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PC Magazine has a summary of the first round of iPad reviews. As expected, everyone agrees that it’s a slick device, but won’t replace a laptop.

I haven’t been particularly bullish on the iPad, but I may change my mind once the platform gets its killer app – I’m just not sure what that app might be. Some of the demos look cool, but aren’t particularly useful or interesting for me. The developer community has shown remarkable ingenuity in creating novel apps for the iPhone, however, so I’m counting on them to give me a reason really *want* an iPad.

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Kirk McElhearn from Macworld.com thinks Google has been violating its unofficial creed of "don't be evil" lately, and that the Buzz mini-debacle (which Google acted quickly to fix) is just the latest in a long line of offenses. As a result, he says he's dropping Google services wherever he can, and if that's his thing, more power to him. His cited reasons, however, don't seem fair.

For example, he's fired up about Google removing a number of mp3 blogs from its Blogspot service, even those that had explicit permission from artists to post their songs. However, this doesn't seem to be a legitimate gripe with Google so much as it is with the music industry. From the EFF via BoingBoing:

Targeted bloggers need to know these details, not only so that they can remove the file if it's indeed infringing, but so that they can file a DMCA counter-notice in the event that the file is not infringing.

Ordinarily, the party issueing the takedown notice would be required by US copyright law to specify which content is being accused. But, as an international organization headquartered in London, IFPI is arguing that it doesn't even need to play by the USA's rules. "We neither admit nor accept," they write, "…that Google is entitled to be served a notice in compliance with the DMCA." Translation: IFPI is essentially threatening to sue Google under some unspecified foreign law — presumably one which lacks even the modest safe-harbor provisions available in the USA. It's no wonder Google felt the need to take drastic action to avoid liability, even at the expense of the resulting headaches and bad press.

Ultimately, his concern seems to be with the amount of information Google is able to amass about its users through its services, which Google then uses to sell targeted ads:

Google knows more about you than the NSA, and has recently shown that it doesn't give a hoot about your privacy. The company has gotten too big, and has turned into just another corporation trying to maximize its assets–and those assets are you. Who's to say Google won't progressively loosen its privacy controls and monetize more and more personal information?

First, Google has shown that it does care about user privacy, it just got careless with the Buzz rollout. Look how many times Facebook has had to issue a mea culpa about violating user privacy in far more grievous ways than Google ever has. I guarantee that the next time Google unveils a new service along the lines of Buzz, they'll have learned their lesson.

Speaking of which, users rightfully throw a fit when their private information is exposed for monetary gain. Again, see the Facebook Beacon example, which ended up being an expensive and embarrassing failure for Facebook, who shut down the service last year amidst much controversy and a class-action lawsuit. The people who run Google aren't idiots, and they know better than to alienate their users in this way.

If you're nervous about the amount of information Google knows about you, then by all means, use any of the several alternatives that exist for search, e-mail, docs, and so on. But it's silly to drop the very valuable services Google provides just because they could theoretically act irresponsibly with the data they have access to, even though to do so would doom their business.

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Las Vegas. Double-double and fries, Animal Style. Everything I hoped it would be.

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Posted via email from Tatrocalypse!

Posted via email from Tatrocalypse!

Part of this change was motivated by my beliefs in how humans evolved. When I was a teenager, I was sure that humans were natural vegans, or close to it, like our great ape relatives. Now I tend to lean toward the belief that humans evolved eating plenty of animals, veggies, and low glycemic index fruits (like berries). I try to avoid wheat for the most part, but cheat from time-to-time and still eat corn and rice.

There is actually a fairly large subculture of people who aim to eat like early humans did, embracing grass-fed beef and wild game, organ meats, fruits and veggies. This diet is commonly called the "Paleo Diet" or a "primal" diet. The New York Times has an interesting profile of a group of "new cavemen" that reside in the Big Apple who attempt to emulate the diet and exercise patterns of their early ancestors. I think they're on to something:

The caveman lifestyle, in Mr. Durant’s interpretation, involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. Vegetables and fruit are fine, but he avoids foods like bread that were unavailable before the invention of agriculture. Mr. Durant believes the human body evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and his goal is to wean himself off what he sees as many millenniums of bad habits.

These urban cavemen also choose exercise routines focused on sprinting and jumping, to replicate how a prehistoric person might have fled from a mastodon.

In a city crowded with vegetarian restaurants and yoga studios, the cavemen defy other people’s ideas of healthy living. There is an indisputable macho component to the lifestyle.

I also found this interesting:

Most of the cavemen at Mr. Durant’s gatherings are lean and well-muscled, and have glowing skin. A few wear trim beards. Some claim that they no longer get sick. Several identify themselves as libertarians.

This isn't an easy diet or lifestyle, but people who embrace it do tend to lose a ton of weight, keep muscle, and generally look awesome. Could this be the start of a trend that flies in the face of 50 years of dietary advice?

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Popular Science poses ten good questions they would like to ask this future theoretical artificial intelligence.

Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by science fiction, but we tend to assume that intelligent machines will want something to do with us – either destroy/enslave us (the “Terminator” and “The Matrix”) work with us as partners (“Star Trek,” “Aliens”) or be used to serve us as, essentially, robot slaves (“Star Wars”). One of the more interesting points PopSci brings up is, if a super-intelligent machine is created, will we be able to relate to it? What if the nature of its intelligence is absolutely foreign to us?

I hope that one day within my lifetime humans can use AI to exponentially increase technological development in a relatively short period of time, which will theoretically lead to incredible advancements that will greatly enhance human lives. However, there’s always the chance that a super-intelligent AI will want nothing to do with helping us solve our problems. Can we play God and create them “in our own image?” Time will tell.

Analysts said this shows the financial viability of Facebook, which has faced questions about its underlying business model, despite its popularity, and was a good sign for a potential initial public offering.

“It’s certainly meaningful to show that this is absolutely the real deal,” said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter. “They are executing. People are spending money on the site.”

Since its creation in a Harvard dorm room five years ago, Facebook has emerged as one of the Internet’s most popular destinations and is increasingly challenging the Web’s established powerhouses like Yahoo Inc and Google Inc.

Facebook unveiled a revamped search engine last month and is currently testing an online payment system. Facebook users have tripled from about 100 million a year ago.

In related Facebook news, yesterday the company announced “Facebook Prototypes,” which has been described as its version of Google Labs, where developers can test out beta versions of various applications that may still have “some kinks to work out.” Nonetheless, if you’re interested to see how Facebook expects to stay ahead of its competitors, it’s a good way to see what they’ve got up their sleeves.

While Gibson’s novel appears to be set in the near-future, the technology he describes is widely available today. “Augmented reality” has found its way to video games, product marketing, and social media applications. And while no companies have ponied up to market a dedicated visor for viewing AR, most of us have a device with a camera and an Internet connection that makes viewing AR possible. Camera-equipped laptops and game consoles are responsible for introducing most consumers to the possibilities of AR, but the latest generation of camera and GPS-enabled mobile phones will really enable this technology to become both ubiquitous and useful.

Here are five applications of AR that will make you re-think the way you perceive the world around you.

AHhrrr – AR zombie shooter

AHhrrr is a tech demo for NVIDIA hardware that uses its screen and camera to create a fully three-dimensional shooting game that requires players to move around in “real space” to access different parts of the tabletop city before them.

Layar Reality Browser

Layar is a browser for Android-powered mobile phones that enables users to view “layers” that show points of interest using information from services like Wikipedia, Yelp, Twitter and more.

Canon “Mixed Reality” Aquarium

Canon is using some specialized visors that users can wear to view interesting virtual graphics around them – in this case, users have the impression of being in the middle of an aquarium, complete with fish, sharks and sea turtles. Even cooler, they’re using this technology to bring virtual dinosaurs to “life.”

Transformers 2 Movie Promotion – “We Are Autobots”

This promotion for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen allowed users to (virtually) replace their head with that of Autobots leader Optimus Prime.

Topps 3D Live Baseball Cards

Hold a Topps 3D Live baseball card up to your computer’s camera and a model of the player on the card springs forth. The player moves with the card, and users can even interact with the 3D model to play games.