TechnologyOwl.com

For Web 2.0 Startups, What's Next Beyond Ads?

If online advertising is headed for a fall, as many people are assuming, what are all those hundreds of Web 2.0 startups doing to contend with the possible loss of their key business model? I mean, besides panicking and laying...

Take Your Code Back to Basics With Reset Stylesheets

Different web browsers render HTML differently by default. A popular trick for making the code stick to one standard is to use a reset stylesheet. This Webmonkey tutorial shows you how to build one into your next project.

McCain's Mortality Questioned in Medical Journal

A cancer researcher says Sen. John McCain has a 22 percent chance of dying in the next four years. The results of the calculations were published today in The Lancet. Other researchers disagree.

Rolls-Royce Considers an EV. No, Seriously

As odd as it sounds, an electric Rolls-Royce makes a lot of sense.

Singularity Summit Kicks Off Saturday in San Jose

The Singularity Summit will bring together speakers from different disciplines to talk about the pace of technological change, its impact and how it will affect us.

Attack code for critical Microsoft bug surfaces

Just hours after Microsoft posted details of a critical Windows bug, new attack code that exploits the flaw has...

Microsoft CFO outlines plan to weather economic crisis

Microsoft's chief financial officer outlined a three-part plan the company will undertake to weather the current economic crisis.

Sucks Sites May Be Legal... But What About Loves Sites?

In the past, we've written numerous posts about the saga of so-called "sucks sites," which are websites on domain names that take a well-known brand and append the word "sucks" to the end (or something similarly denigrating) in an act of anger or protest. Many companies have tried to force such sites down using trademark law, but courts have pretty routinely held that sucks sites are perfectly legal.

But what about a "loves site"? What if someone loved your brand so much they set up a site with your brand and the word "love" before it? One of our readers alerts us to just such a scenario that happened a few months back, when Jack Daniel's threatened the owner of the website ILoveJackDaniels.com, suggesting that it was a trademark violation. The owner of the site gave in and handed over the domain name, but I wonder if such a claim would have stood up in court. It's difficult to see how the argument would be any different than with the "sucks sites" which are okay.

Perhaps, the only thing is that sucks sites may be protected because no one would confuse a sucks site with the real product site, because the sucks site is obviously trashing the product. With a "loves" site, you could argue that there might be a higher likelihood of confusion. Either way, how long will it be until we also have to explore this issue when it comes to "I-am-ambivalent-to- sites"? Well, okay, that one might not be any time soon.

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Apple MacBook (2.4GHz, 2008)

The biggest news on Apple’s latest MacBook update may also be the most obvious: it’s not plastic anymore. Apple has canned the old (and iconic) white MacBook look in favor of a new unibody aluminum design that makes the MacBook and its larger brother, the MacBook Pro, much tougher to distinguish now. The company has also nixed another extraneous button with the complete removal of any mouse buttons, replacing them with a mammoth touchpad that actually acts as one giant button, and pulls the same multi-touch tricks as Apple’s iPhone, opening the door to all sorts of convenient shortcuts. While these major changes, along with a handful of smaller ones like an LED-backlit LCD screen, help make the notebook one of the best looking and most solid we've ever laid eyes on it, its price takes a hike accordingly as well.

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AMD Shifts CFO Rivet into Operations Management

Advanced Micro Devices said Thursday that chief financial officer Bob Rivet will be shifted to chief operations officer, and handle administrative duties as well.

Casio Exilim EX-FH20 review

Will Casio's new high-speed camera be enough to conquer the appetites of eccentric shooters near and far? Get the answer in our in-depth Casio Exilim EX-FH20 review.

Casio Exilim EX-FH20 video review

Check out our hands-on video review of the Casio Exilim EX-FH20. Did the high-speed functionality live up to its potential?

NASA tries again to fire up ailing Hubble telescope

NASA officials today are hopeful that the latest effort to fire up backup computer systems on the orbiting Hubble Telescope will be successful.

Sirius Shareholders Petition Mel Karmazin

Today, I heard that more than 180 Sirius XM shareholders have signed a petition demanding that company CEO Mel Karmazin explain how he plans to raise money to fund more than $1 billion in debt coming due next year. "If the plan is to muddle through without a plan. We need to know," the petition says.

NASA tries again to fire up ailing Hubble telescope

NASA officials today are hopeful that the latest effort to fire up backup computer systems on the orbiting Hubble Telescope will be successful.

Arc Mouse Slideshow

Webroot Internet Security Essentials

Webroot's new security suite includes great malware protection and online backup, but its firewall isn't up to snuff.

SpeakEasy Voice Recorder

Zaroboo's SpeakEasy Voice Recorder is a high-quality voice-recording app that's worth the $2 download.

Hannspree Hanns Soccer

The Hanns Soccer is a leather-clad monitor that's a must-have for soccer fans.

Panasonic DMP-BD50

The pricey Panasonic DMP-BD50 offers the most Blu-ray features you can get, but it isn't for everyone.

How to Speed Read

Most humans can't visually process more than 300 words per minute. But the pros can whip through 1,200 words in 60 seconds like a hot knife through a best-seller. Learn to overclock your eyes and quadruple your brain's processing power in Wired's How-To Wiki.

TSA Rules Hassle Owners of Small Aircraft

The feds want to hold small aircraft to many of the same security rules the airlines have to follow. The people who own those planes say it'll be a colossal headache.

Review: 'Wii Music' Puts Improv Before Gameplay

Nintendo's new jam-based game couldn't be further from the goal-oriented precision tapping of Rock Band. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Mysterious Anti-Obama Text Spam Slams Cellphones

A sneaky texting spam campaign hits voters in Ohio. It attacks Barack Obama for his alleged connections to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and provides listeners an excerpt from a Fox News documentary on the community organizing group ACORN.

Epson to Enter the Netbook Fray

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/new...ls.php?id=16877

"Japanese makers have been pretty late in jumping on the NetBooks wagon. Almost a year after ASUS, and due to declining sales in Japan, Toshiba, NEC, and now Epson are launching their Netbooks... The only problem, is they still run XP, there are no Linux versions, and they're MORE expensive than their counterparts in Europe and the US."

Details are a bit sparse, but even the silhouette seems a bit clunk for a netbook. Besides, I'm not real confident we will see these in the US anyway.

Microsoft posts slight Q1 growth, lowers Q2 outlook

Multiyear annuity sales lifted Microsoft's revenue 9 percent for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, but the comp...

Google exec happy with G1 launch

This week's launch of the T-Mobile g1 phone is going well, according to Rich Miner, Google Inc.'s top mobile executive.

DHS screening to require air travelers to fork out more information

Air travelers will have to provide their birth date and gender, as well as their full names to the airline when making flight reservations.

Review: Seagate's 1.5TB Barracuda Drive - quiet, sips power

Speed, quiet, and low power use add up to a good choice when you need more than a terabyte of storage space.

Review: Seagate's 1.5TB Barracuda Drive - quiet, sips power

Speed, quiet, and low power use add up to a good choice when you need more than a terabyte of storage space.

Google exec happy with G1 launch

This week's launch of the T-Mobile g1 phone is going well, according to Rich Miner, Google Inc.'s top mobile executive.

LOLcats R in Ur Gallery, Pimpin 4 Adult Literacy

Those crazy slang-talkin' felines pounce from the internet to a sold-out art show, with a silent auction to benefit a worthy cause.

And The Winner of the HTC Touch Cruise is...

I'm still launching new contests for our 8th anniversary, but the first contest is now over: the winner of the HTC Touch Cruise, pulled randomly from an impressive 430+ entries is...Tony711sc. Congratulations! So what was Tony711sc using back in October 2000?

"Being new to the cyberworld - I was using a Ma Bell landline and a Franklin Day Planner."

Thanks to everyone who entered - it was great to read about what people were using!

Google hopes Analytics service upgrade lets users dump other vendors' tools

Google hopes that the upgrades in the latest version of hosted Google Analytics service make it more attractive to corporate IT managers.

Judge Reminds Documentary Makers You Can't Copyright Facts

In the past, we've discussed the oddity that moviemakers often purchase the rights to true stories before making movies about them. There's really no legal reason for them to do so -- as you can't copyright factual information. Anyone can make a movie based on a true story without purchasing any kinds of rights. Now, there may be some business reasons for doing so. Licensing the story from either those who were involved or who initially reported on it may allow you to have those people more involved in making the movie itself (though, that could just be handled by hiring them to advise, rather than "licensing" the story). Still, it did seem odd that it was so common for true stories to be "sold" this way.

Now a judge is reminding people that true stories aren't copyrightable. Rose M. Welch points out a ruling from a lawsuit filed by two filmmakers who had made a documentary called Ashes to Glory: The Tragedy and Triumph of Marshall Football, about the 1970 plane crash that killed the Marshall University football team, and the aftermath where the school tried to rebuild its football program. A few years ago, Warner Bros. made a (non-documentary) movie called We Are Marshall starring Matthew McConaughey about the same story. No one denies that Warner approached the documentary filmmakers about licensing their work -- but no agreement was reached.

The documentary makers then sued Warner for copyright infringement when their movie came out. However, a judge has dismissed the lawsuit, noting that you can't copyright facts, and most of the material in the film could easily have been gleaned from public news stories concerning the events. The judge also pointed out that We Are Marshall was heavily fictionalized and contains plenty that is unrelated to the documentary. As the judge noted: "Even though the two works have the same story as their subject, they are not substantially similar as the phrase is used in copyright jurisprudence."

It will be interesting to see if this leads studios to be less willing to license stories before making movies. This ruling also could mean bad news for the woman who claims to own the rights to the play Jersey Boys, as the situation there is pretty similar. Warner Bros. put out a statement saying how wonderful this decision was, though the company has its own history of overly aggressively trying to enforce its copyrights.

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Imagine RIAA, MPAA in Control of Handbag Industry

Imagine what the handbag industry would look like if it was controlled by the record labels and the movie studios. A handbag would only work with one outfit. Its contents would fall out the bottom at international borders. Handbag sharers would be sued.

Should You Trust an Internet Radio Alarm Clock?

Alarm clocks evolved from bells and buzzers to the clock radio, and now to the internet radio. We found one that makes the our old model seem like a technological relic. Our only concern: Would a WiFi clock be reliable enough to wake us up for work each day?

Greenspan, Cox tell Congress that bad data hurt Wall Street's computer models

At a congressional hearing, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and former Federal Reserve head Alan Greenspan both testified that the financial-risk models used by Wall Street firms were based on faulty data.

Yahoo's Inquisitor Search Tool Now Works With Firefox, IE

The Inquisitor search plug-in, which offers lightning-fast search suggestions as you type, and learns your habits the more you use it, is now available for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Supersonic Jet Car Targets 1,000 MPH

The British team that broke the sound barrier on four wheels is back, eager to continue Britain's tradition for building the fastest cars on the planet.