Skip to content

  • Giant Mysterious Spiral Takes Over the Skies of Norway [Science]

    Shared by Digittante

    Perhaps Someone Was Beaming Home? >>>

    People are freaking out all over Norway because of what you are seeing here. According to Norwegian news outlets, the spooky giant spiral was seen, photographed, and recorded on video from all over the country. Updated with video

    Could it all be a hoax? Maybe it's a massive joke, but all kinds of Norwegian news sites are reporting on it. According to NKR—Norway's national TV channel—it could be related to a rocket fired from a Russian submarine in the White Sea. The Russians are denying any part on it at this at the moment. Nick Banbury, a witness located at Harstad, described how it all happened:

    We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Arctic Norway, but on my way to work this morning I saw something completely unexpected. Between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a strange light in the sky. It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in colour to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end. This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth.

    As hard as it is to believe, you can't dispute the fact that the strange spiral was witnessed and recorded by thousands of people from hundreds of miles away, which means that the phenomenon occurred at a very high altitude. Even Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy agrees that this is real, and says that it was probably a rocket out of control.

    So barring any epic group joke, expect your new alien overlords to arrive at any time now. We can only hope they are all peace-loving voluptuous blondes with blue eyes. [Altaposten, VG, NRK via SpaceWeather via Universe Today—thanks Gonzalo Oxenford]

    If you know Norwegian and have any information, contact me on AIM or by mail.


Digest powered by RSS Digest

  • AutoZone Settlement Agreement Filed With the Court: It's The End To All That

    Shared by Digittante

    If you've watched this incredible software licensing legal saga from the beginning, your response may likely be the same as mine: "Thank heck Darl McBride and the horse he rode in on got sent packing for once and for all..." He's name shall live in infamy for the legal ass-hattery of suing his own customers for using his company's products >>>

    The AutoZone settlement and release agreement has been filed. Or as the song says, it's signed, sealed and delivered:

    12/08/2009 - 119 - STIPULATION of Dismissal (Stipulation and Order of Dismissal With Prejudice As To All Claims) by Plaintiff SCO Group, Inc.. (Pocker, Richard) (Entered: 12/08/2009)

    Here's what that type of agreement and release looks like. As you can see, the release part means that whatever they accused each other of, it's settled and neither can bring it up again or ask for anything associated with that claim to time indefinite, even forever.

    Unless it's SCO, under new management, and they line up some folks who heard talk by the water cooler that they didn't really mean it to mean *forever*. Kidding. It means forever, unless the lawyers goofed and wrote it so badly that some fancy pants lawyer sees an opening twenty years later. So this is The End to AutoZone's nightmare. Yay!

Digest powered by RSS Digest

  • Yahoo Will Divulge Pretty Much Anything for $60 [Security]

    Shared by Digittante

    YAHOO! sells all it nows about you to cops for $60 )))

    On one hand, it's reassuring to know that Yahoo will work with law enforcement to bust criminals, digging through their private messages to get the job done. On the other, $60 is a low price for our privacy.

    (Click on the chart for a bigger version.)

    For $20, Yahoo will give authorities your basic user ID information. For $30-$40, that jumps to the contents of subscriber accounts, including email. And for $60, police basically own the place. Full contents and logs of Yahoo Groups are at their disposal.

    Of course, it's good that Yahoo keeps these prices in check, only charging authorities cost for retrieving records (meaning your taxes pay Yahoo less than they could). Then again, it's flat-out alarming to consider the data trail we all leave, its surprising permanence and the ease with which it can be accessed.

    And if you really want to be freaked out, Cryptome is assembling these lawful spying policies by company. Their list already includes communication providers Cox, SBC, Sprint and AT&T.

    What do you have to use this day and age to be dishonest? Snail mail and walkie talkies? [Cryptome via Slashdot via boingboing]


Digest powered by RSS Digest

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Digest powered by RSS Digest

It's been two full days now that I've had my Nokia N900.As I covered in yesterday's USAGE REPORT: My First 24-hours With the Nokia N900 the battery life lasted about 6 hours before I had to re-charge. That's seems to parallel the experience of other new owners, and the community has already identified some great ideas to follow. Here's some information about my usage of the phone today, and what I did to prolong battery life (it was at about 75% when I got home after work):

USAGE:
I unplugged the phone from it's charger at around 7:00am this morning, made several phones, received text messages all day long from Twitter and other users (and sent a few text messages), checked email hourly, read/composed email, and listened to an hour's worth of music stored on the device. I also took half-a-dozen photos and uploaded a few to Flickr via the Sharing feature. I also streamed a short video segment via Qik.

16 TIPS to PROLONG the N900 BATTERY:

  1. Set Display brightness level to 2 out a possible 5 (in Settings | Display)
  2. Set Backlight-Timeout to 30 seconds (in Settings | Display)
  3. Turn on Power Saving Mode (in Settings | Display)
  4. Turn off Touch Screen Vibration (in Settings | Display)
  5. Turn off Notification Light for Device On state (in Settings | Notification Light)
  6. Turn off Vibrate for both Silent and General Profiles (in Settings | Profiles)
  7. Turn off Bluetooth (in Settings | Connectivity)
  8. Turn off GPS (in Settings | Connectivity)
  9. Turn off FM Transmitter (in Settings | Connectivity)
  10. Set Connect Automatically to your cellular data network (in Settings | Connectivity)
  11. Set Search Interval to 60 minutes (in Settings | Connectivity)
  12. Disable Switch to Wifi When Available (in Settings | Connectivity)
  13. Set Wifi Transmission Power to 10mw (in Settings | Connectivity | Connection Setup | Advanced | Other)
  14. Set Power Saving Mode to On (Maximum) (in Settings | Connectivity | Connection Setup | Advanced | Other)
  15. Set Availability for Skype & IM accounts to Off by default (in Status Bar | Availability)
  16. Reduce the number of Desktop Views from 4 to 1 (in Desktop Menu | Manage Views)

User vasilov at the Talk.maemo.org forums has some great ideas as well, so be sure to read their post as well.

I'm curious what performance & battery life experience others are having.

Related Posts:

  • Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Designs Them [Design]

    Shared by Digittante

    Ever wonder why computer interfaces in the movies don't look like computers in real life? >>>

    What do The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible 3, Mr & Mrs Smith. Children of Men, and Agent Cody Banks 2 have in common? Absurd, futuristic, and totally fake software interfaces, designed in part by one man: Mark Coleran.

    Designing a fake dashboard for an imagined supercomputer or a hovering control panel for a worldwide surveillance system is an entirely different process than creating a genuinely usable UI. Your goal is to imply things: that the machine is powerful; that the villain is formidable; that the software is intuitive, but that the breadth of its powers border on unknowable. At no point does real-world usability factor in, and nor should it—this is pure fantasy, for an audience raised on Start Buttons, desktop icons and tree menus. Here's a gallery of some of the most famous interfaces; see how many you recognize.

    Coleran's UIs are a mix of old and newer than new, mingling compact pixel art, wireframes and the solid, militaristic reds, blues and blacks of software from the 80s with touch-free gesture screens and overelaborate visualizations from some vague point in the future. It's the kind of stuff you take for granted in action and sci-fi films, but rounded up in one place, it's a strangely impressive, almost cohesive view of the future of software, as designed by someone with no contraints. [Mark Coleran via Metafilter]


Digest powered by RSS Digest

The web has been chock full of coverage of the new Nokia N900, ranging from Out-Of-The-Box videos and feature-by-feature reviews to narrowly focused usage reports.

So I thought to record my first 24 hours with the device, including impressions, configuration experience, usage tips, and whatever else emerged. This was written down in real time, and includes direct links to download/install a ton of 'first time' apps (so you might want to view this in your N900 if you've got one). Enjoy!

UNPACKING: December 2 11:00am

I collect the box from the lobby of the building, open it on the spot, and am impressed immediately with it's light weight and inky blackness. Back at my desk, I inventory the contents of the box: basic, utilitarian packaging, a variety of cables, and a manual. I attempt to open the N900's back-cover. There's no release button, and you have to dislodge the back-cover from the body with more force than I'm comfortable applying to a new (and very expensive) device. Once installed, I resist the temptation to dive in (work first!), and instead simply plug in the AC Adaptor and let the battery charge. The Indicator Light blinks yellow while charging.

FIRST BOOT: December 2 4:00pm

The Indicator Light turns solid green around the same time I finish work. I remove the T-Mobile SIM and MicroSD chips from my T-Mobile Dash, attempt again to open the back-cover (very tricky, but getting easier). Once open, it's a cinch to install the chips and close it back up again. I push the On/Off button and wait to be amazed. I sure was:

  • The N900 boots to the familiar 'handholding' boot image, seems to detect and connect to the T-Mobile Network automatically, and even displays a '3G' indicator! No network configuration or setup required at all. Take that Windows Mobile 6.5 Connection Wizard.
  • I activate the browser, pick Facebook from the pre-loaded bookmarks list, and attempt to enter my account credentials. It takes a few tries on the slide-out QWERTY. I've used hardware-QWERTY phones exclusively for years, and this one feels solid. But every device has a different set of tactile and user-experience characteristics to get used to. How much distance and distinction between buttons, how much up/down travel on each button, button placement, button function, and the pairing of alpha-numeric with special characters on each button, etc.  I'm sure by the end of 24-hours, I'll have the hang of the N900's hardware keyboard. It feels good, matte, and responsive.
  • Facebook itself, like Google Reader, and other web pages I loaded, were all quick and responsive. I'd never experienced T-Mobile's 3G before (the Dash is a 2.5G device), and the speed seems plenty fast.
  • I open the media player which shows the albums, songs, pictures, and videos on my MicroSD chip immiediately. No lengthy "scanning library" delay experience like Windows Mobile. My content is simply there. I play a song, watch a video of my daughter, listen to a pre-loaded track from Nokia, and then flipp over to a German-language Internet Radio Station.
  • I load Ovi Maps and determine my current location easily
  • I open the Sharing app and configure my Flickr account easily
  • I switch back to Google Reader while listening to the Internet Radio Station, then activate the Application Manager and begin installing apps. The device remains responsive and the streaming audio never skips during this short test.

INSTALLING APPS: December 2 5:30pm

You can download applications compatible with Maemo5 by pointing the device's browser to the talk.maemo.org site. You can also use the built-in Application Manager front-end, whic by default shows a short list of approved-by-Nokia apps from the default repositoriess. I installed the following (links will download .install files):

TESTING MESSAGING: December 2 9:30pm

I then configured accounts for Sykpe, Hermes (using Twitter and Facebook credentials), Mauku, and Jabber. All worked well. The Phone even displayed my Skype contacts in the Contact list. For any contact I selected, the Phone app displayed a dialog box offering to call them via my mobile network or via Skype. I also configured 3 IMAP4 accounts and was able to download, read, and send email easily using the updated version of the Modest email client. When viewing the top-most screen in Modest, it would be nice if the app listed the number of unread/read emails in each account. Instead, you have to click into each account to see that information. There's also no multi-select (that I could find) to delete a range of emails at once. So I found myself click-and-holding messages one at a time in order to get the Delete menu option to appear.

The integrated IM/SMS application works very nicely. I receive updates from several Twitter users via SMS messaging, and those arrived with a quiet chime, a floating notification screen, and a blinking blue Indicator Light. Combining IM and SMS into the same app was a great idea.

TESTING PIM SYNCING: December 2 10:30pm

I explored the following two PIM-sync scenarios:

  1. Direct device-to-device syncing via Outlook and the Nokia PC Suite software: The software installed and ran just fine on my Lenovo T43p laptop running Windows7.  Pairing the N900 with my laptop via Bluetooth took several tries, and required an updated driver from the Bluetooth component manufactureer. But once it was setup, I could sync Calendar, Contacts, and Notes between both devices using either the Nokia PC Suite software or Windows7's built in Sync feature. I was also able to sync via the N900's sync/charging USB cable. One detail I noticed however, is that when creating a new appointment in the N900's built-in calendar I couldn't find an option to invite others to it (a basic feature in Outlook/Exchange). I was able to sync 1200+ contacts to the device in about 15 minutes, and 200+ appointments in another 10 minutes.
  2. Over-The-Air syncing via Nuevasync to my Google Calendar/Contacts: As a long time Windows Mobile user without my own Exchange Server, I've relied steadily on Nuevasync, a free service that provides synchronizing of Calendar/Contacts info via Exchange ActiveSync to your Google account. I configured my N900 to NuevaSync's service but couldn't get it working past the initial connection stage before it threw an error. NuevaSync appears to be seeking testers with N900's in order to fix this. I've registered my interest in helping them out, and others might wish to do so in order to speed progress towards a workable solution. Also, I have to give a shout-out to OggSync's product, which is how I automate syncing of my Outlook data to Google in the first place.

REAL WORLD USAGE: December 3 7:00am to 1:00pm

Today started pretty busily. I had an early school-run, for which I relied on the fantastic OneBusAway service using the N900's text messaging to find out when my bus downtown would arrive. I was then on a 2-hour walking tour looking at office space, for which I used the N900 to take pictures and check email. The tagging/sharing features with the camera work wonderfully, and are a lot of fun. Also, I love that you only have to slide open the camera shutter to activate. There was also a 1-hour conference call in a noisy coffee shop, for which I used the wired headset while reviewing a PDF document on the phone. Call quality was very good, I could hear the other participants loud and clear, and found the wired microphone very sensitive (i.e. the coffee shop owner sitting nearby remarked that he never heard my voice over the din of other customers). I also discovered that you can set the phone orientation to portrait or landscape, and you turn on a setting so that the phone app activates simply by turning the device to the portait position.

On the bus back to my office, I Twittered a bit, read the news via the browser, and then turned off 3G to conserve battery power. By 1:00pm, the battery was down to 20% or so, and I plugged it in to re-charge. That's about 6 hours of steady usage without any Bluetooth, Wifi, or GPS. The screen brigthness is set to half-power and the screen-off timer is set to 1 minute. I imagine battery power might improve by (1) turning down screen brightness a tinch, and (2) awaiting the promised firmware update (fingers crossed).

NEXT STEPS: December 3 and beyond:

  • Install RootSh for root access to the device (yeah, I got this far without it!)
  • Enabling Extras Development library and see what other apps are ready to try out
  • Enable the Extra Testing Repository - contains pre-release, not-fully-tested software. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
  • Install Telepathy plug-ins for MSN, YAHOO!, and AIM IM protocols
  • Replace PC Suite-based synchronisation with some Exchange 2007-based solution
  • Try out Fring for multi-protocol IM, when it's available

That's it for now. If you've got one of these devices, or have questions, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

Related Posts:

  • Every Single One of Cormac McCarthy's Works Was Typed on This [Retromodo]

    Shared by Digittante

    Cormac McCarthy auctions his word-worn typewriter for charity >>>

    Cormac McCarthy has spent many years bent over this typewriter banging out books and screenplays, including All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Now, after many decades, he's giving up his trusty old gadget.

    He's not giving it up because he yearns for a newfangled bit of gear though. He's trading it for an identical model and only because it's not working as well as it should anymore. The original typewriter will be auctioned off by Christie's with all the proceeds going to a charity.

    What got to me about this whole thing though isn't that McCarthy is doing something charitable or that he's replacing a gadget. It's how he describes it in the authentication letter to be given to the winning bidder:

    It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose. ... I have typed on this typewriter every book I have written including three not published. Including all drafts and correspondence I would put this at about five million words over a period of 50 years.

    Despite the lack of maintenance given to the gadget, it's easy to see that he has a genuine attachment to it, both in his words and in what he's doing. Then again, I guess we've all got some piece of old school tech that we're sentimental over, don't we? [NY Times via Obsolete]


Digest powered by RSS Digest

After 4 attempts at ordering over 3 months from Nokia, Amazon, and Dell, I finally managed to get an N900 delivered today.

It's been charging since lunch time, and now that my work day is almost done, I'm getting ready to turn it on and explore its Maemo5 goodness.

Yay! Turn up the music and open the windows, it's time to play!

Digest powered by RSS Digest

  • Pacific Northwest Earthquakes Could Strike Closer to Home

    Shared by Digittante

    Tectonic movement close to home >>>

    pacific_northwest

    Major earthquakes occurring along the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Washington state could strike closer to the state’s urban areas than some models have suggested, a new study notes.

    sciencenewsGPS data gathered at dozens of sites throughout western Washington hint that slippage along the interface between the North American and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates could occur as deep as 25 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, says Timothy I. Melbourne, a geodesist at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. That depth, in turn, would place the epicenters of quakes triggered along that portion of the subduction zone — some of which could exceed magnitude 9 —more than 60 kilometers inland, he and CWU colleague James Chapman report online and in the November 28 Geophysical Research Letters.

    Seafloor spreading is shoving the eastern edge of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, which runs from northern California to southern British Columbia, eastward beneath the North American plate. Long-term observations indicate that the plates are converging at an average rate of between 3 and 4 centimeters each year, says Melbourne. “With GPS, you can see plate tectonics happening on a week-to-week basis,” he notes.

    At shallow depths, where Earth’s crust is relatively cool, the tectonic interface is locked, and seismic stress builds up there until it is released during a quake. But deep beneath western Washington, at depths between 25 and 45 kilometers, the two tectonic plates slide past each other for a few days each 18 months or so. These slippage episodes are sometimes described as “silent earthquakes” (SN: 4/27/02, p. 260) but actually do register on seismometers, says Melbourne. “They’re like a magnitude-1 quake but they go on for a couple of weeks,” he notes. The total energy release in each slippage episode, if let loose all at once, would equal that in a quake with a magnitude between 6.3 and 6.7.

    NOAA Ocean Explorer: Submarine Ring of Fire 2002: Explorer RidgeThe long-term GPS data provide information about where slippage is occurring and how the plates are deforming. For instance, while average plate convergence rates offshore are greater than 3 centimeters per year, those along the coast are about 2.5 cm/yr. Convergence inland, near Seattle, only adds up to about 0.5 cm/yr, says Melbourne. These trends, when combined with previous seismic data, hint that stress is accumulating along the tectonic interface at depths less than 25 kilometers, where the tectonic interface is locked.

    GPS data are a more direct way of telling where tectonic slippage is occurring and where it isn’t, says John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “That data from both GPS and seismic instruments are pointing in the same direction is comforting,” he adds.

    A major quake rupturing the 300-kilometer length of the Cascadia subduction zone that runs along the Washington coast would measure magnitude 8.9, Melbourne and Chapman estimate. If the entire 1,100-kilometer subduction zone slipped at once, the quake would be a magnitude-9.2 whopper rivaling the tsunami-spawning quake that slammed Indonesia in December 2004 (SN: 1/8/05, p. 19). Field studies suggest that quakes of such magnitude happen along the Cascadia subduction zone once every 550 years, on average. The last one struck the region in January of 1700 (SN: 11/29/97, p. 348).

    Quake hazard analyses for the region, based partially on seismic data, already account for possible tectonic slippage at depths of 25 kilometers, says Garry Rogers, an earthquake scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada in Sidney, British Columbia. Nevertheless, he notes, the new findings provide “more precise measurements than we’ve had before…. This study confirms a lot of what we’ve known about.”

    See Also:


Digest powered by RSS Digest