Sat 04 July, 2009

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() Laboratory Equipment | Astronomers See A New Class of Black Hole NPR Talk of the Nation, July 3, 2009 · Scientists say X-ray data collected by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton spacecraft show evidence of a new type of black hole in a galaxy about 290 million light years from Earth. Astronomer Sean Farrell explains ... New Class of Black Holes Discovered New findings suggest midsize black holes exist Backstory to detecting a possible middleweight black hole |
Fri 03 July, 2009

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() Washington Post | Dismissal of MySpace Case 'Proper,' Defendant Says Washington Post AP LOS ANGELES, July 3 -- A Missouri mother said she never should have been prosecuted for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old girl who ended up committing suicide. A federal judge this week acquitted Lori Drew of ... MySpace victim's mom disappointed by ruling MySpace cyber-bullying conviction tentatively dismissed Report: Guilty verdict overturned in MySpace suicide case |

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() CNET News | Employee shot, wounded at Virginia Apple store CNET News An employee was shot Friday at this Apple store on Clarendon Blvd. in Arlington, Va. Customers were inside the store when the shooting happened, but no one else was injured, police say. An employee at an Apple store near Washington DC ... Apple store employee shot during attempted armed robbery Employee Shot at Apple Store; Suspect Sought Gunfire at Apple Store in DC Suburb Leaves One Injured |

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() KOMO News | Seattle fire knocks out service to Bing Travel, other sites CNET News Tenants of the Fisher Plaza data center carry servers out of the building Friday morning. The building houses the Bing Travel servers, among others. Updated at 4:51 pm PDT with time fire started and statement from Fisher Communications. ... Fisher Plaza fire disrupts Web service, TV station Fisher Plaza blaze knocks out Internet service Fire at Seattle's Fisher Plaza disrupts web sites |

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() DailyTech | Facebook criticised over privacy BBC News The social networking site Facebook has come under fire for planned changes to its privacy settings. It wants to "simplify" the process so users only have to set them once, instead of for each individual feature. ... Facebook undergoes drastic changes one more time New Facebook Privacy Controls Take On Twitter Facebook changes privacy controls so members feel safe to share |

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionThe social networking site comes under fire for planned changes to privacy settings.

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() Telegraph.co.uk | Apple patching critical SMS vulnerability in iPhone OS Ars Technica Safari Charlie says that Apple is working on a patch for a serious flaw he identified in the SMS implementation on the iPhone. Further, he warns that users interested in security should avoid jailbreaking their phones. By Chris Foresman | Last updated ... Apple fixing iPhone SMS security hole Will iphones Get Tactile Feedback, Fingerprint ID? Apple's iPhone sweeps the board in smartphone sales |

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() Science Centric | New Moon Orbiter Sends First Lunar Snapshots FOXNews nasa's newest spacecraft in orbit around the moon has sent its first snapshots of the lunar surface. Released Thursday, the images from nasa's new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a moon bathed in light and shadow in a region know as Mare Nubium, ... Satellite Offers New View of Dark, Light Sides of Moon NASA's lunar orbiter sends back results of first Kodak moments Lunar mapping satellite snaps first test images |

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionDetails emerge of why billions in virtual cash disappeared from a virtual bank in Eve Online.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionJapan considers adding noise-making devices to quiet hybrid cars to improve safety for blind pedestrians.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionUS anti-trust regulators are to examine Google's $125m deal with book publishers to settle copyright issues, reports say.

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() Boston Globe | Suit Over China's Web Filter to Target Lenovo, Acer, Sony PC World A US company will seek legal action against Lenovo, Acer and Sony next week over their shipment in China of controversial software that the company says stole its programming code. Solid Oak Software may also take action against other PC makers that ... China's Green Dam 'Definitely' Coming China Says Green Dam Still Coming, Mac Version in the Works PC Makers May Wait A Year On New China Web-Filter Edict |

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionA woman accused of "cyber-bullying" a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide sees her conviction provisionally thrown out.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionA majority of tech workers in the public sector do not know about the emission reduction targets they face, says a survey.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionWill Twitter alienate users if it becomes too corporate?
Thu 02 July, 2009

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() BBC News | Climate change causes sheep in Scottish herd to shrink Los Angeles Times Researchers have concluded that rising temperatures have made it easier for scrawnier sheep to survive, thus reducing the average size of animals in the herd. The average weight and size of sheep on a remote island have been falling in small but steady ... The Case of the Shrinking Sheep Climate change is shrinking sheep Sheep Shrinking Each Generation Amid Global Warming |

The Official Google BlogEver since the new Google Blog Search homepage launched, we've been fielding requests for a myriad of different features. Today we're happy to announce the launch of our most requested feature: RSS and Atom feeds. Simply click on the links under "Subscribe" in the left-hand column of the Blog Search front page to subscribe to any topic or story in any feed reader, like Google Reader.
If you don't use a feed reader, we're also offering an iGoogle gadget that lets you embed the Blog Search front page right inside of your iGoogle page or any other page where iGoogle gadgets are accepted. You can browse topics and drill into stories from within the widget, and you can customize the gadget to choose which topics you want to follow.
With these new ways to read Blog Search stories, you might think our homepage was going unloved, but not to worry. We've also added two new features to the Blog Search homepage to better help you discover what people are talking about right now on the web: Hot Queries and Latest Posts.
Hot Queries lists searches currently popular in Blog Search — it's an easy way to quickly dive into the trending points of conversation on the web. Latest Posts, on the other hand, shows new posts from popular blogs. While Hot Queries highlights what people are looking for, Latest Posts lets you find out about stories even before people start searching for them.

There's a lot of great, fresh content being published in blogs every day. We hope these new features help you discover more of it, faster.

If you don't use a feed reader, we're also offering an iGoogle gadget that lets you embed the Blog Search front page right inside of your iGoogle page or any other page where iGoogle gadgets are accepted. You can browse topics and drill into stories from within the widget, and you can customize the gadget to choose which topics you want to follow.
With these new ways to read Blog Search stories, you might think our homepage was going unloved, but not to worry. We've also added two new features to the Blog Search homepage to better help you discover what people are talking about right now on the web: Hot Queries and Latest Posts.
Hot Queries lists searches currently popular in Blog Search — it's an easy way to quickly dive into the trending points of conversation on the web. Latest Posts, on the other hand, shows new posts from popular blogs. While Hot Queries highlights what people are looking for, Latest Posts lets you find out about stories even before people start searching for them.

There's a lot of great, fresh content being published in blogs every day. We hope these new features help you discover more of it, faster.

Sci/Tech - Google News![]() Straits Times | Microsoft: Bing needs to improve when news breaks CNET News One of the biggest news stories in years caught Microsoft's Bing a little off guard. The flood of traffic on the Internet following reports that Michael Jackson had been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital last Thursday, where he later died, ... Bing: Not Really Gaining on Google Microsoft Gets Twitter Search First Microsoft's Bing Gains On Google, But MJ's Death Reveals Its ... |

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionReports from Iran say SMS text messaging services have been unblocked for the first time since disputed presidential elections.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionCarphone Warehouse is to restart selling Vodafone mobile phone contracts, three years after Vodafone pulled the products.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionTwitter users can now buy followers to boost the audience for the messages they send via the micro-blogging service.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionThe number of people visiting Twitter has soared over the past year, according to an internet monitoring company.
Wed 01 July, 2009

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionThe crackdown on illegal file-sharers is catching innocent people alongside the pirates, according to a report.

The Official Google BlogBlended threats. Payload viruses. Spam. If you're one of the more than 15 million people whose work email is protected by Postini's email security products, we hope you don't spend a lot of time thinking about these things. And if we're doing our job right, they certainly shouldn't be showing up in your inboxes. But we process more than 3 billion business emails per day for our customers, culling the spam, viruses, and other threats out, so we do think about this stuff. A lot.
On occasion, we like to share some of what we've learned, so that those of you who are interested can see what spammers are up to. If you're one of those people, head over to our Enterprise Blog for an update on spam trends over the past few months.

On occasion, we like to share some of what we've learned, so that those of you who are interested can see what spammers are up to. If you're one of those people, head over to our Enterprise Blog for an update on spam trends over the past few months.

The Official Google BlogI love labels in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mail in multiple ways. Combined with filters to automatically label incoming messages, Gmail offers powerful ways to organize email.
When I joined the Gmail team, I was surprised to learn that only 29% of Gmail users had created any labels. At first, I thought perhaps conversation threading and search made the need to organize our mail less important. But when we talked to people who use Gmail, we got a different story. People often asked us to add folders to Gmail, assuming no system of organization existed. As one person said in a usability study, "What are labels... and where are my folders?"
We realized that if you didn't know about labels, it would be easy to assume Gmail had no way to organize your mail. Not only were "labels" unfamiliar, they were kind of hidden. So, we set out to make labels more accessible, as well as more powerful. Most of the changes have been in Gmail for a while, but we're adding some new features today. We thought you'd enjoy a peek at the method to our madness.
The first thing we did was make labels look more like the sticky notes you use in real life. Making the interface mimic things you interact with outside the computer can sometimes improve ease of use.

We also made it easier to remove a label from an open conversation:

Then we worked on the actions you take to apply and remove labels. Before, to put a label on a message, you had to look under "More actions> Apply label." Not only was this option hidden in a generic menu, but the language wasn't what people are familiar with when it comes to organizing mail. We explored several alternatives:

We also learned that if we made labels sound too much like folders, people got confused. For instance, while "Copy to" and "Add to" were easy to use, these terms made people think they were creating multiple copies of a message. "Move to" was familiar but didn't lead people to think they were creating copies. And people seem to have picked it up fast! Since the launch of the new menu buttons in March, we're seeing a 50% increase in new Gmail users trying labels in their first 2 weeks. And overall usage of the "Move to" menu surpassed that of the "Labels" menu within 7 weeks of launching:

For our latest set of changes, we looked at how you access labels on the left side. In other email applications, folders get the royal treatment and are given a seat at the top near your inbox. But in Gmail, labels were stuck in a box below Chat — almost like we were telling people, "you don't want to use these." In testing, we discovered that it worked best to remove the terminology altogether and just place custom labels right under the system labels (e.g. "Inbox"):
The last step was to add drag-and-drop. Now, you can drag mail into a label, or even drag a label directly onto a message:

Making it easier to process and organize your mail requires more than just labels, but we hope these changes start to improve the process. We have much more in store, so stay tuned and keep the feedback coming.

When I joined the Gmail team, I was surprised to learn that only 29% of Gmail users had created any labels. At first, I thought perhaps conversation threading and search made the need to organize our mail less important. But when we talked to people who use Gmail, we got a different story. People often asked us to add folders to Gmail, assuming no system of organization existed. As one person said in a usability study, "What are labels... and where are my folders?"
We realized that if you didn't know about labels, it would be easy to assume Gmail had no way to organize your mail. Not only were "labels" unfamiliar, they were kind of hidden. So, we set out to make labels more accessible, as well as more powerful. Most of the changes have been in Gmail for a while, but we're adding some new features today. We thought you'd enjoy a peek at the method to our madness.
The first thing we did was make labels look more like the sticky notes you use in real life. Making the interface mimic things you interact with outside the computer can sometimes improve ease of use.

We also made it easier to remove a label from an open conversation:

Then we worked on the actions you take to apply and remove labels. Before, to put a label on a message, you had to look under "More actions> Apply label." Not only was this option hidden in a generic menu, but the language wasn't what people are familiar with when it comes to organizing mail. We explored several alternatives:

We also learned that if we made labels sound too much like folders, people got confused. For instance, while "Copy to" and "Add to" were easy to use, these terms made people think they were creating multiple copies of a message. "Move to" was familiar but didn't lead people to think they were creating copies. And people seem to have picked it up fast! Since the launch of the new menu buttons in March, we're seeing a 50% increase in new Gmail users trying labels in their first 2 weeks. And overall usage of the "Move to" menu surpassed that of the "Labels" menu within 7 weeks of launching:

For our latest set of changes, we looked at how you access labels on the left side. In other email applications, folders get the royal treatment and are given a seat at the top near your inbox. But in Gmail, labels were stuck in a box below Chat — almost like we were telling people, "you don't want to use these." In testing, we discovered that it worked best to remove the terminology altogether and just place custom labels right under the system labels (e.g. "Inbox"):
The last step was to add drag-and-drop. Now, you can drag mail into a label, or even drag a label directly onto a message:
Making it easier to process and organize your mail requires more than just labels, but we hope these changes start to improve the process. We have much more in store, so stay tuned and keep the feedback coming.

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionThe world's biggest commercial telecommunications satellite - to offer a terrestrial/satellite phone service - is put into orbit.

vrypan|net|logFFDirect 0.7.0 is out. Most notable new feature is the automatic polling of friendfeed for post “likes” and comments. The results are included in the HTML body of the post (unlike other similar solutions, that use javascript).
If you like the way ffdirect shows up in this blog, try adding the following lines in your CSS:
.ffdirect [...]

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionVideo surveillance offers insight into baby babble

BBC News | Technology | UK EditionNew owners of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay say users will be paid for sharing files.











