Latest News

Microsoft, News Corp Have Talked About De-Indexing From Google

2009-11-23T00:36:55Z

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company's being paid to "de-index" its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

High-Tech Devices Help Drivers Put Down Phones

2009-11-22T20:58:52Z

A number of fledgling companies like ZoomSafer, Aegis Mobility and obdEdge employ systems that place restrictions on phones based on the phone's GPS signal, data from the car itself or from nearby cellphone towers. Any incoming calls are then routed to voice mail or a message explaining that the phone's owner is driving. Exceptions can be made for certain numbers.

"Did You Know?" Tracks Progress Of Information Technology (VIDEO)

2009-11-22T16:06:33Z

Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod's "Shift Happens (Did You Know?)" series tracks the progression of globalization and information technology in a way that shows just how exponentially fast the world is changing. They put into perspective the age of information overload we're living in, in the hopes of helping us understand the future-- but the way they present it, it's hard enough to even wrap your mind around the present.

WATCH the video:

READ the video transcript:

DID YOU KNOW?

If you're one in a million in China...

...there are 1,300 people just like you

China will soon become the NUMBER ONE English speaking country in the world.

The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's...

...is greater than the total population of the United States.

TRANSLATION: India has more honors kids than America has kids.

The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010...

...did not exist in 2004.

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don' yet exist...

using technologies that haven't been invented

in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

The US.. Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs...

by the age of 38.

1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a year.

1 in 2 has been there less than five years.

1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online.

There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace.

If MySpace were a country it would be the 5th-largest in the world (between Indonesia and Brazil).

The #1 ranked country in Broadband Internet Penetration is Bermuda, #19 The United States, #22 Japan.

We are living in exponential times.

There are 31 Billion searches on Google every month.

In 2006, this number was 2.7 Blllion.

To whom were these questions addressed B.G.? (Before Google)

The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992.

Today, the number of text messages sent and received everyday, exceeds the total population of the planet.

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million: Radio 38 years, TV 13 years, Internet 4 years, iPod 3 years, Facebook 2 years.

The number of internet devices in 1984 was 1000.

The number of internet devices in 1992 was 1,000,000.

The number of internet devices in 2008 is 1,000.000.000.

There are about 540,000 words in the English language...

about 5X as many as during Shakespeare's time.

It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0x10^19) of unique information will be generated this year.

That is more than the previous 5,000 years.

The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years...

For students starting a 4 years technical degree this means that...

half of what they learn in the first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

NTT Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable...that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber.

That is 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second.

It is currently tripling every six months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years.

By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain.

Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species.

During the course of this presentation...67 babies were born in the US, 274 babies were born in China, 395 babies were born in India, and 694,000 songs were downloaded illegally.

SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Nathalie Blanchard Loses Health Benefits Over Facebook Photo

2009-11-22T14:58:24Z

BROMONT, Quebec — A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.

Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.

But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.

Blanchard said Manulife told her it's evidence she is no longer depressed. She's fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.

Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.

Manulife wouldn't comment on Blanchard's case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook.

Fred Schulte, Senior Reporter For HuffPost Investigative Fund, Talks Digitizing Medical Records On NPR (AUDIO)

2009-11-21T17:56:33Z

Fred Schulte, a senior reporter for the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, talked with NPR's Scott Simon Saturday morning about the overlooked technology companies that stand to make huge profits in the push to digitize the nation's medical records.

"The government's $45 billion plan to jump-start a national shift to electronic medical records has touched off a gold rush among scores of technology firms - even as many experts question whether the benefits of the products are being oversold," Schulte writes in an article on the digitization of medical records, on the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

"There's a sort of a gold rush going on," Schulte explained on NPR's Weekend Edition. "Some of the biggest companies in the world--Microsoft, Dell, Google--all of these huge tech companies are very interested in the billions of dollars that is going to derive from health care in cyberspace."

"There are cash registers ringing," Schulte said.

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund's examination of the medical records business is ongoing. Click here to follow the coverage, and listen to the full interview below.

Large Hadron Collider: Quick Restart Of World's Largest Atom Smasher Stuns Scientists

2009-11-21T16:33:14Z

GENEVA — Scientists are preparing the world's largest atom smasher to explore the depths of matter after successfully restarting the $10 billion machine following more than a year of repairs.

When the machine is fully operational, its magnets will control the beams of protons and send them in opposite directions through two parallel tubes the size of fire hoses.

In rooms as large as cathedrals 300 feet (100 meters) under the Swiss-French border, the magnets will force them into huge detectors to record the reactions.

One goal is to unravel the mysteries of the Big Bang that many scientists theorize marked the creation of the universe billions of years ago.

The restart of the Large Hadron Collider late Friday was hailed as a significant leap forward in efforts to launch new experiments – probably in January – on the makeup of matter and the universe.

The machine was heavily damaged by a simple electrical fault in September last year.

The nuclear physicists working on it were surprised at how quickly they got beams of protons whizzing through the 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel underground late Friday.

"That was all wrapped up by midnight. They are going through the paces really very fast," said James Gillies, spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known by its French acronym, CERN.

Things went so well Friday evening that scientists achieved the operation seven hours earlier than expected, he said. Some scientists had gone home early Friday and had to be called back as the project jumped ahead, Gillies added.

Praise from scientists around the world was quick.

"I congratulate the scientists and engineers that have worked to get the LHC back up and running," said Dennis Kovar of the U.S. Department of Energy, which participates in the project. He called the machine "unprecedented in size, in complexity, and in the scope of the international collaboration that has built it over the last 15 years."

CERN decided Saturday to test all the protection equipment while there still is a very low intensity proton beam circulating in the collider. The tests will take 10 days, Gillies said.

He said CERN decided against immediately testing the collider's ability to speed up the beams to higher energy or to start with low-energy collisions that would help scientist calibrate their detection equipment.

In the meantime, CERN is using about 2,000 superconducting magnets – some of them 15 meters (50 feet) long – to improve control of the beams of billions of protons so they will remain tightly bunched and stay clear of sensitive equipment.

Officials said Friday evening's progress was an important step on the road toward scientific discoveries at the Large Hadron Collider, which are expected in 2010.

"We've still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we're well on the way," CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said.

With great fanfare, CERN circulated its first beams Sept. 10, 2008. But the machine was sidetracked nine days later when a badly soldered electrical splice overheated and set off a chain of damage to the magnets and other parts of the collider.

Steve Myers, CERN's director for accelerators, said the improvements since then have made the collider a far better understood machine than it was a year ago.

It is expected soon to be running with more energy than the world's most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago. It is supposed to keep ramping up to seven times the energy of Fermilab in coming years.

This will allow the collisions between protons to give insights into dark matter and what gives mass to other particles, and to show what matter was in the microseconds of rapid cooling after the Big Bang.

The Large Hadron Collider operates at nearly absolute zero temperature, colder than outer space, which allows the superconducting magnets to guide the protons most efficiently.

Physicists have used smaller, room-temperature colliders for decades to study the atom. They once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom's nucleus, but the colliders showed that they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles. And scientists still have other questions about antimatter, dark matter and supersymmetry they want to answer with CERN's new collider.

The Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas would have been bigger than the Large Hadron Collider, but in 1993 the U.S. Congress canceled it after costs soared and questions were raised about its scientific value.

Gillies said the Large Hadron Collider should be ramped up to 3.5 trillion electron volts some time next year, which will be 3 1/2 times as powerful as Fermilab. The two laboratories are friendly rivals, working on equipment and sharing scientists.

But each would be delighted to make the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson, the particle or field that theoretically gives mass to other particles. That is widely expected to deserve the Nobel Prize for physics.

More than 8,000 physicists from other labs around the world also have work planned for the Large Hadron Collider. The organization is run by its 20 European member nations, with support from other countries, including observers Japan, India, Russia and the U.S. that have made big contributions.

Einstein Robot 'Albert Hubo' Brings Physicist Back To Life (VIDEO)

2009-11-21T15:53:35Z

The famed physicist Albert Einstein may no longer be living, but his robotic double almost seems to bring the scientist back to life.

The engineers at Hanson Robotics have created a robotic head designed to look like Albert Einstein's and put it on top of the "HUBO" bipedal robotic frame.

The following video demonstrates the intricate facial movements that Hanson Robotics has been able to achieve with "Einstein's" face, giving the robot a surprising range of facial expressions.

The video even pictures Albert Hubo walking surprisingly well by itself, then shows it stopping to have a chat.

Via a voice synthesizer that mimic's the actual Einstein's voice, the robot waves and says, "My name is Albert Einstein. I am a physicist." He repeats this a couple of times before bowing.

The Albert Hubo currently resides at the University of California at San Diego with researchers who are working with the robot to help it emote, perform more realistic facial expressions and interact with humans.

See it for yourself below!

WATCH:

NYT Kristof: 'Boycott Bing,' It's A Chinese Propaganda Tool

2009-11-21T15:15:45Z

Western corporations have often behaved embarrassingly in China, sacrificing any principles to ingratiate themselves with the Communist Party authorities. Yahoo was the worst, handing over information about several email account holders so that they could be arrested -- and then dissembling and defending its monstrous conduct. Now Microsoft is sacrificing the integrity of Bing searches so as to cozy up to State Security in Beijing. In effect, it has chosen become part of the Communist Party's propaganda apparatus.

The New York Music Project: Help Map The City In Song

2009-11-20T22:57:09Z

Since its founding, New York has been an evergreen inspiration for musicians, from Gershwin to Dylan to the Beastie Boys. "Empire State of Mind," Jay-Z's love letter to the city, is just the latest, and perhaps greatest, in a long line of New York-inspired songs. But one day -- maybe soon, maybe not -- someone else will come along and pen a ditty about the city that never sleeps that will fully-encapsulate life in the five boroughs and Jay-Z's will be a worn-out standard, played while fans shuffle out of the new new Yankee Stadium.

So in honor of the long and vast history of New York in song, we're extremely pleased to introduce the Huffington Post New York Music Project. Essentially we are trying to discover, uncover, and map every single song lyric that name-checks a location, business, corner, monument, etc., in the city of New York. This can be as vague as George Cohan giving his regards "to Broadway" to as specific as Lou Reed "waiting for the man" on 125th and Lexington. We've put together 40 entries to start off with, but that just scratches the surface.

We need your help!

Help us create the definitive map of New York music. All you need are the lyrics, a picture of the location (if you don't have one, use Google Maps Street View to grab an image), and hit the PARTICIPATE button below. This submission format is ideal: "Song" - Artist.

Multiple lyrics from the same song are fine, and feel free to add as many as you can. Also please note that there will be a delay of up to 24 hours once you submit -- but don't let that deter you!

Black Friday Sales 2009: How To Use Social Media To Find Deals

2009-11-20T22:25:47Z

We're a week away from Black Friday and just a few years ago, if you wanted to find the best deals, you had to wait for the sales flyers to hit your newspaper or mailbox. You'd make a list of what you wanted and get your game plan together. But that's all changed because of social media. Tools like iPhone apps, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook will be key in helping competitive shoppers get a leg up against the thousands of shoppers vying for the deals of the century this season.

Electric Rolls-Royce Could Be Out By Christmas 2010, Rumors Report

2009-11-20T22:19:01Z

Rumors of an electric Rolls-Royce Phantom are back, with the word being the super-luxe automaker could have one on the road within 12 months.

Laptop Steering Wheel Desk: So You Can Work While You Drive? (PHOTOS)

2009-11-20T21:46:51Z

Some people text while driving. The Laptop Steering Wheel Desk could let them type on a computer, too

Mobile Office's Steering Wheel Desk seems to have been made for those who think tapping on a BlackBerry or iPhone in the car isn't enough.

The device attaches to a steering wheel to form an on-the-go desk that be used as a "writing and drink storage surface" or "to form an on-the-road computer desk," according to its description on Amazon.

Amazon reviewers have been surprised, entertained, and even outraged the strange device, and have posted a plethora of both serious and tongue-in-cheek reviews describing the device.

Reviewers have concocted all kinds of scenarios in which the device could be used. One wrote,

This has been a total lifesaver. It allows me to prop my sheet music against the wheel, allowing me to play the guitar with both hands while driving.

Another posted:

This awesome bit of kit changed my life. The extra hours of work I could get in whilst driving on the freeway has made me so much more productive. In fact I directly attribute this to my improved bonuses and recent promotion.

And yet another wrote,

I loved my Laptop Steering Wheel Desk so much I got one for my 90yr old mother. She is an avid crossword puzzle fan and now she can work on them while she is driving back and forth from bingo at the senior center.

One reviewer took serious issue with the product, noting,

Amazon needs to remove this item and call the police on the company that made it. This is NOT safe, NOT legal, and oh, by the way? It's STUPID.

Perhaps hypothesizing the consequences of actually using the Laptop Steering Wheel Desk to type and drive, several user added photographs to the item's description showing various car collisions, such as the one below:

However, the seller does warn,

For safety reasons, never use this product while driving.

What do you think of the product? Tell us below!

Search-Engine Keywords Violate Privacy Laws, Suit Claims

2009-11-20T21:33:29Z

MILWAUKEE — A lawsuit in Wisconsin is bringing a fresh challenge to the practice of paying for keywords on Google and other search engines to boost one company's link over a rival's.

The practice has occasionally prompted a rival to file legal challenges alleging trademark infringement. Now a Wisconsin law firm is trying a new angle – accusing its competitor of violating privacy laws.

Habush Habush & Rottier is one of Wisconsin's largest law firms, specializing in personal-injury cases. But search for iterations of "Habush" and "Rottier" and a sponsored link for Cannon & Dunphy attorneys often shows up, just above the link for the Habush site.

Habush alleges that Cannon paid for the keywords "Habush" and "Rottier," in effect hijacking the names and reputation of Habush attorneys.

Cannon acknowledged paying for the keywords but denied wrongdoing, saying it was following a clearly legal business strategy.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Milwaukee, where Habush is headquartered. Cannon is based in nearby Brookfield.

Habush based its lawsuit on a Wisconsin right-to-privacy statute that prohibits the use of any living person's name for advertising purposes without the person's consent.

"We believe this is deceptive, confusing and misleading," firm president Robert Habush said of Cannon's strategy. "If Bill Cannon thinks this is a correct way to do business he needs to have his moral compass taken to the repair shop."

William Cannon, the founding partner of Cannon & Dunphy, said every business uses the same tactic to remind consumers of their choices.

"This is equally available to Habush if he weren't so cheap to bid on his own name," Cannon said.

One legal expert said it wasn't clear how successful Habush's lawsuit would be.

Ryan Calo, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, said the statute seemingly was meant to protect people from having their names and images misused to suggest they endorse or represent something. That's not the case here, he said.

"Although (Cannon's) conduct may run afoul of the literal words of the statute, I don't think the conduct at issue goes to the core of this particular aspect of privacy," he said.

Similar lawsuits have been filed over the keyword issue, with some differences. An American Airlines lawsuit targeted not a rival but Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., and alleged not a privacy violation but that the search giants infringed on its trademarks.

American was upset that Web users who entered search terms such as AAdvantage, the trademarked name of its frequent-flier program, saw results that included links to American's Web site but also to its rivals under sponsored links.

Google compared its policy to magazines that publish a Ford ad on the page opposite a story about Chevrolets. Yahoo said it had confidence in its policies, which allow advertisers to use others' trademarked terms if they do so without creating "a likelihood of consumer confusion."

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Google last year. The case against Yahoo is ongoing.

Paying a company like Google for keywords is a common business practice. Based on how much a business pays, along with other search criteria, someone who searches for those keywords will see the company's link at the top of the page, labeled as a sponsored link.

The Associated Press searched for "Habush" and "Rottier" on Thursday morning. Cannon's sponsored link appeared on Google and Bing, Microsoft Corp.'s search engine, but not Yahoo. By Thursday afternoon, the link was no longer on Google.

Cannon said his company didn't take down the Google keywords, and speculated that Habush turned the tables Thursday afternoon by paying even more for the same keywords to bump out Cannon's link.

But Habush surmised his rival faced a budget issue. A search engine like Google places ads based in part on users' clicking patterns and on the advertiser's prepaid budget for a certain number of views. Habush figured that so many people ran the search terms after news of the lawsuit emerged Thursday morning that the budget had run out.

___

On the Net:

Habush Habush & Rottier: http://www.habush.com

Cannon & Dunphy: http://www.cannon-dunphy.com

Smoking Can Harm Apple Computers, Void Warranty, Sources Report

2009-11-20T21:00:47Z

Unless you've recently arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, however, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke.

The Rock: NASA Taps Dwayne Johnson As New 'Meaty' Spokesman (VIDEO)

2009-11-20T20:29:31Z

So in a bid to convince kids that science is cool, that the space program has a multitude of practical applications right here on Earth, and that apparently "there's no space like home," NASA has teamed up with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to use his newest animated film"Planet 51" as a springboard for all sorts of PR efforts.