Skip to Content

Great gifts for geeks, hand-picked by Download Squad
Holidash Blog
AOL Tech

Facebook Group Honors Kind-Hearted, Disciplinarian Dad

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 5th 2008 at 8:36AM




Facebook users have started an online group in honor of Australian father Sam Burt, whose lovingly disciplinarian parenting approach has won him accolades from Australian parents, Reuters reports.

Last week, the Australian press told the story of Sam Burt and his five-year-old son. When the boy got in trouble for beaning his bus driver with an apple core some time ago, his daddy took immediate, old-school action and informed his son that, if he couldn't ride the bus like a civilized person, he wasn't going to ride the bus at all.

Ever since, every day, Burt and the boy have arisen with the sun to together walk the eight miles to school. After the news got out, fellow Australian parent Renee Elliott set up the Facebook group, whose membership is actively increasing. In the hour following Reuters' reporting the story, 72 new members had joined the group.

We're glad to know that, while some folks blame Facebook instead of poor parenting, there are some out there who use Facebook to celebrate good parenting. [From: Reuters]

Apple Could Be Running Out of iPods, Analyst Says

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 6:29PM




One analyst suspects that Apple may be undergoing what he describes as an "iPod shortage" this Holiday season, Cnet reports.

Shaw Wu (of the Kaufman Bros. market analysis firm) disclosed in a statement that, judging from insider retailer reports, he believes stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target are experiencing this "shortage." Buyers found Amazon.com to be under-supplied with the media players as early as the Saturday following Black Friday.

This news comes as a surprise, considering, and probably attributable to, the current state of the economy. Wu suspects, and we tend to agree, that Apple -- in light of bleak Holiday shopping forecasts -- did not foresee the demand for iPods approaching current numbers. Wu suspects that Apple, before holiday shopping is all said and done, will unload 21 million iPods. If they can supply them, that is.

While we acknowledge the inconvenience potential iPod buyers could encounter if their store were to run out of the media players, we also have a problem with the term 'shortage' in its application to this development.

When crops fail, there's a food shortage. When rain doesn't fall, there's a water shortage. Heck, when oil wells dry up, there's a petroleum shortage. But when you can't buy an iPod, that's just the store running out of some stuff you want. [From: Cnet]

At Last, US Folks Send More Text Messages Than Europeans

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 3:19PM



While text messaging continues to increase in popularity and generated revenue for cell providers, the average US texter sends twice as many messages per month than the average European subscriber, Textually.org gleaned from the Washington Post's coverage of a Portio Research study.

Researchers at Portio project that the end of the year will see a revenue of $130 billion generated by text messaging and expect, by 2013, that number to reach $224 billion. Also featured in the report is the statistic that the country most taken with texting is the Philippines, with a Filipino texter averaging 755 messages per month.

No matter how you slice it, the increase in the popularity of texting in the US versus Europe is a milestone, especially considering how for many years the balance was quite the opposite. Throughout the late '90s, text-messaging was popular in Europe, while US folks barely used the service. This was due to most stateside carriers making it difficult to send messages to all phones outside of their own networks. But now that someone with a Sprint phone in Kansas can send a mobile message to an iPhone in Japan, for example, the United States has finally become a nation of texters.

Continue reading At Last, US Folks Send More Text Messages Than Europeans

Canada Dropping the Ball on Spam, Expert Says

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 12:54PM



One prominent Ottawa professor is blaming lax Canadian legislation for what he identifies as a proliferation of spammers in the country, Ars Technica points out.

The Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa's School of Law, Geist cites a report by anti-spam software provider Cloudmark in his claims that Canada has emerged as a safe haven for spammers. That report found that Canadian servers shipped out the fifth largest volume of worldwide, Web-based e-mail spam, outdone only by Iran, Nigeria, Kenya, and Israel.

Ars Technica, though, cites a study by Cloudmark-competitor Sophos that placed Canada well outside of the top ten spam-producing countries -- interestingly, the United States is ranked numero uno.

Regardless of specific data, everybody seems to agree that Canada needs anti-spam legislation. In fact, Canada is the only G-7 country not to have anti-spam legislation in place.

To our reckoning, if the Great White North isn't crawling with spammers now, by the time that news gets out, it will be. [From: MichaelGeist.ca via Ars Technica]

Surgeon Coached Through Emergency Amputation Via Text Message

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 7:18PM



This past October, a British doctor volunteering in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo performed an emergency amputation on a severely injured young man, the BBC and Textually.org reported earlier today. Dr. David Nott operated on the boy under the direction of his London colleague, Dr. Meirion Thomas. Or, rather, under the direction of Dr. Thomas's text messages.

Although Dr. Nott was uncertain of how the boy had lost all but six inches of his arm (stories ranged from a hippopotamus bite to crossfire), he was certain that -- due to a lack of immediate medical attention -- the boy would die from gangrene, unless an amputation were promptly performed.

But, since amputations are seldom performed in England, Dr. Nott was unsure of the proper procedure. Fortunately, though, he had once seen Dr. Thomas successfully perform the necessary operation, and had his cell phone number handy.

Several trans-equatorial text messages later, with Dr. Thomas offering step-by-step guidance, Dr. Nott had successfully amputated his patient's arm. With his patient fully recovered, Dr. Nott is grateful for his London associate and, undoubtedly, for SMS technology. [From: BBC via Textually.org]


Weird Experiment Transposes Your 'Body' to Mannequins, Other Folks

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 6:46PM


A research team at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has successfully engineered an experiment in which test subjects perceive themselves as occupying bodies other than their own, USA Today tells us.

The study was designed to research technology potentially useful for robotics and the treatment of sensory disorders. Head researcher Henrik Ehrsson told USA Today, "The participants has [sic] a sensory experience of having a new body. They of course realize that it is an illusion, but they can't think it away," he told Science Fair.

With the aid of cameras, and a mechanism that touches the subject's skin and that of the second body simultaneously, the typical test subject -- over the course of the experiments -- perceived himself as being face-to-face with himself transposed into another person's body, as well as a mannequin. The visual-sensory experiment actually had test subjects "shaking their own hands."

While the success of this experiment could be a boon to disabled folks interested in robotic appendages, we suspect it will be some time before science is able to engineer fully functional, sensitive prosthetics. Let alone prosthetics that allow full-fledged bumping and grinding. [From: Science Fair]

Craigslist Poster Charged with Libel

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 3:15PM



Coloradan J.P. Weichel has been charged with libel for a 2007 Craigslist post in which he lambasted his ex-girlfriend, Silicon Alley Insider reports.

Weichel, obviously upset at the time, posted a diatribe on Craigslist's "Rants & Raves" section, accusing his ex-girlfriend of exchanging sex for legal services and implicitly stating that her abuse of their child warranted a call to child services. He told police that he was "just venting."

Unlike most states, Colorado treats libel as a criminal, rather than civil, matter, so, as a result, Weichel could serve as many as 18 months in prison.

Have you ever bad-mouthed someone online?



This case could be used to set a much-needed precedent in the arena of online badmouthing; while airing somebody's dirty laundry in a newspaper would undoubtedly be addressed quickly, the same activity online most often goes unpunished. Well, we need a legitimate precedent, anyway.

We should all know what Mama used to say, but apparently it needs repeating: If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. [From: Silicon Alley Insider]

Technology Used for Evil (and Good) in Mumbai Attacks

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 11:32AM


The tragic events that took place in Mumbai last week have catalyzed widespread discussions concerning consumer technology and its evolving role on the world stage.

Far from a militarily equipped force, the terrorist group that struck Mumbai last week coordinated the attacks with devices readily available to the public, as the Wired Blog points out.
Communicating from their attack boat via satellite phone, the terrorists used a GPS system to navigate their way into Mumbai, where they kept in constant touch with each other via cell phone and in constant touch with media coverage via the Internet. The group even made their statements through e-mail, using one of many publicly available, untraceable remailer programs.

While the attackers used technology to conceal, victims and witnesses used it to expose. As the BBC reports, Twitter erupted with activity during the attacks.

Continue reading Technology Used for Evil (and Good) in Mumbai Attacks

Parents Blame Facebook for 400 'Sweet 16' Party Crashers

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 10:26AMBreaking News



Earlier today, the UK's Independent reported that a 'Sweet 16' celebration for a Brighton girl devolved into a raging, crowded house party. And the parents blame Facebook.

After planning the party for their daughter Georgiana, and allowing her to send out 100 invitations on Facebook, Michael and Sylvia Hobday left their East Sussex mansion for the evening, trusting that the kids were alright. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Hobday received a phone call from police, who informed him that 300 "out of control" revelers were creating a disturbance at the townhouse.

Rushing back home, Mr. Hobday found his home in disarray, as he later -- hilariously -- described to the Independent:
The garden has been ruined, the grass is mud, people were walking through the pond and I heard one boy was trying to headbutt the mirror. Some people were climbing up the balcony and trying to get through the windows. My floor was blackened with dirt and there were cigarette burn marks around the bottom of the door.
Figuring that these uninvited guests had caught wind of the party via the Internet and cell phones, Mr. Hobday was certain that "Facebook [was] a major cause, as well as texting." We find two distinct aspects of this story to be absolutely hilarious:

  • For one, the fact that the Independent has written such a dry, factual story about a high school party getting crashed borders on absurdity. At first, we had to double-check to make sure that we weren't, in fact, reading the Onion.
  • Secondly, Mr. Hobday's blaming of Facebook and texting is laughable. Anybody who has ever been a kid, or watched a John Hughes movie for that matter, knows better. Since long before the Internet or cell phones came into existence, teenagers have been to parties as hound dogs are to sides of bacon.
Maybe, and this is just an idea, the Hobdays shouldn't have skipped out on a palatial house full of teenagers. [From: The Independent]

'YouTube Symphony Orchestra' Competition Announced

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 2nd 2008 at 3:56PM


Over the next few months, musicians will use YouTube to compete for a chance to perform at Carnegie Hall.

In conjunction with San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and composer Tan Dun, YouTube executives have given musicians until January 28th to submit their video applications for the opportunity to perform a newly penned Tan symphony, under the direction of Thomas, on the hallowed stage of that grand old hall.

According to the competition's rules, each performer will post two videos to the Web site -- one video highlighting the poster's musical talents, and the other featuring a performance of an original Tan composition.

The entries that make it past a panel of expert judges will be finally selected by a YouTube poll, the winners going on to perform Tan's 'Internet Symphony No. 1 - Eroica' as the 'YouTube Symphony Orchestra' on April 15th.

We know there's one dude in Korea who's desperately hoping there's room in the orchestra for some screamin' leads. [From: AP/MSNBC]


Most Commented On (7 days)

Switched Video

 



Featured Galleries

BlackBerry Storm
Death of Print
30 Reasons a Girl Should Call It A Night - Facebook Group

Switched Photo Galleries

AOL Tech Network


Latest Reviews from CNET.com

CNET provides the latest tech news, unbiased reviews, videos, podcasts, software, and downloads, making tech products easy to find, understand and use.

Top Product Reviews

Weblogs, Inc. Network

AOL News

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

Joystiq
Download Squad
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
BloggingStocks
Xbox 360 Fanboy
Autoblog
Big Download Blog
Fanhouse NFL Blog