Sign of the times: 21% of people aged 18 to 29 cite The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as chief sources for presidential campaign news. By contrast, only 23% of young people mentioned ABC, CBS or NBC as a source, says the Pew Research Center. A startling change from the 9% and 39% who cited comedy and network news, respectively, in 2000. [Trendsetters]
Commentary: Three challenges for RFID
Retailers’ mandates for adoption of radio frequency identification technology mean suppliers have their work cut out for them. [CNET News.com]
• Define rules for where to tag a case. Consumer goods suppliers like Clorox and Black & Decker need guidelines for tag orientation by product category–such as “place tag in upper-right corner of the case when it contains liquid products in round bottles.” Industry rules will cut testing time and consulting costs.
• Deliver source-tagging infrastructure. Suppliers like Dow Chemical and Eastman Kodak need RFID infrastructure that works in high-speed production environments. The reason: Suppliers will only recoup compliance investments if they push RFID into manufacturing facilities–which would allow them to realize benefits like better inventory management across the distribution network.
• Provide better interfaces between readers and applications. Right now, suppliers need an additional layer of RFID middleware–from vendors like OATSystems, Savi Technologies and ConnecTerra–to get the right data from readers and into applications like warehouse management. The drawback: added expense and integration overhead for overtaxed RFID compliance teams.
Move to Establish a Mobile Device TLD
A number of leading mobile companies have submitted a application to the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to apply for a mobile top level domain (TLD). [PalmInfocenter]
The participating companies are Microsoft Corp., Nokia, Vodafone, 3, GSM Association, HP, Orange, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sun Microsystems. These companies and others that will join over the coming months represent software developers, device manufacturers, network operators, infrastructure providers and content providers.
Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the companies intend to form a registry company to manage the distribution of the new mobile TLD names. The mobile TLD would be designed to enable efficient application and network services and reliability for mobile customers and service providers. The registry company will seek participation of additional, members to ensure broad customer and industry input.
Macs help The Spamhaus Project take on spam
“With Mac OS X, we can flip vital services onto backup circuits and IP setups in seconds, trace attackers and weather the storm without our services being interrupted. I don’t sit around wondering how many crackers and script-kiddies are hammering our servers; I know those Macs aren’t letting them in.”
Linford’s main servers are Power Mac G4s and Xserves, but the heart of his network is a G4 Cube that maintains his Spamhaus Block List (SBL), which involves feeding real-time database changes to 300 worldwide servers that help more than 200 million SBL users reject around 8 billion spam e-mails a day. He notes that, except for reboots required when installing or upgrading software, he hasn’t needed to restart the machine since 2001.
“It’s an amazing piece of hardware,” Linford says. “There’s something very special about Macs in general, which starts from the moment you unpack one and discover that every component is a work of art. And working in Mac OS X simply doesn’t feel like hard work; there’s a feeling of calm about the OS.” [Computerworld]
DEVONtechnologies offers DEVONnote
Just starting to give this a look… Seems very cool. You get an outline view of everything which is stored in a nice database for searchability. Wiki styles are present as is the webkit for an integrated browsing experience or live updating of pages you are tracking for a project or just for your notes.
UK Mac developer DEVONtechnologies Ltd. has released a new software application called DEVONnote. [MacCentral]
I am so tired of Job Board Spam…
***TOP TEN REASONS YOU NEED A NEW JOB!!!***
*****DONT BE LEFT OUT*****
Steves Digicams Reviews Canon Powershot S500
Sounds like a winner to me! I’ve been very happy with my Canon PowerShot S40, but was thinking this would be a good year to try something a bit smaller and more powerful. This could be the one…
Steves Digicams have also reviewed the new flagship model of the Canon Digital IXUS fleet, the 5.0 megapixel Powershot S500 (known as the Digital IXUS 500 outside North America), which was announced at the start of February. [PhotographyBLOG]
iGallery
Filming the Hand That’s Stealing His Wallet
Bob Arno, a security consultant in Las Vegas, spends seven months each year traveling the world filming pickpockets and other street thieves. [New York Times: Technology]
I keep my money tucked inside my trousers, in a thin leather pouch that hangs from my belt. I also have a wallet stuffed only with newspaper, which I use as bait. It has been stolen from my hip pocket more than 100 times. Sometimes I confront the thieves and it magically appears on the ground. But other times I steal it back; that’s the quickest way to establish rapport with pickpockets. When I invite them for coffee, I think they are in awe, and that is why they reveal their secrets and give me their cellphone numbers. Granted, the phones are usually stolen.
reBlog, link filtering for MT
Real hits Major League Baseball with lawsuit
I wonder if Real thinks the lawsuits they are filing these days will bring customers their way… a kind of reverse psychology marketing.
The streaming media files suit against the league’s media unit for breach of contract, as sources suggest that Microsoft is on deck to replace RealNetworks as the MLB site’s technology provider. [CNET News.com – Entertainment & Media]
EchoStar to Yank Viacom Channels (AP)
If you’re a Dish subscriber… ouch!
AP – EchoStar Communications Corp. plans to remove channels from Viacom Inc., including local CBS affiliates, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, from its DISH Network satellite system in 16 markets because of an unresolved dispute over programming fees. [Yahoo! News – Digital Video/TV Technology]
Music swappers face home invasion
The homes of online pop-swappers could be raided if a new European directive gets voted into law. [BBC News]
The directive allows companies to raid homes, seize property and ask courts to freeze bank accounts to protect trademarks or intellectual property they believe are being abused or stolen.
Z500 EDGE phone from Sony Ericsson
The most important of these is the inclusion of EDGE data services, a first for a Sony Ericsson handset. The Z500 includes Class 10 EDGE, offering speeds of up to 240 kbps.
The Z500 also includes a VGA digital camera for both still and video recording. Pictures can be displayed on the 16-bit TFT main display, while the external 4096-colour display can function as a viewfinder or display picture caller-ID when closed. The external screen can also be used to read text messages and perform other simple functions.
Features include a Wireless Village instant messaging client, MMS, e-mail support, a full organizer with sync ability, and push-to-talk over cellular (PoC). PoC allows functionality similar to walkie-talkies and is aimed at businesses and consumers alike. Media functionality includes a polyphonic ring-tone composer, 3D Java gaming and force-feedback. [infoSync]
Tips For Bloggers
Thanks Steven – have to deal with this in the am…
Help the Googlebot understand your web site. Useful article. I tweaked a couple things around here after reading it. Namely, I added a ‘description’ meta tag, and changed permalinks so the actual name of the entry, rather than just a pound sign, is the link.
Here’s a list of sites you can ping when you update your blog. It includes quite a few that aren’t in the default Movable Type list. [~stevenf]
RSS Syndication Tools for the Palm OS
Nothing that I actually have not looked into, but a good summary in one place…
Are you a news junkie or looking to a mobile way to keep up with news from all over the web? Many sites use rss as a way to share headlines and content. PIC takes a look at some options for using rss with your mobile device. [PalmInfocenter]
EarthLink Fires Leo Burnett
AdWeek.com – CHICAGO Atlanta-based EarthLink has parted with Publicis’ Leo Burnett and will seek a new agency to handle its creative chores, sources said. [Yahoo! News – Technology – Internet]
Seventeen new technology feeds from Yahoo….
Seventeen new technology feeds from Yahoo. [Scripting News]
Just added them all – actually 19 in total. I wish I could right click and add to NetNewsWire or bulk add with one click… that was a pretty manual copy and paste.
BTW — Where’s the Add to My Yahoo button?!?!
TypePad better watch its back
Squarespace looks pretty kick-ass…
University of Maryland student Anthony Casalena believes he is opening the realm once reserved for computer geeks to the entire world. After seeing the limitations of popular blogging tools and the complexity of common Web page publishing sites, Casalena single-handedly created Squarespace, an intelligent Internet content management system he believes is the next evolution of publishing on the World Wide Web — for everyone. Squarespace is a hosted web content management / micro content management solution….
[CMSWire]
Another day – no progress from Six Apart
Yet another day goes by (though I guess by Six Apart time, the day does not end until after 11 pm EST.) without any real assistance from “tech support.” I struggle to even call it tech support since what little assistance I’ve received has been more guided self-help than anything. It’s quite frustrating when you send an email, get a response to continue the dialogue, only to find that the discussion then goes astray for hours if not days. I assumed wrongly that since my discussions with then (really just Ben) were taking place at such late hours that I might actually hear something over the weekend… no. Nothing after a quick message today, which was not helpful btw… and I suspect nothing real will come until late tonight if not tomorrow. What the hell is this crap? You either do or your don’t offer tech support. Half-assed contact is bullshit.
I like Moveable Type… and want to keep using it, but this is very frustrating and no way to continually treat a paying customer. I’m sure glad I paid to get premium support… not!