Victorian styled PC is drool-worthy

I've been getting interested in the "Steam punk" movement / style lately, plus some of the Gothic type dress (Victorian gentleman, thank you very much). If I had a room with old, Victorian style furniture, I would want one of these to finish off the room! This guy does great work!

Victorian styled PC is drool-worthy: "

Are you a sucker for old Victorian-style items around your home? If so, you might want to hook up with Jake who came up with this drool-worthy PC that is squeezed into a custom aluminum chassis, designed specially to hark back to the Victorian era. The chassis itself is capable of housing hard drives as well as the motherboard behind the monitor, while the base unit has been rebuilt to hold a chunky 350W power supply. Powered by a Pentium IV processor, you will find a 250GB SATA hard drive within as well as a gold-painted cooling fan, running alongside a typewriter-inspired keyboard that is sure to start conversations with whoever drops by your place.

Permalink: Victorian styled PC is drool-worthy from Ubergizmo Hot: Blackberry Bold 9700 Review

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Panasonic and new best friend Sanyo plan one week storage battery for the home

This is exciting stuff, even if it's up to two years away.

I've been looking at alternative energy methods for my house, and the primary one, solar, is VERY expensive. This won't make it cheaper, but it will make it more possible to come completely off the grid with a reasonable solar array.

Panasonic and new best friend Sanyo plan one week storage battery for the home: "

One of the big obstacles in alternative energy is that some of its primary gathering mechanisms -- solar, wind, reclaimed heat -- aren't continuously available, so no matter how much of a science lab you have bolted to your roof, you still might run out of TV electricity during a calm night's Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon. Well, Panasonic's recent buy of Sanyo brought with it some choice battery tech, and the newly joined companies think they can be the first to build and ship a storage battery for home use. The plan is to release the lithium-ion cell in 2011, with enough juice in it to power a home for a week (a Japanese home, we presume), and the battery will be paired with a system to allow the user to monitor electricity usage on their TV. Of course, fuel cells have traditionally been looked to as the great home energy storage hope, but we doubt any will be able to compete with the tried-and-true lithium-ion by the time 2011 rolls around.

Panasonic and new best friend Sanyo plan one week storage battery for the home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP Computers are Racist?

OK, this is an interesting problem. It seems that the HP face-tracking webcams can't track the face of some black people. HP says there's a problem with their software in some cases where there is "insufficient foreground lighting".

I have no idea how hard it is to develop a program to do facial recognition, but let's assume it's hard. Wouldn't you think you'd have tested it with more than just Caucasian people?

I'm just sayin.

Face Tracking HP Webcams Can't Track Black Faces: "See video for full details.













Arts - Facepainting - Bodypainting - Bodyart - Shania Twain"

World Map Of Social Networks Shows Rise Of Facebook

This is an excellent visualization, and also very interesting. With India, all of N. America, most of Europe, and Australia, Facebook is winning the social networking war; but if this were Risk, I'd watch that Russian site carefully!

World Map Of Social Networks Shows Rise Of Facebook: "

(click through for larger version, interactive widget below)

Italian writer, blogger and photographer Vincenzo Cosenza has for the second time put together a visualization that shows the most popular social networks around the world on a map, based on the most recent traffic data (December 2009) as measured by Alexa & Google Trends for Websites.

The first one, which we featured in June 2009, already painted a picture of Facebook taking over the world from the West, but the second one shows its relentless colonization even more clearly.

Facebook, with over 350 million users, is the undisputed leader of social networking in the English speaking parts of the world, and has been making strides in Latin-America, Europe and Africa as well. Based on Alexa data only, Facebook has even taken over Orkut in India, historically a high-flyer in those parts. Google’s social network remains the most trafficked in Brazil, however.

Facebook clone Vkontakte.ru has been able to resist and stop Facebook from becoming the leader in Russia. It’s worth noting that Vkontakte is largely owned by Digital Sky Technologies, which also owns a significant stake in Facebook, so you can see how they could potentially melt together in the future.

Hi5 has also seen Facebook take over most of the territories where it was leading, and has only been able to stop the social network from dominance in Peru, Portugal, Romania, Thailand and Mongolia. Meanwhile, QQ is still ahead of everyone else in China, where the number of Internet users is expected to double and reach a staggering 840 million by 2013.

Nowhere to be seen on the map: MySpace (which only leads on the Island of Guam).

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

"

My Body, My Choice: Not in the US Army!

Something tells me that Mr Dvorak doesn't approve of Gen Cucolo's decision here.

However, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) still lists adultery as a crime (Article 134). The biggest problem is that this part of article isn't enforced. I'm glad to see someone saying they will enforce it. I hope he follows through.

My Body, My Choice: Not in the US Army!: "

Google / Associated Press:

A U.S. Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.

The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to both female soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male soldiers who impregnate them.

Civilians reporting to Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the new guidelines.

Cucolo’s order outlines some 20 barred activities. Most of them are aimed at keeping order and preventing criminal activity, such as selling a weapon or taking drugs.

But other restrictions seemed aimed at preventing soldiers from leaving their unit short-handed, including becoming pregnant or undergoing elective surgery that would prevent their deployment.

Under Cucolo’s order, troops also are prohibited from “sexual contact of any kind” with Iraqi nationals. And, they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so.

"

My Body, My Choice: Not in the US Army!

Something tells me that Mr Dvorak doesn't approve of Gen Cucolo's decision here.

However, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) still lists adultery as a crime (Article 134). The biggest problem is that this part of article isn't enforced. I'm glad to see someone saying they will enforce it. I hope he follows through.

My Body, My Choice: Not in the US Army!: "

Google / Associated Press:

A U.S. Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.

The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to both female soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male soldiers who impregnate them.

Civilians reporting to Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the new guidelines.

Cucolo’s order outlines some 20 barred activities. Most of them are aimed at keeping order and preventing criminal activity, such as selling a weapon or taking drugs.

But other restrictions seemed aimed at preventing soldiers from leaving their unit short-handed, including becoming pregnant or undergoing elective surgery that would prevent their deployment.

Under Cucolo’s order, troops also are prohibited from “sexual contact of any kind” with Iraqi nationals. And, they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so.

"

Yet Another New Toy, and the Freezer

It’s been a while since I posted from my personal thoughts, so I thought I’d drop by in person and let you know some of the stuff that’s going on.

First, let me say that I’m composing this in Windows Live Writer on my Acer Aspire One netbook. It’s great for using around the house or if I were traveling. I can sit on the couch and balance it on one knee (like I am right now) and type. Touch typing is a little hard, but I can get by, as long as I remember that the keys are closer together. Not bad considering how fat my fingers have become with some of the meds I’m on.If you travel, I recommend this. It’s great for net surfing and internet based email. Recommended.

One of the things I did with the netbook when I first got it was wipe it clean and put Linux on it. I tried two different builds of Ubuntu 9.10: the standard workstation build, and the build specifically for netbooks, Ubuntu Netbook ReMix.

Let me start with this; if you’re an old hat with Linux or if you’re a total noob, Ubuntu works well for you. The standard load from the workstation image is really good, but if you’re doing serious work (not just normal office-type work) you’ll need to do some poking around and adding some software to get things just the way you want them.

If you’re a noob and you’re using a netbook, the Ubuntu Netbook ReMix is really cool. The user interface is really easy to get around in. You can find anything you’re looking for in very few clicks. It has some easy to play games that work ok with keyboard or touchpad, and has all the connectivity you need to get web-based work done (email, surfing, etc).

I’m still working on building my server up, but that’s been put on hold because I had to help a friend out with a rebuild of her computer. It stopped working completely. The symptoms were that it started working more and more slowly until it stopped completely. My initial diagnosis was that it had a virus, since they don’t use AV software of any kind.

So, I started with The Ultimate Boot CD (awesome tool, by the way), booting and checking the memory, just in case. The memory tested ok, so I went on to AV testing. I was using TUBCD 4.1.1, and the AV was old, so it wouldn’t check for viruses because the signature file was so old. So, I had to move forward. The PC was brought to my place so I could get hands on.

 

I got the beta of TUBCD (5.0) and ran the AV, to my surprise, it couldn’t access the hard drive. Hmmmmm. So, I started running the hard drive diagnostics. The drive tested as dead. Yes, that’s the technical term for it.

I pulled the 500GB drive and also couldn’t read it on my PC, so I confirmed the death of the drive. But could I revive it? I have read on-line that if you put a drive in the freezer for over 24 hours, it can make it usable again, at least long enough to pull important personal files off. My friend is a photographer, so her life’s work is on that drive; I’ll try anything.

Well, the drive is still in the freezer. I wrapped it in a dry absorbent cloth and put it in a freezer bag. I’m planning on testing the drive in the next few days. I have a new tool that will help with the testing, and it was cheap. I picked up a USB to SATA / PATA adapter. I’ll let you all know how it works.

 

Speaking of in the freezer, today is the day after the biggest snowfall in DC Metro history for the month of December. We measured about 17” before it stopped snowing, so I’m guessing about 18”. I’m not going out to find out. Dulles reported 18”, Reagan airport reported 16.4”, and BWI in Baltimore reported 21”! Our street hasn’t been plowed yet (not what I’m used to, having spent my first 21 years in Maine). I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get out of the neighborhood. The problem is my wife’s aunt is at the hospital for a “one night stay” because of a heart catheterization procedure. She wouldn’t have had to stay over night except they put in a stint for a blockage. The procedure was Friday, and the snow started Friday night. So we need to figure out how to get there to bring her home. Hopefully someone can get there safely. 

Computer Scientist Looks At ICBM Security

Matt Blaze does a wonderful job of describing the ICBM site he visited in Arizona. This is a really good read, and shows some of the thought process that was common to the Cold War.

Thank God it stayed "Cold".

Computer Scientist Looks At ICBM Security: "An anonymous reader writes 'Computer security guru Matt Blaze takes a tour of a decommissioned ICBM complex in Arizona. Cool photos, insightful perspective on two man control, perimeter security, human factors and why we didn't blow ourselves up. From the article: 'The most prominent security mechanism at the Titan site, aside from the multiple layers of thick blast-proof entry doors and the fact that the entire complex is buried underground, was procedural: almost all activities required two person control. Everywhere outside of the kitchen, sleeping quarters and toilet were 'no lone zones' where a second person had to be present at all times, even for on-duty members of the launch crews.''

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"

CrunchPad now called JooJoo, likely not open source, now $499, might come out this week

OK, I'm not the one who usually would judge people by first glance, but would you buy electronics from this guy? Not to mention the law suits that are going to be filed by TechCrunch against Fusion Garage and this "fine looking gentleman".

I'm sorry, but all he needs is an eye patch and a scimitar and he could be a bad guy in a "Sinbad the Sailor" movie!

I'll be honest. I was going to look at the CrunchPad, but now, there's just too much bad joojoo.

CrunchPad now called JooJoo, likely not open source, now $499, might come out this week: "

Follow up: Chandra Rathakrishnan (Fusion Garage, maker of the CrunchPad, er, was/is) did that video call today. There is new information, but it seems the proclamation of the tablet being 'open source' from the start, isn't being addressed at all... Here's a run down from Engadget.

JooJoo will be $499, available at thejoojoo.com on December 11. Talking pricing and availability: 'There are dreams, and then there are hallucinations.' Saying Arrington's dream of a $200 device was unrealistic. Comparing it to iPhone 3GS with a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen at $299 on contract, netbooks at $399 with no touchscreen.

If and when it's released on 12/11, we'll finally see if it's 'open source.' If it's not, this would be example of using the term 'open source' to gain good will and marketing for a product. Our emails and comments posted to TechCrunch have so far been ignored.

Read more Permalink Comments



Read more articles in Open source hardware


Digg this!"

Motorola Droid — Three Weeks Later

I had to post this, mostly because my boss at the customer site just got one of these, and he loves it. He should be getting kick backs from Verizon Wireless, because he's sold 5 more of them since he got his!

This is a cool phone, and if I had lots of money (which I don't) or if my "new every two" were up (which it isn't), I'd have one. Alas, I'll have to wait until June to see what cool phones are available.

And yes, it is that much better than the BlackBerry Storm (one or two).

Motorola Droid — Three Weeks Later: "

So – I’ve had the droid for about 3 weeks now and I can give you a more detailed review of the phone than I did initially.

Bottom line – I still like this phone and would recommend it to anyone looking for a high-powered phone that is actually a portable computer. Having used it for some time, there were things that I discovered that were both good and bad.

On the good side the phone works great as a phone, which is something you don’t see in reviews. It is the best speaker phone I have ever owned. The speaker phone is good enough and loud enough that you don’t need a Bluetooth headset to use in a car. You can lay the phone on the passenger seat and carry on a conversation and it’s loud and clear. At home I put it on the kitchen counter-top and walked to my front door 25 feet away and I could hear them and they could hear me just fine. I wasn’t expecting that.

For the car, I bought a generic windshield mount phone-holder to hold the phone like one would mount a GPS. That’s because it can replace a GPS and the speaker phone is even better if it’s a little closer. As a GPS however it is both extremely cool and pathetic at the same time.

The cool part is that because it is multitasking the GPS can run while you are talking and even check your email at the same time (although I wouldn’t do that while driving). It is also cool that you can select “satellite view” like Google Earth has and you can see a moving view as you drive. As you drive fast on the highway it zooms out but if you slow down to make a turn it zooms in so you see the intersection. As you approach your destination it switches to street view so you can see what your destination looks like. All very, very cool.

But i’ts functionality as a GPS needs a lot of work. If you tried to navigate to my house it would lead you to another street in back of my house where you would have to cross a creek to get to my back yard. It also connects a dead-end street with another street on the other side of the dead-end. And it seems to have little or no concept of one-way streets, so it’s a little iffy as to whether or not it would get you to where you want to go. But since that’s software and is upgradable, I’m expecting it to be fixed in the (hopefully near) future.

Battery life depends on what you are doing. If you have the phone on standby, and just use it to talk, the batteries last a long time. But if you are running GPS with satellite view, it really sucks the battery down. Even with the car-charger connected there was still a net battery drain.

I am a former Palm 700p user and not an iPhone user so my standard is the Palm which worked very well for its generation of phone. When it comes to things that just work and easy to use and figure out, the Palm is significantly better than the Droid. The Palm had their “Palm Desktop” and the sync application that backed up everything. I could, and did, backup up the Palm, install a new OS wiping it clean and then use the sync to restore… and everything was restored as it was before the upgrade with everything working. The Driod lacks this kind of backup and really should have one.

Another little annoyance is that while the email app works well, my phone system sends me emails with WAV file attachments and when I download the WAV file and click on it, I expect a WAV player to open up and play the file and optionally give me the opportunity to save it under a different name. It doesn’t do that.

Since this is an open source OS and runs Linux I expected that there would be a command line bash shell that I could run as root and start messing with things like a Linux server. No such luck. I also expected it to have an SSH server available and an Apache web server available so that I could use a standard browser to configure the phone setting from a web interface… not there yet.

When I briefly had the HTC Touch Pro2 running Windows Mobile there was an app that turned the phone into a WIFI hot spot that worked great. I expected that would be available for the Droid since in Linux it would be a simple shell script to do this. No such luck. I also expected that more things would be configurable than there are.

However, because it’s a Google phone and open source, it’s my hope that development will be faster than Windows and the problems I’m having and the things that are missing will not be an issue 6 months from now. So, because of my belief, I am giving the phone higher marks based on “faith”. I’m hoping they don’t turn me into an Atheist and my faith turns into Droid Rage.

I was also surprised that I found myself using the software keyboard more and the real keyboard less than I expected. I thought I would be opening up the keyboard all the time but I’m not.

The apps store was better than I expected with lots of cool toys to play with. It also tracks updates and will alert you when new versions are available. The message system, which is a pull-down from the top of the screen, works very well and was an unexpected bonus.

Overall though I am pleased and recommend this phone even though it’s still awkward and the OS needs significant polish.

---

"

FusionGarage plans media event to tell its side of the CrunchPad story

Who knew this would become a soap opera.

I'll try not to pick sides, but it's hard to believe TechCrunch doesn't really have a steak in this.

FusionGarage plans media event to tell its side of the CrunchPad story: "

Michael Arrington may have declared the CrunchPad dead, but that's not stopping his former partners at FusionGarage, who've scheduled a video conference with CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan so he can 'share his side of the story.' Chandra will also be demonstrating the 12-inch capacitive web tablet -- which, somewhat amazingly, will be the first time we've ever seen proof that the elusive device actually even exists and functions. We're definitely curious to hear what Chandra has to say and how he rebuts Arrington's grandiose and melodramatic tale of woe, but let's be honest -- we're also at least mildly suspicious that this whole mess is just a calculated PR stunt. Stay tuned.

FusionGarage plans media event to tell its side of the CrunchPad story originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashgear San Francisco Business Times Email this Comments"

USB Wall Charger With Plug Points

OK, forget what I put up here the other day with the USB wall charging outlet. This is even more awesome, because you don't lose the 110v connections!

USB Wall Charger With Plug Points: "

How’s this for an improvement over the DIY USB wall outlet that we briefed you on a few days ago? Instead of replacing the standing outlet plugs with 2 USB plugs, this method will allow you to keep both your power plugs, and still fit in the 2 USB plugs. This method will also cost you about $10, is currently under pre-order, and is expected to ship early next year.

Permalink: USB Wall Charger With Plug Points from Ubergizmo Hot: Palm Pixi Review

"

Hi, My Name Is Mike And I Was A FishVille Addict

Mike, I don't think I'm as bad off as you are, but my whole family plays Farmville, Fishville, and I got my own daughter hooked on Mafia Wars!

I need to quit cold turkey (sounds like last Friday's lunch) and just go back to World of Warcraft!

Hi, My Name Is Mike And I Was A FishVille Addict: "

Rumor has it that actress Salma Hayek never smoked before filming the movie Frida. But she had to learn how to play artist Frida Kahlo, and after the movie she had trouble quitting.

I know exactly how she feels. Because part of the fallout of all the Scamville posts I wrote last month is a lingering addiction to one of Zynga’s games, Fishville (yes, the game that Facebook shut down for three days for violations of their advertising rules).

A lot of the information in those Scamville posts came from good old fashioned research. I played the games to see what would happen. At first I thought they were ridiculous. I was growing acai trees and milking cows on Farmville, slaying the undead on Vampire Wars, and hitting mafia bosses with crowbars on Mob Wars. And of course I clicked on the offers and even paid cash a few times for currency.

It was all business of course. Until I noticed that I was going back to FishVille, even after the series was completed. I had 8 tanks going and hundreds of fish being grown from eggs to adults. Those were sold off and I bought more eggs and the cycle continued. Before long I was at level 34 – so high that there I had access to every kind of fish that you could buy. I’d racked up 808,647 experience points. I was proud of my tank’s pristine condition and cornucopia of decorations. Notice the bevy of happy, well-fed fish:

A big part of these games is the urge to go back to them multiple times per day. To feed the fish. Or harvest the corn. Wait too long and the fish dies, the corn wilts, and you lose currency and experience points. I was making sure to check back in regularly on my fish so they didn’t die. I actually thought to myself at one point “wow, when I go on vacation I’ll need to plan ahead so the fish don’t starve.”

At some point I was talking about FishVille in the office and a couple of people asked why in the hell I was still playing the game with the posts completed. I realized then, in a flash, that I had a problem. I was addicted to FishVille. Total. Loser.

I quit that day. Cold turkey. I checked back in a couple of days later to see what kind of situation I had on my hands. It was ugly. Most of the fish were dead, the few left alive were starving and the aquarium was dirty and mucked up. I took a screenshot and got out quickly.

And this morning I checked one last time on my FishVille situation. All of the fish are now extremely dead. The tank is a mess.

Before you laugh too hard at me (or after you’re done), realize this: seventy million people a month play FarmVille on Facebook alone (it was 60 million last month). There are Facebook groups on FarmVille addiction. Here are some tips from an ex addict on how to avoid becoming addicted. And YouTube is littered with people admitting their addicted to these games.

Social gaming addiction is a real problem. It may be a somewhat funny problem, but it’s still a problem. And it’s no wonder that kids without access to credit cards are taking all these sketchy offers to get game currency. They’re hooked.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

"