rainbow

Fashion Rio's New Latin Sophistication

2009-01-15T13:17:00.002+07:00

Fafa Cosenza, the designer of Rio label Tessuti showed that one can be sophisticated and yet true to one's roots in one of the most polished collections yet seen in Brazil, staged Tuesday in Rio.

Using the strictest of palates - black, blood orange, sinful red and more black - Cosenza created a truly chic Fall 2009. Though it was a trifle derivative, one can forgive that when the looks are so good.

Made in classy fabrics like silk faille, calico and shantung and cut with a precise surgical scalpel, these were grand yet not stuffy clothes.

Sleekly cut, lean cocktail dresses jazzed up with lace inserts and semi-sheer panels, paneled felt wool suits and one grand opening and big shouldered gown worn by Isabeli Fontana were the highlights of this highly exportable collection.

But the classiest moment of the day came when Carla Cavendish showed how haute gamme and finely finished Brazilian fashion can be. Her layered demi-military boleros with spidery bugle beading and refined mock Musketeers coats with broken pattern beaded embroidery had lots of distinction.

Best of all, Cavendish, whose 12-year-old label now retails in 300 locations, cuts a great pair of pants. Her standouts were a natty new take on a favorite local look, elongated and slimmed down jodhpurs. Composed in gray, earth, stone and anthracite hues and shown on a catwalk split in two by an enormous tropical tree trunk, this was a great example of distinguished tropical style.

Fashion Rio also unveiled one significant new talent, Daniela Connolly, whose clever take of Victoriana meets posh punk showed a designer in synch with global brands but creating her own specific look.

Connolly, whose brand is named Koolture, put plenty of pep into this Fall 2009 collection with agit-prop graffiti prints used in bomber jackets, party mini frocks and sequined dresses. Above all, she cuts with a cool hand, best exemplified by her Edwardian columns.

Connolly presented her collection in a Novos Estilistas joint show of young designers with another fledgling brand named Filhas de Gaia, designed by the duo of Marcela Calmon and Renata Salles.

Filhas de Gaia had the idea of incorporating Portuguese wrought iron patterns and tile designs into some charming wispy fabrics. However, too often the execution was let down by the draping, the Achilles Heel of fashion brands in Brazil, where most attempts to be creative and add volume to dresses and gowns frequently ends up just making the wearer look heavier.

Calmen and Salles did show some snazzy rouched shantung cocktails, which looked great, but the collection was undermined by the silhouette.

Apple chief Steve Jobs takes medical leave of absence

2009-01-15T13:14:00.001+07:00

Apple chief Steve Jobs is taking medical leave of absence because of "complex" health issues, sparking worries about the future of the iconic maker of iPhones, iPods and Macintosh computers.

In an email to employees on Wednesday, Jobs said he is going on leave "in order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products."

Jobs, 53, a cancer survivor who disclosed on January 5 that he was being treated for a "hormone imbalance," said that since that time "I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought."

"I have asked (chief operating officer) Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day-to-day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job," he added.

"As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out," said Jobs. "Our board of directors fully supports this plan."

The price of Apple's stock plunged 7.07 percent to 79.30 dollars in after-hours trading following the announcement.

"Everyone is going to speculate he is on his deathbed, like it usually goes," said Gartner analyst Van Baker. "The company will do just fine with Steve taking a leave of absence.

"Steve is the public face of Apple," Baker said, but "Apple is not going to collapse without him there."

Jobs had explained his no-show at Macworld, this month's annual cult-like gathering of Apple devotees, with a letter stating that a hormone imbalance had caused him to lose a troubling amount of weight.

Jobs, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2005, looked gaunt at his last public appearance in September.

Hormonal imbalance is a common symptom of pancreatic cancer and could signal that Jobs isn't done battling the often terminal illness, said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

"It is likely that he is not coming back, because he wouldn't step away from this job for five minutes unless it was critical," Enderle said.

"Steve Jobs is the Ronald McDonald of Apple; he is the face. They either need to redefine the company so his role is divided among different people or they need to find somebody that can clone Steve Jobs."

Apple has been notoriously secretive about Jobs's health and speculation has been rampant since it was announced that for the first time in 11 years he would not give the keynote speech at the Macworld Expo.

Marketing vice president Phil Schiller gave the keynote at Macworld, which ran from January 6-9 and featured companies promoting gadgets, gear, software or services tailored for Apple products.

NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker said Jobs's absence should not cripple the company.

"Apple has a lot of great people there and ought to be able to execute on plans they have," Baker said. "That is what working on a team is all about. While Steve Jobs is the boss, there are lots of other smart people there."

As Apple's chief operating officer, Cook has been in charge of the nitty-gritty running of the company. Cook also heads the California firm's Macintosh computer division.

"Steve's role has been largely big direction, not hands-on," said Gartner's Baker. "He is more the resident visionary in terms of strategic decisions, not the detail guy. I don't see his leave-of-absence having a big impact on Apple."

However, in the public's eyes Jobs is Apple incarnate. Apple was teetering on the brink of ruin when Jobs returned to the helm in 1996 and led it to marketplace glory.

He had left the company in 1985 after an internal power struggle.

Born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955 to a single mother and adopted at a young age, Jobs founded Apple in 1976 with engineer Steve Wozniak after dropping out of college.

Microsoft Won't Budge On Windows XP Dirt Nap

2008-06-25T03:10:00.001+07:00

If you were hoping Microsoft would issue a dramatic last minute, Hollywood-style stay of execution for Windows XP, then you've been watching too many movies.

In a thank you letter sent to customers Monday, Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services and Windows Business Group, reiterated Microsoft's June 30 end-of-life date for XP and said Microsoft plans to continue supporting XP with security updates and other critical updates until April 2014.

The letter contains no new information, but instead reprises the main talking points to which Microsoft has stuck since customers and partners began complaining about Vista's shortcomings: Namely, that unhappy Vista customers will still be able to use XP, and that the market's perception of Vista is quite different from the reality.

Veghte emphasized that XP-hungry customers will still be able to buy PCs with XP from system builders until January 31, 2009, or by exercising the downgrade rights Microsoft offers with OEM versions of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate and to volume licensing customers.

Microsoft will also continue to sell XP Home and XP Starter versions with low cost notebooks and PCs (also known as Netbooks and Nettops) until June 30, 2010, according to Veghte.

Describing Vista as "a very ambitious release", Veghte said the security enhancements Microsoft added to the OS have paid major dividends. For example, in 2007 Vista had half as many critical vulnerabilities as XP SP2 had during the same period, and PCs running Vista are 60 percent less likely to be infected by malware than machines running XP SP2, said Veghte.

Veghte acknowledged that the architectural changes Microsoft had to make with Vista to achieve these security improvements led to compatibility issues with existing hardware and applications, but said these issues have for the most part been resolved.

The good news, according to Veghte, is that Windows 7, the successor to Vista that's due either in late 2009 or early 2010, uses the same core architecture as Vista, which means customers won't have to suffer through another painful migration.

"Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward," Veghte said in the letter. (telephonesonline.com.au)

FCC Gives Sprint Nextel 30 Days To Vacate 800-MHz Band

2008-06-22T03:07:00.001+07:00

The plan to reconfigure parts of the wireless spectrum is designed to prevent interference with public-safety communications systems.

Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) has another 30 days to vacate its spectrum holdings in the 800-MHz band, according to regulatory officials, as the company continues to move spectrum used for commercial purposes that can interfere with public-safety communications systems.

In an order signed Friday by Derek K. Poarch, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, the telecommunications company and wireless provider was given an additional 30 days to be tacked on to the original June 26 deadline for vacating the spectrum.

Sprint picked up most of the spectrum when it acquired Nextel in 2004. In his order, Poarch said the additional 30 days will "provide time to consider a petition for relief that Sprint filed on June 17."

In addition several hundred public-safety networks were granted extensions to similar deadlines on their spectrum earlier this week.

The FCC noted that in July 2004 it approved a plan to reconfigure the 800-MHz band "to address a growing problem of harmful interference." At the time the FCC said the plan was designed to protect the lives of emergency personnel, including first responders.

Sprint's effort to comply with the FCC order and vacate the 800-MHz spectrum has bogged down the company for several months and has been a behind-the-scenes financial strain on Sprint, which is the third-largest U.S. cell phone service provider behind AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

A Sprint spokesman said the company was grateful for the deadline waiver. "We remain committed to completing the reconfiguration," he told The Associated Press. "By granting this waiver the FCC will help promote the reconfiguration process while helping Sprint protect its service to its Nextel customers."

(http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/regulation/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208800019)

Google Faces Off With Compete, Alexa, Comscore, Quantcast (And Soon Firefox)

2008-06-22T03:01:00.000+07:00

Google has just introduced Google Trends For Websites, a new tool that lets users take a peek at the traffic data from sites around the web. The new feature pits Google against a number of well-established players in the traffic data space, including Compete, Comscore, Alexa, and a host of others.

All these services fall prey to one core problem - they don't have a way to directly measure the traffic on the websites that they're monitoring (some sites let you embed code to get an accurate reading, but this only works for sites that have opted in). As a result, traffic data tends be highly inaccurate.

Google, and Google alone, has the power to offer truly accurate traffic information across a large portion of the web. For years the company has offered Google Analytics, a very popular tool that allows sites to monitor their own traffic. Earlier this year Google announced that sites could share their traffic data in an aggregated, anonymous fashion, but stopped short of letting them publish it to everyone.

And with the new Google Trends for Websites, Google has stopped short again. Instead of turning to their goldmine of Analytics data, Trends:

Combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research

Great, so we've got one more unverified, possibly totally inaccurate source of traffic information. Google may be able to leverage its vast database of search data to more accurately measure traffic than the other services, which may well have Alexa et al. shaking in their boots. But until sites have the opportunity to share their Analytics data, any ranking should be met with extreme skepticism.

There is one light at the end of the tunnel: Mozilla has been working on a stealth project that will introduce an opt-in traffic monitor to its Firefox web-browser. With an estimated 18% of the web browser market, the data would be very significant even if only a small fraction of Firefox users choose to participate.

Small success with immunotherapy in skin cancer study

2008-06-22T02:52:00.002+07:00

An Oregon man, given less than a year to live, had a complete remission of advanced deadly skin cancer after experimental treatment that revved up his immune system, bombarding it with 5 billion copies of a single cell, to fight the tumors.

The 52-year-old patient's dramatic turnaround was the only success in a small study, leading doctors to be cautious in their enthusiasm. However, the treatment reported in yesterday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine is being counted as the latest in a small series of successes involving immune-priming treatments against deadly skin cancers.

"Immunotherapy has become the most promising approach" to late-stage, death-sentence skin cancers, said Dr. Darrell Rigel, a clinical professor of dermatology at the New York University Medical Center in Manhattan who had no role in the research.

Still, the immune-priming experiments have yet to yield a consistent therapy. Even researchers who worked on the experiment involving nine patients and just one success are quick to couch the result. "This is only one patient," said study co-author Dr. Cassian Yee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Researchers used a single infection-fighting cell from the man's immune system, CD4 T cell, copies of which were grown in a laboratory. The disease had spread to the man's lungs and a lymph node before he received the two-hour infusion of lab-grown immune system cells. Sixty days later, all signs of the disease were gone. He remained in remission for the following two years at which point he requested not to be contacted further by researchers or the media, a spokesman for the research center said.

Doctors had long thought immune system cells, which so effectively attack foreign threats like viruses, were giving a pass to cancer cells. The theory was that because cancers cells are generated by the body, the immune system perceived them as part of the body.

But about 20 years ago, some scientists discovered that immune cells could latch onto and attack skin cancers. "There's a long history behind all of this," said Dr. Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute, a pioneer in that research.

In recent experiments, Rosenberg and other researchers have focused on souping up a certain kind of immune system cell, the "killer T cells" that envelop and kill foreign agents.

The new research took a different approach. The Hutchinson center scientists focused instead on specific helper T cells that are adept at locking onto a cancer cell and guiding the killer cells to their target. It's possible the treatment spurred his immune system to expand its cancer-fighting ability in new ways, Yee said. But the case raised many unanswered questions. The man had been treated earlier with other drugs. It's possible those treatments had already weakened or altered the cancer.

Also, none of the eight other patients in the study did as well. It's not clear why.

Professor Karol Sikora, a cancer expert at London's Imperial College, said of the research, "I think we will be able to harness the power of the immune system. Patients will live with their cancer, and die with their cancer, but not of their cancer; it will be like diabetes today."

Facts about melanoma

The most common and deadly form of skin cancer, it begins in the melanocytes, the cells found in the epidermis, the top layer of the skin. They make the brown pigment called melanin, which makes skin tan and protects deeper layers of the skin from the sun's harmful effects. Cancer begins when radiation overloads and damages the cells, causing mutations.

Because most of these cells still make melanin, melanoma tumors are often brown or black though they can also have no color. Melanoma most often appears on the trunk of fair-skinned men and on the lower legs of fair-skinned women, but it can appear other places, too. Having dark skin lowers the risk, but a person with dark skin can still develop melanoma.

Almost always curable in its early stages but likely to spread to other parts of the body if untreated.

More than 62,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with melanoma in 2008. Almost 8,500 patients will die from it.

SOURCE: AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY

Maksimalkan Performa Rambut di Malam Hari

2008-06-02T16:44:00.002+07:00

Kesehatan rambut dapat terganggu dengan teriknya sinar matahari, debu, polusi atau kebiasaan seseorang memperlakukan rambutnya, misalnya terlalu sering memakai hair dryer dan sebagainya.

Namun secara alami rambut melakukan perbaikan. Perbaikan itu terjadi di malam hari. Sayangnya, performa rambut untuk melakukan perbaikan tak selalu maksimal. Akibatnya, rambut tak lagi menjadi indah seperti sedia kala.

Sekarang ada produk perawatan rambut dari Kerastase, yang berguna untuk memaksimalkan performa rambut melakukan perbaikan di malam hari. Produk itu adalah 'Noctogenist'.

Noctogenist mengandung serum dan protein yang berguna bagi rambut. Pengaplikasiannya pun mudah, Anda tinggal mengusapkannya secara merata di rambut.

Ada dua Jenis Noctogenist, yaitu Viole Nuit dalam bentuk spray untuk rambut tipis dan Serum Nuit dalam bentuk krim untuk rambut yang tebal.

Produk perawatan ini bisa didapatkan di toko khusus alat kecantikan atau salon-salon kesayangan Anda.

Banner Baru 'THE DARK KNIGHT' Dirilis

2008-05-30T01:56:00.001+07:00

Omelete telah menunjukkan dua banner baru dari film THE DARK KNIGHT yang sangat hebat. Satu banner bergambar Joker (Heath Ledger) yang tampak (selalu) mengerikan. Yang kedua menggambarkan Batman (Christian Bale), sang manusia kelelawar, sedang mengendarai motornya.

Diberitakan film terbaru Batman itu telah memenangkan satu penghargaan dengan margin tidak kurang dari 44% dari pesaingnya. THE DARK KNIGHT telah memenangkan penghargaan Best Action Trailer dalam Golden Trailer Awards ciptaan USA Today.

Lihat berita foto untuk melihat banner baru The Dark Knight dengan lebih jelas.

JK Rowling Tulis Prekuel 'Harry Potter'

2008-05-30T01:52:00.001+07:00

JK Rowling menulis kembali prekuel 800 kata untuk serial novel populernya, Harry Potter, lapor BBC. Meski begitu, naskah tersebut tak akan dipublikasikan dan hanya diperuntukkan dalam pelelangan mengumpulkan dana untuk What's Your Story? milik Waterstone.

Rowling dan 13 penulis lainnya - termasuk Nick Hornby, Doris Lessing, Irvine Welsh, Sebastian Faulks and Margaret Atwood - menuliskan cerita tersebut dari rangkuman Harry Potter yang akan dijual di toko Piccadilly yang juga milik Waterstone mulai 10 Juni mendatang.

Direktur Waterstone, Gerry Johnson mengatakan, "What's Your Story makin berkembang dan menarik. Semua pekerjaan brilian itu dikerjakan oleh para penulis berbakat dan ilustrator, semua orang begitu berarti di sini, dan sekarang inilah prekuel Harry Potter."

"Kami tidak pernah bermimpi JK Rowling akan mendonasikan sesuatu yang berharga seperti ini, dan kami sangat berterima kasih padanya."

Semua uang yang terkumpul dari pelelangan akan disumbangkan langsung ke English PEN dan Dyslexia Action.

"Tidak bisa dikatakan atas tingginya permintaan saat pelelangan ini dilakukan," ujar Philip Errington dari Sotheby.

School movie wins Cannes honour

2008-05-26T02:54:00.001+07:00

French movie The Class, about life in a tough Paris school, has won the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The prize, awarded by a jury headed by Sean Penn, came at the end of the world's most prestigious film festival.

Directed by Laurent Cantet, The Class uses real students and teachers to chronicle a year in their lives.

Hunger, a portrayal of the last six weeks of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands' life, took the Camera d'Or prize for best first feature film.

Benicio Del Toro won best actor for his lead role in Steven Soderbergh's biopic of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

"I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara," he told the audience.

Del Toro won the best supporting actor Oscar for starring in Soderberg's 2000 movie Traffic.

Brazilian star Sandra Corveloni won best actress for playing a pregnant mother of four in Sao Paolo in Line of Passage.

Clint Eastwood and Catherine Deneuve won lifetime achievement awards at the French festival's closing ceremony.

Eastwood had been tipped as a possible winner of the Palme d'Or for Changeling, his missing child drama starring Angelina Jolie.

'Moving movies'

Penn praised the standard of films in competition at Cannes.

"There was a field of such powerful, emotional, moving movies and performances," he said.

"There were so many times that we thought it just can't get better."

The Class - based on an autobiographical novel by young teacher Francois Begaudeau - was praised by Penn as "an amazing, amazing film".

Director Cantet - who was joined on stage by his teenage cast - said he aimed to make a film that was "a reflection of French society - multiple, many-faceted, complex".

"Sometimes also with friction that the film does not try to cover up," he added.

Italian mafia movie Gomorrah, set in Naples and based on a novel by Roberto Saviana, took the Grand Prix runner-up prize.

The third place jury prize went to Il Divo, Paolo Sorrentino's portrait of the country's former prime minister, Giulio Andreotto.

After the awards ceremony, the festival closed with the premiere of Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? - a tale of a fading Hollywood producer trying to lift his career, starring Robert De Niro, Bruce Willis and Sean Penn.

Four play: Fans eager to welcome back 'Sex and the City' women

2008-05-26T02:49:00.001+07:00

How pumped up is Michele Wong over the "Sex and the City" movie? Well, pour a round of cosmos and let's talk.

To celebrate premiere night, the Danville resident is planning a hot-and-fabulous bash with, oh, about 30 of her closest female friends. The women will be rocking their ultra-high heels, big flower brooches and nameplate necklaces. There will be lots of fizzy cocktails, fun theme music, frivolity and self-indulgent fantasy.

A little over the top? Not if you're among the millions of "Sex"-aholics dying to see one of the summer's biggest films.

After all, as Wong likes to say, "We'd do anything for our girls."

The girls, as if you had to ask, are Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), the gal-pal posse that spent six delicious seasons on HBO prowling Manhattan's concrete jungle in towering stilettos, bagging various beaus. Along the way, they revolutionized television, became fashion authorities and put forth a convincing argument that being single is not a disease.

When the series ended in 2004, there was lots of talk about a quick leap to the big screen. Unfortunately, Cattrall and HBO couldn't agree to contract terms and the project fell apart.

But in the spring of 2006, Parker met with writer-director Michael Patrick King and got the ball rolling again. Now, the girls are back in a film that picks up four years after

Mariah Carey Sewa Pengawal Buat Jaga Toilet

2008-05-16T01:17:00.001+07:00

Mariah Carey dikabarkan menyewa seorang pengawal untuk menjaga toilet pribadinya selama resepsi pernikahannya berlangsung.

Penyanyi Touch My Body yang menikah secara diam-diam dengan rapper Nick Cannon di Bahama pada 30 April lalu itu mengatakan, dirinya meminta fasilitas eksklusif selama resepsi yang berlangsung di Six Flags Magic Mountain Theme Park, Los Angeles, pada Selasa (13/5) malam.

Pada resepsi itu Mariah,38, dan Nick, 27, tampak gembira seraya berkendara mobil golf mengelilingi arena resepsi, sementara di belakangnya turut serta penata rambut dan penata rias yang mengawalnya sepanjang acara.

Salah seorang pembantu Mariah dikabarkan pergi ke butik anak-anak bernama Petit Tresor di Los Angeles untuk membicarakan rancangan kamar anak-anak.

Sementara pembantu lainnya mengaku jika dirinya dikirim untuk mencari contoh kain tenun untuk pasangan pengantin baru itu yang menggelar rersepsi pernikahannya dengan tema kupu-kupu.

Mariah yang tinggal di New York juga diyakini telah memesan sebuah ruang koferensi pribadi di Petit Tresor saat dirinya berkunjung ke Los Angeles.

Mariah secara terbuka mengaku keinginannya memiliki anak dengan Nick, dan katanya, "Bukankah ini salah satu tujuan sebuah pernikahan?" (femalefirst.co.uk)

Michael Jackson 'saves Neverland'

2008-03-15T01:07:00.001+07:00

Neverland was due to be auctioned off on 19 March

Pop star Michael Jackson has refinanced his Neverland ranch to save it from being auctioned off, his lawyer says.

Mr Jackson had been told that if he failed to pay $25m (£12.5m) he owed on the sprawling California property, it would be auctioned next week.

L Londell McMillan said the singer had now worked out a "confidential" agreement with an investment group which meant he would keep the property.

"Neverland and MJ are fine," Mr McMillan said.

The deal had been struck with the Fortress Investment Group, he added.

The reclusive singer owed more than three months' arrears on the property.

If he failed to make the payments, the auction was due to go ahead on 19 March.

Fantasy land

Matt Fiddes, a family friend of Mr Jackson and his brothers, said the problem had been exaggerated by "tabloid gossip".

It's quite normal for anyone who's a success to have a mortgage on their property because they can get better rates for their money

Matt Fiddes
Family friend

"I know for a fact that he wasn't going to lose it," he told the BBC News website.

"It's not a problem - Michael's keeping Neverland."

He added: "I've spoken to his brother, Tito, about it and it's not like it is in the papers.

"It's quite normal for anyone who's a success to have a mortgage on their property because they can get better rates for their money."

Neverland was closed in 2006 after Mr Jackson failed to pay his staff

The star, best known for songs such as Bad, Thriller and Billie Jean, has not lived at the property since his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005.

He bought Neverland in 1987 intending to create a fantasy land for children.

It is named after an island in the story Peter Pan, where children never grow up.

After he purchased Neverland, Jackson built a zoo and fairground on the 2,800 acre (1,100 hectare) property north west of Santa Barbara.

It was closed in 2006 after he failed to pay his staff or maintain proper insurance. (bbc.co.uk)

Lindsay Lohan may be running low on cash

2008-03-15T01:00:00.001+07:00

After two pricey rehab stints and string of box-office disappointments, it’s no surprise that people close to Lindsay Lohan are saying that the actress is starting to panic that she’s not as flush with cash as she once was.

“Lindsay has had a reality check — she’s not getting offers like she used to. She’s definitely thinking she needs a big blockbuster just so she can go back to living comfortably,” said one source in the film industry.

Just where did the money go? In Touch weekly outlined some of her spending, and the magazine concludes that Lohan has paid more than $315,000 on rehab stays and more than $1 million on hotels (in particular, they point to the $2,700/night suite at the Chateau Marmot where Lohan lived for a time). And although her rep denies Lohan's cash situation and spending, there is a stunning budget line for tanning: The magazine says that she spent a mind-boggling $70,000 alone on her sunshine in a bottle. (msnbc.msn.com)

Fans await return of Star Wars

2008-03-15T00:37:00.002+07:00

Fans never seem to get their fill of "Star Wars," and George Lucas is happy to oblige.

Star Wars creator George Lucas poses in Las Vegas with a pair of storm troopers from his "Star Wars" films.

Lucas offered a glimpse into the latest creation in his sci-fi universe at the theater-owners convention ShoWest on Thursday, showing a sequence from "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," a computer-animated movie due in theaters August 15. It will be followed by a TV series of the same name, to air on the Cartoon Network and TNT this fall.

The movie came about as an afterthought while Lucas was developing an animated TV show of the same name. That show debuts this fall, but Lucas figured it was ripe for big-screen treatment, too.

"You've got the whole assembly line built, and then you say, 'Hey, we can make up something,"' Lucas said in an interview. "It was like old-time movie making. What I love about television, it's like Monogram Pictures or the old studio system, where a couple guys come to work and they sit and have some coffee and go, 'Why don't we make a movie about such and such? OK, fine.' And at the end of the day, it's pretty much on its way."

Set in the years between episodes II and III -- "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" -- of the big-screen "Star Wars" chronicle, the movie and series present fresh adventures of Jedi warrior Anakin Skywalker, his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and other colleagues.

The movie introduces a female Jedi, Ahsoki, who is Anakin's young apprentice.

"It's like 'Band of Brothers' in space, with Jedi," Lucas, 63, said. "You can tell lots of stories. They come up all the time."

Lucas said he plans to produce at least 100 hours worth of TV episodes of "Clone Wars."

He also is moving forward with a live-action "Star Wars" TV show focusing largely on new characters removed from the Skywalker family. That show will be set in the decades between "Revenge of the Sith" and the period when the original film, 1977's "Star Wars," takes place.

So can fans ever get enough of "Star Wars"?

"I don't know," Lucas said. "I'm thankful every year that it keeps going." (cnn.com)

Adele's album debuts at chart top

2008-02-05T00:42:00.000+07:00

Singer Adele's debut album, 19, has gone straight to the top of the UK chart in its first week.

The 19-year-old Londoner, who won the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll last month, also remains at number two in the singles chart with Chasing Pavements.

Another of her singles, Hometown Glory, entered the chart at number 32.

Swedish DJ Basshunter has the number one single for a fourth week with Now You're Gone. Hot Chip's Ready for the Floor was the highest new entry at six.

Yorkshire band One Night Only's debut single Just For Tonight is a new entry in the top 40 singles at number nine, while singer-songwriter David Jordan's Sun Goes Down moves up 12 places to number 10.

Welsh hard rock band Bullet For My Valentine's second album, Scream Aim Fire, is a new entry at number five.

Last week's number one album, Scouting For Girls' eponymous debut, fell to number two while Nickelback rose to number three with All The Right Reasons.

Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant saw his collaboration with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, slip to number four. (news.bbc.co.uk)

Graphene could be used in creating solar cells, LCDs

2007-12-30T17:58:00.000+07:00

Not to sound alarming or anything, but apparently, we've only got a decade or so before our planet runs clean out of indium. Thankfully for us, a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany are purportedly onto a replacement. For those in the dark, indium is a critical resource in "creating solar cells, LCD and other devices which must have transparent electrodes to carry out their function," but the aforementioned crew has seemingly been able to take graphene ("single layer 2D sheets extracted from the common material graphite") and build an acceptable alternative. The creation is 80-percent transparent to visible light and 100-percent transparent to infrared light, which could actually lead to solar cells capable of soaking up even more energy from more of the EM spectrum. 'Course, there's no telling how close this discovery is to being commercially viable, but we suppose we could always resurrect RPTVs and rely solely on wind farms for renewable energy if necessary, right?

The top 10 films of 2007

2007-12-30T17:50:00.000+07:00

Looking back on a year that kept moviegoers hopping

	Jesse James (Brad Pitt) faces a threat from within his own gang in "The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford." View related photos
Warner Bros.

Nintendo, GameStop address Wii shortage

2007-12-16T23:16:00.000+07:00

The Nintendo Wii launched more than a year ago, and the system is still incredibly hard to find. This long after the system started shipping, people are still camping in front of stores as soon as they hear about new shipments.

Friday morning, Nintendo of America's president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime held a telephone press conference to address the continuing shortage of the Wii.

Fils-Aime said Nintendo hadn't expected as much demand for the Wii as it is getting. Since the launch, he claimed, Nintendo has almost doubled its global production from 1 million to 1.8 million Wiis per month and tripled its workforce at Nintendo of America's North Bend, Washington, distribution center. The Nintendo president wouldn't say whether Nintendo would further increase its Wii production, but he denied any claims that Nintendo is stockpiling Wiis.

"There was no ability for us to stockpile systems in the summer for the holiday rush," Fils-Aime said. "Enough systems would make everyone, including me, much happier."

According to Fils-Aime, Wiis will be available next week at all major retailers. If past patterns are any indication, however, that "availability" will be limited to shoppers willing to camp out before stores open on Sunday or Monday morning.

While that seems to be the biggest hope for Christmas Wiis, Reggie also announced a rain-check program in conjunction with GamesStop to get more Wiis out to shoppers in January. Even if Wiis are out of stock, on December 20 and 21, consumers will be able to purchase them for January.

On those two days, if you put down the full retail price of the Wii at a GameStop, you'll receive a rain check guaranteeing you a Wii in January. The rain checks will be available only as long as supplies last, but Fils-Aime said GameStop has "many tens of thousands" of rain checks available across its 3,000-plus stores in the US.

"We went into the launch with very high expectations," Fils-Aime said. "What we didn't expect was to throw out the whole playbook and essentially create a whole new level of sell-through for this industry. You can't plan for that." (gamespot.com)

'National Treasure' back in action

2007-12-16T23:02:00.000+07:00

Nicolas Cage stars in 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets'

Cage and Diane Kruger face monumental clues in 'Book of Secrets.'

Cage's 'Treasure' hunter character sheds light on a historical mystery.

"Sequels, yeah," Jon Voight says, laughing, as if breaking some sort of taboo. "They used to poo-poo them. It used to be this idea that if you're doing sequels, you're not an artist. But it's so silly. Of course there's nothing wrong with sequels. Number one, it puts a lot of people to work. And when you have something people love, it's nice to have another chapter."

So this Friday, Voight joins Nicolas Cage and co-stars Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha and Harvey Keitel for the second installment of the "National Treasure" franchise, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets."

This time treasure hunter Ben Gates (Cage) must clear his family name after an ancestor has been implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Assisted by girlfriend Abigail Chase (Kruger), pal Riley Poole (Bartha) and his own father (Voight), he puts the puzzle together while breaking into Buckingham Palace, sneaking into the White House and kidnapping the President of the United States.

For Cage, this last stunt was almost a deal killer. "I got nervous," says the Oscar-winner, who'd actually never done a sequel before after more than 40 feature films and was a bit hesitant about getting involved in this one, even though the first film made nearly $350 million worldwide.

"I said, 'How can that be?'" he continues. "'How can Ben Gates kidnap the President of the United States? It won't work.' Then I went home and started to laugh and realized that that was the charm of it, that it was comedic and absurd and didn't take itself too seriously."

Another concern for all involved was sequel-itis, a disease that afflicts filmmakers who want to cash in on the success of a first film but don't have any idea how, so they simply crank up the volume.

"Bigger is always better if the big part is what people came to the movie to see," says Jon Turteltaub, who directed both movies. "But I've always felt that the first movie succeeded because people liked the characters and the adventure they were on. You have to say the story and the characters and the humor have to be more elaborate and more enriching."

Kruger says they've succeeded. "This is much more of a complicated plot and more dense and smarter and much more international," she says. "It's bigger, but it's not like there's huge explosions. It's not an action movie, per se."

This is somewhat surprising, since one of the major forces behind both films is producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose name is synonymous with giant cinematic fireballs ("Con Air," "Armageddon," the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy). While he doesn't view the relative absence of overturning cars in this film as a departure for him, he does employ a few of his old tricks: elaborate sets, difficult locations, and top-flight actors. How in the world did he get Mirren and Harris?

"It's all about two things," he says. "The screenplay and money. If they like the character and we pay them well, they'll show up. Helen helped create the character and worked with Jon and the writers. She had a blast."

So much so that she had to turn down a dining invitation from the queen of England because they were shooting in South Dakota.

As for his good relationship with Cage, who's worked with him on five films, Bruckheimer says, "He's a quirky actor. That's why I love him. You never get tired of watching him because you never know what he's going to do. We took him from being a real artist [after winning BestActor for 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas"] and put him in 'The Rock' and made him a big action star."

Cage is apparently not done with Bruckheimer, either. He wants to go to the well again, this time taking Ben Gates to Asia or Africa. (Bruckheimer says the seeds of another sequel have been planted on practically the last page of the script - in the Book of Secrets - though no one, not even the film's writers, have figured out what it is.)

Cage has even bigger dreams.

"My biggest thrill would be if Disney was so happy with the movie that they gave it a ride," Cage says. "Because I love amusement parks and I love Disneyland and I would like to see a 'National Treasure' ride. That would be a dream come true for me." (nydailynews.com)

Asus R2H Ultramobile PC

2007-11-09T01:43:00.000+07:00

The good: Large 7-inch screen; good battery life; built-in GPS.

The bad: Bigger and heavier than other UMPC systems; underpowered CPU; difficult to input text. The bottom line: The Asus R2H is too big to be truly ultramobile, but its relatively large screen and decent battery make it good for on-the-go Web surfing and media playing, even if the onscreen keyboard is a chore to use.

As laptops get smaller and PDA-style mobile phones get larger, a loose coalition of companies, including Microsoft and Intel, have been pushing a new category of mobile computing product, called the Ultramobile PC, or UMPC. The first generation of these handheld PCs, including the Samsung Q1 and the Sony VAIO UX50, fell short of the mark, offering limited battery life, outdated components, and awkward user interfaces. While upcoming pocket-size systems, such as the OQO Model 02 and the VAIO UX Premium, show promise, Asus has taken a different track with the R2H Ultra-Mobile PC, using a larger, brick-size design to house a generous 7-inch touch screen. The middling Celeron M performance and the lack of a slide-out keyboard will turn off many users, but at $999, it's the cheapest UMPC we've seen, and it's the one that's best suited for viewing media files.

Measuring 9.2 inches wide, 5.2 inches deep, and 1.1 inches thick, the Asus R2H is at the upper end of the UMPC category. It's not nearly as pocket-size as the Sony VAIO UX50, and it will fit in only the largest of jacket pockets. Weighing 2.4 pounds (3.1 pounds with the AC adapter), it's actually heavier than the Fujitsu LifeBook P1610 ultraportable laptop. Compared to other UMPCs, it feels unreasonably heavy and bulky, but taken as a portable Web-surfing, media-playing box, it's easy to tote around in a shoulder bag or a backpack.

The 7-inch LCD offers an unusual 800x480 native resolution. Images and text appear nice and crisp at the default setting, but screen real estate is severely limited. There's an included application that lets you easily set a higher extrapolated resolution--something you would never do on a standard laptop. With it, you can set the resolution at 800x600 or 1,024x600, which makes for a less cramped Web-surfing experience but also loses some sharpness and image quality. The 800x600 setting offers the best compromise in terms of image quality and viewing area.

Lacking the slide-out keyboard of the Sony VAIO UX or the OQO, the R2H's biggest hurdle is with inputting information. You have a variety of interface options, none of which are sufficient on their own. Most basic screen navigation can be accomplished through a thumb stick to the right of the display. It acts as a mouse, moving the cursor around the screen. To the left of the display are two mouse buttons, easily clicked with your left thumb. The thumb stick takes a little getting used to, but anyone who has used a pencil-eraser-style laptop nub (I'm looking at you, ThinkPad owners) should get the hang of it in short order. Below the mouse buttons on the left side is a four-way rocker control, used to navigate around large documents. With the screen's low native resolution, that will include pretty much any Web page or office document. On the right side, below the thumb stick, are page-up and page-down buttons, good for fast scrolling.

If mastering a thumb stick doesn't appeal to you, the R2H is also a tablet PC, and its touch-sensitive screen works with both the included stylus or your fingertip (or any similar object). The responsiveness was good, especially after recalibrating the touch screen, although the stylus worked much better than our fingers when we tried to hit a tiny button on the tiny screen.

For entering actual text, your options are much more limited. You could always attach an external USB keyboard and mouse, but that defeats the purpose of having an ultramobile PC. Instead, your only recourse is the onscreen keyboard, easily accessible by clicking a small icon that helpfully pops up when you hover over any text-input field. Unfortunately, the response from the onscreen keyboard is so slow as to be nearly useless, and typing just the URL for a Web site was a trying process.

The R2H includes a decent set of connections, including three USB 2.0 ports (two full-size, one mini), headphone and mic jacks, a standard A/V out jack, and an SD card reader. Sitting above the screen is a 1.3-megapixel Webcam. Networking includes an Ethernet connection, 802.11b/g wireless, and Bluetooth. One interesting addition is a built-in GPS antenna that works with the included copy of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006. The antenna flips out from the rear of the system, but we were unable to get a solid GPS signal--likely owing to our urban location, a weak point of many GPS systems.

The included 60GB hard drive and 768MB of DDR2 RAM are decent, but saddled with a 900MHz Intel Celeron M CPU, the Asus R2H isn't going to be a performance leader. Out of the handful of recent systems with Celeron M processors, the R2H was far behind the HP Compaq Presario V5000T (1.46GHz Celeron M410) and the Toshiba Satellite M115-S1061 (1.6GHz Celeron M420) in CNET Labs' Multitasking test. In the hard-drive-intensive Photoshop CS2 test, however, the R2H was much more in-line with the other Celeron M systems. For basic Web surfing and media playing, the R2H works fine, but even there, there's a small but noticeable amount of lag.

The R2H did manage to impress us with its decent battery life--usually a weak point for UMPCs. It ran for 3 hours, 41 minutes on our MobileMark battery life test. Both the Samsung Q1 and the Sony VAIO UX50 offered less than 3 hours of battery life on the same test. This is especially impressive given the R2H's larger screen.

Asus offers a one-year limited global warranty with all its notebooks; unfortunately, you'll have to pay to ship the laptop back to a repair depot for service. Also, phone-support hours are limited, and the call is not toll-free. The company's support Web site includes the expected driver downloads and a handful of FAQs, and you can always post questions to the company's active user forum. (zdnet.com)

IPhone Hit Europe

2007-11-09T01:33:00.000+07:00

IPhone Goes on Sale Friday in Germany, Britain As It Makes Trans-Atlantic Debut

Apple's iPhone will go on sale in Germany and Britain on Friday, making its European debut four months after its launch in the United States.

"We assume that the device will find a very good reception on the market," said Rene Bresgen, spokesman for Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Germany. In Britain, mobile operator O2 is the designated carrier.

The iPhone, an Internet enabled, cell phone-iPod media player, got an enthusiastic reception in the U.S. with sales pushing past 1.4 million since its debut June 29.

Consumers in Britain will pay 269 pounds ($566) for the 8-gigabyte model or about $67 more than what Apple charges in the United States. In Germany the phone will cost 399 euros ($587.41). Both European price tags include value-added tax.

Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Rene Obermann told CNBC Europe said the preregistration demand for the phone in Germany was big.

"We're not giving out precise forecasts, but registrations on our Web site lead me to believe (the Christmas season) will be a strong sales period," he told the network. "The real question for me is whether we have enough devices and can meet customer demand."

In Britain, Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores are hiring extra staff in an effort to handle the hoped-for onslaught of iPhone fanatics, but analysts say the device is unlikely to elicit the consumer frenzy seen in the United States.

Apple Inc. cut the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone in the United States from $599 to $399 and discontinued the $499 4-gigabyte version. It apologized to those who had paid full price and offered $100 credits to early buyers.

France Telecom will sell the iPhone in France through its wireless arm, Orange, beginning Nov. 29.

As in the United States, the phone will not operate on Europe's fastest cellular data networks. But when it's within range of a Wi-Fi hotspot, it automatically connects to the faster technology.

(abcnews.go.com)

Setting Up Linux

2007-11-06T01:37:00.000+07:00

Go open-source by learning how to install Linux on a Windows XP PC in this hands-on course.

Objectives

In this course, you’ll learn:

the history and benefits of using Linux
how to prepare for a Linux install by documenting your hardware components, checking the BIOS settings of your PC, and backing up data
how to create two new partitions on a Windows boot drive sp you can run Windows and Linux on the same PC
how to install the Mandrakelinux distribution of Linux
how to configure your Linux system for printing
How to shut down Linux, as well as remove it from your PC.

Why Linux?

In this lesson, enrolled students will learn the history and benefits of using Linux.

It’s out there, and it’s free — or at least close to it — but you just haven’t had the guts to take the plunge and try Linux. We have good news. It’s not necessary to make a complete commitment to the open-source operating system. You can have your Windows and your Linux, too, by setting up a dual-boot system. Before we explore how to make this happen, though, let’s first explore a brief history of Linux and why it’s so powerful.

By the early 1980s, companies like AT&T, Microsoft, and IBM had begun practicing what many considered to be restrictive licensing practices, preventing users from freely copying their operating systems and utility programs, and from accessing the source code. As a result, users could not make any customizations and improvements to the programs.

In 1984, Richard Stallman, who worked at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence labs, launched an initiative to produce a source of open software for computer users. Stallman’s goal was to motivate other developers to contribute to the effort and create a comprehensive computer operating system composed entirely of free software.

In 1991, a 21-year-old student at the University of Helsinki, Finland, developed a UNIX-like operating system (OS) for his own use. That OS, along with several utilities that had been developed as part of Stallman’s project, became Linux.

As Linux became more and more popular, the need for packaged versions or distributions of the operating system became evident. Several organizations stepped up to the task, developing installation programs, improving and adding to the documentation, and providing utility programs to make the operating system easier to configure and maintain.

Because of the large number of organizations working to make Linux a better system, its list of benefits increases daily, including low cost, easy licensing, interoperability, and stability.

Linux has gained a reputation for being much more stable than many commercial operating systems. In part, this is because its architecture was modeled after Unix, which is time-tested and itself quite stable. But also with its wide-scale availability and accessibility, few bugs go unfound. What more could you ask for?

Preparing for Installation

In this lesson, enrolled students learn how to document the hardware components of their PC, back up any data, and check the BIOS settings.

Before we begin to install Linux, take a few minutes to document the key components of your system—at least your modem, network adapter, printer, and sound and graphics cards. To find this information, simply open the Windows Device Manager and click the plus sign next to a given category to display the installed hardware of that type.

Next, make a complete backup of your hard drive so that you can restore the drive if necessary. This is more than a sensible precautionary measure—it’s a crucial necessity. It’s also a good idea to defragment the hard drive that will hold your Linux installation.

Once you’ve completed the backup and defragmenting, reboot and enter your PC’s BIOS setup utility. Once it appears, ensure your system is set to boot from a CD before your primary hard drive. This setting will allow you to boot from your Linux installation discs or, in the event of problems, from your Windows XP installation disc.

Now look for an option such as PnP OS or Plug-and-Play OS. Set this value to No. This allows the BIOS to autodetect components, which is necessary with some Linux distributions; doing so will not affect how well Windows runs on your PC. Save your changes and exit the setup utility.

Creating New Partitions

In this lesson, enrolled students explore how to create two new partitions on a Windows boot drive, so that Windows and Linux can co-exist on the same PC.

Most operating systems, including Linux, use disk partitions. Partitions enable you to divide large disks into smaller, more manageable chunks. The overhead in maintaining extremely large partitions is sometimes excessive, so making several smaller partitions is more efficient. It also enables you to organize information with less chaos. Partitions are treated as if they were separate disks.

Experienced Linux users often create four partitions for Linux installations, but for newcomers, two will suffice: a root partition and a swap partition.

Creating these partitions is a cinch if you’ll be installing Linux on a second hard drive in your system. You can also have Linux partition your hard drive. If you fall into either category, you can skip to the next lesson.

For our example, we installed Linux onto a Windows boot drive by creating two new partitions. The least-troublesome way to achieve this is to use Norton PartitionMagic ($69.95).

This time-tested utility lets you resize your current Windows partition (including NTFS volumes) without damaging your Windows installation or data. Try to carve out at least 4GB of space for your Linux root partition. Define your swap partition to roughly double the capacity of your system memory, to a maximum of about 512MB.

When creating partitions for a dual-boot configuration, make sure the Linux root partition immediately follows your Windows partition. Choose Ext3 as the file system for your root partition and Linux Swap as the type for the swap partition.

Installing Linux

In this lesson, enrolled students learn how to install the Mandrakelinux distribution of Linux and test their system by first booting in Windows and then Linux.

If you’re new to Unix-like OSs, use a distribution that focuses on easy installation, such as Mandrakelinux or SuSE Linux. Once you’ve selected one, go to the Web site for that distribution and make sure the list of supported hardware matches the component list you made.

Here, we will use Mandrakelinux 10.0. To begin installation, simply boot up with the first disc loaded in your PC. Most of the installation screens include a help button that leads to at least some information about the settings.

Pay close attention to any screens relating to partitioning your hard drive. With Mandrakelinux, the DrakX Partition wizard gives you several options. On the first screen, select Custom Disk Partitioning. If you used PartitionMagic to create your partitions beforehand, choose Use Existing partition. The next screen gives you a chance to select a partition to format. If you’ve used PartitionMagic, uncheck the box next to any partitions shown and move on. If you’re installing Mandrakelinux on a second hard drive, choose either Erase Entire Disk or Custom Disk Partitioning from the DrakX partition-wizard options.

Before you install Linux, you’ll have to create a partition on your hard drive. The Mandrakelinux wizard steps you through this.

Depending on your version of Mandrakelinux, you may be given a choice of packages and software to install. If in doubt, accept the default options. Soon after, the install process should begin copying files from the CDs.

After Mandrakelinux copies the necessary files from your CDs, it will lead you through a few additional screens. The most important of these lets you specify the installation location of the bootloader, the software that lets you choose which OS to load each time you boot. We got the best results by choosing the default setting with Mandrakelinux, “First sector or drive (MBR).”

When you get to the Mandrakelinux configuration summary screen, you can choose among three bootloaders: LILO graphical (the default), LILO text, and GRUB. Opinions and favorites vary among Linux enthusiasts, but the LILO graphical bootloader worked well in our tests.

Before leaving the configuration summary screen, try to configure any component marked with red text, especially your graphics card. Finish the installation and reboot as instructed.

The LILO bootloader appears shortly after you reboot. With Mandrakelinux, you’ll see a few options for booting Linux and at least one item for booting Windows. Of the Linux options, the first, default choice will most likely produce the best results.

If you can bear to wait a few minutes to try Linux, choose Windows first, just to satisfy yourself that you haven’t lost Windows and all of your applications and data. Then reboot as you normally would but let the system boot into Linux.

Once Mandrakelinux has booted, you can do some exploring by clicking the yellow star at the lower corner to enter the Main menu, which is a lot like Windows XP’s Start menu.

Once Linux has booted, do some exploring. With Mandrakelinux and KDE, click the yellow star at the lower corner to enter the Main Menu, which is a lot like Windows XP’s Start menu. With most distributions, you’ll find powerful office suites, image editors, Web browsers, and other software. Choose the Documentation item of the Welcome to Mandrakelinux screen for an excellent introduction.

Configuring a Printer

In this lesson, enrolled students learn how to configure their Linux system for printing.

To set up your printer in Mandrakelinux, choose System > Configuration > “Configure from the main menu.” You’ll be asked for your root password, which you must provide to change the system configuration. When the Mandrake Control Center appears, choose Hardware > Printers.

The Mandrake Control Center gives you access to system utilities you’d find in Windows’ Control Panel. Go here to get your printer online.

If any other devices aren’t working, try configuring them within the desktop environment using available tools, such as the Mandrake Control Center or HardDrake. If you need to install a driver, consider it a project and a learning experience. Begin by searching the Internet for the appropriate driver, which should include at least some semblance of instructions.

Tip:
To install your driver, you’ll probably need the Linux command-line interface. From the Main Menu, choose System > Terminals and select among the available options.

Shutting Down and Removing Linux

In this lesson, enrolled students learn commands to shut down Linux as well as how to remove it from the PC.

When you are done using Linux, you can either leave it up and running and just log out, or you can power it down. The shutdown command is used to gracefully take your system down. The command is located in the /sbin directory. It warns all users that the system is going down and no one can log in after the command is issued. If you are the only user on your system, you can also use the halt or reboot commands.

Linux isn’t for everyone, nor is it for every system. If you find yourself wishing you could make Linux go away, putting your system back the way it was should take only a few minutes.

First, delete the Linux root and swap partitions that you created. If you used Norton PartitionMagic, boot it up again under Windows XP and delete just the Linux partitions. You can also take this opportunity to resize your primary Windows partition to fill the entire hard drive. Apply the changes.

Now place your Windows XP installation disc in your optical drive and reboot. When the installation-disc menu appears, hit the R key to enter the rescue console, and type in fixmbr. Your system should now boot as it did before you installed Linux.

(learnlinux.classes.cnet.com)

Music Review: Jay-Z 'American Gangster'

2007-11-06T01:22:00.000+07:00

And built on a mournful Marvin Gaye sample and sweeping strings, "American Dreamin'" chronicles thoughts of attending college that give way to profiting from dealing drugs. Jay rhymes: "Mama forgive me, should be thinkin' bout Harvard/ But that's too far away, n----s are starving/ Ain't nothin' wrong with aim, just gotta change the target/ I got dreams of baggin' snidd-ow the size of pillows."

Jay-Z is the first to admit that his retirement from rap was entirely too premature: Like the self-proclaimed Mike Jordan of rap once famously said, "I can't leave rap alone/ the game needs me."

After claiming that he'd release no more albums, last year's "Kingdom Come" CD was Jay-Z's first comeback attempt. However, just like Jordan's return to the NBA after his first hiatus, Jay's return only partly lived up to expectations. Although the disc scored his best opening week sales until that point, it was roundly received as a relative letdown, with too many soft-edged rhymes about his cushy, celebrity lifestyle.

"American Gangster," his tenth studio album, represents Jay's comeback from that comeback _ his chance to reassert himself as hip-hop's pre-eminent wordsmith and hustler-gone-legal chronicler. This time, he unquestionably delivers the goods _ showcasing deft metaphors about his own ghetto ascension and an uncanny ear for dramatic sonic backdrops.

Jay claims he was inspired by the Ridley Scott-directed film of the same name about '70s-era Harlem drug mogul Frank Lucas. Though not a soundtrack to the biopic, the disc still has a cinematic quality. The beats, most notably the six tracks produced by Sean "Diddy" Combs and his Hitmen beatmaking team, capture a range of moods that few rap albums nail. Stately horns punctuate "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is ... )" while "Sweet" features a smoothed-out blaxploitation vibe.

Then later, with the aid of the tumbling congas and bright, electro-synths of the Neptunes-produced "I Know," Jay unfolds a tale of addiction where his own music could be the choice drug. "I am so dope/ Like Louboutins with the red bottoms /You gotta have 'em, you glad you got 'em."

Indeed, Jay's allure even has an affect on his rap star peers. Recent rival Lil Wayne contributes some tight-jawed rhymes and sing-songy vocals on "Hello Brooklyn 2.0" which uses a screeching Beastie Boys vocal sample and some thumping 808 drum kicks. And to dazzling effect, Jay partners with former nemesis Nas over the rugged, organ-driven beat of "Success." Cocky as ever, Jay puffs out his chest: "I got watches I ain't seen in months/ Apartment at the Trump I only slept in once/ N----s said Hova was over, such dummies/ Even if I fell, I'd land on a bunch of money."

"American Gangster" is proof that Jay-Z hasn't lost his gift of making some of the most undeniably inventive and assured hip-hop music, or as on "Roc Boys" he sums up: "This is black superhero music." Bold words, but it's hard to argue with someone who's comeback twice and remains the genre's most exciting voice.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: "Ignorant (Expletive)" with Beanie Sigel features a bumping bass line, Isley Brothers sample and Jay defending rap by taking aim at Don Imus and flashing "celebutantes." (foxnews.com)

Teen's ticket hinges on GPS vs. radar

2007-10-26T16:55:00.000+07:00

Given the option of contesting a traffic ticket, most motorists — 19 out of 20 by some estimates — would rather pay up than pit their word against a police officer's in court.

A retired sheriff's deputy nevertheless hopes to beat the long odds of the law by setting the performance of a police officer's radar gun against the accuracy of the GPS tracking device he installed in his teenage stepson's car.

The retired deputy, Roger Rude, readily admits his 17-year-old stepson, Shaun Malone, enjoys putting the pedal to the metal. That's why he and Shaun's mother insisted on putting a global positioning system that monitors the location and speed of the boy's Toyota Celica.

Shaun complained bitterly about his electronic chaperone until it became his new best friend on July 4, when he was pulled over and cited for going 62 mph in a 45 mph zone.

Rude encouraged him to fight the ticket after the log he downloaded using software provided by the GPS unit's Colorado-based supplier showed Shaun was going the speed limit within 100 feet of where a Petaluma officer clocked him speeding.

"I'm not trying to get a guilty kid off," Rude said. "I've always had faith in our justice system. I would like to see the truth prevail and I would like Shaun to see that the system works."

Though traffic courts do not routinely accept GPS readouts as evidence of a vehicle's speed — and many GPS receivers aren't capable of keeping records anyway — some tech-savvy drivers around the world slowly are starting to use the technology to challenge moving violations, according to anecdotal accounts from defense lawyers and law enforcement officials.

This summer, for instance, an Australian farmer became a hero to speeders everywhere when he got a ticket dismissed after presenting police with data from his tracking device.

While winning a case this way is far from a sure thing, GPS-generated evidence could at least inject an element of doubt into typically one-sided proceedings, said Jim Baxter, president of the National Motorists Association.

A Sonoma County traffic commissioner is expected to rule within the next two weeks whether to dismiss Shaun's ticket based on Rude's written argument that the motorcycle officer's radar gun was either improperly calibrated or thrown off by another speeding car.

"Radar is a pretty good tool, but it's not an infallible tool," said Rude, who spent 31 years in law enforcement. "With the GPS tracker, there is no doubt about it. There is no human interference."

Rude plans to offer scientific data and experts if his challenge doesn't succeed right away.

Petaluma police Lt. John Edwards said he could not discuss Shaun's case but disputed Rude's contention that GPS is more accurate than a speed gun.

"GPS works on satellite signals, so you have a delay of some type," Edwards said. "Is it a couple-second delay? A 30-second delay? Because in that time people can speed up, slow down."

The device in Shaun's car, originally designed for trucking companies, rental car agencies and other businesses with fleets, sends a signal every 30 seconds that records his whereabouts and travel speed.

His parents signed up to be automatically notified by e-mail whenever he exceeded 70 mph, and the one time he did he lost his driving privileges for 10 days.

Rude said he is talking about the ticket — Shaun has tried to stay out of it — to encourage other parents to keep tabs on their teenage drivers using GPS. He said he has told too many parents their child was killed in a wreck.

David W. Brown, a Monterey lawyer and author of "Fight Your Ticket in California," said attacking the reliability of radar guns does not usually get speeders very far, especially if they are unwilling to devote extra time and money to hiring legal experts.

Still, among people who do challenge tickets, the proportion who triumph is relatively large, he said. Their technique? Betting the officer who cited them will be unable to make it to court.

Apple ready to set Leopard free

2007-10-26T16:47:00.000+07:00

Leopard, the latest update of the Apple Mac operating system OS X, goes on sale worldwide from 1800 GMT.

The release ends months of waiting for Mac fans, after Apple pushed back the launch to finish development on its much-hyped iPhone.

Early reviews for Leopard have been positive with veteran technology writer Walt Mossberg calling it "evolutionary, not revolutionary".

Apple is hoping to build on recent strong sales of its Mac computers.

In the last three months, Apple sold 2.2 million Macs, up 400,000 on its previous best quarter.

The company is touting Leopard as a Vista-beater, pointing to new features not found in the new operating system (OS) from Microsoft that drives many PCs.

LEOPARD'S NEW SPOTS

Time Machine - automatic file back-up

Stacks - related files and folders grouped automatically

Spaces -keep separate desktops for different uses

Quick Look - Examines the contents of a file without having to open the related program

Coverflow Finder - flick through files and folders like album art in iTunes

Boot Camp - run Windows on a Mac

Apple says there are 300 new features in Leopard, but some of them are minor tweaks to the previous OS, called Tiger, rather than fully-fledged tools or enhancements.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mossberg said: "I believe it builds on Apple's quality advantage over Windows.

"In my view, Leopard is better and faster than Vista, with a set of new features that make Macs even easier to use."

'Few disappointments'

In the New York Times, technology columnist David Pogue wrote: "Happy surprises, and very few disappointments, lie around every corner."

At the MacLiveExpo, being held in London, there was a mixed response from attendees on whether they would be rushing out to buy Leopard on day one.

Many of the delegates said they would wait for the operating system to "bed down" before they bought it.

"I never buy any operating system when it first comes out. I normally wait until it has been out for six months or a year," said David Ramage, a Mac user from Luton.

Vista has been quite a disappointment for many people and Leopard could be the reason many people make the switch to Macs

Nik Rawlinson, editor of MacUser magazine

He added: "Tiger does what I need it to do right now. I've not seen anything in Leopard to make me want to buy it immediately."

For developers, a new operating system means having to work to ensure their programs run smoothly on the new platform.

Ben Rudolph, director of communications at SWSoft, makers of Parallels, said Leopard was a big step forward for Apple and "would continue to drive sales of Macs".

Parallels lets users run the Mac operating system alongside Windows and Linux on one machine.

Mr Rudolph said Parallels would run smoothly under Leopard, barring any last minute changes to the code released by Apple.

"If that happens, we'll release a free, automatic update to account for them very soon after Leopard's launch," he said.

Of the new features in Leopard, Mr Rudolph said he was looking forward to being able to take advantage of his Mac's 64-bit architecture.

The new OS takes full advantage of the latest generation of chips inside Apple machines, while running applications on older processors also.

Features like Stacks gathers related material together

"I'm also looking forward to new user-experience features like Stacks, which should help me organise my incredibly messy desktop, and Spaces, which lets me cycle between different desktops."

Nik Rawlinson, editor of MacUser magazine, said many users would get Leopard in its first few weeks on sale.

"When Tiger was launched it earned Apple $120m very quickly and all the expectations are that sales will be double that."

He added: "Vista has been quite a disappointment for many people and Leopard could be the reason many people make the switch to Macs."

He said he felt Leopard had enough new features to distinguish itself from Microsoft's Vista.

"A lot of things that were previously only add-ons in the Mac world, such as the Apple TV interface, are now integrated into the OS.

"That is competing directly with Media Center on Windows PCs. Apple has seen that Microsoft has moved forward in some areas and is responding."

Intel opens plant, starts production of 45nm Penryn chip

2007-10-26T16:39:00.000+07:00

Intel Corp. Thursday opened its new $3 billion manufacturing facility in Chandler, Ariz., kicking off mass production of its new 45-nanometer microprocessors.

The move, according to analysts, gives Intel another leg up in its ongoing battle against rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD recently started shipping its quad-core Barcelona processor, which is built using a 65nm manufacturing process. AMD began shipping its first processor based on 65nm process technology, the Athlon 64 X2 dual-core desktop chip, in December 2006.

Intel's new Penryn 45nm processors, slated to start shipping next month, will run desktop, server and mobile computers.

"AMD, not too long ago, released 65nm chips so this means they're going to have a tough row to hoe," said Dean Freeman, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "Intel will have a faster processor and the potential for higher performance, so AMD will have to find ways to compete against that."

Intel is looking to make a significant shift from the 65nm to 45nm processors, about a year after it launched a pilot effort in Oregon to produce the new chips.

The opening of the new Arizona facility, called Fab 32, is expected to boost production of 45nm wafers from 5,000 a month in the pilot program to 25,000 to 30,000 wafers a month, according to Freeman.

The 45nm manufacturing process is generally seen as the next big step in the semiconductor industry because it goes a long way toward addressing power leakage problems that plague larger technologies.

A microprocessor built with 45nm process technology is smaller than its 65nm predecessor. Parts of the chip, like wires and transistors, get smaller, as well allowing it to work more efficiently because of the increased density. They're also cheaper to produce because manufacturers can pack more chips onto a silicon wafer.

"The march downward in nanometer manufacturing is great news," said Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc. in Hayward, Calif. "The new processors that will be produced [in the new facility] leverage the company's Hafnium-based high-K materials, which are designed to significantly reduce energy leakage. It's not a be-all, end-all solution for some of the processor industry's most fundamental challenges, but it should help in the creation of dependable next-generation processors and systems.

"This will help drive the trend toward more powerful desktop and mobile computing solutions," he added.

Freeman noted that IT managers should expect to see 45nm technology in PCs in six months to a year, though some early adopters may already be using it in server farms.

"For the IT manager, he can expect that data retrieval will be quicker, processing instruction sets will be faster and more information will transfer faster," he added. "And the chip will run as cool as a 65nm so you get more performance using less power."

One nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter.

Country legend's 'cool factor is off the charts'

2007-10-20T17:41:00.000+07:00

Appalachian music might seem a strange fit for a guy so closely linked to the hard electric twang of country's Bakersfield Sound, but don't tell that to Merle Haggard.

For his new album, Merle Haggard and friends performed some of Haggard's classics with bluegrass arrangements.

"The Bluegrass Sessions" finds Haggard and friends putting fiddle, Dobro and banjo to some of his classic tunes, like "Big City" and "Mama's Hungry Eyes."

"I've had years to become a fan of bluegrass and never had done anything in that area. I thought before I cash out I'd do one," Haggard said recently from his home in northern California.

He went to great lengths to be authentic. He released it on bluegrass band leader Del McCoury's record label, recorded it at Ricky Skaggs' studio just outside Nashville and had Ronnie Reno (son of bluegrass banjo ace Don Reno) produce it.

Marty Stuart played mandolin and helped assemble a crack band that included Rob Ickes on Dobro, Carl Jackson on guitar and Aubrey Haynie on fiddle. Alison Krauss sings on "Mama's Hungry Eyes."

"We tried one take the traditional way of doing it with everybody in little booths, and that didn't work," Haggard explained. "So we circled up in the studio and recorded it with one mic. We found that to be much better. It allowed us to see each other and to play together instead of putting things together one piece at a time and making sure every piece was perfect."

He wrote four new songs for the disc and included a Jimmie Rodgers medley and a Delmore Brothers tune, "Blues Stay Away from Me." But the strength of the album might be Haggard's reworked gems. The instrumentation and his weathered voice give the songs a totally different feel, as though they had sprung from a mountain hollow instead of a smoky beer joint.

"We chose to do Merle Haggard songs as opposed to traditional bluegrass songs because we didn't want to do the same songs that have been done so many times. We wanted to have original material," Haggard said.

At 70, the Country Music Hall of Famer is a living legend. He's written and recorded dozens of hits, many of them classics like "Mama Tried" and "Workin' Man Blues." His "Okie from Muskogee" became a cultural touchstone in the late '60s with lyrics admonishing war protesters and the counterculture.

Along with Buck Owens and some others, he helped define the twangy Bakersfield Sound, which was a direct contrast to the smooth, string-laden country records coming out of Nashville in the 1960s.

The Byrds, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Grateful Dead, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams and Reba McEntire have all covered his songs.

"His music strikes everybody. It doesn't matter what people listen to, whether it's pop or bluegrass or country or jazz. He strikes a chord with all of them," McCoury said.

The deep-voiced country singer Trace Adkins said he learned by studying Haggard's records.

"He'd sing notes that you didn't expect to come," Adkins said. "That was his thing, and it still is. He does that stuff that's so cool. His cool factor is just off the charts."

Today, Haggard continues to work at a fast clip. Besides the bluegrass project, he joined Willie Nelson and Ray Price earlier this year on an album of country standards, "Last of the Breed." Last year, he and George Jones teamed for an album called "Kickin' Out the Footlights ... Again."

During the interview, Haggard was getting ready to dash off to rehearsal. "I play a lot of music even when I'm off. I have part of the band that lives in Redding (California) with me. We just try to keep ourselves active in music.

"It's quite a hassle trying to keep yourself active in music," he adds.

Besides his own concerts, he's played shows recently with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones and is working on a new album with Stones' guitarist Keith Richards.

He wouldn't say too much about the project except, "It's a Memphis rock, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards-type record. There will be appearances on there from people you'd recognize."

Perhaps the loftiest compliment paid him came this year, one songwriter to another. Inspired by Haggard's 1969 classic, Dylan wrote "Workingman's Blues #2" for his latest album, "Modern Times."

Dylan told him he was going to write the song and work it into his shows.

Haggard's response?

"I said, 'Good, that gives me a reason to do Blowin' in the Wind #2'. (cnn.com)

The Halo Over Xbox

2007-10-20T17:37:00.000+07:00

Microsoft wasn’t kidding.

It predicted Halo 3 was going to sell a lot of games in a short period of time. It did. The space epic came onto the market on Sept. 25. Within 12 days, it had sold 3.3 million copies, according to the NPD Group, which measures U.S. video-game sales performance.

The NPD numbers, published today, show Halo 3 outselling the next best-selling game, Wii Play, by more than 10 times (Wii Play sold 282,000 from Sept. 2 to Oct. 6, the five-week time period NPD measured in its latest report).

David Dennis, a Microsoft spokesman, gloated–by way of his PR agency–that Halo 3 sold more copies than all games made for the competing PlayStation 3 console for the months of May, June, July, August and September combined.

The success of Halo 3, which is exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, appears to have driven sales of that console. According to NPD, Microsoft sold 528,000 360s, compared to 500,001 Nintendo Wiis and 119,000 PlayStation 3s.

While that’s got to make Microsoft feel good, particularly given the technical problems endured by thousands of 360 consoles, it did not trump the Wii by much. Nintendo, despite not having a single game to rival the popularity of Halo 3, didn’t lag far behind Microsoft’s console sales.

And the PlayStation 3, well, it has settled into a comfortable third place among the next-generation platforms. A price cut announced this week may spur sales over the holiday season, but you could imagine that the curriculum makers at Harvard Business School may eventually make a case study of Sony’s inability to maintain its leadership in the console wars.

Overall, the video game industry has continued to capitalize on the new generation of consoles. NPD reported that in the five-week period ending Oct. 6, sales of games, consoles, mobile gaming devices, and accessories were $9.37 billion, a 47 percent increase over the $6.38 billion during the same period a year earlier (a significant figure, but remember that this industry is cyclical, with the peaks tied to the release of new consoles). (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)

FIFA 2008 (PC)

2007-10-11T17:33:00.000+07:00

In an industry where evolution is key, it's hard to believe that a relic from yesteryear can look as good as today's version of the same game. But in a side-by-side comparison, EA's antiquated FIFA Soccer 2002 looks more colorful, more distinct, and almost as detailed as FIFA 08. The PC version of 08 is strikingly similar to the version PlayStation 2 cheapskates will see on their budget-bin machines this year. Meanwhile, new-gen console owners once again get to play FIFA in all its high-res, highly animated glory. Serves us right for dropping all that coin on monster desktops, huh?

Yet as comparatively blah as it looks, the PC version of FIFA 08 shouldn't be taken lightly. The series has morphed over the past few years from what was essentially an arcade-type affair to a slower, more sophisticated, more credible simulation. That trend continues in 08, as does the game's emphasis on complex button manipulation. Ultimately, with noticeably improved A.I. behavior and positioning and new concepts such as manual through passes and defender switching, FIFA's more challenging than ever.

But the niftiest innovation may well be the pseudo-RPG "Be A Pro" mode, wherein you control just a single player that you create, guiding him through task-oriented games and seasons and helping him "evolve." It's an entirely different experience that FIFA vets should enjoy, if just for what it teaches about the mechanics of the sport.

A humungous game built around 12,500 real-life players with more modes and teams and options than a stadium has face painters, FIFA 08 is a superior soccer experience despite its ho-hum facade.

FIFA 08 to Host 10-Player Online Matches

Along with today's confirmation from the Leipzig Games Convention that FIFA Soccer 08 will run at 60 frames per second on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, EA Sports has revealed that both versions will play host to Be a Pro: Online Team Play, a downloadable add-on that allows for five-on-five online matches over Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network.

Be a Pro: Online Team Play will be made available as a free content update six to eight weeks following the retail release of FIFA Soccer 08. The new mode will put players into a fixed role on the field, using real-time pointers and a unique camera perspective to simulate the sensation of playing a position and contributing to a team. Teams can be made up of five gamers from anywhere in the world, whether friends or random passers-by in the online lobby. A.I. players will fill out the rest of the roster, but future FIFA iterations may eliminate that need altogether.

"Our dream is to create a full 11 versus 11 online gameplay experience in which each user will have a set position during the match and train specifically for that position," said Joe Booth, producer on FIFA Soccer 08. "Be a Pro is the first step in this direction, and now, with the ability to deliver five versus five online gameplay as free downloadable content, we are moving even closer towards the realization of this dream."

"Be a Pro forces you to think and react like a professional player where you experience the whole range of emotions players go through during the course of a game," added Andrew Wilson, executive producer on the title. "Now we are taking this experience online for you to share with your friends. You will have to learn how to work together as a team much like any real teams go through in order to be successful."

FIFA Soccer 08 is scheduled to hit the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, PC, PSP, Nintendo DS, and mobile platforms on October 9th, with the PlayStation 3 version to follow a week later on October 16th. (1up.com)

Robot gives facial massages

2007-10-11T17:31:00.000+07:00

With steely arms sprouting cables and wires, the WAO-1 robot looks nothing like a relaxation device.

The WAO-1 robot give therapeutic facial massages.

But researchers at Tokyo's Waseda University hope the contraption will soon be deployed to hospitals and spas across Japan to give therapeutic facial massages.

The WAO-1 robot, which stands for Waseda Asahi Oral Rehabilitation Robot 1, is being developed initially for patients with jaw-related medical problems who require facial massages as part of their treatment, according to project leader Atsuo Takanishi.

The robot's arms are fitted with ceramic spheres the size of golf balls, and the spheres roll over the skin. The arms' movements are controlled by a complex set of algorithms designed to emulate massages, while six sensors at the base of the arms measure and adjust the pressure applied by the spheres, Takanishi said.

The technology has to be more refined than those in electric massage chairs because the facial bone structure is much more fragile than back or spine bones, he said.

Another research team member, Ken Nishimura, said the robot could be adjusted to give beauty and relaxation massages.

"This technology can be applied very widely," Nishimura said. "I'm looking forward to a time when this robot will give beauty facials at spas."

The team is set to start clinical trials using the robot in November, according to Takanishi. The robot, developed with Japan's Asahi University, must be approved by a government safety panel before it becomes available to hospitals or to the public.

Japan is a leader in consumer robots. A robot that gives shampoos is already widely deployed at hair salons across Japan. (edition.cnn.com)

Mozilla Working on New Mobile Browser

2007-10-11T16:35:00.000+07:00

After a couple of experiences dipping a toe into the mobile market, Mozilla Corp. said it plans to get serious about developing a mobile browser.

Mozilla has recently hired two new developers to help work on the project and plans to release Mobile Firefox some time in the next year or two.

The iPhone, Apple Inc.'s popular new mobile phone, in part contributed to the renewed interest in mobile browsing at Mozilla. "The user demand for a full browsing experience on mobile devices is clear," Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla Corp. wrote in his blog on Tuesday. "If you weren't sure about this before, you should be after the launch of the iPhone."

As Mozilla continues to develop Mozilla2, the second version of the platform on which Firefox is built, it will add mobile devices as a category. That means developers of Mozilla2, which is expected to be complete in early 2009, will keep mobile phones in mind as they build the new platform, Schroepfer wrote.

He didn't get more specific on a release date for the mobile browser other than to say "not before 2008." Schroepfer also said Mozilla hadn't yet decided which mobile phones the browser would work on.

Depending on compatibility, Mozilla could face competition from companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Apple that include their own browsers in phones running their operating systems, as well as from third parties such as Opera Software ASA that have been fine-tuning their mobile browsers for years now.

The announcement comes after the release earlier this year of a new version of Minimo, a Mozilla-based mobile browser for Windows Mobile devices. A few months prior to the release, the lead developer of Minimo said he wouldn't be spending much time on the project in the future. On Tuesday, Schroepfer said that there are no plans to further develop Minimo.

Mozilla also offers Joey, a project in development that lets users clip and save text, photos, videos and other content while using a PC and then access that content through a browser on a cell phone.

Mozilla is also involved with a group of companies including Arm Ltd. and MontaVista Software Inc. that is developing an open-source Linux-based platform for devices that are bigger than a cell phone but smaller than a laptop. Mozilla is developing a browser for the platform and has already built one for a similar device, the N800, from Nokia Corp.

The new Mozilla hires who will contribute to the mobile Firefox initiative are Christian Sejersen, who recently worked for Openwave Systems Inc., and Brad Lassey, who worked for France Telecom R&D, which has been very active in mobile Linux initiatives.

Stem cells 'prompt cancer spread'

2007-10-04T02:33:00.000+07:00

Dangerous changes in cancer cells which allow them to spread around the body could be triggered by the body's own stem cells, say US scientists.

A Whitehead Institute team found human breast cancers in mice are more likely to spread if mixed with stem cells from the bone marrow.

They believe these changes could be blocked or reversed - making the cancer less deadly.

UK experts said the Nature study could point to future treatments.

It's becoming increasingly clear that many cancers aren't just made up of cancer cells, but they are rogue tissues that also contain many other types of cells

Dr Kit Arney
Cancer Research UK

When an original cancer spreads to form new tumours in other parts of the body such as the lung or liver, this is called metastasis, and often means that the patient is far less likely to be cured of the disease.

Doctors hope that by understanding how and why a tumour suddenly changes its behaviour, a treatment could be found to stop this happening, and keep the cancer fixed in one part of the body.

The latest research has linked the arrival of a particular type of "stem cell" to metatasis in breast cancer cells.

Mesenchymal stem cells are found in the bone marrow, and are a "master cell" used by the body to help generate new bone, fat, cartilage and muscle.

They were already a suspect in cancer spread after it was noticed that they naturally migrate in large numbers to tumour sites.

When the scientists mixed human breast cancer tumours in mice with these cells, there was seven times more cancer spread to the lungs compared with breast cancer tumours left to their own devices.

They are suggesting that the presence of the stem cells produces genetic changes in the cancer cells that make them metastasise - but once the cells spread, they change back to their original genetic state.

This, the researchers say, not only makes these key genes hard to spot, but means that dangerous changes in cancer cells are potentially reversible.

HIV treatment hope

The research has also highlighted a potential treatment to block the changes.

A chemical called cytokine CCL5, produced by the stem cells, had an effect on breast cancer cells in the laboratory.

Medication that blocks the action of this is already used to help patients with HIV - and they suggested it should be tried on patients with spreading cancer.

Dr Kat Arney, from Cancer Research UK, said: "It's becoming increasingly clear that many cancers aren't just made up of cancer cells, but they are rogue tissues that also contain many other types of cells.

"This is a very interesting paper, showing that mesenchymal stem cells may play a part in helping breast cancer to spread.

"Although these results don't tell us if exactly the same situation is present in cancers within humans - as they have been done using mice - it's a good indicator that these stem cells may play a role in breast cancer, and could point towards targets for future treatments." (news.bbc.co.uk)

Gamers gather for 7th World Cyber Games

2007-10-04T02:20:00.000+07:00

The Olympics are coming to Seattle on Thursday, and hundreds of competitors from dozens of countries will be going head to head for national honor.

OK, this isn't the Olympics. But it's the finals of the seventh-annual World Cyber Games, one of the largest video game tournaments in the world--and one that many of the players say is among the most important of all.

"I feel really honored" to be playing in the finals, said Geoff Robinson, who will be representing the United States in his hometown. "My big goal was to go to the U.S. nationals...I was able to win (there), and I am completely satisfied with that. The opportunity to represent the U.S. is really just cream on top of the pie."

Each country taking part in the tournament held a national championship earlier this year, with the U.S. team being chosen in Orlando, Fla., during a three-day event last month.

More than 700 players from 74 countries--including South Korea, Jamaica, Poland, France, Germany, Japan and even Kazahkstan--will be competing in a record 12 different game titles, up from eight last year. Four of the games will be for the Xbox 360, while eight will be for PCs, according to the tournament's organizers.

The games include StarCraft: Brood War, Half-Life: Counter-Strike, FIFA Soccer '07, Need for Speed Carbon, Gears of War and others. The games were chosen through a combination of a survey of the half-million visitors to the World Cyber Games' Web site and through the desires of various sponsors and game publishers.

Those sponsors are also paying the tournament's cost--which it will not reveal--as well as $500,000 in cash prizes.

The World Cyber Games began in 2001, and this is the second time the grand finals have been held in the U.S., after an appearance in San Francisco in 2004. And although there are plenty of other video game tournaments, the players treat this competition as if it were the final world in such events.

"It's like the Olympics of video games," said Robert Irey, a 20-year-old from Birdsboro, Pa., who is playing for Team USA in Counter-Strike. "We're all stoked...We can't wait to get on a plane" to Seattle.

30 million viewers expected
Last year, when the grand finals were held in Italy, more than 24 million people watched the games live via satellite, said Hyoung-Seok Kim, CEO of International Cyber Marketing, the company that is putting on the World Cyber Games. This year, he expects that number to rise to 30 million, with the bulk of viewers in China and Korea.

That's despite no live coverage in the United States. Here, video game fans will be able to watch segments of the tournament online, and in November, Spike TV will air a one-hour special on the competition.

Fans in the Seattle area who want to attend the tournament--which is being held at the Qwest Field Event Center--can do so by buying a $10 ticket.

Despite the fact that video games are popular in the United States, it's not surprising that interest in the tournament--at least as signified by live television coverage--is higher in countries such as China and Korea.

One example of the passion such countries express for video games is how Robinson sums up his chances for victory in the Starcraft segment of the tournament.

He's been playing the game since it first came out in 1998, Robinson said, and is proud of having been placed in "the (tournament's) second-hardest" bracket.

But, he added, a "non-Korean has never won the (Starcraft segment of) the World Cyber Games."

In fact, he explained, the game's players in Korea are treated like professional athletes are in the United States. Stadiums sell out for live Starcraft tournaments, he said, and the top players can earn the equivalent of $250,000.

Better odds?
Irey, by contrast, said that he and his Team USA Conter-Strike players have a good shot at winning and echoed a familiar competitor's maxim.

"We want (to be) No. 1," said Irey. "We don't want to come home and be No. 2, 3 or 4...You can never feel like you've arrived. It's about always striving to be better."

Part of that sentiment comes from national pride, Irey said, particularly in light of the fact that in a lot of people's eyes, Americans simply can't keep up with Europeans in Counter-Strike.

"They don't respect the American...team as much as the European team," he said. "So we're out to prove that the Americans are the best of the best."

That could be difficult to prove, however, as the World Cyber Games Web site lists the Koreans as the top-ranked team in the world at the game, with the Germans at No. 2 and U.S. at No. 3.

The Koreans, in fact, seem to be the all-around team to beat, at least based on the results of the 2006 grand finals where its players racked up two gold medals, one silver and one bronze in the eight categories. The U.S., by comparison, won just a gold and no other medals.

Still, Kim and his fellow organizers think enough of the U.S. market to have brought the World Cyber Games back here for a second time. And to Robinson, that's an exciting opportunity.

"I am proud of the United States," Robinson said, "and I look forward to showing off (the U.S. and Seattle) to the international gamers." (news.com)

Compost Tools

2007-10-01T02:01:00.000+07:00

The plant-derived nitrogen and phosphorus in homemade compost is more easily absorbed than the concentrated synthetic varieties found in bagged fertilizer, and, loaded with micronutrients, compost improves soil structure and provides valuable nutrition to foster plant growth. Below are the tools you need to start a healthy compost pile. See Composting 101 for more info on what you should and shouldn't include in a compost pile.

Name	Function	Size	Material	MSRP	Purchasing Information
Garden Gourmet Composter	outdoor composter	11 cu. ft.	post-consumer recycled polyethylene plastic	$67.50	www.planetnatural.com, 800-289-6656
Rotating Composter	outdoor composter	12 cu. ft.	pre-consumer recycled polyethylene plastic	$304.40	www.planetnatural.com, 800-289-6656
Country Compost Crock	indoor compost carrier	1 gallon	ceramic	$29.95	www.gardeners.com, 888-833-1412
Kitchen Compost Carrier	indoor compost carrier	11" x 8"	recycled film canisters	$14.95	www.groworganic.com, 888-784-1722
Nature Mill Indoor Compost Bin	indoor composter	5 lbs.	recycled polyethylene plastic and steel	$439.95	www.planetnatural.com, 800-289-6656
Can O Worms	indoor vermicomposter and compost tea maker	29" x 20"	recycled plastic	$129.50	www.planetnatural.com, 800-289-6656
Compost Tea Maker and Catalyst	compost tea maker	10 gallons	polyetheylene plastic, some percentage post-consumer recycled	$495	www.growingsolutions.com, 541-343-8727
Red Compost Worms	vermicomposting	2 lbs, 2,000	n/a	$49.99	www.cleanairgardening.com, 214-363-5170
BioBag	compostable can liner	125 pail liners	corn	$29.99	www.cleanairgardening.com, 214-363-5170

Choosing the Right Composter

Function

You don't actually need a designated bin if you want to make compost; often, a well-tended, simple pile in your backyard will be sufficient. However, indoor and outdoor compost bins help conceal waste piles and the odors they may emit and keep animals from rummaging through your food scraps. Compost carriers may be kept clean with compostable, starch-based liners like those listed above, and some come equipped with carbon filters to reduce odors.

Compost tea makers allow you to convert the organic material in compost to a liquid that's more easily and rapidly digested by soil organisms, providing results a little faster than using plain compost. Catalysts contain beneficial microbes used in brewing to speed up the process.

Vermicomposting uses earthworms to break down organic solid waste into nutrient-rich worm castings that can be used as a soil conditioner and fertilizer. Quicker than standard composting, vermicomposting can break down 6 to 8 pounds of organic material each day. Avoid feeding the worms animal products and oily foods, which can cause odors and attract pests. Since earthworms are an invasive species in the United States and can harm some delicate eco-systems, such as Minnesota’s hardwood forests, eliminate the worms and their eggs by freezing the compost for one month before spreading it outdoors.

Size

Before you buy a composter, determine what you'll be composting—food scraps only or lawn and garden clippings as well. The more you compost, the larger the composter should be. If you plan on composting leaves and lawn clippings, composters should be at least 3 cubic feet, which will give you enough finished compost to cover 324 sq. ft. with 1 inch.

Material

The most common material for composters and compost bins is plastic. Therefore, look for the highest percentage of recycled content you can find. Avoid those made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which releases carcinogenic dioxin into the atmosphere when it's manufactured and incinerated.

Ceramic compost pots blend in nicely with your personal décor if you need a small, unsightly container to gather compostable materials indoors.

Composting 101

A third of all landfill waste across the United States comes from garden clippings and kitchen waste. Each American is responsible for 1,200 pounds of compostable organic waste annually, and tossing it out not only stuffs landfills unnecessarily but the processes of natural decay can also lead to the production of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Furthermore, making and using your own compost allows you to break free of petroleum-derived synthetic fertilizers. It takes the fossil fuel equivalent of 2.5 gallons of gasoline to produce a single 40-pound bag of synthetic fertilizer. It also saves you water: Compost helps soil retain moisture, reduces evaporation and prevents water run-off.

What to Compost

• In addition to your lawn and garden clippings, a large supply of your household waste can be composted, including bread, eggshells and fruit and vegetable rinds. Basically any plant-based kitchen leftovers may be added, as can paper products, including cardboard rolls, tissues, paper towels, coffee filters and newer biodegradable, starch-based plastics.

• Don't compost animal or meat byproducts, such as dairy, grease, lard, oils and fish waste, which can create odor problems and attract rodents and other pests. Compost containing meat byproducts can also make dogs and other pets sick if eaten.

• You can compost pet fur, but don't compost pet wastes such as feces and litter, which may contain parasites, bacteria, pathogens and viruses that are harmful to humans.

• While wood ash can be composted in modest amounts, excessive amounts can raise alkalinity and result in nitrogen loss in your soil. Some barbeque charcoal and briquettes contain substances such as borax that can be harmful to plants.

• Don't compost any yard trimmings that have been treated with chemical pesticides, since residues could kill beneficial composting organisms.

For a thorough list of what you should and should not compost, visit the EPA's composting fact sheet at www.epa.gov/compost.

Maintaining Your Compost Heap

• Keep a healthy nutrient balance and avoid odors by blending a 2-to-1 ratio of carbon-rich "brown" items such as leaves, twigs and bark with nitrogen-rich "green" items like grass clippings and food wastes.

• The pile should be kept slightly moist, but not wet, and be sure to aerate either with a rotating compost bin, such as the model listed above, or by manually turning the pile, aiming to move the material on the outside of the pile to the center where it will be subjected to higher temperatures. Piles with a higher percentage of moisture, 60 to 70 percent, should be turned about every two days, while less moist piles (40 to 60 percent) can be turned at three-day intervals. If moisture falls below 40 percent, add water. The more frequently a pile is turned, the more rapidly materials will decompose.

• Throwing native soil from your yard or garden into the mix is essential for introducing native organisms.

• Compost should be "finished" before application, which means it should be dark in color, smell sweet and earthy and shouldn't give off heat or steam.

• Even "finished" compost can change over time and give off heat or odors, so don't bag or store mature compost. Instead leave unused compost in the pile.

• Compost tea allows the nutrients in compost to be more readily absorbed, and it can be brewed from finished compost using one of the tea makers listed above. The process is somewhat complicated, so be sure to follow instructions that accompany the tea maker closely. If you need a more detailed how-to than what's provided, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection provides thorough guidelines.

Applying Compost

• To determine how much compost is needed for lawns and garden beds, multiply the square footage of the area to be treated by the thickness that will be applied.

• A 3- to 4-inch layer of finished compost can be worked into the tops of garden soil before planting in spring or late fall, or a handful can be transplanted into the hole before planting annuals and perennials.

• A half-inch of compost can also be applied as a top dressing to lawns in the spring and fall and for shrubs and garden plants several times a year.

• For a flower bed containing existing perennials, estimate the area that those plants occupy when determining how much compost is needed. If half the area is already covered with plants, you'll need half as much compost.

• Mix one part finished compost with two parts soil for a nutritious potting mix for houseplants. When planting seeds, use less compost and more soil to allow roots to take hold firmly.

• Compost tea can be sprayed directly on plants to ward off fungus and mildew, on leaves to suppress foliar diseases and increase the amount of nutrients available for the plant, and on lawns to restore life to the soil and cure fungal diseases such as dollar spot and brown patch.

Resources and References

GG Resources

"Make Compost, Not Waste," www.thegreenguide.com/doc/25/compost

"Grass Roots: Easy Organic Lawn Care," www.thegreenguide.com/doc/121/lawn

"Detoxing Green Velvet," www.thegreenguide.com/doc/114/detox

"Pay Dirt for Gardeners," www.thegreenguide.com/doc/119/gardeners

"Get the Most out of Your Summer Garden," www.thegreenguide.com/doc/120/garden

Resources

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA): www.nofa.org

See earth911's composting articles: www.earth911.org

References

"Healthy Lawn, Healthy Environment," Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/pesticides/controlling/garden.htm.

"How to Make Compost Tea," Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/Tea/tea1.htm

The NOFA Organic Lawn and Turf Handbook, NOFA, 2007.

Tukey, Paul. The Organic Lawn Care Manuel, Storey Publishing, 2007.

Top Spots for Each Poison

2007-09-23T19:00:00.000+07:00

Whether you’re in the mood for a newfangled Bloody Mary or a crisp, classic martini, New York has a bar that specializes (and excels) in your potion of preference.

DARK BEER

(Photo: Superstock)

The Gate

321 Fifth Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn; 718-768-4329

Beneath the Gate’s unpretentious neighborhood-bar décor beats a connoisseur’s heart (it’s frequented by employees of nearby specialty store Bierkraft). Fans of strong, dark brew should try selections from American brewers like Victory and Dogfish Head.
FOREIGN BREWS

Spuyten Duyvil

359 Metropolitan Ave. Williamsburg, Brooklyn; 718-963-4140

This homey establishment is staffed by beer obsessives committed to hunting down obscure and esoteric selections from across the world. Try Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek, a Lambic fermented in open air, or Le Baladin Nora, a Italian beer based on an ancient Egyptian recipe.
CASK-PULLED ALE

(Photo: Superstock)

D.B.A.

41 First Ave.; 212-475-5097

Often packed shoulder-to-shoulder even on weeknights; that’s the burden a bar bears when it has a reputation for a great beer selection and a prime location in the middle of the East Village. D.B.A.’s a leader in the trend toward stocking English-style “cask-pulled” ales, whose warmer temperature and carbonation give them a creamier, stronger taste.
MARTINI

Pegu Club

77 W. Houston St., second fl.; 212-473-7348

Audrey Saunders stocks specialty gins that make her bar a martini mecca, and the Fitty-Fitty is a sly, silky variant with half gin and half dry vermouth—plus orange bitters and a lemon twist that highlight the two liquors’ botanicals. The devil is in the details. Not only do they serve most martinis in a smaller glass with paired carafe to preserve the drink’s signature chill and keep the stemware frozen, they even chill the olives.
MARGARITA

(Photo: Superstock)

Dos Caminos Soho

475 W. Broadway; 212-277-4300

A busy night yields 800 to 1,000 orders, and Dos Caminos has the time-tested expertise to juggle a selection of 115 tequilas, from Gran Centenario Leyenda to Chinaco Enterior. All of the lime juice is hand-squeezed, and the exotic fruit purées used for the popular variants are all made fresh in house. Try the chapuline—roasted cranberries drizzled with honey, spiked with ginger, and then muddled with triple sec and tequila.
MOJITO

(Photo: Superstock)

Milk & Honey

34 Eldridge St.

Labor-intensive and soda-pop sweet, mojitos are the bartenders’ most-loathed drink, but Milk & Honey’s crack staff grins, bears, and serves the most delightful and fragrant mojito in town. Their trick is “spanking” the mint instead of twisting it—holding the sprig in one hand and clapping, a move that breaks the leaves’ capillaries, diffusing a mint bouquet over the drink.
BLOODY MARY
Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel

35 E. 76th St.; 212-744-1600

A 40-year veteran at the Carlyle, day bartender Tommy Rowles is the undisputed king of the clean Bloody Mary—crisp tomato, a dash of lemon juice, and savory spices—though the exact ingredients and proportions remain unknown, because he gets to work early to mix his concoction without witnesses. Bring your hangover to Bemelmans Bar but do like the regulars do and arrive early—Tommy’s special brew sells out.
CAIPIRINHA
The Good Fork

391 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, Brooklyn; 718-643-6636

The bartenders here treat cocktails like food, fastidiously measuring the caipirinha’s signature sweet and sour to achieve liquid harmony. The key is muddling Fazenda Mae de Ouro, a top-shelf cachaça, with simple syrup instead of straight sugar. The lime wedges are squeezed just for your order, and a vigorous shaking immediately before delivery charges the drink with a touch of effervescence.
(nymag.com)

Booty Listless (2007)

2007-09-23T18:52:00.000+07:00

The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am has kept plenty busy over the past few years, crafting diverse tracks for everyone from Justin Timberlake to Talib Kweli to Sergio Mendes. Given that some of the rapper-producer's least profound work — bubblegum cheer-hop like Fergie's ''Fergalicious'' and the Peas' own ''My Humps'' — has also been his best-received, it's no shocker that he would choose a similar direction for his own project. Indeed, the only surprise on Songs About Girls, will.i.am's first solo effort on a major label, is that he has miraculously managed to transport us to an even flimsier dimension of vulgar dance music.

Certainly, pop these days isn't ringing with complex examinations of romantic relationships. Still, by naming the album as he did, will.i.am draws attention to the fact that the ''girls'' of whom he sings are, in his most generous estimation, gossamer ideals to be pined over after he breaks their hearts in unspecified ways. Primarily, though, they are steady-shimmying, modern-day Hottentot Venuses in need of badonkadonk appraisal. You may already be familiar with the ghastly, repetitive first single, ''I Got It From My Mama,'' a shrill ode to ''beautiful buns'' during which will.i.am offers this sensitive insight: ''If her mother real ugly, I guarantee she gone be ugly like her momma.'' Songs also includes such blunt objects as ''The Donque Song,'' another ass dedication, and the confused stripper anthem ''Get Your Money.'' On the latter, will.i.am professes a liberal tolerance for the ''private dancer, bubble twister,'' only to quickly add, ''Just be glad she ain't your sister.''

These cuts are crude and unimaginative, and that's not simple prudishness talking. In this post-Sir Mix-A-Lot age, even the most proper among us love a fun, edgy booty song. But will.i.am neuters that guilty pleasure with stiff drum programming, robotic guitar bursts, and vaporous synth melodies. (With so many house-music beats and watered-down electro elements, it's quite possible the guy was aiming for retro and wound up dated.) When he's not crooning come-ons in his merely adequate voice, will.i.am's near nursery rhymes resound with clichés and tossed-off nonsense — even on ''S.O.S. (Mother Earth),'' a sappy dirge to environmental issues clearly intended to be the one deep song. ''When an Eskimo gets bit by a mosquito,'' insists will.i.am, ''somebody in Miami will get swept by a tsunami.'' Sadly, that says as much about girls as anything else on this half-assed exercise in superficiality. (ew.com)

2007-09-22T01:39:00.000+07:00

As Moore's Law, or something like it, continues to drive down the cost and size of electronics, increasingly sophisticated technology will find its way this year into consumer electronics products of all kinds. If you're a gadget-obsessed designer, or have a penchant for hi-def and pro digital cameras, fasten your seat belt and hang on. It's going to be one hell of a year.

The year of gadget Wi-Fi

Home PC users have become extremely comfortable with Wi-Fi in the last five years. Connecting at home through a Wi-Fi connection is old hat. The new game in town is Wi-Fi for gadgets, especially media players, cameras and TVs. Consumers will increasingly demand Wi-Fi in gadgets for the convenience, power and flexibility of being able to zap media around without hassles and without adding to cable bloat.

If nothing else, Microsoft's new Zune media player will drive demand for Wi-Fi in handheld gadgets. People already share music, videos and pictures, so why not do it in math class or at Starbucks rather than waiting until you get home? It's only a matter of time before the first Wi-Fi-enabled iPod hits. When that happens, Wi-Fi will become a must-have feature of media players for many users. New media players this year will not only connect peer-to-peer, as the Zune does, but also link to the Internet directly, like a PC.

Right now, only an exotic minority of digital cameras sport Wi-Fi connectivity, including the Nikon S7c, Nikon Coolpix P1 and P2, Nikon D2H, Kodak EasyShare One, Canon PowerShot SD430, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and others. Look for these cameras to become more popular and new cameras to emerge with Wi-Fi capability. Wi-Fi lets you offload pictures to a nearby PC -- or upload them to the Internet -- without hunting for a USB cable or risking the loss of your tiny media card by removing it from the camera.

Wi-Fi in media players and cameras? Absolutely. But TVs?

Three years ago, a smattering of Japanese companies came out with what they called "wireless TVs" -- small LCD displays that received their content from a base station connected to cable. Those products never went anywhere. At press time, however, Samsung planned to release its new HP-TS064 Plasma TV, which features Wi-Fi, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The Samsung uses Wi-Fi in a totally different way from the old "wireless TVs." It doesn't get its regular TV signal over wireless, but it can connect to your PC over Wi-Fi, so you can watch YouTube videos or other Internet- or PC-based content, such as photo slideshows, on the TV.

The year of the mobile trackball

This year, the trackball will become the hot input device for mobile gadgets, especially smart phones. For a decade now, mobile devices have employed rocker dials, scroll wheels, thumbwheels and other input technologies for navigating menus, moving cursors and controlling various features.

Suddenly, however, two of the hottest brand-new devices -- the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 and the RIM BlackBerry Pearl -- are taking older devices to school with their super-fast mini-trackballs. The smart phones use them for everything from camera zoom to ripping through icons and menus.

In 2007, the trackballs on these gadgets will influence the entire industry. Look for trackballs to show up on a lot more phones, as well as media players and other devices.

The year of the media mobile phone

Will Apple announce a media-playing cell phone in 2007? If so, will it be called the iPhone? And will it be popular?

Our predictions: Yes, no and sort of.

The Apple phone may be announced at Macworld, and may ship in 2007, but it won't be called the iPhone. That trademark train has already left the station. (More likely branding: the iPod Phone.)

We're predicting that it will not be a runaway hit like the original iPod was, mainly because it's not 2001 (when the original iPod shipped), and it's not the media player market, which was easy for Apple to dominate. The mobile phone market is mature and jam-packed with awesome devices that have in many cases built strong loyalty among users. Still, Apple is Apple, and the phone will do pretty well.

More importantly, the move will make the world safer for media-playing cell phones.

Most of the better phones these days play music, but consumers are slow to change their behavior for several reasons, including iPod brand loyalty, weird pricing and downloading schemes promoted by the wireless carriers -- and habit. But Apple's entry in this space will accelerate the pace of adoption across the industry and give those who have invested heavily in iTunes media a phone to play their files on.

The year of face recognition

Face-recognition technology will be red-hot this year, and will show up in a growing number of consumer products and services, including digital cameras, online photo search engines and biometric security devices.

One of the most exciting new features in an increasing number of consumer digital cameras this year will be face recognition -- or, more accurately, face detection. Artificial intelligence software onboard these cameras knows the difference between a human face and other objects in the shot. When you press the "face recognition" button, the camera favors faces for focusing and auto-exposure. Face detection is currently available in the Canon PowerShot SD900 Digital ELPH, Fujifilm Finepix cameras and others. It's a great trick, and superior for casual users.

We currently search photos online based on keywords and tags; in other words, based on words rather than images. But face recognition can help us find photos of people -- "show me more pictures of this guy, whoever he is" -- from the massive quantities of photos online. The free Polar Rose browser plug-in employs the kind of face-recognition technology used by law enforcement agencies. But Polar Rose is a consumer search engine that combines tagging with face recognition to help you find pictures you'd never find otherwise. The technology will take off this year, and will go mainstream when Google and Flickr embrace it.

And, finally, face recognition will come into its own this year as the hottest new form of biometric security for PCs and laptops. The technology has been around for a decade, but new improvements in quality will boost its usability for consumers this year. Lenovo's Y300 and Y500 notebooks, for example, have cameras and face-recognition software that prevents people it doesn't recognize from gaining access to the system.

The year of the professional camera for amateurs

The longtime trend of ever-lower prices for ever-better digital cameras will continue unabated this year. A significant percentage of amateur but enthusiastic photographers will abandon "prosumer" cameras and start buying up full professional digital cameras.

We're going to witness this year the spectacle of parents buying a 12.8-megapixel SLR digital camera with continuous drive capabilities of over four frames-per-second and professional-quality lenses to take pictures of their kids playing little league. And by the end of the year, they'll pay as little as US$1,500 for these extreme cameras formerly reserved for the exclusive use of professionals and formerly costing over $10,000.

Likewise, the point-and-click snapshots crowd will move from amateur to prosumer cameras, with the amateur cameras reserved for children and cheapskates.

The year of the safe laptop battery

If 2006 was "The Year of the Exploding Laptop Battery," 2007 will be "The Year of the Safety Battery."

Sony received a massive public relations black eye when it was revealed that some of the Dell laptops catching fire and exploding in videos widely downloaded on YouTube and other video services were destroyed by faulty Sony batteries.

While Sony has still failed to restore its reputation, other companies are sensing a massive opportunity, and stepping forward to introduce safer, heat-insulated, spark-resistant batteries, including Panasonic. And the IEEE Standards Association has convened a task force to develop and promote a new Li-Ion battery standard. The group, which is co-chaired by representatives from Sony and Dell, should publish its recommendations by the end of 2007.

Companies are likely to implement its findings well before the official publication of the new standards. Also look for notebook vendors to heavily promote the safety of their batteries as selling points this year.

The year of high-def

Huge high-definition (HD) plasma and LCD TVs were sold in unprecedented numbers during the 2006 holiday season, but what about HD media? Now that the dust is settling and viewers are getting used to their new and massive HD-capable TVs, they're starting to look around for content. And they don't like what they see.

TV networks, movie studios and rental stores are all dragging their feet and failing to keep up with consumer demand. HD-DVD and Blu-ray players are still way too expensive (right now the cheapest Blu-ray device is a Sony PlayStation 3 game console).

This year, anything that can be used with those giant TVs will be hot: HD camcorders, game consoles, content, players, burners -- you name it. The ability of content providers and player makers to supply the demand for HD content will determine who wins and loses in the market this year. The mainstreaming of HD will come about as content providers realize that their survival depends on it.

Meanwhile, HD radio is going nowhere, because consumer awareness isn't there yet and because they don't see the need to buy special radios. HD radio advocates are facing an uphill battle, as neither chicken (hardware) nor egg (content) has yet gained any traction or sparked any demand with consumers. Satellite radio, on the other hand, will see a big year, and possibly a high-visibility merger between XM and Sirius.

The year of browser-based computing

Various companies -- especially the anti-Microsoft crowd, including Google, Sun and others -- have been pushing browser-based computing for years. But this year, three factors will finally push growing numbers of users to use browser-based computing for personal stuff:

- The rising cost of desktop software
- The growing improvement in the quality of online applications
- The rise of the smart phone

The biggest factor is cost. Microsoft wants consumers to shell out between $140 and $600 for Office and between $155 and $380 for Windows Vista. The antimalware companies are bleeding consumers dry with pricing for Internet security suite subscriptions. All this software is super expensive, and requires ever-more expensive hardware.

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that you can just buy a cheap PC and run apps online -- and save your money for new mobile gadgets and other consumer electronics hardware. Plus, online applications enable you to access all your personal stuff from work.

That wasn't really feasible a few years ago, but now the selection and quality of browser-based applications make it possible to do everything online. Google's offerings alone are sufficient to replace Outlook for most consumers: Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail and Picasa provide most of the basic functionality of Office. We'll also see this year a host of innovative browser-based apps from start-ups, such as the highly anticipated Scrybe calendar and task manager.

And finally, the growing use of smart phones will drive online applications for personal use. The first thing to go is Outlook. Why use Outlook, when Gmail gives you a superior mobile e-mail experience and superior antivirus protection for both desktop and cell phone and, unlike Outlook and the extra antivirus protection needed when you use it, it's free?

The idea of storing personal documents online and using online applications is especially appealing to users with smart phones, especially when the same applications can be used on both PC and phone. (digitalartsonline.co.uk)

Organic Milk and Meat Enhances the Nutritional Quality of Human Breast Milk

2007-09-22T01:09:00.000+07:00

A European team lead by the Swiss scientist Lukas Rist has found that mothers consuming mostly organic milk and meat products have about 50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk (Risk et al., 2007). This Conjugated Linoleic Acid is responsible for most of the health benefits of CLAs in milk and meat.

The authors of this European study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in June 2007 report that the greater reliance of organic beef and dairy farmers on pasture and forage grasses increases the levels of CLAs in milk and beef, and in turn in the breast milk of women eating organic animal products.

Source: “Influence of organic diet on the amount of conjugated linoleic acids in breast milk”

Authors: Lukas Rist, Andre Mueller, Christiane Barthel, Bianca Snijders, Margje Jansen, A. Paula Simoes-Wust, Machteld Huber, Ischa Kummeling, Ursula von Mandach, Hans Steinhart, and Carel Thijs.

British Journal of Nutrition, 2007. (organic-center.org)

Top Seller Games in PC Games

2007-09-22T00:52:00.000+07:00

Top Seller Games in PC Games

1.		World In Conflict by Sierra $49.99
2.		BioShock by 2K Games $49.99 $39.99
3.		The Sims 2: Bon Voyage by Electronic Arts $29.99
4.		Pokemon Diamond by Nintendo $34.99 $34.00
5.		World Of Warcraft Expansion: Burning Crusade by Blizzard Entertainment $39.99 $29.99
6.		World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment $19.99
7.		Medal of Honor Airborne by Electronic Arts $49.99 $47.99
8.		The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack by Electronic Arts $29.99 $24.99
9.		The Orange Box by Electronic Arts $49.99 $44.99
10.		Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword by 2K Games $29.99 $27.99

Lamborghini All Stealth and Angles with Reventon

2007-09-22T00:43:00.000+07:00

Fine, so a $1,000,000 car that looks like an F-117A Nighthawk raped a Murcielago isn’t what most people would consider a gadget.

But who cares, just look at it!

This beautiful thing is the Lamborghini Reventon and it’s apparently named after a famous bull that killed some asshole toreador. Only 20 are being made and, of course, all of them are already sold.

Well, there goes my chance…

Whatever, I didn’t really want one anyway. Just look at that interior. It looks like someone had some extra carpet scraps laying around and decided to line the inside and their million dollar vehicle with them. (2bloggadgets.com)

Hot Type

2007-09-22T00:28:00.000+07:00

Because, as James Beard so wisely noted, "food is our common ground, a universal experience," we present you with a feast:

V.F. contributing editor David Kamp and the saucy Marion Rosenfeld's The Food Snob's Dictionary (Broadway) enlightens denizens of Hooters-style breastaurants about the finer points of "forcemeat" whilst delighting those high-hat cuisinerds who can gas on about "fair trade" until the grass-fed, free-range cows come home. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (in league with Stephanie Donaldson) bestows jewels of inspiration in The Elements of Organic Gardening (Kales Press). Judith Jones, mother of modern cookbook publishing (taste Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking), elevates food to the exalted position of The Tenth Muse (Knopf).

Blinding Us with Science

Grace Kelly on vacation in Jamaica, 1955, from The Grace Kelly Years (Skira). Photographs by Howell Conant.

As if unlocking the secrets of DNA for us wasn't nice enough, Nobel Prize–winning scientist turned memoirist James D. Watson proffers advice on how to become more brilliant yourself, such as Avoid Boring People (Knopf). Novelist Andrea Barrett blends science and storytelling in The Air We Breathe (Norton). The subjects of tales in Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia (Knopf) range from the rare few who experience musical notes as colors and tastes, to the multitudes afflicted with "brainworms"—those irrepressible tunes that embed themselves in our minds.

Also This Month

Julie Kavanagh distills the fabulous spirit of Nureyev (Pantheon), the ballet world's first pop icon. From adoption to abortion, birth to infertility, Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont's anthology of stunningly honest essays encompasses all the contradictions and complicated emotions surrounding Choice (MacAdam Cage). (Not that You Asked) (Random House), but gleefully unrepentant troublemaker Steve Almond's impassioned essays make him worthy of the title "Grandmaster Rant." Valentino (Taschen), the crown prince of couture, gets a sparkling new tiara from splendid V.F. correspondent Matt Tyrnauer, Valentino Garavini, Suzy Menkes, and Armando Chitolina. With a near spooky sense of empathy and a wit that finds its mark like lightning, the stories in Jim Shepard's Like You'd Understand, Anyway (Knopf) transport readers light-years beyond what they think they know of the world, capturing the humanity in such odd ducks as a tortured French executioner and an amorous female cosmonaut. Literature laureates from 1986 to 2006, such as Günter Grass, Toni Morrison, and J. M. Coetzee, speak to cultural upheaval, memory, and the imagination in their Nobel Lectures (New Press). Not one word, however, about lardon.

Quick Takes

Susan Faludi analyzes The Terror Dream (Metropolitan) of 9/11. Liza Campbell lives A Charmed Life (St. Martin's). Klara Glowczewska packs The Condé Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys (Penguin). John Grisham's Playing for Pizza (Doubleday). Jim Lehrer shouts Eureka (Random House). Joshua Henkin muses on Matrimony (Pantheon). Ben Macintyre exposes Agent Zigzag (Harmony). Alice Sebold shines in The Almost Moon (Little, Brown). Donald Friedman traces The Writer's Brush (Mid-List Press). Tiki Barber knows Tiki (Simon Spotlight). Judith Thurman rhapsodizes about Cleopatra's Nose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Nick Hornby hits up youthquakers in Slam (Penguin). Frédéric Mitterrand adores The Grace Kelly Years (Skira). National Geographic presents 100 Days in Photographs. Lucy Norton translates the Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon (1500 Books). Ron Wood gets satisfaction in My Life as a Rolling Stone (St. Martin's).

Like Spinoza, who has a cameo in Maira Kalman's sublime new book, The Principles of Uncertainty (Penguin Press), Kalman is on a quest for nothing less than "a rational explanation for everything." In pursuit of answers to such existential conundrums as "What is happiness?" and "What is identity?," Kalman's elegantly witty and at times melancholy narrative runs arm in arm with her unmistakable paintings on a serendipitous romp through the history of the world—checking in with Pavlov's dog, Vita Sackville-West, the Bolsheviks—as well as her own universe. What emerges is the fancy and richness of Kalman's vision, one informed by unbounded curiosity and a life swamped with love but clouded with sorrow. "How can I tell you everything that is in my heart?" she writes. "Impossible to begin. Enough. No. Begin." Yes, begin. (vanityfair.com)

Warner Home Video boss: commitment, Blu-ray and those bribe rumours

2007-09-18T00:10:00.000+07:00

Following new hardware launches and strategy revelations at IFA 2007 and the recent CEDIA Expo, the high-def video format battle is raging harder than ever.

And, with the crucial Christmas period looming large, it's only going to get more heated with Toshiba's price cuts and rumours of an "affordable" 40GB PS3 to really throw a spanner in the works.

An interesting time then to grab some alone-time with the president of Warner Home Video - the major studio that backs both HD formats.

Making this chat more significant to the current state of the big-budget battle is the recent news from the LA Times that the HD DVD Promotional Group has offered Warner a large amount of money to go HD DVD only, just as they allegedly did with Paramount and DreamWorks, prompting their surprise announcement to shun Blu-ray.

TWICE caught up with Ron Sanders, Warner's pres, and jumped straight in with: Have you received offers from HD DVD or Blu-ray to be exclusive with either format, as Paramount recently did with HD DVD?

Sanders replied: "We�re talking to both sides and it's crazy right now. We remain committed to both for the time being. We'll see how the fourth quarter plays out. The consumer is still kind of divided, and we still believe that we should offer the content in both formats. Now, we will watch the marketplace very closely, and see how it plays out, but for now we are supporting both".

Sanders went on to reveal that they had seen strong sales on both Blu-ray and HD DVD for differing titles, and that Warner's plans for the TotalHD format - a single disc with both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies on is still on indefinite hold:

"We�re concerned that as the only one publishing on it, it would be hard to make it go. We�re still looking at, though. We�re still talking to retail, but it�s kind of on hold right now." (news.sky.com)

Tweak your LCD TV

2007-09-09T17:08:00.001+07:00

Learn how to tweak your LCD TV resolution for optimum picture quality.

In this course, you’ll learn how to properly set the basic picture controls available on most LCD sets to maximize your home-theater viewing pleasure.

In this course, you’ll learn how to:

Create proper room lighting.
Dim the TV’s backlight.
Control the brightness and contrast.
Set up your color correctly.
Further fine-tune your TV settings.
Have your TV professionally calibr.

Getting Started

Begin to explore how to calibrate your LCD TV to get the best possible results.

So you’ve finally stepped up and ditched your bulky tube television for a sleek new flat-panel LCD set. Problem is, like most televisions, LCDs are preconfigured to make an impact on the sales floor of your local electronics superstore, not in your living room. These default settings are usually way too bright and garish to accurately represent real life. Here’s how to properly set the basic picture controls available on most LCD sets to maximize your home-theater viewing pleasure.

To get started with this project, we recommend that you have the following:

An LCD flat-panel TV
A “daylight” lightbulb (which glows at about 6,500 degrees Kelvin)
A home-theater setup DVD, such as Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up or Digital Video Essentials

Take stock of what you already have and what you need to get. To shop now, click here to print your shopping list.

Creating Proper Room Lighting:

Learn how to set the proper lighting for your TV room.

Because most people turn down the lights to watch a movie, our recommendations are designed to deliver a better DVD picture in rooms with controlled lighting. Unless you’re sitting at the minimum viewing distance for your LCD television’s size (see the chart), you shouldn’t watch movies in complete darkness because it can cause eyestrain. The ideal setup is to place a dim light directly behind the television and leave the rest of the room dark. You should also try to prevent any light in the room from reflecting off the LCD screen, as glare will hamper image fidelity.

Tip:
Look for special “daylight” bulbs that glow at 6,500 degrees Kelvin. This is the standard color temperature that most producers use when creating movies and TV shows.

Wide-screen TV viewing distances

Your television should deliver the right-size picture for where you sit relative to the screen. Sitting closer to a smaller television means you won’t have to splurge on a big screen. But if you sit too close, the picture quality will be substandard. Sit too far away, and you won’t have an immersive experience.

16:9 TV diagonal screen size	Minimum distance (feet)	Maximum distance (feet)
26 inches	3.3	6.5
30 inches	3.8	7.6
34 inches	4.3	8.5
42 inches	5.3	10.5
47 inches	5.9	11.8

Source: Computer Shopper Author: David Katzmaier (December 3, 2004)

NEXT STEPS:

Once a class begins, you will get an e-mail with an assignment that relates to this lesson.

Dimming the Backlight

Explore the backlight in LCD TVs and how to regulate it for optimal viewing.

By design, LCD sets have a bright fluorescent light behind their LCD panel.

The LCD panel consists of components encased as a sandwich of glass plates. Between the glass plates are the liquid crystals (which contain tiny molecules that are influenced by magnetic fields) and the small chambers that control them.

The glass layer panel of an LCD has polarizing filters. Light from behind the plates shines through the filter and is twisted by each individual liquid crystal molecules. These molecules are twisted by the magnetic field, which influences them as illustrated below.

Passing polarized light through liquid crystals makes it possible to control the intensity of light via a filter at the other end.

Called the backlight, the light source affects the brightness of the entire screen.

When the molecules are lined up with a polarizing filter, the molecule blocks out light, causing a dark spot. Now, when turned 90 degrees out-of-phase with the filter, the molecule will let light pass through. Thus, any angle in between will result in various brightness levels.

Some LCDs have a dedicated backlight control. In a darkened room with carefully placed lighting, we recommend you lower this setting all the way before you begin adjusting the brightness and contrast. You can always raise it later if it proves too dim.

Tip:
LCDs have smaller viewing angles compared with other TV types. You should always try to sit at eye level and directly in front of the screen when viewing and adjusting the image.

Credit: Computer Shopper Author: David Katzmaier (December 3, 2004)
McGraw Hill

Brightness and Contrast

Learn how to set the brightness and contrast on your TV.

Use the Brightness control to balance deep-black letterboxing bars with details in shadows.

Starting at the full-contrast setting, reduce the contrast until details are visible in light-colored objects.

Technically called black level, an LCD’s brightness control actually adjusts how dark the black sections of the picture appear. Excessive brightness can result in a two-dimensional, washed-out look with reduced color saturation. Images with brightness set too low tend to lose detail in shadows, and distinctions between dark areas disappear in pools of black.

Play a DVD that has letterboxing bars above and below the image and find a scene that has a roughly equal amount of light and dark material–preferably with some details in the shadows. Turn up the brightness control all the way, then decrease it until the letterboxing bars begin to appear as close to black as possible. If you notice a loss of shadow detail–for example, when people’s eyes disappear into the depths under their brows–then you’ve set brightness too low. You may also have to adjust the backlight and contrast controls to recapture lost shadow detail.

Now set the contrast. High contrast can obscure details and distort lines in the image, causing eyestrain in dim rooms. Setting contrast too low robs the image of impact. Display a still image from a DVD of a white object with some visible details, such as someone wearing a white button-up shirt. Adjust the control up all the way, then reduce it until you can make out all the details in the white areas, such as the buttons and creases in the shirt.

Tip:
In general, LCD sets can handle a higher contrast setting than other types of televisions. You can often set it as high as 80 percent without obscuring detail.

Setting Your Color Correctly

Explore how to set the color or saturation on your TV.

Raise the color control all the way, then ease it down to the most accurate level.

Tuning your color setting, or saturation, has a drastic effect on overall display quality. When there’s too much color, the image looks garish and unrealistic. This distortion is most noticeable with reds, which are often accentuated or pushed by the television’s color decoder. If there is too little color, the picture appears drab and muted. Setting color to zero results in a completely black-and-white image. Before you start fiddling with the color, find your LCD’s color-temperature control. This important feature affects the set’s entire palette of hues. Select the Warm or low option, which should come closest to the government’s NTSC standard of 6,500 degrees Kelvin. If the picture looks too red for your taste, try the medium setting, though that often gives results that are way too blue.

Now find an image of someone with light, delicate skin tones, preferably a close-up of a face, on a DVD. Turn up the color control until it looks like the person has terrible sunburn, then reduce it until the skin looks natural, without too much red. If the rest of the colors look washed out, you can increase color slightly at the expense of accurate skin tones.

Tip:
Generally, DVD images are best when proprietary processing modes such as autocolor, auto flesh tone, autocontrast, and noise reduction are turned off.

Further Fine-Tuning

Explore ways to further fine-tune your TV settings.

For basic calibration, we recommend that you put the tint setting on your LCD television at the midway point. Another important control is the sharpness level. This function adds artificial edges to objects on the screen. Though the feature can sometimes help with soft cable signals, it almost always mars the already sharp image from a DVD. When watching high-quality movies, we recommend reducing the sharpness to zero unless you detect visible softening along the edges of text. (Use a DVD’s menu screen to test this.)

Adjusting your LCD with the quick tips we’ve just mentioned will yield good results, but you can do even better by investing in a home-theater setup DVD. These store-bought discs offer tons of in-depth advice and calibration exercises for televisions and your entire home-theater setup. If you’re game to devote the time these DVDs require, they’re excellent tools. We especially like Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up ($21.95), great for beginners looking for a quick way to tune up their systems, and Digital Video Essentials ($24.99), well suited for experienced home-theater fanatics.

Advanced Calibration

Explore what’s involved in having your TV professionally calibrated.

If you’ve just dropped $1,000 or more on a new TV or projector, chances are you’re serious about home theater. For true videophiles, the most effective–and expensive–way to get theaterlike pictures is to have the display professionally calibrated. But some TVs perform well enough out of the box that you may not consider professional service a worthwhile investment. This section will help you decide.

What do the pros do?

Although the service you get will vary, professional calibrations almost always involve a few common steps aimed at improving the image. Many of these require accessing the display’s internal service menu and measuring the image with test equipment–two reasons why the service calls for a trained professional. We strongly advise against tampering with the internal service menu unless you know what you’re doing.

Here are the services included in a typical calibration:

Direct-view and flat-panel TVs: Set grayscale to the NTSC standard of 6,500 Kelvin, improving color accuracy of the entire palette; set contrast, brightness, color, and so on using test patterns designed specifically for each of these controls; optimize overscan and picture position, enabling display of more of the incoming picture; correct “red push” in the color decoder when possible; optimize all DVD input sources using DVD test patterns and HDTV input using an HDTV test-pattern signal generator.

CNET Labs uses Sencore’s CP5000 color analyzer to calibrate the color temperature of most TVs we review.

Rear-projection and front-projection TVs: All of the above for non-CRT displays; for CRTs, also converge all aspect ratios and focus the three guns to maintain image sharpness.

Other advanced services include mechanical focus of projector lenses, custom setups for every aspect ratio and input source, full projector installations from scratch, and the like.

Is it worth it for my TV?

Professional calibrations cost anywhere from $250 for a direct-view or plasma set to more than $1,000 for a CRT-based front-projector. If you’re on a budget, we recommend you first purchase one of the test discs and follow its DIY calibration procedure. If afterward you still feel like your set isn’t performing as well as it should or you simply want to guarantee the best picture, you should get a calibration.

One of the most important components of professional TV service–and one that definitely requires special gear–is grayscale calibration. This procedure equalizes the color of gray at various light levels, from very dark to very bright, at the NTSC standard color temperature (a.k.a. white balance) of 6,500 degrees Kelvin, or D6500K. DVDs are created to be displayed at that color temperature, so if your TV is set to 6,500K, you’re that much closer to seeing the image the director intended.

The Imaging Science Foundation is a good source for qualified calibrators.

Some TVs, however, have color-temperature presets that come close to 6,500K. That’s why CNET’s reviews always note the “out of the box” color temperature as we measured it. If that measurement comes close to 6,500K, then the set is in less need of a grayscale calibration. Note that very few TVs come close to the ideal color temperature, even in their warmest mode.

How do I get a calibration?

There are two ways to get your display calibrated. If you bought the set at a specialty retailer, the vendor would probably be able to refer you to someone who could perform the service. Some retailers even include calibration in the price of the television.

The more common way, however, is to retain the services of an independent contractor. There are many calibrators operating around the United States, but we recommend you choose a contractor with calibration equipment who has been certified by the Imaging Science Foundation and who owns his or her own calibration equipment. Note that many calibrators perform their services only in conjunction with full audio/video installations and may not offer separate video calibrations. (cnet.com)

Patent fuels Google mobile rumours

2007-09-04T09:55:00.000+07:00

Google has filed a patent for a mobile payment processing system, as rumours that the search giant is planning to launch a mobile phone reach fever pitch.


	Speculation about a possible GPhone emerged in 2004

The service, known as GPay, would use text messages to pay for everything from goods in a vending machine to products in regular offline retailers.

A spokesman for Google said that the company filed a lot of patents but not all of them led to products.

Speculation about a possible GPhone emerged in December 2004, when Google vice president Urs Hoelzle spoke of mobile growth being stalled because of too much fragmentation.

The rumours have since been fuelled by various acquisitions Google has made in mobile software.

Some commentators say that Google envisions itself as an operator of an ad-supported free mobile service. But most recently the speculation has focused on the company launching an operating system to work on mobile phones from a number of operators.

Om Malik, author of the technology blog GigaOm, said: "Initially there was one prototype, but over the past few months Google has the mobile operating system running on three to five devices, most of them likely made by HTC, a mobile phone maker." Watch (telegraph.co.uk)

A camera for Generation Z

2007-09-02T20:48:00.000+07:00

For the first decade of the digital camera revolution, most manufacturers dangled only one carrot in front of prospective buyers: more megapixels. You felt inferior if your camera took 3-megapixel photos when the latest models had 5.

Trouble is, after a certain point, more megapixels become mostly meaningless. Once you pass 5 or 6, more megapixels just fill up your memory card and hard drive faster, without offering any additional clarity or sharpness.

Now and then, you're grateful for extra pixels when you need to crop away a big piece of the photo. But meanwhile, packing 10 or 12 megapixels onto the tiny sensor inside today's consumer cameras can actually decrease photo quality, because the individual pixel sensors are so much smaller.

A growing number of consumers--and even salesclerks--are recognizing that more megapixels do not necessarily mean better quality.

Fortunately, as debunking of the myth spreads, camera companies are adopting one of two strategies: either they improve the factors that really do count in a camera--sensor size, stabilization, light sensitivity, lens quality, circuitry speed and so on--or they begin to differentiate, making different models for different kinds of people.

Olympus and Pentax make models that you can use underwater. Nikon sells a camera that can upload its pictures to Flickr via Wi-Fi. Canon's S5 IS can capture video and stills simultaneously.

And Fujifilm has a new one--called the Z10fd Finepix--aimed at teenagers and twentysomethings.

A camera for Generation Z: what does that mean? First, it means cheap. The Z10fd's list price is $200. When it ships in late September, the street price will be even lower.

It also means "cool looking." This tiny, gorgeous camera comes in brilliant metallic pink, dark blue, red, black, green or orange. You turn it on and off just by sliding its front lens cover, which makes everything feel simple and fast.

Generation Z is also expected to respond to features like Auction mode, where the camera assembles two, three or four individual shots of your used stuff into a single JPEG file for posting on eBay. There's also something called Blog mode, which simply means a smaller, lower-resolution photo.

The most interesting "those crazy kids today" feature, though, is photo beaming.

Think of those group shots where you all have to stand like statues so that every single person's camera can take the same shot. Think of the times when you were performing or speaking and somebody else took a picture--a picture you'd love to have for yourself. (Or maybe you were the photographer, and the other guy asked for a copy.) Think of the time you captured some amazing event with your crummy little point-and-shoot camera, while the guy next to you took a much better shot with his expensive pro camera.

Most people cannot share photos on the spot. Some people scribble down (and later lose) an e-mail address or use a Web photo gallery as an intermediary. It would be so much better if you could just share a photo with someone else's camera right now, in person, and cross that to-do item off your list.

Reach for the Z10fd. It is one of several current Fujifilm cameras with an inconspicuous infrared lens on the side. You can hold such cameras up to eight inches apart, lenses facing. Then, with three button presses, you can beam a full-resolution photo from one into the other. Thanks to a new, high-speed infrared standard called IRSimple--the first serious update to infrared beaming technology since the old PalmPilot days--the transfer takes only three seconds.

That's pretty cool, although for now, it won't rock anyone's world except other Fujifilm camera owners. Let's hope IRSimple catches on.

The Z10fd offers quite a few other features that are not strictly youth-oriented. For example, Intelligent Face Detection resembles a feature introduced by Canon a year ago. The camera tries to recognize when faces are in the scene, then calculates focus and exposure accordingly.

Without face detection, a photo of two friends might wind up with only the background between them in focus; a flash photo might turn your boss's face into a bleached blob. With face detection, the two friends' faces are in focus, and the flash's force is throttled back to properly expose your boss's delicate skin tones.

You know when the feature is at work, because face-framing squares appear on the camera's screen as you compose the shot. The squares actually move around with your subjects. Interestingly, face detection is at work during playback, too; you can zoom directly into one of the superimposed squares to get a closer look at one person in the group. (My favorite line from the manual: "Intelligent Face Detection will not work in cases where the subject is standing on his/her head.")

Japan high-tech "washlets"

2007-09-02T20:44:00.000+07:00

Interior designer Timothy Corrigan had never heard of a "washlet" -- until a client asked him to install one of the high-tech Japanese toilets.

When he saw the bidet-style bathroom appliance, equipped with a warm-water spray and other functions to cleanse and coddle posteriors, he was impressed. So impressed, in fact, that he bought one for himself, joining a small but enthusiastic group of Americans with high-tech commodes.

"It's really the ultimate pampering," Corrigan said. He has since been recommending the toilet to his other clients, mostly multimillion-dollar homeowners with a taste for luxury.

Japanese toilet maker Toto Ltd (5332.T), in hopes of winning more U.S. converts, launched an advertising campaign this summer to familiarize consumers with its products.

It also wants to convince them that the use of bidet sprays, while odd and intimidating to the uninitiated, is more hygienic and pleasant than using toilet paper.

"Toilet paper just distributes the problem," said Toto USA spokeswoman Lenora Campos in New York. "Whenever we clean anything else, we wash with water, right?"

Toto is a pioneer of the washlet. The name belongs to its product line Washlet, but is used in Japan as a generic term for all high-tech toilets with bidet functions.

Most washlets come with warm toilet seats, a bidet spray that extends from under the seat to jet warm water, and a dryer, as well as a remote control to adjust toilet seat and water temperatures.

While around 60 percent of Japanese households have a washlet, Toto has had limited success since expanding into the United States in 1990. Customers have been limited mostly to wealthy individuals and a handful of luxury hotels such as New York's W Hotel in Times Square and corporate customers like the Google (GOOG.O) headquarters.

'WASHLET EVANGELISTS'

One obvious deterrent has been the price: a basic washlet that is mounted onto an existing toilet costs a few hundred dollars, while Toto's top-of-the-line Neorest 600 model is listed at over $5,000.

The biggest obstacle, however, may be a cultural issue -- namely an awkwardness with discussing toilet habits and anatomy.

Toto's campaign hit another snag recently when it was forced to change a billboard advertisement in Times Square after a local church complained of its picture of naked bottoms.

Campos said, however, that the company was optimistic that attitudes would change, with help of its marketing campaign (http://www.cleanishappy.com) as well as word of mouth.

"When people become washlet users, they become washlet evangelists," she said. "Once you make that leap, you don't want to go back."

Tom Slankard, a bathroom appliance salesman specializing in Toto toilets at Western Sales Co. in California, said he was already seeing some changes.

"At first it was like you're talking about an icky thing. But now people are more matter-of-fact about it," he said, adding that he now sells around 400 of them per month compared with only 25 several years ago.

Slankard also said that even the more doubting customers are often amazed by the washlet's features.

The Neorest 600, for example, offers an oscillating spray massage and a catalytic air deodorizer in addition to standard bidet functions.

It is also equipped with sensors that help to automatically open and close the toilet lid and flush as the user walks away.

A built-in algorithm takes note of an owner's habits so that it can efficiently switch to energy-saving mode, and a special "cyclonic jet" flush helps consumers save water, Toto says.

Campos said the next step may be turning the washlet into a healthcare device. Future models, she said, could measure glucose levels, or even test pregnancy.

Barnes & Noble changes mind on Simpson

2007-09-02T20:40:00.000+07:00

Barnes & Noble Inc. has changed its mind about the new O.J. Simpson book.

After saying it would not stock copies of "If I Did It" in its stores, citing lack of customer demand, the chain told The Associated Press on Thursday that it would indeed carry the book.

Since the initial decision on Aug. 21 against stocking the book, but selling it online, Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said: "We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it."

For days Simpson's book has been in the top 100 on Barnes & Noble.com and at one point even topped the best-seller list. "If I Did It" has also entered the top 100 on Amazon.com.

Simpson's ghostwritten, hypothetical story of how he would have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman was originally scheduled to come out last November, but HarperCollins pulled the book in response to near universal protests.

Over the summer, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded rights to the book to Goldman's family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson. "If I Did It" will be published Sept. 13 by Beaufort Books on behalf of the Goldman family, which considers the book Simpson's confession.

Simpson has maintained his innocence in the 1994 killings in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Acquitted of the murders in 1995 and currently living near Miami, he has disowned the book, saying he had little do with its creation. The ghostwriter, Pablo Fenjves, has disagreed, saying "If I Did It" is based on extensive discussions with Simpson. (news.yahoo.com)

Be yourself

2007-08-30T16:06:00.000+07:00

Fashion won't work its magic if you're not, writes Janice Breen Burns.

Alber Elbaz is an elegant Tweedledee of a bloke with a smug/naughty smile and pop-eye spectacles that accentuate his slitty, sparkly eyes. He's fond of goofy bow ties, droopy trousers and high-top trainers done up with extra metres of loopy white shoelaces. That's him, pleased as a salon poodle after his spring/summer 2008 collection show in Paris. He is Lanvin's creative director and one of the most influential men in fashion. Isn't he smashing?

I LOVE Alber Elbaz; how utterly "wrong" he looks in a world seething with people trying so-ooo hard to look "right". You know what I mean; fat people lipo-sucked, slim, old people slicing bits off to look young(ish), wrinkly people Botoxed smooth, brown people bleached pale and pale people baked brown. Don't get me started on almond-eyed Asians wanting walnut shaped eyes either, or walnuts wanting almonds.

The world has gone nuts, but Elbaz is still Elbaz, the metaphorical tip of a thrilling, lovely iceberg, the epitome of NOT WANTING. Not pining, not craving, not wishing. Just arrogantly, confidently, narcissistically being, revelling in who he is. This is the key to good fashion. Jot it down. This is how you unlock fashion's power.

Self-acceptance like that is a miraculous accessory for striking, carefully picked clothes. It is uncommonly chic and particularly popular on fashion's loftiest echelon where Alber "Tweedledee" Elbaz, John "Ain't no oil painting" Galliano, Jean Paul "Me neither" Gaultier, Vivienne "Who gives a toss" Westwood and Donna "Rhinoplasty? Don't be a clod!" Karan, among many, many technically unattractive others, direct the seasonal looks that trickle down and eventually seduce us all. Aren't they smashing? Ugly/beautiful/evocative/powerful/enviable/fashionable/fabulous. Smashing.

For a ridiculous number of years I have preached the power of a good frock, a nice suit, a new hat - the self-concept of Decoration before Alteration - but apparently, it isn't enough any more. In the past three or four years particularly, the stream of pleas from sad little poppets wishing they were someone else has thickened through my inbox: "I'm short - how can I look taller?", "I'm chubby, how can I look slimmer?". "I'm thin." "I'm florid." "I'm in a wheelchair." "I'm ugly." There are the nearly-but-never-quite-lovelies, too, who can't seem to envision their own worth, let alone potential beauty: "I want hair like Jennifer Aniston's." "That dress like Rhianna's." "Mischa Barton's jeans." "Cameron Diaz's bikini." Go on, I think; you might as well say it: "I hate myself."

While I have been banging on about the power of fashion to unlock who we are, a generation has been marinating in a culture that reveres model looks above all. They genuinely believe anything different can be solved - should be solved - by the right surgery, or the right frocks. Wishing for one painfully narrow definition of beauty is a lifestyle, scheming to achieve it - one way or another - a life project. Self-acceptance; what's that?

Good grief.

Time to revisit the basics. And so I give you the lovely Alber Elbaz. And, come to that, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Valentino Garavani, Miuccia Prada, Karl Lagerfeld. A thousand others. They are fashion's marvellously, technically "unbeautiful" people who use clothes unselfconsciously to express who they are, and who, incidentally, wield more power in the world than most technically beautiful people ever will.

It's time to switch allegiances and goals or, at least, expand them a bit. What do you want to be? Powerful, or pretty? (theage.com.au)

Lunar magic stirs cosmic thoughts

2007-08-30T15:58:00.000+07:00

IN THE early years of the 16th century, Christopher Columbus used his ability to forecast a total eclipse of the moon to intimidate the natives of Jamaica after he was shipwrecked on the island.

The stakes were not so high at the rooftop car park at Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre in Richmond last night, but the natives, like their counterparts several centuries ago, were mightily impressed to see the moon disappear into the earth's shadow.

Patchy cloud did not keep the hundreds of amateur astronomers away, and when the moon's last sliver disappeared at 7.53pm exactly loud cheers rang out. "I think we have an innate need to find out a little more about where we fit in the cosmic scheme of things," said Perry Vlahos, vice-president of the Astronomical Society of Victoria.

Dust in the earth's atmosphere gave the moon a pinkish tinge during the hour in which it was only faintly visible due to the earth's shadow.

During that hour the 20 telescopes assembled in the car park were trained on the planet Jupiter. A bit of a cosmological two for one, if you like.

The last total lunar eclipse was in July 2000. The next one visible in Victoria will be in 2011. (theage.com.au)

The Seven High-Tech Wonders of the World

2007-08-29T21:02:00.000+07:00

The blink-and-you-missed-it news that we have a new Seven Wonders of the World got me thinking.

There must be seven man-made technologies and concepts that are worthy of ongoing wonder. So in honor of the new list, I've produced my own high-tech-based one.

I'm sure you'll disagree with some or all of them, but note that in the world of high tech, wonders never cease and are, to be honest, quite fluid.

So instead of tearing down mine after a cursory glance, read through what follows. Then, if you're inspired, hop into the PC Magazine forums with your own seven wonders.

Moore's Law

This seemingly immutable law of technology never ceases to amaze. Year after year, Gordon Moore's wisdom — that processor speed will double (really that the number of transistors on a process will double) every 24 months — is proven correct. This fundamental fact is truly amazing and a wonder that every man, woman, and child should acknowledge.

Nintendo Wii

This pocketbook-sized device, with its motion-sensitive controls, arrived with little fanfare, but now it's the main attraction in the console gaming world. Not only is everyone desperate to try out the little marvel, people are still taking numbers to buy them. Perhaps the true reason for its cultlike status is that everyone is wondering why Nintendo cannot make enough of them to keep up with demand.

Apple iPhone

The iPhone takes over for the 80 GB widescreen iPod with Video in the world of wonder. This hybrid device (yes, it's a phone and an MP3 player) recalls the black monolith from "2001: A Space Odyssey." It's much, much smaller, however, and it has far more functions (true, we never really knew all the functions hidden in that monolith).

The iPhone reaches "wonder" status, though, because of its one-of-a-kind interface. The effortless multitouch screen has no equal — at least at this size.

Apple Inc.

Here's a technology company that bears little to no resemblance to its counterparts. Sure, it owns only one product category, but it has an unmatched ability to create product buzz and then back it up with buzz-worthy products. We wonder where Steve Jobs gets all those great ideas—perhaps his dreams?

Microsoft Surface Computing

No less dazzling than Apple's multitouch iPhone, but on a large coffee-table-size surface scale. Place a digital camera on it and watch the photos appear, and then you and your friends can virtually pass them around, rotate, resize — you name it.

As a matter of fact, this on-screen, all-hands-on-deck performance can be repeated with music devices and other electro doodads. It's an astounding feat for Microsoft, a company these days more adept at me-too technology.

The real wonder here, however, is why this costs $10,000 and is available only in hotels and casinos. Microsoft, see Apple for further instructions.

Lasers

They're in your mouse, at the checkout counter, in pointers, robots, optical drives — the list goes on. They come in a rainbow of colors, with more properties than you'll find in the various shades shades of kryptonite. They made our music digital and our optical playback high-def.

We wonder only what's next. Personal light sabers?

Flat-Panel Display Technology

They're so ubiquitous that we now take these 2-to-5-inch-thick displays for granted.

What they can do is remarkable. They save millions of cubic feet in office space around the world, and they're responsible for the death of that awful monitor flicker. They helped introduce a whole new era of touch and tablet computing.

Now we're seeing the advent of brighter, sharper LED technology. With this and HDTV 1080p displays, it's a wonder we lived with cathode-ray tubes for so long.

Each one of these man-made tech attractions is a true wonder to behold. The good news is that you don't have to journey to far-off lands to see them. They're all as close as your own desktop.

State of Play: Man versus machine

2007-08-28T19:50:00.000+07:00

Computers playing computer games may sound odd, but it's an example of the ongoing man versus machine debate.

To the outside observer, all games can seem pretty pointless. But even to gamers who know they're not, there's a whole subset of pointlessness.

To some, it's investing in a subtle, taxing game like Virtua Fighter and never doing more than bashing random buttons in the hope of a win.

For others it's buying a guide book to a Final Fantasy game and blindly following its instructions as you play, rather than the story or your own sense of adventure.

These ways of playing - staunchly defended by some - do seem to rob gaming of nearly everything it has to offer.

But there is an even greater level of pointless play that baffles almost everyone. These are the systems devised by people who are more interested in getting machines to play for them than in playing themselves.

It's a vibrant, but idiosyncratic, world, from the man who's hoping his genetic algorithms will eventually evolve into Dr Mario masters, to the frustrated Guitar Hero who built a bot - complete with a camera for eyes and virtual fingers - to complete the hardest tracks for him.

It's a little surreal, but watching both of these systems play is strangely compelling, and there's an odd sense of vindication to be found in their triumphs. It's literally a case of seeing something beaten at its own game.

So what's going on? Surely nothing could be more pointless than watching a machine play a machine.

Gamers have to put their faith in their heroes every time they play

The reality is that it's not as alien an idea as it might at first sound. Gamers are used to watching games try to beat themselves.

Arcade games have always traditionally had "attract modes" that demonstrated how the game should be played, and ever since it's been possible to see games play themselves.

Even stranger, most gamers are used to games which do their best to help you win while they try all-out to beat you.

Many gun-based games have an auto-aim option, which means the game is busy processing how best to swing your reticule over the target at exactly the same time it's trying to process how to get enemies to pop up in corners you didn't expect.

Puzzle games take a few precious cycles out from relentlessly crunching the numbers on winning strategies to offer you helpful tips. And, we, weirdly, are totally at ease with this schizophrenia.

Why on earth would we trust a machine that seems to be playing both sides against the middle?

Why don't we ever wonder if the game is using a slightly dumber AI to proffer tips than it is to guide its own moves?

Generic algorithms are being used to "teach" computer to play Nintendo games

Can we be sure the so-called auto-aim isn't doing the software equivalent of jogging our elbow every time we shoot?

We can, but only because there's an instinctive understanding that - despite all the indications to the contrary - the games aren't trying to win.

They aren't machines determined to beat you, they're machines determined to entertain you. And it's reasonable to put your trust in them, because it's not them you're really trusting.

It's tempting to see games as the front-line of the great man versus machine debate. As the quest to build computers than can outsmart humans marches on, games remain the high-profile acid test.

A decade on from Kasparov's famous defeat by Deep Blue, computer programs such as Rybka can routinely beat players at Grand Master level.

Human intelligence, refusing to be put on the back foot, is taking refuge in creative ingenuity

Human intelligence, refusing to be put on the back foot, is taking refuge in creative ingenuity, inventing games like Arimaa, which are specifically designed to be easy for humans but hard for artificial intelligence.

But for most people, and for most games, that sense of pitting the human against the artificial isn't what you're aware of.

When you play, what you're doing is going up against the men behind the machine.

That's why watching bots and algorithms get the best of a game is so satisfying. For years, the machines that game developers build have been getting the better of us. Now our machines can, if only occasionally, get the better of them.

But at its best, gaming isn't about our machines or their machines.

At its best, the machine disappears, becoming instead an invisible conduit between you and these dozens of men and women who've spent years bending their immense imaginations and arcane skills to creating something designed purely to make you happy.

You put your trust in their instincts, and in their sincerity in trying to build an extraordinary, satisfying experience for you.

It's one of the ways in which game players have a much more intense relationship with game creators than is true of consumers of most other artforms.

Directors, writers or musicians can let you down, by making something you don't like, but they can rarely betray your trust.

Gamers have to put their faith in their heroes every time they play.

It's perhaps part of what enables game companies to engender the kind of fanatical loyalty that Nintendo does amongst its fans, and what accounts for the viciousness of the vitriol that unpopular products can produce.

Indeed, when you read the kind of hate-mail some studios are subject to, you have to wonder if they wouldn't prefer to be making games for bots and genetic algorithms. You rather suspect they might have better manners.

Apple

2007-08-21T05:32:00.000+07:00

Hey, it's no shocker that Apple's iPod is a coveted item even for those who acquire their wares in less than legal manners, but a recent patent application from Apple shows that someone at Cupertino cares about you rightful owners out there. Essentially, the technology would invoke a "guardian" recharge circuit, which would disable any further charging if the computer (or "other recharger") it was paired with was of the unauthorized variety. According to Apple, this type of limitation would "serve as a deterrent to theft," and while we can only assume that it would be applied first to the iPhone and iPod, the application does insinuate that other handheld, rechargeable devices could eventually benefit from the invention.

Health News

2007-08-21T05:28:00.000+07:00

Fairley, KJ, R Purdy, S Kearns, SE Anderson and BJ Meade. 2007. Exposure to the immunosuppressant, perfluorooctanoic acid, enhances the murine IgE and airway hyperreactivity response to ovalbumin. Toxicological Sciences, in press.

Synopsis by Dr. Abby Benninghoff and Wendy Hessler

Exposure through the skin to perfluorooctanoid acid (PFOA), a chemical commonly used to make fabric protectors, stain repellants and non-stick surfaces, increases the allergic response in mice when they are subsequently exposed to an allergen.

The results suggest one possible explanation for the rising incidence of asthma in children. Over the past 5 decades PFOA has become so widespread a contaminant that almost everyone tested has measurable amounts in their bodies. Indeed a recent study by scientists at Johns Hopkins University found that 100% of Baltimore newborns were contaminated by PFOA. The levels used in this experiment, however, were much higher than those commonly detected in people.

Context: PFOA. Containing the element fluorine, PFOA belongs to a family of chemicals called 'perfluorinated compounds,' or PFCs. PFCs are useful industrial chemicals due to their oil- and water-repelling chemical properties and have many commercial applications as: surfactants and surface protectors (e.g., Teflon™ by DuPont), paper and textile coatings, polishes, food packaging (e.g., microwave popcorn bags) and fire-retardant foams. PFOA is commonly used in and can be a byproduct of the manufacture of these commercial PFCs.

Researchers have become increasingly alarmed in the past decade, as numerous studies have shown that PFOA and related chemicals are found in nearly all Americans and commonly found in people from other nations. On average, levels of these chemicals in human blood are relatively low ranging from about 4 to 7 parts per billion (ppb) on average. PFOA can be absorbed rapidly by eating and drinking, breathing and touching. The half-life of PFOA in humans is estimated to be about 4 years, although in some laboratory animal models it is considerably less (hours to days).

Widespread PFC contamination of humans raises concerns about the potential harmful health effects of these chemicals. In particular, there is concern that children may be especially susceptible to PFC exposure, particularly due to their intimate contact with many surfaces treated with PFCs, such as chemically-treated stain-resistant carpet, clothes and food packaging.

The very persistant PFOAs can contribute to thyroid problems, immune changes and cancer (testicular, liver and pancreatic) in laboratory animals. People exposed to PFOA at work may be at higher risk for pancreas, testis and prostate cancers.

In early 2006, the eight PFOA manufacturers agreed to work to end emissions and take the chemical out of products by 2015. Even if intentional manufacturing is phased out, PFOAs will be around for a long time. The chemical is persistent - it does not break down; it is a byproduct of PFC manufacturing; and it is produced in animals and people during metabolism of PFCs.

What did they do? The authors compared three major immune responses in mice subjected to an allergen alone, the environmental chemical PFOA alone and the two together. They measured antibody response (immunoglobulin E or IgE) levels, airway hypersensitivity response, and lung and immune system tissue structure.

Mice were treated on the skin on the back of their ears with PFOA for 4 days then exposed to the foreign antigen ovalbumin or a control. The PFOA doses, ranging from 12.5 to 50 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), are comparable to those used in similar studies , but are considerably higher than those to which humans are likely exposed.

After the skin exposure, the researchers measured blood levels of the immunoglobulin IgE to assess the allergic response to ovalbumin. IgE triggers a more powerful immune reaction than other immunoglobulins involved in allergy and asthma responses. Both total IgE and ovalbumin-specific IgE were measured.

The airway hyperreactivity response was also measured to gauge how the lungs of PFOA-exposed mice responded to the allergen ovalbumin. Mice breathed an ovalbumin air mixture after being exposed to PFOA on their ears and injected twice with the allergen. Lung, spleen and thymus tissue samples were preserved and stained to identify any abnormal changes in response to the PFOA treatment.

What did they find? Skin exposure to PFOA induced the same toxicity markers observed in other rodent experiments with this chemical, including increased liver weight, decreased spleen and thymus weight and decreased numbers of cells in the spleen and thymus.

Results show that mice exposed to PFOA through the skin mount a stronger than normal allergic response to the foreign allergen (in this case the chicken egg protein ovalbumin). Both total and antigen-specific IgE levels were increased in ovalbumin-challenged animals exposed to PFOA compared to controls.

However, PFOA treatment alone, without the ovalbumin challenge, did not affect IgE blood levels. Similarly, the airway hyperreactivity response was also elevated in mice co-treated with ovalbumin and PFOA, whereas PFOA alone did not affect this response.

Interestingly, the IgE and airway hyperreactivity response to PFOA was not always dose-dependent, as the highest dose (50 mg/kg) was less effective or completely ineffective.

In mice exposed to ovalbumin alone, a typical inflammatory response in lung cells was observed. This normal response is characterized by moderate infiltration of the lung tissue with different types of inflammatory cells (macrophages, neutrophils, lymphocytes, etc.) and white blood cells of the immune system.

However, a more severe allergic response was noted in animals exposed to both PFOA and ovalbumin; many more of these inflammatory cells and white blood cells were found in the lung tissue. Tissue analysis further confirmed that co-treatment (PFOA and ovalbumin) altered lung cell shape compared to ovalbumin exposure alone. In PFOA-exposed lung tissue, airway secretory cells were enlarged and some cell death was observed.

What does it mean? In general, while PFOA alone was ineffective in altering any of the immune responses evaluated (IgE levels, airway hypersensitivity response and tissue structure), PFOA exposure exacerbated the allergic response to the antigen ovalbumin. In other words, PFOA could cause adverse health effects by intensifying the normal allergic responses to foreign particles.

Previous studies in mice have shown that dietary exposure to PFOA can lead to immune toxicity by decreasing the total number of spleen and thymus cells (Yang et al. 2000). Subsequently, these researchers observed that PFOA decreased blood levels of two immunoglobulins, IgM and IgG, important for the adaptive immune response. However, it was known until the current study whether the allergic response involved in asthma was affected by PFOA.

As stated by the authors, “the persistence of PFOA in the environment in combination with these findings suggest that exposure to PFOA, although not allergenic itself, may enhance an individual’s response to commonly encountered environmental allergens.”

However, the authors observed that in some cases, the enhanced immune response to co-treatment with ovalbumin and PFOA was diminished at the highest dose of PFOA tested. In other words, ever-increasing doses of PFOA exposure did not always lead to ever-increasing immune responses. This pattern is termed a “non-monotonic” dose response, a surprisingly common observation in toxicological and environmental science. The importance of this non-monotonic response to PFOA is unclear at this time. Further studies will be needed to address the question, why is the allergic/asthmatic response to high doses of PFOA different than the response to moderate or low PFOA levels?

Context: Asthma. Asthma is a chronic disease caused by abnormal inflammation of the bronchial airways to the lungs. This inflammation leads to a greater-than-normal, or hyperreactive, response of airways to allergens causing increased mucus production and swelling which can result in symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing. These symptoms can range from mild to life-threatening, though they are usually controlled with medication and/or lifestyle changes.

The rate of childhood asthma has increased nearly 60% in the past several decades. It is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and school absenteeism among children under the age of 15. There is a strong allergic component to childhood asthma, as about 75 percent of children with asthma also have significant allergies. The disease is more common in African-American children and in children who live in urban areas compared to white children or those living in rural areas . Common allergens that can trigger asthmatic attacks include pollen, grasses, dust and pet dander.

It is not obvious, or even likely, that these allergens have become more common as asthma rates have increased. Scientists therefore are looking for factors that might increase the severity of reaction to allergens. One possibility is that chemical contaminants increase the sensitivity of the immune system or the intensity of the reaction. A growing list of chemicals are being identified in cell and animal experiments as possible candidates, for example, phthalates and synthetic estrogens.

More information about causes of asthma.

Future studies will be also be needed to determine the mechanism by which PFOA alters this immune response, although the authors suggest that natural killer T cells or the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha may be involved.

The concentrations used in this experiment are much higher than what is found in human blood and the experiment duration was quite brief (4 days). Therefore, it is not known what affect long-term exposure to environmentally relevant levels of PFOA may have on the immune system or chronic asthma. However, the findings of this study are important given the likelihood of childhood exposure to PFOA and related chemicals and the strong trend in the US toward higher rates of asthma in children. (environmentalhealthnews.org)

The amazing world of First Ladies

2007-08-21T05:15:00.000+07:00

A police inspector led the dawn raid at the Midwest Herald, leaving behind a trail of destruction and intimidation at the Lagos-based paper.

Among the things the invasion squad carted away was its publisher, Mr Omboso Omo-Ojo. The police cited the standard "orders from above" excuse for last year’s May storm at the private enterprise.

The orders were not from Nigeria’s police commissioner. They were not from the minister in charge of internal security either. They were actually from a housewife with no elective office or constitutional authority. But it was indisputable she wielded real clout. It would have been a foolish career move for the officers to pretend to follow the laid out command chain.

Mrs Stella Obasanjo had ordered the raid. The paper had incensed her with a daring headline and a story that linked her to an opaque sale of government houses. Apparently she had no time for court redress over the "Greedy Stella" story if she felt falsely scandalised. She opted to pull her rather exalted rank.

Stella, who died of complications from a plastic surgery in the Spanish vacation town of Puerto Banus last October, was the wife of Nigerian President Olosegun Obasanjo. She was not the only spouse of the open polygamist.

But through a high profile and oft-controversial public life, she had crowned herself the first among equals in the President’s harem. She even banned wives of governors in the federal republic against ever addressing themselves as "Her Excellency". The title was to be reserved for her exclusive use.

Her efforts bred prominence and notoriety. By flaunting her marital connection, it is alleged Stella amassed a massive personal fortune. She could thus afford a botched tummy tuck surgery and a Sh40 million mansion in Brooklyn, New York, as a birthday gift for her only son, Mr Olumuyiwa Obasanjo.

The path she had taken was well beaten. In its December 16, 2004, edition, the Economist, quoting a phrase it said originated from "politically incorrect Nigeria", bemoaned the country’s endemic use of "bottom power". Wives and girlfriends in Africa’s most populous nation are notorious for exploiting pillow talk with powerful men to carve out fiefdoms that, at times, rival the influence of the husbands or boyfriends.

"Behind every African Big Man has been a substantial woman," the respected international magazine concluded. In a continent where formal leadership structures are often weak, the gamut of the power-men might run from the ruling party apparatchik to a minor town mayor. But nothing epitomises the excesses of the politician’s wife than the First Lady.

It is bad enough when the ladies preoccupy themselves with skimming state resources. But often, the plunder is accompanied by a brazen display of power that has been known to manifest itself as state repression and occasional jailing or deaths of opponents, real or imagined.

These women, whose titles are often not constitutionally recognised, become the perfect symbol of what is wrong with the regime of their men. Unlike the latter, they are not elected and are therefore not answerable for their actions even when they engorge themselves with public wealth. The only way to spare the nation of their indiscretions is by kicking out of office their partners.

On May 3 last year, Kenya’s own First Lady, Lucy Kibaki stormed a leading Media House in the dead of night to protest against "negative" reporting about her, the President and the First Family. In between giving a tongue lashing to the journalists she found in the newsroom, she allegedly assaulted a photojournalist — an act that has so far gone unpunished.

Zimbabweans, for instance, believe Mrs Grace Marufu chronicles the growing intolerance and primitive accumulation habits of her husband, President Robert Mugabe. When coup plotters stormed Niger’s presidential mansion in 1966, they spared President Hamani Diouri but assassinated his wife, Aisha. They had no doubt about the real author of the regime’s excesses.

The extremes of Mrs Cecilia Kadzmira, former Malawian President Kamuzu Banda’s concubine, reviled voters so much that they voted out her uncle and Banda’s preferred successor, Mr John Tembo. Among the reason why Mr Jerry Rawlings failed to foist Mr John Atta Mills as his chosen heir in Ghana is because the electorate was wary of the clout of his wife, Mrs Nana Agyeman.

At the height of his murderous excesses, Rawlings publicly confessed there was only one person who could contain his runaway temper: his wife Nana. In Swaziland, King Sobhuza II named his senior wife, Queen Dzeliwe Shongwe — nicknamed the Great She Elephant — a joint Head of State in 1981.

In Malawi, inspired by the guiles of Cecilia, who went by the rather strange title of Official Hostess, President Banda banned a popular hit by the British group, Simon and Garfunkel, that went by the same title. The song had made the mistake of lamenting another Cecilia’s hold on a lover’s heart!

From a petty secretary of limited education, Cecilia slept her way to Banda’s heart and fortune. He solely bequeathed her — or so the contested will of the senile former President read — his multi-million empire. She had even convinced Banda to anoint her uncle, former State minister Tembo, as his preferred successor. The plot however ended in court when Mr Bakili Muluzi won the presidency and uncle and niece were prosecuted for murder.

To be fair, it is not always a tale of rapacity by the First Ladies. Some like Mozambique’s Graca Machel were and remain women of dignity, the trappings of the State mansion not withstanding. At least 40 of them are in OAFLA, the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV and Aids.

There is no gainsaying the First Ladies’ hold on a country’s political pulse. They breathe reality into the ideals of the perfect marriage of power and motherhood or what posh gender activists call "femocracy." Where restraint is exercised, they have proved to be powerful symbols of women’s emancipation.

But the speck of good is often lost in the log of accumulation of personal riches and wanton pull of power strings. The norm has been to form seemingly charitable organisations usually dedicated to women’s emancipation but that end up being mere fronts for grand theft and diversion of resources for material queendom.

Whether Mrs Rawlings’ 31 December Women’s Movement — named after the date of her husband’s second ascension to power —, Maryam Babanginda’s Better Life for Rural Women Project, Maryam Abacha’s Family Economic Advancement Programme or Cecilia’s Chitukuko Cha Amayi M’Malawi (Development of Women in Malawi), the First Ladies’ inventions have left more questions on accountability than evidence of obvious good.

By pulling the strings from the bedroom, the First Ladies are often able to attract substantial funding to their brainchildren that other civil organisations can only envy. But the prudence of concentrating resources on what are in reality, private aggrandisement fronts has itself been a subject of controversy.

Writing for the Flame, an interactive women’s magazine, Ferial Haffajee posed: "Is the African First Lady help or a hindrance to women’s advancement? …The First Lady syndrome in Africa is an obstacle to gender advancement, say women activists. They also complain that donors favour first lady programmes, despite the fact that they are not sustainable. Vera Chiluba’s Hope Foundation in Zambia, Nana Rawlings’ December 31st Movement in Ghana and Obasanjo’s children’s programmes are the beneficiaries of millions of donor dollars."

Even where the First Ladies’ intentions are noble, the fluidity of politics often imperil the continuity of their projects once there is a change of guard at State House.

In Nigeria, the differences between former co-conspirators-turned-foes, military presidents Ibrahim Babanginda and Sani Abacha, found matriarchal vents in their respective wives.

So rancorous was the relationship between the women that when Abacha dethroned his handpicked predecessor, his wife embarked on a deranged mission to erase the memory of Mrs Babanginda from the country’s history by frustrating any organisation remotely linked to her. To amplify the new First Lady’s presence, her daughter set up an ingenious edifice: the Office of the First Daughter.

As a fitting synopsis of the accumulation mania afflicting the continent’s First Ladies, the Internet is replete with con artists looking for gullible types greedy enough for a piece of the pie.

"My name is Mrs Maryam Abacha, the wife of the late Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I got your contact through the listed postal address in your country.

"It is four years since my husband passed away and the tight grip on my husband’s assets both home and abroad is now telling on the family, since the new civilian regime came into place.

"I am now in urgent need of a partner/confidant through whom I can deposit some money in his/her bank account…."

There are similar scam appeals from impersonators of Stella, Mrs Babanginda, Mrs Rawlings and even Mrs Chiluba or their kin. The purported fortune is in millions of dollars. Though likely an exaggeration, the actual personal wealth claimed by the women is believed to be equally in the stupendous league.

The lucre is not the product of exceptional thrift. The wives of the presidents are believed to have ravenously exploited the bedroom to etch financial empires well beyond honest labour. When Abacha died — allegedly of a Viagra overdose amid trysting with imported lovers —his wife was caught at the airport with scores of dollar-stuffed briefcases.

Yet the greed of First Ladies is not a unique African malady. The "Steel Butterfly" of Philippine, Mrs Imelda Marcos, is perhaps the best living incarnation of the plunder of a nation’s resources by beings with no other qualification than sexual liaison with the Big Man.

A woman of exquisite physical beauty, Imelda, who at one time reigned as Miss Manila, was the wife of Philippine dictator Ferdinard Marcos, whose corrupt regime was swept out of power by a popular revolution in 1986.

When crowds stormed the deserted presidential mansion in Manila, they found at least 3,000 designer female shoes, including a pair with a three-inch battery inserted in its sole. It was Imelda’s dancing shoe with in-built neon lights to colour the dance floor.

Confronted with her ostentation in a country where 60 per cent of the population was living under a dollar a day, Mrs Marcos lamented the numbers were grossly exaggerated. By her last count, she had only 1,536 pairs!

Then there was Elena Ceausescu, the wife to Romanian strongman Nikolai Ceausescu. During the 1989 trial of the First Family that was caught fleeing a people’s uprising, she famously chided her prosecutor for daring to ask her age. It was bad manners, she said, "to ask a lady how old she is."

Elena was believed to have been the real power behind the throne and was personally blamed for the regime’s bloodbaths under the country’s famous secret service whose experts are known to have trained the torture experts of the Nyayo House dungeons.

To atone for the shame of an expulsion from a Chemistry class for exam-cheating, Elena, who flunked her junior secondary education, awarded herself or coerced colleges into granting her a string of Science degrees. At the time of her execution, she held two honorary doctorates in Polymer Chemistry.

Africa has its own living answer to Imelda as far as obsession with shoes is concerned. Mrs Grace Mugabe wears only Ferragamo designer shoes because, as she snapped back at her critics, she has "very narrow feet." She can only wear shoes that cost the annual salary of a high school teacher in poverty-stricken Zimbabwe.

The former junior secretary needs stylish shoes to match her trademark luxurious accessories that include Sh25,000 Christian Dior sunglasses and her Sh3.5 million Rolex watch.

She is sarcastically referred to as the First Shopper as a tribute to her spending binges. Her husband’s love for foreign travel has earned him the nickname Vasco da Gama or the Visiting President. Since the President’s appetite for jet setting blossomed after the death of his scholarly-inclined and respected Ghanaian wife, Sally, and subsequent formalisation of his erstwhile clandestine relationship with Grace, his motivation is rather apparent.

Grace has been known to spend Sh56 million on a single afternoon spree in Paris. The European Union and US-imposed travel ban, slapped on her and her husband, has bought reprieve for Air Zimbabwe. The First Couple now finds fewer reasons for ordering it to disembark its booked clients to free its planes for another foreign trip for the Mugabes.

Among her alleged excesses is a sprawling maisonette in Harare dubbed Gracelands. The High Court ruled the property had been illegally financed from government coffers. To stem public attention on her 30-room residence, she sold it to the Libyan government and had the state build her a new palace estimated to have cost Sh800 million.

The couple is known to have been eyeing a Scottish vacation Castle before the British-led demonisation of Mugabe condemned it to pariah status. To hit back, an angry Grace is alleged to have assumed ownership of at least two farms repossessed by the State from mainly white farmers. (modernghana.com)

New Game Exercises Muscles for Smiles

2007-08-21T05:11:00.000+07:00

In this 2007 photo released by Nintendo Co. , a video image of a model smiling according to the animation and an electronic voice guidance is shown on the screen in a new game for the Nintendo DS handheld machine that helps players exercise their facial muscles to have nicer smiles and livelier expressions. The 16 types of "Face Training" exercises called "facening," designed by beauty expert Fumiko Inudo, and that take about two to 10 minutes each to complete, comes with a digital camera that fits into the dual-screen machine to show live video of the player's own face. The game went on sale on Aug. 2, 2007 at 4,800 yen (US$40) in Japan.

Nintendo DS players in Japan can now exercise their facial muscles to have nicer smiles and livelier expressions.

A digital camera that comes with the new "Face Training" game fits into the dual-screen, handheld machine to show live video of the player's own face on the right screen while an animation of a woman's face illustrates exercises on the left screen.

The 16 types of exercises called "facening," designed by beauty expert Fumiko Inudo, take about two to 10 minutes each to complete. Nintendo Co., the Kyoto-based maker of Pokemon and Super Mario games, recommends playing "Face Training" no longer than 15 minutes at a time to avoid overexerting face muscles or getting them "out of balance."

Besides the animation that serves as a model for players, an electronic voice resembling an aerobics instructor guides you to twist your mouth, drop your jaw, wink, glare at the ceiling and perform other moves to tighten flabby cheeks and develop that bright-eyed look.

"Open your mouth slightly, one, two, three, four," the machine says during one exercise.

The game went on sale last week in Japan. Overseas sales plans are still undecided.

The new game is part of Nintendo's efforts to appeal to a wider audience, including women. Nintendo has scored success with its drill-like games, such as "Brain Age."

Nintendo's Wii console, which comes with a motion-sensitive remote control for playing virtual tennis and other games, is also doing well. Nearly 9.3 million units have been sold worldwide since its launch seven months ago. (abcnews.go.com)

Best Indie Games 2007

2007-08-21T05:03:00.000+07:00

Sure, Top 40 is fine if you feel like listening to expensively superproduced, high-gloss pop confections. (And I mean no disrespect: Sometimes that's precisely what I want on my iPod.) But if you want to hear music that takes sonic risks and recalibrates old formulas, you need indie artists -- folks who work outside the system, and are willing to accept a skimpy paycheck for artistic thrills.

Games work in precisely the same way. When publishers pour a bazillion dollars into developing a mass-market game, they're understandably unwilling to take risks -- so we wind up with titles like Crackdown, a game that is wickedly fun but not, alas, particularly innovative. No, if you want to see the raw, unpolished glimmerings of new types of gameplay, you have to head to the margins.

The good news? The world of indie games is booming -- supercharged by a growing number of schools that teach game design, cheaper game-design tools and the emergence of festivals devoted to indie gaming. Last year, I wrote a column describing some of my favorite right-brained games that were freely available online. I've decided to make this an annual tradition, so here's round two: This year's sampling, by no means comprehensive, of the latest oddball gameplay.

None of them are perfect, but all of them do at least one thing amazingly well in a new way.

Racing Pitch
You probably remember playing with cars as a kid, and making motor-noise sound-effects: Rmmmm, rmmmmm, rmmmmm. Now Skinflake Games has produced a game where you drive a car around a track -- and you control the speed of the engine by making revving noises into your computer's microphone. It's a delightful way of breaking outside well-worn control techniques -- buttons, thumbpad, keyboard. This isn't a game I'd play for hours, not least because my cubiclemates would think I've gone out of my mind. But Skinflake gets monster points for uniqueness here.

Wired: Voice control adds a tricky element of skill to a super-simple racing game.

Tired: More than 15 minutes of play and your throat is sore.

Rating:

And Yet It Moves
I'm continually annoyed that game designers don't muck around more with the basic physics of everyday life. If you're creating a new world from scratch, why cleave so slavishly to reality? Cut loose a little! Thus I was delighted to play And Yet It Moves, which is basically a traditional run-and-jump Mario-like puzzle -- except that you have the power to rotate the entire world around, allowing you to walk on the ceiling or on walls. This allows for fiendishly tricky puzzles, because you'll often have to rotate the world to move loose objects out of the way -- but it's not easy to do so without trapping or killing yourself. (Caveat: Yes, I know Prey had gravity manipulation, but it wasn't anywhere near as elegant or tricky as in this super-spare game.)

Wired: Cardboard-cutout graphics make the gameworld suitably dreamlike.

Tired: Only two levels. More, please!

Rating:

Plasma Pong
Pong gave us the original DNA of video gaming, but very few designers have ever tried to update it in any significant way ... until last year -- when Steve Taylor released Plasma Pong. The goal is the same as in the original, except that the playfield is a sizzling, crackling field of plasma that you can manipulate with your paddle: You can suck the ball back into your paddle, deflect it back at your opponent or release a blast wave. The level of complexity shoots through the roof, yet somehow remains manageable. In essence, Taylor realized that in reskinning Pong, one could revamp not merely the paddles -- but the negative space in the game. That's crazy smart.

Wired: Plasma graphics so weird and beautiful they can cause hallucinogenic states.

Tired: Control of the ball can be occasionally maddeningly unpredictable.

Rating:

Toribash
Kung-fu fighting titles are considered the epitome of "twitch" gaming, because it's all about your lightning-fast reflexes, right? Not in Toribash. It's a "turn-based fighting game," in which you carefully plan the movements of each joint on a cube-based fighter's body -- then watch and see what crazy physics emerge. The designer, Hampus Söderström, has transformed fighting into chess: You'll find yourself sitting there, stroking your chin as you examine your freeze-framed figurine, meditating on how much torque to apply to the leg ... the better to kick your opponent's head off. And, in a nice subversion of this meditative pace, when the blows actually land, limbs fly off and blood geysers in all directions.

Wired: The white-backdropped game screen and open-ended movements allow for awesome Toribash machinima.

Tired: Mastering control of your fighter can be bafflingly hard.

Rating:

flOw
Most games follow what I call "sidescroller narrative logic" -- things start off easy and gradually get harder and harder. But you can't reverse course and ease back if you want; you can only press onward, facing ever-harsher conditions until either you finish the game or quit in frustration. In contrast, flOw lets you go in both directions. You start off as a little microorganism, eating smaller lifeforms to grow in size and diving deeper into the primordial ooze when you want to hunt more difficult prey. But if you get overwhelmed, you can back up to an easier level. The upshot is a game that is oddly soothing to play -- not just because of the self-regulating gameplay (designed after Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow," naturally), but due to a gorgeously trippy soundtrack.

Wired: Game is being ported to the PS3 -- with more and weirder levels.

Tired: Might be a little too easy for experienced gamers.

Rating:

(wired.com)

Seven Things about Wikipedia

2007-08-21T04:45:00.000+07:00

What more do you need to know about Wikipedia? It’s the sometimes controversial online encyclopedia of the people, and its content dwarfs that of conventional encyclopedias. What we also know is that college students all too often rely on Wikipedia entries without fully evaluating the accuracy of the content. Then perhaps there is something new to learn – how to leverage Wikipedia as an instructional technology to better equip students to read and gather information with a critical eye.

To help educators and librarians to better understand the issues related to the use of Wikipedia by students, EDUCAUSE has focused the latest addition to the "Seven Things You Should Know" series on Wikipedia (pdf). The series introduces web and learning technologies and identifies how they might be best used for better pedagogy. The new Wikipedia document identifies how it can be used in this way:

In higher education, wikis have been put to use in courses ranging from humanities to science to business. With Wikipedia, students can take part in a collaborative process of creating and revising content in a global context, moving the opportunities for learning beyond the walls of the classroom or the university. An important part of academic training is seeing how knowledge is created and understanding that it is dynamic, evolving over time based on the contributions of many individuals.

Rather than banning the use of Wikipedia, faculty and librarians are working together to develop creative assignments and research exercises that engage students in the information creation process by having them create or edit Wikipedia pages. Through these learning experiences students come to understand that anyone can add to or edit Wikipedia and what the consequences are for those who base important decisions on this information. Faculty who would like to further explore how Wikipedia can be used to help students become more effective researchers should contact their Temple University Libraries subject specialist to begin the discussion.

-Steven Bell

(blog.library.temple.edu)

Toe the Line

2007-08-21T04:37:00.000+07:00

It's the fashion kiss of death in Hollywood: Showing up on the red carpet, only to find that some other starlet is wearing the exact same gown. But when it comes to shoes, all of the A-list seems to have the same pair, and no one seems to mind.

We speak of none other than Christian Louboutin and his black peep-toe pumps. With their trademark Day-Glo red soles, Louboutins are to shoes what Nobu is to sushi. Simple, elegant and ridiculously expensive, these babies have proven irresistible to Angelina Jolie, Ashley Olsen and Nicole Richie, who even sported 'em on her court date.

Author applies economics to life and dating

2007-08-18T20:22:00.000+07:00

Economics professor Tyler Cowen delights in using his expertise to get the best out of life. In his new book, he says anyone can.

From choosing a restaurant to persuading a child to wash the dishes, "Discover Your Inner Economist" (Dutton, $25.95) follows in the footsteps of the best-selling "Freaknomics" by showing how to put economic thinking to work in almost every area of life.

"Small improvements in understanding can bring a much better use of incentives, leading to much better decisions and much better lives," writes Cowen, who teaches at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

In a restaurant, he will order the most elaborate dishes rather than plainer fare on the assumption that, having invested in going out, there's no point eating food that you can cook at home.

By the same token, Cowen will order several dishes -- more than he can eat -- to sample as much as possible and maximize his return on the cost of the outing. What he doesn't finish, he takes home.

For good value, he will seek restaurants in less-expensive parts of town because, he says, those in high-rent areas are either for the masses or very expensive.

"There are better food buys in East Hollywood than West Hollywood, where the movie stars live," he writes. In the midtown district of New York, "we can do better on Ninth Avenue (the far West Side), or First Avenue (the far East Side), than on Fifth Avenue."

He sees dating as a good place to apply the economic principle of signaling -- the idea that, for example, people study for an MBA degree at Harvard more for what it says about them than for what they learn.

Playing hard to get fails to separate the winners from the losers, he concludes. In economic-speak, it doesn't satisfy a separating equilibrium -- because it's too easy for losers to mimic the behavior of winners.

Not surprisingly, he says that in marriage and family life, financial incentives are either hard too hard to get right or counterproductive, as he found when he tried paying his stepdaughter to wash the dishes.

Similarly, he cites a day-care center that started fining parents for picking up their children late and found this made the problem worse. The fines allowed parents to make a financial calculation about what they had previously seen as a question of courtesy or parental responsibility.

Cowen, who discusses many of these issues on his blog (http://www.marginalrevolution.com/), also finds that museums are run for their donors, not for the public.

He also contends that the book market is not about reading or enjoyment -- a big proportion of books are bought but unread.

His own strategy when reading a book is to dip in, sample a few chapters, read from back to front, or simply discard the book if there is a better one to be read. If he starts 10 books, he says he may finish just one.

"Why not be brutal about this?" he writes. "Is this the best possible book I can be reading right now, of all the books in the world? For me at least, the answer is usually (but not always) no." (news.yahoo.com)

Seagal says FBI probe ruined career

2007-08-18T20:01:00.000+07:00

Steven Seagal, whose action movies once were major box-office attractions, believes false allegations by FBI agents ruined his career, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

The comments in the Times are the first Seagal has made publicly about an investigation begun some five years ago by the FBI into accusations he intimidated a reporter and had ties to organized crime.

The Times said Seagal is demanding an apology from the FBI. A spokesman for the actor was not immediately available on Friday.

"False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the Mafia," Seagal told the newspaper. "These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers -- and kill careers."

Seagal, 56, was once a major star of action movies such as 1992's "Under Siege," which earned $156 million at worldwide box offices, but now he makes straight-to-DVD releases such as "Flight of Fury and "Attack Force."

The FBI investigation stemmed from Seagal's ties to former private detective Anthony Pellicano, who once was employed by many Hollywood stars, directors and producers, but is now in federal prison awaiting trial on wire-tapping and other charges.

The Pellicano investigation dates to 2002 when a free-lance reporter for the Los Angeles Times found a dead fish, a red rose and a note saying "Stop!" on her car. At the time, the reporter was researching Seagal and a former business partner.

Seagal told the Times that he and Pellicano had not been on speaking terms since the 1990s and the Times' story said his lawyers told FBI agents that by 2002, Seagal and Pellicano had become rivals in a bitter legal dispute.

The actor said in October 2004, an FBI official told him that federal agents knew he had nothing to do with the Pellicano investigation. Still, Seagal claims they have not publicly exonerated him.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment "because of the ongoing nature of the investigation" and referred calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney noted Seagal has never been charged or accused of being involved in the incident that eventually led to Pellicano's arrest. The spokesman added that the office does not comment on talks it has with attorneys representing defendants, investigation targets or witnesses.

For some bands, best-of album is worst idea

2007-08-18T19:36:00.000+07:00

A side-effect to today’s fractured, tumultuous music industry is the fluctuating meaning of the greatest-hits album.

On one hand, it remains a giant moneymaker for labels, which are urging their artists to make best-of compilations increasingly earlier in their careers. On the other, iTunes has made greatest-hits albums redundant. If you want an act’s highlights, you can assemble them yourself.

This dichotomy has, for some bands, made the decision to make a best-of album an increasingly difficult, sometimes contentious one. Some view greatest-hits albums as a blatant money grab that disrespects the integrity of the album. Pressure from labels can also come sooner than expected.

The Sacramento, Calif., band Cake (its hits include “The Distance” and “Short Skirt, Long Jacket”) was requested by its former label, Columbia Records to make a greatest-hits album. With only a handful of well-known albums to its name, the band judged a best-of disc to be premature. They refused, prompting a legal fight between Cake and Columbia.

In the end, Cake left to form its own label, Upbeat Records, and will instead release “B-sides and Rarities” on Oct. 2, with a live disc to follow this fall.

“I have mixed feelings about greatest-hits albums,” said Cake lead singer and guitarist John McCrea. “They’re a force that can be used for good or evil.”

“For us at that point, we felt like it wasn’t the appropriate moment — that we hadn’t existed long enough to warrant some sort of wistful retrospection. It kind of reeked of desperation.”

Money-maker for labels
In recent years, a number of acts have released greatest-hits albums early in their careers, including Britney Spears, Hilary Duff and Sugar Ray.

Though the advent of iTunes (not to mention illegal downloading and MySpace) has meant a band’s most-popular songs can be instantly sampled or bought, greatest-hits discs remain lucrative to labels. In recent Nielsen SoundScan sales charts, at least half of the top 50 top-selling catalog albums typically are compilations.

Labels often add rare unreleased material or unique packaging to these albums to entice die-hard fans. They are also viewed as a way to introduce audiences to an act with whom they may be unfamiliar.

Still, there are several notable holdouts, including AC/DC, Radiohead, Phish and Metallica. Many artists feel greatest-hits discs corrupt the integrity of their prior albums. For the same reason, Radiohead and AC/DC have thus far resisted putting their music on iTunes, where albums are chopped into single tracks.

It’s a stance Chris Lombardi, founder of independent label Matador Records, often encounters.

“I’ve been trying to encourage some of our bands to do greatest-hits records, but I think artistically they have a real difficult time taking away the identity of the album as it stands alone,” said Lombardi.

Many of the artists on Matador’s roster haven’t had hits in the conventional sense, but could benefit from having highlights assembled to make it easier for the more passive music fan. In 2003, Matador released “The Best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates” — a sensible collection for Guided by Voices, whose prodigious output included 16 full-length albums.

“I felt the output was so huge for that band that to narrow it down would be helpful,” said Lombardi. “Somebody might be intimidated by the size of the catalog.”

Far more than an afterthought
Whether a label needs the consent of an act to issue a compilation varies from contract to contract. Catalog sales account for approximately 40-50 percent of a label’s annual gross, so rereleasing and repackaging old material is far more than an afterthought.

“If an artist has a say in these kind of things, you’d think that they’d want a greatest-hits record to be an intro to the band as a way to guide you into buying the rest of the records as opposed to being a substitute,” said Steve Kandell, deputy editor of Spin magazine.

Some greatest-hits records take on a life of their own — like the Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975),” which is the best-selling album ever in the U.S. Similarly, Bob Marley’s “Legend” was (and still is) a sensation. At one point, it spent 106 straight weeks atop the Nielsen SoundScan catalog chart.

Other bands like U2 and Aerosmith have been criticized for their seemingly unceasing parade of greatest-hits albums. U2 followed 1998’s “The Best of 1980-1990” and 2002’s “The Best of 1990-2000” with 2006’s “U218 Singles.” Last year’s “Devil’s Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith” was the band’s eighth compilation over the course of their 27-year career.

“There’s a reason why it doesn’t seem very artistic: it’s not. It’s a commercial ploy,” says McCrea. “That said, there are some terrific greatest-hits albums.”

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