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Groupon enters into China, teams with Tencent (Reuters) : Technet |
- Groupon enters into China, teams with Tencent (Reuters)
- High tech, medieval weaponry combine in trebuchet competition (Reuters)
- Oscars Live Report (AFP)
- World's biggest IT fair shoots for the clouds (AFP)
- Verizon iPhone flaw, sales debated (Appolicious)
- Google Glitch Disables 150,0000 Gmail Accounts (Mashable)
- Motorola sues TiVo over DVR technology (Reuters)
- 'DJ Kadhafi' takes Internet by storm (AFP)
- Mass. company making diesel with sun, water, CO2 (AP)
| Groupon enters into China, teams with Tencent (Reuters) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 07:25 PM PST LOS ANGELES/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Daily-deals website Groupon goes live in China on Monday, bringing its popular brand of Internet retail to the world's most populous nation. GaoPeng.com, funded by Groupon, the Tencent Collaboration Fund and Yunfeng Capital, will begin accepting email registrations from local consumers, with daily deals promoting local merchants to debut in March. However, analysts cast doubts over how successful Groupon can be in China given the numerous group-buying websites that are already active in the country. "Discounts will always be popular but the question is, will Groupon be more popular than the other websites," said Paul Wuh, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Samsung Securities. "There are many entrenched companies already offering this product," Wuh said. Taobao, China's largest consumer e-commerce website, launched a group-buying website last year, while other sites such as Mei Tuan and Man Zuo have also sprung up. Popular portal websites such as Tencent's QQ and Sohu.com have also launched group-buying websites. China had almost 19 million group-buying users at the end of 2010, according to government statistics. Wuh said the move is generally positive for Tencent as it signals that China's largest Internet firm is further expanding its operations its core revenue driver of games. Groupon had been widely reported to be scouting out locations and workers in China, seeking the global expansion its plethora of rivals have not embarked upon. Groupon, the two-year-old start-up that has met bankers about an initial public offering and which sources say rebuffed a $6 billion advance from Google Inc -- has seen phenomenal growth. It has grown to about 50 million users from 3 million across 500 cities in 40 countries over the course of 2010. But the competition is intensifying, with the likes of LivingSocial expanding in the same space and a plethora of websites springing up globally that specialize in deals for niche markets. Groupon recently completed a $950 million round of financing on its way to pondering an IPO, which sources have said would be one of the largest technology IPOs of 2011. Its venture capital backers and late-stage investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mail.ru Group, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures. (Reporting by Edwin Chan and Melanie Lee; Editing by Kazunori Takada) |
| High tech, medieval weaponry combine in trebuchet competition (Reuters) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 06:20 PM PST CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – In a mashup of 12th-century weaponry and 21st-century technology, employees of an area Google Data Center triggered a 6-foot wooden siege weapon this weekend with an Android cell phone, a computer the size of a credit card and a Blue Tooth receiver. The action came during the first "Storm The Citadel Trebuchet Competition" on the parade grounds of the South Carolina military college here. The trebuchet, a medieval siege machine built to break down fortifications, was used to hurl rocks, balls of fire and dead animals into and over castle walls. "They also threw dead people," said Dennis Fallon, dean of engineering at The Citadel, a military college with about 2,100 male and female cadets, as he watched trebuchet teams set up for the competition. "What we have done in military history is not always something to be proud of." More powerful than the ballistas and catapults of ancient empires, the trebuchet used a long swing arm, triggered by the pull of gravity on a counterweight placed at the other end, to slingshot its payload into the air. The brutal weapon played a large part in the medieval Crusades. According to histories of the time, Richard the Lionheart called his best weapon "Malvoisine." Edward I supposedly brought about the surrender of Scotland's Sterling Castle in 1304 with a giant trebuchet named "Warwolf." The trebuchet made a comeback in the late 20th century among medievalists, college professors and fans of the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in which a cow is hurled over a castle wall. In the 1990s in Britain, armor and armament enthusiast Hew Kennedy built a massive machine on his Shropshire estate and used it to throw compact cars and flaming pianos across his field. Saturday's competition was an effort sponsored by Google during The Citadel's National Engineering Week to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs in the schools, local employees said. In November 2009, President Barack Obama announced a major initiative to support STEM education over the next decade to keep Americans globally competitive in innovation and technology. "If we don't build things in the United States, we're never going to get our money back," Fallon said. "We can't keep being consumers; we have to be producers of technology." South Carolina high school students competed along with ROTC members, engineering majors and corporate teams in designing, building and firing the trebuchets. "There's a lot of engineering principles involved. There's a lot of math principles involved. And it's just fun," said Jeff Stevenson, deployment programs manager at the Google Data Center in nearby Berkeley County, one of four public data storage centers for the company in the United States, he said. He wore a black velvet jacket, brocade breeches, knee-high boots and a tri-corner hat for the company's Jolly Rogers team although he admitted the costume was inaccurate to the trebuchet's time. "Pirates had gunpowder," he said. The teams launched oranges and colored balls at a target 150 feet away, and, with a larger machine Google built for demonstration purposes, squashes, melons and bags of flour. "We're playing real-life Angry Birds," said Eric Wages, data center operations manager, referring to the iPhone and Android game in which, well, angry birds are flung at pigs. The Citadel Cadet Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers walked away with the day's Spartan helmet trophy for the best of the college and professional teams. (Editing by Jerry Norton) |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2011 08:50 PM PST HOLLYWOOD (AFP) – 2047 PST: It's the fourth Oscar for The King's Speech and makes the low-budget British indie movie about the stammering monarch the big winner of the night, scooping top prizes best film, best director and best actor. The producers are almost drowned out the wind-up music and the already over-long show is hurried to its conclusion with a performance of Somewhere over the Rainbow by a school choir from Staten Island. Franco says, "Anne and I have had an amazing time tonight" rather unconvincingly, though Hathaway is jollier and slaps hands with lots of the kid singers as all the night's winners crowd the stage. 2037 PST: Steven Spielberg is up to present the best picture Oscar - the biggest award of the night. He rightly points out that the nine nominated films that do not win will join such celebrated pictures as Citizen Cane, The Grapes of Wrath, The Graduate and Raging Bull. The nominees are The Fighter, Black Swan, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter's Bone. And the winner is The King's Speech! 2027 PST: Sandra Bullock, last year's best actress winner, announces the nominees for best actor. Like Bridges she singles them out individually with a little joke for each. Bridges, who she calls "the Dude" and says "you won this award last year?...How much is enough." Franco (who's sitting backstage), Eisenberg, Franco and Firth. And the award goes to Colin Firth! Again, no surprises here - Firth was considered a certainty in this category. His acceptance is gracious but a little "windbaggy", as my colleague Philippa remarks. The actor says he's experiencing some "upper abdominals" stirrings "threatening to form themselves into dance moves" that could be "extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I make it off stage." He acknowledges his "extraordinary list of fellow nominees" which is "possibly the greatest honour of this." He thanks his co-stars, Tom Hooper, his friend Tom Ford (who he worked with on A Single Man last year), Harvey Weinstein for recognising him 20 years ago when he was "a mere child sensation" (he was 30) and his wife for indulging his "fleeting delusions of royalty". It's Firth's second nomination and first win. 2011 PST: Hathaway and Franco are back, still in the same clothes. They welcome Jeff Bridges, last year's best actor Oscar winner and a nominee this year, who introduces the best actress nominees: Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone, Natalie Portman for Black Swan and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. Bridges addresses each actress in the audience personally and praises their work. Then he announces the winner - and it's Natalie Portman! No surprises here. Portman's helped up the stairs to the stage by her fiance Benjamin Millepied. There's a little surge of renewed applause and cheering for this win, which everyone expected and culminates the actress's triumphant march through the awards season. Portman wins for her riveting portrayal of disturbed ballet dancer Nina Sayers in Black Swan. It's the second Oscar nomination and first win for the actress who got her first role aged 11. "This is insane," she says. "I truly sincerely wish the prize tonight was to work with my fellow nominees - I am in awe of you." Breaking down, Portman thanks her parents and her fiance for giving her "the most important role of my life." It's a dignified and sweet acceptance. 2003 PST: Hathaway is back in another dress - this one's blue - but where's Franco? He seems to be shirking his duties somewhat. Two-time award winner Hilary Swank comes on and introduces last year's best director winner Kathryn Bigelow. The pair introduce the best director Oscar. And the Oscar goes to Tom Hooper The King's Speech! Wow - what a shock. Lots of pundits were predicting David Fincher would get this. It's Tom Hooper's first Oscar nomination and win. The 38-year-old British director thanks Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush who, with him, make up the film's "triangle of manlove". "I'm only here because of you guys and Helena, I hope that reference doesn't make you too jealous." The director also revealed his mother, who's in the audience, went to a reading of The King's Speech when it was a play and then told him, "Tom, I think I've found your next film." Hooper says the moral of the story is "listen to your mother." 1958 PST: Celine Dion sings during a tribute to the industry stars who passed during 2010. Then, Halle Berry gives a tribute to Lena Horne, hailing her as a trailblazer. 1949 PST: And the best original song Oscar goes to Randy Newman for We Belong Together from Toy Story 3. This is the second Oscar and 20th nomination for Newman. "My percentages aren't great," he says, referring to his win-to-nomination record. They should have a Randy Newman chicken dish at the Oscar nominees luncheon by now, he jokes. 1947 PST: Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson introduces the two remaining best original song contenders - Florence Welch (from Florence and the Machine) and AR Rahman, who perform If I Rise from 127 Hours, and then Gwyneth Paltrow who sings Coming Home from Country Strong. 1942 PST: Okay, so let's look at the scores so far...according to my estimates:The King's Speech has won only one Oscar - for best original screenplay. It was nominated for 12. The Social Network has won three (out of eight) so far - best score, best adapted screenplay, best editing. Inception has won four (out of eight nominations) sound mixing, cinematography, sound editing and visual effectsThe Fighter has two - the supporting actor categories. (It was nominated for seven). Of course the biggest prizes are still to come...so back to the Kodak. 1934 PST: Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr banter about visual effects before announcing the Oscar winner in this category - it's Inception! Law and Downey Jr announce the best film editing Oscar - it goes to The Social Network! 1932 PST: Billy Crystal is back! The multiple times Oscar hosts is on stage, presumably the producer's attempt to keep more traditionally-minded fans happy just in case the telecast get a little too youth-focused. Crystal says he's hosted the ceremony "eight times and I was pooped after two." There's a clip of Bob Hope hosting the 25th Academy Awards. 1928 PST: Franco and Hathaway are back - she's in a different dress, this one with spangly hanging stringy bits which fly out when she swivels (which she demonstrates with a shimmy). They comment on the lack of musical movies in 2010 and then there's a montage of clips from 2010 films that aren't musicals (Toy Story 3, The Social Network, Harry Potter and Twilight) set to some kind of KIIS FM style pop with nonsense lyrics. Timblerlake mouths something about "14 trout" while Twilight's Kirsten Stewart is "so glad he doesn't have a shirt" when a topless Taylor Lautner appears. 1923 PST: Inside Job wins best documentary Oscar! Oprah Winfrey announces the winner of the category. Charles Ferguson's look at the recent global financial meltdown takes Oscar gold beating Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop (so no need to worry about who was going to accept it for the mysterious street artist), Waste Land, Gasland and Restrepo. Ferguson comments that despite all the "massive fraud" committed during the financial crisis, "not a single financial executive has gone to jail and that's wrong." 1919 PST: The best live action short film Oscar is announced - it goes to God of Love. It beats The Confession, The Crush, Na Wewe and Wish 143. There's a rushed, breathless acceptance speech from Luke Matheny, who thanks everyone from NYU to his mother "who did craft services for the film". 1915 PST: Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal are on stage to announce the best short documentary Oscar - and the winner is Strangers No More. It beats Poster Girl, Killing in the Name, Sun Comes up and The Warriors of Qiugang. 1908 PST: Kevin Spacey is singing Fred Astaire. Sort of. "Good evening, I'm George Clooney," he says. He's on stage to introduce two of the contenders for the Oscar for best song. Randy Newman performs We Belong Together from Toy Story 3. (It's his 20th Oscar nomination) then Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi perform I See The Light from Tangled. 1900 PST: Cate Blanchett comes on to present the best make-up Oscar. And the award goes to Wolfman! It beats Barney's Version and The Way Back. The Australian star also announces the best costume design Oscar. The winner is Colleen Atwood for Alice in Wonderland! It's the third Oscar and ninth nomination for Colleen Atwood. The costume designer, who's also responsible for Helena Bonham Carter's dress tonight, reads from a pre-written thank you note and the wind-up music is playing before she's done. Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland's director, and partner Helena Bonham Carter, smile from the audience. 1859 PST: Hathaway and Franco are back - she's in yet another gown (I've lost count and it's only 7pm) and Franco's thankfully back in a tux. Marisa Tomei is on stage to announce the scientific and technical Oscars she handed out earlier this month. "All right. Congratulations, nerds." Franco says. 1855 PST: There's a nicely pitched sense of intimacy and humour and up-for-itness to the proceedings so far. Hathaway appeared suitably overwhelmed, humbled and high-pitched, covering her face as she first appeared on stage with Franco, the cooler and calmer half of the duo. "Oh my God, you're all real!" she announced while Franco noted merely: "Wow." Then there was some knowing ribbing of their task to draw in the younger viewers: "Anne, I must say you look so beautiful and hip," Franco said. "You look very appealing to a younger demographic as well," Hathaway responded. Then both hosts addressed members of their family in the audience. Hathaway's mum told her to stand up straight. "Really, mom? In front of a billion people?" Franco's grandma boasted she'd just seen "Marky Mark." Franco corrected her: "That's actually Mark Walhberg." Hathaway then noted it had been a great year for lesbians - "not just in general but in film - lesbians (The Kids Are All Right), Dancing lesbians (Black Swan) and Toy Story 3 - "Where's the dad?" 1849 PST: Matthew McConaughey and Scarlett Johansson present the best sound mixing Oscar - Inception wins! It beats Salt, The King's Speech, The Social Network and True Grit. The pair then present the award for achievement in Sound Editing - it's another Oscar for Inception! It beats True Grit, Unstoppable, TRON: Legacy and Toy Story 3. 1847 PST: Australians Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are on stage to announce the Oscar for best original score - and the winner is The Social Network! It beats The King's Speech, Inception, 127 Hours and How to Train Your Dragon. Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) and Atticus Ross are on stage to accept their Oscar (they also won the Golden Globe). "To be standing up here in this company is humbling and flattering beyond words," Reznor says. 1843 PST: Earlier - Hathaway's third costume change - she's in a tux and silvery stilettos belting out a musical number quite convincingly that attacks Hugh Jackman for not joining her on-stage (the pair performed a well-received number at the 2009 Oscars). And then, uh oh, Franco's in drag - a pink strapless number and blonde wig. Hathaway is cracking up. "The weird part is I just got a text message from Charlie Sheen," Franco announces. Very funny. And I didn't think they'd be allowed to go there... 1833 PST: And the best supporting actor Oscar goes to Christian Bale. It is Bale's first Oscar. He strides up the steps. "Bloody hell, wow. What a roomful of talented and inspirational people and what the hell am I doing in the midst of you?" The UK actor thanks The Fighter director David O'Russell, his co-stars and the boxer brothers, Micky and Dicky, who the film is based on and are in the audience. "I'm not going to drop the F-bomb like (Melissa Leo) did," Bale says. "I've done that plenty before." He thanks his wife "who's my mast through the storms of life" and his daughter who's "taught me so much more than I'll ever be able to teach her." He looks genuinely choked up. 1832 PST: Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon is on stage to present the best supporting actor Oscar. Will it be Christian Bale for The Fighter or one of his rivals - John Hawkes (Winter's Bone); Jeremy Renner (The Town); Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech) or Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)? 1829 PST: Dame Helen Mirren and Russell Brand present the best foreign language film Oscar. Mirren and Brand's introduction to the foreign language award was fun - Mirren introduced the award in French; Brand translated it as "my Queen was much more realistic than Colin Firth's king." Mirren says "I didn't say that," in French. Brand (Katy Perry's husband) responds: "I'm very flattered Dame Helen but I'm of course married." In a Better World from Denmark wins! The film, which also won the Golden Globe, is the third Danish film to win the foreign language Oscar. It beats Biutiful, Dogtooth, Incendies and Outside the Law. 1824 PST: The 73-year-old Seidler takes the stage to accept his award, his first Oscar (and first nomination). "This is terrifying," says the white-haired screenwriter, who himself battled a stutter and waited decades until after the Queen Mother's death before releasing his script. "My father always said to me that I would be a late bloomer," he says. "I believe I am the oldest person to win this particular award - I hope that record is broken quickly and often." The writer thanks his family and "the Queen for not putting me in the Tower of London for using the Melissa Leo F-word (which features several times in The King's Speech). And I accept this on behalf of all the stutterers of the world. We have a voice and we have been heard, thanks to you, the Academy." 1820 PST: Bardem and Brolin also announce the best original screenplay Oscar. And the winner is David Seidler for The King's Speech! 1818 PST: And the Oscar goes to - Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network! It's the West Wing writer's first Oscar nomination and win. A bespectacled Sorkin takes the stage for a long list of thank-yous (the fade-out music is playing long before he's done). "I wrote this movie but David Fincher made this movie...with ungodly artfulness," Sorkin says. "He made the movie of every screenwriter's dream...(it will be) a source of pride for me for the rest of my life." 1814 PST: Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin in white tuxedos! Penelope Cruz beams and claps from the audience as her husband takes the stage. The pair of actors are on stage to announce the best adapted screenplay Oscar. Will it be Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network? 1809 PST: No surprises in the Animated Feature category. Toy Story 3 was universally adored and is also among the 10 best picture nominees. 1806 PST: Justin Timberlake (The Social Network) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan) are on stage to present the Oscars for best animated short. Timberlake introduces himself as "Banksy" (the secretive UK graffiti artist). Kunis contradicts him. Timberlake finds an App on his phone to transform the backdrop into an animated set. The winner of best animated short is announced - it's The Lost Thing! Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann take the stage to accept their Oscar. 1803 PST: Leo, 50, looks stunned beyond belief. She's yet to smile. "Pinch me!" she says to Kirk Douglas when she reaches the stage and covers her mouth. "Oh my God. Oh wow, oh really really truly wow...I'm just shaking in my boots now." She thanks director David O'Russell, the cast, fellow nominee and co-star Amy Adams. "Oh, I am kind of speechless..." Then she lets slip a swear word but it's muted out and looks even more unsettled. It's the first win for Leo, who was nominated in 2009 for Frozen River. She thanks the Academy because it's about "selling motion pictures and respecting the work. Thank you so much." 1758 PST: Kirk Douglas presents the best supporting actress award - labouring over the introduction of the five nominees - Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Helena Bonham Carter, Hailee Steinfeld and Jacki Weaver. And Melissa Leo wins!! 1757 PST: Oooh what a great opening montage! Actually filled with tons of laughs. Anne Hathaway and James Franco appear in snippets that inter-cut with real clips of many of the nominated films as they "go into (last year's host's) Alec Baldwin's dreams and get some hosting tips". We see them opposite an intense Leonardo DiCaprio in a Parisian cafe in Inception (the street explodes); they're on a plane with an Ambien-sipping Baldwin. Morgan Freeman narrates Baldwin's dreams, the actor says, because Baldwin likes his "soothing voice". "This might be even more confusing than Inception," comments Franco. The True Grit cameo is great - Hathaway with double eye patches and pigtails on horseback with Franco in a bear suit. "I loved you in Tron," Franco says to Jeff Bridges's Rooster Cogburn. The pair are in Wembley Stadium alongside Firth's George VI. "I have some news from the future," an in costume Hathaway says. "Microphones get smaller." Then she gives the future king a sexy "hi" and a wink. A great snippet with tortured Natalie Portman in Black Swan - Hathaway as "the brown duck" and Franco is all body white leotard. Then they're in Back to the Future, climbing into the Delorean and racing towards Doc and "Marty" - "Michael, get out of the way," yells Franco. "I don't have insurance." A very amusing opening sequence - it bodes well. 1749 PST: Wally Pfister wins the cinematography Oscar for Inception! It's his first win in four nominations. He beats nine-time nominated Roger Deakins (True Grit), Danny Cohen (The King's Speech), Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network) and Matthew Libbatique (Black Swan). 1746 PST: Tom Hanks introduces the first two awards. The first is for art direction - and the Oscar goes to Alice in Wonderland! (which was favourite to win) 1737 PST: The stars are all inside the Kodak Theatre and there's less than five minutes to go. Steven Spielberg is mopping the brow of Bruce Cohen, the nervous looking Oscar telecast producer, and handing him bottled water. Tom Hanks, who will present the first award, is interviewed on stage and appears relaxed. It's business as usual for the Oscar winner who reportedly joked with Colin Firth at a pre-Oscar bash last week that he hoped Firth had watched a DVD he'd sent to nominees to help them with their acceptance speeches. He also warned the likely best actor frontrunner not to read out a list of name as it shows "us your bald spot."Okay, here we go... the show is starting... 1726 PST: Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush keep the "bromance" fires bubbling, joking around on the red carpet. "It's a shocking display, shameless," admits Firth, 50, who is all but 100 percent certain to win an Oscar tonight. A bald Rush, who won an Oscar for Shine in 1997 and is nominated for best supporting actor, says even if The King's Speech goes home empty handed it has "scored with audiences and it has scored in our working relationship." Earlier fellow Australian Cate Blanchett commented on what an extraordinary year it was for Australian nominees - along with Rush, Nicole Kidman and Jacki Weaver are among the nominees. 1712 PST: James Franco is caught backstage minutes before the ceremony begins. He seems a little distracted - is it nerves? He's asked how he thinks it will go. "We'll see," says the best actor nominee with a smile. The actor, who is also a postgraduate student at Yale, has been nipping back to LA at weekends to rehearse for the ceremony. Has he got extra credits for all his efforts? "There's a class called Oscars and I aced it," Franco jokes. He also reveals it won't only be his co-host, "tons of energy" Anne Hathaway, who will be changing clothes. He will also be doing some costume changes of his own. 1708 PST: And finally Natalie Portman is here. The best actress frontrunner looks gorgeous in a v-neck purple dress by local designers Rodarte (who also designed some of the dancers' costumes in Black Swan). Is she nervous? "I'm excited. I feel like it's going to be a fun show to watch this year with James and Anne hosting." The 29-year-old mum-to-be also reveals she's looking forward to the awards season being done with and how kicking back in "sweats with messy hair and no make-up is the biggest luxury of all." 1702 PST: It's a first - an Oscar presenter is being interviewed on the red carpet. Anne Hathaway, the show's youngest ever host in "archival Valentino" reveals that Shirley MacLaine told her to "change clothes as often as possible" and she intends to take that to heart. "I could not feel more like a princess, a movie star and the luckiest girl in the world." 1700 PST: Annette Bening, a best actress contender for The Kids Are All Right and four-time Oscar nominee, keeps up the smiles despite predictions she's likely to again go home empty-handed - last night's Independent Spirit Awards was just the latest ceremony at which Natalie Portman beat her to the best actress prize. She arrives with husband Warren Beatty. The actor is asked what makes his wife such a fantastic actress? "You don't know the half of it," he replies. "Not only that she's the best actress in the world, you can't imagine what a mother and wife and the whole thing... I'm in awe." 1653 PST: You'd never guess Christian Bale was from Wales. The best supporting actor nominee - favourite to win for his role as a crack-addled former boxer in The Fighter - sounds more like a Cockney: his speech is littered with "cheers, Mates" and "know what I means?" The bearded actor, famous for going to physical extremes for film parts, is asked if there's anything he won't do for a role. He says audiences deserve it and he's "totally happy to go the distance". Do his relatives ever get worried about the lengths he goes to, he's asked. "Nerr, they know I'm a stubborn git and they know I'm going to do it anyway." 1645 PST: Other stars arriving: a tousle-haired Scarlett Johansson in Dolce and Gabbana; a tanned-looking (or is it make-up?) Gwyneth Paltrow in metallic Calvin Klein nervous about performing tonight (she'll do a song from her film Country Strong) - "I hope I don't completely mess it up"; last year's best actress winner Sandra Bullock in strapless red Vera Wang chilly from the cold; Halle Berry in pale strapless Marchesa... 1636 PST: Helena Bonham Carter is here and wearing her trademark round sunglasses but what on the face of it appears to be a surprisingly normal-looking gown - it's black and fitted with a big bustle and 19th century feel. Asked if she had been worried about the "fashion police", she describes her outfit as "something I got together with costume designer Colleen Atwood. I thought it would be nice to celebrate film not fashion...I've got a bit of a complex about my bum so thought I'd make it even bigger." E!'s fashion pundit Kelly Osborne gushes she's "obsessed" with Bonham Carter and loves her outfit. The actress responds: "Thanks, Kelly" before clocking her hairdo: "You've gone blonde, Jesus!" Bonham Carter said she first realised The King's Speech could be a hit when it screened at Toronto and people were "laughing in the right places and even stood up at the end." But she's not expecting the film to "sweep tonight. It's just fun to be here." 1623 PST: Interesting tidbits we're picking up from red carpet interviews: Mila Kunis was offered her role in Black Swan by director Darren Aronofsky via Skype. In fact, "all our meetings (before rehearsals began) were on Skype," the actress says. Best actor nominee Jesse Eisenberg doesn't own a television and doesn't have a Facebook account. "I really should have signed up this morning," he says. The King's Speech began its journey to the Oscars in a brown paper envelope on Geoffrey Rush's doorstep. The film's British director Tom Hooper said best supporting actor nominee Rush found the then script for an un-produced play on his doorstep one Christmas morning. Amazingly he read it and called his agent to say he didn't want to do it as a play but did want it to be his next film. Hooper remarks on "how democratic" the film's reach has proved, with nine to 90-year-olds enjoying it (a message to the censors who originally slapped it with an R rating perhaps?). 1609 PST: Amy Adams is nervous in a dark blue sparkly L'Wren Scott dress. She says she's rooting for fellow The Fighter star and fellow best supporting actress nominee Melissa Leo. Jeremy Renner, a best supporting actor nominee, arrives and is congratulated on his nomination by Kevin Spacey. Spacey's tip for the night: "Just have fun and find the bar as quickly as you can." E!'s Ryan Seacrest asks Spacey, a producer of The Social Network, about the film's effect on Facebook. The actor tells him that Mark Zuckerberg's recent appearance on Saturday Night Live with best actor nominee Jesse Eisenberg (who portrays him in the film), indicates the website's founder is "starting to accept the idea that actually the movie's been pretty good for his company." Spacey also alludes to the role of social networking in the recent upheavals in the Middle East. "There's no doubt as we look around the world...people are finding their voices (via social media) in many troubled places." He continued, "I think it's quite remarkable how it's changed our world." 1559 PST: British comedian Russell Brand is having some fun on the red carpet with the American television reporters. Asked if he'll be sticking to the script when he presents an award with Helen Mirren during the ceremony, he says that Mirren has encouraged him to "express myself creatively and not worry about censorship or any of the laws of the earth." He's brought along his mum as his date and she's excited to see Colin Firth, tonight's best actor favourite. Brand, who says he went to the same drama school as Firth, describes his fellow Brit as "a great actor with an ability to relay sensitivity and strength." Another British-born star rooting for Firth's film is Elizabeth Taylor. The Oscar-winning film legend, who is in hospital from a heart scare, is rooting for The King's Speech and will be watching tonight from her hospital bed with family and close friends, her spokesman said. 1548 PST: Anne Hathaway is spied arriving resplendent in a red strapless, big bustled number - the first of no doubt numerous costume changes in store for the co-presenter tonight. Black Swan star Mila Kunis is in a revealing lilac number cut low across the bust. Sexiest dress of the evening? It's a "lace and chiffon neo-classical number", Randolph Duke informs us. The actress, who is a presenter at the ceremony, is complimented on her ability to do both drama and comedy. She responds: "I mean, I hope so. I don't ever want to be a one-trick pony!" 1537 PST: Melissa Leo, a best supporting actress nominee, is another early arrival. Leo, favourite for the prize for her portrayal of the hard-as-nails matriarch in The Fighter, is transformed from her character's brassy bottle blond with soft hair and a big lacy/silvery dress. The 50-year-old star has been cleaning up this awards season but admits she hasn't been preparing an acceptance speech for tonight. Her rival for the prize, True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld, 14, is not far behind. The teenager, who scored an Oscar nomination for her first ever film role in the Coen brothers' Western remake, is told by several reporters her pale, fitted Marchesa dress (which she helped design) is "age appropriate" while "she speaks so well" for someone her age. She's brought along her "mummy, daddy and brother" to the ceremony. 1523 PST: It's a crisp but bright winter Hollywood afternoon with no sign of yesterday's rain or plastic carpet covering. Jennifer Lawrence, the 20-year-old star of indie hit Winter's Bone and first-time Oscar nominee (best actress) is among the first to arrive. She's wearing a stunning "simple bathing suit style" (according to ABC's fashion pundit Randolph Duke) red sheath dress and is immediately jumped on by interviewers. "This has to be the best moment in your life," says one breathless reporter. "I think it's pretty safe to say," agrees the actress who says she's usually watching the Oscars from her sofa with a plate of linguine and vegetables "There's a lot more sucking in tonight." She says she's not nervous and doesn't seem flustered by all the hoopla and the questions about whether she did indeed skin a squirrel in the film. Yes, is the answer. 1500 PST: Welcome to AFP's live report from the 2011 Oscars, the culmination of Hollywood's epic awards season and the film industry's biggest night. This year's most anticipated showdowns include the best picture and director categories, where British period indie film The King's Speech (with a leading 12 nominations) vies with David Fincher's of-the-moment Facebook movie, The Social Network (eight noms). The battle comes as the Academy makes its most blatant bid to connect with younger film fans and users of online media with Twitter and Facebook pages and a swath of internet extras and apps. Its also recruited two of its youngest ever presenters - glamorous A-listers Anne Hathaway and James Franco (also a contender for best actor) a surprising and dramatic gear shift after last year's hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who pulled in the biggest audience since 2005. Franco and Hathaway have been tirelessly promoting tonight's show, the 83rd awards, with self-mockery and candor (Hathway originally rejected the offer while Franco even volunteered some refreshing irreverence for what many see as an overlong exercise in industry self-congratulation: "If it's the worst Oscars show ever, who cares? It's like, it's fine. It's one night. It doesn't matter.") But the Academy is also keen to keep traditional fans and its older skewing membership on board - beloved veteran host Billy Crystal is rumoured to be joining the stage at some point. How will its bid to keep everyone happy fare? Other big questions of the night: will Helena Bonham Carter wear matching shoes? How will pregnant Natalie Portman (and likely best actress winner) accessorize her baby bump? Will secretive graffiti artist Banksy show up (he's nominated for best documentary) and risk arrest for alleged recent LA street art? And will anyone dare to crack a joke about Charlie Sheen? Let's go the Kodak Theatre and find out! |
| World's biggest IT fair shoots for the clouds (AFP) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 03:36 PM PST HANOVER, Germany (AFP) – The world's top high-tech fair opens Tuesday with the IT industry in bullish mood, preparing to wow visitors with head-spinning futuristic gadgets and the latest in 'cloud computing' technology. More than 4,200 tech firms from 70 countries are expected to attend this year's CeBIT -- the self-styled "Davos of high-tech" -- with many of the big names that stayed away during the global financial crisis returning to Germany. Google, IBM, SAP, Microsoft, HP and Dell are among the top companies setting up their stalls in Hanover, northern Germany, for the five-day event that is likely to attract around 350,000 punters and self-confessed technology geeks. "CeBIT 2011 is the heart of the digital world and will show how rapidly the pulse of the IT industry is beating," said Ernst Raue, board member of Deutsche Messe that organises the event. As the event approached, BITKOM, which represents Germany's telecom and high-tech sector, forecast a 4.8-percent gain in the global IT market to 2.6 trillion euros ($3.6 trillion) this year, driven by double-digit growth in China. Despite the optimism, however, the CeBIT fair is not the global showcase it once was. Exhibitor numbers are up only fractionally on last year and at the height of the dot.com boom, more than 8,000 firms set up shop at the show. The major theme of this year's fair is cloud computing which "runs like a leitmotiv through the different exhibitions," according to BITKOM president August-Wilhelm Scheer. Firms will be hoping to move cloud computing -- the idea of storing data online rather than physically on users' machines -- from the realms of the IT world into consumers' everyday lives, said Scheer. "Cloud computing is going to change IT and its business model enormously. We expect cloud computing sales in Germany to quadruple by 2015," he said. Other hot topics at the exhibition will be web security, high-speed Internet and bringing 3D computing into everyday life. But as ever at the CeBIT, it won't be all work and no play. Firms will be bringing with them a huge range of eye-popping futuristic gadgets to amuse visitors. The latest robots will be on show, from one that plays table tennis to a "RoboThespian" that recites Shakespeare, to a metal colleague that stands in for you in meetings, showing your face on its monitor. This year's CeBIT will also have a special section on sports and technology, featuring an "intelligent sensor suit," a full body tracksuit that monitors athletes' movements and enables them to improve training routines. And there will be no lack of quirky gadgets, from the relentless alarm clock that won't stop until its pressure sensor knows for sure you are out of bed to remote control devices that can be operated using just the power of thought. Also during the fair, top computer gamers from Europe, Asia and the United States will face off for the title of world video game champion 2011, with a prize of 130,000 dollars at stake. The show will be officially launched on Monday evening by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who will also hold political talks afterwards likely to focus on Turkey's EU accession bid. On Tuesday, when the fair opens to the wider public, Merkel and Erdogan will take a traditional turn around the grounds to view the stalls. Turkey, this year's "partner country," is bringing around 100 companies to the show. |
| Verizon iPhone flaw, sales debated (Appolicious) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 07:01 PM PST |
| Google Glitch Disables 150,0000 Gmail Accounts (Mashable) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 03:01 PM PST Google, we have a problem. About 150,000 Gmail account holders woke up to a nightmare this morning, with all their e-mail, attachments and Google Chat logs gone. What happened? Google explains that "less than 0.08%" of all Gmail users were affected by the bug, which completely reset accounts, even down to the detail offering a welcome message to those users when they first logged on today. They, and especially visitors to the Gmail Help Forum, were not amused. But there's good news here. The way Google is explaining it on its Apps Status Dashboard: "Google engineers are working to restore full access. Affected users may be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts." In an earlier message, Google wrote, "For those Gmail users reporting missing messages, our engineers are working to restore them as soon as possible." So maybe this is not so bad after all. As long as Google restores the messages, all we had was a big scare. Will Google restore all the messages? We've contacted a Google spokesperson, and will let you know when we hear back. Meanwhile, I'm going to back up all of my Gmail forthwith. But wait a minute -– how do you back up Gmail? Here:
This is a free application for Mac, PC and Linux called Gmail Backup. I gave it a try and it's easy to use. After a quick download, you just give it your credentials and it begins downloading all your e-mails, backing them up securely no matter what Google decides to do. After 30 minutes, it had downloaded 2.4% of my e-mails, so this is not going to take forever. It's probably time well spent. [via Engadget] |
| Motorola sues TiVo over DVR technology (Reuters) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 01:33 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) – Motorola Mobility sued TiVo Inc for infringing its patents for digital video recorders (DVRs). Motorola said it was seeking to protect its interests after TiVo sued Verizon Communications Inc, which uses Motorola's technology, for patent infringement. In a complaint filed on Friday, Motorola said it acquired its DVR patents through an acquisition of Imedia, which filed for patents in April 1995. TiVo'S patents used the same technology that Imedia engineers invented years before, Motorola said. "TiVo is attempting to assert its patents against technology disclosed and claimed in Motorola Mobility's patents, despite the fact that Motorola Mobility's patents were filed more than three years before TiVo's patents," Motorola said in a statement. TiVo declined to comment on Sunday. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Bernard Orr) |
| 'DJ Kadhafi' takes Internet by storm (AFP) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 03:19 PM PST JERUSALEM (AFP) – Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi may be reviled by many of his own people and the international community, but he's enjoying an unexpected surge of popularity -- as a music video star. A remix of a rambling 75-minute speech Kadhafi delivered on Tuesday, set to dance music and featuring the strongman alongside footage of two gyrating girls, has gone viral on the Internet. It has racked up almost half a million views on the video-sharing website YouTube since it was posted three days ago. Called "Zenga Zenga", the music video mixes Kadhafi's quotes with club beats, using lines in which he vows to fight "inch by inch, home by home, alley by alley" as the chorus for the song. The clip was created by Israeli musician and DJ Noy Alooshe and appears to be wildly popular in the Arab world despite its origins in the Jewish state. "Can I get it on DVD so I can play it at the wedding for the bride and groom to dance to?" one commentator wrote in Arabic. The clip can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBY-0n4esNY. Alooshe, 31, said he was inspired after seeing the speech, in which Kadhafi made various wild gestures and banged on his podium. "It seemed to be very comic visually. Before I even touched it, it was funny, like a parody," Alooshe told AFP. "The 'Zenga Zenga' bit had a great beat and I knew it had real potential to be a dance clip." Alooshe said he was amazed by the reactions, which have been mostly positive, even after it his mostly Arab audience discovered the video clip was created by an Israeli. He has also posted online a version of the spoof hit without the scantily clad dancing girls to take into account sensibilities in the Muslim world. That version has some catching up to do in terms of popularity, with about 50,000 hits so far. "There were some curses, but still most said it was a great remix," Alooshe said. "One guy even said that when Kadhafi falls we will dance to this remix in the streets of Tripoli -- that would really be something." |
| Mass. company making diesel with sun, water, CO2 (AP) Posted: 27 Feb 2011 02:09 PM PST CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow. Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels. What can it mean? No less than "energy independence," Joule's web site tells the world, even if the world's not quite convinced. "We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we've validated, all of which we've shown to investors," said Joule chief executive Bill Sims. "If we're half right, this revolutionizes the world's largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry," he said. "And if we're right, there's no reason why this technology can't change the world." The doing, though, isn't quite done, and there's skepticism Joule can live up to its promises. National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist Philip Pienkos said Joule's technology is exciting but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are undercut by difficulties they could have just collecting the fuel their organism is producing. Timothy Donohue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says Joule must demonstrate its technology on a broad scale. Perhaps it can work, but "the four letter word that's the biggest stumbling block is whether it `will' work," Donohue said. "There are really good ideas that fail during scale up." Sims said he knows "there's always skeptics for breakthrough technologies." "And they can ride home on their horse and use their abacus to calculate their checkbook balance," he said. Joule was founded in 2007. In the last year, it's roughly doubled its employees to 70, closed a $30 million second round of private funding in April and added John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors. The company worked in "stealth mode" for a couple years before it recently began revealing more about what it was doing, including with a patent for its cyanobacterium last year. This month, it released a peer-reviewed paper it says backs its claims. Work to create fuel from solar energy has been done for decades, such as by making ethanol from corn or extracting fuel from algae. But Joule says they've eliminated the middleman that's makes producing biofuels on a large scale so costly. That middleman is the "biomass," such as the untold tons of corn or algae that must be grown, harvested and destroyed to extract a fuel that still must be treated and refined to be used. Joule says its organisms secrete a completed product, already identical to diesel fuel or ethanol, then live on to keep producing it at remarkable rates. Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they say they can do it at $30 a barrel. A key for Joule is the cyanobacterium it chose, which is found everywhere and is less complex than algae, so it's easier to genetically manipulate, said biologist Dan Robertson, Joule's top scientist. The organisms are engineered to take in sunlight and carbon dioxide, then produce and secrete ethanol or hydrocarbons — the basis of various fuels, such as diesel — as a byproduct of photosynthesis. The company envisions building facilities near power plants and consuming their waste carbon dioxide, so their cyanobacteria can reduce carbon emissions while they're at it. The flat, solar-panel style "bioreactors" that house the cyanobacterium are modules, meaning they can build arrays at facilities as large or small as land allows, the company says. The thin, grooved panels are designed for maximum light absorption, and also so Joule can efficiently collect the fuel the bacteria secrete. Recovering the fuel is where Joule could find significant problems, said Pienkos, the NREL scientist, who is also principal investigator on a Department of Energy-funded project with Algenol, a Joule competitor that makes ethanol and is one of the handful of companies that also bypass biomass. Pienkos said his calculations, based on information in Joule's recent paper, indicate that though they eliminate biomass problems, their technology leaves relatively small amounts of fuel in relatively large amounts of water, producing a sort of "sheen." They may not be dealing with biomass, but the company is facing complicated "engineering issues" in order to recover large amounts of its fuel efficiently, he said. "I think they're trading one set of problems for another," Pienkos said. Success or failure for Joule comes soon enough. The company plans to break ground on a 10-acre demonstration facility this year, and Sims says they could be operating commercially in less than two years. Robertson talks wistfully about the day he'll hop into the Ferrari he doesn't have, fill it with Joule fuel and gun the engine in an undeniable demonstration of the power and reality of Joule's ideas. Later, after leading a visitor on a tour of the labs, Robertson comes upon a poster of a sports car on an office wall, and it reminds him of the success he's convinced is coming. He motions to the picture. "I wasn't kidding about the Ferrari," he says. |
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