theodp writes "Irked by the Marketing department's solicitation of subscribers' opinions on stories before they were published, 55 reporters and editors at the Chicago Tribune signed an e-mail demanding the practice be stopped. 'It is a fundamental principle of journalism that we do not give people outside the newspaper the option of deciding whether or not we should publish a story, whether they be advertisers, politicians or just regular readers,' the e-mail read."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I really like the sounds that Gijs is able to produce with his Hardware Software Synthesizer 2, aka the HSS2. It's all based on a single Arduino, making this version easier to build compared to the HSS1. Check out the link for the complete code and schematics so you can make you own.

This is a trimmed down version of the hard soft synth 1. The hss1 used 2 arduinos, one for sequencing and one for audio. This version has both the sequencer and the audio in one arduino, reducing the number of parts allot.

More about the Hardware Software Synthesizer 2

In the Maker Shed:


Make: Arduino

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hyanakin writes with an excerpt from TorrentFreak: "Following the Swedish verdict, Italy is now considering starting its own trial against the people involved with The Pirate Bay. This would be the first criminal prosecution against the Pirate Bay 'founders' outside their home country." Funny thing: almost 20 years ago, CD stores in Germany all seemed to be full of bootleg concert CDs pressed in Italy.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's a clever Russian Roulette toy from a Korean shop -- take turns pulling the trigger until one of you drops the hammer on the chamber that pops the balloon.

Russian Roulette 2 - ?! ?? ?????. (via OhGizmo)

Bicycle Maintenance: How To Maintain Your Mountain Bike For Peak Performance

Here's is a very thorough way of tuning up your bike after a hard ride. The rest of the site has some other good information, but you have to dig through a lot of 'lifestyle' type entries before you find the making goodies. The bicycle section does look like it has valuable video resources.

Thanks to Will in the comments

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David Vuorio writes "The Open Graphics Project aims to develop a fully open-source graphics card; all specs, designs, and source code are released under Free licenses. Right now, FPGAs (large-scale reprogrammable chips) are used to build a development platform called OGD1. They've just completed an alpha version of legacy VGA emulation, apparently not an easy feat. This YouTube clip shows Gentoo booting up in text mode, with OGD1 acting as the primary display. The Linux Fund is receiving donations, so that ten OGD1 boards can be bought (at cost) for developers. Also, the FSF shows their interest by asking volunteers to help with the OGP wiki."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is a really interesting piece of interactive art by Ellie Harrison. The Vending Machine is programmed to give out free snacks when the recession makes the headlines of the BBC News RSS feed. Also, there is a sign outside the gallery that flashed "Free Food", alerting any hungry gallery visitors. I really enjoy seeing the virtual and physical worlds interacting in such a cool way. Check out the link for a lot more information about the work.

The Vending Machine project is one of the outcomes of Ellie's period of residency at Plymouth College of Art in 2009 and is on show at the college's Viewpoint Gallery as part of her solo exhibition from 23rd April - 30th May 2009. It was programmed by Ben Dembroski in PureData and Python and uses project2891 to communicate with i-DAT in order to activate the messages on the GreenScreen. Production assistance by Jason Mills.

More about the Vending Machine by Ellie Harrison

In the Maker Shed:


More about the Make Controller 2.0 & Interface Board kit

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shutdown -p now writes "On April 28, Microsoft released service pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007. Among other changes, it includes the earlier-promised support for ODF text documents and spreadsheets, featured prominently on the 'Save As' menu alongside Office Open XML and the legacy Office 97-2007 formats. It is also possible to configure Office applications to use ODF as the default format for new documents. In addition, the service pack also includes 'Save as PDF' out of the box, and better Firefox support by SharePoint."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elektroschock writes "The project by 27 Russian parties to develop a National Operating System for Russia has not taken off, yet (Russian). Ilya Ponomarev, the responsible technology committee chair in the Duma, received a negative response from the government. The government argues that the project and Open Standards would not impact the society and economy. Parliament members regret the setback for Russia's digital independence. Ponomarev wants to find other interested partners in the Government now." The Google translation makes it tough to tell whether this project is actually dead, or just shelved for the moment. Any Russian speakers out there who can parse it with greater clarity?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

viralMeme writes with news that the Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld the right of drunk-driving defendants to request the source code for the breathalyzer machines used as evidence against them, but only when the defendant provides sufficient arguments to suggest that a review of the code may have an impact on the case. In short: no fishing expeditions. The ruling involves two such requests (PDF), one of which we've been covering for some time. In that case, the defendant, Dale Underdahl simply argued that to challenge the validity of the charges, he had to "go after the testing method itself." The Supreme Court says this was not sufficient. Meanwhile, the other defendant, Timothy Brunner, "submitted a memorandum and nine exhibits to support his request for the source code," which included testimony from a computer science professor about the usefulness of source code in finding voting machine defects, and a report about a similar case in New Jersey where defects were found in the breathalyzer's source code. This was enough for the Supreme Court to acknowledge that an examination of the code could "relate to Brunner's guilt or innocence."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AlexMax2742 writes "id's Marty Stratton notes the following in his Quake Live developer blog on the subject of the Mac and Linux port of Quake Live: 'These have proved more difficult than expected, but we're getting close. We expect to also be testing Mac and Linux versions of Quake Live internally this month and then making those publicly available just as soon as we feel they are ready. This work is being done by a separate programmer in parallel with the other work that we're doing, and is his only priority — point being, that this is a top priority for us and not being delayed because of other work.' In my humble opinion, it's awesome to see that kind of (continued) dedication from a company." The post also indicates that progress is being made on the much-awaited private server functionality, and part two makes brief mention of match broadcasting and community-made maps.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Members of the South Kingstown High School Robotics team explain the vehicle they made for the MATE ROV 2009 regional competition at Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

If you were a participant on one of the teams in this year's regional competitions, please add your photos to the MAKE Flickr pool, and if you could, please use these tags: MATE2009, MATERegionals2009, and for the Northeast regionals at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy: MATERegionalsMMA2009. If your group competed in another regional, try to set the tags for that so that we can find all the pictures and video easily. If you are using YouTube or some other system, you can use the same tagging system as well.

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theodp writes "The WSJ reports that the controversial practice of framing seems to be making a comeback on the Web. Big sites like Digg, Facebook, Ask.com and StumbleUpon have all begun framing links recently, joining the likes of Google, which employs the technique for Image Search. Long ago, Jakob Nielsen argued that 'frames break the fundamental user model of the web page,' but today's practitioners contend, 'it's a feature, not a bug,' and say it provides publishers with massive distribution they wouldn't otherwise have."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader sends a link to a blog post by David Eaves discussing how the ease of finding information on the web affects how we analyze history. "... nothing is different per se — the same old research methods will be used — but what if it is 10 times easier to do, 100 times faster and contains a million times the quantity of information? With the archives of newspapers, blogs and other websites readily available to be searched, the types of research once reserved for only the most diligent and patient might be more broadly accessible." As an example, he points to an almost 10-year-old article detailing the events surrounding the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which some believe was a significant contributing factor to the current financial crisis.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

If you've never given much thought to all the cool things you could do with an abandoned silo, well...you didn't grow up in Kansas, did you? Personally, I had a great plan for a scuba-through aquarium (with whales!) that really could have gotten off the ground if someone had ponied up the seed money back when I was 5.

With a recent architectural design contest to revamp a couple of former sewage treatment plan silos into cultural landmarks, the Amsterdam City Council seems to be going for something a bit more practical than my old grain silo dreams. The ArchiCentral blog has some great renderings of the entry by NL Architects, which includes a "Cultural Silo" (with theaters, gallery space, and a restaurant), and a "Climbing Silo" (with a 40-meter/131-foot-high artificial cave for rock-wall climbing enthusiasts...of which, apparently, Amsterdam has many).

BTW: The headline here, a quote from the NL Architects spokesman, roughly translates from architect-speak into English as, "This project is going to be kick-ass!"

What would you do with a retired silo? I still think the aquarium idea would be "abstract mysterious" as all hell.

jd writes "In startling revelations, convicted terrorist Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri admitted that Al Qaeda used public telephones, pre-paid calling cards, search engines and Hotmail. al-Marri 'used a "10-code" to protect the [phone] numbers — subtracting the actual digits in the phone numbers from 10 to arrive at a coded number.' The real story behind all this is that the terrorists weren't using sophisticated methods to avoid detection or monitoring — which tells us just how crappy SIGINT really is right now. If the NSA needs to wiretap the whole of the US because they can't break into a Hotmail account, you know they've got problems. FindLaw has a copy of al-Marri's plea agreement (the tech-related information begins on page 12), and the LATimes has further details on his case."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

The CDC released the first photos of H1N1 this morning. FACT: If you tilt the computer screen at just the right angle and slightly cross your eyes, you will see a pig riding a sailboat.

Seriously, though, these are some gorgeous shots. I may spend the next 10 minutes before the coffee kicks in just listening to that amino acid sequence MP3 and staring at these photos.

Make a varmint detecting webcam that captures rascally rabbits in your backyard.
Thanks go to Bob Goldstein for the original article in MAKE, Volume 17.
To download The Animal Detector MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

Check out the complete Animal Detector article in MAKE, Volume 17 "Animal Detector"
and you can see that in our Digital Edition.
Check out animals caught on video at Bob Goldstein's blog.

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Make a varmint detecting webcam that captures rascally rabbits in your backyard.
Thanks go to Bob Goldstein for the original article in MAKE, Volume 17.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE Magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.

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We journey upstream with environmentalist Dan McCormick, a maker who crafts intricate watershed sculptures out of woven willow. In the Workshop, John Park shows how to build lively and inexpensive miniature robots. Mister Jalopy reveals the hidden treasures of his "Compact Childhood Museum." The Maker Channel segment features French fries shot from a spud gun, freeline skates that ride like a skateboard, an Asteroids game wrist watch, and a motorized wheel chair that shoots flames.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch in HD on Blip

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Hugh Pickens writes "Dow Jones reports that Hulu scored a big victory when Disney agreed to take a nearly 30% stake in Hulu and put full episodes of its ABC TV shows on the site, enabling users to see shows like Lost, Scrubs, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives for free. Disney views the move as a way to reach a new audience that isn't coming to the network's own website. Although the ABC.com website has attracted regular viewers of its shows, Hulu offers the opportunity to tap into a new group of viewers. Now Google is under mounting pressure to add more professional content to YouTube in order to attract more advertisers. According to Dow Jones' Scott Morrisson, the equity structure of the Disney-Hulu deal suggests that content creators want greater involvement in online distribution than Google has offered with YouTube. 'Content providers don't want to give (YouTube) content because the advertisers aren't there yet,' said Edward Jones analyst Andy Miedler."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bruno Mathez's striking experiment with sound and light, Beam Music -

What you're seeing is a dark attic space in which the frames of wood and the pipes are being lit by a very precise ray of light, giving us the illusion that the light comes from inside the object.

Each lit object has its own individual sound.

This was made in the attic of The Pavilion in Bexhyl on Sea, England. This is my first experiment, I'm preparing an exhibition for the Brighton Fringe based on this idea. I'm collaborating with Mike Blow who will put light sensors on each lit object to react with sound. The sonic result is amazing as it directly reacts to the ligh projected.

Work using this above technique is on display at Brighton's Blank Gallery this month.

The aesthetic here reminds me of the Optron video we highlighted here a while back -

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What is Media Literacy? Media literacy is the ability to bring critical thinking skills and about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content. In our world of multi-tasking, commercialism, globalization and interactivity, media literacy isn't about having the right answers - it's about asking the right questions. (Source: Jane Tallim)

Photo credit: lumingopereira Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• Community Information Hubs - Finding relevant information about a local community is challenging in a sea of global information.
• How Social Media Is Changing College Admission - Instead of marketing to 100,000 students at once (mainstream media model) they now focus on connecting to groups of 10-20.
• Visualization and Search - Searching and finding useful information really shouldn’t be as difficult as it is today.
• Technology as Philosophy - Technology is a philosophy and we MUST understand what it embodies, discuss its future impact, and explore what we are becoming.
• LearnTrends - Jay Cross hosted a 24-hour learn-a-thon this week.
• Pay Attention! - ...attention is a skill that must be learned, shaped, practiced; this skill must evolve if we are to evolve.
• Rough Week for Higher Education - Established institutions like higher education are increasingly targeted as bloated, inefficient, and thoroughly corrupt.

If you are into understanding how technology improvements are shaping new and different paradigms in the way we conceive and experience education, this weekly digest provides you a good set of pointers, facts and resources to make sense of the challenges that awaits our society in a not-so-distant future. Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends by George Siemens

Analysis of Emerging Trends Affecting the Use of Technology in Education

Becta has published a new report Analysis of emerging trends affecting the use of technology in education. The report does not contain anything significantly new, but provides a good overview of current trends in information technology (in particular, multimedia habits, mobile technologies, parental encouragement of educational use of tools, and growth of TV on demand). Growing awareness of trends impacting education is important. More attention is being paid to trends today than was only a few years ago (Horizon Report was an early initiative in trend analysis). We are now getting to the point where trends analysis needs to lead to the creation of future scenarios. Developing a futures thinking mindset would serve educators well (the future is about future thinking?).

Community Information Hubs

Finding relevant information about a local community is challenging in a sea of global information. I subscribe to several local blogs, news sites, and related information. In networks, local information teeters on the brink of generating global conversation. All it takes is one unique conversation, violation of rights, a novel happening and suddenly global attention floods local scenes (high attention status is fleeting, however, and disappears as soon as the next novelty attracts the attention of online participants). In spite of following local information sources, I do find that I miss much of the mundane local conversation (gossip?). Given the global decline of newspapers, what can we expect from community hubs? MediaShift suggests:

“There’s no shortage of quality information. The issue is recognizing the type of information that people need expanded access to and finding a trustworthy mechanism for delivering it.”

A list of suggestions for information hubs then follows. All of which could be achieved through distributed means... and none of which require a central site. It’s here that I’m finding some personal dissatisfaction with information interaction. The notion of object-centered sociability suggests that it is objects that lead to socialization. I would like to turn it around and offer the view that online and community conversations are socially-centered information artifacts. They do not exist prior to the conversation and interaction. Information, in a socially centered view, is a by product of learning that emerges through socialization, rather than an artifact that centers socialization.

How Social Media Is Changing College Admission

Media and advertising are obviously intertwined. Attention draws marketing schemes. There is value in watching how the PR industry has moved from centralized controlled messages in mainstream media to decentralized messages on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. College and university admissions are also taking note. At University of Manitoba, for example, our PR department is actively involved with: News blogs, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts, and other tools. And they subscribe to Google alerts on “University of Manitoba” (which is how they will find out about this post... I was recently interviewed by our student newspaper on Facebook and our handbook of emerging technologies because the editor discovered references on Google Alerts. It does make me wonder about how effectively our organizations are designed to handle and understand information flows when external tools do a better job of connecting people on a campus than internal tools and procedures). The intent with PR and marketing to connect with prospective students in various forums and various tools. Instead of marketing to 100,000 students at once (mainstream media model) they now focus on connecting to groups of 10-20. How social media is changing college admission (.pdf) demonstrates the significant use of blogs, wikis, social networking services, and other tool by universities / colleges. In most categories use is significantly higher than by Fortune and Inc. 500 companies. The discussion on how admissions departments use social networking and web search (p12) as part of the admissions process is interesting... and something that younger learners need to be aware of. (via Academica Group). UPDATE: For some reason, the paper has now been moved. Member only access…

Visualization and Search

Searching and finding useful information really shouldn’t be as difficult as it is today. When Google first appeared, it introduced new expectations of search. Instead of categorical Yahoo Search or only marginally effective Lycos search results, users now expected fast and relevant responses to queries. And so things have stayed. I’m sure Google has been very aggressive in improving search results behind the scenes, but my experience of searching is almost identical to what it was in early 2000. Search innovation has been limited. This is partly due to the sheer complexity of language and matching results to sometimes undeclared intentions. While Berners Lee appears on the scene occasionally to declare the need for the semantic web, he soon fades and for most of us, search continues as it was. When Google purchased Trendalyzer, there was an expectation that search would now become more visual - providing not just the results, but an indication of patterns, trends, and related factors. Not much has happened since then. At least, not much that I’ve experienced in my search habits. WolframAlpha is now receiving attention (though it hasn’t launched) as a tool to assist in making sense of complex data. And Google has revived lagging search innovation by adding public data to its results (only American states / counties to date). Other novel declarations of new search engines (cuil and a9 come to mind) haven’t made much of an impact. Perhaps Google has attained Microsoft status: finding it difficult to innovate and having grown so prominent that those who are innovating are unable to compete.

Technology as Philosophy

Technology is not neutral. We don’t apply it to our teaching in a “plug in and use” approach. Technology is philosophy. Tools embed views and influence action. Google permits access to information (when not blocked). Blogs and wikis permit openness and information sharing. It’s not much of a surprise then that we see the creators and advocates of emerging technologies to desire to exert their influence into traditional establishments and problems. I’m starting to see the field of technology as a quasi-religious system based on assumptions of progress, constant change, individualism, distrust/disdain for established structures of society, and hope for an every expanding brighter future. As any system of this nature, the will to power is strong. The desire to re-create society on the premise that drives the technology field forward is natural. In Iraq with Web 2.0 Luminaries:

The idea is to use the brains of this small collective to give ideas to Iraqi government officials, companies and users that will help it rebuild. Iraq is short on the mojo that widespread internet can bring and the fast-track economic jolt that entrepreneurs feed on. Who knows that stuff better than a contingent of internet goombahs heavy on the Google juice and includes the guy who thought up Twitter?

When stories like this appear, it should cause educators to stop spouting silly things like “technology is neutral”. Technology is a philosophy and we MUST understand what it embodies, discuss its future impact, and explore what we are becoming.

LearnTrends

Jay Cross hosted a 24-hour learn-a-thon this week. Any experimentation with teaching and learning that challenges assumptions of courses and conferences is intriguing. Jay reflects on the event:

“Our goal was honest dialog among as many members as possible. No commercials. No presentations. Few or no slides. Often, we threw three or four great people into an online fishbowl and let the conversation go where it would.”

Pay Attention!

How do you handle students / colleagues who are actively handling email, twittering, facebooking, and whatever-else-ing while you are conducting a class or attending a meeting? Some educators adopt a “it’s the student’s choice” attitude, while others require learners to be present. Howard Rheingold posits attention as a form of literacy:

I want my students to learn that attention is a skill that must be learned, shaped, practiced; this skill must evolve if we are to evolve. The technological extension of our minds and brains by chips and nets has granted great power to billions of people, but even in the early years of always-on, it is clear to even technology enthusiasts like me that this power will certainly mislead, mesmerize and distract those who haven’t learned - were never taught - how to exert some degree of mental control over our use of laptop, handheld, earbudded media.

Related: PR 2.0 tackles attention from the perspective of the consumer, suggesting advertisers / organizations follow the eyeballs and “compete for attention where and when it’s captivated.”

Rough Week for Higher Education

General Motors is now the new standard insult to organizations that need to innovate, but don’t. Established institutions like higher education are increasingly targeted as bloated, inefficient, and “thoroughly corrupt”. Harsh. Ivory Tower: Crumbling from Within quotes a presentation by Jeff Sandefer (who is highly biased as the founder of an business school to counter traditional universities): “the bureaucratic “pedagogy of arrogance” may soon collapse, much like the General Motors and even the former Soviet Union” (insert joke here about how effective business schools were at preventing economic collapse in late 2008). We then hear of David Wiley (slightly misquoted) declaring universities will be irrelevant by 2020. Each era of history creates its knowledge institutions to reflect how information (in that era) is created, disseminated, shared, and re-created. History has given us libraries, monasteries, universities, and research labs. What does the future hold for knowledge institutions when the information cycle is under the control of individuals and amateurs? I don’t agree fully with the harsh assessment in the articles linked above - universities appear to be awakening to the changed reality - but our current challenge is that we have no alternative to move toward. We know what we don’t want universities to be. We don’t yet have thought leadership on what they should become.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on May 1st 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits: Analysis of Emerging Trends Affecting the Use of Technology in Education - vacuum3d Community Information Hubs - Tatiana53 Technology as Philosophy - Anatoly Tiplyashin Pay Attention! - Dmitriy Shironosov Rough Week for Higher Education - Ana Blazic

Alex has been using Scratch to teach problem solving and programming with kids.
Here is the balancing cat.sb file. Here is Alex's solution.sb.

You will need a copy of the free program Scratch. Try it out, post your results on the Scratch site, and let us know what you think.

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suraj.sun tips news that Google and 47 other companies are being sued over use of the "Android" name. Eric Specht of Android Data alleges that Google "stole first and asked questions later." According to The Register, "Google applied for a trademark for Android in October of 2007, but had that application denied in February of 2008. The USPTO's reasoning for the denial was simple: Since both Google and Specht were involved in the development of software and related services, 'consumers are likely to conclude that the goods are related and originate from a single source.'" Reader ruphus13 points out related news that Motorola is planning several Android-based phones for later this year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "A new category of 3-D motion controller for gamers uses a novel type of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) gyroscope to track hand motions with unparalleled accuracy. By detecting the natural motions made by remote control users — as opposed to the unnatural motions that gamers must learn to control today — the MEMS chip is sure to be incorporated in both game consoles and other consumer electronics like TV remote controls. Nintendo has already incorporated a similar MEMS gyro into its forthcoming MotionPlus controller for the Wii, but this newer type of gyroscopic motion sensor will enable even more intuitive and agile control."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A worthy addition to the subgenre of videos of the Super Mario theme being performed on various instruments by young people who were too young to have played the NES games as kids. These musical game-historians give me hope for the future, they truly do.

Mario Theme on Balalaika (Thanks, Putinoid!)

Dave sends us this: "Beautiful 1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo. A 3,200-lb. motorcycle with training wheels that lower at slow speeds for stability, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still. The Bi-Autogo does enjoy the historical distinction of being the first V8-powered vehicle ever built in Detroit."

1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo (Thanks, Dave!)

Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contents: "Critter Pirates," animals duded up to look like awesome pirates.

Critter Pirates 2

This Sunday at 3rd Ward, an artist collective workspace in Brooklyn:

Bamboo Bike Studio is partnering with Brooklyn-based design center 3rd Ward for the Green Bikes Birthday Block Party. The festivities will converge on Stagg Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn for bike competitions, bands and music videos, badminton, drinks, BBQ, live screen-printing and more. The Bamboo Bike Studio team and friends will be riding 10 deep to a Bamboo Bike Studio tent, where a live bike building demonstration will be going on throughout the day, and bicyclists can check out a bamboo bike, ask questions, and sign up for classes.

Sign up for a 3rd Ward membership and score a free bamboo bike, as well. Via Cool Hunting.

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SpuriousLogic writes "Drinking water which contains lithium may reduce the risk of suicide, a Japanese study suggests. Researchers compared levels of lithium in drinking water to suicide rates in the prefecture of Oita, which has a population of more than one million. The suicide rate was significantly lower in those areas with the highest levels of lithium, they wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry. And I was only worried about fluoridation affecting my precious bodily fluids before ..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Using a GPS reference board and an Atmel ATMEGA324 microcontroller, engineer Bengamin Kokes has created a prototype GPS peripheral for his iPod nano. To display coordinates, the device uses Advanced iPod Remote commands to send a 4-color image to the iPod screen, a technique Kokes picked up after seeing it implemented in an Alpine car stereo.

iPod GPS [via Hack a Day]

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A few months back, I wrote about how important the conversation here on Techdirt is for the overall site. The blog posts here (and the discussion starters in the Insight Community) are conversation starters. They're to get a topic and a point of view out there, and kick off a further discussion that we can all learn from. This still upsets plenty of people who want to pigeonhole us into being "journalists" who need to act in a certain way, and it's interesting to note that the pigeonholing seems to go the other direction as well: many old school journalists hate the idea of being a part of the conversation. They see things like "comments" as something to avoid or to wade into only at your own risk. Many refuse to read or respond to comments.

But that's a huge problem, considering the business those news organizations are actually in: bringing together a community whose attention they can then sell in some manner. If the folks who bring the community in then neglect that community, that community is going to go elsewhere. The disdain many journalists seem to have towards their community shows through.

However, I've had trouble getting across to some just how much value conversation really adds. Yet, Fred Wilson just pointed me to a fascinating post about an experimental schooling method, whereby students who were doing well in certain classes no longer needed to attend the class. This may sound counterintuitive, but what happened was that a group of students simply taught each other the curriculum, and then spent more time learning other subjects as well. And, in teaching each other, they discovered that they learned much more themselves:

Now our independent study group was a remarkable group of non-conformists, whose marks -- on tests we didn't attend classes for or study for -- were so high that some wondered aloud if we were somehow cheating. My grades had climbed into the low 90% range, and this included English where such marks were rare -- especially for someone whose grades had soared almost 30 points in a few months of 'independent' study. The fact is that my peers had done what no English teacher had been able to do -- inspire me to read and write voraciously, and show me how my writing could be improved. My writing, at best marginal six months earlier, was being published in the school literary journal. On one occasion, a poem of mine I read aloud in class (one of the few occasions I actually attended a class that year) produced a spontaneous ovation from my classmates.

The Grade 12 final examinations in those days were set and marked by a province-wide board, so universities could judge who the best students were without having to consider differences between schools. Our independent study group, a handful of students from just one high school, won most of the province-wide scholarships that year. I received the award for the highest combined score in English and Mathematics in the province -- an almost unheard-of 94%.

While I didn't go through a program like that, some of my own experiences have been similar. In college, I was four semesters deep in statistics class before I took a job tutoring stats, and then eventually teaching an intro college class in statistics, and it wasn't until I tutored others and (finally) taught that class that I really understood many of the concepts that I'd supposedly "learned" in class. In class, I did quite well, but it was because I'd learned how to get by and solve problems. In actually teaching others, I was forced to really understand the subject so that I could actually answer the questions that came up.

The same is true of posts here. I had learned a lot about the economics of information and innovation in college, and then again working in Silicon Valley. However, the more I wrote about these subjects on Techdirt, the more people challenged different ideas, and got me thinking more deeply about them and how to not just defend my positions (or to change them, if I was convinced otherwise), but to really understand the subjects much more deeply. I've purchased more textbooks (and read them cover to cover) running this blog than I ever did in college or grad school -- and (this is the amazing part) even started recognizing where some of them have made mistakes.

These discussions are like another graduate degree for me, because I constantly have to think, rethink, defend and truly understand the arguments I'm making. It's hard to overstate how incredibly valuable that's been. The fact that many journalists refuse to engage in that sort of conversation actually shows through in their work: they don't want to bother. They like to position themselves as experts, but many don't really understand what they're talking about. Engaging in the conversation may be a lot of work -- and, at times, it can be frustrating or seemingly pointless. But, the massive amount of value I've received from those discussions -- just like the student in the story above -- is almost impossible to quantify. People talk about the importance of ongoing education. That's exactly what these conversations are for me.

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Given our earlier posts about Stardock's new game, Demigod, and how the company was dealing with the fact that there were plenty of unauthorized copies, this shouldn't be a surprise at all: The company's CEO has taken to his forums to make it clear that, while no one likes unauthorized copies, his job is not to worry about "pirates," but to focus on pleasing his customers. And on that front, the game has been a huge success. In his post, he points out that even if the game had been a failure, he wouldn't be blaming it on pirates, but on the company's own mistakes -- but, of course, the game hasn't been a failure. It's been selling like crazy.

This isn't new or surprising. It's what Stardock has always said. And it's the same sort of attitude that others who have found success with content these days have had, as well. It's never pleasant to find someone is copying content/software/whatever you've made, but you can't worry about them. It's a waste of time and effort. People will always make unauthorized copies, and any effort to stop them will only hurt those who actually want to give you money. So focus on providing real value for those who want to buy, and stop worrying so much about everyone else.

The reality that most PC game publishers ignore is that there are people who buy games and people who don't buy games. The focus of a business is to increase its sales. My job, as CEO of Stardock, is not to fight worldwide piracy no matter how much it aggravates me personally. My job is to maximize the sales of my product and service and I do that by focusing on the people who pay my salary -- our customers.

You can waste an awful lot of energy and resources "fighting pirates" and losing, or you can focus on actually serving your customers and making money. Which seems more intelligent?

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crankyspice writes "I work routinely in environments where a camera cannot physically be present (e.g., federal court), which really limits what I can carry with me. For instance, I'm a Mac guy, but there's no way to order a MacBook without a built-in webcam (which I've never used on the machines I've owned that have had one). Ditto the iPhone. I'm left with a BlackBerry 8830 and the bottom rung of the [W|L]Intel portables. Even then, when I ordered a Dell Mini 9, I had to wait more than a month because I specified no webcam when I placed the order. This is a relatively common (government, law, sensitive corporate environments) requirement; what have other Slashdotters done? Disabling the camera with a script or somesuch won't convince the $12/hour security guard that there's no camera. How can one easily find portable devices without a built-in camera?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stephen Turner alerted us to a story about an impressive looking fan film "prequel" to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy that is being released this weekend. The project cost all of £3,000 and involves a huge cast and crew of volunteer fans -- but still looks amazingly professional (and stunningly like some of the real actors/characters in Jackson's version): Once again, we're seeing how modern technology allows people to create nearly the equivalent of a high budget production on a shoestring budget. But, of course, there are copyright questions raised by this whole thing. Tom sends in another version of this story that quotes the EFF's Fred von Lohman saying that it's not at all clear if the film violates anyone's copyright. While the characters are the same, the story was created by a fan. In the original link above, the guy behind the project, Chris Bouchard, notes that he "got in touch with Tolkien Enterprises and reached an understanding with them that as long as we are completely non-profit then we're okay." So, it's unlikely that any copyright lawsuit will arise from this, but the original question does remain: what if people made such a creative film without reaching such an agreement -- or without promising to be totally non-commercial? Would that be so wrong? It wouldn't take away from or harm Tolkien or Jackson's work. It would only enhance it. So why should these fans even need to gain permission to create such a movie?

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A bunch of folks have sent in the story on TorrentFreak about how the German social networking site, StudiVZ, has refused to allow The Pirate Party to create a campaign site, despite setting up campaign groups for every other political party campaigning for office. Chances are that this is just a screwup, where someone at StudiVZ was unfamiliar with the fact that The Pirate Party is a legitimate political party. However, what seems exceptionally ironic is the fact that StudiVZ is involved in a long and ongoing lawsuit with Facebook for copying Facebook's look and feel. Not only that, but StudiVZ's founder "freely admits that he took some of the basic ideas of Facebook and simply improved them." Thus, in the parlance of copyright maximalists, StudiVZ "pirated" Facebook. And, yet, now, it's shut down The Pirate Party's own site.

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hahiss writes "Apparently, NoScript has taken to adding its own whitelist updates to Adblock Plus — so that the ads on the NoScript page show up — without notifying users. (It is described on the NoScript addon page, however.) This was a part of the last update to NoScript. Wladimir Palant, the main developer of Adblock Plus, describes the situation in an informative blog post."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nemertes Research has a history of putting out fear mongering reports about the coming bandwidth flood that will kill the internet. So I pretty much ignored the news that it had come out with another one, which the press is happy to report without any hint of skepticism (or noting that Nemertes is funded by telcos who stand to benefit from fears of a bandwidth glut). However, people keep submitting it, so let's just point out, once again, that stories of a coming "exaflood" of traffic are completely bogus. Actually research from those who have seen the data has shown that there is no problem and the growth rate is actually slowing. This has been widely reported. And yet, Nemertes still insists that we're running out of bandwidth? Don't believe it.

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