pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/10/princess-leia.jpg" width="494" height="328" style="display:block;float:none;" / Holographic television sets may be only a few years off thanks to a new breakthrough in 3D technology. Researchers at the University of Arizona said they had made the first updatable 3D displays with memory, a prerequisite for getting any holographic image to move. With the new technology, displays can now be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes./p pThough that's still far slower than the refresh rate of normal 2D television sets, the researchers said that speeding the frame rate up would be a piece of cake compared to the first breakthrough. They were so confident, they even gave a time peg—five to ten years before the technology would reach the market. That's right, folks! Five to ten years before every wannabe-Luke Skywalker in the world will get to endlessly loop that integral Star Wars scene./p br style="clear: both;"/ img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=fb7bb2c8ec7d0b3f85793a03a2b4aae4" height="1" width="1"/ img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=fb7bb2c8ec7d0b3f85793a03a2b4aae4" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/ pa href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/gizmodo/full?a=RZ6SXv"img src="http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/gizmodo/full?i=RZ6SXv" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=KAAOM"img src="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=KAAOM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=1WfGM"img src="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=1WfGM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=T596m"img src="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=T596m" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=yghFm"img src="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=yghFm" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/413514535" height="1" width="1"/

Holographic television sets may be only a few years off thanks to a new breakthrough in 3D technology. Researchers at the University of Arizona said they had made the first updatable 3D displays with...

In honor of my dear friend Richard Metzger's stint as a BB guestblogger beginning today, I dug up this link to a Wired interview I did with Richard that was published exactly 10 years ago this month. Wow, time sure flies when we're having fun. From the interview, titled "Live From Bedlam": Wired: Information wants to be free, but does it want to be true? Metzger: All information is from questionable sources. In the marketplace of ideas, what value does falsehood have once it's exposed?... So what's behind the growing public fixation on the fringe? Ten years ago all of this would have been so marginal. As we become more technologically advanced, we move further away from anything real, any real ecstatic religious experiences or gnosis. People are freaking out because they see Jerry Springer's white-trash crack whores on TV and schoolkids ambushing classmates with Uzis. How much more fucked up can things get? It's apocalypse from now on. People realize that the line they've been sold, the American Dream, is over - they want, if not an explanation, then at least someone to blame... Can the "underground" survive in an age when it's co-opted almost instantly? The best thing that could possibly happen to the underground is that it becomes overground - to see kids picking up Noam Chomsky and hearing Jello Biafra instead of just Stephen King and Weezer. Richard Metzger: Live From Bedlam...

Pinback will continue its aforementioned tour this fall, though sadly without keyboardist Terrin Durfey to accompany the band.

The band’s label, Touch & Go, reports that Durfey, who has been battling cancer for the last 10 years, experienced a relapse in his condition and "will soon be undergoing intense treatment and therefore unable to perform with the band."

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On the 10 year anniversary of his death, Mr. Cee of New York's Hot 97 played a 4-hour tribute mix (with some interviews and such) dedicated to the Notorious B.I.G., a/k/a Biggie Smalls a/k/a Big Poppa a/k/a Christopher George Latore Williams. Downloads in four parts available here.
It takes a minute to get going, and, of course, it has all the usual Hot 97 bluster, but there's a lot of concentrated B.I.G. goodness as well, including some things that even you haven't heard before.

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One company that's doing well despite the crappy economy: MetroPCS, which sells all-you-can-eat cellphone service in LA and other markets for as low as $30 a month. The carrier announced this morning that it had signed up 249,999 net new subscribers during Q3, significantly more than the 182,000 that Wall Street expected, according to Jefferies analyst Romeo Reyes.

One handy growth driver: MetroPCS' newish "MetroFlash" service, which lets you use your old Verizon (VZ) or Sprint (S) phone on MetroPCS' network. Goldman's Scott Malat thinks that drove 10%-20% of new subscriber additions during Q3.

Late last month, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless (LEAP), a company offering similar wireless service in different markets, announced a 10-year roaming agreement and an agreement to exchange wireless spectrum. Conventional wisdom is that the companies will still merge at some point -- Leap turned down MetroPCS' first bid last summer -- but the deal provides benefits in the meantime.

MetroPCS (PCS) will start offering its service in Boston and New York in the first half of 2009. It reports Q3 earnings on Nov. 5.

Shares dropped 2.2% to $14.30 -- not bad, as the Dow was down 4.8% and the Nasdaq down 6.2% at the same time.

I was looking through the list of proposed panels for the next SXSW to see what talks and panels I could find about music recommendation. I found a number of interesting talks that were related to music recommendation, but none that seemed to answer the question about why music recommendation seems so broken and what is going to be done to fix it. Since I know a bit about the topic, I decided that perhaps I should propose such a talk. But I found out that I'm way too late ... the SXSW proposal deadline was July 11. However, the SXSW organizer that I contacted said that there is still a very small chance that if I submitted something that it could be accepted. He indicated that although the voting on submissions is closed, that if my proposal received some favorable comments, that would help. So although it is a long shot, I decided it wouldn't hurt to submit something, so here's my proposal:

If you think it is interesting and may be something you'd attend at SXSW, I'd be pleased if you'd add a comment to the proposal.

Here is a list of other SXSW panel proposals that are somewhat related to either music discovery or recommendation. It looks to me like the most closely related panel is Music 2.0 = Music Discovery Chaos?. This one does look interesting and I'd love to attend it, although I don't think it is going to be too research-oriented.

• I'm so sad, my iPod thinks I'm Emo. - Music recommendation is broken - automatic music recommenders make mistakes that no human would ever make. In this talk, we will explore why recommenders make such dumb mistakes and we will explore some of the new ideas coming from recommendation and music researchers to help make music recommendations better.
• Keeping it Human in the Age of Big Data"The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program." - http://news.google.com Or was it? At Last.fm we've grappled with how to present and filter our user-generated music data, but also how to mix in true editorial content. Humanizing core features was much of the impetus for the recent re-launch.
• Music 2.0 = Music Discovery Chaos?The way we discover music has entirely changed in less than 10 years. Radio’s aging demo is presented with safe mainstream offerings. Music discovery is at the forefront of technology and social networks, yet no new standard has successfully been adopted. Websites abound attempt at both data and user generated rating/filter systems. Human VS algorithm: what method can save us?
• Neither Fish Nor Flesh: Music Discovery Going Semantic - Current music discovery techniques rely on human annotation and human behaviour to generate recommendations. We review current recommendation methods and take a in-depth look at new semantic recommendation methods, and discuss how both worlds can be combined to deliver an ultimately better music discovery experience.
• “Just For You”... Really? - Personalization technologies are all over the web now, with applications everywhere offering recommendations for movies, music, video, blogs and most anything else we might like online. Do any of these systems work, and if so how? Is “Discovery” the next “Search,” or just an excuse for behavioral targeting systems that compromise privacy? Finally... If you’re a site publisher interested in adding personalized recommendations, how do you pick a partner to help you get there, or strike out on your own and get the feature built????
• Collaborative Filters: The Evolution of Recommendation Engines - Recommendation engines have boomed in the era of social media. These panelists are experts at collaborative filtering systems. Citing Digg, Amazon, and Netflix as examples, they will have a high level discussion about the evolution of recommendation engines and how each approach is different.
• People Who Purchased This Also Purchased... What?? - Ever wonder how sites determine what music and movies to recommend? Ever received an off-beat recommendation that made you go hmm....? That’s because most sites use collaborative filtering – which determines recommendations based on what other users like. This panel will discuss how these technologies are evolving and the future of recommendations.
• Algorithms, Meta-Data, and Why the Future is Behavioral - Data about data or data with data? Social smarts versus machine smarts? Recommendation engines are finally delivering on helping us filter infinite choices while user generated ratings and reviews can now be found on almost any product or service. Where are these being combined to help users and what's next?

It was ten years ago tonight, on the night of October 6, 1998, that Matthew Shepard was beaten by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson and left to die tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He died five days later, on October 12.

This morning, Judy Shepard appeared on The Early Show to discuss the progress that has (and hasn't) been made since Matthew's murder. Wyoming still does not have a hate crime law that covers sexual orientation.

Said Shepard: "I'd like to say yes it surprises me, but no it doesn't."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

In the age of Amazon, the gay (and generally, the independently owned) bookstore has become all but extinct, but Philadelphia's Giovanni's Room has been kept alive by its proprietor Ed Hermance and former business partner Arleen Olshan, with blood, sweat, and tears.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

"Most Philadelphians are unaware that Giovanni's is the second-oldest gay-and-lesbian bookstore in the country, behind only New York's Oscar Wilde Bookshop, launched in 1967. Through six owners, three locations and countless volunteers, Giovanni's has come to represent far more to the city's gay community than a bibliophilic rainbow flag. 'Growing up in the city, it was one of the first places where I found people like me and a sense of community,' says Gloria Casarez, 36, the Mayor's Office liaison to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Giovanni's has 12,000 titles in its active inventory. It holds 50 readings a year. It serves as an information clearinghouse, a crisis center, even a research library. 'We've graduated many Ph.D's,' Olshan, 63, says proudly. At its current site since 1979, the bookstore is carved out of an 1880 building designed as a mom-and-pop store with living quarters. Hermance and Olshan bought it for $50,000, borrowing the down payment from their customers."

As for Hermance, who worries about who his successor might be: "The hero has simple needs. He still lives in the Powelton Village house he bought 32 years ago for $7,000. The furniture is all second hand, except for a 10-year-old dining room table. He lives on Social Security and an inheritance from his mother, he says. He owns one suit, last worn in 1975 for a job interview."

Giovanni's Room [official site]
Phila. gay bookstore Giovanni's Room marks 35 years [inquirer]

This is the sad story of the Sega Dreamcast. See what made this console a wonderful breakthrough and a disappointing failure at the same time. The fact that I have to submit this under 'Industry News' because there's no Sega section in 'Gaming' lets you know things have really changed in the past 10 years. Part 2/2 is posted below.

More...

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What sets Bearcreek Design apart, is our exceptionally personalized and unique design process. Let us show you what your project will look like, Before its built.
Building Permit and Design Services
No Headache, Get your permit A.S.A.P
Building Permit Drawings (Residential, Commercial and Industrial), Structural Design, BCIN (Building Code Identification Number) and Professional stamps when required.
Ali Moini – 416-999-3134 M.Arch, CBCO
With Municipal Experience
We offer free estimate
Alpha Tech Data Ltd.
It is our goal to make the collaborative process with our clients, both exciting and rewarding. To far exceed expectations. Call us Today, let us show you how we can fulfill all of your planning and design needs.
416-999-3134
search words: 2D, 2nd story, 3D, 3D-modeling, acad, addition, architect, architecture, autocad, basement, bathroom , baths, bearing wall, blueprints, building plans, cabinets, CAD, cad design, carpentry, civil, code issues, construction, construction builder, consultant, contractor, conversion, deck, designer, developer, development, diagrams, doors, drafter, drafting, draftsperson, drawing, drawings, drywall, elevation, engineer, engineering, family room, family room addition, floor plans, freelance, grading, guest house, home addition, home design, homeplans, house plans, illustration, insulation, kitchen, kitchens, layout, loft addition, new house, painting, patent, permit, plan, posts, presentation, redline, remodel, remodeling, remodeling design, remodels, rendering, renderings, renovation, residential, retaining walls, retrofit, room addition, sections, seismic, shearwall, siding, sketches, structural, stucco, survey, trusses, tudor, upgrade, ventilation, windows, wiring

www.GetBuildingPermit.com

Being smart about legal matters can make a huge difference in the value of your company. Each legal decision you make — each strategic partnership, each trademark or patent filing — can add or subtract from it.

During the ’90s, my law firm worked with an internet software company whose proposed $400 million sale was stopped dead because of an ill-considered distribution deal it had signed for an Asian market. To the would-be acquirer, the deal was a fundamental obstacle to its own use of the startup???s technology. We eventually fixed the distribution deal, but not in time to save the $400 million deal. It took another 10 years to sell the startup at a favorable price.

Entrepreneurs aren’t typically well-versed in legal issues, and few have deep enough pockets to have lawyers evaluate the implications of every decision they make. That???s why I wrote a book that tells entrepreneurs what they need to know about technology law. As an example, here are five vital legal strategies every digital entrepreneur should know:

5 Vital Legal Tips for the Digital Entrepreneur:

1. Mix open-source with proprietary licensing. MySQL offers both open-source and proprietary licenses for the same code. Why would companies pay for free software? Some large companies want to create derivatives, but not disclose trade secrets, and so will pay for proprietary licenses. Red Hat supplies Linux under the GPL, but gives paying subscribers a suite of proprietary tools for installing and managing networks that run Linux.

2. Secure startup IP. Any code you wrote before you incorporated your startup is not automatically property of your company. You must formally transfer pre-existing code to your company to secure ownership. Failure to ???tie down??? IP to the business can be problematic, especially when early employees leave the company. It can also block a VC investment.

3. Police user-generated content. While valuable, such content can expose your company to copyright owners’ claims. Help yourself by adhering to “Notice and Take Down” procedures of U.S. copyright law. But these protections don’t apply if your company benefits financially from the infringing material, such as through download fees tied to it, or payments for ads that are played or displayed with the infringing content. Protect yourself by publishing FAQ for your users on how to avoid submitting infringing content. Terminate repeat offenders who regularly submit infringing content

4. Avoid “right of first refusal” clauses. Many licensees, customers and distributors want a ???right of first refusal??? (ROFR) on your company???s products, future opportunities — even the sale of your company. Don???t grant them. ROFRs assume you will fully negotiate a deal with one company, then offer it to the bearer of the ROFR. The problem is that no company will invest time and effort in negotiating a deal with you if there’s the risk another party could just snatch it away. ROFRs freeze out opportunities this way.

5. Register Multiple Trademarks. Technology is international, so you???ll need to register your trademarks in every market where your products will be sold. But be careful. Some English words may sound odd or offensive in other languages. The Chevy Nova automobile became a joke in Spanish-speaking countries because no va means ???it doesn???t go.??? In countries that don???t use roman letters, also register local language versions of your trademarks. In China, Microsoft trademarked the two characters, pronounced wei ruan, that mean ???small and delicate??? and ???soft.???

Gene Landy is Chair of the Technology Business Group at the law firm of Ruberto, Israel & Weiner, in Boston, Mass. His book, The IT/ Digital Legal Companion, provides comprehensive guidance, including many more tips like these, for how you can use the law to maximize the value of your business.

Being smart about legal matters can make a huge difference in the value of your company. Each legal decision you make — each strategic partnership, each trademark or patent filing — can add or subtract from it.

During the ’90s, my law firm worked with an internet software company whose proposed $400 million sale was stopped dead because of an ill-considered distribution deal it had signed for an Asian market. To the would-be acquirer, the deal was a fundamental obstacle to its own use of the startup’s technology. We eventually fixed the distribution deal, but not in time to save the $400 million deal. It took another 10 years to sell the startup at a favorable price.

Entrepreneurs aren’t typically well-versed in legal issues, and few have deep enough pockets to have lawyers evaluate the implications of every decision they make. That’s why I wrote a book that tells entrepreneurs what they need to know about technology law. As an example, here are five vital legal strategies every digital entrepreneur should know:

5 Vital Legal Tips for the Digital Entrepreneur:

1. Mix open-source with proprietary licensing. MySQL offers both open-source and proprietary licenses for the same code. Why would companies pay for free software? Some large companies want to create derivatives, but not disclose trade secrets, and so will pay for proprietary licenses. Red Hat supplies Linux under the GPL, but gives paying subscribers a suite of proprietary tools for installing and managing networks that run Linux.

2. Secure startup IP. Any code you wrote before you incorporated your startup is not automatically property of your company. You must formally transfer pre-existing code to your company to secure ownership. Failure to “tie down” IP to the business can be problematic, especially when early employees leave the company. It can also block a VC investment.

3. Police user-generated content. While valuable, such content can expose your company to copyright owners’ claims. Help yourself by adhering to “Notice and Take Down” procedures of U.S. copyright law. But these protections don’t apply if your company benefits financially from the infringing material, such as through download fees tied to it, or payments for ads that are played or displayed with the infringing content. Protect yourself by publishing FAQ for your users on how to avoid submitting infringing content. Terminate repeat offenders who regularly submit infringing content

4. Avoid “right of first refusal” clauses. Many licensees, customers and distributors want a “right of first refusal” (ROFR) on your company’s products, future opportunities — even the sale of your company. Don’t grant them. ROFRs assume you will fully negotiate a deal with one company, then offer it to the bearer of the ROFR. The problem is that no company will invest time and effort in negotiating a deal with you if there’s the risk another party could just snatch it away. ROFRs freeze out opportunities this way.

5. Register Multiple Trademarks. Technology is international, so you’ll need to register your trademarks in every market where your products will be sold. But be careful. Some English words may sound odd or offensive in other languages. The Chevy Nova automobile became a joke in Spanish-speaking countries because no va means “it doesn’t go.” In countries that don’t use roman letters, also register local language versions of your trademarks. In China, Microsoft trademarked the two characters, pronounced wei ruan, that mean “small and delicate” and “soft.”

Gene Landy is Chair of the Technology Business Group at the law firm of Ruberto, Israel & Weiner, in Boston, Mass. His book, The IT/ Digital Legal Companion, provides comprehensive guidance, including many more tips like these, for how you can use the law to maximize the value of your business.

Recently, I was out for a few beers with mates, and we were chatting away about travels to here and there, exchanging silly stor..