Panasonic has just released a new bicycle for those that are too lazy to peddle. Utilizing an electric motor and Lithium Ion battery technology the Flat Road EB1 insures you’re place in hipsterness. Go buy one now and fool everyone, including yourself, into believing that you are at the forefront of tech and exercising trends.
… from Akihabara News
A new study released by Hitwise determined that younger, poorer people are more likely to use Yahoo! Search while those who are “better off” use Google. The study only looked at Google and Yahoo! but we’re more than sure that Ask.com has the mentally retarded and drug addict audience locked down.
From the article:
The graph [above] demonstrates “Online Representation” based on demographic types. The Y axis represents Yahoo, the X axis Google, with the higher the number, the more that particular group of users uses each service. Yahoo is strong in “struggling societies,” “blue collar backbone,” and “remote America,” where as Google obtains higher use in “small town contentment,” “affluent suburbia,” and “upscale America.” The size of each circle represents how many in each group have spent $500+ online.
… from Tech Crunch
We thought Comcast was simply throttling BitTorrent traffic but it turns out they are simply disallowing it, in certain cases. The EFF has done some interesting work with computers and probably calculators to determine that Comcast is fooling with our packets. For those who don’t know: Packets are what carries your porn through the series of tubes.
In response to this feature that Comcast offers, the developers of BitTorrent are prosposing some encryption. With the encryption, Comcast can no longer see that you are using devil-software like BitTorrent, and you can continue to download all the copies of the 2007 Burning Man Time Lapse you want.
From the article, quoting president and co-founder of BitTorrent Inc., Ashwin Navin:
“In recent months, consumers enjoyed unprecedented participation in the political process thanks to the ability to upload opinions and feedback in the YouTube presidential debates. Musicians, filmmakers and artists are finding ways to connect with their audiences across the world thanks to MySpace and BitTorrent. Students are engaging with interactive learning tools in their schools. Which bandwidth intensive application will banned or shaped or metered next by these ISPs? The creative spirit of millions has been ignited, and our need to participate, to communicate will not be silenced.”
“The US government should encourage ISPs to innovate and invest in their networks,” Ashwin said. “Permitting them to interfere or interrupt in the communications of consumers, to protect ISP profit margins, would be a tremendous set back for our country and economy, when we are already slipping behind the first world (UK, EU, Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc) in its broadband capacity.”
Comcast… buddy. We know you really hate your customers. We hate them too. They’re all stupid and never pay their bills on time and steal cable. We just see you losing this battle.
These commies over at BitTorrent can change the protocol on a whim to thwart you’re operation. This will force you to spend thousands of dollars to update your infrastructure to continue playing the cat and socialist-software-developer game.
There are better ways to spend this money. We’re sure your executives are underpaid, try giving them a just-because bonus to show you care. Or, you could always spend the money on updating your internet service… and then there wouldn’t be a need to screw with traffic. Annoyed grunt!
… from Torrent Freak
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has given a stamp of approval to Olympic athletes who want to blog at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games… with some guidelines of course. The guidelines issued keep instep with the committees history of cracking down on what it has deemed copyright infringing content.
From the article:
Athletes or officials who blog can only post still pictures taken outside accredited areas or their own pictures taken within these areas that do not contain any sporting action.
The IOC is eager to protect rights holders as Games broadcasting contracts are worth several billion euros.
Blogs should not have exclusive agreements with any company and there should be no commercial reference or advertising either, the IOC said.
We’re worried these guidelines might not be enough. The IOC might want to take a page from the Chinese government’s book on how to deal with blogers. They seem to have it down pat.
… from Guardian UK
Scientists have discovered how birds stay in formation when flying, namely, the starling bird. Apparently they just act as if they are a high school student and follow everyone else. Each bird pays attention to seven of its neighbors and looks for clues as to the direction.
This of course brings us one step closer to the swarms of evil nanobots combing the globe that Michael Crichton described to in his novel, Prey.
… from Neatorama
Use the above pictured device to mess with anyone who still has a land line. The device attaches to a phone line 75% of the time your target dials it will deliver them to a wrong number.
Watch out Grandma. You think you’re senile now? Just wait until I install this on your phone.
… from Nerd Approved
Lesbians everywhere rejoice at the news that they can knock each other up. It seems one Professor Karim Nayernia has created sperm cells from bone marrow and some other junk — we’ll spare you the specifics. They were able to use the procedure on mice with limited success.
I think this is deplorable. Just think of what this will do to the sperm bank market. What about them and their loyal donors? Did you think of their families Mr. Nayernia? No, you didn’t. Thousands of male college students will now go hungry because of your arrogance.
… from Telegraph.co.uk
If you want to do something more than eat to save the world then we have the product for you. Typically, to save energy while using your computer, you could use either of the Standby or Hibernate modes. They allow you to save the computers current state without leaving the computer to run and waste electricity. Great for most of us, right? But what if you’re a whore for attention, and driving a car with “hybrid” on the side in big letters isn’t enough? The short answer is: Buy an Eco Button. This little waste of space will put your computer to sleep when you slap down on it with an authoritative, “I’m doing my part to save Mother Earth.”
But wait, there’s more! From the article:
The USB-powered button comes with software that tells you how much energy and how many carbon units you’ve saved through its labor-saving practices.
You better use this thing often though, because as it is plastic, it is made using petroleum. And don’t forget the human cost of [probably] being manufactured in China. The upside though is that China’s impeccable environmental record will almost certainly put you ahead.
… from Everything USB
Apparently the Italian government doesn’t know much about the technology behind the laws they pass. A practice that seems strangely familiar to us in the US although I don’t know why. Passing a law that allows for free sharing of “degraded” music for educational and scientific research.
From the article:
Italian copyright attorney Andrea Monti told Italian paper la Repubblica (Google translation dug up on Slashdot) that whoever authored the law failed to take into account that the word “degraded” has a “very precise meaning.” All music sold on the major music download sites is degraded, whether it’s a 192kbps MP3 or 128kbps AAC file. Under the new law, music fans would be able to freely share their (not lossless) music libraries over P2P networks.
In a related story thousands of Italians have begun research to find quality MP3s and catalog their research in the form of an MP3 folder on their desktop. We applaud this law as it will bring much interest into science and education in general. Bravo.
… from Ars Technia
Images have been restored. You can now look at the picture of the masturbating monkey toy. Rejoice one and all.
… from The Bottom of a Bottle