Technology Info

No US court has yet weighed in with authority on the debate about whether bloggers count as journalists, but the recent federal decision from South Carolina does indicate that at least some bloggers are journalists. It’s not about the title, it’s about the content, said Judge Henry Hurlong, Jr.; a journalist turns out to be anyone who does journalism, and bloggers who do so have the same rights and privileges under federal law as the “real” journalists. (story)

Google is gearing up to launch OpenSocial, a set of APIs to be used across social networks. No, Google is not ditching Orkut (its own social network that is popular in Brazil but has fizzled out in the US), although Orkut will be involved. Instead, OpenSocial will offer a set of common APIs that its partners—or “hosts”—can use on their networks. This will allow other social networks to get in on the app/widget phenomenon that has become so big at Facebook and give users the opportunity to have a more robust social networking experience.

The goal of OpenSocial is not to compete with the likes of Facebook—at least not directly, on the social networking level—but rather to take what Facebook has done with its API and make it more open, more universal, and apply it across any number of social networking partners that want to join up. Right now, Facebook’s API uses its own markup and query languages (FBML and FQL) in order for developers to create apps and widgets for the platform—not terribly inconvenient for some who have the time and patience to learn something new, but a pain for everyone else. Google’s API will allow developers to use markup that they’re most familiar with: HTML, JavaScript, and even Flash to offer similar apps and widgets to other networks. (story)

NEC Corporation today announced the successful development of a wideband wearable antenna.
The wideband wearable antenna is an antenna that uses a conductive fabric which can be attached to clothing and other items, or folded up for easy carrying. It is a high-performance mobile antenna that can act as a supplementary antenna in areas with poor reception.
Antennas are generally designed to operate in an open space, and if used in close proximity to a human body or other object, the impedance deteriorates, causing a noticeable reduction in performance. This antenna is designed to demonstrate equally good impedance characteristics whether used in an open space or close to a human body, for example when attached to the user’s clothing. (link)

Pink Western Digital Passport

High-performance portable storage for your Mac® and PC. Light and rugged, it’s easy to carry and no external power adapter is needed.* Comes with sync & encryption and Google™ software.

WD 320 GB Scorpio

WD Scorpio delivers best-in-class performance with low power consumption and cool operation. In addition, you’ll get one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market with real-time data protection technology to help keep your data safe.

Nice!

(um, ride my broom? please?)

Gizmodo

Google Inc.’s stock price barreled through US$700 for the first time Wednesday, propelled by a belief that the Internet search leader will become even more profitable as it pushes its products and services into new markets.The Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s shares traded as high as $701.47 in morning trading before falling back to $700.11, up $5.34 for the session. It took less than a month for the stock to leap from $600 to $700, building upon a fervor that has lifted Google’s market value by more than 30 per cent since mid-September.

(story)

IBM says it’s found an earth-friendly way to recycle the silicon wafers used in its computer chip manufacturing operations - it’s helping to turn them into solar panels.To recycle the wafers, IBM is using a process that removes transistor patterns embedded in them. The patterns usually prevent silicon wafers from being reused along with other silicon products because they represent closely guarded intellectual property.

As a result, the tech industry discards about three million silicon wafers per year, IBM estimated.

With the patterns removed, IBM can safely sell its used silicon wafers from its Burlington, Vt., plant to manufacturers that can turn them into solar cells or panels. IBM said it’s also implementing the process at a plant in East Fishkill, N.Y.

The company said it plans to share details of the pattern removal process with other chip makers. The process was recently awarded the “Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award” for 2007 from the environmental group The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable.

(story)

Under normal circumstances, the chances of catching Outback’s burglar would be slim. He left no usable fingerprints. There was no surveillance video of him. Because eBay does not require sellers to list a computer’s serial number, the laptops would disappear without a trace.

Meanwhile, Outback officials were justifiably worried. What if the laptops contained proprietary information about the company’s future plans? What if a disgruntled ex-employee were to give a laptop to a competitor, or to extort money from the company? What if key files were not backed up?

Almly, of course, was not interested in the laptops’ contents, and Outback had an ace up its sleeve. Nine of its 11 stolen laptops had been equipped with security software that transmits a stolen computer’s physical location the moment a thief accesses the Internet with it. With that information, a nationwide crime spree began to unravel.

Brass obtained a search warrant for Almly’s Miami Beach condo. There, he found some of the Outback laptops, and several others he checked against an FBI database of stolen property. One turned out to have been stolen in Milwaukee, another in Naples.

With Almly’s name and photo in hand, Brass issued an alert to police departments across the country. One, Miami-Dade, matched the photo to surveillance video from the burglaries at Burger King, FedEx and two other companies and re-arrested Almly in his Miami jail cell.

Brass subpoenaed Almly’s eBay transaction records, which allowed him to track down more stolen laptops. The canny thief never knew what hit him.

“He just figured that a corporation like Outback would kind of write it off, absorb the loss and move on from there,” Brass said.

(story)

The use of Wikipedia as a source of information for classwork has been widely reported on and has even happened in classes taught by our own Ken Fisher. But this may not mean that Wikipedia has no place in the classroom, if Martha Groom at the University of Washington-Bothell has her way. Instead of letting her students rely on Wikipedia as a source, however, Groom has turned it into a destination for their classwork: in place of a term paper, her students were required to create Wikipedia entries.

To that end, she assigned two of her classes the task of generating Wikipedia entries focused on globalization and sustainable development. 34 students in one class and 14 student groups in a second participated; all but one student found it a valuable experience, and many reported that they felt more personally invested in the work. For her part, Groom felt that the quality of the work was superior to the typical in-class assignment.

(story)

According to the report, Google plans to unveil the plans within the next two weeks, and to have the phones available by the middle of next year. The company has approached a number of handset makers and wireless operators about partnering in the effort, the report said. The phones would feature a customized open-source operating system, which could allow developers to build a range of compatible new applications. In addition, the phones would more prominently feature existing Google mobile applications, such as those for maps and YouTube, the report said.

(story)