I read Noisy Astronomer’s blog every day — she’s a grad student at the University of Virginia, and of course known the world around as Nicole Hasenpfeffer.

Reading her blog today I found out it’s the birthday of the McCormick Observatory! This venerable observatory houses a 26 inch ’scope that I used many times in my career at UVa, and I have many fond memories of it (and some not-so-fond, usually involving long cold nights at the eyepiece).

She also mentions that it’s Thomas Jefferson’s birthday too. I think I’ll celebrate by reading the Declaration of Independence. That’s seriously one of the finest examples of writing in the English language.

And oh, the third one? My brother, of course. Happy birthday Merril!

FoMoCo announced today that it is launched a new consumer site called “Your Ideas,” a place where visitors can submit, share, review and rate each other’s automotive ideas. Think of it as a suggestion box for Ford executives to dig through once in a while to see what consumers are demanding from the Dearborn automaker.

“Ford continues to push the envelope when it comes to engaging consumers in what’s next for Ford cars and trucks,” said Mark Fields, Ford president, The Americas. “We are going beyond traditional consumer market research, studies and focus groups. Ford is turning to the social Web as an innovative way of generating new vehicle feature ideas customers really want and value.”

Check out the site over here.

Make the jump for the press release.

Press Release:

FORD ENGAGES CUSTOMERS IN “WHAT’S NEXT,” TAKING COMPANY’S OPEN INNOVATION MODEL TO NEXT LEVEL

* Ford launches “Your Ideas” on its interactive consumer site, The Ford story (www.thefordstory.com), welcoming visitors to submit, share, review and rate each other’s automotive feature ideas
* The Web portal is Ford’s latest demonstration of collaborative efforts to engage ‘automotive outsiders’ to help share ideas, develop the next must-have technologies, and drive the spirit of open innovation
* Ford has been actively modernizing its Advanced Product Marketing, Planning and Innovation Research community to include suppliers, universities and more non-automotive technology experts

DEARBORN, Mich., April 13, 2010 – Ford is tapping into one of the world’s greatest and vast resources – consumers – to discover the next-best automotive ideas and technologies.

Marking today’s opening of the SAE World Congress, Mark Fields, Ford president, The Americas, announced the launch of a new initiative that furthers the company’s commitment to open innovation. The new “Your Ideas” section of The Ford Story (www.thefordstory.com), the brand’s interactive consumer Web site, will invite visitors to submit, share and suggest ideas and technologies they believe fit in the automotive space.

The pilot session of “Your Ideas” gives consumers the ability to participate in a community-based setting where they can review and rate posted ideas and track what people think about their own suggestions. Ideas that receive the most “thumbs ups” from viewers will be elevated to a most-popular idea list and reviewed by Ford’s Advanced Product Marketing and Planning teams.

The “Your Ideas” forum covers the automotive gamut, soliciting consumer suggestions on categories ranging from vehicle connectivity and comfort and convenience to fuel economy to performance and safety.

Space for sharing
Since The Ford Story went live in 2008, the site has logged more than 2.6 million visits, offering passionate Ford owners and those new to the brand the opportunity to post their favorite Ford story, photos and videos; comment about the company’s latest news and products; locate all of the company’s social networking accounts; watch videos and more.

“The Ford Story has connected with customers because it’s a place where Ford is sharing what is happening with the company is a more open and transparent way,” Fields said. “Through the site, people are telling us they feel a new unity with Ford because they can share their thoughts, stories and insights and take part in two-way dialogue with the people behind our products.”

The announcement of the new idea exchange portal and Ford’s increased effort to directly engage customers in the ‘What’s Next?’ conversation dovetails with the 2010 SAE World Congress in Detroit, which is themed “Ecollaboration.”

Fields helped promote the theme of the premier engineering industry conference on Tuesday morning, speaking about how Ford is embracing greater collaboration with not only customers but other “automotive outsiders” as it develops the high-impact products that customers want and value.

“What a better time or place than World Congress to discuss how Ford is committed to working together toward innovation?” said Fields.

“This conference is one of the biggest opportunities of the year for the exchange of ideas, providing our engineers the chance to evaluate new technologies and services from companies and sources they haven’t worked with before,” he added.

Opening doors
Ford’s overarching adoption of the open innovation model made popular by social media, software developers and technology companies has already generated impressive relationships with a growing list of who’s who in the worlds of academia, suppliers, consumer electronics and information technology. Just as impressive are the results and ongoing research projects attached to these relationships.

Ford is currently working with the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, for instance, on the “American Journey 2.0” advanced research project to help define the next frontier of in-car communications. The student collaboration is aimed at responsible development of social networking apps for the car and could help Ford model future iterations of Ford SYNC.

Participating students will show off their course work this spring on a developmental software platform dubbed “Fiestaware” built with the help of Microsoft and powered by Intel. Student teams will compete by programming applications that showcase innovative ways to access social networks for contextually-relevant data, plus share vehicle-specific information that could help others. The winning student team will make a road trip to the 2010 Maker Faire, the world’s largest do-it-yourself convention, driving a new Ford Fiesta testing their new apps along the way.

Along with U of M, Ford also has strategic alliances with MIT as well as universities across the globe, including two of China’s most prestigious and recognized, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where joint work with aluminum alloys and other advanced materials is being conducted. A formal Ford strategic alliance with The Boeing Company has also existed for the past 15 years, resulting in numerous and valuable collaborative efforts. Boeing, in fact, recently announced that it’s ready to build its first prototype of Phantom Eye, a high altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft powered by two Ford-developed hydrogen-powered Duratec 4-cylinder engines.

Ford has also opened its doors wider to suppliers. Two years ago, Ford created the Joint Technology Framework, which provides designated suppliers special access to Ford intellectual properties so they can develop products for future commercial use. As a result, Ford is making significant progress in several key automotive research areas, including ultrasonic welding, alternative bonding technologies and new processes for reducing wheel weight.

Newer to the mix is Ford’s aggressive outreach to consumer electronic and technology experts such as Microsoft and Nuance Communications as the company looks for new and innovative ways to leverage existing technologies and cloud computing services by integrating them into the car. These relationships helped Ford build its successful in-car connectivity platform, Ford SYNC, which has now become the operating system behind all-new MyFord Touch driver interface.

“Innovation has always played a major role at Ford,” said Gerhard Schmidt, Ford chief technical officer and vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering. “We don’t believe that any one company or industry has a monopoly on good ideas; we embrace the fact that every good idea for our customers doesn’t have to start with us.”

– By: Omar Rana

Indices:

• DJIA: Up 13.4 points to 11,019.
• NASDAQ: Up 8.1 points to 2465.
• S&P 500: Up 0.7 points to 1197.

Today’s biggest gainers on the S&P 500:

• DeVry Inc (DV): $71.73 / +10.25%
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT): $13.95 / +7.64%
• Frontier Communications Corp (FTR): $7.79 / +4.85%

Today’s biggest losers on the S&P 500:

• Avon Products Inc (AVP): $31.98 / -8.00%
• Huntington Bancshares Inc (HBAN): $5.69 / -5.64%
• Regions Financial Corp (RF): $8.34 / -4.58%

Commodities:

• Oil: Down 0.28% or $0.24 to $84.10 a barrel.
• Gold: Down 0.71% or $8.30 to $1153.90 an ounce.
• Silver: Down 1.03% or $0.19 to $18.23 an ounce.

Now here are the stories you need to know:

• The number of small businesses can’t stop freaking out over the economy.
• Zerohedge posts JP Morgan’s death knoll analysis of Ambac Financial Group (ABK).
• These ProShares Short ETFs will be having a reverse split next week according to Jesse’s Cafe Americain.

Join the conversation about this story »

Near the end of March the Minnesota Broadband Bill passed in the House. It has just passed in the Senate. It may go into conference – but since it has passed in both the House and the Senate it may not. I’ll keep an eye on it.

In some ways the speeds specified (10Mbps down and 5Mbps up) is a little anti-climatic after the National Broadband Plan calls for 100Mbps down/50Mbps up – but the secondary goal saves it…

1.13(1) the proportion of Minnesota residents and businesses having access to broadband
1.14ranks among the five states in the United States and the 15 nations globally that have the
1.15highest proportion of that measure; and
1.16(2) Minnesota ranks among the five states in the United States with the highest
1.17broadband speed that is universally accessible to state residents and businesses.

The ranking goal doesn’t seem to get as much press – probably because it’s not as neat as a sound bite, but I think that’s the goal that we’ll find most useful.

Bloomberg continues to drive the Palm speculation this week with another auspiciously timed piece. Their latest headline suggests that HTC is looking into having its own smartphone software platform. Without going into details the article also touches on the Palm acquisition meme, though HTC’s chief financial officer declined to comment on the issue.

“We continue to assess, but that requires a few conditions to justify” having our own system, Cheng Hui-ming, chief financial officer of the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, said in a phone interview today.

HTC’s own operating system would enable the company, which designs and produces phones using Google and Microsoft software, to reduce its reliance on outside developers. HTC is among possible bidders for Palm Inc., three people familiar with the situation said this month.

Facebook has launched a safety center as part of creating more awareness among it’s users on social security. The safety center has some good tips for teenagers, kids, parents, law enforcers and educators. The purpose of the “Safety Center” section is to educate the users on their profile security, responding to objectionable content and teach the kids to use Facebook in a safer way.

Basically, it’s a “Question Answer board” where users can find answers to common privacy issues and tweaking their profile or application settings. This is how the safety center looks:

Important Facebook Privacy Issues

Profile Personification: This is one of the most common “unfair use” of Facebook. If someone is pretending to be “You” on Facebook and trying to personify your profile, head over to this page at the Facebook Safety center and you will see the step by step procedure to take action.

Photos: Suppose someone posted or tagged you in a photo but you don’t like the image and want to remove it from Facebook. The person who tagged you never responds to your request to remove a particular image from his/her profile. In such situations, here is the help page to get started.

Inappropriate Content: Suppose an unknown friend starts posting objectionable photos or started an abusive group about you or your organization. The first step to be done is to delete the person from your friend list. However, to ensure that the profile is completely removed and the group is shut down, head over to this page and take the required actions as described.

The safety center acts as a knowledge base on the serious security and privacy issues of Facebook users. Sure, it’s a positive step taken to encourage and respect personal privacy of users and looks like Facebook wants no stone unturned to deliver maximum user satisfaction.

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• New Facebook Privacy Settings Are Controversial
• Facebook: What to Expect with the New Interface
• Google Displaying Facebook Friends and LinkedIn Profile Details In Search Results
• Change Your Facebook Profile Layout With PageRage
• Facebook Toolbar Now Available For IE and Firefox in 16 Languages

Join Techie Buzz on Your Favorite Social Networking Sites

• Become a Techie Buzz fan on Facebook
• Follow Techie Buzz on Twitter

Sticky notes are a great way to quickly jot down ideas and comments. You can use Sticky notes for a variety of purposes like to-do lists, task management, ideas etc.

We have earlier seen some useful desktop application for creating and managing sticky notes. But if you want a simple sticky note application for Firefox, try the Xsticky Firefox add-on. With the Xsticky-Addon you can easily create Sticky-Notes at every webpage you like.

Once the add-on is installed, right click on any webpage and select “Add Sticky note”. This will open a yellow square box where you can add text and save the note for later viewing.

You can create as many notes as you want and the boxes can be moved anywhere on that page or minimized to the bottom. Other features includes changing the background color, transparency and font size.

I found this tool especially useful for designers, who tweak the CSS properties of themes and HTML layouts. You can quickly note down the hex codes and other CSS properties while designing a theme and do not have to rely on other applications for the same purpose.

Writers can also use this tool to their advantage. Suppose you are reading a blog post and suddenly got a unique idea about the same topic. You can note down that idea on that same webpage and return to that page later on. This helps on outlining and creating a rough draft of a news item, which you may wish to blog at a later time.

With over 16000 downloads the add-on seems to be quite popular and one of the best sticky notes extension for Firefox. Please note that the note text is saved locally in the add-on preferences and will be destroyed if you uninstall the extension. Google Chrome fans can try this extension for creating sticky notes in the Chrome browser.

Techie Buzz Verdict

The add-on looks cool but there should be a way to backup the notes and comments. Syncing notes can be difficult but a decent backup option is much expected. Otherwise you will loose all the notes when you reinstall Firefox.

Techie Buzz rating: 3/5 (Average).

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Sticky Notes Extension For Google Chrome
• Free Sticky Notes For The Web
• Portable Sticky Notes for Your Desktop – hott notes
• Squareleaf: Free Web Based Sticky Notes Service
• 11 Useful and Free Sticky Notes (Sticky Pad) Softwares For Your Desktop

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• Become a Techie Buzz fan on Facebook
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Producing a total of 661-hp from its 6.0L twin-turbo V12, the Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series is far from anything but one of the most ridiculously fastest cars to come out of Stuttgart. However, if you’re German tuner Brabus, than too much horsepower is never enough.

Click here for prices on the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class.

The tuner has created a one-off modified SL 65 AMG Black Series known as the Vanish, which now produces 789-hp from its 6.0L twin-turbo V12. The extra increase in power comes from larger turbochargers and mating the engine to a quicker gearbox and exhaust.

The model was produced for someone special in Dubai. Oh and of course, everything looks better in matte-black and the Vanish’s exterior offers just that.

Brabus Vanish (Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series):

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Autogespot

The City of Brotherly Love certainly lived up to its name as a bus driver in Philadelphia was told by her dispatcher to keep on making stops, in spite of the man dying on her bus.

Around 4 a.m. Sunday morning, the driver noticed that an elderly passenger was unresponsive and appeared to have urinated in his trousers. She contacted the SEPTA control center who told her to keep making stops and not to delay service.

A few stops later, a supervisor hopped on board the bus to check the passenger and determined he was breathing. According to transcripts of the driver’s radio conversation, she was ordered to keep driving the route to the terminal, where police would take him off her hands.

Unfortunately, by the time she reached the terminal, the 68-year-old had gone from breathing to not-breathing.

“It just boggles me that I was riding around and he was deceased and other passengers were getting on,” said the bus driver. “Could I have done anything to save him?”

SEPTA defends their decision thusly: “There was no indication whatsoever of a medical emergency… What it appeared to be was an intoxicated person who had passed out.”

Transport Workers Union Local 234 said it plans to file a grievance.

What do you think the driver should have done? Should she have risked her job or did she do the proper thing by listening to her superiors?

Dying man gets no help on SEPTA [Metro via NBC Philadelphia]

Thanks to Pete for the tip!

This concept Sony DSLR design was created by industrial design student Ryan David Francis. Its unique shape is provides more room for your face for people who prefer the viewfinder to using the LCD screen. More »

»  Will Microsoft’s Zune integration eat away at Apple’s market share? [Information Week]

»  Twitter finally unveils its ad model [paidContent]

»  RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) fared well enough it its post-Verizon life. [WSJ]

»  New designs and cheaper features on smartphones help the market continue to grow through the downturn, while cellphone vendors had a grim 2009. [Reuters]

»  Nokia (NYSE: NOK) says its Ovi Store is now generating 1.6 million downloads a day. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Mobile updates its iPhone app to include iPad compatibility. [Mashable]

Filed under: Hybrid, Hatchback, Toyota, Electric, Quick Spin

It’s been two-and-a-half years since we last got behind the wheel of a plug-in Toyota Prius. The name is the same, but today’s plug-in Prius is a totally different vehicle, and it was high time to see what changes Toyota has made to their plug-in hybrid (PHEV) in its ongoing effort to slowly get the car ready for the U.S. market.

Back in late 2007, the prototype had a NiMH battery pack and the converted vehicle was based on the second-generation model. The new fleet of PHEV Priuses in San Diego this week as part of Toyota’s Sustainable Mobility Seminar are converted 2010 third-generation models, featuring upgraded lithium-ion packs.

Toyota has brought the PHEV Prius fleet to the U.S. to begin a two-year test and monitoring period. The vehicles are equipped with transmitters from Qualcomm that record not only driver behavior, but also how often the car is plugged in. We’ll have more information soon with technical details about the mules and an explanation of Toyota’s plans to test and sell the long-awaited plug-in hatchback for 2012. But before then, we wanted to grab some seat time.

The short version is that driving a plug-in Prius is almost exactly like driving a standard one, except that it remains quieter for a longer period as the engine is off more often (during short distances) thanks to a larger battery pack and improved all-electric performance. Acceleration, handling, braking – everything feels awfully familiar. Make the jump to find out more, including how you can now go up to 64 mph without using a single drop of fuel.

Photos by Sebastian Blanco / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: 2010 Plug-in Prius prototype is just like your mother’s Toyota hybrid, but better

Quick Spin: 2010 Plug-in Prius prototype is just like your mother’s Toyota hybrid, but better originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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‘Tis the season for taxes. And for 90 percent of Americans, ’tis the season for other people to do their taxes. With all those perplexing deductions and exemptions and calculations for the average family, it’s just easier to send your stuff to H&R Block and hope the experts spot enough savings to make the outsourcing worth it.

It doesn’t have to be like this. The IRS could have access to enough information — income from the W-2 and 1099, mortgage
interest, charitable donations, 401(k)s from banks — to send Americans a one-page tax statement we could look over and sign. This wouldn’t work for everybody, especially serious investors. But for most Americans with straightforward returns, it would make the April 15 deadline a lot less stressful. It would also make companies like TurboTax and H&R Block pretty nervous.

One way to help the IRS fill out our tax returns would be to make their job easier and dramatically simplify the tax code, eliminating those byzantine deductions or raising the standard deduction to encourage millions of Americans to avoid itemizing entirely. Advocates of tax reform like Sens. Ron Wyden and Judd Gregg and Rep. Paul Ryan propose just that. But something’s happening that could block the move to simplify the tax code. It’s called technology.

The number of Americans who file taxes through online software has increased 70 percent since 2001. The software is cheap, and it’s good. Programs like TurboTax help filers sort through deductions to maximize savings and even offer premium versions to folks like sole proprietors and multi-member LLCs. At a tax event the New America Foundation last month, Bruce Bartlett, the former economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, made a fascinating point. Tax reformers have reason to worry that programs like TurboTax might make filing taxes so painless (gulp!) that technology would undercut one of the major motivations behind tax reform.

I’ve placed three calls into the TurboTax press office in the last week and not heard back. When I do, I’ll publish an interview about whether TurboTax and its company Intuit has a position on tax reform and whether experts think technology catching up to the tax code could actually hurt the case for tax reform.

Update: Bruce Bartlett responds.

There’s a simple way to balance the budget in California, Greece, and everywhere: outsource, privatize, and sell.

Schwarzenegger is taking the lead with a plan to sell a 20-year lease on 11 office buildings — going on sale tomorrow. The state plans to generate around $2 billion for the buildings, which they will continue to occupy.

The dirty secret in Sacramento is that the private sector could solve all their fiscal problems. “In an ideal world, we might well want to outsource a lot more,” said Department of General Services spokesperson Jeffrey Young.

California is putting other buildings up for sale outright, and Connecticut and Arizona may follow suit.

Nevermind that commercial real estate prices are near record lows. The states are desperate.

Check out the state buildings going on sale now >

CALIFORNIA: Judge Joseph Rattigan Building

20-year lease: $14 million

Location: Santa Rosa

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Emergency Management Agency

20-year lease: $40 million

Location: Rancho Cordova

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Department of Justice Building

20-year lease: $66 million

Location: Sacramento

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Public Utilities Commission Building

20-year lease: $82 million

Location: San Francisco

 

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Junipero Sierra State Building

20-year lease: $92 million

Location: Los Angeles

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Sacramento’s Attorney General Building

20-year lease: $132 million

Location: Sacramento

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Ronald Reagan State Building

20-year lease: $164 million

Location: Los Angeles

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Elihu Harris Building

20-year lease: $170 million

Location: Oakland

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Civic Center

20-year lease: $300 million

Location: San Francisco

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Franchise Tax Board Complex

20-year lease: $460 million

Location: Sacramento

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Capitol Area East End Complex

20-year lease: $480 million

Location: Sacramento

Note: California plans to earn $2 billion for the lease of 11 office buildings. We estimate building lease prices based on building NOI as a fraction of total NOI.

CALIFORNIA: Orange County Fairground

SALE: $56.5 million***

Location: Costa Mesa

***This was the winning bid at a March auction. The state refused the bid, however, as it was hoping for something closer to $180 million. Now they are in negotiations to sell the iconic fairgrounds to Costa Mesa.

CONNECTICUT: Nathan Hale Hall Building

SALE: $300,000***

Location: Windham

It’s not just the Golden State. Connecticut put up dozens of properties up for sale, hoping to raise $60 million through FY2011.

***The state auctioned this former hotel, now vacant, in December and received no acceptable bids. They want around $300k, according to Windham Today.

CONNECTICUT: Armory

SALE: $306,000

Location: Bristol

A pair of lawyers put down a $306k bid for an unused armory this week. They plan to convert the dilapidated building into a restaurant and in-line skating center & game room, according to Hartford Courant.

CONNECTICUT: Seaside Regional Center

SALE: $7.1 million***

Location: Waterford

***The state wants more, but they may be bound to the terms of a suspended sale from 2007. Developer Mark Steiner wants to redevelop the historic buildings into condominiums, according to The Day.

 

Photo: Explorer Productions

ARIZONA: House & Senate buildings

20-year lease: $18.2 million apiece***

Location: Phoenix

Arizona generated more than $735 million in January for selling state properties.

***SOLD. Lease estimate from Phoenix New Times.

ARIZONA: Executive Tower (main government offices)

20-year lease: $39.5 million***

Location: Phoenix

***SOLD. Lease estimate from Phoenix New Times.

ARIZONA: Arizona State Hospital

20-year lease: $176.1 million***

Location: Phoenix

Once called the Insane Asylum of Arizona, the building remains active as a mental hospital.

***SOLD. Lease estimate from Phoenix New Times.

AMERICA: 15 national parks

Sale: $2.4 billion

Location: Nationwide

Don’t forget Rep. Richard Pombo’s plan to sell 15 national parks to the mining industry. Pombo (R-Calif.) proposed the sale in 2005 as an alternative to drilling in Alaska (presumably, he supported both ideas).

But if the national debt grows unmanageable levels, then why not sell the national parks, historic sites, and monuments. It’s either that or close the parks and cut department budgets to shreds.

Don’t miss…

15 Mayors Who Must Shred The Budget To Save Their Bankrupt Cities

Join the conversation about this story »

Part Two of a five-part series, “Top 5 ways for Android to close the gap.” See also:

1. Get Another Killer Phone to Market

 

 

2. Serve Up Some FroYo

Fragmentation is an issue on the Android platform. While some (many?) consumers don’t know and don’t care if their device runs version 1.6 or 2.1 of the operating system, they are starting to care about features like HTML 5 support that only run on Android 2.0 and higher. The more savvy/conscious Android owners out there, on the other hand, are keenly aware of the waiting game involved with Android OS upgrades. Droid users and Motorola Android fans in general have been following with great interest the official Moto Web page, which was just revised again with status updates ranging from “Upgrade under evaluation” to “Rolling out in stages,” depending on your device and carrier.

 

The madness has to stop, and I keep hearing that OS 2.2 (Codename: FroYo) is going to “take a serious shot”* at putting an end to it at last. I sure hope so. 

 

It’s one thing to offer different phones with different specs and features at different price points. It’s entirely another to sell “Android” phones marketed as “Android” phones that actually run four different versions of the OS (1.5, 1.6, 2.0 or 2.1), each of which may or may not be upgradable to the current iteration of the platform at some unspecified point in the future. Note the word “current” in the sentence above. We all know that consumer technology is a game of planned obsolescence, but it’s still rare to buy a “Version 1.0” form of a gadget that’s also available in “Version 2.0” without first knowing whether or not you’ll be able to upgrade to 2.0, and roughly when. Sure, we all know our phones will be “obsolete” at some point, but if the next version OS is already out on other phones, I think consumers deserve to know what their upgrade path will be before signing a two-year service contract.

 

And yet, that’s more or less been the deal with Android phones: Buyers have been playing a guessing game as to which phones will see a clear 2.1 upgrade path, and when. It’s too unclear and sales are suffering for it. Heck, Apple may have teed a lot of iPhone 3G owners off last week in stating that they’ll miss out on some features in the coming OS 4.0, but at least Apple said it. I get that upgrades are more complicated for Google since they’re dealing with one operating system that’s tweaked and customized to run on dozens of different pieces of hardware and carriers. But still, enough with the fragmentation and consumer guessing games: Bring on the FroYo and, with it, at least a clearer idea of which phones will and won’t be compatible with which features and versions already in the marketplace.

 

*For more, see Chris Ziegler’s post-CTIA report on FroYo and the possible end to fragmentation over at Engadget.

Congress is getting ready for another episode of its recurring doctor drama: Block the Medicare Payment Cuts If You Can!

Actually, in this installment of the long-running production, Congress has already missed the deadline for new legislation to block cuts of 21% in Medicare payments to doctors. The pay reduction officially took effect April 1, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the federal agency that oversees the giant health systems — put a hold on processing physician payments for 10 business days, effectively pushing off the bite on payments for physicians’ services until April 15.

So that’s the new deadline facing Congress if it wants to pass a new law delaying the cuts from really going into effect. The lawmakers have done the delay dance repeatedly over the years to avoid more unpleasant alternatives. If they allow the cuts to go into effect, there would be an outcry from Medicare docs and their patients, while if they remove the planned payment cuts from the books, it would add billions to the official deficit tally.

Things are looking up for congressional action after a vote yesterday in which four Republican senators — Brown of Massachusetts, Collins and Snowe of Maine and Voinovich of Ohio — joined with Democrats and independents to move ahead with the extension legislation. But some doctor groups like the American Academy of Family Physicians are warning that there still may not be enough time to adopt final legislation approving a delay before April 15.

If it passes, the current bill would only push back the Medicare payment cuts until April 30 by which time Congress is slated to take up a delay lasting until October. The Medicare provision is part of a much bigger package before Congress that includes extended jobless benefits, subsidized COBRA health benefits for those losing jobs and a flood-insurance program.

Photo of the Capitol dome by alykat via Flickr

Gorilla Coffee, in Brooklyn, is a well-known local favorite but apparently it’s a lot more fun to drink the coffee than it is to work there. It’s so unpleasant, in fact, that even considering the current economic climate, the entire staff simultaneously quit — forcing the coffee shop to close. The staff sent out an email to the media claiming that it’s not a strike — the “staff quit and the matter will not be resolved.”

At issue was a work environment described by the staff as “perpetually malicious, hostile, and demeaning.”

The NYT got a hold of the owners– who say the mass quitting was unexpected.

“It’s a complete surprise,” Darleen Scherer, one of the owners, said over the phone. “They made an unreasonable request, and then they didn’t have any way to go but out.”

That request was apparently tied to another co-owner who is responsible for training employees. The staff was apparently no longer willing to work with her.

“The training to be a barista is rigorous,” one of the owners told the NYT, “and she’s like a drill sergeant. She trains somebody and they become good, and then they become great, and then they become excellent. I don’t understand the perceived hostility. Everybody has a different learning curve and she respects that.”

Here’s the staff e-mail:

We the workers would have preferred to keep this between the people involved, thus our silence towards the press. However, we do feel it is important to clarify the situation for the friends and patrons of Gorilla Coffee. The issues brought up with the owners of Gorilla Coffee yesterday are issues that they have been aware of for some time. These issues which have repeatedly been brushed aside and ignored have created a perpetually malicious, hostile, and demeaning work environment that was not only unhealthy, but also, as our actions have clearly shown, unworkable.

Several staff left not only recently, but also in the past few years due to these issues. The staff was recently told that the business partner to whom these issues have been repeatedly attributed was no longer affiliated with the business, and the environment was going to change. For 6 weeks nothing was seen nor heard of this business partner. This separation changed the dynamic of the business so drastically one of the departed staff quit their other job to return with the understanding these changes were permanent, and those who had tendered their resignation, or were drafting it, decided to stay. When the business partner returned without explanation, staff approached the owner hoping to find out the reason for this sudden and unannounced return. Work environment and workplace issues aside, the workers collectively felt deceived and that they had been shown a lack of mutual respect. This only served to highlight and reemphasize the previously expressed concerns. As the staff was well aware, both through experience and through conversation with past employees, Gorilla Coffee has a history of this pattern repeating itself.

It should be emphasized that the intent of the meeting was above all to find a solution to this unhealthy situation, a solution which involved the maintenance of these improvements to the work environment, and that would prevent any future returns to the previous unhealthy dynamic. Above all the attitude of the staff involved in the meeting (who were representing the rest of the staff) was one of respect and positivity. A collective instant resignation was an agreed upon last resort and not a bargaining chip. It was simply that without change, we all felt unwilling to undergo another day in that environment. Hence, out of a collective feeling of self respect and job insecurity, the staff decided it would be in their best interest to find employment elsewhere.

This isn’t political and it isn’t a strike. The staff quit and the matter will not be resolved. It’s a matter of business, and a personal matter for each of the staff. Everyone at Gorilla Coffee, including the owners and the staff, are skilled, passionate, and hard working. It is unfortunate for everyone involved. The workers are grateful to the many wonderful patrons over the years, and we apologize that it was necessary to inconvenience them in this way. All we can say is “thank you for the support and all the best.”

Sincerely,
The workers of Gorilla Coffee

Gorilla Coffee Workers Aren’t Coming Back [NYT]

We sure hope Jessica Simpson won’t be tuned in when Glee makes its eagerly-awaited return to FOX this Tuesday.

The hit TV musical takes a low-blow at the blonde in the form of a voiceover by Cory Monteith’s Finn that will air on tonight’s season premiere.

“Sometimes I wish I could be more like Coach Tanka. He pulled a Jessica Simpson — you know, lost his fiancé, gained 40 pounds, stopped showering, and everyone acts like that is totally normal….”

Ouch!

Google today launched a video creation tool called Search Stories. It’s a very lightweight little Flash tool to put together a little YouTube video of a number of search queries set to music. It’s mildly amusing but not really useful.

If you’ve seen LMGTFY (You haven’t? Well, LMGTFY) this is just like it, but with less snark and more apparent effort to engage users. I’m trying to have a sense of humor about it, but it’s hard. See my handy-work below. On the spectrum of sophistication among read/write publishing innovations, this one will help define the spread.

Sponsor

Google’s explanatory video below. Note that you can’t really make anything like this using the tool. It’s a cute video, though.

Discuss