Forget Dark Matter: This Astrophysicist Found the Fastest Way to Board a Plane: "Astrophysicist Jason Steffen has found a way to get people aboard an airplane that's at least four times more efficient than what most airlines are doing now. It will save you time and the airlines money.
"Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
The Cold War-Era Assault on Comic Book Culture, Revisited: "Author Dave Hajdu tells the story of an infamous time in magazine history in the United States in his new book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. While today's gamers eagerly await the latest version of Grand Theft Auto, we recall a time when the ten-cent comic book was about as titillating as it got, and what the U.S. did to try to purge it.
"Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
R.I.P. HD DVD: Toshiba reportedly ends the war: "Toshiba plans to withdraw from HD-DVD production"
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Torrent Episode Downloader 0.92 - Find your favorite TV shows. (Free): "
Torrent Episode Downloader (ted) can find episodes of any TV show you like to watch.
Uses RSS and Bittorrent technology to get you the newest episodes as fast is possible ted is free, easy to use and works on almost all computers.
Features:
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Buddi 3.0.0.6 - Personal finance and budgeting program. (Free): "
Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, I have attempted to make things as simple as possible, while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users.
Buddi requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, with the Java 5.0 update installed. If you do not already have it installed, you can download the Java 5.0 installation package here.
If you like Buddi and want to help support future work on it, please consider donating via PayPal - you can use the 'Support this Project' icon on the bottom of the official Buddi homepage at:
http://buddi.sourceforge.net
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Digital TV Shift Will Affect Millions of Consumers: "The switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts will be complete in just one year, on Feb. 17, 2009, and many consumers are puzzling over how the shift will affect them. What exactly do they need to make the transition?
"Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Report: HD DVD is dead: "'Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Wal-Mart axes HD DVD, to sell Blu-ray players exclusively: "Wal-Mart Stores announced on Friday morning that it, too, has chosen a side in the battle..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
PC Mag: Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard is strongest case yet for Windows PC users to switch to Mac: "Apple recently released its second update to OS X 'Leopard,' and the latest version..."
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Feds to start mailing digital-TV upgrade funds: "Next week, the government plans to begin shipping $40 coupons to anyone who requests help buying a basic converter box that keeps older TVs alive after the digital switch next year."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
UCC computer system compromised: "WINCHESTER Umpqua Community College recently became aware that a learning management system called Moodle has been compromised and the college has shut it down, according to a press release."
News Review - News - http://www.newsreview.info
Review: Bento: "With its extensive use of templates and an approachable interface for building records, Bento is the database 'for the rest of us.'
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
The Apple TV update: "Apple delivered the Apple TV software update it promised at Macworld Expo, and we dive right in, showing you what to expect from the new interface and features.
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Podcast: Time to play taps for HD DVD?: "The ups and downs of cloud computing; Wal-Mart picks sides and Blu-ray is the big winner; blogging gets the OK at upcoming Olympics."
CNET News.com - http://www.news.com/
Midnight Inbox 1.3.1 - GTD to-do list and file manager. (Shareware): "
Midnight Inbox is, at first glance, a to-do list and file manager.
Users of Mac OS X Tiger will find its clean lines and elegant typography make it the best in its class for keeping lists and notes.
But for those of us who want to become more productive using David Allen's Getting Things Done techniques, Midnight Inbox offers much, much more.
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Arts & Letters Daily (13 Feb 2008): "
Children lie early, and often, for many reasons: to avoid punishment, bond with friends, gain a sense of control. And there's another reason... more
It's a miracle that, at least outside the ruins of the Balkans, no European war has been fought for more than 60 years... more
The internet's instant reduplication of data, ideas, and media underpins all sectors in our economy. We need this gigantic copy machine... more
Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/
Piezoelectric Nanowires Turn Fabric Into Power Source: "Scientists unveil a new electricity-generating, nanowire-laced fiber that could one day power an actual iPod Nano.
"Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
By Dale Dougherty
'The telegraph made it possible for people in different places to read the same news.'
-- Valerie Komor
We take news for granted. At the Money:Tech Conference today, speakers were talking about how to deal with real-time newsfeeds, which continues to drive the financial world. Brian O'Keefe of Panopticon said 'we're collecting and disseminating news at a greater rate than our ability to consume it.'
On a visit this week to the Associated Press, I had the opportunity to meet Valerie Komor, the archivist for the AP, and explore the fascinating history of the AP. The AP was founded in 1846 when five NY newspapers decided to share the costs of transmitting the news of the Mexican War from the port at Mobile, Alabama to the southern terminus of the telegraph, near Richmond, and on to New York. Thus was the 'association of presses' formed. The brain behind the idea was Moses Yale Beach (1800-68), second owner of the New York Sun.[clarification from VK.]
Later the same five papers agreed to form the Harbor News Service to share the costs of a rowboat used to retrieve the news of Europe from incoming ocean liners. They hoped also to avoid some of the problems of intercepting the new -- the many press boats were crashing into each other.
The AP, established as a cooperative and owned by newspapers, grew and developed into a national news organization that gathers and distributes news on behalf of its subscribers. It was the technology of the telegraph and the teletype that got it started.
You can read more about the AP's history on its site. I particularly like this tidbit about using carrier pigeons from 1849: 'Daniel H. Craig, pigeon trainer and news entrepreneur, begins operations out of Halifax, Nova Scotia to meet ships arriving from Europe. Craig is able to telegraph stories over the Nova Scotia telegraph line before ships dock in New York.' See the FedEx Super Bowl commercial featuring carrier pigeons. Early newspapers were in the 'express' business, investing first in a pony-express operation between New York and Boston, and later in express trains on the same route. Before the telegraph, a lot of news arrived in newsrooms and homes as letters delivered by the postal system.
The Teletype system came along in the 1920's, built by the Teletype Corporation of Skokie, IL. (See Wikipedia on teletype and telex systems; a telex is a means of routing messages between teletypes but the word telex seems to be used the way we used fax to refer to the machine and its output.) The teletype terminal above is shown with keyboard; there were models without keyboards for receiving only. An ASR terminal (automatic send and receive) had a paper tape reader and hole punch system. This tape was frequently edited by cutting sections and taping them together, an early form of 'cut and paste.'
Teletype transmissions were very slow by today's standards at sixty words per minute. Yet that's how news was sent from one city to another through the 1960's and later.
Valerie pulled out a file and showed us the telexes from the day of the Kennedy assassination. These were sheets of paper that were ripped out the Teletype, as each fragment of the news story came to them. An AP photographer on the scene called the Dallas bureau and they began transmitting the news as it happened -- in real-time -- to the Kansas City bureau, which was the regional hub.
The telex reads:
Photographer James W. Altgens said he saw blood on the President's head.Altgens said he heard two shots but thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw the blood on the President.
Users of the teletype system developed concise forms of communication because every word was precious. ‘We all spoke in telex jargon. You had to shorten everything you said,’ said Gustavo Bottan in the MIT Sloan School Alumni Newsletter (Spring/Summer 2006). ‘I remember spending a lot of time writing the telex message and then shortening it.’
The Teletype had its own 'wirespeak,' the name of a book documenting it by Richard Hartnett. '--30--' meant 'end of story' or 'end of transmission.' It's a convention that many writers continue to use today. '--73--' meant 'thanks' and '--88--' stood for 'love and kisses.' Add telex jargon to the odd history of abbreviated communication that today includes emoticons and SMS acronyms.
A recent Economist story, 'A Faint Ping', talks about the diminishing number of telex systems in use. Yet some stubbornly survive.
Many of the remaining customers are banks. Telexes, unlike ordinary e-mails, are legally valid documents (being to all intents and purposes impossible to fake). ‘The telex network is closed—you can't get in unless you are part of the club,’ says Peter MacLaverty of SwissTelex.
As newspapers look to re-invent themselves, they might learn as much from their past as they can from worrying about the future.
"O'Reilly Radar - http://radar.oreilly.com/
Eastward (Ida)Ho!: "Idaho is the Northwest’s fastest-growing state, as measured by the percentage of population change. It’s true that California is the top destination for newcomers, with Washington and Oregon taking second and third place rankings respectively. But some residents of these Pacific Northwest states are heading east. From Boise, Guy Hand reports on possible reasons for this shift."
Northwest Public Radio - http://www.nwpr.org/
Israel Mulls Viagra-Style Drugs to Keep Pilots Up: "Air Forces all around the world drug their pilots, to keep 'em alert. A new Israeli military report says the 'Viagra family of drugs' might be the best pills for the job. Seriously.
"Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Arts & Letters Daily (09 Feb 2008): "
Robert Frost's handwriting, like the man himself, was cramped and crabbed. But with care, it can be read... more
You don't have to be a Christian to know that while Islam spread by the sword, Christianity mainly spread by precept, example, and peaceful persuasion... more
Today's single young men hang out in a hormonal limbo between adolescence and adulthood. If these unfinished people would just grow up... more
Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/
Having Fun With Commenters: "This is almost sadistic: One sad little nut comments over and over, with the full knowledge that his comments will be deleted. He thinks I see the comments, and that they make me cry. Unfortunately, he does not realize that I only see a few words in the Haloscan approval window. So I have no idea what he has been trying to tell me.
It's a wonderfully asymmetrical situation. He reads absolutely "
Zeta Woof - http://grdurand.com/blogger/
Iron Man - Superbowl TV Spot: "
 | ' | Iron Man - Superbowl TV Spot Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios’ big screen adaptation of Marvel’s legendary Super Hero Iron Man will launch into theaters on May 2, 2008. Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the story of a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, using his intelligence and ingenuity, Tony builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man. The film also stars Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow and Oscar nominees Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges and will be directed by Jon Favreau. Directed by: Jon Favreau Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow |
Latest Movie Trailers - http://www.apple.com/trailers/
 | ' | Flawless - Trailer From director Michael Radford (THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, IL POSTINO) comes FLAWLESS, a clever diamond-heist thriller set in swinging 1960s London. Demi Moore plays Laura Quinn, a bright, driven and beautiful executive at the London Diamond Corporation who finds herself frustrated by a glass ceiling after years of faithful employment, as man after man is promoted ahead of her despite her greater experience. Michael Caine is Hobbs, the nighttime janitor at London Diamond who is virtually invisible to the executives that work there, but over the years has amassed a startling amount of knowledge about how the company runs. Hobbs has his own bone to pick with London Diamond. Observing Laura’s frustration, he convinces her to help him execute an ingenious plan to steal a hefty sum in diamonds. But unbeknownst to Laura, Hobbs plans go even farther than he’s let on, and together they set in motion a thrilling heist of dizzying proportions, the likes of which London has never seen. Directed by: Michael Radford Starring: Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Nathaniel Parker, Shaughan Seymour |
Latest Movie Trailers - http://www.apple.com/trailers/
The end of menstruation: "The drug Lybrel promises to free women from their monthly curse. But today it's a sales pitch that seems hopelessly outdated.
Salon - http://www.salon.com/?source=rss&aim=/
I'm a nude dancer trying to finish my Ph.D.: "I love being a grad student stripper but I'm worried about fallout from family and professors.
Salon - http://www.salon.com/?source=rss&aim=/
Adobe Acrobat Pro 8.1.2 - Improved Flash support and stability improvements. (Updater): "
Adobe Acrobat Pro update addresses several known issues in Acrobat 8 Professional software. Adobe recommends that all Acrobat 8 Professional users apply this update.
Improvements in Adobe Acrobat 8.1 Professional include the following:
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
Griffin AirClick USB 1.1.1 - Software for Griffin AirClick. (Free): "
MacUpdate - Universal Binary - http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
