Category: News

USB drives keep getting smaller and smaller. For your viewing pleasure: the Wink. Advertised as the world’s smallest USB drive, it really is quite diminutive.

Ideal for attaching to a keychain or necklace, or smuggling out of a secure data facility in on your body, the Wink is a just solid piece of plastic with contacts on it, providing the minimal hardware required in order to connect to a USB port. Oddly though, it looks almost exactly like a Verbatim Tough-n-Tiny.

They’re available now from your favorite retailer; the flavors it comes in are 2GB for $7.95, 4GB for $10.95, 8GB for $19.95, and 16GB for $37.95.

Yes folks, it’s confirmed. Suda51’s free roaming action video game No More Heroes is getting a high definition treatment, thanks to a new scan from th…

It’s been a week since the American Medical Association reversed its long-held and counterproductive position on medicinal marijuana, but the DEA still included the AMA’s hard line on its website until this evening.

The advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — and online activists — didn’t allow the misinformation to last. The group called on members to email the Department of Justice, and now the bullet point is gone.

While I think the problem was more likely an oversight than an attempt on the part of a government agency to lie to its citizens, LEAP should be congratulated for seeing the error and getting it fixed. The government is aware that advocates for sensible drug policies are watching closely and won’t stand for misinformation. It does feel like the tables have been turned, and this victory is a sign of more to come. Kudos to LEAP for mobilizing quickly and bringing about this change.

And while we’re looking at that hideous DEA site, maybe we should urge the Justice Department to get around to redesigning the DEA website to look all Baracky like the main DOJ site.

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In this episode, we give you a look at the HP Envy 13 and HP Envy 15 notebooks. These are the flagship, top-of-the-line HP notebooks, incorporating great displays with a clickable trackpad (although, it doesn’t support multitouch gestures.) The Envy 13 also has a ridiculous 16-hour battery life. For those of you audiophiles out there that need something with a bit more punch, you’ve got the HP Envy 15 Beats Limited Edition, which comes with the Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones, DJ tools software, and a few custom settings as well. Want one? You can find all three models on Amazon:

• HP Envy 13
• HP Envy 15
• HP Envy 15 BEATS Limited Edition

Hit the video above for the full scoop on the HP Envy notebook line.

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Reader Tina alerts us to an article about how some students in Venezuela have been arrested for using Facebook to monitor other students’ activities, and then rob them while they were out. Of course, it appears the plan wasn’t that foolproof, considering they were caught. The rest of the article discusses Facebook and Twitter usage in Venezuela, and how the police and the government are trying to use those tools to crack down not just on crime, but also on dissent… at the same time that government protesters are using the tools to make themselves more widely heard (and organized). There isn’t that much surprising — and it seems that the role of social networks is merely to amplify what is going on already in the country, which is about what you’d expect. Still, it is interesting to see this sense of wonder that some people have over the fact that not everyone who uses Facebook uses it for “good” reasons.

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Living up by Lake Tahoe, I’m always on the lookout for new gadgets and technology for when I go snowboarding. Case in point: the Burton Vice Mitt. Okay, it’s a mitt, but what’s the vice part? A drink holder, you say?

Designed for skiers and snowboarders, the Vice Mitts are made up of high tech fabric and leather, and feature a zip-out “koozie” that allows you to hold a beverage without your hand getting cold. Seems like an obvious thing really, but Burton is the first company to have this feature. I guess the other guys were afraid people might misuse it. Only energy drinks in that koozie, people!

Priced at $70, the Burton Vice Mitts are probably going to be something I’m going to purchase this year before the season starts.

[via Dvice]

HTC Ceo said on the release of the HD2 that it will be a Windows Mobile only phone. In a recent twit by Arne Hess, it shows the beastly HD2, but what is that in its screen. It is running android in the picture, which does not seem to be Windows Mobile the last time I checked.

Edit: Recently found out this is in fact a great photoshop picture. Still up because its a good photo. He got me good……. well at least we can laugh about it, as well as Wmepxerts are laughing about it too. good one

Get more on this with Wmexperts

WM

Just the thing for playing GTA. One clever modder has mounted 10 LEDs into his PSP 3000.

The L and R buttons flash, there are a couple of LEDs behind the speakers, and the four epilepsy invoking LEDs on the back flash in response to the sound coming out of the thing. Here’s a breakdown of how he did it, if you’re curious.

[Via Ubergizmo]

With an offer that reminds me of the OLPC “give 1, get 1” promotion (but hopefully without the delivery complaints), Digg is selling a Digg-branded shoe, made by TOMS Shoes. For those who haven’t seen its commercials, TOMS Shoes has the catchy promise (called One for One) that for every pair of shoes it sells, it gives away a pair of new shoes to needy kids in developing countries.

This bit of marketing is brilliant because it ties together a nice “reason to buy” story with a physical good (the shoes), and the whole story promotes both Digg and TOMS Shoes. Eventually, I assume Digg and TOMS could also easily create a Threadless-like store for more custom shoes (instead of T-shirt designs). The current shoe design was created by a Digg employee, but it seems possible that Digg users could submit shoe designs of their own. And apparently, TOMS shoes sells T-shirts, too, so Digg users may get to Digg/Bury some T-Shirt designs someday as well.

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It is a known fact that the movie industry is all about creating new fictional or real content for the sole purpose of entertaining viewers by challenging them to either take part in adventures or discover the human spirit. The Indiana Jones franchise has been around for some time now and has made it from the wide screen into our homes by being incorporated into the videogame industry. This is how everyone can experience the thrill of being a great adventurer from the comfort of their own home either by playing new and daring adventures or by reliving some of their favorite movie scenes.

Most particularly, LEGO has embraced the Indiana Jones trade mark since June 2008, ever since the release of the first LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. The result was a smashing hit, in part because the developer created an animated cartoonish figure that abides both the LEGO and the Indiana Jones distinct and unique characteristics. The game was a perfect mix of adventure and good old fashioned fun, and also followed the script of the original motion picture. Children were thrilled because they got to play in a LEGO world and adults were entertained by the humorist events and sense of adventure that the game brought forward.
 

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The graph Acquisition Security Related Policies & Issuances Chart (acq.osd.mil, PDF version) by the Office of the Director, Defence Research and Engineering is meant to increase the awareness of existing policies, in order to improve compliance, and to get policymakers to reflect about writing “one more policy” now that they are able to observe the huge existing “heap” they actually contribute to. The chart’s designers are interested in your constructive feedback to make it better (and maybe help your country at the same time?).

The chart organizes acquisition security policies and guidance by purpose and the responsible offices. It shows all policies a typical acquisition program may need to comply with, and links them directly to the appropriate texts. The bins or categories for the policies emerged during the creation process itself: some policies clearly spanned multiple bins, and were placed appropriately, by overlapping across multiple bins.

The creators of the graph (3 people who worked over a period of more than 3 months) claim they have gotten positive feedback from the “operational crowd”, that is the people who actually “use” this to do their work. The target audiences are DoD “acquisition program managers” and “security people” who are responsible for complying with these policies, and DoD “acquisition security policy makers” who contribute to this rich policy universe.

The chart was designed in Microsoft Visio, which enabled including hyperlinks from policy boxes to their full texts, making the graph interactive and more “than just wall art”. In the future, they like to make the chart more interactive such that users could tick certain criteria and only the relevant policies would stay visible.

Any ideas for improvement?

Product differentiation is getting more and more difficult these days. The lozenge-shaped, touch-enabled, all-purpose computing device is fast on its way, and while things like the Courier are still serving up surprises, you could be forgiven for thinking most of these big blank screens are pretty similar. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see some smart additions to the tablet form factor in this concept design by T3. While I think a lot of these additions might be very difficult to get right, I don’t see why we shouldn’t give them a shot.

A slide-out keyboard, for instance. It’s going to be a battle over the next few years whether to include a hard keyboard or not. I personally like a hard keyboard smaller devices like mobiles, but it’s possible that a soft keyboard will be perfectly usable on larger tablets like the CrunchPad and that Apple one. A slide-out keyboard would have to be a compromise, because there’s almost no room for key depression. But a little give is better than none.

The “control strip” is a great idea. With little OLED displays like those the Optimus Maximus and G19 keyboards becoming more common, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have a little context-sensitive strip like that. You kind of saw what it could do in that four-screened laptop from a few months back, but that was pretty over the top. We’re talking media controls, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggles, that kind of thing. Putting it on the slanted edge there separates it physically but not visually and really is a great solution.

Multi-purpose, convertible casing: if someone can pull this off, it’d be awesome. An integrated screen protector that doubles as a stand? God damn, sign me up. If it’s reliable, it’d really simplify the accessory situation.

The trouble, of course, is that this little “Netpad,” as they call it, would cost a mint. The many moving parts, expensive materials (carbon fiber, magnesium), and multiple touchscreen surfaces would probably propel the final price to… I’d guess about $2000 at least. And since part of the selling point of tablets is their simplicity and low cost, you’d have trouble making money with the thing, cool as it is. Still, if any of these features make it into the next generation of tablets, I’ll be pumped.

More info over at T3, where hopefully they’ll continue updating this thing.

This is an interesting article from New Scientist about some companies that are working on producing EPA, DHA, and STA in plants:

US FDA says omega-3 oils from GM soya are safe to eat

Excerpt:

“BASF has inserted five genes from algae that naturally make EPA and DHA into the canola genome. Its product is still in development.

“Monsanto has taken a different approach. It inserted two genes into the soybean genome, one from a plant related to primrose and one from a fungus. The modified soybean produces stearidonic acid, or SDA. Like ALA, SDA is converted into EPA in the body, but in much higher proportions….”

2009Nov17: The world is now on course for the IPCC’s worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, according to the 31 researchers from seven countries involved in the Global Carbon Project. The Global Carbon Project study was led by Professor Corinne Le Quéré, of the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey (Independent.co.uk ).

Reference: Independent.co.uk http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/world-on-course-for-catastrophic-6deg-rise-reveal-scientists-1822396.html

Read the CSIRO media release. 2009Nov17. Available online at Global Carbon Project http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/08/press-releases.htm

Image Description: Artist impression of the human perturbation of the global carbon cycle. Credits: © Global Carbon Project I Glynn Gorick Image Location: Global Carbon Project http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/08/images.htm Image Permission: Illustrative Photos (available free for Carbon Budget editorials if credited as specified).

The article reviewed here is ‘Literature and Happiness’ by Norman Holland and published in the journal Psyart in 2007. Psyart publishes articles which examine psychological perspectives on the arts. In the abstract (headnote), Holland writes that

‘I maintain that we do literature because it is fun, because it makes us happy. And it makes us happy because the act of experiencing literature mimcs the brain processes of successful living‘

I was intrigued to read a little more to see what Holland meant by this. He begins by looking at the origins of the word happiness and an overlap with terms such as luck in indoeuropean languages. He then describes a modern meaning in which the pursuit of happiness is validated in a western society. Indeed this features in the positive psychology movement (see review here). He writes about reading for pleasure and as a literary critic and then discusses psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi’s description of happiness in flow – equivalent to absorption in a task. He then equates the first type of reading – the reading for pleasure with the activation of a wanting and liking system – the neurological correlates of which are the mesocortical and mesolimbic systems. He refers to a Seeking model described elsewhere with regards to the wanting and liking systems. This is where he draws the analogy with ’successful living’ as he suggests that the cycle of wanting and liking are routine and exclusive drivers of our behaviours. With regards to literary criticism he relates this to activity within the peri-aqueductal grey matter (PAG). The connection he makes is with a theory of ‘personal style’ described elsewhere in which the PAG plays a prominent role.

In terms of other articles reviewed previously this has a different tone far removed from papers describing studies with quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The article is essentially an essay in which a structured hypothesis is described. There are various methodologies that could be used to explore this model in further detail ranging from focus groups through to surveys and imaging studies. Nevertheless this ‘top-level’ informal-at-times discussion is just as valid as rigorous qualitative or quantitative studies in that it disseminates a speculative model which can lead to further discussion. There are many reasons for reading and many functions that it may satisfy as well as numerous brain regions or systems that may be involved in the process quite apart from the PAG, mesolimbic and mesocortical systems although each should start with a suitable evidence to justify their inclusion in the model. Is my peri-aqueductal grey matter helping ‘me’ to write this review? I’m not entirely sure, but until I’d read this paper I wouldn’t have entered my stream of consciousness. There at least it has already had some success.

References

Holland N. Literature and Happiness. Psyart. Gainesville. 2007. I page. ISSN: 10885870.

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