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Needless to say, the 2010 Acura ZDX is a peculiar beast. And after a week’s worth of testing, we’re still not sure what to make of it.

Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Max Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Review: 2010 Acura ZDX is a space (challenged) oddity

Review: 2010 Acura ZDX is a space (challenged) oddity originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs is sick of getting asked about Adobe Flash. You could see it all over his face in the Q&A after the iPhone 4.0 preview, when he faced questions about it. He’s even been quoted behind closed doors railing about Flash, branding it outdated, last-gen technology.

Enough is enough, he’s probably thinking. So in an unusual turn of events, the CEO — who is not known for explaining himself or his decisions — has written an open letter… you know, explaining himself and his decision, at least in regards to Flash.

People who remember Apple’s background with Adobe might be gratified to see him reference it. After this nicety, he immediately gets down to business, hitting a primary accusation head on: The suspicion that he’s foregoing Flash just to protect his App Store. (If users could game via online Flash sites or watch Hulu on mobile Safari, would they hit the App Store as often?) But according to Jobs, it’s not about that: “…it is based on technology issues.”

Here’s a summary of the rest, with some reactions, followed by the original letter that was released, in its entirety:

Openness
“…they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.” Jobs then waxes poetic about the openness of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, and references Apple’s development of WebKit, an open web standard that’s gained traction across many mobile devices. What he’s saying is that Apple supports openness.

(Wow. Seriously? That’s like the pot calling the kettle really, crazy, ridiculously hypocritical. When did you become a champion for openness? If I were an iPhone app developer, I might have some choice words to insert here.)

The “full web”
Jobs cites Adobe’s claim that Apple devices don’t get “‘the full web,’ since 75% of video on the web is in Flash.” Jobs then asserts that most of this video is indeed available to iPhones via H.264, and then rattles off a bunch of iPhone-compatible apps, like YouTube, CBS, Netflix, Facebook, etc… plus HTML5 sites and game apps. “iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.”

(Steve, good on you or whoever got ABC, Netflix, etc… streaming onboard. But there’s still a big glaring hole. If I were you, I’d get Hulu to play ball ASAP. Once that happens, your argument might stand a chance of somewhat resonating with end users.)

Reliability, security and performance
“Flash is the number one reason Macs crash… [and still] We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.” He cites that Flash’s launch date for smartphones keeps getting pushed back. “We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?”

(Good argument. And still, the majority of web developers writing for cross-platform multimedia use this. There’s a third alternative here: Including a setting switch to let users turn Flash support on or off, like many full browser plugins do. Plus, if your snazzy new A4 processor goes into the new iPhone, couldn’t that help matters?)

Battery life
“To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware.… Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264…” Flash, he admits, now supports H.264, but most sites use older decoders. That means mobile devices have to use software to decode those vids, and that’s a massive power drain (as much twice the drain than hardware decoding on iPhones).

(Another good point, but is it good enough to justify your rigid Flash ban? Again, users — many of whom want or need access to Flash sites — can decide for themselves if a given site or vid is worth the battery drain.)

Touch UI
“…many Flash websites rely on ‘rollovers’, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot.” But touchscreen users have no mouse, so Jobs asserts that these sites would need to rewrite things for a touch UI anyway. And “if developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?”

(Wait, you’re telling web developers that their sites don’t work well for touch, so why not redo the whole thing using a totally different standard? Perhas you’ve been among the corporate elite too long. Not everyone is CNN, and some small businesses and individuals don’t exactly have the resources to do that all at once.)

The most important reason
This one has everything to do with the devs. And the argument Jobs makes almost seems to defend them: “If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features.”

(Apparently, no one else should decide when or if developers can update their own apps — well, at least not unless it’s Apple…)

So obviously, Steve isn’t going to budge on this Adobe Flash issue. And he does make some excellent points in his letter. But do they justify the utter and complete blocking of it across Apple’s entire mobile platform? I genuinely don’t think so.

But the mere fact that he wrote this letter to begin with is interesting, and uncharacteristic. He’s appealing to people to see his point of view. And that’s practically unheard of for Jobs, he of tight-lipped corporate policy and rigid (even perplexing) rules of behavior.

Much of the Apple news these days doesn’t seem to be overwhelmingly positive — given lost prototypes, acquisitions, lawsuits, et al. And while this letter may not truly appease, it does seem like an acknowledgement on his part that some sort of PR was needed for Apple. Of course, any attempt by Jobs to “humanize” himself or his company in the face of the public was destined to be a little awkward and kind of strange. And this was, no doubt. But it’s a start.

And who knows? If there’s even a grain of truth to the notion that he supports openness, it would be great to see that trickle down into his public persona and internal decisions. I’m not holding my breath on that one, but I can hope.

___________________________

Steve Jobs open letter, issued via press release

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

After a short alpha testing period, Skyfire 2.0 is now available in the Android Market as a public beta. This alternative browser is unique because it offers the ability to play some Flash videos (sorry, no Hulu). Cool features include the SkyBar which automatically detects video, searches for recommendations, and allows you to easily share content with your friends.

Grab the beta now and check out your favorite site with Flash video. Skyfire already plays millions of videos and it is learning new sites every day.

Highlights of Skyfire 2.0 beta include:

• VIDEO: magically offers up videos that appear as broken links on all other mobile browsers, enabling Flash video to play quickly and smoothly.
• EXPLORE: reads your mind and presents smart recommendations for related media content from sources such as YouTube, Twitter, Google, Digg and more.
• SHARE: makes browsing social, with one-click share features to help you get the word out.
• Supports Flash web video with patent-pending adaptive streaming technology for smooth playback
• Pinch to zoom (on Android 2.0 and above)
• Multi-tab browsing – open up to eight windows and browse simultaneously using visual tabs
• Choose to load full desktop webpages or mobile optimized versions
• Clear session history easily upon exit to maintain anonymous browsing

Related Posts

• Skyfire announces Android browser, acquires Kolbysoft
• Skyfire alternative browser seeks alpha testers
• Firefox Mobile a.k.a. Fennec schedules a date with Android
• xScope Browser: The fastest alternative browser for Android?
• Mozilla ramps up Firefox development for Android, nightly builds coming soon

The Skyfire browser brings the desktop web experience to the phone, and until today Android phone owners were unable to share in that experience. Skyfire 2.0 has been released today for the Android platform, and the full Flash experience (sorry Jobs) is part of the package. Skyfire uses server-side page rendering to bring web pages to the phone screen looking like they do on the desktop. Video streaming also works with few compromises, according to the developer.

This second major version of Skyfire introduces the SkyBar, a toolbar that improves the ability to play video, explore the web and to share web information with friends. To get Skyfire 2.0 for Android, visit the Skyfire web site.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Google’s Mobile Strategy: Understanding the Nexus One

Meet Consumerist reader Jerry. He’s in the middle of moving and has shut off his Comcast internet service as he prepares to vacate his current abode. And while Comcast has made the nice offer of coming out to pick up his modem free of charge, there’s a hitch — It’s his modem, not theirs.

Take it away, Jerry:

I just checked my voicemail to find a wonderful message from someone calling on behalf of Comcast. I shut off my Comcast services last month as I was moving out of my apartment, and now they are wanting me to return my cable modem, and that I can schedule a time for them to pick up the modem at no cost.

The problem is, I bought the modem long before I started receiving service from Comcast, and as far as I know, it is a brand and model of modem that Comcast doesn’t even lease out.

All of this is also coming after a very long (over an hour) discussion with a confused Comcast customer service rep months earlier about removing/refunding the monthly modem lease fee from my bill, as my modem does not, and never has, belonged to Comcast.

I called them back, and explained that I purchased the modem on my own, years ago. The rep needed me to provide the modem’s serial number. I didn’t have it since my modem was boxed up somewhere back home and I was calling from work. She advised me to call back when I could get the serial number. It’s just my opinion, but I believe that the burden should be on them to prove they own the modem, not me.

Has this happened to anyone else?

If a climate bill doesn’t become law this year, the inclination among many progressives will be to blame President Obama for his lack of leadership.  And frankly progressives should be critical of Obama:   In a bunch of pretty speeches he has repeatedly said the climate and clean energy jobs bill was a signature issue that would determine whether America achieves “lasting prosperity” or “decline” (see “Success or failure for Obama Presidency hangs in the balance” with climate bill).

But two recent stories remind us of who really is to blame for two decades of inaction.  The first is “House Republicans Organize to Thwart Climate Legislation” in Roll Call (subs. req’d), which opens, “House Republicans have launched a new ‘real-time’ e-mail, Internet and media offensive aimed at fueling public opposition to Democrats’ climate proposals.”

The second is an article in UK’s Telegraph, “Britain’s silent, green revolution:  “All the major parties are signed up to transforming Britain into a green, low-carbon economy to boost growth, as well as to combat climate change.”

Together they underscore a central point that I make in my new book, Straight Up (click here to purchase):

Only one political force could stop a climate bill in 2010, the same force that has impeded action for more than a decade — the hard-core antiscience crowd that dominates much of conservative politics these days and that demagogues against even the most modest efforts to promote clean energy and reduce pollution

This emerging conservative litmus on climate is in many respects unique to U.S. politics, as the book notes.  In the British reaction to the stolen emails, the top environmental leader for the conservatives in Parliament made clear that party understands both the science and the urgent need for action:

But tonight the shadow climate change secretary, Greg Clark, made clear the party line remains that climate change is a serious man-made threat. “Research into climate change has involved thousands of different scientists, pursuing many separate lines of independent inquiry over many years. The case for a global deal is still strong and in many aspects, such as the daily destruction of the Earth’s rainforests, desperately urgent,” he said.

In the election, all three major parties “are signed up to transforming Britain into a green, low-carbon economy to boost growth, as well as to combat climate change,” as the Telegraph just reported:

If they meet their promises – global warming and rising fossil fuel prices will make it hard for them to avoid it for long – they will effect the biggest change in Britain since the Industrial Revolution steamed into life in a blaze of coal.

It’s all there in the manifestos. The Conservatives aim to make Britain the “world’s first low-carbon economy”; the Lib Dems want Britain to “lead the new green economy that the world needs”; and Labour maintains that ours is already “a transition economy from high carbon to low carbon”. And all have set out more or less far reaching policies to put the promises into practice.

This will have a more profound and lasting effect on our lives than anything else in their manifestos.

Yes, there is nothing genuinely “conservative” about refusing to conserve resources, refusing to conserve a livable climate.

If we don’t get a climate bill this year — and we still have a fighting chance — the blame rests squarely on the hard-core antiscience crowd.

As the Transocean/BP oil spill continues to move toward the US coastline, states like Louisiana are gearing up to protect beaches and wildlife.

The result of this mess? BP Plc (BP) is down 6.9% or $3.98 to $53.36 a share whilst Transocean (RIG) is down 5.9% or $5.02 a share to $79.87. BP has lost $12.4 billion in market cap today alone as a result of this mess and comments from government officials about going after the situation that lead to this kind of.

BP has since lost $26 billion in market cap this week.

This map from NOAA.gov shows the projected paths that the oil will head including their approximate locations as of yesterday evening. Looks like Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana are now are now in the path of the fury.

Join the conversation about this story »

Microsoft have repeatedly stated that  there will be no backward compatibility between WP7 and WM6.5, however, this popped up on the TechEd website.

“Come join us for this interactive session on code compatibility between previous Windows Phone applications and Windows Phone 7. Come talk to experienced application developers and hear what they have to say about code compatibility and share your own experiences with other attendees. Even though the programming paradigm for Windows Phone 7 differs from previous Windows Phone versions, managed applications are still written in C#. Taking a number of best practices into consideration, the majority of your existing code, with the exception of the User Interface, can run on Windows Phone 7.”

What this suggests is that whilst the UI layer has changed, the business logic is still basically the same. This is only true for C# developers, but is at least beneficial to some!

ZDNet via 1800PocketPC.

Wade Roush wrote:

Thinking Screen Media, the Wellesley Hllls, MA, startup that pushes news, photos, and other content to Internet-connected screens, is tweaking its business model once again. Formerly called Frame Media, the company started out in 2006 with a focus on delivering information to wireless photo frames. But last year it started thinking bigger—wireless photo frames weren’t really catching on, and the company decided to target the broader category of connected screens, meaning not just digital frames but TVs, cable set-top boxes, game consoles, and Internet radios.

Now the Apple iPad seems poised to kill off the digital frame category completely, in the view of CEO Alan Philips. So the company has raised $2 million, through a Series B financing and the sale of one of its divisions, to work on its applications for the iPad and cable set-top boxes, Philips tells Xconomy.

“We now believe in multipurpose devices,” says Philips. “The wireless photo frame category just has not taken off, and because of the introduction of devices like the iPad and the ability for set-top boxes to have Internet connectivity, it’s unlikely that the frame market will take off. So we are focused on consumer devices that will have a push element, and we think that the iPad is the best example of such a device. If you fast forward two years, you could see 30 percent penetration [of the iPad], at least in the U.S. market, in terms of the number of kitchens and living rooms that have an iPad for remote control or photo-frame or on-demand media access.”

Thinking Screen raised $2 million in Series A funding from CommonAngels and Longworth Venture Partners back in November 2007 and extended that round by another $3 million in May 2008. The new Series B funds come from Scala, which runs a digital advertising and signage business out of Exton, PA. Scala paid $2 million total for an equity stake in Thinking Screen and to purchase Thinking Screen’s SignChannel division, which focuses on digital signage. Three of the 12 staffers in Thinking Screen’s Wellesley Hills office are now Scala employees, Philips says.

The spinoff and fundraising frees up Thinking Screen to concentrate on home information devices. The company launched free and $1.99 versions of its iPad app, called FrameChannel, in early April. The app allows users to choose from approximately 1,000 channels or “widgets” such as news feeds, weather and sports information, National Geographic photos, or photos from Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, or other photo sharing sites. (The free version mixes advertisements in with the other content.) “It’s really about how are you going to use the iPad for the 22 hours a day that you’re not holding it,” says Philips. “During that 22 hours, it’s pushing content based on your preferences to the screen, in the kitchen or living room or bedroom.”

Philips says the company is working on improvements to the app, such as additional widgets as well as channels that are more interactive or that present multiple types of data on a single screen. Similar FrameChannel widgets are available to owners of other devices such as the Roku Player, Tivo DVRs, and digital frames from Samsung, Sony, Philips, Motorola, Kodak, Toshiba, and Viewsonic.

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What does a one-in-ten-million chance of apocalypse look like? Well, it used to look like this:

That is asteroid 2005 YU55, a near-Earth object (or NEO) that also happens to be a PHA, or potentially hazardous asteroid. It has an orbit which intersects the Earth, which means that someday it could possibly hit us.

Now before you panic — and I’ll make this clear: DON’T PANIC — that doesn’t mean you’ll wake up tomorrow to see flaming death streaking across the sky. Think of it this way: when you walk to the local convenience store to get a squishy, you have to cross the street. The path you take intersects the street, but as long as you don’t try to occupy the same spot as a moving car, you won’t get hit. Same with PHAs: their orbits cross the Earth’s orbit, but space is big. As long as the Earth and the asteroid aren’t at the same place at the same time, we’re OK.

Since we don’t know the orbits of these objects perfectly, we assign a probability they will hit us over some period of time. Up until recently, YU55’s chance of hitting us over the next century was calculated to be about 1 in 10,000,000, which is reasonably close enough to 0 for me. However, it’s always good to get better data. In this case, very good: new observations have eliminated the chance that YU55 will ruin our day for at least a century to come.

YU55 was observed with the monster 300 meter (1000 foot) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Arecibo can send little radar pings into space, aimed at an asteroid. The pings reflect off the rock, come back to Earth, and the timing of each one can be logged. This tells us how far away the asteroid is, how big it is, and even (by carefully measuring the different arrival times of the pings back on Earth) the shape of the asteroid.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because this is how dolphins and bats sense their environment. They use sound, not light, but the principle is the same. So what did Arecibo tell us when it dolphinated YU55?

The good news is that the orbit of the asteroid was nailed down better, and that 1 in 10,000,000 chance of an impact in the next century dropped to 0. Nada. Nil. And astronomers are so confident of that they removed YU55 from their Risk Page.

So we’re safe from YU55 ruining our day for quite some time at least.

And that’s good, because, as it turns out, YU55 is bigger than expected: about 400 meters (a quarter mile) across, twice as large as previous estimates showed! Something that big hitting us at orbital speeds would explode with the force of a lot of nuclear weapons — a few thousand megatons, or a hundred times the yield of the largest bomb ever detonated.

So yeah, yay! It won’t hit us, and that’s by any definition good.

But the middlin’ bad news is that this also means is that it’s tough to get good size estimates for asteroids without this technique. Usually, the size of a rock is determined by measuring how bright it is. A bigger asteroid reflects more light, and by measuring how well it reflects sunlight we can estimate the size. But that doesn’t always work so well, as YU55 is telling us. Clearly, we need to use multiple methods to get the sizes of these guys.

Arecibo’s funding is constantly under attack, yet it’s the best machine we have to get the sizes of and, more importantly, accurate orbits for these potentially life-threatening objects. YU55 is off the list now, but there’s a long line of rocks ready and waiting to take its place there.

Sony has made a few changes to the core hardware of the PS3 that should hopefully get them closer to the hardware break even point.

The Reality Synthesizer (RSX) Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has seen some changes during the PS3 life-cycle. Initially it was 90nm during launch, later it was reduced to 65nm, and now another change to 40nm. Reducing the chipset is not only inline with industry reductions of larger chips, but it also serves to reduce power consumption and heat which is crucial in a relatively tight space. To date the PS3 Slim units have not experienced the YLOD (yellow light of death) in mass quantities, and this revision should help to reduce that phenomenon.

This new version CECH-2100A contains a few other changes as well. The power supply weighs less, the heatsink is more simple,the internal cooling unit is much smaller as well resulting in an overall lighter console. Further the XD DRAM configuration was changed from being 4×512Mb to 2×1Gb. This is very similar to the future layout that Goto-san described back in 2006.

PocketNews performed the tear down and examination of the system. They also took a look at power consumption and how it relates to the new version:

While it’s not currently available in the US yet, Amazon.co.jp has it available. Lower power consumption, less heat and cheaper manufacturing costs is a win for everyone.

Images courtesy of PocketNews

As a reminder that coal mining accidents are not peculiar to either West Virginia or Massey Energy, two miners in Western Kentucky have gone missing after the section of their mine collapsed in Western Kentucky Wednesday night. The Associated Press reports:

Rescue crews were in the mine on Thursday morning, said Ricki Gardenhire, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing. Mine operators told a news conference that they are holding out hope of finding the miners alive.

Gardenhire said a section of roof gave way some 24,000 feet underground in the Webster County Coal Dotiki (doh-TEE’-kee) Mine about 10 p.m. Wednesday.

The mine owner, Oklahoma-based Alliance Resource Partners, says the Dotiki project harvests about 1,300 tons of raw coal each hour.

Kentucky, the AP notes, led the country in mining deaths in 2009. But don’t go asking the state’s congressional delegation to do anything about it. Indeed, in the wake of the Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia earlier this month, there were only prayers coming from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). And other coal-country lawmakers, representing both parties, didn’t even go that far.

Will be interesting to see if this blast, a bit closer to Frankfort, stirs a stronger reaction.

Green infrastructure has been widely discussed as a solution for taking pressure off of outdated stormwater systems. Through natural technologies like green roofs, rain gardens, bioswales and green road medians, green infrastructure can absorb and filter excess water at the source, in effect, decentralizing storm water management. Green infrastructure systems can also reduce the costs of water treatment because these natural systems reduce water flow, remove toxins, and recharge groundwater supplies.

At an ASLA-organized advocacy event, Becky Hammer, a lawyer with the water team of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), outlined a recent legislative proposal gaining support on Capitol Hill, “The Green Infrastructure for Water Act,” which would help take green infrastructure methods from theory to practice. As Hammer explained, “at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the E.P.A., they like green infrastructure in theory.” However, there are a range of obstacles preventing expanded use of these technologies.

Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD) is the lead sponsor of the green infrastructure legislation, which would ramp up the use of green roofs, rain gardens, and “constructed restorations of green spaces” for stormwater management through $350 million in annual funding. The proposal would help expand the use of green infrastructure to “use green technologies to improve water quality,” Hammer said.

“These systems not only take stress off old infrastructure systems (many of which are combined sewer / water systems) but also save money and create jobs.” Additionally, all those working green infrastructural spaces have potential dual uses — some can also function as parks (see earlier post) or green spaces that reduce the urban heat island effect. The idea is to both integrate green infrastructure into communities and make these systems more visible so people understand the natural processes.  

There are three key components:

Centers of Excellence: $25 million would go to 3-5 centers dedicated to green infrastructure research. The centers would be housed at universities across the country. “Right now, there are great pilot projects, but no centralized knowledge base so many designers have to recreate the wheel when doing green infrastructure projects,” Hammer argued.

E.P.A. grants: Some $300 million in grants would be awarded by the E.P.A. to state or local governments or local water authorities to design or implement green infrastructure projects. Designing projects could include the creation of portfolio standards. The legislation would target communities with “combined sewer / water treatment infrastructure as well as low-income or disadvantaged communities.” The idea is that green infrastructure would not only reduce the cost of stormwater management, but also create green amenities for underserved communities.

New E.P.A. Office of Green Infrastructure: A new office of green infrastructure would be created and staffed under the E.P.A.’s Water office. “Right now, the E.P.A. has one person full-time dedicated to green infrastructure. She’s great, but we need more people.” The new E.P.A. office would receive $25 million in funding.

Hammer outlined a few key obstacles to expanding the use of green infrastructure for stormwater management:

• Lack of centralized information on green infrastructure and stormwater managment best practices.
• Local regulatory barriers. “In some municipalities, you can’t plant trees right next to roads or use pervious pavement materials. We need to change that.”
• Lack of E.P.A. acceptance and guidance. “While E.P.A. headquarters supports green infrastructure, the regional field offices have a lot of power over local permitting and other regulatory decisions.”

In selling the economic benefits, Hammer said green infrastructure should be viewed as an infrastructure investment. “These approaches means reduced lower stormwater feed-in levels and reduced amounts of water going into water treatment facilities. Also, green infrastructure projects designed as appealing green spaces lift neighboring property values and can lead to energy savings.” What many don’t realize is that those massive water treatment facilities use tons of energy.

To learn more, check out green infrastructure resources, including research studies, projects, and government reports.

Image credit: 2010 Professional Honor Award, General Design. Underwood Family Sonoran Landscape Laboratory, Tucson, AZ USA. Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc., Phoenix USA

The 16th Annual MTN South African Music Awards Winners are………..

Male Artist of the Year: Black Coffee – Home Brewed

Female Artist of the Year: Lira in Concert -A Celebration

Duo/Group of the Year: Jaziel Brothers – The Journey

Newcomer of the Year: Tshepo Mngoma- People and Places

Album of the year: Big Nuz – Disputed

Best Music Video of the Year: The Parlotones – Push Me To The Floor

Best Maskandi Album: Umgqumeni – I SMS

Best Rock Album (English): The Parlotones -Stardust Galaxies

Best Pop Album (English): Axene – 16

Best Pop Album (Afrikaans): Bobby Van Jaarsveld – Net Vir Jou

Best Pop Album (African): Ntando – Inqubenko

Best Urban Pop Album: Jozi – Wild Life

Best Sokkie Dance Album: Die Campbells – Mamma Maria

Best Dance Urban Album: Black Coffee – Hom Brewed

Best Rap Ulbum: Teargas – Dark or Blue

Best Kwaito Album: Big Nuz – Undisputed

Best Contemporary Jazz Album: Adam Glasser – Free at First

Congratulations to all the winners:)

Michael Giberson

Phil Carson reports a few parting thoughts from last week’s IEEE Power and Energy Society’s Transmission and Distribution Conference in New Orleans.  One of those thoughts centered on the last-mile link up of communications and energy systems:

Marty Travers, president for telecommunications at Black & Veatch, reminded me that the “telecom” piece at electric utilities is really a toolbox full of options, from fiber optic cable to public wireless networks, from land mobile radio to microwave. These options are being combined in a mix-and-match strategy to meet the unique needs of various utilities in disparate geographies.

As “last mile” mesh networks employ machine-to-machine (M2M) modules, Travers sees “smart farming” as a potential market, where water management meets electricity consumption, literally out in the field.

The communications network overlay on the grid has been made possible, in part, by the simple fact that costs have been driven down, Travers told me. But the United States market remains a state-by-state proposition.

“Our theory is that [smart grid work] is driven by regulatory input from the state public utility commissions, so it’s still a state-by-state patchwork,” Travers said.

By the time I made it to New Orleans last week all of the IEEE PES 2010 fun was over, so there was nothing left to do but get rained on (Friday), trudge through the mud (Saturday), and enjoy the glorious sunshine (Sunday) of the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. (A few more photos here.)

Reader Chad emails:

Why so many rape fantasies in women’s romance novels? How to take advantage of this female perversion without getting arrested?

It’s true. Romance novels, read almost entirely by women, are flush full of rape fantasies. If fantasy (or as I like to call it, “hyperreality”) didn’t reflect reality then we would hear and read of fantasies by women featuring beta males, short dweebs, nerdos, fatsos, and charmless stutterers in the role of desired man. But we don’t. Women’s fantasies, like men’s fantasies, provide a window into a wished-for reality where all options are available, all choice catered to, all desires quenched. Rape fantasy, despite the protestations to the contrary of the “fantasy is different than reality” crowd, is as much a reflection of real female desire as any other form of sexual fantasy.

Women fantasize about a lot of things that no one argues don’t reflect reality if that reality were an option. What fantasizing woman wouldn’t truly want to be a princess who gets swept off her feet by a prince living in a castle? What single woman who dreams it wouldn’t sleep with Johnny Depp in real life if he propositioned her? These are common fantasies of women which they never argue aren’t reflections of how they wish reality were. So why should we grant a plenary indulgence to rape fantasies? How is it that rape fantasy is the one glaring exception to the reality-reflection rule? Men also fantasize about stuff like threesomes with supermodels, but no one in their right mind would argue that men don’t actually want threesomes with supermodels in reality, if having them were possible. (Wives or girlfriends, don’t bother asking your partners. You won’t get an honest answer.)

Back when I was a stripling newly intoxicated to the allure of women, I went to the local library and read a few pulp romance novels to better understand the contours of female desire. (I knew even then that romance novels are wank material for women.) Naturally, being a man, I chubbed out reading the surprisingly explicit sex scenes and was bored with the rest of the plot. Let me tell you, the dreck of the literary world lies in the pulp romance genre. But I soldiered on. I knew that some keys to successfully seducing women would be found in between the pages of those trashy paperbacks.

And, yes, the books I read had rape scenes. I remember recoiling at those, wondering at the depravity of women if this is what they craved. I looked for commonalities in those scenes and noticed that words like “overpowered”, “overwhelmed” and “powerless” were used frequently. The horny protagonists victims were often pushed up against solid objects, like big oak trees, and roughhoused from behind, never once seeing the face of their attacker (he often wore a mask), although there was much florid description of his musky aroma and muscular body pressing into her helplessly yielding flesh.

Rape fantasy reflects a deep, inborn, uncompromising sexual desire by women to be rendered helpless, almost childlike, by a more powerful man. It is the submissive scrawling of their hindbrains, a message in a novel sailing forth from the female limbic labyrinth. And from submission to a dominant male force is born the strongest love.

I loved that he was so powerful I was nothing.
– O

Does this mean women would be sexually turned on by real life rape? It is a question not so easily dismissed when we begin to examine closely the sexual fantasies of women. Dismissed it is, though, because no one — man or woman — wants to creak open the vault door that houses such primeval female decadence. For if women do harbor secret desires for dark seductions, then what is left of the pretext to chivalry? Women benefit from some amount of cultural pedestalization. *Societies* benefit. There is no room in a healthy, functioning society for mischievous inquisitors to lay bare the true soul of woman.

My understanding of women, and from what I’ve gleaned from their romance novel porn, leads me to believe that rape is a fantasy for women when the rapist is implied or otherwise insinuated to be the sort of man for whom women would surrender themselves in other contexts willingly, (i.e. an alpha). Women do have a natural sociobiological revulsion to rape by losers, because their most precious asset — their womb — cannot suffer lightly the gimped seed of omega chumps forcibly implanted. But what of rape by a masked alpha? That’s where the moral certainty yields to an unforgiving, and wholly discomfiting, ambiguity.

To Chad’s question above — how to take advantage of this female perversion without getting arrested — I would not suggest actual rape of your beloved. Don’t jump out at her from behind a bush while she’s walking home alone at night. But there are ways to simulate the heady rush of a lustful rape that will not only press her buttons, but yours as well.

Inform her that one night in the not too distant future she will experience something she won’t be prepared for, and shouldn’t expect to prepare for. On that night, while she’s getting ready for bed, you will cut the fuses so all the lights go out. As she’s standing in the dark, approach the doorway wearing a ski mask and dark clothes, and slowly instruct her to put her hands against the wall, in front of the window. She will, naturally, recognize your voice, so some of her fear will be mediated, but she won’t be able to see your face. It is important for the rape enactment that you act as if you are not who she thinks you are. She will appreciate this ruse, and might even be able to tempt herself with the thought that you are a stranger who sounds like her lover.

With her hands on the wall, you will approach her from behind, reminding her not to look back at you. Tell her not to struggle or make a sound. As you step up behind her, put a knife to her throat (for advanced rape enactors only) and allow your body to linger closely without touching her for a minute. Breathe heavily, creeper style. Then thrust your hand violently under her oversized nighty t-shirt and grab her panties, pulling them across her ass until they rip. Bury your hand in her mound. She will be dripping wet. Put your wet hand to her nose and angrily whisper in her ear that her wet pussy belies her fear. She will attempt to turn around to see you. With your hand firmly clutching her face, force her eyes forward. Press her cheek hard into the windowpane. Enter her.

When you are spent, I guarantee that afterward she will lovingly rest her head in your chest and confess that she had the most earth shattering orgasm of her life. Repeat for your other three girlfriends.

Filed under: The Pleasure Principle

In this corner: a multi-million dollar NASA-sponsored space balloon, crashing magnificently in the Australian desert. In the other: an dark SUV of indeterminate make and model. I’m not a betting man, but I’d say the smart money’s on the balloon. More »

Apparently you can add incredible demand to the list of adjectives describing Verizon’s latest and greatest. The Droid Incredible sold out on Verizon’s site about 6 hours after its official launch (pre-orders of course have been open for 10 days now).

Never fear if you didn’t get your order in yet as the wait for the next shipment won’t be too long, orders placed as of this posting will ship on May 4th. You can try heading down to your local Verizon retail location, but depending on your location you may want to try looking them up and giving a call first.

If you want to get a real steal on the Incredible don’t forget that your friendly neighborhood Android and Me Store has a special discounted introductory price available right now.

If anyone has picked up or received their Incredible already I’m sure everyone would love to hear some first impressions.

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