michael favia

An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla Labs has started an initiative to promote and develop gaming based on Open Web technologies. They write, 'We are excited to present to you the latest initiative from Mozilla Labs: Gaming. Mozilla Labs Gaming is all about games built, delivered and played on the Open Web and the browser. We want to explore the wider set of technologies which make immersive gaming on the Open Web possible. We invite the wider community to play with cool, new tech and aim to help establish the Open Web as the platform for gaming across all your Internet connected devices.' To that end Mozilla Labs will launch Game On 2010, a game development competition, at the end of September."

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macslocum writes "Map APIs took off in 2005, and during the ensuing years the whole notion of maps has changed. Where once they were slick add-ons, map functionality is now a necessary — and expected — tool. In this piece, Adam DuVander looks at the current state of mapping and he explains how mobile devices, third-party services and ease of use are shaping the map development world."

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New research confirms that alcohol can be beneficial to your health. In fact, abstaining from alcohol increases your risk of dying.

garymortimer writes "EADs have successfully flown an electrified Cri-Cri aircraft. The Cri-cri (short for cricket) is the smallest twin-engined manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban, the Cri-cri aircraft is the world's smallest twin-engine . At only 4.9 m (16.1 ft) wingspan and 3.9 m (12.8 ft) length, it is a single-seater, making an impression of a dwarf velomobile with wings at close range. After its manned flight trials the airframe will be configured for autonomous flight. Obviously once the pilot is removed payload increases dramatically and the airframe itself has been approved for manned flight so certifying it for UAV flight should be simpler."

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A journalist captured in Afghanistan told the world he was still alive over the weekend by tweeting with a prison guard's cellphone. This remarkable tale about a tweet kicks off a new meme here at Gadget Lab that we're calling Tweet of the Day.

Austinist Indieroke + Interpol Listening Party
Thursday, September 9
The Mohawk (912 Red River)
9 p.m. | $3
[info]Don’t let the murky weather get the best of you this week. Instead, embrace the melancholy malaise induced by the relentless rain, and harness all that doom and gloom for an evening of dark, romantic Interpol tunes with us at The Mohawk this Thursday.

You’ll get to enjoy the new Interpol record (out today) when doors open at 9 p.m. and again at certain times during the course of the evening.

And of course, we’re hosting a special Interpol edition of Austinist Indieroke where you’ll be able to sing select tracks from the band’s catalog for a chance to win enticing prizes like:

• A vinyl copy of Interpol’s self-titled fourth album.
  
• Tickets to Interpol’s show at Stubb’s on October 28th.
  
• Tickets to Fun Fun Fun Fest’s Friday night festivities at Waterloo Park (“Weird Al”!).
  
• A guest list spot for you and your comrade to any one upcoming show at The Mohawk or Red 7.
  

Austinist Indieroke: [Facebook] [MySpace]

A federal appeals court is ruling the government may obtain cell-site information mobile phone carriers retain on their customers without a probable-cause warrant under the Fourth Amendment. Cell-site location information, which carriers usually retain for about 18 months, identifies the cell tower to which the customer was connected at the beginning of a call and at the end of the call.

I'm Not There (1956) writes "Sociologist Clifford Nass is talking about how people think of their computers as something like human beings. In one of his experiments, Nass found that people are more willing to 'help' computers when the computer helped them previously: 'When people were then asked to help optimize the screen resolution on a computer where the program had been "helpful," they were much more likely to do so than with the less helpful version.' He also found that people evaluating software's performance were more forgiving if the evaluation was done on the same computer the software was tested on. Nass has recently published the book The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, in which he 'uses our interactions with machines to investigate how human relationships could be improved.'"

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itwbennett writes "Kosuke Tsuneoka, a Japanese freelance journalist held captive in Afghanistan since April 1, was released over the weekend. His freedom came a day after he sent two Twitter messages from a captor's phone. 'i am still allive [sic], but in jail,' read a message sent at 1:15 p.m. GMT on Friday. It was followed a few minutes later with a second message, also in English, that read, 'here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.' The message referred to the Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz where he was being held. On Tuesday, speaking in Tokyo, Tsuneoka revealed how he managed to convince his captors to give him access to the Internet. 'He asked me if I knew how to use it, so I had a look and explained it to him,' said Tsuneoka. 'I called the customer care number and activated the phone,' he said."

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Most flash photos — even those shot with your new, fancy $500 camera — look like junk. But you can create amazing images using a flash if you know a few tricks.

Iftekhar25 writes "The NY Times is running an article about soaring unemployment rates for IT in the US (6 percent) despite a tech sector that is thirsting for engineering talent. Quoting: 'The chief hurdles to more robust technology hiring appear to be increasing automation and the addition of highly skilled labor overseas. The result is a mismatch of skill levels here at home: not enough workers with the cutting-edge skills coveted by tech firms, and too many people with abilities that can be duplicated offshore at lower cost. That's a familiar situation to many out-of-work software engineers, whose skills start depreciating almost as soon as they are laid off, given the dynamism of the industry.'"

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Jools and Lynda Topp are not the kind of people you meet everyday. These twin sisters are cultural icons in their native New Zealand, and with this entertaining biographical documentary, they’re certainly not people you’ll soon forget. Raised on a dairy farm, they realized early on that they loved to sing…and that they were lesbians.

What started out as performing for the cows turned into busking on the streets to protest songs to eventually what admirer Billy Bragg calls an “anarchist variety act.” Part Hee-Haw, part Smothers Brothers, part Indigo Girls, part campfire singalong, part…well, you just never know what you’re going to get. This touching film tells their life story, intermingling personal interviews with the girls, their friends and family, and their outrageous alter egos, with footage from throughout their professional careers.

Jools’ and Lynda’s transition from simple cowgirls to top-selling variety act is an incredible and interesting tale. But the most amazing part of the story is how many ways they are able to touch people and affect change without having to compromise who they are. The Topp twins entertain—they have had their own television show, and their shows continue to sell out all over the world. They teach—as self-proclaimed “radical lesbians” and political activists, their songs openly question traditional ways of thought; they’ve been arrested, protested nuclear war and apartheid, and lobbied hard for LGBQTI rights. But most of all, they stay 100% true to themselves.

These talented ladies have brought together conservative farmers, radical lesbians, and everyone in between, and given them a place to come together. It’s a touching portrait of two incredibly interesting people that is guaranteed to inspire you…while making you laugh at the same time.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls plays at the Alamo South Lamar Tuesday at 7. Get more details here. Download the entire festival schedule at the AGLIFF’s site here.

Get out your telescopes! Two small asteroids will come within moon-distance of Earth Wednesday.

CWmike writes "Hewlett-Packard is reported to be suing former CEO Mark Hurd, who was named co-president of rival Oracle on Monday. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, and has now posted the full text of the suit on Google Docs. Among other things, it says, 'In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP's trade secrets and confidential information to others.'"

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The Eastern European practice of speleotherapy claims salt air helps breathing issues, which leads to patients lining the halls of subterranean caves.

An Obama administration policy allowing U.S. border officials to seize and search laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices for any reason is being challenged as unconstitutional.

eldavojohn writes "For decades, Stanford has been working on a different kind of Wikipedia. It might even be considered closer to a peer-reviewed journal, since you have get submissions past a 120 person group of leading philosophers around the world, not to mention Stanford's administration. It has several layers of approval, but the authoritative model produces high quality content — even if it only amounts to 1,200 articles. Content you can read straight through to find everything pertinent — not hop around following link after link like the regular Wikipedia. You might question the need for this, but one of the originators says, 'Our model is authoritative. [Wikipedia's] model is one an academic isn't going to be attracted to. If you are a young academic, who might spend six months preparing a great article on Thomas Aquinas, you're not going to publish in a place where anyone can come along and change this.' The site has articles covering topics from Quantum Computing to technical luminaries like Kurt Friedrich Gödel and Alan Turing. The principal editor said, 'It's the natural thing to do. I'm surprised no one is doing it for the other disciplines.'"

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Tommy Christopher, who writes for mediate.com, has reporting in his blood, so much so that he livetweeted every part of his recent heart attack. "I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!" and "This is not like the movies. Most deadpan heart attack evar. Still hurts even after the morphine," were among his updates as he was rushed to the hospital. Christopher is now in stable condition after recovering from emergency surgery.

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RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "Destructoid is reporting that the 3.42 firmware has been released for the PlayStation 3, and it has fixed the USB vulnerability that allows the PSJailbreak exploit to work." Sony's brief announcement of the update refers only to "additional security features," though the EU blog post acknowledges that a vulnerability was addressed. PS3-Hacks.com confirms that the patch is effective against the various jailbreak tools, and they point out a different tool for bypassing the update. Sony told the BBC, "... as we always have, we will continue to take necessary actions to both hardware and software to protect the intellectual content provided on the PlayStation 3."

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Clearly, some of us make bad decisions with our gadgets. But even without having to live down a mobile phone-fueled tirade of Mel Gibson proportions, many of us have sought forgiveness for our gadget-enabled sins through a ritual purge: a day without gadgets.