Some new Dictionary tricks in 10.5

Some new Dictionary tricks in 10.5: "Learn more about the improved Dictionary application in OS X 10.5."

Macworld - http://www.macworld.com

Happy 24th Birthday, Apple Macintosh!

Happy 24th Birthday, Apple Macintosh!: "On January 22, 1984 during the Super Bowl, Apple ran their famous '1984' commercial..."

MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/

Tsonga routs Nadal to reach Aussie final (AP)

Tsonga routs Nadal to reach Aussie final (AP): "Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had been compared to a young Muhammad Ali only because of an uncanny likeness to the boxing great. That was until he skipped across Rod Laver Arena, arms up in a biceps-flexing pose, thumbs pointing at his head after knocking out Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and getting a title shot at the Australian Open."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Phynchronicity 2.1 - GUI for Fink Unix-software package management system. (Shareware)

Phynchronicity 2.1 - GUI for Fink Unix-software package management system. (Shareware): "

Phynchronicity 2.1

Phynchronicity is a graphical user interface (GUI) for the Fink Unix-software package management system on Mac OS X (http://www.finkproject.org). Fink is a powerful command-line tool for installing and updating thousands of Unix-based applications for the Mac. But Fink's sheer power and scale make it hard to use, even with a GUI.

Phynchronicity aims to make Fink easy to use. Unlike other GUI tools for Fink, it does not overwhelm you with options. Instead, with a simple three-pane interface, it lets you get started doing what you want to do--finding, installing, and removing packages.

More information

"

MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php

PortAuthority 2.5 - GUI for MacPorts package management system. (Shareware)

PortAuthority 2.5 - GUI for MacPorts package management system. (Shareware): "

PortAuthority 2.5

PortAuthority provides a graphical user interface for the MacPorts package management system for Mac OS X. MacPorts is a powerful command-line tool for installing and updating a variety of Unix-based applications for the Mac. Its power, though, comes at the cost of some complexity; in the past the only way to utilize MacPorts was to type in various commands into the Mac's Terminal application, which can be intimidating for those users without a Unix background.

More information

"

MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php

Scientists Build First Man-Made Genome; Synthetic Life Comes Next

Scientists Build First Man-Made Genome; Synthetic Life Comes Next: "The first synthetic genome is pieced together by scientists, the next-to-last step in creating man-made life.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

Mapping the Most Complex Structure in the Universe: Your Brain

Mapping the Most Complex Structure in the Universe: Your Brain: "An elite group of researchers wants to create a map of how your brain is wired. To do it, they've built a custom robot that peels 3-D brains like an apple, and pushes the resulting brain 'tape' through an electron microscope.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

Old Color Photos

Old Color Photos: "From the 30s and 40s.

I'm going to watch the slide show today and pick a photo to post here.

Via Instapundit, who has already done the same."

Zeta Woof - http://grdurand.com/blogger/

Walt Mossberg to appear on Charlie Rose today to discuss Apple

Walt Mossberg to appear on Charlie Rose today to discuss Apple: "Walt Mossberg, principal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is scheduled to appear on PBS's Charlie Rose television..."

MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/

Arts & Letters Daily (23 Jan 2008)

Arts & Letters Daily (23 Jan 2008): "

Johannes Brahms: 'a great baby, gifted enough to play with harmonies that would baffle most grown-up men, but still a baby'... more

He was both vindictive and considerate, scummy and courtly - and he was a singer of genius. Frank Sinatra... more

Moral principle vs military necessity. The problem is as old as the Greeks, but a history professor at Columbia was first to write a modern code of conduct in war... more

"

Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/

Down-to-earth Federer liked by peers (AP)

Down-to-earth Federer liked by peers (AP): "Roger Federer might be intimidating on the court, but his opponents say he's just the opposite in the locker room. 'It's not intimidation by him being extremely huge muscular, talking down to anybody, being condescending, having any sort of a huge entourage,' James Blake said Wednesday, after his straight-sets loss to Federer in the Australian Open quarterfinals."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

3 Serbs reach Australian Open semifinals (AP)

3 Serbs reach Australian Open semifinals (AP): "Forget about Kosovo, key elections or other Balkan troubles. Three Serb tennis stars are in the semifinals at the Australian Open. The likely loss of Kosovo and the possible return of a hardline Serbian regime has been overshadowed, at least for a little while, by the success of Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic at the Grand Slam."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

3 Aussie losses for Williams sisters (AP)

3 Aussie losses for Williams sisters (AP): "It was a pretty tough 24 hours for the Williams sisters at the Australian Open. Defending champion Serena Williams was outclassed by Jelena Jankovic in a quarterfinal on Tuesday, losing in straight sets. A few hours later, she and sister Venus -- one of the most formidable doubles teams in Grand Slam history -- lost their quarterfinal match to China's Yan Zi and Zheng Ji in three sets."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

HD DVD's ship is sinking fast

HD DVD's ship is sinking fast: "The latest data from NPD reveals that Blu-ray has grabbed 92.53% of hardware sales in the high-def disc player market from January 5th to January 12th."

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

Federer tops Blake, reaches Aussie semis (AP)

Federer tops Blake, reaches Aussie semis (AP): "Roger Federer has a lot of reasons to like James Blake. The 12th-ranked American has a reputation as a nice guy away from the court and a good sportsman on it. More importantly for Federer, Blake always puts up a good fight against the Swiss star -- before losing. Top-ranked Federer ran his record against Blake to 8-0 and advanced to the Australian Open semifinals with a 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory..."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Surprising Tsonga gets Nadal in semis (AP)

Surprising Tsonga gets Nadal in semis (AP): "For the past two years, Marcos Baghdatis and Fernando Gonzalez provided the biggest surprises in men's singles at the Australian Open, coming into the tournament as outsiders and advancing to the final. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the son of a chemistry teacher who played international handball for Congo, has beaten seeded players Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Youzhny this year, becoming the..."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Both Williams sisters out of Aussie Open (AP)

Both Williams sisters out of Aussie Open (AP): "Venus Williams followed her sister Serena out of the Australian Open in the quarterfinals in losses to Serbian players on back-to-back days. Novak Djokovic beat No. 5 David Ferrer 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 on his fifth match point Wednesday, becoming the third Serb into the semifinals at Melbourne Park and repeating the country's performance from the last French Open."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

ProfCast 2.2 - Record and publish live presentations. (Shareware)

ProfCast 2.2 - Record and publish live presentations. (Shareware): "

ProfCast 2.2

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!

More information

"

MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php

Sharapova ends Henin's win streak (AP)

Sharapova ends Henin's win streak (AP): "Serena Williams stumbled one round short of a rematch, so Maria Sharapova had to unload a year's worth of retribution on somebody else. Justine Henin caught the brunt of it. Sharapova advanced to the Australian Open semifinals for the fourth straight year with a convincing 6-4, 6-0 win over top-ranked Henin, snapping the Belgian star's 32-match winning streak."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Nadal in Aussie semis for first time (AP)

Nadal in Aussie semis for first time (AP): "Rafael Nadal's Grand Slam record on clay and grass is impressive: three straight titles at Roland Garros and two consecutive losses to Roger Federer in the final at Wimbledon. On hard courts, it's another story. In five attempts at the U.S. Open, the best he could muster was a quarterfinal finish. He fared no better at the Australian Open -- a loss to eventual finalist Fernando Gonzalez last year in..."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Carbon nanotube carpet darkest thing ever made

Carbon nanotube carpet darkest thing ever made: "Scientists from Rice University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute figured out a way to trap light efficiently with nanotubes; 99.955 percent of the light that hits gets absorbed."

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

Jobs vs. Gates, a grammatical analysis

Jobs vs. Gates, a grammatical analysis: "Blog compares various stats on the oratories of the two tech titans. Of note, Gates' keynote requires comprehension at the ninth grade level, while Jobs' speech could be understood by an above-average elementary school student."

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

Army life gives Nieminen mental edge (AP)

Army life gives Nieminen mental edge (AP): "At the ripe old age of 25, Justine Henin feels it's time to give her 'old' knee a rest. The top-ranked Henin complained of a sore knee after tumbling out of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-0 quarterfinals loss to fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova. 'I was really concerned about my knee for a few days,' the Belgian player said."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Listening Post: 'U2 3D' Brings Hyperreal Arena Rock to the Multiplex

Listening Post: 'U2 3D' Brings Hyperreal Arena Rock to the Multiplex: "A stunning new concert film captures the Irish rockers in all their stadium-filling glory. The film might be even better than the real thing. Commentary by Eliot Van Buskirk.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

Henin-Sharapova on tap at Aussie Open (AP)

Henin-Sharapova on tap at Aussie Open (AP): "Now for the hard part. Justine Henin will put her 32-match winning streak on the line against Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open quarterfinals, their first meeting since the season-ending championship final in Madrid. Top-ranked Henin continued her stretch of straight sets wins over unseeded players with a 6-2, 6-2 rout of Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei in the fourth round Sunday, when two-set victories..."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

OHP to fill open spots

OHP to fill open spots: "Oregonians without health insurance will have one month to get their names on a reservation list for the Oregon Health Plan Standard program."

News Review - News - http://www.newsreview.info

Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 update to bring nearly endless list of enhancements

Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 update to bring nearly endless list of enhancements: "During the MacWorld SF, Apple has quietly seeded to developers a new build of the Mac OS X Leopard..."

MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/

Long Aussie Open nights create havoc (AP)

Long Aussie Open nights create havoc (AP): "Lleyton Hewitt reckoned his young daughter would be waking up by the time he got home. Playing at the Australian Open had just turned into the overnight shift. Just about everything that could go wrong with the schedule did Saturday, thanks to rain and long matches. There was plenty of great, dramatic tennis, including a riveting near-upset of top-ranked Roger Federer."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

ImageMagick 6.3.8 - Convert, resize, redraw images via command line. (Free)

ImageMagick 6.3.8 - Convert, resize, redraw images via command line. (Free): "

ImageMagick 6.3.8

ImageMagick is a robust collection of UNIX tools and libraries offered under a usage license to read, write, and manipulate an image in many image formats (over 89 major formats) including popular formats like TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, PhotoCD, and GIF. With ImageMagick you can create images dynamically, making it suitable for Web applications. You can also resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image or image sequence and save your completed work in the same or differing image format. Image processing operations are available from the command line, or from the C, C++, Perl, Java, PHP, Python, or Ruby programming languages. A high-quality 2D renderer is included, which provides a subset of SVG capabilities. ImageMagick's focus is on performance, minimizing bugs, and providing stable APIs and ABIs.

Here are just a few examples of what ImageMagick can do:

• Convert an image from one format to another (e.g. TIFF to JPEG)
  
  
  
• Resize, rotate, sharpen, color reduce, or add special effects to an image
  
  
  
• Create a montage of image thumbnails
  
  
  
• Create a transparent image suitable for use on the Web
  
  
  
• Turn a group of images into a GIF animation sequence
  
  
  
• Create a composite image by combining several separate images
  
  
  
• Draw shapes or text on an image
  
  
  
• Decorate an image with a border or frame
  
  
  
• Describe the format and characteristics of an image

More information

"

MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php

Unmanned aerial vehicles the size of a cigarette

Unmanned aerial vehicles the size of a cigarette: "Researchers at OSU developing plasma thrusters to power nano unmanned air vehicles."

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

Federer, Hewitt survive 5-set marathons (AP)

Federer, Hewitt survive 5-set marathons (AP): "The drama started with a rare five-setter for Roger Federer. Then Lleyton Hewitt carried on almost to dawn. Day 6 at the Australian Open was a long, long journey. About one-third of the 15,000 people with tickets for Saturday's night session didn't leave until Hewitt smacked a forehand past Marcos Baghdatis at 4:33 a.m."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Bobby Fischer, Enfant Terrible of Chess, Dies at 64

Bobby Fischer, Enfant Terrible of Chess, Dies at 64: "The difficult, reclusive chess master became an American hero at the height of the Cold War, then thumbed his nose at his country and renounced his citizenship.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

Sean Paul's Music Isn't That Bad; It Was Stacey's Brain

Sean Paul's Music Isn't That Bad; It Was Stacey's Brain: "Nearly every time Stacey Gayle played music by reggae artist Sean Paul, she'd suffer a grand mal seizure. Doctors diagnose musicogenic epilepsy and clear it up with a little brain surgery.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

Transonic merging diesel engines with gas

Transonic merging diesel engines with gas: "Take one 18th-century engineer and a diesel engine, and you have the 100-mile-per-gallon car."

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

Sharapova wins, Mauresmo upset at Aussie (AP)

Sharapova wins, Mauresmo upset at Aussie (AP): "Andy Roddick was bounced out of the Australian Open on Saturday, losing a five-set thriller to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany Kohlschreiber, ranked 29th in the world, refused to wilt in a match that last nearly four hours and came away with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9), 6-7 (3), 8-6 victory over the sixth-ranked American."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Henin stays busy as win streak continues (AP)

Henin stays busy as win streak continues (AP): "A very public divorce, two Grand Slam titles, a seven-month winning streak, hip-hop dance lessons, and a bid for election to the International Olympic Committee. Justine Henin's life doesn't look to be settling down anytime soon. Last January, there was the breakup of her marriage that forced her to pull out of the Australian Open."

Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten

Arts & Letters Daily (18 Jan 2008)

Arts & Letters Daily (18 Jan 2008): "

Vladimir Nabokov wanted all of his final, unfinished work destroyed. Should his son get out the matches?... more

Edmund Wilson's temperament and critical method - curious, energetic, humane, and intelligent - still have their appeal... more

Scientific facts are now tools of moral exhortation. 'The science' of this or that dictates not only what we must believe, but how we must behave... more

"

Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/

Arts & Letters Daily (17 Jan 2008)

Arts & Letters Daily (17 Jan 2008): "

Let the National Endowment for the Arts do what it does well, and not try to choose trends in contemporary art which it is unfit to judge... more

Consciousness is 'caused by and realized in' the brain. Explaining what that means is a life project for John Searle... more

Eric Hobsbawm discovered himself in the strange and wonderful city of Berlin. It seemed like the capital of the 20th century - till the barbarians took over... more

"

Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/

Start-up says it can make hydrogen with sunlight and water

Start-up says it can make hydrogen with sunlight and water: "Maynard, Mass.-based Nanoptek has an electrode that extracts electrons from sunlight and then extracts them to break water molecules. Will it work?"

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

Apple’s iTunes Store movies outsell HD DVD, Blu-ray titles

Apple’s iTunes Store movies outsell HD DVD, Blu-ray titles: "Blu-ray titles outsold HD DVD in the United States every single week of 2007..."

MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/

Yahoo Paves Way for Web-Wide Logins With OpenID Support

Yahoo Paves Way for Web-Wide Logins With OpenID Support: "Search and services giant Yahoo will become an OpenID provider at the end of January, providing a huge boost to the nascent user identity management system. OpenID lets users maintain one login and password in one location, then use that universal ID to login to all of their favorite websites.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml

Seeing 'Spore' on the Mac for the first time

Seeing 'Spore' on the Mac for the first time: "At Macworld, it's finally possible to see a rendering of Electronic Arts' much-anticipated evolution game on the Macintosh."

CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/

MySpace Bug Leaks 'Private' Teen Photos to Voyeurs

MySpace Bug Leaks 'Private' Teen Photos to Voyeurs: "A months-old backdoor in MySpace exposes photos in private profiles to lechers and snoops. Ad-supported websites have risen to help people exploit the bug, and teenagers' private photos are being ogled on message boards.

"

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml