Astronomers on the Universe: Hey, It's a Jungle Out There: "The things astronomers discover as they probe deeper into the universe -- orphaned baby stars, planet-devouring black holes -- paint a bleak picture of 'out there.' Heck, we might as well stay home.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Articulating the Wisconsin Idea: "From iTunes U, which lets students take educational podcasts on the road; to the computational tools running on Xserves, which allow students to see and explore the structure, function, and behavior of molecules; to the Digital Academic Television Network, which delivers live TV via a network connection using QuickTime as a client), Macintosh computers, servers, and software help educators articulate the ‘Wisconsin Idea.’ Erasing completely the ‘borders of learning,’ they depend on the Mac to let learning go on—for students and teachers alike—anywhere and at anytime."
Apple Hot News - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
Head over heels for tomorrow's personal robots: "Our future appears to be full of empathetic, human-like, companion robots at relatively low prices.
"
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Cringely: Why Apple will buy Adobe: "Steve Jobs has his Macworld keynote address coming and will no doubt deliver to us..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Into the wild with precaution: "For the first-ever Topics on Tap forum at Murphy's House of Brews in Roseburg, the theme was a serious one 'Surviving the Wilderness' but the relaxed audience imbibed the grave advice as easy as a frothy pint."
News Review - News - http://www.newsreview.info
formerly known as Little Brother’s PubTransmission 1.01 - BitTorrent client. (Free): "
Transmission has been built from the ground up to be a lightweight yet powerful BitTorrent client. Its simple, intuitive interface is designed to integrate tightly with whatever computing environment you choose to use. Transmission strikes a balance between providing useful functionality without feature bloat. Furthermore, it is free for anyone to use or modify. Transmission is open source (MIT license).
These days, bandwidth is a precious commodity. Transmission allows you to ration this commodity efficiently. You might want to queue your torrents for maximum performance. Or throttle their speed during peak periods. Transmission easily lets you do both, and thus only works its hardest when you want it to.
Support for Growl notifications and dock badging keep you updated with what's going on so you can get back to doing more important things.
If you are interested in helping out the Transmission project in any way, we encourage you to head over to our development page. The current developers welcome anybody who is interested in implementing new features, documentation, or translations.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
First Look: Photoshop Elements 6.0: "Adobe has unveiled the latest Mac version of Photoshop Elements. And while Mac users have had to wait a long time for this update, Lesa Snider King discovers in her first look at Version 6 that many of the additions and enhancements are well worth the wait."
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
CES 2008 Day 2: From iPods to iShoes: "If you've ever wanted to zip around town like Woz on his Segway, but with a gizmo that fits into a backpack, check out iShoes. Somehow they've managed to come up with battery powered roller skates that can carry you about 3 miles (not quite 5 kilometers) on a single charge, with a top speed of about 13 miles per hour (21 kilometers per hour). I have no idea how safe this is, but it looks like the coolest locomotion you'll ever see until someone can sell us a hoverboard. They're apparently available now, for a mere $599 plus $20 shipping.
"
TidBITS - http://www.tidbits.com/
Leapin' Leopard! Long List of Apps to Debut at Macworld: "The 2008 Macworld Conference and Expo begins Jan.14. In addition to new Apple announcements, we're likely to see a flood of new desktop applications making use of all the latest enhancements to Apple's Leopard operating system.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Security Bites Podcast: Here come the HTTP botnets: "Robert Vamosi talks with Arbor Networks' Jose Nazario about a new type of botnet--one that uses HTTP requests."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Lake Erie UFOs Are Stars on YouTube: "Residents living on the shores of Lake Erie are filming mysterious lights in the sky -- so many lately that news and documentary crews are investigating Lake Erie's UFOs. But YouTube may be behind the lake's newfound infamy.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Photos: Building a Macworld: "Apple's big show starts next week and 'there's something in the air' at Moscone Center in San Francisco."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Mysterious Macworld Banners Surface at Moscone: "New Macworld banners cryptically pronouncing 'there's something in the air' started going up Friday at Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Eclipse Is New Anthology: "
SF editor Jonathan Strahan told SCI FI Wire that Eclipse One is the first installment of a new anthology series modeled after those of the 1970s, including Damon Knight's Orbit, Robert Silverberg's New Dimensions and Terry Carr's Universe."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
Coming TV Conversion Raises Fears Among Suppliers: "Millions of Americans will need digital converter boxes when television stations make the switch from analog to digital signals in February 2009. Demand will skyrocket and companies that will supply those converters hope they're up to the task.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Set-Top Box Delivers Unlimited Porn for $10 a Month: "At the Adult Entertainment Expo, held concurrently with CES in Las Vegas, FyreTV demonstrated an internet-connected set-top box that provides all the high-definition porn video you can watch for $10 per month.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
How the Next President Can End Our Oil Addiction: "Former Clinton administration official and Brookings Institution fellow David Sandalow talks with Wired News about his plan he says the next president can follow to free the United States from oil.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Arts & Letters Daily (08 Jan 2008): "
The death of high fidelity. In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever. It's gotta be loud, loud, loud... more
Red Delicious, McIntosh, Granny Smith, Gala: we know and eat many kinds of apple. But only one kind of banana... more
Literature is largely about memories, true and fallible, from Wordsworth's 'spots of time' to Proust's tea-soaked madeleines... more
Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/
EveryScape Captures Beijing; China Can't Keep Its Geodata Locked Down Forever: "
By Brady Forrest
Everyscape (Radar post) has added portions of Beijing to its site. Like the other cities on the site, many geo-positioned 2D images of Beijing have been 3D-ified and stitched together. If you've never been to Beijing I recommend roaming around the Forbidden City at minimum. As you roam around the city you'll be able to see where you are on a site map.
The data was captured with a DSLR on a car mount and a GPS. Their was no previous coordination with the government. They brought a translator along with them, but never had any issues. The site maps were made by Everyscape. Apparently the GPS didn't work as well as it does in the US -- not a big surprise. Mok Oh, founder and CTO, thinks that the government is loosening up during the lead-up time to the Olympics.
China wants to keep its geodata with in its borders. For example when Microsoft launched Live Maps in China they had to jump through a lot of regulatory hoops and the data is on the mainland (see my interview with project director Dr. Vincent Tao about their launch for more details).
Unfortunately for the Chinese government they will not be able to keep their data to themselves for long. It is too easy for a company (like Everyscape) or a person (like the person who uploaded GPS traces of Shanghai to Open Street Map) to go out and collect their own geodata using common, everyday gadgets. Once the data is captured on these devices and uploaded to servers the data is free, gone from the government's restrictions. This will continue to happen, against their wishes, until they open it up and make it easier for their citizen's and other's to access the data.
At CES on Tuesday Intel CEO showed off some
O'Reilly Radar - http://radar.oreilly.com/
Adium X 1.2 - Multi-protocol instant messenger client. (Free): "
Adium is a fast and free instant messaging client which supports AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Yahoo! Japan, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, QQ, Novell Groupwise, SIP/SIMPLE (Text), and Lotus Sametime. Adium supports beautiful WebKit message display, tabbed messaging, encrypted chat, file transfer, and more. Give it a try; you won't look back.
Adium is currently translated into Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, and Turkish, Traditional Chinese.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Some will need converter to watch TV next year: "With the new year, the clock is ticking down on the analog broadcast system that has served generations of American television viewers."
News Review - News - http://www.newsreview.info
Arts & Letters Daily (05 Jan 2008): "Sexual energy (200 lovers) and breezy optimism had made Jennie Churchill, Winston's American mom, 'more panther than woman.'... more"
Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/
SuperTux 0.3.1 - 2D side-scrolling arcade game. (Free): "
SuperTux — Tux the Penguin's girlfriend, Penny, has been kidnapped! Tux must run, jump and stomp enemies while tracking her down! SuperTux is an open source 2D side-scroller taking strong inspiration from the Super Mario Bros. games for Nintendo.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Warner Bros dumps HD DVD for Blu-ray: "Warner Bros. has decided to drop HD DVD and exclusively back Blu-ray Disc, it said Friday."
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Patrick Stump: Out of the Garage: "He’s not only the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for megaband Fall Out Boy. Patrick Stump is also one of the most prolific composers in pop music. And he composes that music all over the world using his MacBook Pro and GarageBand.
‘The beauty of GarageBand is that it’s only limited by what you want to do with it,’ he says. ‘Ultimately, you can do anything. It’s a sequencer and you can record and edit audio. And it runs on my laptop. I’ve composed and recorded on the plane, on the bullet train in Japan. It’s made me so much more prolific because I don’t have to think about where and when I can record or write music. I can do it anywhere.’"
Apple Hot News - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
Always Certain, Sometimes Correct: "A new year has arrived and with it another predictions column, possibly my last. As longtime readers know, the routine here is that I first review my predictions from a year ago and either revel in my brilliance (good luck, actually) or admit my failure (all failures are real, nothing is simulated and no special or computer effects are used). Then I get to go on and make 15 more predictions for what will happen in high tech during the coming 12 months. Let's get to it!"
I, Cringely . The Pulpit - http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/
Way to Kick a Coke Habit? Mix Tranquilizers, Hormone Blockers: "A pharmaceutical company launches a human trial testing whether people can fight a cocaine addiction by taking tranquilizers along with hormone blockers.
"
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Thank Jobs: Lone major holdout Sony BMG to finally sell DRM-free music: "In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
PC box assemblers try to mimic Apple hardware designs, but have no answers for Mac OS X, iLife, etc.: "PC makers have begun a radical overhaul of their machines' appearance... "
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Mac's market share growth is 'nothing short of spectacular': "Apple is on a tear, with stunning growth by any measure, data from Web research firm Net Applications indicates. Microsoft is the loser, Matt Asay says."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Giuliani: I'm not riding that Segway. No way: "The would-be president shows up at a Segway factory in New Hampshire, but refuses to ride one. A 70-year-old CBS News anchor does instead."
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ProfCast 2.2pb5 - Record and publish live presentations. (Shareware): "
ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording lectures and creating enhanced podcasts.
ProfCast provides a low cost solution for recording and distributing lectures, special events, and presentations as podcasts. ProfCast offers an integrated workflow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts easy. It's as simple as Launch, Load, and Lecture!
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Jim Cramer: Apple shares will hit $300 this year: "Jim Cramer listed his top 10 predictions for 2008 this week..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
RUMOR: Apple set to unveil lightweight, ultra-thin Mac portable on January 15: "Apple is set to unveil a new ultraportable laptop at Macworld Expo on January 15..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Get an upconverting DVD player for $34.99 shipped: "Forget the high-def DVD format war; the Coby upconverting DVD player, available from Buy.com for $34.99 shipped, will make your movies look a lot better on your HDTV."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Now up for grabs: Federal funding for your digital-TV upgrade: "All American households can begin applying for up to two $40 coupons to be used toward a converter box that will keep analog TVs going after the digital switch."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
MarsEdit 2.0.5 - Weblog editor. (Shareware): "
MarsEdit is a weblog editor for Mac OS X that makes weblog writing like writing email, with spell-checking, drafts, multiple windows, and even AppleScript support.
It works with various weblog systems: Blogger, Blosxom, Drupal, LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, WordPress, and many others.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Arts & Letters Daily (01 Jan 2008): "'I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be,' said Cary Grant, 'and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point'... more"
Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/