, typical brilliant geeks in a garage, are trash-hackers who find inspiration in the growing pile of technical junk. Attracting the attention of suits and smart reporter Suzanne Church, the duo soon get involved with cheap and easy 3D printing, a cure for obesity and crowd-sourced theme parks. The result is bitingly realistic and miraculously avoids cliché or predictability. While dates and details occasionally contradict one another, Doctorow's combination of business strategy, brilliant product ideas and laugh-out-loud moments of insight will keep readers powering through this quick-moving tale. (starred review)"

And, of course, I'll have a site up in a couple of days with free, CC-licensed downloads of the whole text.

Earlier this year, a Dutch court issued a default judgment against The Pirate Bay, ordering it to delete certain torrents and block Dutch web surfers from reaching the site. The Pirate Bay's founders protested the ruling, noting that they had not been properly informed of the case in the first place, and that other items in the lawsuit were highly questionable -- including what appeared to be falsified documents submitted by BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy agency.

The court has now annulled the original default judgment, but the new ruling is basically the same thing. The founders were told to delete torrents and block Dutch surfers from at least part of the site. The court also rejected the claim that the founders do not still own the site, saying they presented no evidence that the site had actually been sold to another entity, or any evidence of who now owned the site. While I still think it's questionable to force the site to block results of what is really a search engine, there is a point about who owns the site. I recognize why The Pirate Bay has done what it's done, but it almost feels like they're trying to be too cute about the ownership issue.

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An editorial at GameSetWatch examines whether game publishers really deserve all the flak they get from gamers and developers alike. While some questionable decisions can certainly be laid at their feet, they're also responsible for making a lot of good game projects happen. Quoting: "The trouble comes when the money and the creativity appear to be at odds. ... Developers and publishers often have a curious relationship. The best analogy I can think of is that of parent and child. The publisher or parent thinks it knows best, because it's been there before (shipped more games), and because 'it's my money, so you'll live by my rules.' The developer — or child — is rebellious, and thinks it has all the answers. In many ways, it does know more than the parent, and is closer to what's innovative, but maybe hasn't figured out how to hone that energy yet"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tamron has announced the availability of its 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II VC midrange zoom for Canon mount. This image stabilized version of the company's popular APS-C format fast standard zoom, announced in September, will ship from the end of this month. It is already available for Nikon with a built-in motor.

Nikon has announced version 1.5.0 of its ViewNX image viewing and editing software. The new version resolves minor issues and extends support to the recently released D3S digital SLR. It also enables location tagging via GPS logs from third-party receivers (including cellular phones) and supports Epson's E-Photo printing plug-in. Furthermore the software can also now run on Mac OS X version 10.5.8 and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.

The Arduino Ethernet shield allows an Arduino board to connect to the Internet using the Ethernet library. Connect the shield to your computer or a network hub or router using a standard Ethernet cable (CAT5 or CAT6 with RJ45 connectors).

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McDutchie writes "The law in the Netherlands says that intercepted phone calls between attorneys and their clients must be destroyed. But the Dutch government has been keeping under wraps for years that no one has the foggiest clue how to delete them (Google translation). Now, an email (PDF) from the National Police Services Agency (KLPD) has surfaced, revealing that the working of the technology in question is a NetApp trade secret. The Dutch police are now trying to get their Israeli supplier Verint to tell them how to delete tapped calls and comply with the law. Meanwhile, attorneys in the Netherlands remain afraid to use their phones."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've covered the lawsuit over comments on the site AutoAdmit for the past couple years. The quick summary is that AutoAdmit is an online forum for law school students where, like many online forums, sometimes the conversations get pretty mean. Two female Yale law students sued the site and a bunch of anonymous commenters, after they posted some mean things about them. There's no denying that the comments were pretty obnoxious, though it's not clear that, given the context, anyone took them seriously. The women claimed that they had trouble getting jobs because of the comments, but there was little evidence to support that either. Still, you had a bunch of law students angry with each other, so of course lawsuits were filed -- some very badly (such as against one of the guys who helped run the site and was clearly protected from liability).

Some were hoping that this lawsuit would create new rules concerning online defamation or other "mean" content online. For example, there's been a push for a DMCA-style "takedown" system that would require sites to take down such content. However, in this case, it looks like no precedent will be set at all, as the parties have all settled and the terms of the settlement are confidential (found via Thomas O'Toole).

The issue is a tough one, certainly. It's no fun to be on the receiving end of such speech -- but should it be illegal or should there be an automatic takedown system on such content? That seems extreme and questionable when it comes to the First Amendment issue. In the end, I think the context of the content remains important -- and content in such a forum, where it was pretty obviously ridiculous, is the sort of thing that's better left ignored, rather than filing a lawsuit over it.

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Beth from The Steel Yard in Providence, RI writes in with news of their upcoming Iron Pour:

Watch the Iron Guild fire up their furnaces for the 4th annual molten metal spectacular. In the past they've brought us fiery hearts, zombie kings, and glowing skulls. This year...pumpkin casting and a giant flaming Jack-O-Lantern!

Music provided by Empty House Cooperative.

Enjoy hot cider, doughnuts, and wood-fired pizza while you take in the performance. The event will also feature a bowl sale by the Steel Yard Ceramic Artist Cooperative.

We are looking for volunteers, contact Jackson at jackson@thesteelyard.org or (401) 273-7101 if you are interested in helping out.

Please call or e-mail our office with any questions at 401-273-7101 or contact@thesteelyard.org.

Iron Pour
Iron Pour 2008 - a set on Flickr

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scruffybr writes "Whether it's World War 2, the American Wild West or ancient Greece, history has long provided a rich source of video game narrative. Historical fact has been painstakingly preserved in some games, yet distorted beyond all recognition in others. Whereas one game may be praised for its depiction of history, others have been lambasted for opening fresh wounds or glorifying tragic events of our near past. Games have utilized historical narrative extensively, but to what extent does the platform take liberties with, and perhaps misuse it?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you look at how our radio spectrum is allocated today, you discover that TV broadcasters have a huge chunk of spectrum (that chart doesn't directly display how much spectrum is actually included -- I remember seeing another chart, which I can't find now, that shows proportionally how much more spectrum broadcasters have). This was given to them -- entirely for free -- years ago, when spectrum wasn't used for much. These days, however, spectrum is precious for so many different things, and certainly much of it could be put to better use. Of course, the broadcasters aren't thrilled with giving up any of their windfall. For years, they dragged their feet, kicking and screaming, about switching from analog to digital broadcasting, which was needed to reclaim some spectrum. More recently, they've been fighting attempts to use "white space" spectrum -- which is spectrum that's unused, but close to used spectrum. The broadcasters insist there will be interference, while technologists insist the technology is good enough to block interference.

So, it's interesting that, just as we're hearing of the first tests of white space networks, the FCC is also talking to broadcasters about other ways to reclaim some spectrum and put it to use on something more useful and productive. Apparently, the plan on the table right now would be for broadcasters to give up the spectrum in return for a cut of the revenue the government would get in auctioning off the spectrum for wireless use. Of course, some may find it distasteful that public spectrum that was given to these companies for free can then get sold off with at least some of the money going to those who never bought or truly "owned" the spectrum in the first place. But, given that the FCC set things up in a way where it basically created a de facto ownership structure of the spectrum, it's difficult to see any reasonable way to get that spectrum back without paying for it.

In the link above, Adam Thierer suggests we just give the current holders property rights in the spectrum, and assume that they'll then sell it off to those who can do something more innovative with it (or change and do something more innovative themselves). I've long been a proponent of giving up the ridiculous idea of having the government decide how each slice of spectrum must be used. Why not let the companies who control the various slices of spectrum make use of it as they see fit? It seems more likely that we'd get more efficient uses of the spectrum. So, it's good to see more thinking about ways to put some of that spectrum to better use, but it would be nice if we allowed the market, rather than the government, to figure out how to best use it.

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nerdyH writes "The Chinese government's 'Go Rural' program offers subsidies up to 13 percent for rural residents who purchase approved nettops or netbooks. The systems come with a version of Red Flag Linux built on the Moblin stack. Along with Internet access, the software is said to provide apps for crop and livestock management, farm production marketing, remote office access/automation, and even online tour and hotel booking systems. Of course, Windows dominates the China market, and if traditional patterns hold, about 30 percent of these subsidized systems could ultimately wind up re-installed with Windows."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MAKE subscriber John Kelbley was doing some expansion/improvements on his kids' "fort" and wanted to deliver music to the (unpowered) space. His solution was to use the rechargeable powerpack from an an old 12 volt Ryobi drill and use the drill body as a stand for two outdoor speakers he found on clearance. Amplification is provided by a Sonic Impact T-Amp he cased inside the gutted drill body. Love the volume control where the drill chuck used to be.

The Best Sounding Drill I've Ever Owned!

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Gary sez, "ABC News Online (Australia) is going to release footage (photos, video, audio, text) of Sunday's Brisbane Zombie Walk, under a CC license. Content will feature on ABC Pool, for users to create their own mashups/remixes etc. Not sure if this is an Australian first, but it's pretty rare for MSM to release content like this. ABC Pool is also seeking video/audio/text with a zombie theme, either real or imagined."

Project: The Dead Walk! (Thanks, Gary!)

Blue Brain is an IBM computer built to simulate a human brain. It's powered by 2,000 microchips, each acting as a single neuron, that enable it to execute 22.8 trillion operations per second. Based at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the project launched in 2005 to much controversy and skepticism. Modeling the complexity of the brain in a computer is considered a holy grail to some, and hubris to others. The Blue Brain Project isn't an attempt to build an artificial intelligence, although it could someday inform such an effort. That's because the scientists are hoping to use the machine to understand physiology, brain chemistry, and even intelligence and consciousness. The project's stated goal? "To reverse engineer the brain." Here's Markam talking at TEDGlobal this year:



Already though, Blue Brain has simualated the brain's neocortical column, containing 10,000 neurons and 30 million synaptic connection. "The column has been built and it runs," project director Henry Markram told Seed Magazine. "Now we just have to scale it up." In two years, Markram hopes to have modeled a complete rat brain that he will then load into a mobile robot. From SEED:

When listening to Markram speculate, it's easy to forget that the Blue Brain simulation is still just a single circuit, confined within a silent supercomputer. The machine is not yet alive. And yet Markram can be persuasive when he talks about his future plans. His ambitions are grounded in concrete steps. Once the team is able to model a complete rat brain--that should happen in the next two years--Markram will download the simulation into a robotic rat, so that the brain has a body. He's already talking to a Japanese company about constructing the mechanical animal. "The only way to really know what the model is capable of is to give it legs," he says. "If the robotic rat just bumps into walls, then we've got a problem."

Installing Blue Brain in a robot will also allow it to develop like a real rat. The simulated cells will be shaped by their own sensations, constantly revising their connections based upon the rat's experiences. "What you ultimately want," Markram says, "is a robot that's a little bit unpredictable, that doesn't just do what we tell it to do." His goal is to build a virtual animal--a rodent robot--with a mind of its own.

But the question remains: How do you know what the rat knows? How do you get inside its simulated cortex? This is where visualization becomes key. Markram wants to simulate what that brain experiences. It's a typically audacious goal, a grand attempt to get around an ancient paradox. But if he can really find a way to see the brain from the inside, to traverse our inner space, then he will have given neuroscience an unprecedented window into the invisible. He will have taken the self and turned it into something we can see.

Blue Brain Project (EPFL)

"Out of the Blue" (Seed)

When Cablevision first bought Newsday, Charles Dolan admitted the company knew very little about the newspaper business, but promised to consult widely with newspaper experts in coming up with a plan. That seemed like a really really bad idea, since all the newspaper experts we've seen don't seem to even recognize what business they're really in. But, it looks like that's exactly what Dolan did. Back in February, the company announced that it was going to put up a paywall for its content. Since there had been no update or any action since then, I'd actually begun to wonder if the company was rethinking that idea. No such luck. Apparently it just took a bit of time to fully plan out Newsday's self-destruction.

The company has announced that it will start charging a whopping $5/week (not month, but week) to access the website unless you're an existing paper newspaper subscriber and/or a Cablevision subscriber.

Let's be absolutely clear what this is. It is not a plan to build a 21st century news organization. It's a plan to try to reduce churn elsewhere, by putting up a slight hurdle for Cablevision cable customers and Newsday newspaper customers to prevent them from leaving. Cablevision's customer base and Newsday's subscriber base overlaps quite a bit, so for plenty of those folks there will be no change at all. But this won't do anything to actually help the news organization grow. Those who don't subscribe to the paper edition or who use a competitor for broadband (like Verizon Fios which is pushing hard in Cablevision's market) will simply go elsewhere. While the NYC papers don't cover Long Island news quite as completely, they do a pretty good job with the basics, and other local news sources will fill in the rest. Cablevision is basically saying that it's giving up in the online news business. It's an admission that it doesn't know how to compete. This won't help it sign up new customers, and may only barely help it prevent old customers from leaving.

It's basically a suicide play for Newsday. This is really a disappointment, since Cablevision -- amazingly -- had actually been one of the most forward thinking cable companies out there in terms of offering real value on the broadband side of things. But apparently it bought Newsday as an asset to let it wither away.

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Editorial illustrator and data visualizer Bryan Christie created this fantastic graphic of Mars missions. Higher res at imgur. (via Laughing Squid)

Ladyada writes-

If you have a lot of button inputs for a project, keeping track of them (whether they’re pressed, just pressed or just released) and debouncing can get a bit hairy. here is some sample code that will keep track of as many buttons as you’d like. The example shows 6. To change the pins or number of buttons, just put them in the array called “buttons” and the rest of the code will automatically adjust. (The code is in Arduino-ese but its pretty much just straight up C) Enjoy!

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Rebecca from EFF sez, "The Yes Men prank -- they put out a press release and held a spoof news conference on Monday, claiming that the Chamber of Commerce had reversed its position and would stop lobbying against a climate bill currently in the Senate -- apparently hasn't embarrassed the Chamber of Commerce enough yet. Attorneys for the group have issued a takedown demand for the website connected to the prank, claiming copyright infringement. The demand ignores the parodic nature of the stunt (parody enjoys First Amendment protection) and may just serve to put the Yes Men's criticism in the news for one more day."

EFF: Chamber of Commerce Takes Aim at Yes Men (Thanks, Rebecca!)

Gabriel Dishaw's "Junk Dunks" are sculptures of totemic Nike Airs made out of consumer garbage.

"Junk Dunk (Left)" (Thanks, Gareth!)

Ellen Kushner sez, "The Interstitial Arts Foundation is presenting 8 new original online stories - er, pieces of interstitial writing, a new one each week for the 8 weeks leading up to the November 3 publication of our new anthology, _Interfictions 2_ . So far we've ranged from F. Brett Cox's 'Nylon Seam,' Brett's 'tribute to Bettie Page fandom'complete with soundtrack (vocals & guitar, F. Brett Cox) to Ron Pasquariello's 'Chipper Dialogues' - a man & his mutt converse in haiku. This week, it's Kelly Cogswell's story-and-poem combo, 'For the Love of Carrots' and 'The Luxembourg Gardener.' Check out the Annex Page for a complete list of stories and authors. Interstitial art is found in the interstices of recognized category and genre. "

Annex (Thanks, Ellen!)

The boys from MaceTech cooked up an impressive yard display with eight RGB LED modules in eight different pumpkins around the yard. Garrett explains:

We made a control board for eight pumpkins, using eight ShiftBars, 50mm cables, a Seeeduino, a ShiftBrite Shield, and a 12V power supply. The ShiftBar potentiometers were adjusted to deliver about 100mA to each of the 24 LED channels. We wired the LED array boards to the control board using cheap 4-wire telephone station cable from Home Depot.

Read more about it here.

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Researchers studying the situational use of malt liquor and marijuana are employing an automated cell-phone calling system to collect data. The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system calls you, well if you're involved in the study that is, and asks a series of questions about what you're up to at the moment and, I guess, whether you're stoned, drunk, or have immediate plans to be. Health behavior specialist R. Lorraine Collins at the University of Buffalo came up with the system after using PDA-based approaches to data-gathering that she says put too much responsibility on the study participant. I'd imagine that if you're really lit, you may not remember (or bother) to input the who, what, when, and where later on. From the University of Buffalo:

(Collins) showed that, in what is known in the psychology research community as "ecological momentary assessment" (EMA) or "right here, right now" data collection, cell phones are more familiar to research participants and therefore training is easier; and that with IVR, data is stored instantly, removing any issues around the loss of information.

"This is an interesting and useful way to collect data," said Collins. "It eliminates the problems associated with study participants having to recall their behavior, and cell phones are ubiquitous with young people, who are our main targets in these studies. We capture their data right away. It's all computerized and stored immediately."

"Two New NIH grants Use Cell Phones to Collect Real-Time Data on Substance Use" (via Dose Nation)

For years I didn't consider myself very creative. Sure, I always decorated the house for holidays, did crafty projects with my kids, refinished furniture, loved to try new recipes, and shunned store-bought costumes for what I think are way better homemade creations, but a crafter? Not really.

These days I'm trying to convince myself that I am indeed a crafter. And when you're surrounded by knitters, crocheters, professional seamstresses, painters, and soft-circuit mavens, you need lots of convincing! I recently went back through photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes that I've made, and gosh darn it, I am a crafter (of sorts). Enjoy the photos after the jump!

PS: Two of the costumes shown were store-bought, or mostly purchased at a store and then embellished with homey touches.See if you can spot them. And one of the boys is a former intern, not one of my kids, exactly.

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Well, after 6+ years on an ancient and highly customized install of Movable Type 3.15, and 4+ years on various homegrown CMS solutions, I’ve finally upgraded the guts of this site. I chose WordPress. Sure, there are several other excellent options out there to power the blogs of 2010 and beyond, but the familarity of WP, its plugins, pricetag and other factors all fed into the decision. Plus, I told Matt in the halls of SWSW in 2003 that I’d try his little weblog project. I’m finally following through on that.

Exporting thousands of entries isn’t fun. But luckily plenty of folks have done this before. Overall, I’m feeling spolied by the little things that have been commonplace for you folks that are smart about upgrading your blogging engine more often than I. With the Notebook sections ported over, I wanted to launch things and tweak as I have time. That said, there are still parts of the site that still need migrating help (namely, the Work section). Eventually all will be under one roof.

Along with the backend switch, I made a few minor visual tweaks to the site as well. Nothing terribly exciting. If anything, it’s a slight step backward, to the layouts of SimpleBits’ past. Like anyone who used to blog with frequency pre-2005, I’d like to post here more often — not just to fill up bits and bytes, but to write again. Remember when blogs were more casual and conversational? Before a post’s purpose was to grab search engine clicks or to promise “99 Answers to Your Problem That We’re Telling You You’re Having”. Yeah. I’d like to get back to that here.

Then again, history teaches us that it probably won’t happen. But at least now I can’t blame the software.

Oh, and there’s a new feed now (although the old feed URLs should redirect if my .htaccess is up to snuff).

Sooner Boomer writes "Nigerian police in what is named Operation 'Eagle Claw' have shut down 800 scam web sites, and arrested members of 18 syndicates behind the fraudulent scam sites. Reports on Breitbart.com and Pointblank give details on the busts. The investigation was done in cooperation with Microsoft, to help develop smart technology software capable of detecting fraudulent emails. From Breitbart 'When operating at full capacity, within the next six months, the scheme, dubbed "Eagle Claw," should be able to forewarn around a quarter of million potential victims.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

So much for that new Obama administration "transparency" claim, huh? After three unsuccessful attempts at stalling a court order to release documents concerning who lobbied for telco immunity in warrantless wiretapping lawsuits, the administration has succeeded in its fourth attempt, delaying the release of the documents at least until next year. Of course, by the time this is decided, it should be long after Congress is done debating the whole warrantless wiretapping issue... so that's convenient. I'm still trying to figure out who or what the administration is trying to shield. It seems pretty obvious that the telcos would lobby for immunity, so that's not revealing much. So what's so important to keep secret?

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Metal sculpture artist Gabriel Dishaw uses found objects from typewriters, adding machines, and old computers, held together with fine wire and glue, to create his awesome sculptures. He pays homage to his favorite sneakers by piecing together these replicas. Pictured above is the Junk Dunk (Left), based on the Nike Dunk Low. Here's a side view:

In previous iterations, like the first version shown below, he sacrificed a shoe from his personal collection to harvest the sole as a base to build off of.

The newest addition is the Blazer Pentium 1.0:

(Via Geekologie. Thanks Brookelynn!)

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I'm not normally a huge fan of graffiti, but I like Jesse Grave's this technique of using mud stencils to temporary graffiti. It seems like a nice, low impact alternative to making moss graffiti, plus you get to play with mud! He seems to be getting good results, however I wonder how well it holds up as it dries out. Anyone else try something like this? [via inhabitat]

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There isn't a huge surprise in the news that France has once again passed a law to force ISPs to kick accused (not convicted) file sharers off the internet under a draconian "three strikes" system. We all knew this was coming. After the original French three strikes law was gutted as being totally unconstitutional, French President Nicolas Sarkozy (who apparently doesn't believe any such law should apply to him, given his history of mass piracy) insisted that such a law was necessary to defend freedom. Yes, really. And, even as France's cultural minister was planning to get multiple internet connections just in case he got cut off -- while also wishing that his own creative content were "pirated" more often, the French gov't went back to work on putting in place such a law. The big "change" this time was to give judges 5 whole minutes to rule on file sharers, so that they could say a judge oversaw the case, rather than it just being a random accusation. I'm not sure how due process works with a 5 minute limit... but what can you do.

What's much more entertaining is seeing how entertainment industry lobbyists are cheering this on. I'm beginning to think that they actually believe that kicking people off the internet will make people buy more of their content. Incredible. First up, the MPAA's Dan Glickman (who's being pushed out of his job for being woefully ineffective):

"Today's decision is an enormous victory for creators everywhere. It is our hope that ISPs will fully honor their promise to cooperate and that the French government will take the necessary measures to dedicate resources to handle the enormous task ahead."

A victory for creators? Really? By kicking fans off the internet for promoting their works? Yikes. Someone's out of touch. Then we have Rick Cotton, of NBC Universal, the man who insisted that movie piracy was really harming the poor American corn farmer since people ate less popcorn with pirated movies:

"The French action recognizes that jobs and economic growth in creative industries are under assault by digital theft. We need a safe and secure Internet that enables consumers to access content easily but does not facilitate illegal file sharing that kills jobs in creative sectors."

Yes, and the corn farmers, too, right? So, if it's really all about jobs, what about the people kicked offline who rely on the internet for their job? Apparently those jobs don't matter? In the meantime, it's already pretty clear from multiple studies that it's not file sharing that's "killing jobs in creative sectors" but the inability of executives like Cotton to understand basic economics and business models.

But, honestly, the most guffaw-inducing response to this comes from Tom Sydnor at the Progress & Freedom Foundation. Sydnor, who as you may know, has a long history of making claims that don't pass the laugh test, has really outdone himself this time (it's even better than when he accused a college that couldn't identify accused file sharers of harboring "terrorists, pedophiles, phishing-scheme operators, hackers [and] identity thieves" by giving them a "get out of jail free" card). So what's his take on kicking people off the internet based on accusations? Well, it's really about consumer relief. No, seriously:

"As a consumer, I would far prefer the successive warnings that French law would now provide to the sudden financial devastation of the John-Doe lawsuit that American law would now require. I thus urge American internet-service providers and copyright owners to work together to provide American consumers with similar relief."

Ah, yes, because the only options are to sue everyone or to kick people off the internet? Apparently Tom has such incredibly little faith in the innovation ability of content providers that he assumes that they cannot craft unique and innovative business models that don't involve suing everyone or kicking people off the internet. How insulting of him towards content creators. Every time Sydnor makes a statement like this and PFF promotes it, it just weakens the work that PFF does in other areas. It's tough to take an organization seriously that has someone claiming that kicking people off the internet based on accusations of private companies is "consumer relief."

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One of my favorite organisms in Los Angeles is Machine Project, a kind of hacker's art gallery, or as they put it "a non-profit community space...investigating art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, and food."

We're holding a benefit at Mister Jalopy's place, and it promises to be a wonderful event. We'd love to see you there!

Mister Jalopy writes:

On November 7th, Mister Jalopy's personal 4000 square foot studio will be host to the first Machine Project benefit.
Proceeds from this once-a-year event will enable Machine Project to continue welcoming any and all to free Machine public events in 2010. Tickets start at $75 for members, or $100 for non-members, with a Benefactor level ticket available for $250.

With over 20 participating artists, technologists and musicians, the 2009 Benefit will pack a month's worth of events into a single intimate evening. What to expect? Opportunities to steal art from a laser-protected, action movie-style set, wager on microscopic slime mold races, try your hand at gold panning to prospect for real gold nuggets, stay late to huddle around the firepit to make 'smores, partake from the amply stocked wine and beer bar, have a wood-fired pizza from an on-site brick pizza oven, enjoy music from four different acts, replace your old Getty Museum fake ID, participate in head-to-head speed soldering contests and eat noodles supplied by Kwong Dynasty Noodle Cart.

[via Dinosaurs and Robots]

More:
Laser tripwires for Machine Project art heist

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