Paul's Blog

Admittedly, it's been at least a week since I've blogged. Though it feels like a sin, I have to say, there really hasn't been very much news that I consider overly interesting going on. I don't want to keep up this blog for "blog's sake." My intention of this blog has always been to bring readers information that seems cutting edge, or at least a bit humorous.

There haven't been very many hardware greats to talk about since CES has ended, and the software that has been release is a bit dull - in my own opinion, of course.

I'm sure something a little more than yawn-worthy will appear in the next few days and I'll begin to write again. Until then, I'd rather have a blank blog, than a "reaching" blog. ;)

Directly from the source article at PhysOrg.com:

"Larry Summers, the outspoken president of Harvard University, has stirred up controversy by suggesting there are innate differences between the sexes that prevent more women from rising to the top in science and mathematics.

Dr Summers, made his remarks in a speech to an invitation-only economic conference last Friday in which he also questioned the role of discrimination in keeping female scientists and engineers from advancing at top colleges and universities.

Dr Summers said that he was discussing hypotheses, based on works assembled for the conference, and was not expressing his own views."

For the Podcast Mix-Masters among you, if you haven't already, you should check out MixCast Live! It's a Podcast mixing utility for PC users, which will allow all of you Flava-flavs of the Podcast world to create nice podcasts and mix the audio while you're generating your babble for the masses.

Seems like everyone and every "thing" has a blog these days. So, why shouldn't a mini-series turned series have one, too? Well, I can't think of a good reason why they shouldn't and quite frankly, it's a great idea. If you think about it, what better - more timely - way for fans to communicate with people involved with the series, and why shouldn't they be able to communicate back?

In a post over at Watch report, they've reviewed the nTren MP3 player watch, which looks pretty stylish for such a geeky thing.

LaCie has announced their latest product, the LaCie Silverscreen. The Silverscreen is a portable hard drive that allows you to play all of your media files back on your TV. You can transfer your movies, pictures, and MP3's to the device through its USB 2.0 interface.

The device has standard composite and S-Video out ports on the back. In addition the device supports compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS pass through via its SPDIF jack. It, surprisingly, also offers HDTV compatibility, with viewing resolutions scalable up to 1920 x 1080i and 1280 x 720p.

The new pendant-sized phone from Pantech&Curitel is a mere 56 mm wide and 67 mm tall. The PH-K2500V can supposedly be worn around one's neck, just like a pendant!

It features TTS (Text To Speech) functionality, which converts a text messages into voice messages for the receiver. When in "speak mode", it will read an incoming text message with it's own voice. It extends this functionality to the phone's menu, phonebook, and the unanswered calls list.

Picture courtesy of 3G.co.uk

Microsoft has definitely made the right choice; at least in Beta.

They've allowed users to take their MSN search tool and format the output to RSS feeds, and it's a really simple process, too. Just follow these simple steps, and you TOO can have a search engine-based RSS feed in your reader!

Step-by-step instructions:
* run your web or news search on the MSN Search Beta
* add the text ‘&format=rss’ to the url
* copy the full url into your RSS Reader.

Here is a sample web search url:
http://beta.search.msn.com/results....lief&format=rss

Here is a sample news search url:
http://beta.search.msn.com/news/res...lief&format=rss

The competition *cough* Google *cough*, on the other hand, has already decided that RSS feeds are the work of the devil and have requested a shut down to a couple of sites hosting scripts which tap their engine with keyword searches. How silly. Google, don't you think people are moving towards RSS? If a giant like Microsoft can see that, then Google, and Yahoo, and... and... and... should have seen it by now. If I can embrace RSS for my cycling club web site, then I think a behemoth like Google can do it too - instead of picking on people trying to inovate with their technology. Or, perhaps, their motives are to claim it as their own? We should keep our eyes open for Google's next steps and responses to Microsofts latest move.

Special thanks to TadW at MobileRead for the source and links!

To quote Apple, themselves: "Good things really do come in small packages."

I think Apple, although following in the footsteps of other vendors, such as creative, and SanDisk, have hit upon an area which I think is an excellent one. Though, the pricetag may leave a little bit to be desired for some, I think you get a lot of styling for the buck and Apple may have actually undercut the market this time.

Apple's newly revealed iPod Shuffle, is the latest incarnation of the very popular iPod music player. Having had an iPod for over a year, myself, I can certainly attest to the fantastic joy it brings me, and it still remains at the top of my personal "cool gadgets" list. This time, I think Apple did something almost new, but not quite. Though, I still believe they've done the right thing.

p2pnet.net - the original daily p2p and digital media news site: "p2pnet.net OT News:- An event so large that the best seat in the house is in space will almost certainly occur on Saturday.

Then, a 100-mile-long iceberg will collide with a floating glacier near the McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica.

'It's a clash of the titans, a radical and uncommon event,' says Robert Bindshadler, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The gigantic B-15A iceberg is moving steadily towards the Drygalski Ice Tongue, images from NASA satellites show, and NASA scientists predict a collision no later than January 15, 2005.

When the iceberg and the ice tongue meet, the edges could crumple and ice could pile or drift into the Ross Sea. But if the B-15A iceberg picks up enough speed before the two collide, the results could be more spectacular, says NASA, and the ice tongue could even break off.

The B-15A iceberg is a 3,000-square-kilometer (1,200-square-mile) behemoth that's the largest fragment of a much bigger ‘berg that broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000.

And if the collision actually happens, it could be witnessed again and again, says NASA, adding:

“The tides that drive the iceberg's motion tend to push it in circles. ‘If B-15A bangs the ice tongue once, it could bang it again,’ says Bindshadler. With multiple daily views of the Ross Sea, NASA satellites will be there to watch the show.”

The good people at Ployer, today reported that International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. has announced plans to provide free access to the information in 500 of its patents to open source developers, individuals and groups. IBM said it believes this is "the largest pledge of patents of any kind and represents a major shift in how it manages and deploys its intellectual property."

The pledge is applicable to any individual, community, or company working on or using software that meets the Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition of open source software now or in the future. Access to these patents is expected to form the basis of an industrywide 'patent commons,' to spur on future innovation. IBM has already been making selected patents available, without charging royalties, for use in open standards software protocols, file formats and interfaces.

The company said it had collected royalties on the patents previously and that they would be worth more than $10 million if they were sold. John E. Kelly, IBM's senior vice president for technology and intellectual property, said in a statement this is not a one time event -- 'Through measures such as today's pledge, we will increasingly use patents to encourage and protect global innovation and interoperability through open standards, and we urge others to do so as well.' IBM has around 40,000 patents world wide and 25,000 US patents.

The list of patents can be found in this IBM PDF file.

Source: [Ployer] via [P2PNet]

Here's a cool idea for all of you people with iPods (Like Me!). If you're looking to integrate your iPod into your car, and get rid of all of those cables, poor FM signal transfers, and clunky set-ups, check out the new SmartDeck - Intelligent Cassette Adapter for iPod from Griffen Technologies.

SmartDeck allows you to control your iPod using the built in controls of your cassette player. Using patent-pending sensing technology, the SmartDeck determines which commands the cassette player sends to the iPod. The devices appears to connect to the TOP of the iPod and seemingly operates with commands just like Apple's in-line remote.

SmartDeck is more than just a cassette adapter for iPod; it achieves seamless integration between iPod and cassette deck. Users can utilize the cassette deck's forward and rewind buttons to advance to the next or prior songs in the iPod playlist. In addition, pause and stop buttons do what pause and stop buttons are expected to do. When one presses the cassette deck's Eject button, or switches from Cassette to Radio, Griffin's SmartPlay technology automatically pauses the iPod.

SmartDeck Features and Benefits

* Control iPod navigation through the car stereo
* Intelligent level control for optimal cassette player input levels
* Features highest-quality cassete tape head for crystal clear quality
* Sets optimal volume on the iPod for best audio quality
* Seamless integration between iPod and car stereo

Clear, high-quailty audio and iPod control together in one brainy cassette adapter. How cool is that?! Besides the fact that you won't be paying hundreds of dollars for this kind of integration. The base price, from Griffen's web site, is just $25.

The adapter won't be available until the second quarter of the year, but you're able to pre-purchase it (at least, that's the way it looks on their site).

Seen on ExtremeTech:New DRM Scheme Could Make DVD Players Obsolete: "Hewlett-Packard and Philips said Wednesday that they have developed a content-protection system for DVDs, designed to protect users from burning 'protected' DTV broadcasts. The encryption system will be built into next-generation DVD players as well as media."

This is troubling, to me. Why are these manufacturers so hell-bent on making it impossible for everyone to stop copying their own stuff. Sure, there are many people who pirate things they're not supposed to. But the truth is, the only people they're keeping out are the honest ones; the people who DON'T copy-for-profit. In fact, these guys are causing us to spend lots of money on new equipment to support the ridiculous directions the RIAA and the MPAA are pulling out of the sky. Manufacturers see this as a good excuse to make money; I don't blame them. But, I cannot ever continue to support technology which constantly alienates the honest.

Think about it. Do you honestly think that people only pirate movies from DVD screeners? C'mon, there are guys that go into screening rooms with digital cameras and then digitally transfer the films to formats easily downloaded over the internet. Is it impossible to playback material and pick it up on a microphone or line-in device and then make an MP3 out of it? Of course it's not.

Anyway... my $0.02.

I couple of weeks ago, I blogged a quick article on how Lance Armstrong was suing Mike Anderson over a contract that Anderson claims and Armstrong denies ever existing. Well, they're at it again, now with Anderson suing Armstrong.

An Associated Press article published by VeloNews.com said:

"A former personal assistant of Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong who has been sued by the cyclist fired back Wednesday, accusing the cyclist of fraud, breach of contract and causing him severe emotional distress.

Mike Anderson, 33, on Wednesday filed his counterclaim to a lawsuit Armstrong filed last month in Travis County District Court.

In the original lawsuit, Armstrong said Anderson wanted $500,000 and other benefits under a claimed employment contract.

Anderson said Armstrong's lawsuit ruined his reputation as a bike mechanic and publicly humiliated him. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages."

Click to read more from the Associated Press article...

Mio Technology has announced that they will debut their latest devices: The Mio 136 and the Mio 168RS. According to sources at GeekZone, Mio is exhibiting these products at the current Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV. Using the 168RS's high-sensitivity satellite reception system, and working in conjunction with Microsoft, Mio has been demonstrating wireless communications at the Microsoft booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

There is this interesting garment technology thing going on, lately. I find it facinating that people are developing clothing with technology characteristics to make the garments more intriguing; hopefully more attractive in more ways than just sales.

HearWear, by Younghui Kim and Milena Iossifova, is a skirt that turns "urban noise" into colourful light patterns. The skirt uses a sound recognition module, driven by a micro-controller, to perceive and qualify varying characteristics of noise patterns. The microcontroller is programmed to activate a number of LEDs and electroluminescent wire woven into the fabric.

A few years ago, Fionnuala Conway and Katherine Moriwaki created something similar: the three Urban Chameleon reactive skirts. The skirts are influenced and changed by perceptions of one's surroundings. 'Touch' changes visual properties upon contact. 'Speak' reacts to urban noise, and 'Breathe' visualizes pollution and urban exhaust as it travels through the garment. Um... eww?

Samsung has announced two new mobile phones that can convert spoken words into text messages. The speech-to-text is called VoiceMode and works alongside something called QuickPhrase which lets you send pre-programmed messages like 'I'm running late' just by speaking the words (I'm assuming the process needs no manual input at all, to differentiate it from VoiceMode).

Audio amplification manufacturer, Upbeat Audio, has introduced the Boostaroo Revolution. This pocket-sized audio amplifier, and two-way splitter combination, provides high-end headphones (at greater than 60 ohm impedance) with high-definition 3-channel surround sound quality. The Boostaroo will double the output of a player with no more than 1% of harmonic distortion. The Boostaroo employs similar output amplifiers to those found in most CD players.

"An iTunes user is suing Apple under US anti-trust laws for locking non-iPod players out of playing back iTunes music.

'Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice,' the lawsuit states...

'Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa,' the lawsuit said.

Mr Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who 'was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod' if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to."

It seems Thomas Slattery is being "forced" to buy an iPod if he wants to use the songs he purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Last I checked you could listen to any song from the iTMS either on your PC, or burn it to a CD. Truth be told, he could burn it to a CD and then rip it back and listen to it on whatever MP3 player he wanted.

Via: [Boing Boing] via [White Label]

Looks like Uncle Bill is at it again. He's touting Microsoft's position in society during his Keynote speech at the CES in Las Vagas. According to eWeek's article: Gates Heralds Microsoft's Place in 'Digital Lifestyle': "During his opening CES keynote, Microsoft's chairman says consumers are embracing digital technologies as he announces more Windows support in TVs, DVD players/recorders and other devices."

"Conan O'Brien of "The Late Show" joined Gates on stage, opening the keynote with a monologue and then sitting down with Gates to lead him through his presentation."

"The kickoff address from Gates was riddled with demo glitches ranging from a marred digital-photo slideshow to a memory error that crashed an Xbox game. On the bright side, the miscues gave Gates' celebrity guest plenty of fodder for jokes."