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Swiss man performs aerial loops with jet wings (AP) : Technet |
- Swiss man performs aerial loops with jet wings (AP)
- What makes for a Facebook friend, anyway? (Ben Patterson)
- Kinect isn’t racist, and it’s not spying on you, Microsoft promises (Ben Patterson)
- It's Goodbye Xserve as Apple Focuses on Power Macs (NewsFactor)
- Remains of the Day: Half-caf soy venti iMac (Macworld)
- Sprint axes China's Huawei, ZTE 'on security grounds' (AFP)
- Facebook Deals and Awesome Things You Shouldn't Do on PCWorld Podcast #97 (PC World)
- Liberty Media units add revenue (Investor's Business Daily)
- Steve Ballmer Sells $1.3 Billion Worth of Microsoft Shares (Mashable)
- Meet the Makers: Q&A with Jim Spencer, CEO of Newsy (Appolicious)
- Microsoft's Ballmer sells 12 percent stake in company (Reuters)
- Fortinet (Investor's Business Daily)
- Major mobile banking app security holes uncovered (Digital Trends)
- Happy third birthday, Android: A timeline of Google's mobile offspring (Digital Trends)
- PARTING SHOTS: Dying Gulf coral, targeted congressional salaries (The Upshot)
| Swiss man performs aerial loops with jet wings (AP) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 03:10 PM PDT BERCHER, Switzerland – Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy jumped from a hot-air balloon Friday and completed two aerial loops using just his custom-made jet-propelled wingsuit — the first time such maneuvers have been performed. It was just the latest daredevil stunt by the former fighter pilot who hopes one day to fly through the Grand Canyon. Rossy, 51, launched himself from a replica of the Breitling Orbiter — the first balloon to be piloted nonstop around the world in 1999 — at an altitude of 7,874 feet (2,400 meters) near Lake Geneva. Then he fired up the jets on his new — smaller and sleeker — wingsuit to perform the loopings before landing safely with a parachute. Rossy declared himself "very happy and satisfied" with Friday's stunt, which comes two years after his first successful flights over the nearby Swiss Alps. The extreme sports enthusiast has since flown across the English Channel and last year tried to cross the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain. That attempt ended in failure when Rossy ditched in the sea due to strong turbulence. Rossy said he is still hoping to fly through the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but is waiting for permission from U.S. authorities. ___ On the Net: |
| What makes for a Facebook friend, anyway? (Ben Patterson) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:59 AM PDT How many friends do you have on Facebook (assuming you're on Facebook)? A hundred? Five hundred? A thousand? How many is too many? Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, for one, suggests that if you've cracked a thousand, maybe it's time to start "cutting some of the friend fat out of your life." The bloggers at AllFacebook caught Kimmel's monologue Wednesday night. "I see people with thousands of what they call 'friends,' which is impossible," Kimmel insisted. "You can't have a thousand friends." How do you tell a real friend from a Facebook friend? Easy, Kimmel says. "Let's say on Friday, post a status update that says, 'I'm moving this weekend and I need help.' The people who respond, those are your friends. Everyone else isn't." Or, here's another example: "A friend is someone you have a special relationship with, it's not someone who asks which Harry Potter character you are." During his rant, Kimmel went so far as to announce a new holiday: "National Un-Friend Day," Nov. 17. "Friendship is a sacred thing," said Kimmel (who looked like he was only half-kidding), "and I believe Facebook is ruining it." There are, in fact, actual limits to how large your circle of Facebook friends can grow. Facebook will cut you off after your 5,000th friend—purely for "back-end technology" reasons, as the New York Times notes, not because site administrators think you're defining "friend" too liberally. But is it really impossible to have 1,000 friends, as Kimmel semi-seriously argues? Yes, it is, according to evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who writes for the London Times that "our brains aren't big enough to allow us to have deeply meaningful relationships with more than a handful of people." In fact, 150 is "the average number of people to whom most of you send Christmas cards," Dunbar says. A hundred and fifty friends, eh? Well, I'm about a dozen Facebook friends over Dunbar's limit. Looks like some of you have gotta go. Of course, this whole little debate forces us to ask: What is a Facebook friend? Should you "friend" only those who are true friends -- those people whom you "can have a relationship with involving trust and obligation," where "there's some personal history, not just names and numbers," as Dunbar defined friends to the Observer earlier this year? Or is Facebook exactly that: a contact book of names, faces and numbers for close friends and mere acquaintances alike? You tell me.
— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. |
| Kinect isn’t racist, and it’s not spying on you, Microsoft promises (Ben Patterson) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 10:48 AM PDT Seems like no major gadget launch goes by without a little controversy, and Microsoft's marvelous new motion- and face-detecting camera is no exception. By far the biggest ruckus was sparked by GameSpot, which noted in a recent story that the Kinect camera had trouble recognizing two "dark-skinned" GameSpot staffers even after multiples tries and calibrations, while "lighter-skinned" users were "consistently" identified with no problems. While the employees in question were still able to jump around and play games like every other Kinect tester, the camera only sporadically identified the face of one of the gamers, while Kinect completely failed to ID the other â€" a glaring problem, GameSpot said, given that one of the most highly touted features of Kinect is that it's supposed to recognize users and sign them in automatically. The glitch brought to mind an episode from late last year, when webcams with facial recognition features manufactured by HP were said to have trouble identifying people with dark skin tones. That led to allegations that HP's webcam technology was "racist," and sure enough, a similar controversy soon descended upon Kinect. Microsoft's response to the GameSpot article went along the same lines as HP's explanation for its webcam woes: namely that lighting, not skin color, was the culprit. "Kinect works with people of all skin tones," Microsoft told GameSpot. "And just like a camera, optimal lighting is best. Anyone experiencing issues with facial recognition should adjust their lighting settings, as instructed in the Kinect Tuner." Also coming to Kinect's defense was Consumer Reports, which conducted its own tests using two players of "different skin tones" and concluded that Kinect's facial recognition issues are "related to low-level lighting" rather than the color of your skin: Essentially, the Kinect recognized both players at light levels typically used in living rooms at night and failed to recognize both players when the lights were turned down lower. So far, we did not experience any instance where one player was recognized and the other wasn't under the same lighting conditions. Kinect users are well advised to "turn on as many room lights as required to see room furniture or other objects on the floor," Consumer Reports warns — partly so the Kinect camera can see you but also so you don't stub your toe on some obstacle lurking in the dark. Next up: Is Kinect spying on you? After all, the motion-sensing Kinect camera sits in front your TV, aimed directly at your living-room sofa, and it's attached to your Xbox 360 — which just so happens to be connected to the Internet. So ... if you look closely into the lens of the Kinect camera, will you see Steve Ballmer peering back, taking careful notes on everything you and your kids are doing in your living room? My wife, for one, is utterly convinced that it's true, although she's stopped short of asking me to throw a sheet over the thing. Speaking with the bloggers at Kotaku, Microsoft's Alex Kipman explained that Kinect will never send photos of you gyrating to Dance Central or white-water rafting in Kinect Adventures back to Microsoft HQ. In fact, the only Kinect info that ever would be sent to Microsoft — and only with your express permission — is anonymized troubleshooting data. "By default we don't listen or look at anything," Kipman promises in the Kotaku post. "No data is ever sent back to Microsoft. Period. Full stop." Kipman also pointed out that the little green light on the front of the Kinect unit will warn you whenever the camera's on — and when your Xbox 360 console is off, so is Kinect. Maybe so, but that hasn't stopped my wife from eyeing Kinect warily. Luckily for me, though, she's now hopelessly addicted to Kinect Bowling. GameSpot: Kinect has problems recognizing dark-skinned users? — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. |
| It's Goodbye Xserve as Apple Focuses on Power Macs (NewsFactor) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 02:11 PM PDT Apple's Xserve has been xx'd out. In an announcement Friday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker announced the server will only be available through Jan. 31 as the company transitions "away from Xserve" to Mac Pro or Mac mini systems running Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard. The company added that it will honor all Xserve warranties and extended support programs. Mac Pro Server Some tech sites are noting that Apple has begun showing a new Mac Pro Server on the Apple Store, even though there hasn't been a formal announcement. That product features a 2.8-GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor, 8GB of memory, an ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5, two 1TB hard drives, and an unlimited-client Mac OS X Server license for $2,999. The server can be upgraded to two 2.93-GHz six-core Xeons with as much as 32GB of memory. Apple noted that its desktop tower systems have been used as servers for quite some time, and the most recent Mac Pro, with 12-core Xeon Westmere processors, performs faster than the Xserve. The only instance in which the Xserve scores higher than the Mac Pro, Apple said, is when a high-density 1U rack-mount form factor is required. "When configured with equal memory and disk," the company said, "Mac Pro can deliver equal (quad-core or eight-core) or better (12-core) processor performance than Xserve." Additionally, the Dual-Channel and Quad-Channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express Cards in an Intel-based Xserve system can be ported to a Mac Pro. Apple said its Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server has become its most popular server system. Introduced in fall 2009, it is targeted at small businesses and work groups of up to 50 people. One Mac mini, according to the company, can be deployed as a single-task server for a large number of users in a business or education environment. One Xserve could be replaced with multiple Mac minis. Serious Business The Mac mini doesn't have the range of performance available from an Xserve. The Xserve was originally intended for large businesses, but it hadn't been updated since April of last year. The company has increasingly been showing it is serious about getting deeper into the business market, and has had success with the iPhone and iPad in particular. Apple doesn't separate out the sales that come from companies, but it now has 150 salespeople focused entirely on the enterprise. But it still has a long way to go, as only 3.6 percent of all commercial computer sales are Apple's. Last month, Apple and Unisys signed a contract for Unisys to provide maintenance, system integration, and other support for Apple products in companies and government agencies. The products supported are Macs, the iPhone, and the iPad. |
| Remains of the Day: Half-caf soy venti iMac (Macworld) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 04:30 PM PDT Dan Moren's away, and Jason Snell outranks me, so I'm tackling the remainders for Friday, November 5, 2010. The iMac Coffee Edition (Kiwidee) Old, forgotten iMacs never die. They just become caffeine dispensers. The crazy people at Kiwidee have come up with a way to turn your old candy iMac into a coffee dispenser. If you thought your Mac ran hot before, just wait till it's making scalding tasty beverages. Apple reminds disinterested iTunes users that Ping exists (Boy Genius Report) If you think your old iMac is forgotten, just think of poor Ping. Ping, you likely don't recall, is Apple's iTunes-based social network that proves just calling your network "social" doesn't make it so. Boy Genius Reports, erm, reports… that Apple sent e-mails to iTunes users who haven't started Pinging, urging them to instead get their Ping thing on. Whether Apple's pinging non-Pingers will get Ping's bell dinging remains to be seen. (Perhaps, for Ping to truly sing, Apple will need to ring non-Pingers up and urge them to Ping.) Bank of America, Citigroup Said to Test Apple iPhone (Bloomberg) Two of the nation's biggest banks are considering letting their employees trade in Blackberries for iPhones. Worth noting: the iPhones generate considerably more interest than either bank's consumer savings accounts. How Apple Almost Got Microsoft's Kinect Game Controller (Cult of Mac) Cult of Mac reports that Apple could have gotten its stylish mitts on the technology that now powers Microsoft's new Kinect controller for the Xbox. The technology lets players control games by moving their entire bodies under the watchful eye of a pair of cameras and an infrared sensor. I'm not sure if the timelines sync up, but my current theory is that Apple turned down the technology, and instead found inspiration in the wild gesticulations the system requires. |
| Sprint axes China's Huawei, ZTE 'on security grounds' (AFP) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 06:19 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AFP) – Sprint Nextel is excluding China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp. from a multi-billion dollar contract to upgrade its cellular network largely because of national security concerns in Washington, according to The Wall Street Journal report. The newspaper on Friday said the Pentagon and some US lawmakers are increasingly concerned about ties between the two Chinese telecommunications-equipment makers and the Chinese government and military. Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Journal said the Defense Department and lawmakers are concerned about the security implications of letting the Huawei and ZTE equipment into critical US infrastructure. The newspaper quoted unidentified officials as saying China's military could use Huawei or ZTE equipment to disrupt or intercept American communications. US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke called Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse this week to discuss concerns about awarding the work to a Chinese firm, but did not ask Sprint to exclude the Chinese suppliers, the Journal said. The Journal said the Department of Defense (DoD) declined to discuss Huawei or ZTE, but said it "is very concerned about China's emerging cyber capabilities and any potential vulnerability within or threat to DoD networks." The Journal quoted an unidentified source as saying security concerns played a key role in Sprint's decision to exclude Huawei and ZTE but there were also doubts about the ability of Chinese companies to execute the job. The newspaper said Huawei and ZTE had submitted bids that were lower than their competitors, Alcatel-Lucent, Telefon LM Ericsson of Sweden and South Korea's Samsung. The Journal said the highest bids to modernize Sprint's existing cellular network came in at around 8.5 billion dollars, more than the company, the third-largest US wireless carrier by number of subscribers, is willing to pay. The newspaper said Sprint is now renegotiating with Samsung and Alcatel-Lucent in the hopes they will submit lower bids. |
| Facebook Deals and Awesome Things You Shouldn't Do on PCWorld Podcast #97 (PC World) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 04:35 PM PDT Facebook announced this week a new feature called Facebook Deals, which will give businesses a way to offer special incentives and discounts via the social networking site's location-based Places service. Mark Sullivan explains on this week's edition of the PCWorld Podcast. On the lighter side of tech, PCWorld editorial director Steve Fox joins host Robert Strohmeyer for an interesting look at 15 awesome things you can do with your tech (but probably shouldn't). You can also stream the podcast via QuickTime: Subscribe to the PCWorld Podcast on iTunes or via the PCWorld Podcast RSS feed. You can reach us at iTunes. Use Twitter? Follow podcasters Robert Strohmeyer (@rstrohmeyer), Mark Sullivan (@thesullivan), and Steve Fox(@pcwpluggedin) for daily tech insight. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Liberty Media units add revenue (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 03:30 PM PDT The conglomerate's three major businesses grew revenue, led by QVC, which increased Q3 revenue 7% to $1.8 bil. Starz Entertainment revenue rose 5% to $316 mil on strong box-office returns and subscriber gains. The Liberty Capital investment arm, which has stakes in DirecTV (NMS:DTV) and Sirius XM Radio (NMS:SIRI), saw revenue jump 47%. Liberty Media (NMS:LSTZA) fell 1.6% to 64.36. |
| Steve Ballmer Sells $1.3 Billion Worth of Microsoft Shares (Mashable) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 04:44 PM PDT Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has sold 12% of his stake in the tech giant in a transaction worth over $1.3 billion. According to a filing with the SEC, Ballmer has sold 49.3 million Microsoft shares over the last three days, bringing his total ownership to 358.9 million shares, or approximately 4.2% of the company. Essentially, he sold 12% of his shares at a price between $26 and $28. Knowing that the media would notice such a large transaction, Ballmer posted a statement on Microsoft's website, saying that he sold $1.3 billion in Microsoft shares for financial diversification and tax planning. Here is Ballmer's statement: "Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion. I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people's lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success." He additionally stated that he intends to sell more shares -- up to 75 million -- before the end of the year. That means he could potentially sell 25 million more shares of the company. Perhaps by coincidence, Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates also sold 1 million of shares, worth approximately $27.2 million. |
| Meet the Makers: Q&A with Jim Spencer, CEO of Newsy (Appolicious) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 12:26 PM PDT |
| Microsoft's Ballmer sells 12 percent stake in company (Reuters) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 06:39 PM PDT SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sold $1.3 billion worth of shares in the company, cutting his stake by about 12 percent, but said his first stock sale in seven years should not be taken as a lack of confidence in the world's largest software firm. Ballmer said he will sell more shares by the end of the year, in a move to diversify his investments and plan for taxes, but the company sought to allay talk that the 54-year old executive, who has been CEO since 2000, may be preparing an exit from the company. "Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion," Ballmer said in a statement on the company's Website. "I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people's lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success." Ballmer, who was the first business manager at Microsoft when he joined in 1980, has not shown any interest in stepping down or leaving the company, despite some criticism from Wall Street over the company's lagging shares, which are trading at the same level as 2002. According to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Ballmer sold 49.3 million Microsoft shares in the last three days, at prices just above and below $27 per share. Ballmer said he plans to sell up to 75 million shares by the end of this year. If he does sell that many shares, that would mean a 18 percent cut in Ballmer's stake, based on the 408 million shares he held before the sales in the last few days. As of Friday, Ballmer still holds about 359 million Microsoft shares, or 4.2 percent of the company, worth about $9.6 billion. That makes him the second largest shareholder behind Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, according to Thomson Reuters data. Gates, who holds about 621 million shares, or about 7.2 percent of the company, regularly sells shares in batches of 1 million or 2 million to fund his philanthropic foundation. Microsoft shares were unchanged in after-hours trading on Friday, after closing down 1 percent at $26.85 on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Bernard Orr) |
| Fortinet (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 03:30 PM PDT Fortinet (NMS:FTNT), which focuses on network security, was downgraded by Morgan Stanley to equal weight. Fortinet jumped 6% Mon. after Bloomberg said IBM approached it about a buyout. Fortinet immediately denied the report. Fortinet ended the week up 4% at 31.29. |
| Major mobile banking app security holes uncovered (Digital Trends) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 08:24 AM PDT
The apps currently save sensitive information in the phone’s memory. If the device is stolen, a criminal could hack into the physical phone and extract everything they need to remotely access the bank account. Worse, if the smartphone user is conned into visiting a malicious website, the information could also be extracted. ViaForensics is already working with the banks to fix the bug. “Since Monday (11/01/2010), we have been communicating and coordinating with the financial institutions to eliminate the flaws,” the research firm said. “The findings we published reflect testing completed on 11/03/2010. Since that time, several of the institutions have released new versions and we will post updated findings shortly. We applaud the effort several institutions put forth to quickly patch the vulnerability and protect their customers. viaForensics hopes that our efforts help not only companies but users to protect their identity, financial data and other sensitive information.” Wells Fargo and USAA have already released patches for their apps, and encourage users to download them. Bank of America should have an update out in the next few days, and TD Ameritrade will fix the issue in the next 30 days. Unfortunately, this is not the first security breach for a mobile app or OS. In June, a major iPad security hole was found, potentially exposing 114,000 users’ information. A flaw allowing users to bypass lock screens on iOS 4.1 was also exposed recently. 12 million people in the U.S. used mobile banking apps and websites last year. Analysts expect this number to rise to 18 million in 2010. |
| Happy third birthday, Android: A timeline of Google's mobile offspring (Digital Trends) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 05:34 PM PDT
November 2007 August 2008 September 2008 February 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 January 2010 May 2010 July-August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 |
| PARTING SHOTS: Dying Gulf coral, targeted congressional salaries (The Upshot) Posted: 05 Nov 2010 04:09 PM PDT |
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