ted

Internet "series of tubes" senator indicted

You can look this one up on the "tubes."

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was indicted today for making false statements to federal investigators.

The seven count indictment charges Stevens, a Republican, with lying on his Senate financial forms.

The Senate's longest-serving member, Stevens became an Internet celebrity a couple of summers ago after an audio of his "The Internet is a series of tubes" speech to the Senate Commerce Committee wended its way round the Web.

He made the comment during a debate on Net neutrality when he was still the chairman of the Senate … Read more

Forecasting a dead end for chips

(Editor's note, 10:25 p.m. PDT: The original headline on this blog was altered to remove the word "subatomic" because its usage may not have been appropriate.)

TEL AVIV, Israel--One of Intel's legendary chip developers says that the computer industry may no longer be able to infinitely shrink microprocessor die size.

And if anyone should know, it's Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff.

The designer behind the 4004 chip, Intel's first microprocessor, Hoff says that a technical end of the road may soon be within sight.

"We are approaching atomic dimensions," … Read more

The Gizmo Airline Report: Virgin America

In a way, this story is left over from CES 2008, where I attended a blogger party hosted by the Parnassus Group and sponsored by, among other companies, Virgin America, the US domestic airline counterpart to Virgin Atlantic.

The party was a lot of fun, and all the sponsors did extensive giveaways. I got a flight suit from Intel and Zero G, a private company that offers "weightless" (parabolic trajectory) flights. Alas, I didn't win a Zero G flight, but I did win a free flight on Virgin America. In fact, I think pretty much everyone at … Read more

Computers for the people

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Designing a user interface for a mobile computer isn't hard; all you have to do is think like a person.

Sounds simple, but it's taken a long time for that realization to set in, said Stu Card, manager of the user interface group at the famed Palo Alto Research Center. Card joined fellow researcher Ted Selker of MIT's Media Lab at Sofcon 2008 to discuss human interfaces for mobile computers, and just how differently engineers have to treat these devices than their older PC brothers.

PCs weren't necessarily designed for end users in … Read more

Why I post censorship workarounds

Does posting censorship workarounds help the censors? That's the question I've been mulling for the last few days. I asked for your comments, and the verdict is in: Almost no one thinks we should keep these tricks to ourselves. I agree.

I started grappling with this question after I posted a now-defunct workaround for Mainlanders to access the still-blocked Chinese language Wikipedia. After a commenter posted the link on Sinobyte, I featured the link in the post. Then the commenter, Ted Chien, wrote me concerned that having the workaround posted would lead to the authorities blocking it. I … Read more

China censorship workarounds: 'To post or not to post?'

This blog is often faced with the question of whether to post methods of accessing sites that are inaccessible from China because of government controls. I want to turn the question to readers, who I hope will have some opinions. Help me decide whether to reinstate a workaround for Chinese Wikipedia.

The argument for posting: I tend to believe it would be selfish to keep circumvention methods to myself when others who are less habitually engaged with technology news would also appreciate a way around the blocks. For instance, before the BBC News site was unblocked, I posted information on … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 671: Vista Price Patch 1

Episode 671

Microsoft cuts Vista price http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/29/vista_price_cut/ http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9882510-56.html

iPhone/iPod SDK: Apple to approve, distribute apps, limit add-ons http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/ iphone-ipod-sdk-apple-to-approve-distribute-apps-limit-add-ons/13537 http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/29/ iphone-software-development-to-be-locked-down-by-apple/

Bluetooth not working after iPhone 1.1.4? Simple fix: http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/02/28/ bluetooth-not-working-after-iphone-114-simple-fix/

Mac OS X secretly cripples non-Apple software http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/28/2339246

Wii outsells the PS3 4-to-1 in Japan, Sony execs “not psyched” http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/29/ wii-outsells-the-ps3-4-to-1-in-japan-sony-execs-not-psyched/… Read more

TechCrunch polls readers on potential advertiser

The conversational nature of blogs allows editors to ask their readers to weigh in--even decide--issues that affect the publication. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch empowered his readers to determine whether the site should accept advertising from Izea. Arrington agreed to abide by the results of the poll. After 24 hours, voting concluded with just under 3,500 people taking part.

Traditional news outlets often establish a wall between the editorial and advertising departments to maintain editorial independence. In other words, the people who line up advertisements have no say in the content, and the editorial staff is completely removed from deciding which advertising clients to engage. Of course, such an arrangement is all but impossible for most blogs and other small publications. These small outlets often have a staff of one, and even with a half-dozen at the helm it may not make sense to dedicate an entire employee to handle advertising.… Read more

Robot in teddy bear's clothing

A couple of months ago for Halloween, we bestowed the completely made-up Demented Genius Award upon the Evil Mad Scientists Laboratory, in recognition of the modification of a Lego man by sticking an LED in it. This created a disturbing modern version of Ichabod Crane's nemesis, the Headless Horseman.

Today we present the second Demented Genius Award to Evosapien member Nocturnal and his alter ego, who prefers to go unnamed. We were able to confirm that it's Mr. Nocturnal, and not Ms. Nocturnal, who took WowWee's popular Robosapien toy, gutted a teddy bear, and merged the two in an unholy union. … Read more

Murdoch taking MySpace down the tubes

Most of us bore witness this week to a rickety, nonsensical politician explaining to Congress how the InterWeb is a series of "tubes." Unfortunately, dear Senator Stevens is a key decision maker on Net neutrality, and has what one blogger called a "Flintstonian" understanding of the Internet.

The silliness escalated when a MySpacer let us listen to the Stevens ramblings again, this time in B minor with a backbeat. But media king Rupert Murdoch interrupted our uncomfortable laughter as the musical MySpacer's page was cancelled. Poof.

Enter some inquiry from a Web news reporter as … Read more