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Now I want you to close your eyes and squint really hard. Because I’m going to tell you about a time that feels ancient, a time when Sony made some of the baddest laptops around.

Way before the internet made the idea plausible, Sony was ripping optical drives out of laptops to make them as portable as possible. One such computer, the $1,500 Sony VAIO PCG-SRX99 (circa 2001), weighed just 2.76lbs and made do with a 10-inch screen.

Inside, it had plenty of power, an 850MHz Pentium III-M, 256MB of RAM, and 802.11b for wireless networking (if you could find a wireless network, that is). Plus it had 20GB of storage, FireWire and even one USB port.

(I’d mention that it ran XP, but that part is a bit too familiar for nostalgic comfort.)

Today, the closest analog to the PCG-SRX99 is a netbook. For about $300 and a weight just shy of 3lbs, you can score a system that, from the outside, is remarkably similar. And on the inside, its clock speed has about doubled, plus there’s anywhere between 4x and 8x the amount of RAM and storage.

But if you were willing to look a bit beyond skin deep, I’d argue that the contemporary smartphone is more similar to the PCG-SRX99 than the netbooks of today. Take the iPhone 3GS. In terms of sheer tech specs, it’s pretty much a midrange smartphone…and it’s about identical to our retro Vaio.

The 3GS has a 600MHz processor and an identical amount of RAM to the PCG-SRX99—256MB. And it holds anywhere from 16 to 32GB in flash storage. Amenities like Wi-Fi (faster 802.11g). Turn to a company like HTC, and you can double the RAM while including a processor as fast as 1GHz.

Still, while Sony’s Vaio PCG-SRX99 couldn’t fit in our pocket, we’ve championed its form in an entire wave of cheap, portable computers today. Oh, and that whole ditching the optical drive idea? Sony spotted that trend a mile away. [Product Page and Review]

After Windows Mobile appeared to stagnate in Qualcomm MSM7xxx hell for nearly 2 years, we have finally seen with the arrival of the HTC HD2, the Acer neoTouch and the LG eXpo Windows Mobile smartphones that can multi-task flawlessly and still run amazing user interfaces without breaking a sweat. 

In 2010 we should finally see some of the promised Tegra devices, and a few powered by TI OMAP, and waiting for the screen to finally rotate when we slide out the keyboard will seem like a horrible memory from a past best forgotten.

Do you have a Snapdragon powered device and feel its the bees knees?  Let us know below.

A third to a half of college students drop out, and many of them still have hefty student loans once they’re no longer enrolled. Offering insurance to protect students from the financial cost of failure could keep some of them in school, says a new paper released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Economists Satyajit Chatterjee of the Philadelphia Fed and Felicia Ionescu of Colgate University look at data on college enrollment, dropout and completion rates of students and analyze whether a student loan program can offer insurance against the risk of college failure. According to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances, on average about 47% of non-students with a student loan report that they don’t have a two-year or four-year college degree. Those non-students who have loans but no degree also have a significantly higher burden of education debt more than a decade after taking out the loan.

“The financial risk of taking out a student loan but being unable to complete college may discourage some people from taking out a loan and enrolling in college,” the economists write. “Thus, even though prospective students may not be credit constrained, a mechanism to share the risk of failing to complete college — college failure risk — might improve the welfare of enrolled students and encourage more people to enroll and complete college.”

They find that “optimal” insurance in case of non-completion ranges between 10% and 45% of total college costs. Insurance would raise the enrollment rate by 3.5 percentage points, the fraction receiving a degree by 3.8 percentage points and student welfare by 2.7% on average, their paper concludes.

“Students with relatively low scholastic ability and a high failure probability benefit the most from failure insurance,” the paper says. “Since these students are typically from low-income backgrounds and most in need of loans to finance the expense of a college education, our results suggest that insurance against college failure risk will be particularly useful to students from low-income backgrounds.”

Ever wonder what stories of 2009 the people of the Internet found most interesting? I can’t really help you there, but I can tell you which stories on MobileCrunch got the most pageviews. Now, you might assume that most of our popular stories involved the iPhone, but — well, actually, you’d be right.

The iPhone isn’t alone on the list, of course; Android makes a handful of appearances amongst our most popular stories, including one that I never would have seen coming.

1. Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid: It was the battle of the century – or at least the battle of the year. Our final call may not have been decisive, but at least it was exhaustive.
2. Tutorial: How to Tether on an iPhone 3G or 3GS running OS 3.1.2: I wrote this post on a whim while killing time in a coffee shop in early November, and it goes on to dominate just about every other post we’ve written this year. Thanks, Google!
3. iPhone Homescreen Exposé Concept: Would you use this?: In October 2009, a Swedish design house made an awesome mock-up video of an alternative homescreen for the iPhone. Within weeks of this post blowing up on various social sites, the jailbreak community turned the concept into a reality.
4. Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid Round 2: People always say that sequels are never as good as the original – and in terms of pageviews, it looks like they’re right. It probably doesn’t help that we warned people that part 2 was strictly for the Droid-obsessed.
5. Rumor: HTC working on new flagship Android device – the Dragon: This one was a sleeper success. It flew almost entirely under the radar until word of Google’s Nexus One began trickling out months later. As the rumor mill churned over the Nexus, the pageview count on related posts spiked.
6. Exclusive: Everything There Is To Know About Nokia’s Next Tablet: It’s one of our top posts of the year, and also one that I’m most proud of. We not only scooped the existence of the Nokia N900, but we exhaustively confirmed every single minute detail many months before Nokia made it all official.
7. Ten Apps All New Android Users Should Check Out: The name says it all; with the Android Market exploding the way it is right now, we’re going to have to do another one of these.
8. Apple moves to block jailbreaks once and for all: Gasp! Apple blocks jailbreaks in new iPhones! (Minutes later: Gasp! Jailbreakers find their way around the block.)
9. Apple bans another developer, 1,000 apps pulled: There was no shortage of stories about Apple denying or pulling applications from the App Store this year – but when they nix 1,000 applications in one fell swoop, it’s worth reading about.
10. 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About The iPhone: What better way to cap off a year dominated by the iPhone than to discuss all the things we don’t like about it?

2009 was a huge year for MobileCrunch; readership is many, many times higher than it was just a year ago. We’re going to start 2010 off with a bang next week at CES, and things will only get better from there. We’ve got big plans for this place, and I look forward to every minute of it. Happy New Year, folks!

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Apologies for the dismal lack of blogging — apparently even scientists travel around the holidays, who knew? I’m in South Carolina at the moment, so instead of the well-constructed argument (complete with witty parenthetical asides) on a pressing issue of the moment that I’d love to provide, please accept this simple link to some sketches by Richard Feynman. (Via Chad Orzel, author of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog.)

Feynman’s fondness for drawing is well-known, especially when the subject was naked ladies. The sketches aren’t going to win any art competitions, but they’re certainly better that I could do. And here’s one I bet very few professional artists could pull off:

I find that the subtle use of integration by parts really speaks of man’s inhumanity to man, don’t you agree?

But my favorite recent example of science-inflected art has to be this newly discovered late-period Jackson Pollock:

Oops, sorry; that’s not an abstract expressionist masterpiece at all. It’s a plot of theoretical predictions and experimental constraints for dark matter, as linked by Brian Mingus in comments. Check out dmtools if you’d like to make your own plot. Science and art are for everyone.

Happy New Year to you and yours from jkOnTheRun! May you have a safe and happy transition into the new year. We are honored and humbled that you spend time with us.

Luggage check and hospital gowns

Editor, The Times:

Regarding the article “Terrorism and planes: Is it time to bare all?” [page one, Dec. 30], the airlines should be required to provide everyone with hospital gowns at check in.

The gowns should be modified to have a chest pocket for the boarding pass, and perhaps an airline logo. No other modifications should be allowed in order to facilitate security checking by the canine on duty at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening point.

This policy might also have the side benefit of reducing the obesity epidemic in the United States.

— Earl Hunt, Bellevue

Colonoscopies for one and all!

For some time, I’ve been saying that soon we’ll all fly naked, for better airline security, of course.

With the latest terror threat, we’re moving toward that goal at a rapid rate. There is good news and bad news associated with the upcoming security rules: The bad news is that for the most part, it won’t be a pretty sight.

The good news is that we all get a free colonoscopy for flying —This may be tough on frequent fliers.

Of course this all ignores the fact that passengers, themselves, are the first line of defense aboard any plane. But let’s ignore reality in the name of security.

— Bruce Barnbaum, Granite Falls

Traveling with your birthday suit

I say yes — it is time to bare all.

I think airports should have two lines: one for those of us who don’t mind and don’t care whether someone would see us electronically naked, and one line for those who would rather take off their shoes, be poked and prodded by strangers, and inspected like meat in a plant.

I have been in hospitals and doctor’s offices and made to wear those ridiculous gowns that allows everyone to see everything somewhere along the line. I have been scanned and X-rayed and find it less invasive than other technologies.

If the line is longer for scanning, it will allow more thorough physical inspections of those few who go through the other line, increasing our safety.

I will submit to unobtrusive scans anytime. It’s not like the people running the scanners, or any of the rest of us, haven’t seen it all before.

— Gary S. Silverstein, Olympia

As 2009 winds down and 2010 rears its head around the corner, we thought it appropriate to reminisce about our favorite drives of ‘09. Of course it only makes sense to compare apples to apples, so we picked our favorite test-car in each of seven categories. The consensus of our staff is below – click through to read the original review for each and see how the specs measure up.

Sedan: 2010 Ford Taurus SHO
Crossover: 2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Sports Car (Coupe): 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS
Hatchback: 2010 Volkswagen GTI
Compact Car: 2010 Mazda3
Hybrid: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
Convertible: 2009 Infiniti G37 S Convertible

– By: Stephen Calogera

About 3,000 Medicare patients who’ve been getting care at a Mayo Clinic facility in Arizona will have to pay out of their own pocket or find another doctor.

Starting in 2010 (i.e., next week), the five primary care docs at a Mayo outpost in Glendale, Ariz. will stop accepting Medicare. Patients in the program who choose to stick around will be on the hook for about $1,500 per year, Mayo spokesman Michael Yardley told the Health Blog. The clinic expects that most of the patients will find another place to get their primary care.

“We know it’s been incredibly difficult for our patients,” Yardley said.

Medicare typically pays doctors lower rates than private insurance companies. That makes some docs reluctant to accept Medicare patients, and can sometimes make it hard for Medicare patients to find primary care. Medicare covers about half the cost of a primary care visit at Mayo, while private insurance typically covers the whole cost, according to Yardley.

The new Medicare policy applies only to the Glendale facility, but it eventually could be expanded to other sites where Mayo provides primary care. Hospitalization and specialty care won’t be affected.

Mayo — which has been cited by President Obama as a model of high quality care at a reasonable price — is based in Minnesota (of course), but it also has a pretty big operation in Arizona.

For further reading, see the Arizona Republic and Bloomberg News.

Image: iStockphoto

If you’re like many chefs, you sometimes discover a cooking gadget you forgot you had tucked away at the back of the utensil drawer. If you’re like me, you have one than one utensil drawer!

Utensil trays are a must for items like forks and spoons, but have you also considered using different-sized trays for gadgets that may be loose in your drawer? I’m talking about things like ice cream or cookie dough scoops, measuring spoons, pastry brushes, small whisks, thermometers and other kitchen tools.

You can even be eco-friendly by using bamboo trays to organize. I spied several bamboo trays of varying sizes at Bed, Bath & Beyond recently.

Another tactic for organizing the utensil drawer is to remove bulky items that aren’t used as frequently. Some examples may include an apple slicer, kitchen scales, pastry cutter, rolling pin and basting brushes. You know how often you use what.

Gather larger items and store them in an extra bin outside your kitchen drawers. I did this recently using a black wire mesh three-drawer organizer on wheels from Target. It sits happily beside my microwave cart, potatoes resting in the bottom drawer. I also use a pitcher on my counter top as handy storage for spatulas and large whisks.

Once you’ve gotten your utensil drawers organized so that you can easily find tools, keep them clean. At least once a month, remove everything, including the liner. Wash or replace the shelf liner and use a handheld vacuum to easily remove any dirt (or spices!) that has accumulated in the bottom of the drawer. Wipe the drawer clean, replace shelf liner and then add your organized utensils back in.

Do you have trouble finding items in your utensil drawer?

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Organizing the Utensil Drawer

Health care is only the beginning of oligarchy

Syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., in the course of bemoaning the mostly negative results of our so-called national health-care debate, recently put it very bluntly — we are no longer a normal democracy [“Put aside your anger over the health-care bill, progressives, and get busy,” Seattletimes.com, Editorials / Opinion, Dec. 21].

He went on to state, “power has passed from the majority to tiny minorities, sometimes minorities of one.” And clearly Sen. Joe Lieberman’s posturing and preening has paid off for him.

As we see with national health care, so we see with just about every other issue important to the general public: a political structure that confers the powers of obstruction on tiny minorities, sometimes minorities of one.

That is not representative democracy. It is oligarchy.

Things have come to a very alarming political pass in the U.S. when a very mainstream and rational columnist like Dionne, can advocate changing or even abolishing the Senate, and not come across as extreme.

Instead, he makes eminent sense.

— Frank W. Goheen, Camas

Remind me: why did we build on a flood plain?

I can’t help but wonder — what part of building a community in a flood plain never struck anybody as being a problem until now [“Decaying levee magnify Green River flood risk,” page one, Dec. 29]?

— Ron Dickson, Seattle

Fish and Wildlife need to step it up, do their job

The article on the elk slaughter near Concrete [“Trapping, killing of elk closes hunting,” NWWednesday, Dec. 29] highlights the mismanagement of our wildlife by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. This type of thing probably happens all too often, but this time it was captured on camera and in full view of the public.

The department said the bow-and-arrow wounding and slaughtering of the trapped elk was legal. If true, then we need new laws to prevent it.

Fish and Wildlife is responsible for the slaughter. In their never-ending quest to expand hunting opportunities, they relocated elk to the Skagit Valley. They then authorized this year’s hunt, after last year’s fiasco with muzzle-loader hunters.

According to the department’s own numbers, hunting mortality, including wounding loss and poaching, is by far the greatest source of elk mortality — 64 to 82 percent —of which poaching makes up 15 percent. This clearly defies the state mandate in RCW 77.04.012 to preserve, protect and perpetuate our state’s wildlife.

The hunters were unethical, but Fish and Wildlife should have never allowed the hunt in the first place. Then when it got really ugly, the agent should have stopped it.

— Diane Weinstein, Issaquah

State not as enlightened as I had thought

Wow. I moved up here from Texas and I keep thinking Washington in general — and the Seattle area in particular — is enlightened. I feel as if someone punched me in the stomach after reading this article.

What a disgusting spectacle of wanton cruelty that had nothing — nothing —to do with so-called sportsmanship. Seven animals were killed in circumstances resembling an appalling canned hunt, but what of those who were injured but managed to flee?

How long will it take them to die of blood loss and infection and exposure in the middle of winter? What of the female who was trailing loops of entrails?

How can this seem like an OK recreational activity to anyone? I am utterly sickened.

— Franziska M. Edwards, Seattle

Rethinking how we treat wild animals

The article “Bow hunters shoot elk in Wash. pasture” [Seattletimes.com, Local News, Dec. 29] mentioned that a few of the animals had arrows embedded in their hides and were bleeding, but were still upright and running.

Sadly, this is an example of how these animals really die. It’s never as clean-cut as hunters would have you believe. In some cases, it can take days.

This wasn’t a case of necessity, it never is.

Bill Johnson said he didn’t necessarily regret the kills, however, some were messy and caused undue pain to the animals. This doesn’t sound like fun.

Maybe we need to rethink how wild animals are treated, and consider that we have to place some of the blame on ourselves for creating these situations in the first place.

We simply cannot push these animals in the corner in order to satisfy our own population growth.

— Anai Rhoads, Alexandria, Va.

Wired has a fairly epic look into a material that could make nuclear power both clean and safe called thorium—named after the Norse god of thunder. Of course, scientists recognized its promise back in the 1950s.

Whereas uranium is extremely rare, requires purification and creates waste that will be with us for hundreds of thousands of years, thorium is extremely common, burns more efficiently in reactors and leaves less, less radioactive waste (that can’t be turned into a nuke).

In fact, if it weren’t for the Soviet Union building uranium reactors in the 60s (and us responding in typical Cold War fashion), we’d probably be using thorium today.

But as Wired explains, thorium may be poised for a comeback. [Wired and Image]

Talking about those large, high resolution screens, the next major development of 2009 was the arrival of extremely competitive web browsers.  While in 2008 we counted ourselves extremely blessed to have Opera Mini, by 2009 we were inundated by a plethora of great browsers, including what many see as the king of Windows Mobile browsers, Skyfire, which made no website off limits to a Windows Mobile user.

While at this point many of us probably take it for granted that we can have rapid website rendering on a smartphone, we, more than any other mobile platform, are in fact exceptionally lucky. Next year we expect further improvements in IE Mobile, and of course a real heavyweight contender in the release of Fennec for Windows Mobile.

Do our readers appreciate the browser wealth on Windows Mobile?  Let us know below.

Since taking office in 2006, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has vetoed 15 bills expanding the state’s death penalty. The next governor has another idea.

Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell (left), who takes office January 16, says he will sign into law the expansions that lawmakers have supported in recent years, particularly a provision that would make accomplices eligible for the death penalty.

McDonnell’s commitment to expanding executions won’t lead to many new death sentences, but it’s sad to see a new governor bucking a trend and expanding the death penalty. Aside from this news, there have been signs that even Virginia, usually a death penalty diehard,  would see a slowdown of executions. Although four people were executed in Virginia in 2009 (second only to Texas, which executed 18 people), Virginian juries handed down just one new death sentence this year. That’s a start.

(more…)

There are plenty of green-minded New Year’s resolutions you can make for 2010. Some green goals are totally easy, which is cool if you’re new to green living. However, there are also some heftier resolutions that pack more of an eco punch. If you’re up to the challenge choose one of the bigger green resolutions below.

THE FIRST STEP: Before you commit to a green resolution, especially a big one, I highly suggest reading Keeping Green New Year’s Resolutions, in which my pal Peggy goes over how to succeed when you make a green resolution. Her main, and most important point, is to “Make it really specific and then make a plan.” Good advice. If your focus is too broad green living can get confusing.

RESOLUTION 1 – DITCH PAPER TOWELS: This is a biggie resolution and not a particularly easy one either. Commercials and other people will tell you over and over that you NEED paper towels plus they’re an easy fix. Got a mess, just grab a paper towel and be done with it. However, paper towels, as you know, come from trees and even if you’ve got the money to pay premium prices for 100% recycled paper towels, they still take energy to make and often come in packaging you don’t need.

If you can realign your thinking though you can ditch the paper towels. They’re not necessary and by not using them you’ll save an untold amount of resources over your life. I haven’t purchased paper towels for my household for years and we don’t miss them.

You’ve got two options when it comes to ditching paper towels. Quit cold turkey like I did or take a more subtle approach and ween off them. Both are good choices because the end result is the same. If you’re ditching paper towels make a plan. How will you clean up messes? Old cloths, a reusable sponge, a mop? If you’re using paper towels for meals stock up on cloth napkins. How will you cook in the microwave – a plate?

RESOLUTION 2 – DITCH PLASTIC BAGS: There are all sorts of plastic bags to ditch. Store grocery bags, little plastic snack baggies, bulk food plastic bags, and more. Ditching them is smart because plastic, made from non-renewable resources is terribly un-eco-friendly. Plastic bags pose huge threats to the planet and wildlife, will not decompose, and you have plenty of other better options.

Luckily changing to reusable bags is much easier than some big green challenges. If you need some help take a look at everything you ever wanted to know about ditching plastic bags.

RESOLUTION 3 – DITCH CONVENTIONAL FOODS: Going organic is a big deal but it’s also a hefty objective, especially if you are currently eating mostly conventional foods. That said, it’s a great goal because organics are healthier for you and the earth. To get started take a look at the most important foods to eat in organic form. Then sort out what to look for. Always check for the USDA Organic Seal which means food is at least 95% organic, does not contain genetically modified organisms, was not irradiated, and comes from a farm that practices sustainable farming methods.

You can also look for products that note that they are “Made With Organic Ingredients” which means the products are at least 70% organic and are also free from genetically modified organisms and food irradiation. If you think organic means more expensive, no worries because there are plenty of ways to save money on organics.

Are you making any biggie green resolutions this year?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Three BIG Green New Year’s Resolutions

For most of 2009, SMS-based, human-powered question-and-answer service ChaCha has made surprising leaps up Nielsen Mobile’s rating for mobile search services.

ChaCha, which uses $2.50-an-hour freelancers to answer questions texted to it at 242242, has been the fastest-growing mobile search service all year, according to Nielsen. ChaCha shot from 7 percent market share to 28 percent in 90 days in the first half of 2009.

Today, in a post about ChaCha’s financials, TechCrunch editor Mike Arrington mentioned in passing that “They recently passed Google and ChaCha is the no. 1 SMS search service according to Nielsen Mobile.”

Is that true? I haven’t been able to catch Mike, ChaCha, or Nielsen today to confirm that statement.

It’s one thing to be the fastest climber on Nielsen’s chart, but it’s a whole new game if ChaCha is the #1 mobile search service. That would mean a startup from Carmel, Indiana has beaten Google at its core product, search.

I wrote about ChaCha last week when the company announced $7 million in new funding. The Indiana-based company, founded in 2006, had redefined itself away from Web chats and onto SMS to provide answers to customers’ questions. By doing everything in short text blasts from near-volunteers, ChaCha CEO Scott Jones told TechCrunch that they’ll soon be spending less than a penny per answer.

P.S. A clarificatin: TechCrunch’s headline might lead you to think ChaCha is profitable as a company. To be clear, Jones said they are profitable on each search. As for the overall operation, Arrington estimated that “Their current revenue run rate is $9 million or so. My guess is they need to roughly double that to become profitable as a business and support their 60 or so full time employees.”

[Screengrab: WareSeeker.com]

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