When I bought a webcam for my front door – mine is the Linksys WVC54GCA – I was faced with a predicament. The built-in motion detection software bombarded my email inbox with images of an empty frame. It was set off by the motion of a leaf or a reflection, rendering one of the most important aspects – notification of trespass – ineffective.

At an impasse, I decided to build a cyberbiomimetic AI using a cockroach brain and a vat of amino acids. The resulting system, while effective at spotting intruders, eventually threatened to become self-aware and so I had to shut it down. Finally, I tried Vitamin D. Problem, as they say, solved.

Vitamin D is a three-step piece of software. You point it at a webcam on your network (it’s compatible with a few models right now) and tell it what to do when it sees evil people encroaching on your turf. Be they the UPS guy or brain-eating zombies, the system will record a clip of their activity and can even notify you via email and an audible chime when it senses movement. In short, it allows you to create a very powerful security system in a few minutes.

You can add multiple cameras and the system grabs only the most important parts of the day, ensuring you don’t miss a single entry or exit. Because it’s compatible a number of webcams, including webcams over a network.

I was able to connect my webcam and start recording in less than a minute. It’s a great feeling to know that the webcam has suddenly become more than a way to watch your front step. Sadly, you need a PC or Mac running the Vitamin D software to record 24/7 video but if you set this up on an always attended-to system it makes for an interesting and valuable upgrade.

It’s free right now and you can download the beta here. A subscription version will be sold in early 2010.

Note: My webcam is sideways because that’s how I mounted it in my window. Long story.

Here’s a little known fact: Henry Ford used natural material like hemp and stray to reinforce plastic components in his cars. Now, Ford is at it again with a small quarter trim bin found in the third row of the Ford Flex made out of wheat straw bio-filled polypropylene. Wheat straw!

Sure, it’s just one small part in one vehicle, but according to the numbers, the impact on the environment sounds at least significant.

Treehugger,

This modest step, says Ford, will cut the need for some 20,000 pounds of petroleum and prevent 30,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

This so-called wheat straw is the byproduct of wheat harvesting and isn’t exactly useful. Chances are that if this trial works out on this one part, Ford, and the rest of the industry, will look into ways to further incorporate green materials into their vehicles. I, for one, look forward to the day that my steering wheel is made from corn and I can spreed a little butter and salt on it to enjoy a nice snack while driving down I-75.

Here’s the thing: you have to ship the system to company to have the firmware installed. But if you bought the ZK500 after the Zune HD was released, you’re good. The company will pay the necessary shipping cost to have the update completed.

However if you bought it before, you’re going to have to pay $40 to have the firmware installed. Ridiculous? Yeah, it kind of is.

Either way though, the system will not output high-def from the Zune HD because of the older dock connector used. But I guess if you spent the cash on the new Zune HD, you may as well spend another $40 to make your older speaker dock compatible.

As of next Tuesday, November 17, you’ll be able to access Twitter and Facebook on your Xbox 360. The software update is free, like previous updates, and also includes Last.fm and Zune video compatibility. “What are you doing?” “Losing to 12-year-olds in Modern Warfare 2 over and over again! Not fun.”

The idea, I guess, is that you’ll be able let your friends know just how much fun you’re having while playing the latest game, or streaming the latest Netflix release, without having to go through the trouble of whipping out your phone or walking over to your computer. I see it as a convenience and nothing more. It may also mean that there’s nothing you can to do stop Twitter’s worldwide dominance.

This is what the Twitter interface looks like in motion:

Note that the Xbox 360 isn’t the only video game console whence you can tweet or alter your Facebook status. The PS3 and Wii come with a built-in Web browser, and a stand-alone Facebook interface for the PS3 was leaked just yesterday.

And while the Twitter and Facebook support will get the most attention, I think it’s the Zune HD support that’s most interesting. Say what you will about the Zune HD—Devin liked it, and I went out and bought it I was so impressed—but the idea of an instant-on, HD, 5.1 surround system movie service certainly intrigues me. Of course, its success now depends on what type of movies are released for it.

Jajaja! Major Nelson, of Xbox fame, sent his fellow Microsofties this big banner congratulating them on releasing Windows 7. One billion Achievement Points! I’ve had an Xbox 360 for three years now, and I only have around 5,000 such points. I guess I’m a failure.

You look like you could use a break. Go grab your lunch and something to drink and then come back and watch this sweet 3D modeling demo. You just wish you had these skills. [via Autoblog]

Ladies and germs: the Chumby One. Hot on the heels of its soft, leathery older brother, the Chumby One goes for a more non-nonsense aesthetic with hard edges and a more clock-radio feel. As you recall, the device costs $99.95 and allows you to play back little widgets on a tiny touchscreen. It is at once banal in its simplicity and amazingly unfettered in the amount of content you can stream to the device.

Our Chumby One came pre-installed with a few widgets including our own news feed and Twitter, which lets you view your Tweets whenever the widget rolls around. I’m going to place this thing on my desk and treat it like a third screen in order to really test the value of this wee fellow. More soon.

Special note: the battery is not included and is an optional part available from Chumby.

Product Page

Did you hear the news? An asteroid passed within 8,700 miles of the planet on Friday. The craziest thing is that scientists only knew about it 15 hours before it flew by. So if you have any confidence that this planet is safe from giant space objects smashing into the surface, possibly destroying all life in the process, well, think again.

This particular asteroid wasn’t so big, measuring at around 23 feet across, that it would have caused mass destruction, but it just goes to show you: maybe one day, when the big one arrives, we’ll have a hot 20 hours to figure out what to do.

Can you even imagine what would happen? Scientists spot a gigantic asteroid that would surely cause planet-wide destruction, but they only discover it a few hours before it hits the planet. How would people react? How would society function when faced with mass carnage, if not certain doom?

Now you can see why asteroids represent my favorite sci-fi scenario: how does humanity react when it faces such a cataclysm? Do we band together in the interest of survival? Do we take the opportunity to invade Country A in order to secure resources that we could use?

Oh my God, how would Twitter react?

It should be noted that objects enter the Earth’s atmosphere all the time, and that relatively big ones pass by the planet about two times per year.

Done right, a doomsday scenario movie, unlike that hunk of junk 2012, could be really interesting. None of this, “pull the plane into the air even though we haven’t reached the speed necessary to generate enough lift to pull us upward to begin with,” but a serious look at how people would react.

Which is to say the movie could never be made by Hollywood, lest some American Joe Blow somehow save the day.

Boxee, everyone’s favorite HTPC software, just announced that the company just partnered with its first CE company. But that’s all the company is saying. We don’t know anything else. However, there is an event coming up on December 7th right around the corner from John’s house where we should learn more. I’m already excited though. Just think what this means.

Boxee is amazing program and many people geeks are already using it on their Apple TVs, HTPCs, and other devices. But it deserves so much more. The irony here is that the people with the necessary skills to get Boxee on their HDTVs currently probably don’t really need the super-user friendly interface found on Boxee. It’s the people that don’t have any idea what the hell Boxee is that really could benefit from the program.

Boxee is by far the easiest HTPC software to use. But not only that, the system is about as robust as you can ask for with the ability to stream media from countless online video sites and share viewing data with friends. It’s really HTPC software 2.0.

Hopefully the upcoming box will bring all the goods at a fair price. Considering just about any system that can output HD can run Boxee, I wouldn’t expect the box to cost all that much.

NEC subsidiary NEC System Technologies has developed a power strip [JP] with a built-in processor, sensor (the device pictured on the right) and remote control that can cut power consumption by as much as 15% and more. The company says the so-called Green Tap, which sports four outlets, can be used by both offices and private homes.

The device can be used for all kinds of electric appliances. The sensor monitors various data such as the luminosity, temperature, humidity or human heat around it. If you’re out of the room in which you placed your TV, for example, the sensor makes the power strip send an infrared signal to the remote control, which then makes the TV go into standby mode or turn it off completely. If you return, the TV will be turned on again.

The Green Tap works similarly for air conditioners or heaters, automatically setting the temperature in a room, for example. It will even cut off power supply in case of an earthquake (the sensor has a built-in accelerometer).

NEC System Technologies plans to start commercializing its technology in 2011 but hasn’t decided about pricing and other details yet.

Fox News held a fair and balanced debate over Modern Warfare 2, the popular new FPS that lets you play a CIA operative tasked with helping Russian agents clear terrorists out of an airport. In the game, it turns out that the Russian had turned on you and forced you to kill innocents in the airport. It’s a depiction of USA-funded terrorism. It is not a murder simulator.

The debate here, if it can be called that, seems to rotate around the correlation between video game violence and real violence. The old man in this debate mentioned an American Association of Pediatrics statement. Here it is:

VIOLENT VIDEO GAME CONTENT MORE ATTRACTIVE TO YOUTH

Restrictive age and violent-content labels increased the attractiveness of video games for boys and girls of all age groups, according to a new study. In “Age and Violent-Content Labels Make Video Games Forbidden Fruits for Youth,” researchers tested 310 Dutch children in three groups: 7 to 8, 12 to 13 and 16 to 17 years of age. Participants read fictitious video game descriptions and rated how much or how little they wanted to play each game. An important finding for parents, pediatricians and policy-makers is that age and violent-content labels do not prevent young children from playing games with objectionable content. In fact, they have the opposite effect. Study authors suggest that video games should not be forbidden in Europe or the United States because that will only make the games more attractive, and parents should help in selecting appropriate games for their children to play.

This amazing bit of news – kids like stuff they can’t have – is an obvious by-product of our neophilic instincts and does very little to correlate events like the shooting at Fort Hood and 9/11 to violent video games.

Violence stems from a lack of human interaction in a nurturing and mental health context. To ascribe any sort of behavior to media is a cop out for the pundits and for the aggressor. That said, I would recommend children not watch Fox News because it encourages damn fools to come to presidential speeches wearing guns, but that’s neither here nor there.

Sadly, Jon Cristensen at SlashGamer was too tongue-tied to respond to this criticism and it’s rarely the gamer that comes out ahead in these sorts of ambushes. The bottom line: violent games are not for young kids just as pornography, beer, cigarettes, handguns, lighters, spray paint, and knives are not for kids. There is a time and a context for each of those things and to rail against them shows a lack of judgment and clarity.

UPDATE – A cool response:

UnwiredReview found the patent and shared it with the whole wide world.

Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 racked up $310 million in sales across the U.S. and UK during the first 24 hours of availability. That makes it the biggest video game launch ever. Hooray for war simulators!

It works out to 4.7 million units sold across the two countries. These are Activison’s own numbers, by the way, not some wacky Wall Street analyst or anything like that. (Official worldwide numbers aren’t available yet.)

That said, an anylsyt for the Cowen Group said that he expects to see the final worldwide number to clock in at around 7 million.

That really is ridiculous when you think about it: 7 million copies (maybe) of that game sold within 24 hours. That’s just under 300,000 copies sold per hour.

In other words, it’s a good time to be an Activision stockholder right now.

Have you ever wondered what pictures look like from a camera that costs more than many cars? I have. I know there are a lot of professionals out there that view DSLRs like the Canon 5D and Nikon D700 as entry-level because they have flashes that cost more than those cameras. Well, DPReview got a hold of the $26,000 Leica S2 and just posted some sample pictures, but don’t expect to be blown away.

Here’s the thing. I don’t see anything special. I mean, they are good photos and maybe I don’t know what to look for, but some of them look like they could have been taken with a $200 pocket camera. Definitely don’t take my word for it though. Click over to dpreview for the full res shots, but I think I’ll stick with a Nikon for a while.

Well, it turns out this hive of industry is actually just two dudes, Robert Pedraza and his brother Rudy. Yes, the company that has been making Apple cry for the past year consists of the kids you knew down the street who were really good at computers.

The Miami New Times did a great piece on the pair proving that local media is still the best way to tell a story. The brothers, it seems, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees and dealt with what the New Times calls:

mega-abuse from hostile Mac bloggers who have called them hucksters, frauds, and credit card thieves. As a kind of threat, street-level photos of their homes were posted on some blogs.

Now, interestingly, this sort of grassroots vigilantism – and this article – is a sort of cleansing agent for Psystar. Whereas before we were convinced that Psystar was a shady Asian cabal intent on tearing down the fabrics of our freedom now we know that the company is a couple of dudes.

Their wild-eyed hubris is charming in this era of snark. For example, they’re willing to take on Apple until their dying breath and Rudy exclaims: “We’re all in, baby. Go big or get the hell out.” That’s right: Ayn Rand via Swingers.

The rest of the story is a bit sadder and fits the standard arc of the relentless businessman. They were hard workers and helped their dad run his boat-maintenance business. Robert took apart a remote control, a common trope in this sort of story, and then their dad was arrested for coke dealing. Then you’ve got the early precociousness:

Odio remembers Rudy hanging out with a group of smart kids, doing well in class, and even volunteering to design Coral Park’s website for free. He also worked long hours after school designing computer systems for businesses around Miami. Rudy declines to name them, but Odio confirms he pulled in serious cash even as a 16-year-old. “He was making tons of money in high school as a computer consultant, probably more than I do today,” she says, laughing.

While I’m sure Psystar’s battle won’t end well, it’s nice to see a little humanity behind Pystar’s Sherman-esque tactics. These guys just wanted to make computers and someone stopped them because they wanted to do something differently. No matter how convoluted a web they weave, there’s something to be said for that kind of bluster.

Woot.com has a pretty good deal on the refurbished 11.6-inch Gateway LT3103 for $280. This machine opts for an AMD processor over an Intel Atom, so you’ll get a little extra oomph while giving up a couple hours of battery life.

Features:

• AMD Athlon 64 L110 CPU at 1.2GHz
• 11.6-inch LED-backlit screen at 1366×768
• ATI Radeon X1270 graphics
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
• 250GB SATA hard drive
• Six-cell battery (up to 5 hours), three USB ports, VGA out
• Dimensions: 11.26” x 7.99” x 1.03” and 3.04 pounds

Since this is a refurbished machine, you’ll unfortunately lose out on the free Vista to Windows 7 upgrade. There’s a 90-day Gateway warranty included.

Gateway 11.6-inch Netbook [Woot.com]

Dell just went official with the Inspiron Zino HD price and spces. There have been a few unboxing and previews popping up around the blogs the last few days and I’ve fallen in love with the little computer. It’s slightly larger than the Mac Mini, but I believe infinitely more versatile.

HTPC - It’s a given. The $229 Dell Zino HD would feel right at home on a A/V rack. The Athlon CPUs and optional ATI Radeon HD 4330 512MB GPU has more than enough juice to output 1080p to your HDTV. Check the box for the optional Blu-ray drive and TV tuner to create a bonafide HTPCIB – Home Theater PC In a Box, that is.

WHS - There are about a dozen and a half already built Windows Home Server options available. HP makes the media-centric MediaSmart line, Acer has the Atom-packing easyStore, Lenovo has options and the list goes on. They are competent boxes, but none of them have the processing power that the AMD options offer in the Zino HD, which is somewhat important if you want to turn the server into a torrent downloading monster. Choose the integrated graphics but select at least 2GB of RAM along with the option 1TB hard drive. The 2 eSATA ports ensure that you’ll never run out of storage capacity too.

Trendy office computer – It doesn’t take much to run Microsoft Office apps anymore. Why live with a boring gray tower these days when the playful Zino HD can get the job done too? Even the base model should be fine for most office tasks.

In-car computer – The Mac Mini might score you nerd points with the geeks posing in the car tuning crowd, but there are a lot of PC-only in-car apps, which makes the Zino HD a perfect solution. It has a small footprint and more than enough power to run GPS and music software. But most importantly is that the computer comes in enough color options that you should be able to find one to match your ride.

Old folks computer – What do old people do on a computer these days? Play on Facebook? That’s about it and the Zino HD, along with countless other options, has more than enough power to be a reliable computer for them. The Athlon cores should be able to handle at least five Internet Explorer toolbars and several spyware programs posing as card games. Try that with an Atom CPU.

The Zino HD product page is currently up, but you can’t customize or order one yet. That will probably change sometime today.

Press release,

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Nov. 12, 2009 – Dell today introduced the mini-sized Inspiron Zino HD, which is versatile enough to handle tasks from basic computing chores to driving a big-screen, High-Definition TV media center. With a choice of colors, the Inspiron Zino HD can be easily personalized to add flare to any room in the home.

The News:

Starting at $229, the Inspiron Zino HD includes standard HD-capable integrated graphics, HDMI output and built-in networking that make it smart for typical home and student computing activities such as word processing, e-mail, organizing photos and music, and surfing the Internet.

The economical Inspiron Zino HD with optional additional memory, hard drive storage, combo Blu-ray disc player, HDTV tuner, wireless remote control and Windows 7 Media Player and turns into a powerful home media center computer. In that capacity the Inspiron Zino HD can record and play your favorite TV shows, display high-definition content from the Internet, and store and deliver music, video and photos very well.

The Inspiron Zino HD is also ideal as an additional household PC that can fit in tight spaces and make home networking a cinch. It measures about 7.75 inches square and 3.5 inches tall. While small in size, the Inspiron Zino HD is a big performer with:

• Ultra-small form factor designed to fit almost anywhere.
• Easy personalization with nine color choices for Inspiron Zino HD.
• Choice of AMD processors or dual core Athlon Neo X2 6850e.
• Up to 8GB dual channel DDR 2 memory.
• Up to 1TB internal hard disk storage.
• Combo DVD/CD RW drive with optional Blu-ray Disc combo.
• Integrated 10/100/1000 networking with wireless option.
• Optional TV tuner, wireless keyboard and mouse.
• Built in 2.1 high-definition audio and 4-in-one media card reader.
• Integrated ATI graphics adapter with standard HDMI and VGA video connections, and optional 512MB discrete graphics adapter.
• Four USB ports (2 front/2 rear); two eSATA ports (rear).
• Energy-Star 5.0 compliant.

A basic Inspiron Zino without High-Definition capability or upgrade options will be offered in some regions.

Japan-based electronics maker Greenhouse has announced the GHV-DV30HDLXW/P [JP] today, a video camera specifically designed for women. The device is available in two colors, white and (the inevitable) pink. Buyers will also get a cute pouch that fits the color of the camera.

Greenhouse has partnered up with fashion brand GAUDI (who I never heard of before) to design the camera. It features a 3-inch TFT LCD screen, 128MB of internal memory, SD/SDHC memory card support (up to 32MB), a miniHDMI port and a USB interface. The device can record video in 1,280×720/720p resolution and at 30fps in (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264(MOV)).

The video camera will go on sale in Japan only for $190 (including the pouch) from the end of this month. If you live outside Japan and want to look cute while shooting video, contact import specialists Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U.

OK, now the USB gadget craze gets really silly. Tokyo-based crap USB accessory maker Thanko has been selling USB-powered slippers and gloves that are supposed to keep you warm in the past, but the new model, Dinosaur foot-shaped slipper(s) [JP] (of all things), is probably the silliest.

The thing isn’t only suitable for your feet, but can apparently serve as a warm bed for your pets, too (as Thanko shows in their official promo pics – see below). There’s a heater placed in the slipper, which is powered by USB, meaning the thing is even more useless without a PC in the vicinity.

Thanko is selling the Dinosaur foot slipper in their Japanese online store now. If you live outside Japan, head over to Geek Stuff 4 U and get them for $31.64 plus shipping.