MICROSOFT LOOKING AT WHAT SELLS AND WHAT DON'T
Although Office and Windows continue to produce vast revenue and
profits for the Microsoft, some of the company's other well-known
consumer titles are generating only a trickle of business.
According to internal documents seen by CNET News.com, Microsoft gets
only about $2 for each copy of Works that is bundled on new
computers. The standard version of Money isn't even a break-even
proposition, and the company has had to heavily discount its OneNote
application in order to get computer makers to include it.
Microsoft predicts that things won't improve from here, either.
http://tinyurl.com/7rqtw
COOL TECH FROM BAD SITUATIONS.
When a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the Indonesian coast and
other surfers' paradises in the Indian Ocean nearly a year ago,
Andrew Griffiths, head of Surf Aid International, knew his
organization had to act fast.
Quickly, he set up a teleconference call with the five other
international board members in the United States, Australia and New
Zealand from his San Diego office.
"The moment a disaster like that happens there are a number of
difficult business decisions that need to be made," said Griffiths,
chief executive of the nonprofit organization, which was created to
provide humanitarian relief and health services for surfing tourism
hot spots around the world.
To make those decisions, the surfer's charity--defying the
freewheeling, Jeff Spicoli stereotype of wave riders--used an
efficient method for setting priorities in a new software package.
There was a red light for "stop," green light for "go," and a yellow
light for "go, but with certain conditions."
(the rest of the story talks about the software and why it is useful)
http://tinyurl.com/8dcwo
How wikis are changing our view of the world
By Daniel Terdiman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 15, 2005 4:00 AM PT
Moments after the eye of Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the
Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, news agencies everywhere rushed to report the
story. But among the quickest to begin offering comprehensive
coverage wasn't a formal news organization at all.
Instead, it was a loose collection of self-appointed "citizen
journalists" reporting, linking and photographing from Louisiana and
around the world. And the organization for which they were working,
called Wikinews, wasn't paying them a dime.
"With all of that bad news, it's nice to know that at least one cool
thing has emerged from this: The Katrina Information Map, which
brings together the power of wikis and Google Maps to create a useful
public resource for tracking or reporting flood damage," former
Louisianan Matt Barton wrote on the blog Kairosnews. "I see that most
people are using the service to inquire about loved ones or report
flooding on various streets."
http://tinyurl.com/d4tqh
Maybe there is hope for that country afterall:
It's Acre, not India, for these young idealists
By Eli Ashkenazi
"This is my India," 24-year-old Oren said, comparing his decision to
move to the new urban kibbutz in Acre to the trip many young Israelis
embark on after military service. Indeed, the lifestyle he has chosen
is different than that of most Israelis his age. Oren and 30 other
graduates of the leftist Noar Haoved Vehalomed youth movement, aged
23 to 24, have decided to dedicate their lives to making a
contribution to society, as they put it.
http://tinyurl.com/9tks3
FIRST THIS:
Jobs offered OS X free for Negraponte’s $100 laptop
Posted Nov 15, 2005, 9:25 AM ET by Ryan Block
Related entries: Laptops

We all know how much Jobs likes the education market, so according to
the Wall Street Journal he did a very magnanimous thing and offered
OS X up to Nicholas Negroponte for his $100 laptop for developing
nations. But not even bothering to discount the vast technical
difficulties with getting OS X to run on this kind of machine,
Negroponte and his team apparently canned the whole idea because OS X
is a closed-source OS, and they believed it fundamental to their
system to use only totally open, completely modifiable software. Yep,
this all sounds about right to us. Jobs gets positive PR, Negroponte
& Co. get to up their cred; win-win all around!
http://tinyurl.com/7z46m
AND THEN THIS:
$100 Laptop Snubs OS X, Goes to UN
Techtree News Staff
MIT Media Lab's research initiative, to build a $100 laptop for
students across the globe is chugging along, with Nicholas
Negroponte, laboratory chairman and co-founder, MIT, to demonstrate a
working prototype to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a
technology meeting in Tunisia.
According to reports, Steve Jobs had offered to provide free copies
of OS X to the project, but his offer was turned down because OS X is
not open source and the creators want an operating system where the
source code is open and can be altered and "tinkered with".
Ironically, OS X is based on Unix which is open source.
http://tinyurl.com/9leyc
[Nothing like saying NO to Steve Jobs to make him do it his way. I
bet that apple will come out with a $100 low end laptop for sale in
'3rd world' countries only. Not long after that a thriving trade in
smuggled low end machines will begin in the US]
MORE GOOGLE NEWS, this time they take on craigslist..... they should
have just bought it.
Google Base: It's Alive!
Date: Nov 16, 2005, 8:06 AM ET
Author: Marc Perton
Permalink
After keeping us waiting for eons, the gods of Google have declared
that Google Base is now ready for public consumption. So go ahead
and plug in your classified ads, recipes and non-profit info, and
help Google destroy Craigslist, Idealist and your local newspaper in
the process. Oh, and BTW, Google Base is a beta. But you already knew
that.
http://tinyurl.com/9okbp
AND MORE ON THE SUBJECT FROM SLASHDOT:
Google Base Launches
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday November 16, @01:29AM
from the google-cheerleading-overlords dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As announced on the Google Blog, Google
Base has finally launched. According to Google, Google Base enables
content owners to easily make their information searchable online.
Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can
use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We'll host
the items and make them searchable for free."
http://tinyurl.com/bf4ut
AND MORE:
Google Base Launched. Yuck.
Posted by Michael Arrington
Google Blog officially announces the launch of Google Base. We
previously anticipated the launch of Google Base (along with everyone
else) in late October. Bottom Line: This is not a very interesting
application in its current form. It’s like a 1985 dBASE file with
less functionality. It’s ugly. It’s centralized content with less
functionality than ebay or craigslist. The content is not integrated
directly into Google search results, but “relevance” can bump it
up into main and local search (and froogle). Rob Hof’s at Business
Week is also blase about it. He says “eBay and others may not have
much to fear just yet” Additional information and FAQs on Google
Base in the About section.
http://tinyurl.com/9zf87
FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO EDIT VIDEO:
Jahshaka, realtime open source video editing and effects
Date: Nov 15, 2005, 3:00 PM ET
Author: Victor Agreda, Jr.
Permalink
Jahshaka promises to be an all-in-one media toolkit for budding
Hollywood mavens. Boasting video editing, compositing, animation, and
audio tools, Jahshaka is also free and open source. Oh, did I mention
it's available for Macs, PC's, and Linux boxes? Solaris support is
coming soon... Jahshaka (please change that name) suffers the same
fate of many other OSS multimedia efforts: clunky GUI. It's not that
tools are hidden or missing, it's that the workflow isn't as
efficient as many other apps. Still, I thought this about Blender
until one day, after using it for about a month, it just started
"working." I'll always say learn the tool, use the tool. Even if it's
clunky, you can learn to fly it and it might work for you. Some
technical issues exist, as I was unable to bring in simple QuickTime
files on my Mac. Also, the promise of realtime editing and effects
work is nice, but it will scale (the quality) according to your
systems' abilities. Still, overall an amazing effort, and a promising
tool despite some quirks.
http://tinyurl.com/b6yy6
AND BECAUSE THIS IS THE SEASON TO BE BUYING:
Fall 2005 Photo Printer Buyers Guide
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday November 16, @07:37AM
from the and-knowing-is-half-the-battle dept.
lfescalante writes "DesignTechnica has some great tips on what to
look for when buying a Photo Printer. From the article: 'Some of the
best printers offer 9600 x 2400 DPI and over 50 levels of gradation.
Another important specification for inkjet printers is ink drop size,
typically measured in picoliters. The smaller the number, the more
ink per square inch can be placed on the paper. The more ink, the
more accurate and lifelike the color of the print.'"
http://tinyurl.com/bq3xh
THE ECONOMY WILL BE THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND ANYTHING THAT SAVES THE
ENVIRONMENT CATCHING ON:
Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday November 15, @09:28PM
from the now-to-make-it-bite-sized dept.
hipernoico writes to tell us Wired News is reporting that hundreds of
semi trucks now on the roads are being partially powered by hydrogen.
From the article: "These 18-wheelers make hydrogen as they go,
eliminating the need for high-pressure, cryogenic storage tanks or
hydrogen filling stations, which, by the way, don't yet exist. These
truckers aren't just do-gooders. They like Canadian Hydrogen Energy's
Hydrogen Fuel Injection, or HFI, system because it lets them save
fuel, get more horsepower and, as a bonus, cause less pollution."
http://tinyurl.com/8b3pa
TOP DOG, A BIPLANE FIGHTING GAME SIDESCROLLER.... supposedly worth a
look.
http://tinyurl.com/e3nyd
VERY IMPORTANT:
Battlestar Galactica originals go to auction: Starbuck Viper and
Cylon Raider
(link to this article)
November 15, 2005 As unabashed fans of applied technology, Gizmag’s
80,000 daily readers number among them many sience fiction fans and
many who would have first fueled their sci-fi imagination with
Battlestar Galactica (ABC-TV, 1978-79). Accordingly, we feel it is
our duty to inform you that two of the ORIGINAL filming miniatures
from the classic science-fiction series of the late 1970s are due to
fall under the auctioneers hammer on eBay on December 16 and the pair
are expected to fetch more than US$50,000. The craft in question are
the Starbuck Viper and Cylon Raider, each representing the apex of
technology as realized by the Colonials and their arch-enemies, the
Cylons. Both of these filming miniatures were created by John Dykstra
and the crew of Apogee Effects.
http://tinyurl.com/993r9
FOR ONE OF MY FRIENDS WHO WANTS TO DO JUST THIS:
build a google maps service
posted nov 15, 2005, 11:00 am et by eliot phillips
related entries: hack a day: google hacks
[8ball] was interested in building a google maps based service, but
didn’t know where to start. luckily he stumbled across peter
rukavina’s charlottetown transit map. the project shows the bus
routes and has schedule popups linked to each of the stops. peter was
nice enough to include full source code for how this was implemented
in php and javascript. he also describes setting up the necessary
mysql tables.
http://tinyurl.com/99qdx
FRIGHTNING NEW WEAPON, GO SEE THE PICS:
MARINES QUIET ABOUT BRUTAL NEW WEAPON
War is hell. But it’s worse when the Marines bring out their new
urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why they’re not
talking about it, much. This is a version of the standard USMC
Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as
NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the
air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power,
especially against buildings. A post-action report from Iraq
describes the effect of the new weapon: "One unit disintegrated a
large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100
meters. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by
one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordnance." It proved highly
effective in the battle for Fallujah. This from the Marine Corps
Gazette, July edition: "SMAW gunners became expert at determining
which wall to shoot to cause the roof to collapse and crush the
insurgents fortified inside interior rooms."
http://tinyurl.com/8ozjk
A BOOK I WOULD NOT MIND READING, BUT I HAVE NO TIME/PURPOSE FOR IT:
http://tinyurl.com/b3wbx
and by the same guy:
The Destiny of Online Games
http://tinyurl.com/cdrzj
The WORTH1000 Phobia Photoshoping Contest
http://tinyurl.com/azjwa
BAD NEWS FOR US:
Gaming fanatics show hallmarks of drug addiction
12:11 16 November 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Alison Motluk
Excessive computer gaming has the hallmarks of addiction, suggests
new experiments on "drug memory". The researchers argue it should be
classified as such, enabling “addicts” to start seeking help.
“We have the patients and we have the parents and family members
calling us for help,” says Sabine Grüsser of the Charité
University Medicine Berlin, in Germany.
Learning is recognised as an important underlying mechanism of
addiction. In becoming addicted, people start to associate cues that
are normally neutral with the object of their craving. To a crack
addict, for instance, a building in which they have used the drug is
more than just a place they have been – it becomes a trigger for
craving and can, on its own, reignite a need to use the drug again
after months of abstinence.
Grüsser and her colleague Ralf Thalemann wanted to see if computer
game cues could also trigger similar “drug memories” in excessive
computer gamers.
Desperate to indulge
They compared 15 men in their 20s who admitted that gaming had chased
other activities – such as work and socialising – out of their
lives, and 15 game-playing but otherwise healthy controls.
They showed them a variety of visual cues and asked the volunteers to
rate how they felt about the images. All had normal reactions to
neutral images, such as chairs, and even to alcohol-related images,
despite the fact that all the participants drank alcohol.
But excessive computer game players showed classic signs of craving
when they were presented with freeze-frames from some of their
favourite games – they desperately wanted to play, expected to feel
better once they did, and fully intended to indulge again as soon as
possible.
Startle reflex
In another test, the researchers monitored the response of a large
muscle in the eye, to see how much the volunteers could be startled
while looking at a game-related image. Scientists theorise that the
most pleasing stimuli prompts the smallest of startle reflexes. They
found that excessive game players could not be easily startled,
unlike the controls.
Grüsser says that addictions stem from relying too heavily on one
coping strategy, which eventually becomes the only activity that can
activate the dopamine system and bring a person relief. “It’s the
same mechanism in all addicts,” she says.
Maressa Hecht Orzack, who founded a computer addiction service at
McLean Hospital in Boston, US, agrees that the condition has a lot in
common with other addictions. What makes it tougher is that gamers
cannot simply abstain from using computers – they are now an
integral part of our lives. In that sense, it has to be approached in
the same way as an eating disorder, she suggests.
And while not everyone agrees that computer games have the addictive
potential of drugs, or even gambling, groups such as Online Gamers
Anonymous and EverQuest Widows are overflowing with stories of people
so wrapped up in slaying monsters that for days they neglect to eat,
wash or sleep.
The research was presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual
meeting, in Washington DC, US.
http://tinyurl.com/89w53
Cool new tech, wrote about it before:
Shoot a picture first, focus later
16 November 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Celeste Biever
BLURRY snaps could be a thing of the past with the development of a
digital camera that refocuses photos after they have been taken.
The camera could be useful for action shots taken by sports
photographers or for CCTV surveillance cameras, which often produce
fuzzy shots due to poor lighting.
In an ordinary digital camera, a sensor behind the lens records the
light level that hits each pixel on its surface. If the light rays
reaching the sensor are not in focus, the image will appear blurry.
Now, Pat Hanrahan and his team at Stanford University have figured
out how to adjust the light rays after they have reached the camera.
They inserted a sheet of 90,000 lenses, each just 125 micrometres
across, between the camera's main lens and the image sensor. The
angle of the light rays that strike each microlens is recorded, as
well as the amount of light arriving along each ray.
http://tinyurl.com/834fr
How To: Energy Efficiency Advisor Web Site
November 12, 2004 12:21 PM -
The Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor is a site designed by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sets up guidelines
for conducting energy-efficient housing rehabilitation. Simply select
the type of house you're remodelling, what your role is in the
project (e.g., homeowner or contractor), your climate, and the
building's age and the advisor presents information for all types of
renovation work--from roofing to finishing a basement. The info is
succint and easy to absorb--an excellent starting point for newbie
homeowners and do-it-yourself types. This isn't the place for pros
looking for LEED-certification, but it's a good source for basics on
energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and water
conservation. ::Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor [by MO] Continue
Reading...
http://tinyurl.com/dzm9r
I WANT ONE:
Julian Lwin's Urban Oasis
November 16, 2005 07:11 AM - Kara, Newport, Rhode Island
We liked (or was it love love loved) Julian Lwin’s Galapagos Table
so much and we thought this was along the same lines. The Urban Oasis
is such a cool and modern way to display your houseplants, especially
if you’re living in a small place. The durable steel frame is fully
recyclable and so are the aluminum steel pots. Packed in with your
shipment will be a list of the best air purifying plants so you can
filter all those common pollutants that develop in your
home. ::Julian Lwin Design
http://tinyurl.com/dfxuv
Interesting:
Solar Energy CurtainNovember 15, 2005 12:41 PM - Justin Thomas, Virginia
Created by Sweden-based Interactive Studios subsidiary Re:form, this
modern window dressing builds up a charge during the day and uses
embedded materials to provide illumination at night. The curtain is
made with combination of cotton, solar-collecting and light-emitting
materials. During the day, the shade can be drawn to collect
sunlight. During the evening, the collected energy is expressed as a
glowing pattern on the inside of the shade. :: Re:form via Engadget
via Inhabitat
http://tinyurl.com/8c8ch
Comic books shadow how we react to threats
In times of social danger and economic turmoil, many psychologists
believe that people become more aggressive, more conventional, and
less interested in feelings and emotions. A new study published in
the latest issue of Political Psychology finds that comic book
characters do these things as well. In times of higher threat, i.e.
the events of 1979 which included the Iran hostage crisis, comic
books contained more aggressive imagery, focused on male characters,
and were less introspective. The authors reviewed comic books
published between 1978 -1992 frame by frame to judge the amount of
violence and conventionalism drawn, the number of women and
minorities in speaking or subordinate roles, portrayal of wrongdoing
by the authorities, and the amount of reflection (thought in balloons
rather than dialogue). In general, the authors found that women spoke
less and a significantly greater number of panels were devoted to
aggression during high threat periods.
The authors reviewed eight Marvel comic books that are still
published today. These titles included four titles that featured more
conventional heroes that represent American virtues like U.S.
patriotism (Captain America) and the everyman (Spider-Man). The other
four heroes were less conventional with themes such as persecution by
society (X-men) and a vigilante who lives in an "amoral urban
hell" (Daredevil). When compared against their own sales, the
unconventional titles sold more copies during the low-threat times
compared to the high-threat times; whereas the conventional hero
sales remained flat. "As an aspect of popular culture, comic books
have always reflected the historical time period in which they were
produced," author Bill Peterson explains.
http://tinyurl.com/dc9my
wheh, thats all.
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