blackbearnh writes "The Human Genome Project took 13 years to sequence a single human's genetic information in full. At Washington University's Genome Center, they can now do one in a week. But when you're generating that much data, just keeping track of it can become a major challenge. David Dooling is in charge of managing the massive output of the Center's herd of gene sequencing machines, and making it available to researchers inside the Center and around the world. He'll be talking about his work at OSCON, and gave O'Reilly Radar a sense of where the state of the art in genome sequencing is heading. 'Now we can run these instruments. We can generate a lot of data. We can align it to the human reference. We can detect the variance. We can determine which variance exists in one genome versus another genome. Those variances that are cancerous, specific to the cancer genome, we can annotate those and say these are in genes. ... Now the difficulty is following up on all of those and figuring out what they mean for the cancer. ... We know that they exist in the cancer genome, but which ones are drivers and which ones are passengers? ... [F]inding which ones are actually causative is becoming more and more the challenge now.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I remember when Marc came to California in 1988. He got here just in time for the Loma Prieta quake. Two people died outside his office on Townsend. They had just been to visit Marc.

There would be no tech industry South Of Market if Marc hadn't moved his small company here from Chicago in the late 80s. He was young then, he had a purpose, he was going to turn desktop computers into movie machines. He did that.

He was hugely influential, although time has a way of paving that over. Remember that, young people, you may be important now, but there will come a day when no one knows your name. Prepare for that day.

He got rich, very rich -- but he blew through the money like a drunk rock star with an entourage, which he had.

Marc is a wild man. California has captured his wildness for a long time. Now that wildness belongs to the rest of the USA.

Good luck man -- keep blogging so we know what's up with you.

Recorded this morning at 9AM Pacific.

Show page here, with notes written by Jay.

Paul Alan Levy from Public Citizen has a detailed (and somewhat tragic) story of why the site InfomercialScams is no longer in existence, and the domains of the site are now owned by Video Professor, a company notorious for threatening online critics, such as those commenting on sites like InfomercialScams. The full story is rather involved, but the short version is that the original owner of InfomercialScams sold the site. The new owner instituted something it called its "Consumer Protection Program," where it tried to get those critiqued on the site to pay. What was gained by paying is somewhat in dispute, but one can see how it could be seen as extortion. The new owners of InfomercialScams apparently (alleged by Video Professor, but denied by Infomercial Scams) offered to sell companies "immunity" from criticism, and also would drive more traffic to criticism of companies that didn't pay up. If true, this is certainly distasteful and potentially illegal.

Video Professor sued, claiming that it also took away any Section 230 protections that had previously protected the site. As Levy notes, that would make for an interesting legal discussion, but could be troubling if it were found to be true. Either way, it's not an issue any more, as the owner of the site eventually settled, and appears to have handed over the site as a part of that settlement. However, what's still troubling is that Video Professor also sued InfomercialScams' original owner, Justin Leonard, despite him having absolutely nothing to do with the new policies on the site (or anything to do with the site at all since selling it). As part of the settlement with the new owners, Video Professor also presented a settlement to Leonard, which would have made him "promise not to disparage Video Professor -- or to host disparaging comments on any web site."

Considering he shouldn't have been a part of the lawsuit in the first place and the troubling implications of such a settlement on Leonard's ability to post what could be a perfectly legal site that could potentially host such comments, Leonard has refused to settle and is fighting his inclusion. This is a sad story all around. The original site, which raised some important questions about Video Professor's infomercial practices, is now gone due, in part, to what appears to be poor decisions by its new ownes. But, at the same time, the attack on Leonard, the original owner, and the settlement demands just seem totally out of place. Especially given that Video Professor now has taken control over InformercialScams and all its related websites, it seems that the market is ripe for a new site that fairly discusses what infomercial vendors are pitching.

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Shaun Lawton, publisher of the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is serializing John Shirlley's novel, Sky Pirates. Start here with Part 1.

suraj.sun writes with news that European publishers are also seeking ways to "protect" their content from the big bad intertubes. Their rant, termed the "Hamburg Declaration", asks the government to step in with a legislative fix. "Most of the statements in the relatively short declaration, which will surely take its place among thousands of other European declarations on intellectual property and other matters that have come out over the past few years, hinge on the idea that 'universal access to news' does not equal 'free.' In this respect, the publishers want to maintain the democratic ideal of a 'fourth estate' that provides news to an informed citizenry, while simultaneously restricting access to that news to those who can pay for it directly. What sets this declaration apart from the other Hamburg declarations out there, or from the various Geneva declarations or Berlin declarations, is that this one is intended to give the publishers' favorite solution to the news-stealing problem, the Automated Content Access Protocol, the force of law. "

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In the latest Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools, Erik Knutzen, from Homegrown Evolution, reviews Backwoods Home Magazine.

Imagine Martha Stewart as a gun-toting Libertarian and you'll have a good notion of the editorial outlook of Backwoods Home Magazine. What makes this magazine useful, regardless of your political persuasion, is the wealth of information written by practitioners in the arts of self-reliance. You'll find articles on everything from growing vegetables to baking bread to, yes, cleaning your Glock. Even if you live in the city there's plenty to learn in the pages of BHM, in particular from Jackie Clay, Backwoods Home's resident advice columnist. Clay can parse out and troubleshoot what have become almost lost arts, things like food preservation, soap making and small-scale poultry keeping. The rambling, unedited reader letters and the thrift-store-painting cover art are endearing bonuses.

Backwood Homes converges with Mother Earth News in terms of subject matter lately, but where MEN is liberal/progressive, BHM is libertarian. MEN is professional, BHM homespun. MEN is rock and roll. BHM is country.

And what makes Backwood Homes magazine different from other DIY publications is that all of the columnists walk the walk in addition to talking the talk. They don't just theorize, they actually do the things they write about. While the Libertarian rants may be off-putting to some, with what I've witnessed of our local government in action, the more I tend to agree. Even if I may never shoot, skin and make raccoon stew, I can appreciate the self-reliant activities profiled in BHM as part of an essential American skill set that needs to be recovered. We urban dwellers have been too busy in recent years with less useful activities such as selling mortgages and collateralizing debt obligations. Time for some tasty squirrel!

--Erik Knutzen

Backwoods Home Magazine
$25 (6 issues)

Sample excerpts:

Restoring Rusty Cast Iron
Rusty cast iron is easily reclaimable unless the rust has deeply eaten into the iron, causing deep pits or holes. This is not commonly seen, but is always a possibility. Most of the time, all that is needed is a good washing with hot, soapy water and a green nylon scrubby. With lots of elbow grease and a couple of trips through the sink, the pot or pan is often smooth and nearly as good as new. If the rust is more tenacious, you can use a steel wool pad and scour it off with that. In severe cases, I've taken a sanding disc to it, removing the rust first, then using a very fine grit to re-polish the surface of the iron.

Once your pan is clean and smooth, rinse it well with boiling water, then dry it with a kitchen towel. As the iron is now unprotected, even a little moisture can quickly rust your new pan. You will now season the pan, as if it were new.

*

Jackie burns two of her cast iron pans in a fire to remove years' worth of crusted-on food and grease.

*

Trusses
Wood is not a homogeneous material. It is much stronger in one direction than in others. Wood's greatest strength is in resisting compression along its length. Wood is also quite good at resisting pulling tension, but it is weakest at resisting bending (flexion) and twisting (torsion). One way to make a wooden building as strong and rigid as possible is to arrange the wood so it is being used in its strongest dimensions.

Here's an example. A typical peaked roof frame consists of two rafters with a cross-tie to keep the tops of the walls from spreading. The cross-tie exerts its strength in tension, so it can be made of smaller size lumber, such as a two-by-four. But the rafters must resist bending (flexion), where they are relatively weaker. So the rafters must be made of two-by-sixes, two-by-eights, or even bigger stock. Such lumber is expensive. Long ago, engineers learned they could add greatly to the strength of a roof by inserting compression members within the frames.

Cantilever truss in a jig made from two sheets of plywood and scrap blocks. Some plywood gussets are not shown, to reveal joint details. Cut and set all truss members. Shim tight, then glue and screw gussets from top side. Pull shims and remove truss from jig. Turn truss over on a flat surface, and glue and screw gussets on the other side.

*

Solar Hot Water Systems
Except for batch heaters which have no electronic control devices, any solar system that includes automatic valves or solar loop pumps will require a differential temperature controller. More expensive temperature controllers will include a digital display to indicate system temperatures and alarms, but all are based on a very simple control strategy. One temperature sensor is mounted inside the solar panel on the roof, and one temperature sensor measures the water temperature inside the solar storage tank.

The control concept is simple; when the solar panel sensor is hotter than the water in the tank, a relay inside the controller is activated which turns on the pump. When both sensors read the same, the relay opens and the pump stops. More sophisticated controllers allow the installer to adjust these temperature setpoints to fine tune the system.

More:
Make: Talk #08, with Erik and Kelly of Homegrown Evolution

From MAKE magazine:

Check out MAKE, Volume 18: ReMake America!

Buy your copy in the Maker Shed, subscribe to MAKE, or access the Digital Edition (if you're already a subscriber).

ReMake America! Challenging times give us a rare chance to try new ways of doing things, and the opportunities for makers are terrific -- we can start at home to remake manufacturing, education, food production, transportation, and recreation. In MAKE, Volume 18, you'll learn how to make an automatic garden, heat your water with the sun, monitor and share your home energy usage, make an embedded drip irrigation system, and more. Make a topographical map of your property, put the sun and the rain to work, and make your own energy and food, using the untapped resources around your home, yard, and community.

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By way of background: the critter depicted in the image above, and after the jump, is a Japanese kappa monster. Their favorite foods are cucumbers and human bungholes. (For more, view this two-part Boing Boing TV kappa-monster-hunting series: one, two).

Sean Bonner says,

Yokai Attack co-author Matt Alt and his pal Marugame claim to have discovered this disturbing creation deep within the bowels of Tokyo's sewer system. It's a totally handmade homage to an old Japanese toy series from the Seventies: the Jumbo Machinders! Kappa missiles! Kappa shuriken! Kappa cucumber cudgel! Kappa... anal intruder!?!

Whatever the case, it's going to be on display at the Artist Garden gallery in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, from July 9th through the 21st. It's part of the Kappa Exhibition, an annual gathering of kappa-crazed artists amateur and pro. Fans of the yokai should pencil in their date with destiny. Directions and map here.

And Matt has posted an in-depth report on how the piece was made.

(..more photos after the jump!)

Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

The other day, io9 posted about Significant Objects, a project I wrote about here.

In the comments, one "eviladrian" wrote: "Try searching ebay for 'haunted dolls,'" and included this link.

Suffice to say, if you're in the market for a haunted doll, today is your lucky day.

This is one of the MANY dolls given to me by my Grandmother,her name is JENNA. JENNA IS THE LOVING POSITIVE SPIRIT OF A 9 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL. LITTLE JENNA HAD A ROUGH SHORT LIFE. HER FATHER RAPED, AND BEAT HER ON A DAILY BASIS. AS A VICTIM OF HER FATHERS TORTURE SHE HAD NO ONE TO TALK TO ABOUT IT. SHE WAS ALL ALONE, HER MOTHER PASSED AWAY DURING HER BIRTH, AND LEFT JENNA WITH HER FATHER A MONSTER. IF JENNA DIDNT DO SOMETHING TO HER FATHERS LIKING LIKE CLEAN HER BEDROOM, SHE KNEW WHAT AWAITED, SHE WOULD BE THRASHED SEVERLY THEN HANDCUFFED IN HER BEDROOM CLOSET WITH NO RESTROOM PRIVALAGES, NO FOOD, NOTHING. THE ABUSE BEGAN WHILE JENNA WAS ONLY 2 AND CONTINUED UNTIL THE DAY SHE PASSED. JENNA WAS COURAGEOUS AND WAS AFFRAID TO ESCAPE, HER FATHER WOULD TELL HER THAT SHE WOULD NOT BE BELIEVED AND THAT THEY WOULD ONLY TAKE HER AWAY TO A PLACE MORE HORRIBLE THEN WHERE SHE LIVED. JENNA BROKE DOWN, AND COULD NOT HANDLE THE ABUSE ANY LONGER. ON THE DAY AFTER HER NINTH BIRTHDAY, SHE TOOK AN OVERDOSE OF PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE HER FATHER HAD, SHE WENT TO SLEEP AND NEVER WOKE UP.~IF YOU FEEL A CONNECTION TO JENNA THEN YOU SHOULD BID, YOU COULD BE THE ONE DESTINED TO WATCH OVER HER AND KEEP HER SAFE FROM HARM!~

Prospective bidders, please note: "These dolls and their spirit hosts do not perform on command, they are the vessel of live spirits, from someone who lived and attached their spirits with the doll for some reason or another." Also? Her Aunt Celeste "read" the dolls. Finally, "Due to the fact that paranormal item or items are involved in this sale, I am 'forced' by Ebay's rules and regulations to make the following statement: this is for entertainment purposes only."

See you at the auction!

*HAUNTED DOLL~JENNA~9 YRS OLD~VERY ACTIVE SPIRIT~L@@K!*

Scott at Laughing Squid writes:

Star Wars Uncut is a collaborative project where Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope has been chopped up into 15 second clips, which were then claimed by 472 people who are now recreating each segment and then uploading them to the project so that they can be stitched together creating a new version of the film.

Star Wars Uncut, 472 People Are Recreating Star Wars 15 Seconds At A Time

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wisesifu writes with news of a new open source NX server, dubbed NeatX, that was released by Google and promptly lost in the shuffle of the Chrome OS announcement. "NX technology was developed by NoMachine to handle remote X Window connections and make a graphical desktop display usable over the Internet. By its own admission, Google has been looking at remote desktop technologies for 'quite a while' and decided to develop Neatx as existing NX server products are either proprietary or difficult to maintain. 'The good old X Window system can be used over the network, but it has issues with network latency and bandwidth. Neatx remedies some of these issues,' Google engineers wrote on the company's open source blog. NoMachine had released parts of the source code to its NX product under the GPL, but the NX server remained proprietary. [...] Neatx is written in Python, with a few wrapper scripts in Bash and one program written in C 'for performance reasons.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the AP's reliance on a rather ancient precedent that "hot news" can be protected, despite the fact that you can't copyright factual information, in its case against the site All Headline News. This has thrust the concept of "hot news" protection back into the spotlight after most people considered it a dead concept. Now, suddenly, newspapers all over are talking about trying to extend the "hot news" concept and even expanding copyright law to explicitly allow such hot news protectionism, despite the massive harm it would do. For that reason, the lawsuit between the AP and AHN was quite important... and yet, Will alerts us to the fact that the the AP and AHN quietly settled the lawsuit last month (warning: pdf). No details are provided in the settlement announcement, but the key thing for the AP is it lets it act as if "hot news" is definitely still allowed. A full lawsuit with AHN pushing back on the concept could have wiped out the concept of hot news, and clearly the AP didn't want that to happen just as it was about to start threatening and suing a bunch of aggregators. Perhaps that's why the Associated Press didn't even seem to report on its own "hot news."

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Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

R. U. Sirius sends word of the latest on going cyborgian. Whether you're a newly manufactured robosupermodel or a goth with a technofetish, man-made parts are the new black.

It turns out that the human body may adapt well to such Borg-like accessorization. A recent study in Current Biology by Alessandro Farné and Lucilla Cardinali of the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, France suggests that the brain can incorporate cyborg additions -- a cyborg arm or other body part -- into its body schema.

"Since the origin of the concept of body schema, the idea of its functional plasticity has always been taken for granted, even if no direct evidence has been provided until now," says Farné. "Our series of experiments provides the first, definitive demonstration that this century-old intuition is true."

Using a mechanical grabber that extended their reach, subjects behaved as though their arms really were longer. What's more, they perceived touches delivered on the elbow and middle fingertip of their arm as if they were farther apart after using the grabbing tool.

"Strike a Pose, Cyborg!" (Thanks, RU!)

Let's begin this SPARK post with a recap. I began this series with the notion that I would use a simple project, a smart home computer system, to explore a software development tool that was new to me. The first project was simple in the sense that I had a well-defined task: acquire several digital and analog signals and display information to a user. Through that simple task, I could explore the features and development process for Windows Embedded CE 6.0. When I started this project, I had not used Windows Embedded CE before, but I had used several other real-time operating systems to implement high reliability devices. These development tools are intricate and sophisticated. I've seen very experienced users struggle while implementing new projects, and struggled through some myself.

There is a fascinating world of very high reliability systems that are part of our everyday lives. Many of these systems are driven by software. As a biomedical engineer, I have a real appreciation for what software failure means for a pacemaker, defibrillator, or infusion pump.

Given the sophistication of RTOSs, I was definitely intrigued when asked to explore Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 for the maker community. I have a long list of unfinished projects that have stalled because I don't have access to the right tools, and a longer list of projects that live only as ideas on paper, waiting for some future capability to arrive. A feature-rich RTOS could really accelerate some of those project, and I was impressed by the list of features available with Windows Embedded CE, and the fact that the source code is available to developers. In addition to a great set of core operating system components, the communication, user interface, and multimedia components of Windows Embedded CE looked comprehensive. The speech library totally piqued my interest as well. I was definitely thinking about which unfinished projects would be most fun to try my new tools with. Of course, there is the history of Windows Embedded CE to deal with. The tools have made successful inroads into the professional developer community, but I didn't know anyone who used them for their own projects who could help me out. Even Microsoft's developer website gives the impression that the tools are "for professional use only".

Find out what I learned here.

More:

• SPARK Project #1, Post #1
• SPARK Project #1, Post #2
• SPARK Project #1, Post #3
• SPARK Project #1, Post #4
• SPARK Project #1, Post #5, Part 1

---

This SPARK Your Imagination Make: Windows Embedded project series is sponsored by Microsoft Corporation.

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x planes is a blog about "experimental aircraft. exotic aeromachines. oddities. sleek silver cigars. pedal-o-trons. soviet hive-mind bombers. aerial joy. the olden days. action shots. propaganda posters."

The Gyrodyne Model GCA-55 single-seat ground cushion vehicle of the annular jet type, powered by a 72 h.p. Porsche four-cylinder engine. It was developed under a U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics contract and flew for the first time in October, 1959.

(Thanks, Len!)

Jag Bhalla wrote a fun book for National Geographic called I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World. It's illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Julia Suits. Here are some examples:

Not hanging noodles on your ears: Russian - not kidding

To live like a maggot in bacon: German – live in luxury

To reheat cabbage: Italian – rekindle an old flame

Like fingernail and dirt: Spanish, Mexico – well suited

Bang your butt on the ground: French - die laughing

Plucked like a chicken: Yiddish - exhausted

To bite the elbow: Russian – to cry over spilt milk

Smoke from 7 orifices of head: Chinese – to be furious

To become naked: Japanese – to go broke, poor

An ant milker: Arabic – a miser, tight wad

Give it to someone with cheese: Spanish - to deceive

Squeezer of limes: Hindi – self invited guest, idler

To break wind into silk: French - live the life of Riley

I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World

fysdt writes to share that IronKey has released a USB flash drive with self-destruct capability. Specializing in "secure flash drives", IronKey has launched the S200 aimed at government and enterprise customers, "featuring hardened physical security, the latest Cryptochip technology, active anti-malware and enhanced management capabilities. It's the 'first and only USB storage device to achieve FIPS 140-2, Level 3 validation' and delivers advanced Cryptochip featuring AES-256, tamper-resistance and self-destruction circuitry."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

david sedaris delivers a pizza
food party
fancy fast food
waffles
school lunches
sausages
cookstr
fry that chicken
ifc food party

Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store, Twitter. (Image courtesy Eric Curry. Thanks Frank!)

Hugh Pickens writes "Wired reports that as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of 'brain hacking' should be taken seriously. '"Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future," said computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington. "But if we don't start paying attention to security, we're worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we've made a big mistake."' For example, the next generation of implantable devices to control prosthetic limbs will likely include wireless controls that allow physicians to remotely adjust settings on the machine. If neural engineers don't build in security features such as encryption and access control, an attacker could hijack the device and take over the robotic limb." Relatedly, several users have written to tell us that science may be closer to the science fiction "mind wipe" than previously thought. Put this all together and I welcome the next step in social networking; letting the cloud drive my limbs around town via a live webcam and then wiping the memory from my brain. Who has MyLimb.com parked and is willing to deal?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I posted this photo to Twitter, asking someone to swap the heads. Mr. Lee was the first!

UPDATE: Our own Rob Beschizza did it with color correction!

Lots of attention is being paid today to an article in the Guardian about a new study claiming that illegal file sharing has collapsed in the UK and is being replaced by streaming music found on YouTube and through services like Spotify. The premise of the article is that now that kids have alternatives, they're willing to dump unauthorized file sharing and get by with streaming. While I don't doubt that it may be true in some cases, I'd take these findings with a pretty large grain of salt for a variety of reasons:

• It's not based on actual usage data, but on survey data.
• As more and more attention is being paid to people getting sued and fined for online file sharing activities, people are certainly going to be less willing to admit on a survey that they participate.
• This is especially true in the UK, where there's been a tremendous amount of attention on the recent Digital Britain report, which claims, as a goal, to reduce illegal online file sharing activities.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that some users have modified their behavior due to the ease of use from online streaming platforms. When I was in the UK, I got to play around with Spotify, and I could see how many people might start using that as a replacement for file sharing much of the time (and demos of Spotify's mobile app that include syncing features when there's no internet connection make it look quite compelling for even offline music playing).

However, even if we take what the article says as proof, it seems quite likely that the industry will muck this up too. Already, we've seen that Spotify is running into licensing problems, and the company is nowhere near being able to turn a profit. And, of course, the industry is pushing for increasingly unsustainable webcasting rates. That's why YouTube and PRS still haven't come to an agreement over all that streaming music in the UK, and even as PRS has tried to lower its rates to make a deal, some of the record labels are actually demanding the rates be pushed back up.

This is how the legacy industry kills anything even remotely positive. The second that the industry sees anything that's working, it suddenly smothers it by demanding to get a bigger and bigger cut. We've seen it for years. As soon as iTunes started to be successful, the labels pushed to get a bigger and bigger cut from any sale (and to push the prices of each song higher). More recently, with the massive success of video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band helping to promote music (and making musicians a ton of money), the labels have been demanding a bigger cut as well.

Rather than understanding how to create and foster a healthy music ecosystem, it seems that some of the major label bosses have learned how to do one thing only: squeeze each tiny baby lemon as hard as possible until it's dry, never giving it a chance to actually grow. And then they wonder how come each new revenue stream doesn't make as much money as their old way of doing business.

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Via Dinosaurs and Robots:

D+R reader Eric points us to a video of his father's wind-up bear that wanders around a little bit while polishing his glasses and periodically holding them up to check for spots.

Allan Grinshtein's PingWire is addictive.

PingWire is an (almost) live feed of images being posted to Twitpic. Clicking on a thumbnail will take you to the full sized photo.

Joe sez, "The Neuros LINK is a set-top box that takes a unique approach: unlike most closed set-top boxes, it's built from the ground up to be open. In fact, it started its 'gamma' phase of life as a stripped down PC, with the vision to become more 'electronics-like' using a remote, navigable from the couch etc. A recent release of its software shows how it's evolving on that path, with increasing functionality available without a mouse and keyboard, largely with the help of a lot of third party open source software, like XBMC, etc."

Screen Capture of Neuros LINK v 1.3 release "Handcock" (Thanks, Joe!)

Here's info on the next Make: NYC meeting:

Challenge: Balsa Catapult Medieval geniuses, put on your gauntlets and prepare to throw them down. We're making catapults. All shapes and sizes. The more deadly, the better! Teams will compete for most effective (devastating) design.

Show and Tell
Meet your fellow NYC Makers and show off your creations! Bring your gadgets, gizmos, sketches, ideas, anything you'd like to put in the spotlight. We encourage NYC Makers to collaborate on and discuss DIY projects. If you're planning to bring a project, drop us a note at meetings@makenyc.org.

If you'd like to attend we have plenty of space for everyone, but please RSVP!

Location:
Bug Labs
598 Broadway at Houston
4th floor
New York, NY 10012

6/B/D/F/V to Bleeker-Lafayette
R/W to Prince

Meeting time is 6:30PM

Make: NYC

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CWmike writes to point out that Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is one of many people questioning where Oracle may land once the acquisition of Sun is complete. One concern that I have heard many people express is that there may be a good chance of OpenSolaris getting the axe for not fitting in with the overall corporate vision. "People outside of IT seldom think of Oracle as a Linux company, but it is. Not only does Oracle encourage its customers to use its own house-brand clone of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Oracle Unbreakable Linux, Oracle has long used Linux internally both on its servers and on some of its desktops. So, what does a Linux company like Oracle wants to do with its newly purchased Sun's open-source operating system, OpenSolaris? The answer appears to be: 'Nothing.' Sun, Oracle and third-party sources are telling me that OpenSolaris developers are afraid that they'll be either moved over to working on Linux or let go once the Sun/Oracle merger is completed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CNN reports that a family in Saudi Arabia is suing a genie for harassment.

The lawsuit filed in Shariah court accuses the genie of leaving them threatening voicemails, stealing their cell phones and hurling rocks at them when they leave their house at night, said Al-Watan newspaper.

An investigation was under way, local court officials said.

Saudi family sues genie, alleges harassment (Via The Agitator)

If you push the bin against the elevator door while going down, this might happen to you. (Via Cynical-C)

For years we've pointed out how silly it is for companies to use filters and other tools to try (and fail) to block "personal surfing" at work. It's based on the faulty notion that every second you're at work should be focused on work. But offices provide water coolers for a reason, and people take breaks for a reason. Nearly a decade ago, studies started showing that allowing personal surfing at work made employees happier and more productive. A couple years after that a study showed that thanks to modern connectivity at home, those who did personal surfing at work more than made up for it by working at home. And, just a couple months ago a study showed that those who access social networking sites at work tend to be more productive.

It's not hard to figure out why, really. First, allowing for a good balance between the two allows workers to take short mental breaks which allows them to be more fully focused on work when needed. On top of that, they don't have to worry about personal things while at work, but can take care of issues quickly and easily. Finally, and most importantly, many start using social networking and other online tools to help them work. After all, despite what naysayers say, these tools can be very useful in many different jobs.

And yet, more and more companies keep installing filters and trying to block out personal surfing at work, insisting that it must be a bad thing. But it appears that as a younger generation who grew up on this stuff enters the workforce, they're starting to convince companies to change their ways. Younger employees who have to battle internet filters, and even start working from the local coffee shop to avoid corporate filters, and teaching companies that blocking access to useful tools doesn't help things. And, yes, there will always be some people who abuse it, and workplaces can monitor for that. But they can do so by seeing who is not getting their work done, rather than by simply blocking all access to anyone. In the early days of the telephone, some offices banned them, fearing that they would be used for frivolous purposes, rather than work. These days, that's silly. In the future, the idea that we should ban all social networking sites will be seen as equally silly.

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As storage hardware costs continue to plummet, the folks over at Tom's Hardware have decided to throw together their version of the "Über RAID Array." While the array still doesn't stack up against SSDs for access time, a large array is capable of higher throughput via striping. Unfortunately, the amount of work required to assemble a setup like this seems to make it too much trouble for anything but a fun experiment. "Most people probably don't want to install more than a few hard drives into their PC, as it requires a massive case with sufficient ventilation as well as a solid power supply. We don't consider this project to be something enthusiasts should necessarily reproduce. Instead, we set out to analyze what level of storage performance you'd get if you were to spend the same money as on an enthusiast processor, such as a $1,000 Core i7-975 Extreme. For the same cost, you could assemble 12 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 hard drives. Of course, you still need a suitable multi-port controller, which is why we selected Areca's ARC-1680iX-20."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bob Stack, of GO-Tech writes:

The July GO-Tech (Ann Arbor, MI) meeting is tomorrow, July 14, at 7 pm. Everyone is welcome.

We'll have the usual assortment of 5-minute presentations--so bring your cool demos. Topics in the past have ranged from metal casting to printed circuit board design to web-based home automation and everything in between.

We meet at 7 pm at A2 MechShop, a shared technical office/shop space located at 240 Parkland Plaza, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.

We have a video projector (VGA, composite), wireless Internet, copier, etc. If you have an idea for a talk longer than 5 minutes, let me know!

GO-Tech (formerly NotBAGO) is a meeting for Ann Arbor area readers of MAKE, Circuit Cellar, Home Shop Machinist, Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools, Slashdot, etc. That is, people who are interested in and make things using technology, whether that's a metal cutting lathe or a Python script. A kind of generalized mixture of CerealBar, Dorkbot, Oxford Geek night, and Portland Machinist Guild. We have machinists, electrical engineers, software folks, industrial control types, and so on. We share projects, information about tools and ideas, and connect with like-minded people.

Meetings are generally the second Tuesday of the month at 7 pm.

For details and to join the email list, go to the GO-Tech Yahoo page (under our old name, NotBAGO).

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Notley sez, "In regards to Cory's post about state fairs, Here some photos from 'County Fairs' around Missouri."

Fairs (Thanks, Notley!)

John sez, "The Years is the latest release from vosotros. The album was conceived as a musical journey through time - and is made up of songs inspired by the decades, starting in the 50s and ending in the future ... Amazon recently covered the project on their list of the 'Best 2009 Albums You (Probably) Haven't Heard, But Should'. The album was released under a BY-NC-SA Creative Commons license - and is available for free download during the month of July."

John started Vosotros, a Creative Commons label, as a final project in my class at USC a couple years ago. I'm incredibly impressed with it (and I gave him an A+!).

vosotros presents: the years (Thanks, John!)

(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)

---

More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

stoolpigeon writes "Hitting middle age has been an interesting time. I catch myself thinking about how well kids have it today and sounding a lot like my father. One difference is while my dad was happy to teach me about sports or cars, we never spent any time knocking out code together. I think he did realize that home computers were important and I will always be grateful for the Commodore Vic-20 be brought home one day. It was a substantial purchase for our household. I spent many days copying lines of basic from magazines and saving the results to cassette tapes. In my home today we have a considerably better situation, computing wise. There are usually a couple laptops running as well as the desktop machine upstairs. My kids take for granted what I found to be amazing and new. Still, that's all pretty normal and I'd like to give them an opportunity to go deeper if they are so inclined, just like we give them opportunities to explore other skills and pursuits. With that in mind I brought a copy of Hello World! home a few weeks ago, and the response from my oldest has been surprisingly enthusiastic." Keep reading for the rest of JR's review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last week, Anil Dash wrote up a thoughtful post wondering if Google had hit its "Microsoft Moment," which I'll loosely paraphrase as the moment when more people were afraid (or, at least, were marginally distrustful) of the company than that loved the company. For many years, part of Google's success has been based on its ability to "not be evil." That mantra -- often misinterpreted -- tried to get the company to focus on putting the user first, which, in turn, led many people to trust Google and its quirkiness. And yet, the company has grown bigger and bigger and bigger. And the fear over what that means has only grown -- some of it reasonably, some of it certainly driven by competitors and critics. While I believe that the folks at Google really do still think of themselves as being totally customer focused and still try to present themselves as that quirky Google, they're reaching a point where they need to do a lot more to support that perception outside the company. Because it's really not getting through in many cases.

We've noticed this a bit ourselves, with some of the moves the company has made in the last few years showing a distinct change in tone. Whereas there was a point that Google seemed to be defending legal battles on principle, when the company capitulated with the record labels about YouTube, with the Associated Press and, most recently, in its (still in court) book settlement, a different story emerged. In all of those cases, the deals made Google stronger -- while making competitors weaker by not standing up for some key principles. Google started to use its massive cash coffers not to defend key principles, but to dump the problem off on smaller players. Of course, I believe this has already started to come back to haunt the company. The fact that publishers knew they could get a book settlement out of Google was because it had given in on the YouTube and AP deals without standing up for fair use.

Either way, it became quite clear that Google was no longer Silicon Valley's defender. It was Google's defender. And, of course, some will argue that's exactly as it should be. Google has no responsibility to stand up for the principles of others. At the same time, many will claim that Google would be silly not to use its money to harm competitors. But these all showed a particularly un-Google-like view of the world. It was that "don't be evil" stand that made people trust them. It was that belief (real or perceived) that Google was entirely focused on making the world better for everyone that built up that trust. These moves (and some of the moves Anil discusses in his piece) may make the shareholders happy in the short-term. But they end up harming reputation in the long-term.

As Google is fighting accusations of antitrust, the message it keeps trying to spread is that competition is only a click away. The company would be wise to remember that itself, because sometimes it doesn't actually act that way.

That said, I don't believe the company is acting "evil" or that it should be accused of any sort of antitrust violations. But the company has certainly acted a lot less "Googley" lately, and Anil is correct in saying that it appears a lot of folks internal to the company don't really recognize that (or want to believe it). It's definitely hard to keep that kind of culture and attitude as a company gets bigger (and, as some of its earlier employees sail off). And, to its credit, Google has certainly been able to keep a "good" reputation for a lot longer than other companies (and longer than many suspected Google could keep it). But that message has been drifting, and Google would do well to recognize how the external world is perceiving it.

Longtime Googler Matt Cutts responded to Anil's analysis in what I'd consider to be an open letter to other Googlers to take Anil's words seriously, rather than angrily (or just dismissing it as idle criticism). Hopefully that message gets through.

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Locus Magazine reports that publisher Charles N Brown, one of science fiction's great figures, has died peacefully in his sleep on his way home from ReaderCon. I read Locus from the time I was old enough to see over the counter at Bakka, the science fiction bookstore where I later worked, and for some years now I have been a columnist with the magazine. Charles's obsessive, affectionate fascination with the field and all its readers, writers, fans and critics made him one of the most beloved figures in it, a sort of Forry Ackerman minus the id. Liza Groen Trombi -- my editor at Locus -- is taking over the magazine; I wish her the best of luck with it and look forward to my continued association with it. My sincere condolences to the Locus staff and Charles's many friends around the world.

Brown co-founded Locus with Ed Meskys and Dave Vanderwerf as a one-sheet news fanzine in 1968, originally created to help the Boston Science Fiction Group win its Worldcon bid. Brown enjoyed editing Locus so much that he continued the magazine far beyond its original planned one-year run. Locus was nominated for its first Hugo Award in 1970, and Brown was a best fan writer nominee the same year. Locus won the first of its 29 Hugos in 1971.

During Brown's long and illustrious career he was the first book reviewer for Asimov's; wrote the Best of the Year summary for Terry Carr's annual anthologies (1975-87); wrote numerous magazines and newspapers; edited several SF anthologies; appeared on countless convention panels; was a frequent Guest of Honor, speaker, and judge at writers' seminars; and has been a jury member for various major SF awards.

Charles N. Brown, 1937-2009

(Image: charles brown, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from catsprks' photostream)

Extreme economic problems require extreme solutions, and Wells Fargo Bank has come up with a good one. They have decided to sue themselves. Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium that is going into foreclosure. As holder of the first, they are suing all other lien holders, including the holder of the second, which is Wells Fargo. It gets better. The company has hired a lawyer to defend itself against its own lawsuit. The defense lawyer even filed this answer to the complaint, "Defendant admits that it is the owner and holder of a mortgage encumbering the subject real property. All other allegations of the complaint are denied." On the website The Consumer Warning Network, Angie Moreschi wrote: "We've apparently reached the perfect storm for complete and utter idiocy by some banks trying to foreclose on homes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

readthemall writes to let us know that the Symbian Foundation has released the first of several packages in their plan to open source the entire Symbian mobile OS. "On Wednesday, Symbian made available its first package covered by the EPL, the OS Security Package, according to Symbian developer Craig Heath. 'The OS Security Package source code is now available under the EPL, and it is the very first package to be officially moved from the closed Symbian Foundation License (SFL) to... the EPL,' Heath wrote in a blog post. Heath said the EPL would allow the security package to bypass export regulations in the UK, where the Symbian code is legally based."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Marylin sez, "Joel Sartore's photos from various state fairs capture some bizarre moments: like hissing cockroaches from Madagascar pulling tiny tractors; Minnesota sisters with rainbow glitter pigtails; bleachers full of 8,400 Iowa fairgoers all about to bite into corndogs simultaneously; Minnesota Dairy Princess Kristy Mussman posing in a freezer so a sculptor can render her likeness in a giant slab of butter; contestants in a mother-daughter lookalike contest; volunteers in Iowa all slumped over in folding chairs at the suggestion of a hypnotist. Garrison Keillor wrote the state fair feature story in the July issue on National Geographic, enumerating the Ten Chief Joys of the State Fair."

The Ten Chief Joys of the State Fair are:

1. To eat food with your two hands.

2. To feel extreme centrifugal force reshaping your face and jowls as you are flung or whirled turbulently and you experience that intense joyfulness that is indistinguishable from anguish, or (as you get older) to observe other persons in extreme centrifugal situations.

3. To mingle, merge, mill, jostle gently, and flock together with throngs, swarms, mobs, and multitudes of persons slight or hefty, punky or preppy, young or ancient, wandering through the hubbub and amplified razzmatazz and raw neon and clouds of wiener steam in search of some elusive thing, nobody is sure exactly what.

State Fair Joys Take in the State Fair (Keillor)

When I first saw this picture of a cross with a concealed dagger blade, I assumed it was the work of an artist trying to make some sort of political statement about religion and/or violence and/or the relationship between the two. Which, frankly, would neither interest nor impress me very much. Turns out, however, that quite the opposite is true--this object was created for entirely practical reasons. In spite of what appears to be very workmanlike quality, it is in fact a shiv, secretly manufactured by a prisoner in Germany as an expedient concealment for a personal weapon. It was later discovered by his or her jailers (before being used, one hopes), and eventually photographed by Marc Steinmetz, who has assembled a remarkable online portfolio of pictures of improvised weapons and other prisoner's inventions. Thanks to Thomas Howery for the lead.

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Barence writes "Microsoft has announced full details of Office 2010 and its plans for an accompanying suite of online applications, and PC Pro has been given special access to a technical preview. Contributing Editor Simon Jones gives his initial verdict on the new suite, concluding that there's 'still a long way to go in terms of fit and finish... but overall Microsoft has made good strides in increasing usability, cohesiveness and collaboration.' This is followed by detailed first looks at Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010 and PowerPoint 2010, with Outlook certainly looking to be the greatest beneficiary. And finally, a gallery of screenshots shows off all the new interface touches in Office 2010, including Outlook's conversation view, Word's picture editing function and the new cut and paste preview option."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Barence writes "Microsoft has announced full details of Office 2010 and its plans for an accompanying suite of online applications, and PC Pro has been given special access to a technical preview. Contributing Editor Simon Jones gives his initial verdict on the new suite, concluding that there's "still a long way to go in terms of fit and finish... but overall Microsoft has made good strides in increasing usability, cohesiveness and collaboration." This is followed by detailed first looks at Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010 and PowerPoint 2010, with Outlook certainly looking to be the greatest beneficiary. And finally, a gallery of screenshots shows off all the new interface touches in Office 2010, including Outlook's conversation view, Word's picture editing function and the new cut and paste preview option."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Derrick Coetzee, a software developer and an administrator of Wikimedia Commons, the media repository for Wikipedia is being threatened by the National Portrait Gallery in London. Coetzee admits that he downloaded about 3,000 high-resolution images from the site, but notes that they are all of paintings that are in the public domain (nearly all are over 100 years old). Coetzee is in the US, where he notes Bridgeman v. Corel suggests that photographs of public domain paintings do not carry any copyright, since the photograph does not add any new expression. However, such issues are not settled in the UK, and the National Portrait Gallery is insisting that the photos are covered by copyright.

On top of that, the Gallery is claiming a violation of its database right. Database rights are an unfortunate mistake in European law, that allows a copyright-like right to be held on a database, even if the entries in that database are uncopyrightable -- such as a collection of facts or a collection of public domain works. Finally, the Gallery is also claiming that Coetzee unlawfully circumvented protection methods designed to keep folks like himself from downloading the content -- and thanks to the UK's own anti-circumvention law, that too could make him guilty of infringement. Of course, that last one shouldn't apply if the content isn't actually covered by copyright, as Coetzee argues.

The whole thing, frankly, seems rather ridiculous, and a huge black mark on the National Portrait Gallery in the UK. Here was a chance to help educate the public and give people more reasons to go to the Gallery to see the actual photos, and they're trying to stomp out that kind of education through abuse of copyright law. The people who run the Gallery should be ashamed of themselves. They ought to go back and read their own mission statement:

Founded in 1856, the aim of the National Portrait Gallery, London is 'to promote through the medium of portraits the appreciation and understanding of the men and women who have made and are making British history and culture, and ... to promote the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media'.

How, exactly, does suing someone for getting those portraits more attention achieve that goal?

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A new study in the journal Current Biology looks at how cats manipulate us. University of Sussex psychologist Karen McComb, an expert in animal communications, identified how cats add an urgent, whining meow to their normal purr to get what they want. From a press release:

"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex. "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom." She suggests that this form of cat communication sends a subliminal sort of message, tapping into an inherent sensitivity that humans and other mammals have to cues relevant in the context of nurturing their offspring...

McComb said she thinks this cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring, "but we think that cats learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans."

"House cats know what they want and how to get it from you"

My 3-year-old wanted to know what a record player looked like. Since mine is in storage, I naturally hit YouTube. That's where I stumbled across this genre of "music videos" where the visual is simply the vinyl spinning on the turntable. I'm sure some of them are essentially "sales videos" for collectors showing their stuff, but I still find them curious.

University of Barcelona researchers noted that dogs in classic Disney films frequently seem to exhibit REM behavior disorder (RBD). Below is the full abstract for their scientific paper, published in a 2007 issue of the journal Sleep Medicine:

During a viewing of Disney's animated film Cinderella (1950), one author (AI) noticed a dog having nightmares with dream-enactment that strongly resembled RBD. This prompted a study in which all Disney classic full-length animated films and shorts were analyzed for other examples of RBD. Three additional dogs were found with presumed RBD in the classic films Lady and the Tramp (1955) and The Fox and the Hound (1981), and in the short Pluto's Judgment Day (1935). These dogs were elderly males who would pant, whine, snuffle, howl, laugh, paddle, kick, and propel themselves while dreaming that they were chasing someone or running away. In Lady and the Tramp the dog was also losing both his sense of smell and his memory, two associated features of human RBD. These four films were released before RBD was first formally described in humans and dogs. In addition, systematic viewing of the Disney films identified a broad range of sleep disorders, including nightmares, sleepwalking, sleep related seizures, disruptive snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness, insomnia and circadian rhythm sleep disorder. These sleep disorders were inserted as comic elements. The inclusion of a broad range of accurately depicted sleep disorders in these films indicates that the Disney screenwriters were astute observers of sleep and its disorders.

"REM sleep behavior disorder and other sleep disturbances in Disney animated films" (via NCBI ROFL)

My friend Erik Knutzen reviewed Backwoods Home Magazine for Cool Tools:

Imagine Martha Stewart as a gun-toting Libertarian and you’ll have good notion of the editorial outlook of Backwoods Home Magazine. What makes this magazine useful, regardless of your political persuasion, is the wealth of information written by practitioners in the arts of self-reliance. You’ll find articles on everything from growing vegetables to baking bread to, yes, cleaning your Glock. Even if you live in the city there’s plenty to learn in the pages of BHM, in particular from Jackie Clay, Backwoods Home’s resident advice columnist. Clay can parse out and troubleshoot what have become almost lost arts, things like food preservation, soap making and small-scale poultry keeping. The rambling, unedited reader letters and the thrift-store-painting cover art are endearing bonuses.

(Don Childers' illustration of military pig slaughter from "Preparing for Civil Unrest," by Claire Wolfe)

Backwoods Home Magazine

jmcbain writes "Robert X. Cringely asserts that nothing good will come out of the ongoing war between Microsoft and Google: 'The battle between Microsoft and Google entered a new phase last week with the announcement of Google's Chrome Operating System — a direct attack on Microsoft Windows. This is all heady stuff and good for lots of press, but in the end none of this is likely to make a real difference for either company or, indeed, for consumers. It's just noise — a form of mutually assured destruction intended to keep each company in check.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

jmcbain writes "Robert X. Cringely asserts that nothing good will come out of the ongoing war between Microsoft and Google: "The battle between Microsoft and Google entered a new phase last week with the announcement of Google's Chrome Operating System — a direct attack on Microsoft Windows. This is all heady stuff and good for lots of press, but in the end none of this is likely to make a real difference for either company or, indeed, for consumers. It's just noise — a form of mutually assured destruction intended to keep each company in check.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Austin's new development at the site of the old Robert Mueller airport includes a small solar farm consisting of fifteen of these lovely blue "solar sunflower" collectors, designed by Cambridge's Harries/Héder Collaborative, whose concept was selected from a pool of 37 applicants to Austin's Art in Public Places program. Details of the project are available here. The collectors, which have been installed but aren't yet active, will collect energy during the day and release it at night as light for the nearby hike-and-bike trail.

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A massive earthworm is terrifying folks in the Palouse region of the northwestern United States. OK, well maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but researchers are spending the summer seeking a mysterious, legendary 3-foot spitting worm in the rural areas from Washington to Idaho. From the Associated Press:

The worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have only been four sightings.

But scientists hope to change that this summer with researchers scouring the Palouse regoin in hopes of finally finding the giant earthworm. Conservationists also want the Obama administration to protect it as an endangered species, even though there is scant scientific information about its existence.

"It absolutely exists," insisted Jodi Johnson-Maynard, a University of Idaho professor who is leading the search for the worm.

Researchers looking for 3-foot, spitting worm under Northwest fields (Thanks, Bob Pescovitz!)

Here's a little rechargeable amp you can carry around in your pocket by instructables user brunoip from Argentina.

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Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton says "Using FTP to administer a website is insecure -- but not for the reasons that you probably think. You yourself can stop using FTP any time you want, but how do we change the landscape Net-wide, to reduce the number of breakins using stolen FTP credentials?" You know what to click on if you want to read the rest.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton says "Using FTP to administer a website is insecure -- but not for the reasons that you probably think. You yourself can stop using FTP any time you want, but how do we change the landscape Net-wide, to reduce the number of breakins using stolen FTP credentials?" You know what to click on if you want to read the rest.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

8ate sez, "Created this small video using clippings from popular 1980s Indian religious sitcom 'Ramayan' having crazy SFX and the famous Led Zeppelin number 'Immigrant Song'. Enjoy!"

Best repurposing of Zepp since Shrek!

immigrant gods sing

Ah, the nuttiness of our legal system. Reader Bettawrekonize sends in the news that Wells Fargo has sued itself in a foreclosure dispute:

In this particular case, Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium, according to Sarasota, Fla., attorney Dan McKillop, who represents the condo owner. As holder of the first, Wells Fargo is suing all other lien holders, including the holder of the second, which is itself.

And, of course, being on the receiving end of a lawsuit, the bank has hired some lawyers (different than the ones it hired to file the lawsuit) to respond:

Wells Fargo hired Florida Default Law Group., P.L., of Tampa, Fla., to file the lawsuit against itself.

And then Wells Fargo hired another Tampa law firm -- Kass, Shuler, Solomon, Spector, Foyle & Singer P.A. -- to defend itself against its own lawsuit, according to court documents.

Wells Fargo's defense lawyers even filed an answer to their client's own complaint.

"Defendant admits that it is the owner and holder of a mortgage encumbering the subject real property," the answer reads. "All other allegations of the complaint are denied."

Isn't it great to know that, post-bailout, banks aren't wasting all that taxpayer money we gave them?

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A reader writes, "In his opening statement of the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, Senator Jeff Sessions lectured the nominee about 'prejudice' in the legal system. The problem? He was rejected by the very same committee twenty years ago for 'racially insensitive' statements asserting that he thought that the Klan was OK until he found out they smoked 'dope' and calling white civil rights lawyers 'race traitors.' Here's a collection of the media coverage at the time scanned in on Flickr. [Ed: Scan above from Newsweek]"

Meet Jeff Sessions

A music video for the Rob Thomas song "Meltdown." Directed by Walter Robot, who say, "This video is totally official, we asked Rob to be in it and he came and hung out with us for 3 hours. We smoked cigarettes. WAIT FOR SURPRISE ENDINGS!!!!!!" They're not kidding.

Jamie noticed that Bruce Schneier wrote a piece on a paper on strong passwords that tells us that the old 'strong password' advice that many of us (myself included) regard as gospel might not be as true as we had hoped. They make things hard on users, but are useless against phishing and keyloggers. Everyone can change their password back to 'trustno1' now.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jamie noticed that Bruce Schneier wrote a piece on a paper on strong passwords that tells us that the old 'strong password' advice that many of us (myself included) regard as gospel might not be as true as we had hoped. They make things hard on users, but are useless against phishing and keyloggers. Everyone can change their password back to 'trustno1' now.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cosina has today announced Voigtländer-branded adapters to connect F and K mount lenses with Micro Four Thirds camera bodies. The adapters are designed for Voigtländer and Carl Zeiss lenses with Nikon F or Pentax K mounts. They provide only a mechanical connection between the lens and body so only lenses with a manual aperture ring will be compatible.

A group of makers in the Kansas City area is organizing a meeting to talk about the forming of a Make: KC group. They write:

Do you enjoy creating new inventions or taking things apart to see how they work? Maybe you've seen some of the do-it-yourself projects in MAKE magazine but you're not sure how to finish certain steps.

This is an opportunity for tinkerers, inventors, makers, artists, and crafters to share your knowledge and inspiration with others from young to old in a family-friendly atmosphere.

We are planning for this meeting to include some show and tell projects using Arduino microcontrollers, as well as organizational topics and planning for future events as we launch this new group.

Here are the details:

Tuesday July 14, 2009
6 pm to 7 pm: Maker Show and Tell
7 pm to 8 pm: Organizational Meeting
Where:
HMS Beagle Science Store
180 English Landing Drive
Parkville, MO 64152
(816) 587-9998
http://www.hms-beagle.com

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Strange Horizons's Valentin D. Ivanov has scraped Locus Magazine's "Notable Books" column going back to May 1998 and built a 10+ year dataset of genre popularity in science fiction, fantasy and horror. It's easy to get all impressionistic and say, "Oh, everything in the sf section is space opera these days," but that's as apt to be confirmation bias as fact. Here's the numbers.

How significant are these trends? Having only three measurements, we cannot provide rigorous answers, except for the major categories that are populated with sufficient numbers of books. A linear fit to the points in Figure 1 gives us the rate of increase of the number of books included in Locus Online reviews, averaged over the entire time period. For example, for SF it is 11.5 ± 0.9 books per year. In other words, the number of the reviewed SF books has increased on average by 11-12 every year between 1998 and 2007. The rate for fantasy is 26.9 ± 7.7; for horror 3.1 ± 0.7; and for other books 4.1 ± 1.0 (all in units of books per year). The uncertainty margins are the formal fitting errors. The larger uncertainty in fantasy's growth rate reflects a systematic error due to the fact that this category has inflated only recently, and the linear model is not an adequate representation of its behaviour. Fantasy's lead over SF in terms of growth rate is a margin of about 15 books per year. The probability of this happening by chance is extremely small--about 1-in-1010. Therefore, we are likely facing a statistically significant nonrandom trend here.

It appears that the invasion of the sequels is truly happening. However, this result is not as obvious as the previous one--Figure 3 suggests that the proportion of sequels included in Locus Online reviews remains nearly constant after the 2001-2002 period. In other words, the changes are well within the expected random variations, shown in the plot with error bars.

A Statistical Study of Locus Online's "Notable Books" (via Making Light)

Kogoro Kurata built this rather stylish mini bulldozer from an old old Fiat 500 and salvaged caterpillar tracks. It may not win any races, but I wouldn't want to stand in its way. Check out pics documenting it's creation on his site. [via Pink Tentacle]

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NewbieV writes "The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the ground when night has fallen but the station, up high, is still bathed in sunlight. After more than a decade of construction, it is nearing completion and finally has a full crew of six astronauts. The last components should be installed by the end of next year. And then? 'In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft,' says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NewbieV writes "The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the ground when night has fallen but the station, up high, is still bathed in sunlight. After more than a decade of construction, it is nearing completion and finally has a full crew of six astronauts. The last components should be installed by the end of next year. And then? "In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft," says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's a short video from PreCentral user Cleanser showing off his Palm Pre hacked to run on Verizon's network. It's not perfect. Apparently the data portion isn't working, but at least it's a start.

Only problem is that I can't get data to work. Apparently webOS is checking to see if the device is provisioned or not before allowing a data session to take place. So my next step would be to somehow bypass this provisioning check.

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The IFPI (the international version of the RIAA) has been working around the clock lately to try to get various ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites. Some have caved in, while others have lost lawsuits. In Norway, however, leading ISP Telenor is fighting back, saying that taking orders from the entertainment industry to block sites it doesn't like goes against democratic principles:

"Instead of demanding that Internet providers censor the Internet and monitor the content that's transferred, Telenor believes that the best way to decrease illegal file sharing is to put more effort into making legally downloadable content available."

But, as we've seen over the years, there are still many in positions of power within the recording industry who believe that the best new business model is to try to stomp out anyone who challenges their old business model. Eventually, they'll realize what a failed plan that is.

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Recently on Offworld we got a number of indie surprises, as our early Gimme Indie Game featured favorite Enviro-Bear 2000: Operation: Hibernation made a sudden appearance on iPhone as Enviro-Bear 2010 (above). Inarguably the best game about bears driving cars (prove us wrong!), it's an even better game on the iPhone than the PC original, and quickly became both a weekend favorite, and an immediate viral hit. We also saw Saelee Oh and Anna Anthropy's artXgame Octopounce -- the best of the games originally released for Giant Robot's Game Over/Continue show -- released for free, and were able to watch the entire hour-long meeting between Passage creator Jason Rohrer and design vet Chris Crawford for German TV program Into the Night With. Elsewhere, Nintendo announced plans to make its early LCD Game & Watch games available as handheld DSiWare downloadables, Valve released a new look at the rainy days of Left 4 Dead 2, Capcom brought Street Fighter II CE to your web browser, and Bungie turned your best Halo 3 screenshots into canvas-printed fine art. Finally, we got a sneak peek at all the Ghostbusters appearing in LittleBigPlanet, found our new favorite fake-twitter-follow poking gentle fun at Natal and Milo at @petermolyneux2, and our themed 'one shots' for the day: the ESRB's impossible task at rating Scribblenauts (with imagined steak/baby/lion violence), and Scribblenauts-themed Street Fighters.

Barence writes "A 15-year-old schoolboy has become an overnight sensation after writing a report on teenagers' media habits for analysts Morgan Stanley. Intern Matthew Robson was asked to write a report about his friends' use of technology during his work experience stint with the firm's media analysts. The report was so good the firm decided to publish it, and it generated "five or six" times more interest than Morgan Stanley's regular reports. The schoolboy poured scorn on Twitter, claiming that teenagers "realize that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless". He also claimed games consoles are replacing mobile phones as the way to chat with friends."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I have no idea if these chairs are real, renders, prototypes or realistic oil paintings, but I like the idea: hollow-tube rockers designed to channel the wind through their bodies and out a set of ear trumpets to recreate the crash of the surf.

'Rocking on the Beach' Chairs (via Cribcandy)

A brief introduction to the technology that makes it possible for today's electronics to do so much with very little space - the IC (aka microchip)!

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Jeff writes "I decided to review the specifications of recent e-readers and mobile devices as well as the ongoing Apple rumor mill to chart out the most likely features, innovations and configuration we can expect from Apple's long awaited Newton successor/Mac Tablet which I'll call the MacPad. The MacPad will arrive in fall '09 or Jan '10, with a 10" diagonal color display, a $599 price point with a Verizon data plan, a stylus, note taking application and handwriting recognition and an e-bookstore for iTunes. Apple's biggest challenge will be convincing its huge installed base of iPhone owners that they need a MacPad too. Past failed Newtonian predictions by others are available on Slashdot and the likelihood that any of this is right can be gauged by earlier Confucian gems such as Haskin warns that Apple may be setting itself up for a failure with the iPhone."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Inspied by the BeatBearing project, Damien Kee built a musical sequencer using the Lego NXT system -

Each coloured ball represents a different note. As the colour sensor passes over the top, the note assigned is played. Different rhythms are capable by placing the balls in different places on the holder.

Bonus points for the circular design!

From the pages of MAKE:

The BeatBearing  Volume 17, Page 122

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This enterprising fellow built a chakra (a spinning wheel) largely out of cardboard. At the end of the post, he also has links to a bunch of other cheap lo-tek spinning wheel projects available online.

Spinning on the Cardboard Charka

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Part I - Who Makes The News
In his recent post, Mike discussed how there is a two-way street between blogs and newspapers, in which both become aware of stories from each other, and both borrow ideas. Techdirt believes this is part of the free market for ideas, and that nobody can own news, but we contrast this belief with the mainstream media moguls, who rant about how bloggers "poach" the news from the newspapers, offering naught in return. There is a trend of major publishers talking about how they "own" the news they "made", even when they themselves are just reporting on stories that occurred to other people. If anyone made the news, isn't it the people involved? But news is really just facts, and nobody can "own" reality.

Continuing along the lines Mike laid out, let me introduce another group of people who often create a great deal of the content in mainstream news, but go under-credited in this debate: Analysts and Experts. When news breaks, or a general interest piece is planned for a mainstream publication, the reporters often seek the advice and opinions of industry analysts and experts. I know, because I'm often called regarding issues in the Telecom industry. The reporters will ask your expert opinion, some catchy quotes, and will integrate them into their story. However, oftentimes, I find the reporter is just starting the writing process (in 'research'), and actually doesn't know exactly what is interesting about the story. In these cases, I often spend half an hour on the phone with them explaining the background, the trends, the real scuttlebutt, the interesting aspects, who else they should talk to, what is "real" and what is spin (IMHO, of course), and who they can contact for an opposing view. Independent analysts also normally have less bias than a corporate PR rep. Often, I will refer the reporter to an article I've written or a Techdirt post on the subject. The eventual story occasionally follows my narrative quite closely.

Am I angry about this state of affairs? No. I think it's great. All I ask is that the reporter put a quote or two from me in the piece. I get some marketing exposure, and I'm more than happy to help them build their story in return. This is one way reporters do their job, and it IS useful and productive. One would guess that lots of stories are made this way. There is no problem with this, but there is a problem when the news organizations start to think they "own" the story. What they did was add professional writing, fact checking, additional interviews, but most importantly provided distribution and an audience - all of which adds value, but none of which conveys ownership.

Allow me to triple repeat myself: I have no problem with this, and in fact seek out opportunities to work with reporters. This is a system that works...right up until the publishers act like - nay, claim - they are the sole creators of the news and that bloggers are mere parasites. In many cases, the bloggers are just the same experts going straight to the market with their ideas. As an analyst, I know I can go straight to market, but I'd rather go through the NYT, because that's where the audience is.

Part II - Paywall Paradox:
So what happens when newspapers go behind a paywall, and reduce their readership by 90% to the 10% of people willing to pay? What if, at the same time, Huffington Post, Techdirt, and WiFiNetNews all offer their stuff for free? It's not just the advertisers that will follow the audience: the experts want to go where the exposure is, where the readers are. If the mainstream media reduces their audience to a small fraction of payers, then analysts would have to revisit the cost/benefit of spending half an hour with mainstream reporters. If my contribution to their mainstream article is not indexed by Google, it does ME a lot less good. I want my quotes in the results when someone searches on "muni wifi" or "derek kerton". If they're locked up, they don't promote me, and I can't link to them.

Result: many experts will prefer to work with the free publications, where the larger audience reads, and where their quote is indexed by Bing and linkable. Subsequently, paywall newspapers will find sources harder to find, and less willing to spend time. Big media reporters are accustomed to everyone eagerly returning their calls within 30 minutes. That kind of enthusiasm follows the readership, not the newspaper.

Next step: guess where the writers will want to work...

Derek Kerton is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Derek Kerton and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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schliz writes "Researchers developing the 'Interplanetary Internet' have launched its first permanent node in Space via a payload aboard the International Space Station. The network is based on a new communications protocol called Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN). It will be tested heavily this month, and could give astronauts direct Internet access within a year. The Interplanetary Internet is the brainchild of Vint Cerf ('father of the Internet'), among others. Last year, NASA tested the technology on the Deep Impact spacecraft."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

From Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York by James and Karla Murray. Selections from the series will be on view at Clic Bookstore & Gallery, July 15 through August 30, 255 Centre Street, New York City.

Dutch artist and music hacker Gijs Gieskes has struck again, this time hooking up a cassette machine (with audio on one channel, a rim-shot on the other, used as a trigger ) to an Ardunio and the Arduino to a Gakken SX-150, to create a sequencer for it.

WalkSX

More:
How To - control a Gakken SX-150 via MIDI
Gakken SX-150 analog synth kit mods
Alcohol controlled Gakken SX-150
All the other Gakken synth action on Make: Online

SX-150 Analog Synthesizer Kit

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Have you considered using Google's Android OS for a project, but didn't want to resort to using an emulator or purchasing a phone? You're in luck. Live-Android's disk image allows you to boot from a CD and is a simple way to get up and running without the worry of trashing your current system.

[via downloadsquad]

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Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

UFC fighter Frank Mir exhibits the unfortunate consequences of what happens when you step into the ring with six-foot-three, 265-pound human monster Brock Lesnar after last night's UFC 100 heavyweight bout.

If UFC 100 represents mainstream, the world has changed.

Brock Lesnar, the former World Wrestling Entertainment fighter and current UFC heavyweight champion, battered Frank Mir in a second-round knockout to set aside a festering year of bitterness.

With a likely million more watching on pay-per-view, Lesnar gave the 11,000-plus a doubly obscene hand gesture and stood firm as the disdain continued.

"Lesnar, St-Pierre claim victories at UFC 100." (Image credit: John Locher/Associated Press.)

Krharrison alerts us to the news that the popular reality TV competition show "So You Think You Can Dance" was barred from doing a planned tribute to Michael Jackson on its most recent show because someone (exactly who isn't clear) refused to give permission. What a great society we live in when you need permission to do a tribute to someone's music.

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Sony has announced a 32GB variant of its Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX memory card. With the largest storage capacity in its line and fast recording speeds, it can record up to 225 minutes of HD videos, and is ideal for use in digital cameras with high speed burst modes. It also offers fast PC transfer speeds of 20MB/s using the included USB adapter. The Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX is also available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities.

Last week I wrote about interfacing an optical mouse with your Arduino. Vivi chimed in on the comments with some interesting information about the sensor, and a link to their version of a mouse scanner. It's a really well documented build that I am definitely going to try out. Thanks Vivi!

OK, so I finally decided to get my hands on the Arduino platform and see what all the buzz is really about. And I must say, I'm impressed. This is by far the most developer-friendly development platform I've ever seen.

Check out the amazing results:

Check out the web site for a lot more information, including all the Arduino and Java code. Great work Vivi, and thanks for sharing!

More about Creating an optical Mouse Cam with an Arduino

In the Maker Shed:


Make: Arduino

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suka writes "In a fresh interview with derStandard.at, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth talks about GNOME 3.0 — its strengths, but also about what he thinks is missing. He also mentions ongoing talks for a common meta-release-cycle with Debian which could delay the next LTS."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Online music collaboration services allow you to play, rehearse and record music with remotely connected like-minded people from around the world. You connect with other musicians, vocalists, songwriters and even to your own music fans to create the music you like either in real-time or asynchronously. You can also exchange ideas, discover new music from other independent artists and experiment freely without the pressure coming from knowing that you are renting an expensive recording studio. Photo credit: picpics Unless you have decided to do a real-time jam with your remotely connected musicians, online music collaboration services work all pretty much in the same way: You record a music track with your own instrument connected to a computer and then you upload the track for others to work and build upon. If you and your music partners already have a speedy broadband Internet connection, you can also use online music collaboration services to play in real-time without worrying about the typical delays that are characteristic of transmitting audio on the Internet. You just plug your instrument to your PC / Mac, find your musical buddies and you are set to play. Collaborative music projects can be both public or private, depending on your production needs, and some of the music collaboration services I am showcasing here in this guide, also provide a direct marketplace for you to distribute and sell your songs. Interestingly, DJs and creative people who are not musicians can use some of these music collaboration services to remix and mash-up old and new stuff. In this MasterNewMedia guide you can find a comprehensive map of the online music collaboration services available out there, including some of their key characteristics and a comparative table that puts them through their paces. When reviewing each one of the services, these were the key items I checked:

• Supported file format: File types accepted to upload your music tracks.
• Public / Private sessions: Free or restricted access for musical projects.
• Distribution / Sales: Music tracks distribution on third-party websites or social networks.
• Rating: Mutual evaluation of musicians.
• Pricing: Basic starting cost and feature.

Here all the details:

Best Tools And Services To Collaborate On Music Projects Comparative Table

Online Music Collaboration: Best Tools And Services To Collaborate On Music Projects

1. eJAMMING AUDiiO
   
   With eJamming AUDiiO you can create, perform and record musical tracks online and in real-time. The software (for Win and Mac only) allow you to connect to other musicians both by public or private chat and by creating or joining a session. Inside a session you get in touch with up to three other musicians for real time music collaboration, creation and recording. Or you can also play on your own and record your creation. All you have to do is plug your instrument to your computer and then configure the software with the instructions available on the website. You cannot upload your own tracks for the time being. Each musician has a skill level rated by the eJamming community, so you can decide whom you want to play with. Once you have recorded your tracks you can also send your music to a friend or jam-mate. eJamming AUDiio is priced either $9.95/month or $89.95/year.
   http://www.ejamming.com/
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Kompoz
   
   Kompoz is a social workspace for musicians and songwriters. You can record a music track, upload it and then invite others to contribute to your song by adding other instruments or vocals. Public and private projects are available, so you can collaborate with anyone or specifically select the people to work with. Check the ratings of your selected musicians to choose the right co-author for your creation. Then upload a music track (MP3, AIFF, WAV, WMA, OGG), a PDF with tabs or vocal parts and meet your jam-mates to start collaborating together on your own song. To get feedback from the Kompoz community, you can use the forum discussions to share opinions and suggestions with other members. When your project is ready, share it via Twitter, Facebook or your own website by grabbing the embed code. Public projects are free and licensed under a Creative Commons license. Each private project you start costs $8.95 and you can choose either to share your music under a Creative Commons license or traditional copyright.
   http://www.kompoz.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. JamNow
   
   JamNow is a free online collaboration platform that allows you to play, record and collaborate with other musicians. You can host live shows for your fans or just play and record your tracks on your own. To use JamNow you have to download a free software (Win and Mac) on your computer. The software allows you to get in touch with other passionate musicians and supporters via chat or using a microphone. Your music projects can be both kept public or private and all members have a rating score, so it is easy to meet the people you need to perfect your songs. No exposure features to distribute your music on third-party websites. No info either on file formats supported to upload a music track.
   http://www.jamnow.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. MixMatchMusic
   
   MixMatchMusic is a free community where artists and music lovers meet to share their tastes or collaborate on music projects. You can connect with other members to create, complete or remix tracks using MixMatchMusic suite of audio tools. Then upload your own tracks to start or use a "stem", a music sample you find on the site. To find the right musicians look at their ratings from the community. Once you are satisfied with the results of your project, publish your music on the website. Each song costs $1 and for each track sold $0.85 go to those people who collaborated creating the music. To release your song on third-part locations you need either to have permission from the company or the co-authors of the song. No info on file formats supported to upload a music track.
   http://www.mixmatchmusic.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Tune Rooms
   
   Tune Rooms is a free online service to create and remix music tracks with the help of other musicians. You can create your own music sessions (or "tune rooms") by uploading your own tracks in MP3 format or by adding existing tracks already on the website. Then allow others to contribute with their own song sketches to help you complete your songs. Tune rooms allows users to assign a Creative Commons license their works, featuring the license prominently on each composition. No ratings or distribution tools available.
   http://www.tunerooms.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Oomix
   
   Using Oomix musicians can collaborate online on their songs and even monetize their music without spending a dime. Record and upload a single-instrument MP3 track to Oomix and let others play their own groove and complete your track. Some others may want to remix different tracks and create a unique music piece using the Studio tool (Windows only). Each song perfected and created by a group of musicians is sold for a pre-determined price. Each musician or remixer assigns a percentage to her contribution that identifies the amount of work done (e.g. 30% bass guitar, 30% guitar, 20% drums, 20% remix). The money each contributor gets is calculated according to the percentage of work done and total earning made from the sell. You can rate each musician but not freely distribute the songs you create (only sell is allowed). Private projects are not permitted.
   http://oomix.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Jamglue
   
   Jamglue is an online community for creating and sharing original music and audio. You can upload your recorded music (MP3, WAV and WMA formats allowed) or voice track, create mixes, and then share your creations on your blog or MySpace profile. You can either upload a track from your hard-disk, a URL, or use JamGlue library to mix different tracks using a Flash-based interface; no software to install on your computer. Once your mix is completed, you can download the song for free. You can also write mini-review or comments to rate your favorite artists. Private projects are not allowed. Free to use.
   http://www.jamglue.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. WeMix
   
   WeMix is a free online service where musicians can collaborate together and produce original songs. Co-founded by the rapper Ludacris, WeMix usage is simple: you sign up, create your page and upload your original songs, beats, vocals, riffs in MP3 format As a member you can collaborate on songs using WeMix Mashpit, offer feedback, rate your favorite artists and share ideas for new music with others. If you want to distribute your music you can grab the embed code of your published songs and paste it onto your social media pages or website. Top performers also get a shot to turn their songs into real records by collaborating with star musicians and the entire WeMix community. Your show might even be broadcast on TV.
   http://www.wemix.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Indaba Music
   
   The mission of Indaba Music is to foster a community that offers artists to connect and work creatively together on music projects. Create a free blog to share your music (MP3 is the only format accepted for upload) and photos or connect with other musicians to work on a project together using a web-based workspace. Each musician is rated by other members and has a personal profile page to facilitate your choice. If you are not a musician, you can also browse the Indaba Music library of Creative Commons-licensed songs and remix a song, even privately. Basic plan to join Indaba Muisc is free and you have all it needs to create, remix and share your songs. If you need advanced audio tools you can purchase one of the two premium plans starting at $5/month or $50/year.
   http://www.indabamusic.com
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. MyOnlineBand
    
    MyOnlineBand.com is a network of professional and would-be musicians that want to share their music tastes and play collaboratively on music projects. Once you register to the network you can upload your songs (MP3 or WMA only) to share with others and use a live-chat facility to communicate in real-time with the musicians of your team. You also have a public profile page that works as a resume to help other people evaluate your contribution to their tracks. People can also support you economically through a dedicated link, though this is not compulsory to download a song. In fact, all you need to do is download tracks from the MyOnlineBand library, add your own audio contribution and then re-upload the song to the site. You can also upload document files to provide your jam-mates with chords, lyrics and tabs that will help you improve the songs. Both public and private projects are allowed. MyOnlineBand is free to join. No rating allowed.
    http://www.myonlineband.com
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. MyBlogBand
    
    MyBlogBand is a virtual jam room where you connect to other musicians, play and publish you recordings for free. You simply post your creation on the forum area of the website and let others add more instruments, give feedback, make suggestions, and collaborate on the song. If you like the additions made, you can then share the revised collaboration. You can also choose to work alone and open a private project or publicly release your creations. Audio tracks must be submitted in MP3 format and you can post lyrics, tabs and any other document that might help co-authors create songs. No rating and no ability to distribute your songs on third-party websites.
    http://www.myblogband.com
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. Dopetracks
    
    DopeTracks is a free online music collaboration network where you can record your beats and sing together with other vocalists. Just plug your microphone to your computer and use the built-in Flash application to record your vocals. Then upload your track to the service and provide lyrics so that your fans can sing along. Other users can also comment, "dope" (rate) and help you improve your beats participating to your vocal performances. Once you are satisfied with your beats, distribute your performance to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Xanga. No info on the file format needed to upload your vocals and no private projects allowed.
    http://www.dopetracks.com
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. Virtual Recording Studio
    
    Virtual Recording Studio is an online music collaboration venue where musicians meet to work together on new music. All you have to do is upload an original music track in MP3 format and then start a project to let others contribute to your song. Projects can be either public or private. In a private project you selectively control who can hear your music or collaborate on your songs. Ratings and comments are allowed, but you cannot distribute your finished creations on third-party websites. You can also install Virtual Recording Studio on your own web server to create your personal music collaboration community. Free to use.
    http://thenetstudio.com/Scripts/VRSLogin.vrs

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 13th, 2009 as "Online Music Collaboration: Best Tools And Services To Collaborate On Music Projects".

Peace Corps Online writes "The NY Times reports that researchers at Cornell studying the news cycle by looking for repeated phrases and tracking some 90 million articles and blog posts which appeared from August through October 2008 on 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs. have discovered that for the most part, traditional news outlets lead and the blogs follow, typically by 2.5 hours. The researchers studied frequently repeated short phrases, the equivalent of 'genetic signatures' for ideas. The biggest text-snippet surge found in the study — 'lipstick on a pig' originated in Barack Obama's colorful put-down of the claim by Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin that they were the genuine voices for change in the campaign. The researchers' paper, 'Meme-tracking and the Dynamics of the News Cycle,' (PDF) shows that although most news flowed from the traditional media to the blogs, 3.5 percent of story lines originated in the blogs and later made their way to traditional media."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A few weeks ago my daughter made a mermaid tails at her friend's birthday party. It was a fun project, and swimming at the pool is a whole different experience now.

In her notes on the video, Sasha says that she got the swim/dance wear material at JoAnn Fabrics, a sponsor over at CRAFT.

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schleprock63 writes "NASA has delayed the launch of Endeavour due to inclement weather, mostly lightning. According to NASA, 'Officials at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have called off today's liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour due to inclement weather. Cumulus clouds and lightning violated rules for launching Endeavour because of weather near the Shuttle Landing Facility. The runway would be needed in the unlikely event that Endeavour would have to make an emergency landing back at Kennedy. Endeavour's next launch attempt is 6:51 p.m. EDT Monday. NASA TV coverage will begin at 1:30 p.m.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.