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Spam is 95% of All Email

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has released its new spam report that indicates about 95% of emails are spam. The survey found that 95% of all email is spam. 70% of the respondents consider spam extremely significant or significant for their security operations.

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Amazon.com to Let Developers Create Kindle Apps

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST

Amazon has the launch of the Kindle Development Kit. The Kit gives developers access to programming interfaces, tools and documentation to build active content for Kindle. Some of the Kindle apps Amazon.com says can be developed include travel books that suggest activities based on real-time weather and current events, cookbooks that recommend menus based on size of party and allergies, and word games and puzzles. Amazon says Handmark is building an active Zagat guide featuring their ratings and reviews. A company named Sonic Boom is building word games and puzzles.

"We've heard from lots of developers over the past two years who are excited to build on top of Kindle," said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "The Kindle Development Kit opens many possibilities--we look forward to being surprised by what developers invent."

Posted in Tech

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Intel Infoscape at CES

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:15:00 EST

Intel displayed its Infoscape at CES 2010. The technology using Intel's new Intel Core processor allows people to interact in real-time with numerous data sources at once on one giant touch screen. The display is pulling from hundreds of different data sources at once. You can read more about the interface here. Take a look:

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U.S. Drones Hacked in Iraq

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST

Elizabeth Palmer reports for CBS News that U.S. Predator drones were hacked in Iraq. The report says the insurgents were able to use $26 software to hack our drones and watch the surveillance video. This does not sound good. However, the video was unencrypted so if the video was just encrypted the insurgents would be less likely to intercept it. Take a look:

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OfficeMax Cyber Monday Deals

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

OfficeMax has some good deals on Cyber Monday. The special product offers and deals will be live on the OfficeMax.com website starting at 12am on Monday, November 30th. There will be limited quantities so be sure to shop early. Here is a list of the offers.

Save 25% on all Refurbished PCs
Save $60 on the Kodak M863 Copper Bundle
Buy 1, Get 1 Free on all OfficeMax Ink and Toner
Save $50 on the Kodak M1063 Pink Digital Camera - $79.99
Save $20 on the NIKON Coolpix L20 Digital Camera
Save $60 on the Kodak Zi6 Video Camera
Save $100 - GarminTM Nuvi 255W GPS for $119.99
Save $13 on Verbatim DVD+R 25-pack Spindle - $6.99
Save $15 on Verbatim CD-R 25-pack - $4.99
Get a SanDisk 8 GB USB Flash Drive. $14.99
Save $100 on the Xerox Travel Scanner - $99.99
Save $130 on an OfficeMax 20-sheet cross-cut shredder - $99.99
Save $90 on a High Back Executive Chair. $59.99
Save $90 on the SEALY Manager's Chair - $119.99

You can find more Cyber Monday deals here and here.

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Electrobite, a Trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:00:00 EST

Boing Boing says this unusual trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle was created by "Oilpunk" enthusiasts Kyrsten Mate and Jon Sarriugarte, with help from Amy Jenkins and Tansy Brooks. A prehistoric bug isn't really the first thing you think of when you think of personal transport but it seems to work fine. Take a look:

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Impressive iPhone Costumes

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

There have been plenty of lame iPod costumes made out of cardboard. Reko Rivera and John Savio went the extra mile and made impressive iPhone costumes that have 42" displays that actually work. Take a look:

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Hard Drive Storage Gets Super Cheap in 2020

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Physorg.com has an interesting article about what technology will follow hard drives. The article cites a study that has hard drive storage costing as little as $40 for a 14 TB drive in 2020.

According to a new study, if HDDs continue to progress at their current pace, then in 2020 a two-disk, 2.5-inch disk drive will be capable of storing more than 14 TB and will cost about $40 (today, a typical 500 GB hard drive costs about $100). Although flash memories have also become popular - with advantages such as lower power consumption, faster read access time, and better mechanical reliability than HDDs - the cost per GB for flash memories is nearly 10 times that of HDDs. In addition, flash memory technology will reach technical limits that will prevent its continued scaling before 2020, keeping them from replacing HDDs.

The article describes a couple potential replacement technologies - random access memory (PCRAM) and spin transfer torque random access memory (STTRAM) - but nothing that is cheaper than the hard drive before 2020. However, sometimes technologies emerge that surprise you.

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Green Ecofont Uses Less Ink

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST

Ecofont is a free font designed to be more eco-friendly. The font has holes in it so that less ink will be used when the font is printed. CNET reports that Ecofont claims to use 20% less ink than regular fonts. They also say it is basically "Arial with holes." The font is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux systems.

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Pace of Domain Registrations Slows

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST

Internet News reports that Verisign reported that the number of registered domains climbed to 184 million in the second quarter of 2009. 9 million new domains were registered in the second quarter - this was a 15% plunge from the second quarter in 2008.

VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) said in its report that, "around nine million new domain names were registered across all of the TLDs in the second quarter of 2009." Still, that figure represents a 15 percent decline from the second quarter of 2008.

"The overall base of domain names grew by 9 percent year-over-year and 1 percent quarter-over-quarter," Jill McNabb, vice president of naming services at VeriSign, told InternetNews.com. "While the number of new registrations declined, there were new registrations coming in, thus resulting in the growth of the overall base."

McNabb said the continued growth in domain name registrations in the second quarter of 2009 was in line with expectations. VeriSign has seen that there is seasonality in domain name registrations with the second quarter of the year dropping from the first.

There is some hope by investors that the economy is recovering. It will be interesting to see if this helps domain registrations start to climb higher again in the fourth quarter of 2009 or first quarter of 2010.

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Russian Hackers Paid 43 Cents a Mac

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Computerworld reports that a network of Russian malware writers have been paying hackers 43 cents for each Mac computer they infect with malware.

A network of Russian malware writers and spammers paid hackers 43 cents for each Mac machine they infected with bogus video software, a sign that Macs have become attack targets, a security researcher said yesterday.

In a presentation Thursday at the Virus Bulletin 2009 security conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Sophos researcher Dmitry Samosseiko discussed his investigation of the Russian "Partnerka," a tangled collection of Web affiliates who rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from spam and malware, most of the former related to phony drug sites, and much of the latter targeting Windows users with fake security software, or "scareware."

43 cents a mac is very low so the hackers must be able to infect a lot of mac computers to make it worth their time.

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iTwinge: Keyboard Sleeve for iPhone

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST

iTwinge is a real QWERTY physical keyboard that appears to fit on the iPhone like a sleeve. For $30 it might be a nifty addition for those who want to use a real keyboard instead of the touchscreen. Gadgetwise says the keyboard was originally developed by Mobile Mechatronics founder Mike Nykoluk as a training device to help transition people from a regular keyboard to iPhone's touchscreen. Now it is being targeted at people who would prefer a regular keyboard. There is also $5 shipping with iTwinge. Shipments begin on November 19th.

(via ChipChick, Engadget)

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RIM Tops Fortune's List of Fastest Growing Companies

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST

The BBC reports that Research in Motion (RIM) - the company behind the popular Blackberry device - has topped Fortune's list of the fastest growing companies.

Canada-based RIM has come top of the magazine's latest annual guide to the 100 fastest-growing businesses.

In second place was US chipmaker Sigma Designs, with Chinese internet business Sohu.com coming in third.

Fortune rates a firm's growth on a combination of its profits, turnover and investment return over three years.

The BBC says RIM's profits have soared 84% over the past three years and its revenues have climbed 77%. Fortune's list of the 100 fastest growing companies can be found here.

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Car Used to Make New Font

Mon, 3 Aug 2009 21:00:00 EST

A car was used to create a new font in this clever campaign for a car company. You can see the website at IQ Font.

(via Boing Boing)

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Microsoft to Power Yahoo Search

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST

The long awaited Microsoft Yahoo deal has happened. Microsoft's recently launched Bing search engine will power the Yahoo search engine in a long term 10-year deal. The BBC reports that Yahoo will keep 88% of the revenues for search ad sales on Yahoo.com for the first five years.

In return for ceding control of its search engine, Yahoo will get to keep 88% of the revenue from all search ad sales on its site for the first five years of the deal, and have the right to sell adverts on some Microsoft sites.

Yahoo's search team, meanwhile, will have to brace itself for job losses over the next two years. Some staff will transfer to Microsoft, others can stay on with Yahoo, but redundancies would be unavoidable, Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz told the BBC.

The BBC also says the Microsoft-Yahoo deal wasn't possible until Jerry Yang departed.

The deal became possible after Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as chief executive of the company late last year.

"Only a Yahoo outsider like Ms Bartz could do such a deal," said Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC News website.

The deal will give Microsoft a bigger piece of the search engine pie and mae it more competitive with Google in search and search advertising.

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Mobile Phone Apps vs. The Internet: Which Will Be Bigger?

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST

Wired reports that Google's Vic Gundotra believes the future of the mobile industry is web-based application not mobile apps like those in the iTunes stores.

Vic Gundotra, Google's engineering vice president and developer evangelist, said on Friday at the Mobilebeat conference in San Francisco that the future of the mobile industry lies in web-based applications, rather than native software coded to run on specific smartphone operating systems.

"Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning," Gundotra was quoted in a Financial Times report. "We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that's where Google is investing."

However, BBC News quotes GetJar's Ilja Laurs who think mobile phone apps will be as big or bigger than the Internet.

"Apps will be as big if not bigger than the internet," according to Ilja Laurs, chief executive of GetJar, a leading independent application store.

"They will peak at around 100,000 by the end of the year. That will be a tipping point and after that there will be a gradual fall in the rate of development.

"The full blossom will come in ten years and mobile apps will become as popular as websites are today with consumers," Mr Laurs told BBC News.

So who is right? Apps will get bigger but it is hard to bet against the Internet here. There are probably new technologies coming that will make it much easier to extend the browser and web-based tools to mobile phones without as much need for apps. The Internet will probably reign supreme.

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Domain Name Registrations Continue to Grow

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST

Pingdom reports that the number of domain names registered continues to grow despite this ongoing Great Recession we are in. Pingdom cites a quarterly report from Verisign that says the number of registere domains climbed to 183 million, an increase of 12% from last year. The report also found that there are 240+ ccTLD extensions, but the top 10 account for 64% of all registrations.

Posted in Domains

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Strange Gel Remote is Weird

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST

Cube Me reports on a very strange sounding gel remote that is soft when not in use but hard when it is activated. It's unclear why a remote needs to go soft and squishy when not being used.

Constructed of a soft, flesh-like gel, the remote appears cold when off. Once turned on, however, it seems to come to life. A soft light emanates somewhere from within as the center of the device begins to slowly rise and fall, mimicking the tranquil motions of breath. Left undisturbed, the remote will slumber peacefully. Buth should a human hand approach, sensors inside alert it to the imminent touch. It stops breathing, grows rigid - the light from within is extinguished.

(via Geekologie)

Posted in Gadgets

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AOL Offices on Swine Flu Alert

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:00:00 EST

Daily Intel reports that several AOL offices - including the downtown NYC office - are on alert for swine flu after an employee was diagnosed with a suspected case.

We all got a memo yesterday saying someone in the downtown NYC office has a suspected case of swine flu," an AOL insider tells us. "They're disinfecting his desk and all the common areas, employees are advised to take precautions, etc." The Infected also apparently visited Boston and Baltimore recently, and so those offices are on high alert as well.

Swine flu will continue to impact businesses as the pandemic grows. Many businesses will have to deal with employee shortages. Some employees will need to be hospitalized and some will also die. Most of the people dying from swine flu are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s - the brunt of the working population. You can a list of h1n1 swine flu resources here.

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Google Trike: Bike Carries Google's 3-D Camera

Sun, 31 May 2009 14:40:00 EST

The Google Trike is going around Britain taking multiple images of national tourist treasures. These images will help Google Britain's famous landmarks on Google's Street View map. The bike carries the same 3-D camera that Street View cars carry. It's good exercise for whoever is riding the Google Trike. A Reuters video is below and Wired's Autotopia has more.

Posted in Google

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Facebook Reportedly Buying Employees' Shares

Sat, 16 May 2009 21:00:00 EST

Venture Beat reports that Facebook has nearly finished raising $150 million. They say part of the money is being used to buy out employees' shares in the company.

Hundreds of the Palo Alto, Calif.'s employees have now toiled at the company for more than two years, and many have worked three to five years. Increasingly, some have become restless, and would like to cash in on the huge value they've created. Most employees were awarded several thousands of shares valued at far less than a dollar each. Now, by selling to those shares investors for a private market value of $10 each, employees can enjoy a nice windfall. According to our sources, the transaction will include the buying out of roughly 15 million common shares - thus equaling around $150 million total value.

Facebook declined comment on the financing.

Silicon Alley Insider has a good summary of the employee stock buy back. It sounds like a good payday for loyal Facebook employees.

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Google Outage Reduces Web Traffic by 5%

Fri, 15 May 2009 16:00:00 EST

InformationWeek reports that Internet traffic fell by 5% on Thursday morning because of Google's outage.

People did notice and complained loudly. Blog posts proclaimed Google's failure. Twitter jittered with tweets. Lattes languished undrunk on office desks as workers muddled through life without Gmail.

As a consequence of Google's problems, business Web sites that depended on services like Google Analytics took twice as long to load on average and were twice as likely to fail, according to Web infrastructure management company Gomez. And among online retailers, transactions took four times as long as usual to complete.

Google was quick to apologize. Senior VP of operations Urs Hoelzle explained the situation on the Official Google Blog. He said that a routing error had sent some of the company's Web traffic to Asia, causing a bottleneck that affected 14% of Google's users.

An entry here on Gomez says the outage caused a ripple effect that "was magnified when web sites automatically tried to re-establish connections with Google's services, causing further network congestion." Google's post explaining the error can be found here.

Posted in Google

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Cool Touch Displays From International Display 2009

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST

Here's a look at some cool, cutting edge displays that were shown at the th International Display 2009 and Touch Panel Japan's 1st International Touch Panel Technology Expo.

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Giant Spiders of La Machine Invade Yokohama

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST

Two giant spiders from La Machine crawl through Yohohama's Bayside area in the clip from The Japan Times. Pink Tentacle has some photos of the huge spiders.

Posted in Robots

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Google Launches Similar Images Feature

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST

Google has launched a Google Labs feature called Similar Images. As the name suggests the technology shows you images that are similar to the one you select. It can be useful in helping you focus on specific images when there are two very different items you are looking for that have the same name - like jaguar. It can also be helpful in narrowing down the number of images when there are lots of different images of a celebrity, place or product to comb through. The video below explains more uses of Similar Images.

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The Pirate Bay Four Get Jail Sentence

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:00:00 EST

A Swedish court has jailed four defendants in a copyright test case involving The Pirate Bay, one of the biggest file-sharing websites. TorrentFreak says the four defendants will each get 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000. One of the defendants is calling the verdict an "epic win" according to PC Magazine.

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Jefferson Graham Explains How to Submit Stock Photos

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:00:00 EST

Jefferson Graham from USA Today has an article about online stock websites like iStockPhoto.com. Jefferson Graham says that you have to get approvals if you are going to submit a photograph with a person or a corporate logo. Graham interviewed Nick Monu, a Rhode Island medical student, who makes six figures a year selling stock photos.

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Jennifer Lopez Defeats Cybersquatter

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 18:00:00 EST

Reuters reports that actress and singer Jennifer Lopez has won her cybersquatting complaint. Jennifer Lopez argued that a man in Phoenix, Arizona had registered two domains that used her names primarily as a way to make money from pay-per-click advertising. The World Intellectual Property Organiztion (WIPO), a UN agency, ordered the domains transfered to the Jennifer Lopez Foundation, which helps promote better access to healthcare for women and children. Reuters says Jennifer Lopez also registered her name as a trademark in the United States. It sounds like the trademark helped bolster her case against the cybersquatter.

Reuters notes that several other celebrities including Pierce Brosnan, Tom Cruise, Celine Dion, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Madonna and Julia Roberts have booted out cybersquatters through the same dispute method at WIPO.

Jennifer Lopez's official website is located at jenniferlopez.com.

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Intel's Claytronics is Programmable Matter

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EST

Dvice reports that experts at Intel and Carnegie Mellon University have create Claytronics, a type of programmable play-doh. Claytronics is technically a programmable matter made up of millions of 200-micrometer-diameter spheres that can be programmed to form shapes and change color. The cool looking technology could have many uses. In the short video below you can see how the technology would be very useful for presentations and design. The project's page is here on Carnegie Mellon's website.

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Malware URLs Placed on Fake Parking Tickets

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST

eWeek's Security Watch blog is discussing a novel malware attempt that involved a malware url that was placed on faking parking tickets.

Anyhow, SANS Institute researcher Lenny Zeltser recently uncovered the two-part parking ticket/malware scam, through which someone placed phony tickets on the windshields of a number of vehicles in a parking lot in North Dakota informing their owners that they had somehow violated the regulations and instructing them to go to a Web site to get more details on their fines. Researchers at McAfee also highlighted the scheme.

Of course, upon visiting the site, the advertised URL demands that people download a piece of software to view pictures of their vehicle when it was "in violation," and that program of course instead delivers malware onto their computers.

"Attackers continue to come up with creative ways of tricking potential victims into installing malicious software. Merging physical and virtual worlds via objects that point to Web sites is one way to do this. I imagine we'll be seeing such approaches more often," Zeltser said.

The attack is a unique idea and it meant that people had to be close to their victims. There's an extra level of creepiness with people placing something on a car or possibly sending something via snail mail that would get a person to access a malware website. On the other hand there is probably more risk here for criminals which might discourage then from trying physical or snail mail approaches. Fake parking tickets aren't going to go over very well with the city authorities, so they may be even more likely to try and find the source and make an arrest.

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Report Indicates Domain Registrations Are Slowing

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST

The Wall Steet Journal's Digits blog reports that a Verisign report indicates that domain registrations fell 17% in the fourth quarter compared to the 4th quarter fo 2008. There were also slightly less new domains registered in 2008 compared to 2007.

Domain registrar VeriSign's latest report on the state of the industry shows that while more than 10.1 million new Web addresses were registered in the fourth quarter, this was a 17% drop from the year-earlier period.

The report, which drew from data provided by VeriSign, domain-data provider ZookNIC and the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, also showed a yearlong decline: new domain registrations averaged 11.9 million in 2008, compared with 12.2 million in 2007.

It should not be a big suprise that the pace of domain registrations is slowing given the major recession that is occuring.

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Microsoft to Cut 5,000 Jobs

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

Microsoft has announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. 1,400 of the layoffs will occur immediately. They are the first major layoffs for the software giant.

The layoffs, 1,400 of which come immediately, appear to be a first for Microsoft, which was founded in 1975, aside from relatively limited staff cuts the software company made after acquiring companies.

The company announced the cuts as it reported an 11 percent drop in second-quarter profit, which fell short of Wall Street's expectations. The company also said it is unable to offer profit and revenue guidance for the rest of the year, because of the market volatility.

Microsoft blamed deteriorating economic conditions worldwide and lower revenues from PC software for the need to cut jobs. The Microsoft layoffs rumors have been discussed on blogs and technology websites for the past few weeks.

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The Robot Farmer

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST

A Robot inventor and farmer named Wu Yulu once accidentally burnt down his house and plunged his family into debt when he was trying to build one of his robots. Now Reuters says Wu Yulu has turned things around and his robot inventions are starting to garner him some attention. One of his inventions is a rickshaw-pulling robot that helps him plow and run errands. He also has a robot that climbs walls.

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Steve Ballmer Talks Microsoft in 2009

Wed, 7 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, talked to the Associated Press at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas about Microsoft plans for 2009. Ballmer says he still thinks people are plenty interest in PCs. Ballmer also sounds excited about mobile search.

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Andy Jordan Discusses Zune's Z2K9 Issues

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

The recent Zune meltdown had many 30GB Zune owners in a panicked state. The problem had to do with the clock drive in the 30GB Zune. The glitch has passed but the news of the glitch probably won't do Microsoft any good in its battle against the Apple iPod. On the other hand people who don't own Zunes may be wondering what all the fuss is about and why people react so strongly when their Zunes don't work. The WSJ's Andy Jordan looks at the online reaction to people being without their precious Zunes.

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Study Links Cell Phones to Heart Disease and Kidney Stones

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST

A new study is out linking cell phone use to heart disease and kidney stones.

The European Research Institute for Electronic Components in Bucharest found that cell phones may lead to heart disease and kidney stones, according to Switched.com.

How is this possible? The study found that cell phones emit radiation, which causes red blood cells to leak hemoglobin, according to Softpedia.com. The hemoglobin then accumulates in the body, which can lead to health complications including heart disease or kidney stones.

This new study is just one in a series of studies about the ills of cell phone use. Researchers at Sweden's Lund University found that exposure to cell phone radiation could cause proteins and toxins to leak into the brain, according to Softpedia.com. This can lead to Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's.

There have been lots of studies linking health problems to cell phones and lots of studies saying cell phones are safe. The biggest known danger from cell phones is using them while you are driving notes this article from cancer.gov. If you are concerned about a cell phone and cancer link then you can play it safe and use ear pieces, headsets or speaker phones as much as possible.

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Fabulous Fractalius

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST

Fractalius is a funky plugin for Photoshop. Redfield Plugins says the the effects are based on extraction of so-called hidden fractal texture of an image. You can see some more images created with Fractalius here on Flickr. (via Boing Boing)

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Domain Renewal Lapse Costs Bush Library $35,000

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST

When web companies make a mistake like forgetting to renew a domain it can often be very costly. The AP reports that domain grabbers capitalized on the mistake of a web company that worked for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The Bush Library web firm forgot to renew the www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com domain and a domain grabber scooped up the domain for just $10 when it lapsed. The George W. Bush Presidential Library then had to buy the domain back for $35,000.

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Project Aiko: AI Female Android

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST

CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on a human and robot love story. Many science fiction authors have predicted that human-robot love will eventually happen. Aiko is a companion robot project. She has the ability to recognize objects put in front of "her" and has the "ability to talk and interact with humans with 13,000 sentence at her disposal." The fembot sounds fairly impressive from reading Physorg's write-up. The look of Aiko is what is garnering attention from networks like CNN (see below) but it is the software brain created by designer Le Trung that is the most impressive. Making a pretty doll is one thing but coding a beautiful mind is another thing entirely.

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Cyber Monday Sales Up 15%

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST

PC Magazine reports that data from ComScore shows a 15% improvement in Cyber Monday sales for 2008 when compared to 2007. Web cash registers recorded $846 million in sales, a solid jump from the $733 million generated in 2007. Websites like Shop.org's CyberMonday.com led the sales charge with categorized deals and hourly specials.

The jump in sales is a good sign for what has been a very bad economic period. The big question is what happens during the rest of December? Is Cyber Monday an exception because people were simply looking for the best deals or will the buying continue at a +15% pace above last year for the rest of the holiday shopping period. A few other stories on Cyber Monday here, here, here and here.

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Sniper Twins Stack the Memory

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:00:00 EST

The Sniper Twins show you how to stack the memory to the sky in this geeky rap video. TechCrunch says it's part of a Seagate campaign. It's a bit remeniscient of Weird Al Yankovic's "It's All About The Pentiums" classic. The official website is stackthememory.com.

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Jerry Yang's Resignation Gives Yaho Investors Hope

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST

The Wall Street Journal says CEO Jerry Yang's resignation is giving some investors hope that a Microsoft deal will follow. The question is will Microsoft still be interested in acquiring Yahoo. Maybe not. They are more likely to just want Yahoo's search businesst. WSJ's Julia Angwin speaks to S&P analyst Scott Kessler about Yang's resignation in the video blow. More on Yang's resignation here, Here, here, here and here.

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Jules Robot Threatens to Destroy Wales

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST

Here's a scary robot head animation threatening to wipe out mankind. The robot face pleads for a chance to destroy some humans while making human-like expressions. It has been the plot of many science fiction novels that the day will come when the robot turns on us. Hopefully, it won't happen but it if it does one company is prepared. Below is the video of Jules making his threats. (via Geekologie)

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Is Apple Branding Like a Religion

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST

Is branding of big brands like Apple similar to the way people come to believe in a religion? Martin Lindstorm - the author of Buyology - says it is similar to a religion.

"Apple is (as we've proven using neuroscience)...a religion," Lindstrom said in the interview. "Not only that--it is a religion based on its communities. Without its core communities, Apple would die--it is already facing strong pressure as the brand simply is becoming too broad (losing) its magic. What's holding it all together is the hundreds if not thousands of communities across the world spreading the passion and creating the myths."

There are definitely those who think Apple can do no wrong and believe Apple will continue to innovate but that's not necessarily the same thing as a religion. (via Wired) Note: There's also a movie being made about Macheads.

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Bill Gates Form Mysterious New Company

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST

TechFlash reports (via ReadWriteWeb) that Bill Gates haas created a mysterious new company called bgC3 LLC. It's described as a sort of "think tank" that will focus on science and technology. That's the company's logo on the right.

Public documents describe the new Gates entity -- bgC3 LLC -- as a "think tank." It's housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer.

Is this Bill Gates' next big business? A Gates insider gives an emphatic no -- saying it's not a commercial venture but rather a vehicle to coordinate the software mogul's work on his business and philanthropic endeavors.

However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates? personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. The insider said the goal isn't necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- or others - as it makes sense.

Whatever the ultimate role of the company, the circumstances surrounding its creation provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the new era of Gates' life.

Clearly the bg in the logo is for Bill Gates but what's the c3 for? TechFlash says the C stands for catalyst. PC Mag reports that a WSJ post says bgC3 is merely a holding company so Gates can pay employees. There's also a bgC3 website here that just has a big logo.

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Mr. Asahi is a Robot Bartender

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:40:00 EST

Mr. Asahi is a $200,000 robot that tends bar. You can see Asahi in action in the video below. He can serve around of drinks in under two minutes. Bar tenders in the clip are not yet threatened by the robotic bartender. There's a video of Asahi here as well. (via Slashfood)

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Person Uses Remote Access to Catch Laptop Thief

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 22:00:00 EST

The AP reports that the owner of a stolen laptop was able to track down the person who stole his laptop by logging into a remote desktop application he had installed on the laptop. It took about a month of frustrated watching before the latop-thief finally entered his name and address on the stolen laptop when he was registering a website.

Caceres, 27, of White Plains, said his computer was stolen in early September when he left it on top of his car while carrying things into his home.

His first efforts to figure out who stole the laptop by logging on remotely were stymied, Caceres said. "It was kind of frustrating because he was mostly using it to watch porn," he said. "I couldn't get any information on him."

But then the suspect typed in a name and address to register on a Web site, and a few hours later, police caught the suspect.

The man was charged with grand larceny, said police Lt. Eric Fischer in Wednesday editions of the Journal News.

This makes putting a remote desktop app on a laptop a pretty good idea. (via Gizmodo)

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Little Seiko Robot Rides Unicycle

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EST

Murata's Little Seiko is a robot than can ride a unicycle. Not only can Little Seiko ride a unicycle but it can avoid obstacles while doing it. This robot has some impressive balance. (via Gizmodo)

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Android May Sell 400,000 Units in 4th Quarter

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

Geeks and app developers are excited about the launched of T-Mobile's Google Android powered phone. Information Week cites one analyst's forecasts for the new Android phone in the 4th quarter as 400,000 units.

Strategy Analytics has been doing some number crunching. According to its computations, Android will grab 4% of the market for smartphones in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2008. That amounts to some 400,000 units sold. What do you think, is that bullish or bearish?

"We forecast 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the U.S.during Q4 2008," said Neil Mawston, director of wireless device strategies at Strategy Analytics. That's the total market for smartphones, including BlackBerrys, Treos, Windows Mobile devices, Symbian phones, and the iPhone. Despite the buzz building around Android, it has some stiff -- and more experienced -- competition already hunkered down in the trenches.

With the iPhone expected to sell 10 million units this year alone that isn't much of a dent the Android is making. However, if the buzz is good Android could make a bigger dent in 2009. There are some similiarites here to when Microsoft went after Sony's popular PlayStation gaming console by launching the Xbox. A lot of the success will depend on how much marketing Google is willing to do and how much of their money and resources they are willing to give up to make the Android a strong iPhone competitor.

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HTML 5 Not Coming Soon

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

Web Monkey reports that the final proposed recommendation for HTML 5 won't be released until 2022.

If you're a web developer looking forward to the new tools in HTML 5, the next generation of the language that powers the web, we have some bad news for you - you're going to waiting a while.

Ian Hickson, the editor of the HTML 5 specification, recently outlined the time table for HTML 5 and, even assuming browser manufacturers embrace HTML 5 when it reaches the final draft stage, that puts HTML 5's widespread adoption at 2012. Worse, the final proposed recommendation won't be released until 2022.

Yes, you read that right. 2022. Yes, that's thirteen years from now.

If you're thinking that planning how the web will look and work 13 years from now is a little bit ridiculous, you're not alone.

That is ridiculous and super faw away. Won't we have holograms by then anyway? Will we even still care about HTML? This site counts down the days.

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Sony Recalls Vaio laptops

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

Shoppingblog.com reports that Sony is recalling over 400,000 Vaio laptops. You can see the recall note from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission here.

Hazard: Irregularly positioned wires near the computer's hinge and/or a dislodged screw inside the hinge can cause a short circuit and overheating. This poses a burn hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Sony has received 15 reports of overheating, including one consumer who suffered a minor burn.

Description: The recalled notebook computer models are the VAIO VGN-TZ100 series, VGN-TZ200 series, VGN-TZ300 series and VGN-TZ2000 series. The computers? screen size is about 11.1? measured diagonally. Not all units are affected; consumers should contact Sony to determine if their unit is included in the recall.

Sold by: The SonyStyle stores and Web site, authorized electronics retailers, and authorized business-to-business dealers nationwide from July 2007 through August 2008 for between $1,700 and $4,000.

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Pretty But Fake: iHologram iPhone App

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST

The iPhone hologram or iHologram by animator David O'Reilly was a fake but maybe it will be possible someday. It seems a lot closer to what an iPhone hologram might someday look like than the fake holographic text message video made a couple months ago. (via Cult of Mac)

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Apple Rapidly Sells 3 Million iPhones

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST

Fortune is reporting that Apple has quickly sold 3 million of the new iPhones. They had sold 1 million just three days after the July 11th debut.

The blistering sales pace of Apple's new gadget defies the otherwise downward trends in consumer spending, employment levels and overall economic health. The 3 million figure is much higher than Wall Street analysts had anticipated. Forecasts called for total quarterly sales of three million to four million.

Three days after the new iPhone's July 11 debut, Apple announced that it had sold 1 million iPhones. For comparison, it took 74 days for the original iPhone to hit the one million sold mark. The new 3G iPhone has already sold nearly half as many as the original iPhones in total.

Fortune describes three reasons for the blistering iPhone sales. The first reason is the cheaper price. The second reason is people like the iPhone's sleek design. The third reason is that international sales are taking off for the 3G iPhone. People have been waiting for this must faster phone from Apple that uses the 3G technology. Overseas they weren't really going to buy a phone that wasn't up to par.

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Microsoft Surface Sphere

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

This is new product from Microsoft Research. The Sphere uses the Microsoft Surface technology that was first introduced in Octoboer of 2007. Using Microsoft Surface on a spherical surface looks like it works best for the globe of the Earth they show in the video clip. Beyond that a flat surface either as a table or on the wall seems like it would be more useful. Gizmodo has more on the Microsoft Surface Sphere here.

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Webflippers Try to Turn Poorly Designed Websites Into Popular Niche Sites

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:14:00 EST

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article about webflippers - people who buy websites with the hope of improving them and then selling them for a higher price. One webflipper bought bird-cage.com for $1,800 and then sold it three years later for $173,000.

Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought the online store bird-cage.com for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a Web site that was "very, very poorly done," and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000.

Hermansen, 30, is among the latest wave of entrepreneurs who, like the day traders and real estate investors before them, are looking to make a lot of money without much effort.

They use little more than home computers and free software to buy Web sites that appeal to a small and specific niche. Then they fix up the sites with hopes of reselling them for far more than they paid

The article says that webflippers look for niche websites that are poorly-designed and have little search engine exposure. They tweak the website and improve the website's exposure with SEO techniques.

Creating value, though, is the tricky part. Many Web site flippers said they begin by tweaking a site's template and making other superficial changes like adjusting fonts, colors and type sizes. After that, they manipulate a Web site's structure, coding and presentation so it shows up more prominently in Web searches.

In an era when Web use is increasingly search-driven, making sure people find your site makes all the difference, Hermansen said. "Once you beef up traffic, everything else just happens," he added.

It's much easier said than and done and to be able to do it you would have to have very good idea of what the search engines are looking for. But if you have the skills to dramatically increase traffic to a niche website that has little exposure you should be able to flip the website once you are done. One of the places webflippers sell websites is the Sitepoint Marketplace - there are always a number of websites and domains up for sale there.

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Swarm Bots: The Future of Robotics?

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

Instead of a solitary super-intelligent robot how about a swarm of fairly mindless robots cooperating with other swarm-bots to solve tasks? The BBC reports that swarm robots may someday be used for dangerous Mars missions or dangerous jobs here on Earth. The swarm-bots were recently featured at the Artificial Life XI conference.

Demonstrated at the conference the prototypes showed how swarm robots can independently divide up tasks, with no central program controlling them. They skitter around, communicating as they encounter each other via the same kind of infrared technology used in mobile phones.

Red and green lights on the robot were used to show which task they had chosen. After a short while, the group autonomously divided itself - 80% red and 20% green.

The swarm can cope with disruption too. If a handful of the "green" robots are removed from the arena, the remainder will redistribute themselves again into the 80/20 split.

Scientists say this flexibility gives swarm robotics an edge over traditional approaches for far-flung missions.

"You might have some complex robot that is sent to Mars, has a technical problem, and then the mission is basically over," said Klaus-Peter Zauner, the leader of the Southampton swarm robot project.

The article says swarm bots may also be useful for green technologies like solar farms, wave farms and wind farms. These green energy farms are likely to be an isolated areas and it could be very helpful to have swarm robots around to solve problems or remove and install new solar panels. You can read about one swarm-bot project here.

Telegraph.co.uk has another look at swarm bots inspired by social insects like ants and bees. Here's a video from the Telegraph

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