Somehow, I missed this earlier. The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities Magazine named its  Top Digital Cities in America for 2009 and Norfolk was named the number one city in its category (125,000 – 249,999 population).

“This year’s winners demonstrate how cities have faced economic challenges with creativity and innovation in the use of information technology,” said Cathilea Robinett, executive director for the Center for Digital Government. “The Survey clearly shows that cities place a high value on positive experiences for their constituents when using government services. These winners are at the leading edge of the future in digital advances for citizens.”

Although the survey was open to all cities with population in excess of 30,000, only those cities who responded were included in the rankings. I’m not clear how many cities actually responded.

In the same category as Norfolk, Alexandria tied for 4th place, Hampton tied for 8th and Richmond tied for 10th. Virginia Beach tied for 6th in the category for the largest (over 250,000 population) cities. Roanoke ranked third in the 75,000-124,999 category while Charlottesville (4th) and Lynchburg (7th) ranked in the top ten for cities in the smallest category (30,000 – 74,999).

The digital counties rankings is here and includes Virginia counties in every category.

Each day, I start off by deleting spam: that delivered to my Blackberry, my desktop mail client, my online mail and my blog. It is perhaps the least productive part of my day. Spammers are creative: despite having spam filters everywhere (except on my BB – don’t like the way those filters work), I still deal with hundreds of spam emails that get through the filters. It seems that the spammers overwhelm the filters at night, since very few of them get through during the day. (The filter on my blog, Akismet, is very good. Rarely does one get through.)  And I do have to review those caught in the spam filter because, invariably, there are a couple of legitimate ones in there.

So I was happy to read that the so-called “Godfather of Spam,” Alan Ralsky, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for sending emails in a bogus stock scheme. Three others were also convicted. According to the article, the group raked in nearly $3 million in the summer of 2005 alone.

The one thing that I find most annoying about spam – besides the content, of course – is the email spoofing. Probably half of the spam that I get looks like it is sent from one of my own email addresses. There seems to be little that I can do to stop that from happening. And such email spoofing sometimes causes me headaches: my own domains can end up on the spam lists of various servers and I end up having to go through a lot of headaches to get them off the lists. Which, of course, ends up benefiting the spammers.

Perhaps if more of the spammers were sent to prison, they would stop. And I wouldn’t have to clear out the endless emails touting Viagra, watches, and so forth. Nor would I have to deal with the emails that my clients forward to me supposedly from the IRS or the Social Security Administration. Not to mention the ones containing viruses that come from what appear to be real addresses of people I know.

Interestingly enough, I back up my email on Gmail and it seems to catch nearly all of the spam. So if the Gmail folks can figure out how to do that, I would hope that the other email providers out there would figure out the same. (And yes, I’ve been thinking about using Gmail to clean all of my mail before it comes into Outlook and my Blackberry. Just haven’t had the time to figure it all out yet.)

Trying out “Press This” app on WordPress.

CBC News – Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News.

The storm came through Hampton Roads Thursday and I had no problem with my power. Overnight, the power went out (not sure for how long) but it was working again when I got up this morning. Then around 10:30am, it blinked a couple of times and then went out for good.

I have no idea what caused the power to be out but my whole neighborhood and the surrounding area had none. The weather today was a little wet but nothing like yesterday.

We were without power until about 5:30pm. So I spent most of the day trying to entertain myself. Played the piano for a little while (thank goodness I had the piano tuned a few weeks ago), then I discovered a Logic Puzzles book that I had bought a while back and never opened. So I spent some time doing some of those.

It’s amazing, when you think about it, how much we rely on power. My newspaper wasn’t delivered today and without power, I couldn’t read it online. No way to charge my cell phone – since until this afternoon, I didn’t have a car charger – so I couldn’t keep it on the whole time. I did manage to make coffee before the power went out; otherwise, a trip to the local 7-11 or something would have been necessary. No power meant no heat (and all the wood for my fireplace was wet); thank goodness it wasn’t that cold today. I did go to the local hardware store to pick up some of those logs: I managed to get the last one in the store. Seems I wasn’t the only one unprepared for the power outage.  And given that I have a waterbed, I’m really glad the power is back on in time for it to reheat before I go to bed.

Anyway – hope y’all had a good day

This little message popped up on my twitter log in this morning. Twitter is beta testing advanced ReTweets so you can only see ReTweets made by people you follow. Between this and the largely useless Lists function (which lets you PUBLICLY list all your friends and foes), I’m not sure where twitter is going. Sometimes the old KISS (keep it simple, stupid) adage works best.

Finally a device for the twittercrazy out there. TwitterPeek, the world’s first twitter-only phone is here. For just under $200, the device provides unlimited tweeting anywhere, with no contracts or activation fees. Sold exclusively at Amazon, the phone seems like the perfect stocking stuffer for a child too young for a cell phone or a geek with too much time (and money) on his/her hands. With no new features or applications, the TweetPeek isn’t piquing this twittersexual’s interest at all.

Snag one Here

Source: GeekWithLaptop

Although I heart my Blackberry Curve 8900, I secretly (or not so secretly) have iPhone envy whenever I see someone whip it one out. The multiple functions and cool apps, not to mention the convenience of not lugging around an iPod wherever I go almost make up for the typing suckiness. Here’s a brand new application to make Blackberry owners cringe in envy: the soon-to-be launched Flyp’t allows you to mix, master, annoy, and live out all of your producer fantasies.

The FTC has come down hard on bloggerinos and celebrities who give product endorsements. The FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers, has been recently updated to protect consumers from false testimonies and endorsements.

…advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect…

Essentially if you experience a product in a way that a typical consumer would not (e.g. receiving it for free), you have to disclose that on your site. Here is more info from the boys in blue.

In my daily blog crawl I stumbled upon a site that gives new meaning to the words “sloppy seconds”. Great Boyfriends is a social network of sorts that lets you submit your ex boyfriend or girlfriend into a pool for other singles. Already approved by biggies like Oprah and Elle, it’s the brainchild of relationship expert and writer E. Jean Carroll.

The breakdown: Who doesn’t know a great guy (or girl) who is shockingly, still single? Maybe it’s your best friend, your not-for-me ex, your adorable brother — you get it. Post them here and “set them up” with an equally cool, preapproved date; i.e., no one makes it onto our A list unless a true friend like you signs ’em up. Because friends don’t let friends stay single.

The process requires creating a profile for the ex which includes what makes them such a great catch based on a variety of hilarious metrics like the Boyscout Scale (His bravery, cheerfulness, courtesy, loyalty, and trustworthiness — especially his trustworthiness) and the Ring Buying Scale (Big as a Ritz cracker with a matching tiara? Or, he’s got a heart of gold, but could never afford platinum on his richest day). There’s some payment required, but I couldn’t find the price readily available on the site.

They always say that finding love through a friend is the best way; a Westernized arranged marriage of sorts. Interesting business concept and great tagline “Friends don’t let friends stay single”.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft’s Bing has signed deals with Facebook and Twitter to stream status updates in real-time into their search engine, so users can search feeds as they stream in from all over the world. Google is expected to follow suit but for now, does not have great social networking search capabilities. Currently Facebook and/or Twitter searches are time-consuming and require several dedicated search engines. Does this mean we’ll all be Binging instead of Googling? Probably not, but it gives Microsoft a smidge of a competitive edge for the time being (aside from those annoying commercials).

Source: Fast Company

Dear Apple,

The images of your new “Magic Mouse” remind me of what is politely referred to as a “personal massager”. Might I humbly suggest you integrate some “massaging” functionality into the Magic Mouse’s design? After all, to quote one of my favorite musicals, “the internet is for porn” and an all-in-one device for surfing/self-pleasuring would be a “stroke” of pure genius.

Sincerely,
Captain Cupcake

Burrr. With winter just around the corner, the Hamburger USB Warmer Mouse Pad is delicious and functional as a hand warmer and mouse pad. Shout outs to DailyDrop for the yummy pic.

Oh em gee! twitter is being beyond zonky today or else I’ve gotten very unpopular. You can only imagine my look when I saw this screen this morning when I logged into my twitter page

As a long-time user (Kailei) and a new user (Keesha), neither of us can get enough of our iPhones. Not only can we access email, surf the web, listen to our music, and — oh yeah– make phone calls, but there are also a ton of applications for just about any use you can think of. Here are a few of our favorites (and all except the Scrabble app are free!):
Utilities
1. NY Subway Map: Just like it sounds – a map of the New York subway system.

2. HopStop: Gives you subway/train, bus, walking and taxi directions from most major cities (including New York, San Francisco, DC, Chicago and London).

3. Urbanspoon: Restaurant finder that can give you restaurant options near you using your internal GPS. The coolest feature: shake your phone to get it to randomly select a restaurant for you.

4. myLite: Turns your iPhone screen into a flashlight.

Social Networking
5. Facebook: Keep up with the best features from Facebook with a great user interface.  You can even upload and post pictures.

6. TweetDeck: Tweet, keep up with those you follow, and organize your Twitter friends in groups.  You can even manage multiple Twitter accounts.

Media
7. Amazon Kindle: Turns your iPhone into a book reader. You can purchase books from Amazon and read it on your phone. Even better, you can “sample” any book Amazon carries (usually the first chapter).

8. iHeartRadio: Listen to numerous radio stations from all over the country. Not all are available, but if you are a fan of V103 or WGCI in Chicago, Power 105.1 in NY, Hot 92.3 in LA, or WDAS or Power99 in Philly – you’re in luck!

9. Pandora: The most intelligent internet radio we’ve seen. Just like Pandora.com, you can create a station around your favorite artist or song and manage your list of stations.

10. Shazam: Have you ever heard a song on the radio and not know who sings it? Launch Shazam and put your iPhone to the speaker and it will tell you the artist and album.

News
11. NY Times: Check out latest headlines from NYTimes.com and browse pictures and sections. Once you download the content, you can browse the information even without a signal. It has been a little buggy lately, but when it works, it’s a good user experience.

12. AP Mobile News Network: Gives you access to local and national news as well as weather. Sign up for news alerts and they will text you with breaking news right as it happens (you can find out even before it hits the Facebook and Twitter!).

13. Style.com: OK, not exactly “news,” but this is a snapshot of some of the most popular sections of Vogue’s Style.com. Some of the best features: pictures from fashion industry parties and the latest fashion shows.

Games
14. Scrabble: Plays just like the board game and you can even sync to another player’s iPhone through wifi and play against them in real time.

15.Cubes Lite: Fun cube crashing game to pass the time away. Reminiscent of Tetris

16. Bowl Lite: Skee Ball for the iPhone. Cheesy electric music helps you get that authentic arcade experience.

Tell us: What are your favorite iPhone or other smartphone applications?

How much would you pay to see Seal in concert or have dinner with a real renown chef? For less than the cost of a Grande Frappuccino, $2.99 per month, the new social network NameDrop promises that. The platform itself and its accessibility via mobile applications has yet to be seen, but something about this seems very salesy. People follow actual (or cyber) celebrities on twitter because of the organic feel of the network (wowzers! I can’t believe @s_c_ @replied me!). Once celebrities get openly compensated for participation, how does this differ from a press release or paid meet-and-greet?

I encourage NameDrop to invite @SowmyaK to join so I can write a full fledged review.

Press release:

How can you be guaranteed that the content found on a social networking site is from the actual celebrity it claims to be from and avoid the celebrity imposter problems of other social media sites? And where can you find once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to meet your favorite celebrities, join them on tour or at a game, or maybe even earn a job working beside them? By becoming a subscriber of the exclusive new social networking website NameDrop(TM), you can do it all NameDrop.com.

Here is what sets NameDrop apart from other social networking websites:

*All celebrities and influential people are verified before they are allowed to post on NameDrop.
*All information posted on NameDrop is approved by the celebrities or their authorized representatives.

*NameDrop offers unprecedented opportunities for celebrity interaction. For example –
NameDrop is giving a subscriber and a friend round-trip airfare to Australia to be the personal guests of Grammy Award-winning artist Seal on his concert tour. They will dine with him and the band, attend sound check, sit in VIP seats and then join him for the after-party.

Cat Cora, the first and only female winner of Iron Chef and Executive Chef of Bon Appetit Magazine, will fly in to prepare a dinner party for 12 at the home of a lucky NameDrop subscriber.

Celebrities want to join because they can: 1) communicate directly with their fans; 2) control their content; 3) promote their favorite charities; 4) respond to media and events on a global stage; and 5) earn money for providing unprecedented access to subscribers instead of lending their image to increase the value of other social networking sites.

Subscribers pay only $2.99 a month for access to exclusive content from the authentic newsmakers, and get once-in-a-lifetime chances to come face-to-face with their favorite celebs.

Source: PR Newswire

Thought Gadgets talks about the new age dilemma of corporations joining social networks and how to balance brand identity with the human touch. “Digital strategist Jordan Julien got us thinking about “synthetic authenticity,” the risk large corporations face as they try to engage customers in social media. The problem, Jordan says, is social media tools were built for individual people to interact with each other, but suddenly faceless entities — big brands with big names — are entering the space.”

As someone who’s worked with, in, and on top of social networks I can’t agree with this more. Social networks are social and especially on platforms like twitter, require a human touch. Companies must prove to consumers that there’s a utility derived from joining their social networks, beyond being marketed to, whether it be discounts, giveaways, targeted information, or entertainment.

The Luxor in Las Vegas (@luxorLV) has a picture of a hot chick to create the perception that she is tweeting to you while Dell uses “Richard” (@RichardatDell) to rep it online.

The main thing companies must remember is to retain their brand integrity within a “human” persona. Let’s not forget what happened between me and @starbucks when the “person” behind the twitter got snappy with me. (Starbucks Wars) #epicfail

The person inside in computer

Mashable reports today that MIT students Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree scanned the Facebook friends of over 1,500 fellow students. They’ve found that homosexual men have proportionally more gay friends than straight men. In the study titled Gaydar, they concluded that “if you’re a man, and you have a large proportion of gay friends, you’re probably gay, and you can’t hide it.”

Albeit a tiny sample size with numerous opportunities for error, facebook seems to be the random sample of the future. Guess it beats the old fashioned gaydar.

Arguably one of the most popular robot kits is the one made by Lego.  It is fascinating to see where Lego began and how they ultimately ended up having the most advanced robot on the market.

Lego is probably the most recognized brand in the toy industry. What my not be so recognizable is the history of this amazing corporation.

Old Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter in Billund, Denmark who opened a woodworking shop in 1916. He and his team of apprentices built furniture for people in the area.

This was how Lego began, from the mind of a simple carpenter in the small country of Denmark. In 1932, business was not good enough for Kirk Christiansen so he expanded his product line from just furniture to ironing boards, stepladders, and wooden toys. As business grew, he renamed his company Lego from the Danish phrase “leg godt” which means to “play well”. Many years later, the Lego Group officially stated that the name Lego comes from the Latin word “Lego” which means “I assemble” or “I put together”.

Christiansen’s company continued to make wooden toys out of this same building until 1960 when its wooden toy warehouse was destroyed in a fire.

Christiansen had a son by the name of Godtfred that he planned on passing the business to. By 1954, Godtfred had moved up in the Lego business to become the junior managing director. Godtfred traveled to England to meet a purchasing agent on a ferry. They talked at length about where the toy market was headed.

Little did anyone know at the time that this simple discussion would lead to the invention of perhaps the world’s greatest toy ever created, Lego snap together building blocks.

Change began at Lego after about 30 years. In Lego’s home city of Billund, Denmark, LEGOLAND was opened in 1968.

Once again, Lego pondered the future of where the toy market was heading and came up with a snap together Lego set that had computer chips. The product they created was the Lego Mindstorms. This incredible robot is built with snap together Legos. But do not make the mistake of thinking this robot is some cheap toy. Berkeley and other cutting edge robotics departments use the Lego Mindstorms in their courses. This incredible robot can even be interfaced with a typical home PC and programmed!

Lego Mindstorms NXT is a programmable robotics kit that consists of over 500 Technic pieces, 3 servo motors, 4 sensors (ultrasonic, sound, touch, and light), 7 wires, a USB cable to connect your robot to your computer, and the NXT brick.

Lego even has different snap together computer chips you can buy for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot such as cameras, gears, motors, lights, and more.

Lego also holds the patents on what is called the stud-and-tube coupling system which makes models built with Legos much more stable. The only criticism I have heard of Lego is how once they dominate a particular niche in the toy market, they raise the prices up sky high and let the good Lego name pull them through. This has created somewhat of a love hate dichotomy between consumers of Legos in non-Denmark countries.

Regardless of LEGO’s policies, LEGO has a great line of toys, and the company has done a lot to entertain millions of kids around the world.

My favorite video is where the Lego Mindstorms was built to autonomously solve a rubics cube.

Another favorite video of mine that really shows the versatile projects that people are building with the Lego robot kits is this one where a toilet is flushed.

I would like to know what you have done with your Lego robot kits so I can share it with my class.  You can send me your comments below.

Apr 26, 2009 @ 12:05

I will return to the topic of CyberWar sometime in the near future.

–

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-warfare
http://www.sdrnews.com/index.php/the-news/685-cyberwar-skeptic

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/06/cyberwar.html
Cyberwar — Warfare in cyberspace. This includes warfare attacks against a nation’s military — forcing critical communications channels to fail, for example — and attacks against the civilian population.

Cyberterrorism — The use of cyberspace to commit terrorist acts. An example might be hacking into a computer system to cause a nuclear power plant to melt down, a dam to open, or two airplanes to collide. In a previous Crypto-Gram essay, I discussed how realistic the cyberterrorism threat is.

Cybercrime — Crime in cyberspace. This includes much of what we’ve already experienced: theft of intellectual property, extortion based on the threat of DDOS attacks, fraud based on identity theft, and so on.

Cybervandalism — The script kiddies who deface websites for fun are technically criminals, but I think of them more as vandals or hooligans. They’re like the kids who spray paint buses: in it more for the thrill than anything else.

http://www.undiplomatic.net/2008/07/16/cyber-war-or-cylon-war/
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008381.html
http://blog.dustinlfritz.com/2009/03/test.html
http://www.punchkids.net/2007/06/06/essay-on-cyberwar/
http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/cyberwarfare.html
http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/11/writing_the_scariest_article_about_cyberwarfare_in_10_easy_steps
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513121,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/cybersecurity
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506830,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/cybersecurity
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/02/fearing_cyber_k.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4277463.html
http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2008/11/response-to-marcus-ranum-hitb-cyberwar.html
http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2008/11/response-to-marcus-ranum-hitb-cyberwar.html
http://nchovy.kr/uploads/3/305/KEYNOTE%202%20-%20Marcus%20Ranum%20-%20Cyberwar%20is%20Bullshit.pdf
http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2007/09/china-cyberwar-or-not.html

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2008/05/3375884
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1711
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/04/29/flournoy-details-qdr-threats-principles/
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2266&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20090429.html
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-773
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/Cyberbillsummaryonepagerplusthreepagesummarypressrelease1Apr090.pdf
http://cdt.org/security/CYBERSEC4.pdf
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s773/show

http://selil.com/?p=477
http://selil.com/?p=297
http://selil.com/?p=278
http://selil.com/?p=239
“Cyberspace is the terrain of technology mediated communication.”
http://selil.com/?p=177
http://selil.com/?p=172
http://selil.com/?p=659
http://selil.com/?p=595
http://selil.com/?p=555

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/28/205203

http://www.winnschwartau.com/downloads.html
http://www.winnschwartau.com/resources/ebr+BILL.pdf
http://www.winnschwartau.com/resources/CyberChrist+Meets+Lady+Luck+DC2.pdf
http://www.winnschwartau.com/resources/CHAP_031_Lying+to+Hackers+Deception.pdf
http://www.winnschwartau.com/resources/InfoSecArticle.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28cyber.html?_r=1
http://www.pcworld.com/article/163533/fighter_jet_hack_far_from_first_government_breach.html
http://threatswatch.org/commentary/2009/03/legacy-futures-in-cyberspace/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/cyber-criminals

http://www.hackersarepeopletoo.com/

http://www.cyberconflict.org/Research-agenda
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/cyberpanic-it-sells/

http://zenpundit.com/?p=3074
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/06/cyberwar.html

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-04/hackers-china-syndrome

cyberwar at complexity leveragepoints sysperps

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/22/1903394.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/16/internet-hacking-cyber-war-nato

http://nchovy.kr/uploads/3/305/KEYNOTE%202%20-%20Marcus%20Ranum%20-%20Cyberwar%20is%20Bullshit.pdf
http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2008kl/?page_id=65
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4654588/HITBSecConf2008_-_Malaysia_Videos___Day_1
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4654974/HITBSecConf2008_-_Malaysia_Videos___Day_2

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/cyberpanic-it-sells/
http://m.economist.com/h/leaders_13527677.php
http://www.honeyd.org/
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2269&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2270&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2271&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

http://threatswatch.org/rapidrecon/2009/04/cyberspace-and-targeting/
http://ubiwar.com/2009/04/29/the-future-of-us-cyberattack/
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/500
http://intelfusion.net/wordpress/?p=564
http://intelfusion.net/wordpress/?p=537

http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2297&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2297&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090506_4087.php
http://128.100.171.10/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2298&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

http://selil.com/?p=685
http://committeeofpublicsafety.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/maritime-strategy-and-cyberwar/
http://selil.com/?p=691
http://selil.com/?p=697

http://selil.com/?p=709
http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2009/05/19/the-future-of-warfare-and-of-humanity.html

http://selil.com/?p=705

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/08/2219258

http://blog.loglogic.com/2009/05/get_ready_new_cybersecurity_standard_for_american_businesses.php

http://www.infowars.com/nrc-study-calls-for-covert-cyberattack-against-non-state-enemies/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1098961-1,00.html
http://www.cringely.com/2009/06/collateral-damage/
http://twitter.com/cyberwar/status/2116982128
http://twitter.com/cyberwar/status/2117575381

Dec 16, 2008 @ 8:35

This was just going to an energy links roundup.

–

Wireless Power Transmission test have been successful. Yeah for Tesla!

Suck it Al Gore: “Greenhouse Gas Comes from Solar Panels“

“Bjorn Lomborg Says Cool It!: Getting our priorities right on climate change and the world’s top problems“

West Allis (Milwaukee news): “Mini wind turbine proposal blows into council chambers”

“Another potential big deal is the thorium breeder reactor.”

From Sep 26, 2008 @ 14:29

–

What was I thinking?

asisted Living Robotics
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/2008/09/a_billion_elders_by_2050in_chi.html

bio-discovery driven engineering
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/2008/09/another_county_heard_from_on_a.html

I was going to write a post on this along time ago. Instead, I just follow this blog – robots.net . So, I am dumping these links. I may write on robotics now and then.

http://entitycrisis.blogspot.com/2009/01/giant-python-powered-robots.html

http://www.toywhimsy.com/2009/01/toy-tips-with-marianne-szymanski-robot-toys.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/29/142258

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/pentagons-cybor.html

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/the-rules-of-ro.html

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22045/

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/peter-singers-w.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/05/1727218

http://warisboring.com/?p=1662

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/gigapixel-flyin.html

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/meet-irobots-ad.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4303374.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4638195/Military-robots-must-be-taught-a-warrior-code.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126956.700-how-yoyoing-in-the-dark-teaches-robots-to-walk.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,496309,00.html

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/blue-dart.html

http://zenpundit.com/?p=3033

http://zenpundit.com/?p=3036

http://ubiwar.com/2009/02/13/weekend-robot-porn/

http://warisboring.com/?p=1643
http://warisboring.com/?p=1674

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/04/2155204

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/04/1844254

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/video-britains.html

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/bigdog-at-ft-be.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,505159,00.html

http://ifightrobots.com/

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/mini-bots-missi.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/02/180259

http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2009/03/robotic-control-without-computation.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/09/147255

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/613860da-09dd-11de-add8-0000779fd2ac.html

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/grey_goo_anyone.php

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/03/robots-making-cars.html

http://arherring.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/non-kinetic-uses-for-robotics-in-counterinsurgency/

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/31/robot-gardeners.html

http://www.jsonline.com/features/technology/42277832.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/03/0049237
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/newtonai.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/09/175205

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090409/NEWS04/904080368/1010/news04

http://www.boozallen.com/publications/article/41598490

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/army-tests-new.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/22/2235215

http://www.terraplexic.org/review/2009/4/2/robots-as-strategic-corporals.html

http://www.lnwprogram.org/publicfiles/download/Future+of+Unmanned+and+Robotic+Warfare?file_id=505283

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/04/we-have-developed-magnetically.html

http://ubiwar.com/2009/04/03/new-article-on-robots-and-warfare/

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/may/30-the-pentagons-beetle-borgs

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/20/2228210

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/video-irobot-rolls-out-one-pound-machine-ready-to-swarm/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30810070/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521013,00.html
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/21/1953243
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/robo-soldiers-more-ethical-than-gis-negative/
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/army-terminators-walk-like-a-man/

http://committeeofpublicsafety.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/maritime-strategy-and-cyberwar/

Finally, the new iPod nano has FM radio built in. And not only that, it has a built in camera to capture videos! Way cool.

Now I cannot wait when it becomes universal features for other Ipod lines.

Apple seems to be confused with its strategy regarding India. As I type this blog on a MacBook, I must say this, Apple Inc in India disappoints me everytime. They sell the iPhone officially in India, but no battery is available for purchase after the current battery in the iPhone drains out.

The so very kind salesman, at the Apple iStore , Chennai told me to go try at Spencer Plaza to purchase a new battery, never mind the fact that, purchase of the battery for the iPhone at his suggestion would probably void the Apple Warranty.

The story continues with the iPhone 3Gs, the launch of the 3Gs too has been delayed for India, it seems indefinitely. Apple new OS for the Mac grabbed my interest when it was advertised at www.apple.com/in/. But as usual Apple could not live up to its launch date. A check with the Apple iStore got me the information that it could be until September 15th to get a copy of Snow Leopard. Not only that, the staff at the iStore seem un-informed of the prices, which a two minute check of www.apple.com/in would reveal. Snow Leopard was due to launch in India on August 28th.

Apple should better pull up it’s socks regarding the Indian Market. It’s extremely irritating to speak to ill informed staff and having to put up with frequent delays of product launches. This is one the major markets for PC’s and Laptops as only a small fraction of India’s Population use computers. The ratio of PC density is only about 4 per thousand, leaving a huge scope for improvement and purchase of PC’s and Laptops.

The question is, will Apple care enough to change it’s attitude to this nascent market, with a huge potential for growth, and time its launch of products in the International Markets with India, or is content to treat us like we deserve nothing more than delayed launches, irrespective of what the official version on www.apple.com/in/ says, which we take as the official version.

Some food for thought for Apple and Steve Jobs. Take a bite out of the Indian Apple,  Mr Jobs before its gets too small for you.