Do you have a gym membership you never use? You’re definitely not the only one. And, according to a story in the Telegraph, you’re better off buying a dog than signing up for a gym membership if you want to get fit. So, with that in mind, here are … Read more
It’s been over five years since garage door opener company Chamberlain lost its bizarre DMCA case, which tried to argue that anyone making competing replacement garage door openers was violating the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA. If you believed Chamberlain, then it would mean that the DMCA could effectively be used to block out any competition in replacement parts just by using a bit of encryption. The court’s ruling was a bit convoluted, basically saying that this simply couldn’t be what Congress intended with the DMCA, even if it was sorta what the language of the law actually said. This was a victory, in that it did limit the DMCA against a ridiculous situation, but it was unfortunate in that the ruling didn’t address what the law actually said. To get around this, the court did a few different things, including noting that what Skylink did with its competing garage door openers didn’t really involve “unauthorized access,” which is key to the anti-circumvention clause. As the courts recognized, how could Chamberlain tell homeowners that they couldn’t authorize the opening of their own garage door?
Fast forward five years, and most tech/copryight folks haven’t thought too much about garage door openers and their relation to the DMCA… until Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson moved into a new house, and noticed his garage door opener manual (from Chamberlain, of course). The manual was from 2006… well after Chamberlian had lost its case. And yet… the manual contained clear DMCA-style anti-circumvention language, stating:
NOTICE: If this Security+ garage door opener is operated with a non-rolling code transmitter, the technical measure in the receiver of the garage door opener, which provides security against code-theft devices, will be circumvented. The owner of the copyright in the garage door opener does not authorize the purchaser or supplier of the non-rolling code transmitter to circumvent that technical measure.
What’s quite clear is that Chamberlain is trying to legaleze its way around the court rulings against it, by stating in the manual that you are not authorized to get around its little bit of technical trickery. Basically, it sounds like Chamberlain’s lawyers saw the loophole in the judges twisted reasoning to get around what the DMCA does state, and have jumped gleefully through that loophole. Of course, the lawyers Anderson questioned doubt that this would hold up in court, but the real question is whether or not this would ever go back to court. Chamberlain may just be hoping that enough people are scared off by the questionable legal language that it doesn’t need to file lawsuits, and competing product makers probably don’t find it worthwhile to file their own lawsuit either. But, in the meantime, we get to see yet another remnant of what the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause has created.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Homebrew coder tombot has recently released a new version of The 15th Floor, an excellent looking homebrew adventure/puzzle game for the Nintendo DS inspired by titles like Myst, Crimson Room, and Hotel Dusk. The latest update is
I am still not convinced that we need special laws mandating net neutrality, but I find the arguments from telcos that no one would ever block sites or services to be highly unbelievable. There have been cases of it happening in the past, and there are cases of it happening now. Shocklee points us to the news that a Russian ISP has been blocking websites that the government has dubbed “extremist,” even though they include political opposition sites like Garry Kasparov’s Kasparov.ru, Solidarity’s Rusolidarnost.ru and the National Bolshevik Party’s Nazbol.ru. Combine that with attempts in the UK and Australia to give the government the ability to make up secret lists of sites that should be blocked by ISPs, and you can see why some believe it’s important, as a fundamental principle, that ISPs should allow access to any site. US telcos say that they are in the business of encouraging free speech, and they would be crazy to block sites, but what we’re seeing around the world suggests that there are times when ISPs do decide to block sites, and it’s often due to political pressure from governing parties.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Napa County, California | Geological Oddities
The same turbulent forces that heat the waters of Calistoga’s famous hot springs and geysers once turned a forest to stone. 3.5 million years ago an ancient volcano knocked down and buried a forest, including grove of enormous redwoods. Their grey stone effigies were uncovered in 1857, and excavated over the following decades.
Petrified trees are not uncommon. Once buried in volcanic ash and deprived of oxygen, over a period ranging from a hundred to hundreds of thousands of years, the organic materials that make up organic matter, like trees, are replaced by silica. The resulting stone fossil retains all of the marking of the original tree, including bark, rings, and knots, and are laying exactly as they fell millions of years ago. Petrified forests have been found all over the world, but the forest in Calistoga is remarkable for the shear size of the enormous redwoods preserved, some thought to have been as old as 2000 years when they were felled. They are among the largest petrified trees found anywhere.
The property has changed hands many times over the decades since its discovery, but it is still a small family run operation. In the 1880s Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about his visit to the forest and its eccentric owner in his book The Silverado Squatters, and there is now a tree named for him along the trail. The height of the forest’s notoriety and excavation work was done starting in 1914 under the guidance of Ollie Bockee, who’s publicity efforts included sending a log off to the city of New York and getting another log included in the wonders on display at the San Francisco Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915.
Today, about a half mile of trail wanders though the woodland with signs and markers indicating specific tress, some of which are only half excavated. A gift shop located in the ground floor of the home Ollie Bockee built has a collection of fossils and petrified wood from around the world on display and for sale.
Head’s up PS3 owners. In case you were not aware, today, United Front Games and SCEA has let loose the much awaited public beta of ModNation Racers for everyone who were lucky enough to grab the voucher
frustrating thing yesterday, ive stuck some bad sites and threw 2 insets out yesterday because of blood filling up the tubing. sucks! 🙁
Ingredients:
8 ounces each portabello, cremini and white button mushrooms, rough chop
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup shallots, rough chop
10 cloves garlic, rough chop
1/2 cup carrot, rough chop
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 Tbsp. cognac
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1/2 cup fresh parsley, packed, leaves only
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
salt and pepper
Place mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. Preheat a large saute pan on medium high heat and add the olive oil. Transfer mushrooms and begin saute.
In the meantime place the shallots, garlic and carrot into the food processor and pulse to coarse chop. Add this mixture to the mushrooms and stir to blend. Add thyme, cognac, sherry and season to taste with salt and pepper if desired. Saute for about 8 to 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is evaporated. Transfer to food processor and pulverize. Add the cream cheese and parsley and pulse to combine well.
Transfer mushroom mixture to a bowl or other container with acover. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Some commonly used pate accompaniments are cornichon or gherkin pickles, olives and capers. Add these for a lovely presentation with crackers or endive spears if desired when serving.
Nutrition Facts
28 – 2 Tablespoon Servings – 3 1/2 Cups
Amount Per Serving
Calories 48.5
Total Fat 3.9 g
Saturated Fat 1.9 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.5 g
Cholesterol 8.9 mg
Sodium 27.7 mg
Potassium 121.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 2.1 g
Dietary Fiber 0.5 g
Sugars 0.6 g
Protein 1.5 g
 From left: NASA, Seoul National Univ., CERN |
The milestones of the past decade in space and science include the 2003 Columbia tragedy, stem cell research and the debut of the Large Hadron Collider. |
Some may call the decade that’s ending the “aughts” or the “noughties,” but you could also think of the 2000-2009 time frame as the double-oh decade. In the world of science, the past 10 years have brought us plenty of “Oh! Oh!” moments – and a few uh-ohs as well. In honor of the decade’s denouement, we present a triple scoop of scientific highlights.
First up is our own list of the top 10 science stories of the decade, stretching from the unveiling of the human genome in 2001 to this year’s revelations about water ice on the moon.
…(read more)Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Videos, Honda, Saturn, Volkswagen
The mad men at Adweek recently voted for the Commercial of the Decade (Super Bowl commercials not included) and Honda took top honors over memorable ads from the last ten years by companies like Nike, Budweiser and Sony. That’s not a big surprise considering Honda often puts a huge amount of effort into its on-air spots. However, the Japanese automaker didn’t win for the commercial you might have expected: “Cog.” Though Honda’s famous commercial that breaks down a European Accord Tourer into a Rube Goldberg-esque machine was also a finalist, it was beaten by another Honda commercial called “Grrr” that’s narrated by Garrison Keillor of all people. You’ve probably never seen it, but you can after the jump.
Volkswagen also made the list of finalists, but the particular ad chosen out of all the comical VW ads we’ve seen was unexpected as well. Most surprising carmaker with a commercial in the finals: Saturn. Who knew…
Just for fun we’ve put all 27 commercials after the break with the auto-related ones at the top, so you can enjoy the swear jar, the creepy-funky Philips clowns, a “rabbit panther thingy with turbines on ice,” and the most sad-but-hilarious IKEA commercial we’ve ever seen. As a bonus we included the Gears of War commercial since we think it deserves a mention, and because it’s almost the weekend and it doesn’t always have to be about cars, does it? Follow the jump for the ad-fest.
[Source: Adweek]
Continue reading Honda wins Commercial of the Decade, but not for the ad you think [w/VIDEO]
Honda wins Commercial of the Decade, but not for the ad you think [w/VIDEO] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
There was some buzz earlier this year concerning reports that new streaming apps, like Spotify, somehow decreased unauthorized access to music. And yet, a new study from BPI suggests unauthorized access to music continues to grow, despite the rise of authorized services like Spotify. Now, there are some caveats. BPI isn’t exactly known for being entirely accurate with data and these results are from an online survey. While you would think that fewer people would admit to unauthorized access in an online survey (people don’t like to fess up), counteracting that is the fact that BPI has incentives to suggest the issue of piracy is a big deal, as it’s pushing hard to force ISPs to kick people offline for file sharing. Still, what strikes me as interesting is that BPI still keeps insisting that this is a “problem,” without any evidence that this is true. The only real “problem” is the failure of the record labels that BPI represents to adjust their business models. If they did that, there wouldn’t be much of a problem at all. But, the labels don’t want to do that. They want the government to rescue them and to pretend they can keep doing business they way they always did.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Florida, US | Unique Collections
Once described by Ronald Reagan as a “true national treasure,” the Presidents Hall of Fame in Clermont, Florida has featured (and replicated) White House memorabilia since 1960. Originally a popular wax museum called the “House of Presidents,” the attraction changed names in 1990 to reflect its growing exhibitions. Today, the “Presidents Hall of Fame” includes animatronics, White House replicas and, most notably, Americana miniatures.
Outside, visitors will be greeted by smaller replicas of Mt. Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial, as well as one of the former parade limousines used by past U.S. Presidents. Inside, visitors will be met by wax figures of the current U.S. President and First Lady, dressed in a replica of her Inaugural Gown. An animatronic figure of President Lincoln awaits nearby, as well as a wax figure set at the scene of the Ford Theatre, moments before Lincoln’s assassination.
Many original artifacts are displayed throughout the exhibition, such as former White House china, old Christmas cards, and even two champagne glasses which Reagan and Gorbachev once sipped from. Much praise has also been given to the replicas featured, including a full size model of the famous “Resolute Desk,” as well as a recreation of Lincoln’s bedroom.
What has drawn the most attention, however, are the detailed miniatures on display. All created by the museum owners, John and Jan Zweifel, the small scale replicas have toured the world, as well as gone on display in the Smithsonian. The most well-known figure is The Miniature White House, an entirely hand-made model which the Zweifel’s have painstakingly worked on since 1962.
The miniature was designed on a 1 inch to 1 foot scale of the White House, and features include working mini televisions, crystal chandeliers, and updated versions of the Oval Office as the decor changes with each administration. While on tour in Holland, the model was even attacked by a group of Anti-American vandals. Though much of the model suffered damage, all has since been repaired.
Although the model remains in the President’s Hall of Fame permanent collection, it travels throughout the country for most of the year. Luckily, visitors can still see portions of it on display at the museum. Other miniatures include a depiction of the White House at the time of its construction, as well as a three ring circus designed by John Zweifel when he was only twelve years old.
Additionally, be sure to stop by the Citrus Tower next door, where you can view the tiny Mt. Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial from 500 feet up!
Filed under: Motorsports, Hybrid, Toyota
Toyota‘s pulled out of F1, but that doesn’t mean the company has lost its will to win with cutting edge tech. Rumors suggest it’s dusting off the underpinnings of the Hybrid Supra HV-R it used to win the Tokkachi 24-Hour race two years ago, and staring at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a glint in its eye.
The Supra HV-R used a 473-horsepower V8 that gets help from regenerative braking, a quick-charging capacitor, and three additional electric motors: two in the front wheels, one in the back of the car. Toyota would need to upgrade the tech, prep the car for the GT1 class, and test it, so a 2012 race entry is hypothesized were such a thing to happen.
As far as we’re concerned, anything that could lead to bringing back a Supra — even if only in race trim to begin with — is all right with us. Especially one with 473 horses, gobs of torque and a date with the Mulsanne straight. Toyota, please do this…
Gallery: Denso SARD Supra HV-R
[Source: Autocar]
REPORT: Toyota Supra HV-R GT hybrid coming to LeMans originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
The all-new Sienna is chock-full of features: Impressive lounge seating, a widescreen monitor and a competent chassis. Plus, it was developed by Kazuo Mori, a tried-and-true sports car devotee. But is it cool enough to bring the minivan back from the brink?
A Lexus insider supplied us with pictures and details of how Toyota is dealing with its “unintended acceleration” issue. The fix might seem simple, but the process is anything but.
After a protracted saga that’s seen bidders drop in-and-out and old model tooling and assets sold off to the Chinese, the enigmatic brand known as Saab is dead. Now what?
Browse our archive of Daily U-Turn posts or subscribe to the RSS feed
Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 12.18.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler
The photo above, from Chrysler‘s press conference at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, is nothing but things that are no more. The gorgeous 200C EV has evaporated. The gentlemen on the podium, Jim Press and Tom LaSorda, have gone their various ways. And the background is arrayed with ENVI electric cars that are all (most likely) gone, as well as the division that created them. Everything swallowed by waves in Chrysler’s Year of the Storm.
This year Chrysler is practically avoiding the hubbub entirely, in that it will have no press conference at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. It won’t be for lack of cars: they’ll have items from all four brands, including some limited-edition models. Chrysler’s head of marketing, Olivier Francois, said that after the big event last month to reveal the long-term plan, “We presented our plans and the next step is to present the cars.”
Understandably, industry observers seem to think that it’s a bad idea for Chrysler to go mum in Detroit. Chrysler’s a private company and no outsider knows what the real situation is inside the castle walls. If Chrysler does go for the splash of a press conference, with no new models to show or even talk about they’ll be ripe for charges of “All that’s great talk now show us the cars!” That makes it sound like a case of being damned either way. But at least they’ll be there, unlike Saab…
[Source: The Detroit News]
Party’s Over: No Chrysler press conference at Detroit Auto Show originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
If you believe the marketing hype, you aren’t really a true Mac user unless you have MobileMe. MobileMe is pushed heavily in the Mac and iPhone UI as well as the Apple retail environment. Fancy terms like “beyond the box sales” are a clever way of saying “high profit” for Apple.
Let’s break down the features of MobileMe see if it’s worth it. The retail price of MobileMe is $99, though discounts abound, but for this article, let’s stick with the $99 price. My calculator app says this comes to $8.25 a month, or a little more than a quarter a day. Pretty cheap, but can you cut it out and save some money? What if Apple sold the features a la carte, like we wish our cable companies would do with channels? With a bit of research, here are what I think are the market rates for each of these features (or at least what I would pay for them).
Ring my iPhone/Display a message (Free)
The ability to force your phone to ring, even when it’s in vibrate mode is nice. However, we all got along OK before that feature was implemented. It’s nice, but I wouldn’t pay for it.
Remote Lock and Remote Wipe ($4.99 per month)
We all know Liz Lemon’s ordeal with her iPhone. While I don’t have adult photos on my iPhone, I do have information I’d rather not fall into the wrong hands. Being able to remotely lock and then possibly wipe my iPhone is really of great value to me. It’s peace of mind insurance and I’ll price it like AT&T’s insurance for other phones. Those who are not as concerned with having their phone fall into others’ hands may not value this as much as I do.
Find my Phone on the Map ($5.00 or combine with Remote Lock/Wipe for $7.50)
AT&T has a GPS service for other phones called “AT&T Family Map” and charges $9.99 to track up to two people. Since this is for just one phone, I divided the cost in half. Being able to find your phone when you lose it is awesome. I value this feature the same as the Remote Lock and Wipe: peace of mind if the phone gets lost. One without the other would be helpful and have pretty much the same value. Combine the two and I expect a bit of a discount.
iDisk (Free for 2 GB, .25 for each additional GB)
Yawn. 20 GB of storage in the cloud. Who doesn’t store data in the cloud these days? Standard pricing seems to be to give two GB away for free and charge about 25 cents for each additional GB (See DropBox or SugarSync). Given the fact that the iDisk tends to be rather slow, I’m not sure I’d want to pay much at all. The “seamless” desktop synchronization of the iDisk can’t match the true automatic synchronization of DropBox and SugarSync
Back To My Mac (Free)
Being able to remotely get files off your Mac? There’s an app for that and it was first developed in late 1980s and was named Timbuktu. In addition to Timbuktu (which still exists), these days there are free products such as LogMeIn Free and VNC (See my review of iPhone remote apps). Additionally, Back To My Mac isn’t 100% reliable, and if you can better rely on other free products, then how much is it really worth?
MobileMe Gallery (Free)
Online photo gallery? Who doesn’t have one these days? Flickr and Facebook fit the bill nicely and if you don’t like those social networking sites pretty much anyone who develops film today will give you a free online gallery, with occasional minor restrictions.
Me.com Email (Free)
Would anyone actually pay for web-based email? Really? With offerings from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, someone has to be really out of the loop to be paying for web based email. Granted, Me.com makes it pretty and easy, but it’s more a matter of personal preference than any true value. Sending large files and sharing them are easy, but countless services exist to help with just that. The average user rarely needs to send a large file that one of these services doesn’t support.
iWeb Publishing (Free)
For those of us who use iWeb, MobileMe makes publishing delightfully simple. You can publish to other sites with a bit of a workaround, and those workarounds are easy to find on the web, so paying for this feature is for people who don’t know how to Google.
Over the Air Syncing ($2.00)
The value of this is based on Verizon’s Backup Assistant program that will back up your contacts for almost any Verizon phone. When we look at the T-Mobile Sidekick it’s included with the service. For syncing files between computers, see Dropbox and SugarSync. Contacts and calendars can be synced using Google as a conduit (See BusySync). Having your keychains and widgets synced is nice, but workarounds with other syncing software allow you to do that as well.
Personally, this is the killer feature of MobileMe for me. I work with a large number of clients and all my contacts and appointments are on my iPhone. Before I can get to a desktop to sync, I’ll often have made a few appointments and might accidentally double book myself if I didn’t have this feature. Sure, I could use Google to do it exclusively but that’s a few extra steps and time is often of the essence for me.
All of it working together as one package (Free or Priceless)
Seamless integration is nice, don’t get me wrong. Would I be willing to pay for it? Not really. I’d rather save money buying the features I need and make them work together myself, manually. For some people, the very reason they bought an iPhone instead of another mobile device is due to the ease of use factor, so for these folks, the more everything works together without thinking about it, the better.
So what’s my personal decision? When I add the Remote wipe/lock/find/ring feature ($7.50) with the Over the Air Syncing ($2.00), MobileMe justifies itself. Other features really aren’t worth paying for. So again, how much would you pay and what features are most valuable for you? Operators are standing by.
With France gearing up to dump another billion dollars at its own anti-Google book scanning project, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a French court has ruled that Google’s book scanning project violates copyright law. It’s also fining Google 10,000 euros per day until it removes the books in question. Better solution: just block people from French IPs from accessing Google Books.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Filed under: Chevrolet, GM, Earnings/Financials
Prior to declaring bankruptcy, General Motors began delaying new products in an effort to conserve cash. The news was disappointing to enthusiasts and brand loyalists, but with its cash piles dwindling, the General didn’t have many alternatives. Post-bankruptcy, GM finds itself with $40 billion in cash and a lot less overhead, so where is the money being spent? Automotive News reports that Vice Chairman Bob Lutz confirms that many of the products that were delayed are now being accelerated, adding “Once we got out of the bankruptcy and started having money available, we were able to pull a lot of our programs forward.”
One example of the pull-forward is the next-generation Chevrolet Malibu. Early this Fall, GM told us that the next Malibu would arrive in 2012, but Lutz says that time frame has been pulled up to 2011. The next Malibu will reportedly be all-new with a platform based off of the Buick LaCrosse and 2011 Buick Regal. The new ‘Bu will apparently have a shorter wheelbase than the current model while still managing more interior room.
Lutz told AN that the uplevel Malibu will have chrome appliques lining the side windows, a trait he says is associated with German and Japanese luxury vehicles. Lutz apparently added that $50 worth of chrome translates into an additional $500 to $600 in perceived value to customers. Beyond the Malibu, Lutz noted that there are “a bunch” of other vehicles being pulled forward to pre-bankruptcy production cadences, though he didn’t offer any specific examples.
[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]
REPORT: GM to speed up development of vehicles delayed by bankruptcy originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Article Tags: Alex Jones, Audio, Copenhagen Conference, Piers Corbyn, Updated, YouTube
Source: infowars.com
The world’s biggest oil producers in OPEC turned out to be among the quietest of the several hundreds of groups attending Copenhagen.
What happened to public demands for many billions of dollars in financial compensation from consumer nations for using less oil down the road, a possibility prior to the conference? Not a whimper here.
Like many interest groups trying to protect and advance their own turf, ministers and officials from OPEC states made a lot of noise ahead of the UN meeting, fearful of what a comprehensive deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions might do to future demand for their oil.
But the prospect of a bold pact during the two-week confab never quite got off the ground. What finally emerged, in the last minutes Friday, was far short of what most were expecting when Copenhagen began. That made it a lot easier for OPEC officials to stay mum and even to apparently muzzle some who’d been the loudest prior to the conference.
Saudi Arabia basically pushed its chief climate change negotiator, Mohammed Al-Sabban, into the shade during the two-week conference after he’d made various public pre-conference comments toughly criticizing how a new carbon-reduction pact might impact oil producers and about climate-change science, according to one Saudi official. Sabban was virtually silent, a contrast to many other negotiating bigwigs here.
Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s long-time oil minister known for his measured thinking and carefully worded ways, was basically the public face for the kingdom and very little was heard from him.
That said, there will be other Copenhagens down the road–Friday’s compromise agreement ensured that–and OPEC will face the music at some point of a new, comprehensive and legally binding pact for capping carbon-emissions. Then we’ll hear what tune the OPEC band really plays.
