lemon lime world

Billionaire Bros. Spend to Stop Progressive Reform

2009-12-19T09:48:00.001-08:00

Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch are the wealthiest, and perhaps most effective, opponents of President Obama's progressive agenda. They have been looming in the background of every major domestic policy dispute this year. Ranked as the 9th richest men in America, the Koch brothers sit at the helm of Koch Industries, a massive privately owned conglomerate of manufacturing, oil, gas, and timber interests

Over the years, millions of dollars in Koch money has flowed to various right-wing think tanks, front groups, and publications. At the dawn of the Obama presidency, Koch groups quickly maneuvered to try to stop his first piece of signature legislation: the stimulus. The Koch-funded group "No Stimulus" launched television and radio ads deriding the recovery package as simply "pork" spending

Much of the fierce opposition to health reform can be credited to Koch organizations. As the health care debate began, AFP created a front group, known as "Patients Unite

Do Gen-Xers Expect to Retire?

2009-08-23T09:44:00.001-07:00

clipped from moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com

Who needs retirement anyway?

For many people, especially Gen-Xers, the notion of working after “retirement” may almost seem a given, especially for those who are struggling to save enough in the current recession.

2009 study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that 72 percent of workers planned to work after “retirement” — up from 66 percent in 2007. But in fact, only 34 percent of retirees said they’d actually gone to work at some point during retirement

a similar gap — if not quite as dramatic — between the age at which people expect they’ll retire and the age when they actually do

the vast majority (89 percent) say that they have postponed retirement with the intention of increasing their financial security. Nevertheless, the median (mid-point) worker expects to retire at age 65, with 21 percent planning to push on into their 70s. The median retiree actually retired at age 62, and 47 percent of retirees say they retired sooner than planned.

This one does! As soon as possible. What about you? Early? Late? Never ever? Is work all that keeps you from being bored?

As Gov., Palin Endorsed End of Counseling

2009-08-14T01:58:00.001-07:00

clipped from thinkprogress.org

April 16th 2008, then Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed some of the same end of life counseling she now decries as a form of euthanasia. In a proclamation announcing “Healthcare Decisions Day,” Palin urged public facilities to provide better information about advance directives, and made it clear that it is critical for seniors to be informed of such options:

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. [...]

this proclamation is now deleted from the Alaska governor’s website

Merely months ago, Gingrich too endorsed end of life counseling. At a conference in April of this year, Gingrich said advance directives can “save money” while also helping to “decrease the stress felt by caregivers.”

Leaked Memo Lobbyists Directing Town Hall Mob Violence

2009-08-14T01:30:00.001-07:00

clipped from thinkprogress.org

Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls.

The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress:

Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half

Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early

Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate

opportunities to ambush lawmakers and fool them into believing there is wide opposition to reform

By delaying a vote until after the August recess

The world is poor because we thought markets rational

2009-08-10T03:53:00.001-07:00

I also really want to read these 80s & 90s books by "radical economist" Samuel Bowles: Beyond the Wasteland and After the Wasteland.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Do we really need yet another book about the financial crisis? Yes, we do — because this one is different. Instead of focusing on the errors and abuses of the bankers, Fox, the business and economics columnist for Time magazine, tells the story of the professors who enabled those abuses under the banner of the financial theory known as the efficient-market hypothesis.

Justin Fox’s “Myth of the Rational Market” brilliantly tells the story of how that edifice was built — and why so few were willing to acknowledge that it was a house built on sand.

Fox’s book is not an idle exercise in intellectual history, which makes it a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess we’re in. Wall Street bought the ideas of the efficient-market theorists, in many cases literally: professors were lavishly paid to design complex financial strategies. And these strategies played a crucial role in the catastrophe that has now overtaken the world economy

star-trek-vs-star-wars

2009-08-05T11:15:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.wired.com

Star Wars is grounded in mythology: the struggle between good and evil drawn in such broad strokes that few characters have any shades of gray

Star Trek begins with a premise so ridiculous it could only have originated in the Sixties: a united Earth, only about 250 years from now. At least Star Wars started off by telling you it was happening “in a galaxy far, far away” so any assumptions based on what we know about Earth and humanity didn’t necessarily apply. But Trek is science fiction, not fantasy, and so different rules need to apply, and they break them all the time. First they go and invent things like warp drive and transporters, which are implausible but not outside the realm of normal suspension of disbelief. Then, having created rules around how these marvelous devices work, they regularly break those rules.

consider the serious failures that are a part of both

the Ewoks

Star Trek V

Generations

Insurrection

Nemesis

give the nod to Star Trek

Right Resurges As Obama Loses Support

2009-08-04T07:39:00.001-07:00

Those of us concerned with issues of social and economic justice may do well to consider the power of effective organizing to enable elected officials to do the right thing.

It's all about the lobbying - corporate elite or grassroots - it's all up in the air.

clipped from www.commondreams.org

As Obama's Support Erodes, the Right is Resurgent

Will Progressives Respond To The Attempt to Overthrow The President?

The tide of public opinion may be turning against the President. Pollsters report growing skepticism about health care reform, and more active hostility on racial matters, thanks to that "uncalibrated" expression of opinion on the arrest of Professor Gates in his own home. That remark turned him, in the eyes of some, from a small b black President into a militant Black Panther, or at least someone who can bashed as such.

There is no smear that is beneath them, no inference or insult out of bounds

Are you aware that outside of the government, a not for profit called NACA (The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America) is touring the country mobilizing homeowners to demand financial relief.

Can progressives fight

Will they ever realize that they have to get into the economic trenches and fight the power of the banks with groups like A New Way Forward?

Google CEO Leaves Apple Board - Genetech CEO Stays

2009-08-03T06:43:00.001-07:00

Isn't Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson's presence is also being questioned by the FTC? If so, why is he staying?

clipped from arstechnica.com

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has decided to walk away from Apple's Board of Directors after several months of controversy over whether his presence is anticompetitive. Apple says that he will be missed, though the other member who is on both boards appears to still be there.

Although the FTC probe launched in May may not have forced Schmidt to leave, it seems as if both companies decided it was in his (and the investors') best interest if they parted ways.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself

FTC launched a probe into the two companies to see whether competition between them had been reduced thanks to Schmidt's (and Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson's) presence on Apple's board

forced Schmidt to discuss the issue with the board

US Archivist Job Lightening Rod for Controversey

2009-08-03T05:44:00.001-07:00

clipped from voices.washingtonpost.com

The archivist job has become something of a lightning rod for controversy, particularly as various agencies and administrations press for keeping their records secret for decades despite strong pressures from historians and the public to declassify as much information as soon as possible.

The news comes two days before a scheduled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the National Archives and the lack of a permanent archivist. The panel intends to question acting Archive officials about the disappearance of computer disks with information from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers of several White House staffers and one of Al Gore's daughters.

Disappearing government computer disks? Seems like the start of a new Bourne film.

East Hampton Zoning Board Hates Poor Kids

2009-08-03T05:36:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.schoollibraryjournal.com

Library Director Dennis Fabiszak has said that the East Hampton Village Board of Zoning Appeals has expressed concern that an expanded children’s collection would lead to more library usage by those who live in the less affluent areas of Springs and Wainscott.

the village zoning board is still requiring that the library submit to an environmental review

despite a statement from the consul for the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation (NYSDEC) stating that the library is an “educational institution” and according to regulations is exempt from such a review.

The planning process has cost the library $200,000 and the dispute with the zoning board has added an additional $60,000 expense.

Despite the disagreement with the village government, its celebrity-laced community supports the library. On August 8, Alec Baldwin, Candace Bushnell, and Jay McInerney will host will be joined by more than 100 other authors to support the library expansion at an Authors’ Night.

Also interesting in this case is that the East Hampton Village Library is chartered by the state to serve all three communities: East Hampton, Springs, and Wainscott.

Song stealer? File sharer loses case

2009-08-03T05:11:00.001-07:00

clipped from consumerist.com

A Boston jury yesterday ruled that file sharer Joel Tenenbaum would have to pay the Recording Industry of America $675,000 for sharing 30 copyrighted songs. The hefty award was all the more surprising because Tenenbaum was represented by a crack team of legal eagles from Harvard's law school. The trial didn't unfold nearly the way they planned...

Tenenbaum had used a variety of different peer-to-peer programs, from Napster to KaZaA to AudioGalaxy to iMesh, to obtain music for free, starting in 1999. And he continued to infringe, even after his father warned him in 2002 that he would get sued, even after he received a harshly-worded letter from the plaintiffs' law firm in 2005, even after he was sued in 2007, and all the way through part of 2008.

And when he took the stand on Thursday, Tenenbaum admitted it all, including the fact that he had "lied" in his written discovery responses and at his first deposition in September 2008.

None of the money will go to the artists

$22,500 per song

What's up with the lying? His lawyers must be furious.

Sustainable Design for the Other 90%

2009-08-02T13:31:00.001-07:00

clipped from theschooloflife.typepad.com

whenever we read, or talk, about design, it’s invariably about something that’s intended to be sold to one of the privileged minority – the richest 10%.

More and more designers, mostly young ones, are addressing that need by designing everything from emergency housing, water purification devices, cheap forms of transport, educational resources, to new business initiatives for “the other 90%”. They are also tackling the problems of mature economies like our’s by working in collaboration with other disciplines such as anthropology, economics, ethnography, psychology and the social sciences to develop new solutions to acute social problems in areas like crime, education, healthcare, housing, joblessness and ageing.

they must focus on the needs of the under-privileged 90%. If they succeed, we will have a new definition of “good design” – one that has less to do with chairs, and more with the aspects of design that really matter.

This reminds me of Shelter By Shelter Publications, Lloyd Kahn, Bob Easton

NYPL Director to Become National Archivist

2009-08-02T10:01:00.001-07:00

Does anyone know what the next step is once someone is nominated?

clipped from www.white

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

David S. Ferriero, Nominee for Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration

Mr. Ferriero serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries, one of the largest public library systems in the United States and one of the largest research library systems in the world. Mr. Ferriero is responsible for collection strategy; conservation; digital experience; reference and research services; and education, programming, and exhibitions. The NYPL has 2600 full-time employees and a budget of $273 million. Prior to taking the Director position in June 2007, Mr. Ferriero served as the Chief Executive of NYPL’s Research Libraries for three years and as the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library affairs at Duke University.

He began his career as a Junior Library Assistant at the MIT Libraries, where he spent 31 years, leaving in 1996 as the Acting Co-Director of the MIT Libraries.

TechCrunch quits iPhone for GoogleVoice

2009-08-02T09:15:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.techcrunch.com

I’m abandoning the iPhone and AT&T. I will grudgingly pay the $175 AT&T termination fee

What finally put me over the edge? It wasn’t the routinely dropped calls, something you can only truly understand once you have owned an iPhone (and which drove my friend Om Malik to bail). I’ve lived with that for two years. It’s not the lack of AT&T coverage at home. I’ve lived with that for two years, too. It certainly isn’t the lack of a physical keyboard, that has never bothered me. No, what finally put me over the edge is the Google Voice debacle.

Google Voice is a call management service that lets you determine what calls get through to you based on who’s calling and what time of day it is, among other factors. It has amazing features, like automatically transcribing all your voicemails. And you can forward calls to any other phone

Google is planning on rolling out number portability, so I can move my mobile phone number to Google

Users say goodbye as Apple and AT&T are blocking Google Voice App

I'm glad he mentioned phone number portability - if you read the full article there is a point mentioning that this Google Voice feature essentially turns the iPhone and AT&T into a "dumb pipe" for the Google Voice application. - that's what they want to block.

iPhone no longer 'America's Sweetheart' People are Pissed!

2009-08-02T08:26:00.001-07:00

clipped from moconews.net

Apple’s iPhone has been able to do no wrong. For two years, it monopolized the industry and has been upheld as the best smartphone out there. Consumers, developers and technology bloggers were enamored.

But in an almost indescribably turn of events this week, the tides shifted and the platform’s problems—that have always been there—started eating away at its super smooth touchscreen exterior. It seems that in more numbers than ever, consumers are speaking out against AT&T’s network problems and developers are complaining about Apple’s and AT&T’s inconsistent policies on which applications get approval. That in turn, created more unhappy customers.

If indeed the iPhone begins to fade over the next few months, we can trace it back to this week and one event alone. Who knew there would be one catalyst, and the tipping point was going to be the rejection of Google’s Voice application?

people got mad. Really, really mad. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington wrote today that he’s quitting the iPhone

And then Steve Jobs awoke, it had all been a horrible dream...

Unemployment Benefits run out for many

2009-08-02T07:16:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Tens of thousands of workers have already used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come, reaching half a million by the end of September and 1.5 million by the end of the year, according to new projections by the National Employment Law Project, a private research group.

payments averaging just over $300 per week, varying by state and work history

Calls are rising for Congress to pass yet another extension this fall

June, the national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, reaching 15.2 percent in Michigan

employers pay into a state insurance fund, and workers who lose jobs draw benefits for up to 26 weeks. During recessions, Congress has often paid for extended coverage

President Obama’s stimulus plan offered an additional 20 weeks in states where unemployment surpassed 8 percent, if they adopted new federally recommended rules

South Carolina did not make the changes, and benefits there are running out

What happened to the 'New Deal' type stimulus jobs to rebuild our nation's infrastructure? The WPA (Works Progress Administration) of the 1930s even paid for writers to catalog the way our nation ate - recording traditional recipes etc. to 'make work.'

FCC Puts Apple, AT&T on the Hot Seat

2009-08-01T07:55:00.001-07:00

Let the fireworks begin!

clipped from consumerist.com

FCC Asks Apple, AT&T To Explain Why They Rejected Google Voice App

Here are the questions from their letter to AT&T:

1. What role, if any, did AT&T play in Apple's consideration of the Google Voice and related applications? What role, if any, does AT&T play in consideration of iPhone applications generally? What roles are specified in the contractual provisions between Apple and AT&T (or in any non-contractual understanding between the companies) regarding the consideration of particular iPhone applications?

2. Did Apple consult with AT&T in the process of deciding to reject the Google Voice application? If so, please describe any communications between AT&T and Apple or Google on this topic, including the parties involved and a summary of any meetings or discussions.

These are the questions from their letter to Apple:

1. Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application

"AT&T & Apple Being Investigated By FCC On Google Voice App; FCC Letters" [mocoNews]

Fashion Mags 'Mean Girls' of the Pub World

2009-07-30T09:54:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.alternet.org

Elle's ad pages for September are down 21 per cent, Harper's Bazaar 25 per cent, Vanity Fair 27 per cent, W, 53 per cent, and Vogue, 36 per cent.

Lady mags are dinosaurs.

And since fashion mags aren't the queens of the hallways anymore, it's no surprise that many of those former queens are trying to give themselves a quick makeover, to show they're not with the drowning clique.

"personally, read Vogue for over three decades as though it were scripture," as one Salon writer quipped, she has since decided to call off the affair.

I'm pretty. You're ugly. Buy this.

A former model wrote a poignant essay this week about why she just quit the industry. Jenna Sauers writes, "I often reflected on the fact that studies show that women, after looking at fashion magazines -- full of pictures of girls very much like me, sometimes even pictures of me -- feel bad about themselves. I also often wondered why it is, given this fact, that we buy the magazines again next month."

women are now turning to blogs

Good fashion blogs
economyofstyle.blogspot.com

wwwthebudgetfashionista.com

Study Finds Organic Not A Nutritional Plus

2009-07-29T19:17:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.reuters.com

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007.

A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.

"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors.

"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

The results of research, which was commissioned by the British government's Food Standards Agency, were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The pesticides in conventionally grown food destroy water quality due to run off and are harmful for agricultural workers. That's also why some of us buy organic.

Libraries Shut Out of Stimulus $$

2009-07-29T13:57:00.001-07:00

clipped from arstechnica.com

City libraries shut out of broadband stimulus money?

Looks like urban libraries are getting a bum deal when it comes to applying for broadband stimulus grants. The American Library Association wants this fixed.

A rare moment when a San Francisco Public Library free Internet access terminal is not in use.

Matthew Lasar

The first round of stimulus grants "in effect de-prioritizes libraries and discourages them from applying for funding," complains the American Library Association in a letter sent to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. "The ability of our libraries to meet community needs is in jeopardy—especially when library use has heavily increased across the country in these difficult economic times."

many jobs require a Web-based application

That has put more pressure on job hunters to find computers, and more pressure on the library to help them.

the library provides one hour computer/Internet connections. Rarely is a station unoccupied.

If anything, libraries should be first in line.

Paper Heart, Love, and Michael Cerna make the world go round

2009-07-29T13:44:00.001-07:00

clipped from jezebel.com

Paper Heart is a mocku- docu-dramedy about real-life funny person Charlyne Yi (Seth Rogen's stoner buddy's giggly girlfriend in Knocked Up) claiming she doesn't believe in love. So she sets out with a director pal to learn what love is. Enter Michael Cera. Enter heartwarming quirkiness with an excellent soundtrack. Enter Paper Heart, which opens in select theaters August 7.

Added bonus! After watching this film, you may finally develop a response to the plaintive, immortal words of Huey Lewis (and most if not all of the News): Do you believe in love? Do you believe it's true? Wee-ooh-ooh-ooh-wee-ooh?

Everything sweetness and light...

Maiden name no more

2009-07-29T11:16:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.theglobeandmail.com

I took my wife's last name

You'd think it's a small sacrifice to make at the altar, but few people - especially relatives - understand

Josiah Neufeld

The official at the drivers' licence office squinted at me suspiciously, examined for a second time my birth certificate and marriage licence, and repeated, "You want to change your last name to your wife's?"

"Usually it's the other way around."

He consulted the form on his screen and said slowly, as much to himself as to anyone, "Yes ... you can do that."

Of all the independences one sacrifices at the altar, a name might seem like a small one. Women have been leaving theirs there for centuries.

I did it because any form of power comes with duties. I'm obliged to take responsibility for my power, to learn its effects - even unintentional ones - to see what it does to others when I'm not watching, to use it in the best way possible. Sometimes to relinquish it.

Any other lads out there who left their name at the alter?

As Dobbs digs in, CNN rebuts, ridicules, distances itself from birth certificate claims

2009-07-29T11:04:00.001-07:00

clipped from mediamatters.org

CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein told staffers of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on Thursday that the controversy regarding the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate -- a topic Dobbs has avidly pursued on the air -- is a "dead" story.

But in an interview, the cable news chief left open the possibility that Dobbs may continue to raise questions about why the president has not produced a long-form birth certificate. The
absence of such a record has spawned rumors that Obama was not born in the
United States, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

"He's got more than 30 years as a television journalist, and I trust him, as I trust all our reporters and anchors, to exercise their judgment as various stories evolve," Klein said of Dobbs, whose daily CNN program is a mix of news and opinion.

Hawaiian officials discarded paper documents in 2001

Obama's long-form birth certificate no longer exists and a shorter certificate of live birth that has been made public is the official record,

The Southern Poverty Law Center has taken this up with CNN, calling for the ouster of Mr. Dobbs from the airwaves.

Twitter defamation lawsuit

2009-07-29T09:28:00.001-07:00

clipped from consumerist.com

Tenant Sued After Using Twitter To Complain About Moldy Apartment

If the the puiblic didn't read Amanda Bonnen's Twitter feed before, they will now, thanks to a defamation lawsuit brought against her by Horizon Group Management in Chicago.

Bonnen, a tenant, posted an update that said, "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay."

Now she's being sued. The management company says it has been greatly injured in its reputation as a landlord in Chicago because of the Tweet, and seeks an excess of $50,000 in damages.

You can read the complaint here.

Update: Horizon responds.

Uptown Resident Sued For Twitter Post [CBS 2 Chicago]
(Photo:TarikB)

Amanda Bonnen has closed her Twitter account and the post is gone, which probably is all Horizon wanted, but now that the suit is public, the post will continue to live

Or she already settled with them

apparently has only 15 followers

doubt her tweet was capable of degrading "its reputation as a landlord in Chicago

Public/private communication - post is search-able, but she only had 15 followers.

Sotomayor Approved With Just One Republican Yea

2009-07-29T09:08:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.theawl.com

Sonia Sotomayor (the activist Latina judge who adjudicates through the lens of her personal experience, unlike Clarence Thomas or the Italian judges, what's his name and what's his name, they're all black to me, since I live in the year 1910) has made it through the sort of grueling, sort of totally ridiculous Judicial Committee hearings with approval for a Senate vote on her elevation to Lord Queen Justice of NAFTA. That will be another boring spectacle. "Among the seven Republicans on the committee, only Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina voted in favor," says the Times. It is sad that the Republican understanding of Sotomayor's deep-seated unfitness to serve, because she believes that judges interpret and therefore create law in the course of their work, law which actually circumscribes human and governmental behavior (instead of Baby God or the Giant Space Jesus Monkey doing so), will not be further heard because of things like democracy and voting and our attention span.

by Choire - Mr. Very, Very Funny

Welcome to my future

2009-07-29T08:04:00.001-07:00

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

Library fan nears 25,000th book

An avid reader in south west Scotland is on the brink of borrowing her 25,000th book from her local libraries.

Louise Brown, 91, from Stranraer, took her first book on loan from Castle Douglas library in 1946.

Since then she has borrowed at least six books every week throughout each year and has recently increased that to about 12 volumes every seven days.

Library staff said they were amazed by the achievement, particularly since Mrs Brown has never had an overdue fine.

Forget the spinster fear of dying alone with your cats eating off your face - what about being crushed under your library books as you attempt to return them?

Amy Poehler's Spring Breakdown - is straight to DVD such a crime?

2009-07-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

Bust Magazine's Aug/Sept Fall Preview bemoans the fact that this never saw the theatrical light of day. Is the jury is still out?
Netflix or public library check-out?

DYI iPhone Scanner

2009-07-29T07:12:00.001-07:00

clipped from lifehacker.com

Create an iPhone Document Scanner from Cardboard

You might need a scanner every so often, but they're far too big for their occasional usefulness. If you've got an iPhone and some time to cut cardboard, you can ditch some paper and capture documents without the glass bed.

University of Cincinnati student Kyle A Koch frequently synced his iPhone and backed up his iPhoto library, but wasn't so hot with the paper and study material organization. Since he knew he was reliable with iPhone images, he put his industrial design studies into practice and crafted cardboard-based docks that elevate the phone just enough to properly frame and capture 8.5x11 documents.

You can order a customized, pre-assembled version of Koch's scanner apparatus in cardboard or medium density fibreboard, but Koch also includes a free EPS file for downloading and DIY building.

Combined with a universal capture/OCR tool like Evernote and the powerful camera on an iPhone 3G S, it's definitely a work-able scanner solution

Very crafty.

Jailbreak iPhone for Goggle Voice

2009-07-29T07:00:00.001-07:00

clipped from lifehacker.com

GV Mobile Available for Free on Cydia

iPhone/iPod touch: Yesterday tech site TechCrunch reported that Apple blocked an official Google Voice app from the App Store; meanwhile, they also kicked unofficial versions (like previously mentioned GV Mobile) out the door. But you can still get GV Mobile for free.

The catch: You've got to be willing to jailbreak your iPhone. Why? Because Apple is demonstrating that they're perfectly happy locking out any application or tool that will improve your iPhone experience in ways that don't gel with their corporate synergy. (Yeah, we said corporate synergy—nice work, Apple.)

The developer of the recently kicked-out-of-the-App-Store GV Mobile has decided to go ahead and release GV Mobile for free rather than let his work go to waste (it should show up in Cydia sometime today or tomorrow).

Guess that's one more reason for us to keep on jailbreaking our iPhones.

Free My Phone.Net for activist info. regrading all things net neutrality, etc.

Playing Devil's Advocate with iPhone and Google Voice

2009-07-29T06:30:00.001-07:00

clipped from daringfireball.net

By John Gruber

But does anyone really think AT&T pulls the strings in this relationship? Google Voice doesn’t just interfere with the carrier’s business model, it interferes with Apple’s iPhone business model. Not just AT&T but all iPhone carrier partners pay Apple a hefty subsidy for every iPhone sold, and that subsidy is based on assumptions about how much the average iPhone customer is going to pay in monthly service charges for voice, data, and SMS.

And, to play devil’s advocate for a moment, I’m not sure the decision is entirely unreasonable.

think about it in terms of Apple’s competition with Google. Google Voice is a mobile phone service provided by the maker of one of the biggest competitors to the iPhone OS

What if Google Voice were instead Microsoft Voice?

Would you be as surprised then that Apple is discouraging iPhone owners from using the service? Just saying.

Interesting point of view.

Notable Tweets on Microsoft Yahoo

2009-07-29T06:23:00.001-07:00

Search engine showdown.

clipped from www.searchenginejournal.com

A few hours after the first news coverage on the upcoming announcement about the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal, it started to generate substantial buzz on Twitter. If you search “Microsoft Yahoo” on Twitter Search, you’ll get tremendous number of Tweets, with updates coming in every second.

Some of the notable Tweets related to the Yahoo-Microsoft Deal:

Twitter to be the new Google?

2009-07-29T06:19:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.searchenginejournal.com

it stares at you upfront - the Twitter Search Box.

As Loren commented to me via IM - “looks like a search engine to me…“

The redesign was made more for first time visitors to the Twitter home page and who are not yet using Twitter. Putting the Twitter search box right up front would give these visitors a first taste of how great Twitter is as a discovery engine and not just a social media tool for communicating with Twitter members.

It’s a good strategy for Twitter which defines what it could do aside from being a micro-blogging service. And this could also be the start of biggger, bolder things to come for Twitter.

"it stares at you upfront - the Twitter Search Box."

The staring twitter search box. Such fear and dread lurks behind this simple description.

Google Voice vs iPhone

2009-07-29T05:53:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.techcrunch.com

Apple Is Growing Rotten To The Core: Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store

Earlier today we learned that Apple had begun to pull all Google Voice-enabled applications from the App Store, citing the fact that they “duplicate features that come with the iPhone”. Now comes even worse news: we’ve learned that Apple has blocked Google’s official Google Voice application itself from the App Store.

who’s behind the restriction: our old friend AT&T. Google Voice scares the carriers. It allows users to send free SMS messages and get cheap long-distance over Google Voice’s lines. It also makes it trivial to switch to a new phone service, because everyone calls the Google Voice number anyway.

John Gruber has confirmed with a trusted source that AT&T is to blame for the Google Voice ban.

Apple can point to the App Store’s 50,000 applications all it wants, but how many of them could truly be called groundbreaking? Are they really putting a dent in the universe?

Go to FreeMyPhone.net to do something about it.

Yahoo or Microsoft set to do the morning after walk of shame

2009-07-28T18:03:00.001-07:00

clipped from gawker.com

Yahoo, Microsoft To Go Steady Tomorrow: Report

After a failed romance last year, tears; then fighting and the nastiness; followed by a slow, painful reconciliation starting earlier this year. Yahoo and Microsoft have finally — finally — united with an advertising deal, All Things D reports.

The pact will be announced within 24 hours, reporter Kara Swisher writes. It's been a long time coming. Given the two companies' stock performance (see chart below), and the level of, uh, charisma their CEOs posses, it's no wonder it took this long to screw up the courage to take on Google together. Should be entertaining to watch.

This sounds like a "nobody's ugly at 2:00 a.m." situation. I'm just wondering who'll be doing a "walk of shame" when it's all over.

Ugliness is written all over this.

Google Book Settlement @ NYPL "Big Brave New World of the Jetsons"

2009-07-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

This afternoon at the Celeste Bartos Forum at the New York Public Library, the main players in the Google Book Settlement gathered for a bit of PR soothing for an ornery audience made up of librarians, publishing industry workers, professors, and the NYPL 's general counsel.

To sum up the dominant metaphors in play - Now that Google has finished scanning every book on the face of the earth, the horses have been let out their barns, but lojacked, and we're all sitting around our kitchen tables on the internet, except those of us without access who are waiting in long lines out the door on 42nd Street for the one terminal that the settlement provides free for each public library building to access the new Google Book Search index.

This settlement covers books out of print & under copyright with a 1/09 cutoff date.
Authors & Rightsholders (publishers) will get a one-time payment of anywhere between $60-$300.
Books found on the Book Search can be bought from $2-$200 - average price $6-$7.
Price can be set by rightsholder.
37% will go to Google - 63% to Books Rights Registry (which will pay author & rightsholder.)
Orphaned works are thought to comprise 10% of these books.

Best exchange - Google: "Money from [sales of] orphaned works will go to charity."
NYPL Director: "This is the most charitable place."
Google: "The money will be held in escrow for five years."
NYPL Director: "We're here for the long haul."

Three Laws of Robotics

2009-07-28T10:20:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

No worries about machines outsmarting women or children... it can't be done.

Microsoft vs Google War of the Worlds

2009-07-28T10:10:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.businessinsider.com

10 Ways Google Is Trying To Kill Microsoft (GOOG, MSFT)

Perhaps the most exciting tech battle to watch: Google's (GOOG) intensifying clash with fellow titan Microsoft (MSFT), as the two square off in almost every major line of business.

It looks like Microsoft is close to finally signing a search and advertising partnership with Yahoo

Microsoft is attacking Google's biggest business, search. Its most recent product launch, Bing, is a good product that's been just a modest success so far

But Chrome OS -- starting with cheap, mobility-focused netbooks -- promises to be fast, simple, and -- important -- free to gadget makers, which are already facing paper-thin margins on netbooks, and pressure to cut costs. If Google can make a great user interface and link easily to cloud services like the Web, Google search, GMail, and Google chat, then the Windows juggernaut could be at risk.

Click here to see 10 ways Google is trying to kill Microsoft →

What is Twitter? Asks 69% of All Adults

2009-07-28T09:58:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.businessinsider.com

69% Of Adults Don't Know What Twitter Is

69% of adults surveyed have little knowledge of what Twitter is, the LATimes reports, citing a LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll.

Only 12% of consumers surveyed said Twitter use would grow in the coming years, and an equal percent felt only young people used Twitter.

'Twitter Answers' Could Make Twitter Gobs Of Money

clipped from www.businessinsider.com

People, step away from your damn screens. This world has truly gotten sad.

69% Don't know or don't care to know?

Firefox 4.0 The future is now...

2009-07-28T09:49:00.001-07:00

clipped from mashable.com

Firefox 4.0: Early Screenshots Released

They’ve posted mockups of the new Firefox 4.0 design (included below) on their wiki. Firefox warns that they are just for brainstorming, but they provide the world’s first real glimpse into the next edition of the Firefox browser.

The Firefox Screenshots: Tabs on Top or Bottom?

Tabs on bottom is the current norm in Firefox, while the tabs-on-top looks almost exactly like the Google ChromeGoogle Chrome browser.

Here is the tabs-on-bottom version

And here’s the tabs-on-top design:

Positives:

Shorter Mouse Distance to Page Controls

Negatives:

- Breaks Consistency/Familiarity – Moving things confuses existing users.

- Longer Mouse Distance to Tabs – Takes longer to mouse to a tab.

With the space removed from the titlebar you only get the truncated version in the tab.

New Firefox 4.0 Feature: Combo Stop/Refresh/Go Button

they’re all integrated into one button

sneak peek of Firefox in 2010

Firefox 3.5 Now Available for Download

Some of the best reading on Wikipedia

2009-07-28T09:29:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.metafilter.com

Best of Wikipedia: A twice-daily updated collection of some of the best reading on Wikipedia. Created and maintained by avinash.vora.

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