Wireless Power Energizes Many Devices

Powermat displays new wireless charging systems at CES 2009, a convenient wireless alternative to mobile phone, computer and appliance chargers. The system uses magnetic induction to transfer energy to almost any device.

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This could come in handy for a lot of people, coughcoughme, especially when i lose my phone charger. Now, if only they could invent a way to track my phone, which i seem to be losing a lot of lately D; aannd i lo0ve the glowy blue color in the water!!

http://www.wired.com/video/gadgets/ces-2009/6310841001/wireless-power-energizes-any-device/6751413001

Online Threat to Kill Obama Leads to Arrest

A Southern California man was charged Thursday with threatening a presidential candidate, for posting a racist note to a Yahoo message board in October expressing displeasure over Barack Obama's candidacy, and predicting "he will have a 50 cal in the head soon."
Walter Edward Bagdasarian, 47, was found with an arsenal of six weapons when Secret Service agents raided his La Mesa home in November, according to court records (.pdf). He had three handguns and three rifles, including a 30.06 with a telescopic sight and a Remington .50 caliber muzzle-loading rifle.
Bagdasarian is not accused of actually plotting against Obama, and he was released last month on a $100,000 real estate bond. Bagdasarian's attorney did not return a phone call Friday.
The post in question showed up on a Yahoo Finance board on Oct. 22, about two weeks before the election, under the handle "californiaradial." The message was titled "Shoot the nig."
"County fkd for another 4+ years, what nig has done ANYTHING right???? Long term???? Never in history, except sambos."
"Fk the niggar, he will have a 50 cal in the head soon," the message concludes.
The message thread has been deleted by Yahoo, but traces in Google's cache show that several other users announced that they were reporting californiaradial's comments. In subsequent posts, the author calls one critic a "crybaby," but does offer an explanation for the apparent threat. "I was drunk."
U.S. Secret Service agents in Los Angeles traced the post to Bagdasarian through the IP address. When they interviewed him, Bagdasarian reportedly admitted authoring the message.


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Why does everyone want to kill everyone? I mean i want to kill some people too but that doesn't mean I'm going to start planning on it. I wouldn't even think of how i would kill that person. I just try to forget that person or take revenge inside my head. How can people actually go and commit or try to commit murder. People like that should just go get a life and some other hobby, like knitting or combing cats or something. Stop hatred, spread love! =]

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/threat.html

Interface Controlled by Hand Gestures

At CES 2009, Toshiba showed off a conceptual computer interface that uses hand gestures for control. With simple motion sensing technology and a software interface, Toshiba hopes to open up applications for video games and other interactive media.


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That looks AWEsome! I WANT THAT!!!!! That Interface has that shiny shiny feel and like shiny shiny. Maybe we can get further with this kind of technology and use it for more and better purposes. =] Even though it looks really cool, it seems like your hands would get tired after a while, it would be handy if they had a regular mouse equipped with it.....ooorrr maybe a MIND CONTROLLED THINGIE attached to it. Would your mind get tired after controlling the interface too much? Hmmmmmm... i wonder. :)

http://www.wired.com/video/latest-videos/latest/1815816633/conceptual-interface-is-controlled-by-hand-gestures/6750621001

Gaza War's New Front: Facebook

Israel, at first glance, seems to be dominating the information war over Gaza. The Israeli government has launched a campaign to dominate the blogosphere: Pro-Israel hackers are waging cyberwar against Hamas, and the Israeli military has kept the international press off the battlefield.
But as the Financial Times notes, social networking site Facebook has become an important venue in the Arab world for protesting the Israeli campaign, as well as a potent fundraising tool for supporters of the Palestinian cause.
Correspondent Abeer Allam writes from Riyadh:

"Arab governments often control public protests, leaving donations as one of the few means available to express support for the Palestinians and anger at the Israeli offensive.Facebook has played a pivotal role, coordinating groups of young people who pray or donate money to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees, Red Crescent Society and other relief organisations."

This Facebook page, for instance, includes links to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Muslim Aid and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. It also has a link to a Facebook page opposed to pro-Israeli hackers.
Of course, Israel has plenty of Facebook friends as well. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported today how Matt Freelander, a young Jewish Londoner, organized a pro-Israeli demonstration through Facebook; around 1,000 people showed up for the rally. Radio Netherlands notes another Facebook site that aims to round up a million supporters of Israel.

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I feel bad for the people in Gaza, I wish i could do something to help them big time. Even though we cant be there live helping them, we can still help them by making Duas and Donating Stuff to help them. I urge all of you to do what you can to help our Muslim brothers and sisters.

=]

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/facebook-fundra.html

The 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2008

You've read about some of our favorite games of the year. Now it's time for the disappointments.

The games below, chosen by the usual panel of Wired.com contributors, is in no way supposed to be a list of the worst games of 2008. Those are all for the Wii, cost $10, are about dogs and/or babies, and we wouldn't be caught dead playing them. No, these are the games that let us down the most this year. Most of them are actually good games. But they failed to live up to the hype, or didn't deliver on their promises. Perhaps we were just left wanting more. Either way, here are our Most Disappointing Games of the year:

10. Age of Conan (PC)
9. Tom Clancy's EndWar (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
8. Too Human (Xbox 360)
7. Stalker: Clear Sky (PC)
6. Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360, PS3)
5. Dead Space (Xbox 360, PS3)
4. Prince of Persia (Xbox 360, PS3)
3. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360, PS3)
1. Spore (PC)

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I'm kinda surprised Mario Kart is in this list. Even though i have never owned or shown much interest in this game, i heard a lot of people have it and that they like it too. Now i know which games i shouldn't buy, so a thanks from me to wired.com is owed. If you want to know why these games are on the disappointments list more in detail, go to the site below.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/12/disappointing-g.html

Hotel 747 Now Boarding !~

Last year we told you about Oscar Dios, a Swede with a wacky idea: Park a retired Boeing 747 outside the Stockholm airport, and turn it into motel for the budget-minded traveler. His vision has become a reality, with Dios' 25-room, 85-bed Jumbo Hostel scheduled to open next week.
The Jumbo Hostel is now accepting reservations on its website for stays beginning Jan. 15. Dorm rooms start at 350 Swedish kronor ($45), with deluxe private rooms at $1,350 Kroner ($175). For even more, you can spend the night in the plane's cockpit, which has been converted to a sort of honeymoon suite and is the only room on the plane with its own bathroom and shower.
Dios' vision for the Jumbo Hostel has up to now been limited to a series of conceptual drawings, but last week he invited a reporter from Britain's Guardian aboard for a look at the place. The paper posted video of the tour (narrated by an extremely monotonic reporter) on its website, and it provides some interesting new details on Dios' digs. For those of us who have done a lot of backpacking, the words hostel and claustrophobia are interchangeable, but judging from the Guardian footage, even rooms at the low end of Jumbo Hostel's price range look pretty good. Each dorm room is around 20 square feet, but because Dios was able to remove the cable and wiring that made the 747 fly, the ceilings are a spacious 13 feet high. Overhead bins have been bolted to the walls for storage, and all rooms have free wireless internet access, as well as flatscreen televisions that double as arrival-departure monitors.
The Jumbo Hostel might be cheap, but it still comes with some hotel-style extras . The 747's upper deck, which airlines often use as a lounge, will remain such, with the original seats and serving areas intact. The plane's first-class cabin has been turned into a cafe that seats 20 and is open to the public 24 hours a day. Passengers are also free to use the plane's emergency exits to step onto the wing and take a look around.
And if you're looking to catch an early flight, Jumbo Hostel's location can't be beat. It's just a 15-minute walk to the airport terminal, or you can catch one of the shuttles that runs every 7 minutes.
Beyond putting up weary travelers, Dios plans to offer guided tours of the plane to the public for around $10 each, and says he hopes to franchise the concept. Judging from the state of the airline industry, there should be some surplus planes Dios can snap up cheap.
Photos and images / Jumbo Hostel



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WOW! This looks pretty awesome to live in if you dont mind living in a small amount of space. Plus, you wont be late to your departure. I like the idea of staying in a small space for a little while, it'd feel cozy and i could get away from everyone for a little while. This will be an experience to be remembered and it will sorta feel like an adventure.=]


http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/01/swedish-747-you.html

Amazon, Apple and the price of music

Ever since Amazon began selling digital music and offering lower prices than rival Apple, the suspicion by many iTunes fans is that the music industry was in cahoots with Amazon.
In the comments section of our scoop Monday on Apple's MacWorld announcement that it was doing away with copy-protection software and changing its pricing policy, many iTunes fans asserted the often repeated allegation that the four largest recording companies were giving Amazon a price break.
Not so, according to two music industry insiders with knowledge of the negotiations.
The suspicion has long been that the record labels want to help Amazon's fledgling music service compete against the Apple juggernaut. The labels have hoped that an iTunes alternative would emerge and dilute some of Apple's control over digital music sales. The reality is, say my sources, that Amazon, Wal-Mart and everybody else selling downloads is paying the same wholesale price as Apple.
"As long as a retailer pays the label's price they can sell songs for whatever they want," said one of the sources.
What this means is that Amazon, which offers many songs for 10 cents less than Apple's former standard price of 99 cents, has likely chosen to lose money on music sales, say the sources. It's generally believed that Apple's profit margin is just a few pennies per song.
Amazon's motivation is obvious. The company is battling the country's largest music retailer and the maker of the best selling music player. Amazon needs a competitive advantage.
That's going to be tougher to find now. Apple's announcement Tuesday that it will remove digital rights management from songs and offer more price flexibility, including the slashing of catalog titles or older music to 69 cents, is bad news for competitors--especially Amazon. Amazon representatives did not respond to an interview request.
I've been hard on iTunes recently for failing to provide customers with DRM-free music and over-the-air downloads. But the reasons to shop for music at any other Web store are quickly dwindling.
Amazon launched an MP3 store in September 2007 and tried to play up the fact that fans could get cheaper music at a higher quality and free of DRM?
While iTunes on Tuesday raised the price of hit songs 30 cents to ($1.29), catalog titles were reduced by 30 cents. And there are a lot more songs in the catalog category. Apple can now make the claim that iTunes is cheaper than Amazon on most music.

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Basically, I think this article is trying to say is that Amazon is selling cheaper music than iTunes, but Amazon is losing money and iTunes has to improvise their policy to reply to their competitors. So as a result, iTunes lowered and highered some prices. Even though this is all interesting and stuff, i bet a normal person is just going to buy music wherever its cheaper and has reasonable quality with its price. =] ..aand do any of them sell Islamic music or Nasheeds? Hmmmm...I wonder......

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10138887-93.html?tag=rtcol;newsNow