Technicles

Google may be helping terrorists

2008-03-07T06:50:00.000-08:00

United States' defense department has banned Google from capturing images of military facilities for its Street View feature on Google Maps after intimate pictures of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas were discovered.

The department, in a statement, said that the offending snaps included "360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas." This definitely poses threats to national security.

In a BBC interview, Google spokesman Larry Yu admitted that the drive-by recording of Fort Sam Houston had been "a mistake". He added that Google has "a compliant image removal policy - not only relative to the military but to consumers also", a reference to privacy concerns which last August led the search monolith to agree to obscure number plates and faces on request.

Microsoft really wants and needs the web

2008-03-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

After an unsuccessful hostile takeover on Yahoo!, the world's largest software company tries its luck for web domination via the introduction of web-inspired products.

It has recently introduced Microsoft Office Live, a service that makes it more convenient for Microsoft Office users to use their paid for software over the Internet. Google already has Google Docs online and as a defense to being called a copycat, Microsoft says they are only trying to make it simpler for Microsoft Office users to extend the capabilities of their applications online. Well the concept is the same: users save their documents online for sharing and collaborative modification--basically the Google Docs concept.

Another development is Microsoft's introduction of the Silverlight platform in collaboration with Nokia. Silverlight is deemed as a competitor to Adobe's Flash and it will debut on Nokia's high end smart phones that run a Symbian operating system. The Silverlight platform is designed to enable web designers and developers to create rich web applications that are independent on browsers, operating systems, and handsets.

Email is dying?

2008-03-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

Email is antiquated, it's backward, and everybody hates it. This seemed like a consensus on how email is for speakers and several participants at the Future of Web Apps conference.

According to Kevin Marks, Google engineer and Technorati veteran, e-mail is a "strange legacy idea."

"E-mail has died away for a group of users. For the younger generation, they don't use e-mail," he said, talking about the young Web users who have started to abandon e-mail for Facebook messaging and mobile texting. "They see it as this noisy spam-filled thing that annoys them every day...they see it as how you talk to the university, how you talk to the bank."

Likewise, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg inferred that overwhelming volumes of spam were making Web users explore options other than e-mail.

Several industry players are aware of the decline of email popularity. Social networks, spams, and the introduction of new messaging services are some of the culprits. Nevertheless, email's death is something remotely possible (for me). It has been said that the younger generation relies on social networking websites for messaging. Well, how do users register in social networking websites in the first place? They'd need some email address of course! Email popularity may suffer some decline primarily in terms of usage frequency. It will not die too soon though--not even in the next couple of centuries.

Tech addiction is for real

2008-02-25T06:47:00.000-08:00

One day we might need to build "tech rehabilitation centers."

Addiction to gadgets and other technological items is true and that's what one UK research intends to explore.
A small-scale study of 360 people led by Professor Nada Kakabadse of Northampton University suggested that up to a third were addicted to their gadgets or tech items. In the early stages of addiction, workers were often very productive, replying to e-mails and messages, but as time went on there were more serious consequences. Professor Kakabadse says some people are very anxious not having their gadgets next to them and it was often difficult to detect when someone had become an addict.

More details here.

Painting discs blu and kicking HD DVD some more

2008-02-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

And so the Blu-Ray format wins.

Toshiba's HD DVD is down and the kicks keep coming. Now, even known partners and ardent supporters of the HD DVD format are swearing allegiance to the Blu-Ray.

Toshiba has already released an official statement stating the end of the road for the HD DVD. A day after this, Universal Pictures Digital adopted the Blu-Ray format along with various other companies and retailers.

Amazon.com announced that it will support Blu-Ray. Its statement says: “The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing … In order to best serve our customers, Amazon is recommending Blu-Ray as the preferred digital format and will continue to carry the ‘Earth’s Largest selection’ of Blu-Ray products.”

One week prior to Toshiba’s official announcement, Netflix announced preference for the Blu-Ray format. The company says: "There is absolutely nothing wrong with having one single format, as this would only ease the customer’s choice and bring clarity to the consumer. Netflix has offered both formats, ever since the beginnings of HD DVDs in 2006, but decided it is time to move on and look forward to what this change could mean for the adoption of high-definition in general."

Since the beginning of this year, a number of retailers already decided to adopt the Blu-Ray, including Woolworths and Wal-Mart. Toshiba lost as the Sony hot item rapidly becomes a market favorite.

Nevertheless, a few companies express ‘everlasting’ support for the HD DVD. LG said it will continue to develop players compatible with this format, despite Toshiba’s Tuesday announcement, in a statement issued to Pocket-lint: “LG believes that at this present moment in time, it is necessary to provide a player which supports both formats and therefore create simplicity and convenience for the existing HD DVD consumer.”

Yahoo! Bill, it's a no

2008-02-12T05:43:00.000-08:00

Desperate Microsoft so badly wanted to give Google a toughie competition that it sent out an unsolicited offer to acquire Yahoo! for $31 per share. Everybody had their piece to say. The antitrust regulators were a factor. But Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang says it's a no.

Presented below is the text of an email sent by Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang to employees on Feb. 11. He explains the company's decision to rebuff Microsoft's buyout bid.

Subject: our board's decision

yahoos

as you'll see from the news release we issued today, our board of directors has reviewed microsoft's unsolicited proposal with yahoo!'s management, financial and legal advisors. after a careful evaluation, the board has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of yahoo! and our stockholders. of course, the board of directors is continuously evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for stockholders.

we believe microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues yahoo!—including our highly recognizable global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms, future growth prospects, our ability to generate free cash flow and our earnings potential as well as substantial unconsolidated investments (like alibaba and yahoo! japan).

you deserve the credit for the tremendously valuable business we have built. all of us in management, as well as the members of the board, deeply appreciate and respect what you have done and continue to do in order to maintain and enhance yahoo!'s leadership position in the online world.

we have been very deliberate about the steps we are taking to position yahoo!. we are putting in place the pieces we need to accelerate growth by becoming a leading starting point for users and the must buy for advertisers. the global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010, and our more focused strategies position us to capture an even larger share of this market. we are moving to take advantage of this unique window of time in the growth of the online advertising market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.

several key assets form a solid foundation as we execute this strategy.

first, our global brand is a tremendous base from which to build leadership as the starting point for internet use: yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. we have some 500 million users (1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). in the u.s., we are #1 in personalized home pages, mail, music, news, sports, shopping and travel. yahoo! also is #1 in time spent on our sites, an increasingly important metric for marketers.

second, our substantial operating cash flow, which we expect to grow in the double digits in 2009, gives us the financial flexibility to execute our plans.

third, we have made important investments in our core computing infrastructure that provides us greater scalability and increases the rate of iteration on core technologies like algorithmic search as much as tenfold. and of course, you're familiar with our investments in enhanced search technology through panama.

these assets—the brand, the audience, the financial strength, and the technology—position us to capitalize on this pivotal moment for yahoo! and the online marketplace. of course, our most important resource is you: the thousands of creative, passionate and committed yahoos who are executing our strategies to deliver value for users, advertisers, publishers—and stockholders.

as you know, we have taken significant steps to refocus our business on our starting point—must buy strategies. and we're making headway.

starting points: our goal is to grow visits to key yahoo! starting points and properties, by approximately 15% per year over the next several years. and we're on the move: we are the most visited site in the u.s., and the number of u.s. users grew strongly in the double-digits in 2007 on our yahoo.com home page alone. as our open platform takes shape it will significantly accelerate that growth.

mobile, as an area of focus, is the biggest emerging starting point in the world. with twice as many mobile users as personal computer users and projections for substantial advertising growth in mobile, we have an important competitive edge as the number one mobile destination in the u.s. and we are building a superior mobile experience for yahoo! users to further capitalize on this opportunity.

must buy: at the same time, we will increasingly make online advertising easier and more effective for marketers, opening up new ways for them to address consumers. our right media exchange, acquired last year, is more open and easy to use, simplifying transactions for buyers and sellers of online ad inventory. another 2007 acquisition, blue lithium, brings us best in class performance marketing. while we've historically tracked the success of our ad business by focusing on metrics related to our owned and operated sites, our goal is to increase the percentage of the total online advertising demand we touch—to 20% of our addressable market over the next several years, from an estimated 15% in 2007.

our newspaper consortium, is a great example. it has grown to more than 600 newspapers, up from just 264 just seven months ago. combined with ebay, comcast, at&t and others, we are creating a valuable, unique network of premium sites to serve our advertisers.

our key strategies will be enhanced by our adoption of platforms that welcome third party developers and encourage new applications that will enrich the user experience.

finally, beyond our core strategies, there's the added benefit of our substantial, unconsolidated investments in china and japan: we have major positions in yahoo! japan, the leader in its market and alibaba, which is strongly positioned in china, a market with enormous growth potential.

we have accomplished a great deal in a very short time. yahoo! is a faster-moving, better organized, more nimble company well on its way to transforming the experiences of its users, advertisers, publishers and developers.

i hope you are as proud as i am of the yahoo! we have built and we continue to build. thanks for your hard work.

jerry

Blurring Blu-ray's instant success

2008-02-09T03:46:00.000-08:00

You thought HD DVD already nears its end and now you plan to get that coveted Blu-ray player because almost everybody thinks it's the "in" thing.

Well, think again.

Below are some of the reasons one CNET blog cites not to buy a Blu-ray player yet.

1. Nearly all current Blu-ray players are obsolete: The Blu-ray standard is still evolving. Most models currently available use the original Profile 1.0 standard, while some newer models use Profile 1.1 (which adds the ability to show picture-in-picture commentaries). Later this year, the first Profile 2.0 players--which add the ability to deliver online special features (BD Live)--will become available. Ironically, both of these are designed to bring the Blu-ray standard in line with HD DVD players, which have long been able to deliver these features.

A couple of the most recent Blu-ray players (the combo players from Samsung and LG) can be updated from Profile 1.0 to 1.1 with a downloadable firmware update. But the PlayStation 3 is, supposedly, the only existing Blu-ray player that will be fully upgradeable to Profile 2.0. So if you don't want your Blu-ray player to be obsolete, the PS3 is your only choice until 2.0 models--such as the Panasonic DMP-BD50--hit later this year.

Caveat: Does anybody really watch those PiP-enabled commentaries? Or want updated trailers downloaded from the Web? Beyond the hardcore cinephiles, I think the answer is a big "no." In other words, if you're among the vast majority who only wants to watch the movie, you're not really gaining anything with a 1.1. or 2.0 player. Those older Blu-ray players should play everything else on the disc (the non-playable features are just grayed out on the menu). With the older players hitting the discount racks to make way for newer models, getting a Profile 1.0 player is a nice way to score a Blu-ray player on the cheap ($300 or less).

2. Blu-ray is best on a big-screen TV: Can you see the difference between standard DVD and Blu-ray? Yes--but it may not be as noticeable as you would think. Like all high-definition material, Blu-ray discs look their most-impressive at bigger screen sizes, where DVD can sometimes start to look a bit soft. Put another way: if your TV is 37 inches or smaller, you probably won't be getting a huge advantage from Blu-ray.

Caveat: Eagle-eyed videophiles--or those who sit especially close to their 1080p TVs--may well see a difference. Rule of thumb: if HDTV programming looks noticeably better than DVD playback on your TV, then Blu-ray will be a worthwhile investment.

3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray: As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it's a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows).

Caveat: Sure, it's small now, but the number of Blu-ray titles is growing slowly but surely. In fact, Blu-ray and HD DVD adoption (combined) has actually outpaced that of the original DVD format, which took three or four years before it really went mainstream.

4. Blu-ray still has growing pains: How many times have you popped a brand new DVD into your player, only to be greeted with a message that you need to update the firmware to view the movie? Probably never, but Blu-ray early adopters have faced this message more than they would like to admit. (To be fair, HD DVD has had its share of disc compatibility issues as well.) To make matters worse, many early Blu-ray players can't update via Ethernet, so you'll need to burn a CD to update the player. If you're reading Crave, burning a disc probably isn't a problem--but there are many less-tech-savvy people that love DVDs, but have no idea what an ISO file is.

5. Prices have nowhere to go but down: Even without competition from HD DVD, Blu-ray prices seem to be on a one-way ticket downward. Older players can be purchased for about $300, so don't be surprised to see Black Friday 2008 specials at $249 or $199. Caveat: See item number 1: the cheaper players are likely to be older models that are effectively "obsolete."

Sot for the next couple of months (at least), getting a Blu-ray player is something not compelling or practical yet.

Faster flash from Micron and Intel

2008-02-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Flash is fast--and could be faster.

Running up to five times faster, a new flash memory architecture from Microsoft and Intel increases the data transfer rates in consumer electronics by cutting the bottlenecks affecting conventional NAND flash memory.

IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, has developed an 8G-bit SLC (single-level cell) high-speed NAND chip which can reach read speeds up to 200M bytes per second. This enables writing speeds of up to 100M bytes per second, bringing about faster data transfers between devices like solid-state drives and video cards.

Conventional NAND flash memory from Micron and other players presently have transfer data at read rates of 40M bytes per second. Write rates are about 20M bytes per second.

The faster flash's architecture achieves the speed defined in the ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) 2.0 specification. Industry players and analysts say products based on the ONFI 2.0 specification have been under development and were expected.

Micron is currently sampling the high-speed NAND component and mass production is expected to start in the second half of 2008. The technology is expected to be put to future use in video and high-end photography devices that require flash memory with quick transfer speeds and reliable data retention.

Sony's Blu-ray may win DVD format war

2008-01-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

Japanese press say the Blu-ray format has gained the advantage in the battle for next-generation DVD supremacy. This news comes after Warner Bros announced that it will back the Blu-ray DVD format exclusively. Warner Bros is Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs.

Only Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures are expected to continue supporting the HD-DVD format. Blu-ray will enjoy exclusive support from four of the six major movie studios in Hollywood.

The Blu-ray's major US supporters include Walt Disney, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and movie rental leader Blockbuster. Japanese electronics firm Panasonic and South Korean giant Samsung also express preference for Blu-ray.

This war of incompatible formats is reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax (two types of video cassette tape) battle during the late 1970s.

Confusing to consumers, this recent development makes buyers less eager in buying next generation machines with DVD firms missing out on lucrative opportunities.

Japanese electronics group Toshiba used to rule the DVD format with the HD-DVD. Recent developments imply the difficulty for Toshiba to regain momentum among consumers.

Nevertheless, HD-DVD receives support from DreamWorks Animation and various high-tech firms including Microsoft and Intel. With this, Toshiba is now expected to further promote the installation of HD-DVD drives in personal computers to exploit the niche of users who watch movies on their PCs.

Britney Spears has some influence on Google

2008-01-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

Google for the keywords "unknown substance" and be amazed with the results.

See the Google search screenshot on the right (click to expand).

See the magic at work? "Unknown substance" is remotely related to Spears yet traces of her make it to the first results page. One story about her most recent antic even makes it as the second result. Don't tell me somebody's gonna be "Googling" for a Britney Spears item with the keyword "unknown substance."

There's news about Google trying to implement changes on its search algorithm to come up with better search results, to counter tricky SEOs, and even to end the glory of networked blogs and sponsored (blog) content.

Sounds goods news. Who wants to use Google to be led to an undesired link anyway?

Stating the obvious: Blog buzz and excessive articles or content that bear (perhaps some being unwittingly crafted) keyword combinations ruin the efficiency of search engines. It's an advantage to SEOs though.

Well, good luck to Google and I hope Yahoo! and LiveSearch follow suit.

Something about 8 and infinity

2008-01-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

We wouldn't be starting the new year with an astrological item. We'd rather do it "technicle-ly."

2008 has come and there seems to be a hype about the number 8. Here's a Technicles feature (republished) story that's somewhat associated to the number 8. This is in relation to the number bearing the resemblance of the symbol for infinity.

Try skimming through this Scientific American entry:

Strange but True: Infinity Comes in Different Sizes

In the 1995 Pixar film Toy Story, the gung ho space action figure Buzz Lightyear tirelessly incants his catchphrase: "To infinity … and beyond!" The joke, of course, is rooted in the perfectly reasonable assumption that infinity is the unsurpassable absolute—that there is no beyond.
That assumption, however, is not entirely sound. As German mathematician Georg Cantor demonstrated in the late 19th century, there exists a variety of infinities—and some are simply larger than others.
Take, for instance, the so-called natural numbers: 1, 2, 3 and so on. These numbers are unbounded, and so the collection, or set, of all the natural numbers is infinite in size. But just how infinite is it? Cantor used an elegant argument to show that the naturals, although infinitely numerous, are actually less numerous than another common family of numbers, the "reals." (This set comprises all numbers that can be represented as a decimal, even if that decimal representation is infinite in length. Hence, 27 is a real number, as is π, or 3.14159….)
In fact, Cantor showed, there are more real numbers packed in between zero and one than there are numbers in the entire range of naturals. He did this by contradiction, logically: He assumes that these infinite sets are the same size, then follows a series of logical steps to find a flaw that undermines that assumption. He reasons that the naturals and this zero-to-one subset of the reals having equally many members implies that the two sets can be put into a one-to-one correspondence. That is, the two sets can be paired so that every element in each set has one—and only one—"partner" in the other set.
Think of it this way: even in the absence of numerical counting, one-to-one correspondences can be used to measure relative sizes. Imagine two crates of unknown sizes, one of apples and one of oranges. Withdrawing one apple and one orange at a time thus partners the two sets into apple-orange pairs. If the contents of the two crates are emptied simultaneously, they are equally numerous; if one crate is exhausted before the other, the one with remaining fruit is more plentiful.
Cantor thus assumes that the naturals and the reals from zero to one have been put into such a correspondence. Every natural number n thus has a real partner r_n. The reals can then be listed in order of their corresponding naturals: r₁, r₂, r₃, and so on.
Then Cantor's wily side begins to show. He creates a real number, called p, by the following rule: make the digit n places after the decimal point in p something other than the digit in that same decimal place in r_n. A simple method would be: choose 3 when the digit in question is 4; otherwise, choose 4.
For demonstration's sake, say the real number pair for the natural number 1 (r₁) is Ted Williams's famed .400 batting average from 1941 (0.40570…), the pair for 2 (r₂) is George W. Bush's share of the popular vote in 2000 (0.47868…) and that of 3 (r₃) is the decimal component of π (0.14159…).
Now create p following Cantor's construction: the digit in the first decimal place should not be equal to that in the first decimal place of r₁, which is 4. Therefore, choose 3, and p begins 0.3…. Then choose the digit in the second decimal place of p so that it does not equal that of the second decimal place of r₂, which is 7 (choose 4; p = 0.34…). Finally, choose the digit in the third decimal place of p so that it does not equal that of the corresponding decimal place of r₃, which is 1 (choose 4 again; p = 0.344…).
Continuing down the list, this mathematical method (called "diagonalization") generates a real number p between zero and one that, by its construction, differs from every real number on the list in at least one decimal place. Ergo, it cannot be on the list.
In other words, p is a real number without a natural number partner—an apple without an orange. Thus, the one-to-one correspondence between the reals and the naturals fails, as there are simply too many reals—they are "uncountably" numerous—making real infinity somehow larger than natural infinity.
"The idea of being 'larger than' was really a breakthrough," says Stanley Burris, professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. "You had this basic arithmetic of infinity, but no one had thought of classifying within infinity—it was just kind of a single object before that."
Adds mathematician Joseph Mileti of Dartmouth College: "When I first heard the result and first saw it, it was definitely something that knocked me over. It's one of those results that's short and sweet and really, really surprising."

Surprising eh? Could be descriptive of the year to come? What do you think?

Adios Netscape Navigator

2008-01-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

The world's first commercial Web browser and arguably the launch pad of the Internet boom, will be leaving the web after a 13-year long run.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Netscape's current keeper, said it decided to kill further development and technical support to focus on growing the company as an advertising business.

Here's how an MSNBC.com report writes: AOL pulls plug on Netscape Web browser.

Netscape faded away from the competition as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the freeware Mozilla Firefox dominated the web browser market. I'm sure MSNBC's sounding like a victor learning about and reporting this. MSNBC.com is a joint Microsoft - NBC Universal venture.;)

Samsung F700: good iClone

2007-12-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

iPhone truly foreshadows the N95 when it comes to the hype. Now, it has so much more to be flattered about. Every mobile phone company seems to do the iPhone way.

Definitely, I won't be writing anything about substandard imitation phones from China in this blog. Think about the lead you'll scrape everytime you press keys. This post is about one of the many phones that have followed the iPhone model -- those from major manufacturers.

Here's one from Samsung:

* Class: multimedia, fashion, 3G
* Position in the line: above Samsung F520
* Rivals: no data
* Description based on official information

* General features
o Announced in 2007, announced on 12 February 2007
o eGSM 900/1800/1900, HSDPA
o Battery type Li-Ion
o 2,78" sensory TFT-display the resolution of 240x440 pixels, shows up to 262 K colours
o Animated flash-menu
o ?olours: black
o Dimensions: 104x50x16.4 mm

* Memory
o Phonebook for 1000 names, several numbers for a name, assign an image, a photo and a melody, including MP3
o User groups
o Call lists with date and time specified
o Expansion slot for microSD

* Call management, ringing tones
o Vibracall
o Polyphonic call melodies, 64-tonal polyphony
o Fast dial
o Automatic redial
o Voice commands/dial
o Speakerphone

* SMS
o Predictive text input ?9
o Concatenated messages
o Message templates
o Sending and receiving graphical messages

* Camera
o Integrated 5.0 MP camera with flash
o The maximum resolution of 2592x1944 pixels
o Recording video clips MPEG4/?.263
o Digital zoom
o Effects
o Frontal camera for videotelephony

* Multimedia
o mp3/aac files as a call melody
o Integrated video and audio player (MP3/AAC/AAC+/Real/WMA/MPEG4/H.263/Real/H.264)
o Standalone mode, multitasking
o Java (MIDP 2.0)

* Connectivity
o Integrated mail client (SMTP/POP3/IMAP4)
o GPRS class 10
o EDGE Class 10
o HSDPA up to 7,2 MB/s
o WAP 2.0/xHTML, fully functional view HTML
o Bluetooth 2.0
o MMS
o Instant Messaging
o Push e-mail
o SyncML
o Synchronization with PC (USB 2.0, Bluetooth)

* Organizer and extras
o View documents MS Office
o Dictaphone
o Organizer
o Date, time, world time
o Alarm clock, reminder
o Timer, stopwatch, calculator

Of note: The camera has twice the power the iPhone offers. Moreover, with a full QWERTY keyboard, typing seems relatively glitch-free.

More pictures:

Top Japanese government spokesman believes in UFO

2007-12-18T05:08:00.000-08:00

Agence France-Presse

Japan's top government spokesman said Tuesday that he believes in UFOs.

"Personally, I absolutely believe they exist," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura.

He said there was no other explanation for how the Nazca Lines were drawn in the Peruvian desert. The vast, ancient drawings can really only be properly appreciated from the air, which has led some to claim they are the work of extraterrestrials.

Machimura's surprise comments came after the government said it had no official knowledge of UFOs from outer space.

"The government has not confirmed the existence of 'unidentified flying objects believed to have flown from outside the Earth'," it said in response to a question from an opposition lawmaker.

In the absence of such confirmation, "the government is not collecting information on them, exchanging information with other countries or conducting a particular study," the government said in its first official comment on UFOs.

"We are not considering what measures to take in case 'unidentified flying objects' fly over our country," it said.

The government issued the comment in response to a question from lawmaker Ryuji Yamane of the opposition Democratic Party, who argued Tokyo should try to confirm what UFOs are as many people have said they have witnessed them.

The statement was formally endorsed at Tuesday's cabinet meeting.

Skeptics say UFO sightings are merely aircraft or meteors re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, rather than visitors from another planet.

Is this just what an aging population brings?

Of note:

"The government has not confirmed the existence of 'unidentified flying objects believed to have flown from outside the Earth',"

Now that sounds more like a line in an animé/OVA. They're really serious about a scenario of identifying and confirming? I wouldn't be surprised if one day a Japanese official reveals that their flag is actually inspired by a UFO sighting.

Flash card...literally a card

2007-12-16T23:36:00.000-08:00

It's as thin as how cards are.

Now brewing: M++Card -- a USB business card. Featured in EverythingUSB.com, this business card contains flash memory sans the plug. We've seen a lot of interesting, crazy, sleek, and various other forms of the mighty flash disk. This one though spells more of what high technology means.

Being under conceptualization, there's still no official information on the card's exact storage capacity. This isn't the first attempt to develop a high-tech business card but as time passes and technology progresses, the idea gets more and more practical.

Possible uses of this card would include the storage of detailed personal and business information, resumes, CVs, or portfolios. It may also be designed to attach as added memories to mobile phones or other mini-SD compatible devices.

There are still disadvantages and obstacles to manufacturing this techie type of card. A new adapter needs to be developed to connect the card to computers or other devices. It may not be as durable and reliable (floppy disks come to mind). And a question of techie logic: why need a card when one can easily beam out and store data from one mobile device to another using bluetooth technology?

Understand the specs...and the PRICE

2007-12-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought a $10,000 mobile phone bill was shocking.

Meet Piotr Staniaszek, a 22-year-old oil-field worker from Calgary -- also the man with the bedazing $85,000 mobile phone bill. Staniaszek thought he could use his new phone as a modem for his computer under his $10 unlimited mobile browser plan from Bell Mobility. He was right and wrong -- right about the technical specs (the phone could be used as a modem indeed), wrong about the corresponding rates and charges.

Uninformed

Thinking an earlier bill of $65,000 was just a mistake, Staniaszek spoke to Bell Mobility only to realize that the bill had already upped by almost $20,000.

He said he normally paid about $150 a month for his phone and used to be notified of high charges.

"The thing is, they've cut my phone off for being like $100 over."

"Here, I'm $85,000 over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on."

"I told them I wasn't aware I would be charged for hooking up my phone to the computer. I'm going to try and fight it, because I didn't know about the extra charges."

Bell Mobility said they would lower the bill to $3,243 in a "goodwill gesture" to match the best data plan available for using mobile phones as a modem, the Globe and Mail reported.

How's that for the real need to be not only tech-savvy -- to be a vigilant consumer as well.

N95 8GB: Dream Phone

2007-12-12T22:12:00.000-08:00

Forget the iPhone hype, the Nokia N95 is a gadget miles better.

Get stunned with these specifications:

Feature

Specification

Form factor

Two-way slider

Operating System

Symbian OS (9.2) + S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1

GSM frequencies

HSDPA / GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

GPRS

Yes, Class 32, 107 / 64.2 kbps

EDGE (EGPRS)

Yes, Class 32, 296 kbps; DTM Class 11, 177 kbps

UMTS/WCDMA (3G)

Yes (2100MHz) with HSDPA

Screen

TFT Matrix, diagonal 2.6", 16 million colours, 240x320 pixels

Memory and Processor

- 8 GB internal memory
- 128 MB SDRAM memory
- ARM 11 332 MHz processor

Camera

5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, video(VGA 30fps), flash; secondary CIF videocall camera

Video recording

Yes, MPEG-4 VGA (640x480) video capture of up to 30 fps

Multimedia Messaging

Yes

Video calls

Yes

Push to talk

Yes

Java support

Yes, MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1

Memory card slot

Bluetooth

Yes, v2.0 with A2DP

Wi-Fi

Yes, with wireless LAN (802.11 b/g) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)

Infrared

Yes

Data cable support

Yes, USB 2.0 via mini USB port

Browser

Nokia Web Browser with Mini map

Yes

Music player

Yes, Stereo speakers with 3D audio

Radio

Yes, Stereo FM Radio and Visual Radio

Video Player

Yes

Polyphonic tones

Yes, 64 chords

Ringtones

Yes,MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/M4A, RealAudio

HF speakerphone

Yes, with 3.5mm audio jack and A2DP wireless stereo headphone support

Offline mode

Yes

Battery

BL-5F (950 mAh)

Talk time

up to 160min (WCDMA), up to 240 min (GSM)

Standby time

Up to 280 h

Weight

128 g

Dimensions

99 x 53 x 21 mm, 96 cc

Availability

Q2/2007

Additional

Text to speech, Quickoffice office suite, Speaker-independent voice-dialing, Built-in GPS, Remote over-the-air synchronization, OMA DRM 2.0 & WMDRM support for music