Author : Roi R. Czechvala: Staff Writer

The Crimson Dawn hung in geosynch above the besieged planet. Far out of reach of the meager defenses the primitive populous threw at them.

“Skipper, another salvo is being launched.”

Captain Dimitri Sardukar gave a bored sigh; “Viewer.” The bridge of the ship dissolved and the captain and crew seemed to hang in empty space. Even after years as a staff officer, the sudden switch to VR still unnerved him.

He watched as a seven missile volley rose from the planets surface. He watched as the stages of the chemical rockets fell away. He watched as the impotent atomic warheads spent their energy fruitlessly against the ships absorbing Tesla Field.

“Enough is enough. Ensign contact fleet. We are dropping. These savages need to know with whom they are dealing with.”

Klaxons blared throughout the ship. Armoured marines scrambled for the lifter ships. The captain himself took personal command of a lifter, and was the first to ground on the surface of the planet they had dubbed Circe.

The assault ships formed a perimeter around a massive stone complex. A walled palace. Stunned guards at the gates watched in awe as the huge marines emerged. The awe soon resolved itself into anger. They opened fire as the marines approached…

Dimitri joined his retinue of eleven men in raucous laughter as bullets impacted armour and fell to the ground as harmless lumps of jacketed lead.

“Open fire,” Dimitri ordered, growing tired of the futile display.

The detachment of guards was reduced to shapeless mounds of burned flesh under the searing blast of plasma fire. The men stormed unopposed into the massive building, followed by their swaggering commander.

The interior was one massive chamber carved from a single piece of a marble like stone. The walls shimmered with iridescent colours. In the centre of the hall upon a raised dais a huge throne stood. It was occupied by a diminutive figure, almost human in a vaguely elfin way. At the base of the platform a contingent of similar creatures stood unarmed.

“There will be no need for your crude weapons.” The diminutive being waved a careless hand and the marines were quickly disarmed by his personal guard. “Nor your armour,” just as quickly the men were denuded. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Viceroy Creed. Welcome to...,” he smiled disarmingly, “Circe.”

Stunned to immobility the men stood in rigid fear.

Outraged, Captain Dimitri Ulyov Sardukar turned on his minute tormentor, his face flushed with rage. “I command...”

“You command nothing,” the alien leader snapped viciously.

“I have ten ships...three thousand marines, trained killers ready....”

“There are no ships, there are no marines. Not for much longer anyway...,” he quietly informed the captain.

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Creed turned to his coterie. “Amusing aren’t they? Their worlds will make a unique addition to the Empire.”

“Make them comfortable for the time being. Tell the kitchen there will be twelve for dinner.”

He turned and faced the deflated Fleet Captain. “Remind the chef, I like mine rare.” He graced the men with a quick winsome smile. Rows of pointed teeth flashed wickedly in the waning light. The Viceroy turned and walked lightly from the room.

In 2007, the Ecuadorian government unveiled an ambitious environmental plan called the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, which would call for the oil reserves estimated at 870 million barrels found in the Yasuni National Park to remain underground. In exchange, the Ecuadorian government would seek compensation from the international community for 50% of the lost revenues from choosing not to drill. The money will be used for renewable energy projects and other environmental activities.

By not drilling the area, the government states that this will prevent approximately 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. In addition, it seeks to prevent environmental damage to the Amazon region and the negative effects to its residents, which has occurred in the past with previous oil exploration projects.

The blogger Orazio J. Bellettini writes:

La Iniciativa ITT es importante para el Ecuador porque permite sentar las bases para pasar de un modelo de desarrollo basado en la explotación de recursos naturales a otro basado en el conocimiento y el desarrollo sustentable. Y es importante para el mundo porque demuestra que es posible alinear los intereses de los países industrializados y los países en vías de desarrollo para enfrentar el cambio climático.

However, the proposal has not been going as planned. Even though the government has received some tentative commitments from Western European governments, the Ecuadorian Vice-President was recently in Europe and the Middle East seeking for additional financial commitments. Now three years later, the Initiative has failed to attract the attention and interest as had been hoped, placing the Initiative's intended goal in jeopardy. President Rafael Correa recently announced that there is a “Plan B” in place if the money is not raised, and which would call for drilling with minimal environmental impact.

One of the 62 species of snake in the sourroundings of the Yasuni Scientific Station - Orellana province. Photo courtesy of the Estación Científica Yasuní and used under permission

The blogger known as Libertario [es] believes that his country is acting like a beggar holding a shotgun threatening to drill for oil if the money is not handed over. He writes:

Lastimosamente sin el calentamiento global es ridículo andar pregonando que el Ecuador con esta iniciativa es el salvador de la humanidad. Pensemos por un momento que el calentamiento global fuera cierto y los demás países tomaran la lógica de este singular proyecto, entonces se tendría que compensar a los países ricos como los EEUU por no explotar el petróleo en Alaska y sus costas. Ahí si quisiera ver las caras de los izquierdosos ecológicos al tener que oponerse a que el “imperio” reclame sus justa compensación.

El proyecto no esta exento de incoherencias como por ejemplo porque no se lo hace retroactivo ya que hemos estado evitando la explotación del sitio en cuestión desde siempre. Vamos cobremos a estos países ricachones siquiera 100 años de sacrificios.

Unfortunately without global warming, it is ridiculous to go around saying that with this initiative that Ecuador is humanity's savior. Consider for a moment that global warming was true and the other countries take on the logic of this particular project, then we would have to compensate rich countries like the U.S. for not drilling for oil in Alaska and its coast. I'd like to see the faces of the ecological leftists having to oppose the “empire's” claim for their fair compensation.

The project has some inconsistencies. For example, why is it not made retroactive, since we have not drilled at the site for a long time. Let's charge to these wealthy countries for at least 100 years of sacrifices.

Rafael Méndez Meneses points out that any oil exploration can only be made after prior consultation through a referendum as outlined in the new Constitution [es], and he believes that if put to a vote that the people would vote for oil exploration.

However, not all are convinced that the government would use these funds efficiently and transparently. There are already reactions from indigenous communities who call for increased participation in the project [es]. The original proposal from Quito Mayor Roque Sevilla who headed up the government appointed commission called for the funds to be administered by the United Nations Development Programme, but that commission was subsequently dissolved and the funds would be administered the government. In the opinion of blogger Juan Fernando Pacheco of Saturn Attacks [es], he does not see the point of a commission if its decisions are not respected:

Lo verdaderamente mediocre se da cuando, aun logrando lo pedido por parte del Gobierno Ecuatoriano, se decide de forma unilateral echar al tarro de basura todo, por orden del Presidente Rafael Correa – según, lo dijo el mismo el día sábado pasado en la cadena sabatina—debido a que quienes conformaron el fideicomiso, querían que el dinero sea invertido en proyectos de orden ecológico, mientras que el Gobierno Ecuatoriano quería usar ese dinero según su propia discrecionalidad.

Eso, es ser mediocre, trabajar tanto, para al final echar todo por el piso porque mis intereses –aun cuando sean estos de un gobierno– estén por encima de los intereses del resto del mundo.

What is truly mediocre is when, even after with the request from the Ecuadorian government, it is unilaterally decided to throw everything in the trash, by order of President Rafael Correa - according to what he said last Saturday in his national radio address - because those who made up the commission wanted the money to be invested in ecological projects, while the Ecuadorian Government wanted the money under its own discretion.

That is being mediocre, working that much, for at the end throw everything on the floor because my interests - even when they are those of a government - are above the interests of the rest of the world.

This led to the recent developments, when the Ecuadorian negotiating team was about to sign an agreement with the UNDP and other donor nations. President Correa ordered them not to sign the agreement. Millan Ludeña [es]writes:

En Bundestag, mientras los potenciales donantes exteriores preguntaban sobre los mecanismos de inversión, el Ecuador indicaba que el dinero debía recaudarse a través de un fideicomiso que brindara las garantías necesarias a los inversionistas. Así, el fideicomiso fue desarrollado entre la comisión negociadora y los técnicos del PNUD, en la figura de un pre-acuerdo el cual se firmaría en Copenhague, pero la oportunidad se perdió cuando el presidente Correa, a parte de no asistir a respaldar la propuesta, prohibió a última hora la firma de los Términos de Referencia del acuerdo entre Ecuador y el PNUD.

In Bundestag, while the potential external donors asked about the investment mechanisms, Ecuador indicated that the money should be collected by the trust that would provide the necessary guarantees to the investors. In that way, the trust was developed among the negotiating committee and the UNDP technicians, within the pre-agreement that would be signed in Copenhagen, but the opportunity was lost when President Correa, in addition to not attending to back the proposal, at the last minute prohibited to signing of the Terms of Agreement of the agreement between Ecuador and the UNDP.

Ludeña adds how this was presented to the media:

Sin embargo, el canciller Falconí y los representantes del PNUD, en una muestra magistral de profesionalismo, aunque no firmaron el documento, consiguieron que los titulares de la prensa nacional e internacional indiquen que se estaba avanzando en la redacción de los contratos y además que el PNUD respaldaba la iniciativa Yasuní ITT calificándola como “fantástica”.

Regardless of the outcome, there are some like Diego Martínez who think something must be done to protect these natural resources pointing to the past experiences in the country in regards to environmental preservation. He comments on the blogpost of Orazio J. Bellettini:

El ecuatoriano en general se vende por poco dinero, la dignidad y el futuro son hipotecables por un beneficio a corto plazo. Ejemplos tenemos muchos: la deforestacion en Esmeraldas por las madereras y palmicultoras, la tala del manglar en el litoral costero, la via Salcedo-Tena, la via Riobamba-Macas, la proxima refineria en el Aromo son claras muestras de depredacion de las areas protegidas, ineptitud institucional y falta de definicion de la corriente de desarrollo

In general, the Ecuadorian sold himself for little money, the dignity and future are mortgaged for a short-term benefit. Examples are many: deforestation in Esmeraldas by logging and oil palm growers, logging in mangrove coastline, the Salcedo-Tena road, the Riobamba-Macas road, the next refinery in the Aromo are clear evidence of predation of protected areas, institutional ineptitude and lack of definition of the current development.

This is the third entry in our exploratory series "Will One Company Dominate the Cloud". Today we're blinking twice after reviewing the innovation engine at Amazon.

The Amazon AWS product is all about services. While others are marketing the cloud with an explanation point, the cloud leader is focused on the raw building blocks. This includes everything from storage to people. Amazon is learning how to find new ways to optimize connections and monetize them in increments of time.

Sponsor

When thinking of Amazon as a verb, one word stands out, motion. When Amazon was first introduced as the Internet bookstore, it immediately created a change in the landscape.

It seemed like the writing was on the wall for brick and mortar retail, and to a large degree, it was. In a mere 15 years, it has disrupted the entire book vertical with an end-to-end digital system. Amazon is now in the position to completely automate the flow of content bits from upstream to downstream.

Now let's look at the AWS services to see if can it do the same for computing. We'll analyze the services Amazon offers and how they work together, specifically in four areas: computing, storage, networking, and people.

(Although we didn't include several areas in this roundup, including database and monitoring, we see them as clear signs of momentum and scope of Amazon's evolution.)

Compute

We signed up (again, as a new user,) for EC2 to refresh ourselves with its offerings and to remind ourselves what it means to be utility-based.

Amazon defines workload in relationship to the types of instances the company offers in the EC2 solution.

Windows on EC2 is optimized around bringing a three-tier Windows web environment into the Amazon stack. It supports ASP.Net, AJAX, IIS, and SQL Server. Amazon has also tuned it's network and storage offerings to nicely plug into the Windows on EC2 package and offer seamless integration with existing Amazon EC2 features like Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic-Load Balancing, and Elastic IPs.

IBM WebSphere is also supported on EC2, and hosts a lineup of enterprise computing tools including the WebSphere Server, Portal Server, DB2, Tivoli Monitoring, and Data Quality products. IBM mentions that one of the targets is getting developers to use this model for getting development or proof-of-concepts projects up and running quickly.

The patterns for firing up a new instance are defined as AMI (Amazon Managed Instances) so the software has been appropriately targeted the infrastructure instance it will run within. IBM and Amazon have set up Have extra licenses, or want to retire legacy hardware? IBM has an agreement with Amazon to allow you to migrate your licenses to EC2.

The EC2 MapReduce is a service that targets large data streams and optimizing processing of these data sets. It leverages the Hadoop Map Reduce project and provides as an example of breaking the computer entirely into services.

The Map Reduce service doesn't just host an application stack, but is automatically configured using Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). This is an example of an open-source implementation project (though Apache) optimizing in such a way that it fits on the EC2 stack as a core feature, and it has become a peer to the WebSphere or .Net patterns.

Storage

The storage offerings include S3, Elastic Block Storage, and Input/Output.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) has been out there several years serving web based applications as their simple cloud away from home. Customers of it have famously stood up their entire data solution for images and other key storage tasks based on Amazon's S3 service. It's popular, well known, and evolving to include additional features that enforce data level integrity like databases.

Elastic Block Storage is another storage service offered by Amazon. Instead of being a simple, writable data service in the cloud like S3, it is focused on EC2 instances that need storage as part of their footprint. An EBS can be built alongside the EC2 instance that is 1GB to 1TB in size and can be mounted from that service. This is designed for applications that expect raw physical storage locally addressed by the server.

Network

Amazon offers Elastic Load Balancing. Considering Amazon's power as an elastic compute provider, this is a critical piece of the puzzle. Here, load can be configured to continually monitor and self heal across a set of hosts, moving the resources towards optimal performance.

The company also offers Virtual Private Cloud, which enables an enterprise to segment access to a portion of Amazon's cloud with access control and security enforcements (such as subnet, encrypted VPN).

People

An amazing thing about all of these services coming from Amazon, is that Amazon is a consumer facing company with an amazing relationship with consumers.

Amazon has the ability to learn about us. We share our ideology (books we buy), lifestyle (products we consume), and financial position (credit cards we use). The company has also implemented an important part of identifying consumers by going deeper with services and verifying identity.

The company implements a two-factor signup process that goes the extra step in granting authorization to a user to change compute resources.

This second factor gives Amazon some assurance that the person really is that person, because in addition to getting the credit card and password (which are network resources), it also calls out to your phone to verify that the person logging in to the network has the phone (physical resource) at the same time.

Here is step one: Signup

Here is step two: Verify PIN on your mobile phone:

And, step three, proceed (you are now free to spin up resources):

When combining these two things together, Amazon is in a position to easily bring its current customer base to a two-factor security solution, and providing a service that meets government level controls. And, with two factor credentials it's less likely that there will be automated bots being deployed in Amazon's cloud by scripts or hackers.

Amazon is in the unique position to view the next generation computing fabric from the consumer sales process. Amazon may be the only company in a position to see how it all pieces together, even perhaps a longer view of the future supply chain than its new book competitor, Apple.

In addition to consumers and developers, Amazon also has the power of people as resources, with the Mechanical Turk marketplace.

Need a simple task completed and queued for the Internet (of people) to execute on? Get started with one of these sample scripts and draw legions to your command.

We find it compelling that Amazon has connected consumers, verified individuals, and tasks to be executed on. These pieces are perhaps foundations for a broad appetite for connecting workers with resources and optimizing along with way.

The time value of money is the value of money figuring in a given amount of interest earned over a given amount of time.

When signing up for the AWS features as a new user, we found ourselves asking looking at pricing options that reminded us of bank products. Earn more by committing to 1, 2, or 3 years. Are the Amazon Web Services an economy, and the individual services themselves currency?

First, let's look at Microsoft and its revenue. A server is sold, Microsoft gets a piece by the sell of the OS. Part of this business model is very predictable (company gets x% of all PC shipments. And part of it is a bit lumpy. Where consumers have choices, they may choose to exercise them. For example, choosing Google Docs as an alternate to Microsoft Office, or bypassing an entire OS update, such as Vista. These choices represent risk to Microsoft in its revenue position.

Amazon, is increasingly using something more predictable to sell it's services, time. And the nice thing about time, is that it's always ticking. So, instead of waiting for an entire "new PC", or "OS update", Amazon's implementation of selling resources is triggered to contracts. And, if this works, the consumer of the risk chooses the service longevity and the risk is reduced for Amazon.

To put this in financial terms, the time value of money states. "The method also allows the valuation of a likely stream of income in the future, in such a way that the annual incomes are discounted and then added together, thus providing a lump-sum "present value" of the entire income stream."

What this means, is that Amazon is going to understand value for its AWS users over the entire life of their contract and can start to model interaction patterns against future events. For example, if Amazon knows you have a 3 year contract for EC2, but you're 50% more likely to renew it if it also has SimpleDB services, it can trigger events and discounts based on these service connections. Here we see the EC2 reserved instance pricing chart. There is heavy discounting for committing to a term.

From what we see, Amazon will be successful in gaining new efficiencies in pricing of computing resources, like it did with books. We expect the company to successfuly squeeze out hard costs that exist in the middle.

We feel that Amazon is the quiet cloud company that you can "go long" with in terms of it's future value. Like the market itself, Amazon is a prime innovator in sharing the future into the terms of the present.

Will cloud computing re-factor how we look at the technology stack for good, and will "payment" be in the middle? If so, is time the business model?

Photo credit: wwworks

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz recently reported that some "Fox journalists" believe that colleague Glenn Beck "uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric that undermines their credibility." Nevertheless, Fox News' reporters and "news" programs have routinely promoted and echoed Beck on stories such as the 9-12 Project, tea party protests, ACORN and former White House officials Van Jones and Anita Dunn.

From Kurtz's March 15 Washington Post column:

In just over a year, Glenn Beck's blinding burst of stardom has often seemed to overshadow the rest of Fox News.

And that may not be a good thing for the top-rated cable news channel, as many of its staffers are acutely aware.

With his celebrity fueled by a Time cover story, best-selling books, cheerleading role at protest rallies and steady stream of divisive remarks, Beck is drawing big ratings. But there is a deep split within Fox between those -- led by Chairman Roger Ailes -- who are supportive, and many journalists who are worried about the prospect that Beck is becoming the face of the network.

By calling President Obama a racist and branding progressivism a "cancer," Beck has achieved a lightning-rod status that is unusual even for the network owned by Rupert Murdoch. And that, in turn, has complicated the channel's efforts to neutralize White House criticism that Fox is not really a news organization. Beck has become a constant topic of conversation among Fox journalists, some of whom say they believe he uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric that undermines their credibility.

[...]

Friction between opinionated cable personalities and journalists has also flared occasionally at MSNBC. But Beck has caused such anguish at Fox that some of its journalists celebrated the failure of last week's interview with embattled ex-congressman Eric Massa, which Beck pronounced a waste of time.

[...]

One thing is beyond debate: Beck provides a strong lead-in for the network's evening lineup. "The significance of Beck to Fox's bottom line cannot be underestimated," says Tyndall, the industry analyst. "Getting an audience that size at 5 p.m. is absolutely unheard of."

But that growth has come at a price, at least for those at Fox who believe that Beck is beginning to define their brand. Glenn Beck is a media phenomenon married to a phenomenally successful network, but away from the cameras, theirs is a troubled relationship.

The New York Times reported on October 11, 2009, that Fox News claims its news hours are objective and defined as "9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays." Those weekday hours include America's Newsroom, Happening Now, America Live, Studio B, Special Report, and The Fox Report. America Live replaced Live Desk in early 2010.

Beck brings ACORN videos to Fox. On the September 9, 2009, edition of his Fox News program, Beck previewed an "exclusive" that would air on his program the next day, which he claimed would make "things change a lot for those in power." Beck later aired snippets of a video from James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles in which they entered the Baltimore office of ACORN. Beck suggested the video was the "exclusive stuff" that he predicted the media would be "talking about" instead of health care. On September 10, Beck interviewed Giles and credited Andrew Breitbart with starting the story. On September 15, Beck again hosted O'Keefe for a "one-hour special." Beck continued pushing subsequent ACORN videos from O'Keefe and Giles in the following months. Investigations later found significant problems with the ACORN tapes and cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing.

Fox "news" programs follow Beck's lead, seize on ACORN videos. Following Beck's "exclusive" preview, on September 10, 2009, through 7 p.m., Fox News dedicated at least 17 segments to the ACORN video. Fox "news" programs covering the video included: America's Newsroom; Happening Now; Live Desk; and Special Report.

Fox "news" programs hype Beck-promoted San Bernardino ACORN tapes. On September 15 and 16, 2009, Fox "news" programs devoted significant programming to O'Keefe and Giles' video of their interactions with an ACORN worker in San Bernardino, CA, who claimed that she murdered her husband and gave advice on how to run a brothel. The worker stated after the video was released that she hadn't murdered her husband -- which was confirmed by police -- and was attempting to "shock them as much as they were shocking me." Live Desk teased the video, with co-host Martha MacCallum stating: "We can now tell you that you are going to see yet another big development in the ACORN story. Another tape is expected to come out tonight after 5 p.m." -- a reference to Glenn Beck's program. At 5 p.m., Beck devoted a "special program" to the San Bernardino video. Following Beck, Special Report and America's Newsroom ran reports on the video.

Fox News Sunday devoted 18 minutes, over two consecutive broadcasts, to ACORN controversy. In September, Fox News Sunday devoted a total of 18 minutes of programming time on two consecutive broadcasts to covering the ACORN tapes. During his September 20 broadcast, host Chris Wallace conducted an interview with ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to discuss the story. During the September 27 broadcast of the program, Wallace aired a segment on O'Keefe, in which he advanced several of O'Keefe's claims without noting that they are contradicted by readily available evidence and labeled O'Keefe the "Power Player of the Week."

Beck pushed concocted story that Dunn "worships" and "revere[s]" Mao Zedong. Throughout his October 15, 2009, program, Beck claimed that then-White House communications director Anita Dunn "worships" and "idolizes" "her hero" Mao Zedong. As evidence, Beck aired a video in which Dunn cited two of her "favorite political philosophers," Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa during a speech to high school graduates. However, Dunn offered no endorsement of Mao's ideology or actions -- rather, she spoke of Mao and Mother Teresa as two of her favorite "political philosophers," and based on short quotes from them, she offered the advice that "you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths" or "let external definition define how good you are internally." Indeed, admiration" for Mao and that President Obama has "surrounded himself with Mao supporters."

Special Report followed Beck's lead in highlighting Dunn's "Mao" comments. On October 19, 2009, Fox News' Special Report aired a truncated clip of Dunn's Mao quote, and Fox News contributor Brit Hume responded: "Well, she also said that this is the two people she turns to most. This doesn't sound like it was a one-off attempt to make a joke and imitate the Republican strategist Lee Atwater."

Beck led the charge against Van Jones. Beck repeatedly attacked then-White House green jobs adviser Van Jones. Beck has falsely accused Van Jones of being a "convicted felon," misleadingly stated that Jones' place in the Obama administration "says that the president has an agenda that is radical, revolutionary, and in some cases, Marxist." A September 6, 2009, New York Times article stated that "[c]hief among those keeping the story alive was Glenn Beck, the conservative host of a Fox News Channel program. Mr. Beck began criticizing Mr. Jones in July, first in segments on his syndicated talk radio show and then, on July 23, on his Fox News program, said Christopher Balfe, the president of Mr. Beck's production company."

"News" division picks up Jones "controversy." On September 3, 2009, America's Newsroom, Live Desk, and Special Report ran segments on the "controversy" over Jones. Fox News dispatched at least two reporters, Molly Henneberg and James Rosen, to the Van Jones story. For instance, America's Newsroom's Megyn Kelly said Jones has a "somewhat radical and sometimes racially-charged past," and asked Henneberg if Jones "described himself as a communist." Kelly further wondered how Jones became a "czar." From America's Newsroom:

Live Desk covered Jones' past remarks with Rosen and promoted the results of a non-scientific poll finding that 97 percent of Fox News viewers aren't "satisfied with Van Jones' apology" for past remarks:

On Special Report, host Bret Baier introduced a report by Rosen by stating that there's a "troubling pattern of behavior by one of the president's top advisers [Jones]" and later concluded, "We'll see if the national hoo-rah develops" over Jones.

Van Jones resigns; Beck and Fox "stories" receive credit. On September 6, 2009, Jones resigned, citing that he "cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past." The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim noted that "[b]efore Beck mentioned Jones in the last few weeks on his Fox News television show, Jones remained an obscure figure in the administration. After Beck mentioned him, protesters at town hall meetings made Jones a staple of their complaints." In an October 28, 2009, speech (retrieved from the Congressional Record) on the House floor, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said: "Fox reports the stories that the national media ignore. For example, without Fox News, you might not have heard about the recent ACORN scandal. You might not have heard about the troubling political associations of the President's former green jobs czar, which eventually led to his resignation."

Wallace: It is "certainly the case that Van Jones had a history as a radical, as a self-professed communist." In a panel discussion about Jones' resignation on the September 6, 2009, edition of Fox News Sunday, Wallace stated that "it certainly is the case that Van Jones had a history as a radical, as a self-professed communist, and also, the fact that is -- that he signed a 2004 petition suggesting that there be an investigation of whether or not the government had a role in 9/11."

News division continues to track Jones post-resignation. Fox News' Special Report has continued to discuss Van Jones despite his White House resignation. Since Jones' resignation, according to Nexis, Special Report has mentioned Van Jones on February 25, February 24, October 19, October 6, September 28, September 16, and September 10.

Beck started conservative 9-12 Project, whose members helped organize 9-12 protests. On March 13, 2009, during his "You Are Not Alone" special, Beck announced the launch of his 9-12 Project, whose members helped organize and turn out participants to a protest on September 12, 2009. Beck routinely implored his audience to attend the Washington, D.C. rally on his Fox News show. Beck then aired a special edition of his television show live from 1 to 3 p.m. ET on Fox News on September 12.

Happening Now promotes Beck's original 9-12 Project special. On March 13, 2009, Happening Now hosted Beck to promote his special. From Happening Now:

Live Desk promotes Beck's original special as "the place to be." On the March 13, 2009, edition of Live Desk, co-host Trace Gallagher started a countdown to Beck's special and said Beck's show is "gathering steam across the country." Co-host Martha MacCallum added that Beck's special is "the place to be this Friday night." Gallagher said that Beck's first principle is "America is good and we seemed to have forgotten that." Gallagher interviewed Beck live outside Fox News' offices while he and Fox News graphics repeatedly promoted the special:

Wallace: "I'm a big Glenn Beck fan." On the March 13, 2009, edition of Fox News' Studio B, while discussing Beck's special, Wallace said he sensed that Fox News host Shepard Smith was "begrudging" Glenn Beck and that he himself is a "big Glenn Beck fan" and is "on the Glenn Beck bandwagon."

Fox News heavily promoted the Beck-fueled 9-12 rally. Fox News heavily promoted the 9-12 Tea Party rally and the Tea Party Express tour, whose last stop was on September 12 in Washington. For instance, during the August 23, 2009, edition of America's News HQ, host and reporter Shannon Bream said, "We want to let folks know" the Tea Party Express' schedule so "they can be a part" of the events. And on August 28, 2009, Fox News dispatched reporters Griff Jenkins and William La Jeunesse to the Tea Party Express kickoff in Sacramento, California. Jenkins also reported from the 9-12 rally for Beck's special; a Fox News producer was caught encouraging the crowd to cheer during Jenkins' report.

Beck promotes, hosts a "FNC Tax Day" Tea Party. While discussing the April 15, 2009, Tea Party protests on his April 6, 2009, program, Glenn Beck suggested that viewers could "[c]elebrate with Fox News" by either attending a protest or watching it on Fox News. Beck stated that in addition to himself, hosts Neil Cavuto, Greta Van Susteren, and Sean Hannity would be "live" at different protests. While Beck spoke, on-screen text labeled those protests as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." In the lead-up to April 15, Beck repeatedly promoted the tea parties and urged viewers to attend them.

Like Beck, Fox "news" programs repeatedly urged attendance at tea parties. In the lead-up to the April 15, 2009, tea parties, Fox's "news" programs and anchors frequently aired segments publicizing and encouraging viewers to get involved with the protests. For instance, Special Report host Baier noted the URL of TaxDayTeaParty.com and stated that the protests have been "largely ignored by the mainstream media," while America's Newsroom frequently hosted tea party organizers and posted on-screen organizing information, such as protest dates and locations. Host Bill Hemmer also repeatedly directed viewers to the show's section on the Fox News website, which posted a list of tea party protests. The following are some of the graphics America's Newsroom aired to promote the April 15 tea parties:

Hemmer promotes Beck's appearance at the Alamo. While guest-hosting the April 12, 2009, edition of Fox News Watch, news anchor Hemmer promoted Beck's appearance at the Alamo tea party, stating:

HEMMER: While the mainstream is ignoring the tea party movement, here at the Fox News Channel, we're gearing up to bring you special coverage of the events all across the country. Sean Hannity is in Atlanta. Glenn Beck is at the Alamo. Where else would he be? San Antonio. Neil Cavuto is live in Sacramento and Greta is in Washington, D.C.

Can't get to a tea party? Fox Nation hosts a virtual tea party. You can check it out on the site for the location of a tea party in your area. Again, that is Wednesday, the 15th of April.

Filed under: Motorsports, Honda, Racing

Gallery: 2010 São Paulo Indy 300

Continue reading Rain can't dampen excitement of IndyCar season opener in São Paulo, Brazil [SPOILER ALERT]

Rain can't dampen excitement of IndyCar season opener in São Paulo, Brazil [SPOILER ALERT] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A computing device for every teacher and student so they can access the Internet at school or at home? That, along with an embrace of cloud computing, Creative Commons, and open-source technologies is part of a new set of recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.

On March 5, the department released an 80-page draft of its National Educational Technology Plan entitled Transforming Education: Learning Powered by Technology. The plan lays out an ambitious agenda for transforming teaching and learning through technology.

Sponsor

Much of the NETP emphasizes "21st Century learning" as the path to transforming education: "engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners... and leveraging the power of technology to provide personalized learning instead of a one-size-fits all curriculum." The plan seeks to challenge the traditional model of the isolated teacher in a classroom, promoting the idea of "always on" learning resources and online communities for both educators and students.

In addition to changes to the US education model, there are some bold technology recommendations in the plan.

• Adequate broadband and wireless access inside and outside of school
• At least one Internet access device for every student and educator inside and outside of school
• R&D into the use of gaming, simulations, and virtual worlds for instruction and assessment
• Encouragement of cloud computing for school districts
• Use of Creative Commons and Open Education licenses
• Changes to FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act) to open access to student data
• Changes to CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) to open access to the Internet and rethink how filtering works in schools

Will Richardson, author of Weblogg-ed, responded: "I think the NETP draft paints a compelling, much more relevant picture of learning than what is happening in most K-12 classrooms today, and in that regard, it's a big step forward. But bringing the plan to fruition, complete with broadband access and 1-1 computing for teachers and students will require a budget and a political will that may not exist right now."

Vicki Davis, author of Cool Cat Teacher Blog is similarly cautious. "It sounds great but implementation is important. I hope truly that they bring the brightest minds together on this," not just politicians and vendors but "practicing educators."

Ten year old local business rating company RateItAll has released a white-label location based mobile social networking platform called DoubleDutch. Events organizers, companies that work with multiple locations and others can work with DoubleDutch to offer their patrons a branded check-in app targeted specifically to their use case. You might say that DoubleDutch is to Foursquare what Ning is to Facebook. I think it's a smart effort to make location based social networking more mainstream.

We caught up with CEO Lawrence Coburn at SXSW and found out how the service works.

Sponsor

DoubleDutch customers get to remove all branding from the apps but their own, they can design custom badges and they can weight their favored geo-location data higher for their app users than data for other locations in a given area. A college could have dorms show up higher on a list of nearby places than bars in an area, for example. Customers also get a tab on the app interface that they can populate with whatever content they choose. Events schedules might be a good fit, I suspect.

RateItAll says it has 5 million business reviews in its database. Coburn hopes that local reviews plus mobile geo-location will equal more meaningful context for both sides of that equation.

If geolocation is truly useful for people other than just geeks, then offering event-specific geolocation apps sounds like a great strategy. Everyday people may have little interest in checking-in to every place they go during real life, but night time events or lunch at a trade show? That makes a lot of sense. If anything's going to make location sharing and check-ins mainstream, custom apps specifically targeted for keeping in touch with your friends at topical events could be it.

In addition to his work on RateItAll and DoubleDutch, Coburn is also co-authoring The Next Web's new sub-blog about location services. You can read a more in-depth interview with him about the service there.

It’s funny how and where you will see an innovation. While attending a super-fun event hosted by The Barbarian Group here at SXSW, I ran into a guy named Matt Paul who is the lead developer of an app/service called Stickybits. TechCrunch covered this story back in March, but it was interesting to hear the description of the service first hand from someone behind the scenes. It was also nice to hear him shout-out to all the open APIs used! In addition to working for Stickybits, Matt also runs his own shop called Mopimp Productions that does custom app development.

IconCool Studio can edit ICO, CUR, GIF, JPG, PNG, ANI image files. In addition, it contains some special fuctions: Easily edit animation GIF file; Supports 32 bit icons (Windows XP icon); Support for PSD plug-in; Custom Windows icons and change program skins; and Various gradient function and image filter effects.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

In early February reviews of hot new streaming TV site TVGorge.com started appearing.

“If you’re outside of the US and sick of not being able to see good TV online or just tired of waiting for Hulu to get your favorite shows, you’ll want to check out TVGorge and its huge archive of shows,” wrote Lifehacker.

“The amount – and quality – of the content on TVGorge is nothing short of impressive,” wrote TechCrunch. “All episodes from all eight seasons of 24 are on there, for instance, in addition to dozens of episodes of shows like Californication, 30 Rock, Heroes, Lost, CSI, Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, The Simpsons, and so on. I counted 128 TV shows on the site.”

TVGorge was an indexing service and didn’t carry any material on its own servers. The site’s engine found sources for new TV episodes stored on other sites and either embedded or linked to the videos found. Users flagged broken links and also added their own links to TV shows.

The videos available via TVGorge came with no geo-lockouts, meaning that anyone worldwide could enjoy them without being bugged by “this show is not available in your area” type messages.

In total TVGorge linked to approximately 5500 episodes, 10,000 embedded videos, offered 60,000 external links, and reached 3 million people a month.

While nearly every review of the site was positive, most contained an element of doubt. Is TVGorge actually legal? Could it survive longer term? The general consensus was ‘no’ and ‘no’. Although it could be argued that the answer to the first question is still possibly up for debate, the latter proved fairly accurate.

Around a week ago, TorrentFreak received information that TVGorge was being threatened with legal action. At that stage the site was still fully operational, but very quickly the situation changed. We are now able to confirm that TVGorge was ordered to cease and desist by the MPAA on behalf of the companies they represent.

“TVGorge has recently been advised to remove all of our indexed content,” said the site’s operators in a statement.

“We understand content owners have a need to protect their content and we can only hope they take the initiative to provide easy access to all of their great TV shows at an international level. If anything, hopefully we have shown them that people are desperately looking for a place to watch their favourite TV shows.”

The site’s operators are remaining upbeat and say they will continue to index streaming sources for the TV shows they list, but of course, these will now link to authorized sources instead with the same restrictions that drove people to sites like TVGorge in the first place.

Nevertheless, TVGorge won’t stagnate. The site will take on a new shape by becoming a TV guide featuring breaking news, forums, episode guides, TV schedules, show and episode reviews and linking to or embedding authorized sources from around the world.

Although TVGorge’s legal woes may be over, TorrentFreak has been informed that many other streaming sites are also currently the subject of legal threats and unwanted attention.

Considering the seriousness of the situation it would be irresponsible for us to publish the information we have been given without absolute confirmation, but we are told that in one particular case in a European country, a police investigation is underway against a major site. We asked the site and its host questions, particularly since the news we received corresponded directly with some site downtime, but the responses we received were generally pretty vague.

It may well be that their hands are tied. Time will tell.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its long-awaited National Broadband Plan. The plan aims to “stimulate economic growth, spur job creation, and boost capabilities in education, healthcare, homeland security and more.” The FCC has taken particular interest in the power of broadband to support and promote online learning. We applaud the FCC for working to make this a priority, especially in exploring how broadband can enable access to and participation in the open educational resources movement, empowering teachers, students, and self-learners.  In the plan, the FCC offers several recommendations in expanding digital educational content. A few of the recommendations are listed below:

Recommendation 11.1: The U.S Department of Education … should establish standards to be adopted by the federal government for locating, sharing and licensing digital educational content by March 2011.

While digital content is available currently, there are significant challenges to finding, buying and integrating it into lessons. Content is not catalogued and indexed in a way that makes it easy for users to search. It is also hard for teachers to find content that is most relevant and suitable for their students. Even if one finds the right content, accessing it in a format that can be used with other digital resources is often difficult or impossible. And if the desired content is for sale, the problem is even harder because online payment and licensing systems often do not permit content to be combined. These three problems—finding, sharing and license compatibility—are the major barriers to a more efficient and effective digital educational content marketplace. These barriers apply to organizations that want to assemble diverse digital content into materials for teachers to use, as well as to teachers who want to assemble digital content on their own. Digital content standards will make it possible for teachers, students and other users to locate the content they need, access it under the appropriate licensing terms and conditions, combine it with other content and publish it.

Recommendation 11.2: The federal government should increase the supply of digital educational content available online that is compatible with standards established by the U.S. Department of Education.

[ ... ] Whenever possible, federal investments in digital education content should be made available under licenses that permit free access and derivative commercial use and should be compatible with the standards defined in recommendation 11.1.

Recommendation 11.4: Congress should consider taking legislative action to encourage copyright holders to grant educational digital rights of use, without prejudicing their other rights.

In part due to a lack of clarity regarding what uses of copyrighted works are permissible, current doctrine may have the effect of limiting beneficial uses of copyrighted material for educational purposes, particularly with respect to digital content and online learning. In addition, it is often difficult to identify rights holders and obtain necessary permissions. As a result, new works and great works alike may be inaccessible to teachers and students … Increasing voluntary digital content contributions to education from all sectors can help advance online learning and provide new, more relevant information to students at virtually no cost to content providers … Congress should consider directing the Register of Copyrights to create additional copyright notices to allow copyright owners to authorize certain educational uses while reserving their other rights.

Many of these recommendations can help to enable the sharing and downstream reuse of Open Educational Resources (OER) via public licenses that grant broad permissions. And as we wrote last week, the Department of Education–through the National Education Technology Plan (PDF)–has already offered suggestions for how open licensing can aid teaching and learning by making content created by the federal government available for use or adaptation.

One recommendation, however, misses the mark – the suggestion that Congress direct the Copyright Office to create a new copyright notice to allow rightsholders to authorize specific education uses of their content while reserving all other rights. While the suggestion for this (e) mark is a good first step in recognizing the need for educational content to be shared widely, its utility will be limited and its implementation confusing. To begin with, it’s difficult to determine what will qualify as “educational” content and use. Creative Commons considered this 7 years ago and has revisited the question since, as an “education license” sounds very appealing. The reality is that allowing educational uses, or worse allowing only certain educational uses, adds to the growing problem of non-interoperable content silos whose contents cannot be intermingled without running afoul of copyright. These qualifiers are counter-productive in that they inhibit rather than incentivize use by teachers, learners, and others of the resources stored and isolated in the silos.  ”Education only” uses would dampen innovation by publishers and other content creators that otherwise would be enabled under an open license granting broad permissions.

Additionally, narrow permissions break the promise of a widely interoperable commons. Public licenses that grant broad permissions for the use and reuse of content provide the most clear path forward in solving the interoperability problem. Creative Commons supplies a standardized framework for such public lienses, and has been adopted by many in the education community. It is important that any future initiative intended to increase sharing of eudcational content–legislated or otherwise–consider interoperability with existing OER as a design requirement.

The FCC has recognized that robust broadband infrastructure is crucial for citizens to participate effectively in the 21st century digital environment. Open licensing is a piece of this critical infrastructure. Creative Commons hopes to continue to work closely with the FCC, the Department of Education, and the OER community in order to implement the infrastructure necessary to support and promote online learning.

Blockbuster filed its annual report to the SEC today. In it: Language admitting that Blockbuster could go bankrupt in some situations, including as part of a stock exchange it's planning, "or any of the other strategies we are pursuing."

Here's some of the relevant sections from Blockbuster's 10-K:

• We are in the process of developing and initiating certain operational and business strategies to attempt to maximize our cash and cash equivalents over the near term. One initiative we are pursuing involves an exchange of all or part of our senior subordinated notes for Class A common stock. We also may seek certain modifications to the senior secured notes from the holders thereof. Consistent with this approach, the holders of the senior secured notes and the senior subordinated notes have been contacted and have formed respective note holder committees, have retained advisors and are conducting due diligence. Assuming that we can reach agreement with such holders on the terms of an exchange, we will seek to implement an exchange during the latter part of the second quarter or early part of the third quarter of this year, depending on the timing of SEC clearance of the exchange documentation and when we receive, if necessary, shareholder approval. In connection with pursuing an exchange, we will also be involved in discussions with holders of our Series A convertible preferred stock regarding the possible conversion of such Series A convertible preferred stock into our Class A common stock. We can give no assurance that we can successfully execute an exchange and preferred stock conversion strategy or any of the other strategies we are pursuing and our ability to do so could be significantly impacted by numerous factors including changes in the economic or business environment, financial market volatility, the performance of our business, and the terms and conditions of our various debt agreements and indentures as well as the certificate of designations governing our Series A convertible preferred stock. It is possible that a successful and efficient implementation of an exchange or any of the other strategies we are pursuing will require us to make a pre-packaged, pre-arranged or other type of filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
• If we are unable to successfully implement our operational and business strategies, if we are unable to reach agreements with our debt holders to restructure a sufficient portion of our debt, or if the major studios tighten or eliminate credit terms, we may voluntarily seek relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
• We are currently experiencing significant liquidity constraints and have sizable amortization and other debt service requirements. Should we not be able to generate sufficient cash flow from operations and should the studios tighten or eliminate credit terms, we may determine that it is in the Company’s best interests to voluntarily seek relief through a pre-packaged, pre-arranged or other type of filing under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, including prior to the time we would otherwise be required to do so in an acceleration event. Seeking relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, if such relief does not lead to a quick emergence from Chapter 11, could materially adversely affect the relationships between us and our existing and potential customers, employees, suppliers, partners and others. Further, if we were unable to implement a plan of reorganization or if sufficient debtor-in-possession financing were not available, we could be forced to liquidate under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
• For the full year 2010, we will continue to take actions to improve liquidity. We expect to further reduce general and administrative expenses by over $200 million, continue to rationalize the domestic store portfolio and work to divest international assets. In addition, our 2010 global capital expenditures will remain at maintenance levels of approximately $30 million and we will aggressively manage working capital. We will also continue to explore a variety of strategic alternatives to strengthen our capital structure to position us for success in our transformational efforts. We are in the process of developing and initiating certain operational and business strategies to attempt to maximize our cash and cash equivalents over the near term. One initiative we are pursuing involves an exchange of all or part of our senior subordinated notes for Class A common stock. We also may seek certain modifications to the senior secured notes from the holders thereof. Consistent with this approach, the holders of the senior secured notes and the senior subordinated notes have been contacted and have formed respective note holder committees, have retained advisors and are conducting due diligence. Assuming that we can reach agreement with such holders on the terms of an exchange, we will seek to implement an exchange during the latter part of the second quarter or early part of the third quarter of this year, depending on the timing of SEC clearance of the exchange documentation and when we receive, if necessary, shareholder approval. In connection with pursuing an exchange, we will also be involved in discussions with holders of our Series A convertible preferred stock regarding the possible conversion of such Series A convertible preferred stock into our Class A common stock. We can give no assurance that we can successfully execute an exchange and preferred stock conversion strategy or any of the other strategies we are pursuing and our ability to do so could be significantly impacted by numerous factors including changes in the economic or business environment, financial market volatility, the performance of our business, and the terms and conditions of our various debt agreements and indentures as well as the certificate of designations governing our Series A convertible preferred stock. It is possible that a successful and efficient implementation of an exchange or any of the other strategies we are pursuing will require us to make a pre-packaged, pre-arranged or other type of filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources” below for further discussion of our operational plan to preserve liquidity.

Read the rest of this story »

See Also:

• Blockbuster Is Doomed
• Sorry, But There's No Way Digital Is Going To Save Blockbuster
• Blockbuster Collapses: Shutting Down 500 Stores In Desperate Bid To Save $200 Million

As far as we’re concerned, March means Madness of the basketball variety, and keeping up with all aspects of the NCAA tournament is an absolute must. If you feel the same way, then we think you’ll find our complete guide to all things college basketball on the social web indispensable.

A recent survey revealed that this year, more Americans than ever are going to be turning to the web and social media for their NCAA fix. Although traditional TV comes out on top, 54% of those quizzed are planning to catch the action live online, 10% via a mobile device, and 18% through various social networks. If you’re one of the many participating online this year, check out these resources.

Facebook is a popular destination for NCAA fans. Not only can you catch up on the latest news, but you can get your fellow basketball-loving buddies involved too — whether it’s for some trash talking, or to celebrate the win of a mutually fave team.

The Official NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Facebook Fan Pages will allow you to connect with nearly 10,000 others (4,000 on the Women’s page) on the social networking site.

As well as having info on the NCAA with links to sites of interest, the Pages offer informal commentary from the NCAA teams, fan comments and insight, ticketing info, and comprehensive events data.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a bracket system that’s available within Facebook, then Bracket Challenge by Citizen Sports is a popular option. The free Facebook app will get you making your picks in no time at all, and offers the chance at a $5,000 grand prize. Bracket Challenge also has the option to create pools with your friends.

Citizen Sports also offers a free companion app (to their aforementioned Facebook application) for the iPhone or iPod touch with customizable push notifications for your favorite teams.

More mobile options include the 99 cent Pocket Bracket for the iPhone and Android devices that allows you to create unlimited brackets and organize pools from your phone. You can compete against thousands of users on the PocketBracket Network, as well as your friends, family, and coworkers.

The Baseline Fan series of apps, available for the iPhone and iPod touch, offer basic team-specific data for 99 cents a pop, while fans of free should take a look at Talk Hoops, another dual-platform app, offering aggregated news in one place.

Facebook and phones certainly aren’t the only places to get your bracket challenge fix. There is a wealth of online options, many offering larges cash prizes, should you be astute enough to pick the perfect bracket. Of course, the odds of that happening are a whopping 9.2 quintillion to 1. Still, the contests below are all great places to make your picks and each (excluding Applebee’s) come from sites that offer a dearth of tournament news, scores, opinions, and analysis, as well.

The 2010 Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em game offers a whopping million dollar prize for a perfect bracket, while having the next highest scoring bracket will nab you $10,000. This gives you the option to join the masses or create a private group with invites that can be sent via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

If you don’t have a Yahoo! ID or care to create one, there’s also ESPN’s 2010 Tournament Challenge, as well as another chance at a $1 million prize from restaurant chain Applebee’s.

Also getting in on the online action is Fox Sports with their bracket challenge, and CBS, which is offering the enticing grand prize of a 2011 Infiniti M for the top bracket champ.

The biggest prize this year, though, has to be from AOL’s Fanhouse, with the SoBe Lifewater Zero Inhibitions Bracket Challenge that boasts a $9 million jackpot for anyone with a perfect bracket. (Again, though, good luck with that.)

With your bracket picked, you need to find somewhere to watch the action, and while the NCAA’s official YouTube channel offers a good overview of the organization, the better destination for live coverage is the NCAA March Madness on Demand website.

Powered by CBS, this website offers free live streaming video of every game in the 2010 championship. That means, the only things you’ll need to watch the entire tournament is your computer and an Internet connection. In addition to the live streams, there will be game highlights for those that need to catch up in a hurry, and full game archives for any poor sucker that missed a must-see match. A “High Quality” player option offers a widescreen view with a better quality feed.

If you can’t get yourself in front on a computer in time for tip-off, then the CBS Sports NCAA March Madness On-Demand app for the iPhone and iPod touch is a great option. It’s also perfect for those who don’t want to be tied to their desk or television screen during the tournament.

For $10, this app will give you live streaming video of all 63 games via either Wi-Fi or a cellular connection, from the first round through the finals. The app also offers game previews, a real-time tournament bracket, scores and headlines, and the option to comment and trash talk via Facebook and Twitter.

As with any other topic you could possibly name, Twitter offers a great way to keep up with what’s happening in the world of NCAA basketball, and there are a few Twitter accounts you should follow if you want to stay in the hoop… sorry — loop.

The main NCAA Twitter account offers all sorts of official news from the world of college sports. But if you’re only after hoop-specific NCAA news, the basketball account is where it’s at.

Elsewhere, you can grab news snippets from the Twitter home of the “ubiquitous college basketblog” Rush the Court.

If you like getting your basketball news from sources who can add a bit of commentary to the game, then there’s a ton of sports journos tweeting who can offer just that.

Tweeple that cover the NCAA basketball championship for various media outlets include 12 New York Times reporters and editors at The Quad, and a team of Sports Illustrated writers and photographers as well.

ESPN fans can follow longtime college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, senior writer and college basketball reporter Andy Katz, college hoops reporter Dana O’Neil, and Jimmy Dykes, who works for ESPN and also offers analysis on ABC.

CBS meanwhile comes in with Seth Davis, as well as columnist Gary Parrish, who should offer you some good insight into the Big Dance.

If we’ve overlooked a service you use, be sure to shout it out in the comments. Or, if you have an idea for an even better way to use social media to keep up-to-date with the March Madness, then Coke Zero wants to hear from you as part of their clever, basketball-themed social media promotion.

The fizzy drink company is currently asking for ideas to improve the NCAA fan experience. A winning idea could net you $10,000 and tickets to the 2011 Final Four. So get your thinking caps on!

- 5 Reasons Every Sports Fan Should Be On Social Media
- 5 Social Media Lessons the NBA Can Teach Businesses
- When Social Media Gets Athletes in Trouble
- How the PGA Tour Uses Social Media to Connect with Fans
- Social Media Analysis: The 2010 Winter Olympics

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=185191

Tags: basketball, facebook, iphone apps, List, Lists, march madness, NCAA, sports, twitter

[We're trying not to bore you with TOO many Game Developers Conference and IGF-related things, but Vincent Diamante, also known as the composer of Thatgamecompany's Flower, took a whole bunch of excellent pictures of this year's show, and it's always nice to see what your favorite indies really look like. So here's a gallery...]

Organizers of this year's Game Developers Conference and Independent Games Festival have been documenting the March 9th-13th San Francisco event in visual form, with the independent game-specific content at last week's show first to be examined.

The events -- part of the UBM Techweb Game Network, as are this website -- have put together a gallery of the Awards, Pavilion, Indie Games Summit, and more, highlighting this year's crop of top indies at work and play.

Independent Games Festival Awards

First, here's a look at pictures from the the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards, where Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op caper Monaco was the big winner of the night, nabbing the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game in front of a crowd of over 3,000 GDC attendees.

The 2010 IGF hosts, Kyle Gabler (2D Boy) and Erin Robinson (Puzzle Bots)

IGF and Game Developers Choice Awards guests.

Technical Excellence: Limbo, by PlayDead

Excellence in Design: Monaco, by Pocketwatch Games

IGF Mobile Best Game: Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor, by Tiger Style

IGF hosts Kyle and Erin explore the magic of 3D.

IGF Nuovo Award: Tuning, by cactus

2010 Seumas McNally Grand Prize winner: Monaco, by Andy Schatz (Pocketwatch Games)

2010 IGF Pavilion, Nuovo Sessions, GAMMA IV

Second, here's a selection of pictures from the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 show floor, which was open from Thursday, March 11th through Saturday, March 13th to all event attendees.

Also in this set of pictures are several from 'The Nuovo Sessions', a special GDC Main Conference event featuring mini-talks from finalists and honorable mentions for the IGF Nuovo Award for this year, alongside like-minded individuals. The indie-centric Gamma IV showcase and GDC show floor Pavilion are also showcased in pictorial form.

IGF Pavilion: Main Competition finalists

Ian Bogost's A Slow Year

Enviro-Bear 2000

IGF Mobile finalists on the Expo Floor

The Nuovo Sessions: Farbs

The Nuovo Sessions: Jonatan "cactus" Söderström and Matthew Wegner

Gamma IV Party

GDC Expo Floor: Gamma IV Pavilion

2010 Independent Games Summit

Third, here's a look at the scene around the IGF-affiliated Independent Games Summit, which took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the five-day event, and included lectures from notables like 2D Boy's Ron Carmel, Tuning's Jonatan "cactus" Söderström, and Thatgamecompany's Robin Hunicke and Kellee Santiago.

Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked, Ron Carmel

Postmortem: The Design & Business Behind Fantastic Contraption, Andy Moore and Colin Northway

Effective Marketing For Indie Game Developers, John Graham (Wolfire Games)

Indie Games Summit speakers and attendees hang out between sessions.

How to Manage an Exploratory Development Process, Robin Hunicke and Kellee Santiago (thatgamecompany)

Indie Gamemaker Rant! Jonatan "cactus" Söderström

[Extended pictorial highlights from the IGF Pavilion, from the Indie Games Summit and from the IGF Awards Ceremony are available on IGF.com. More pictures of the Game Developers Conference as a whole, taken by Vincent Diamante, are available on the Official GDC Flickr stream. In addition, archived video of the entire awards ceremony is available via IGF media sponsor GameSpot.com.]

Tiger Woods will compete in the 2010 Masters tournament next month, returning to golf from his five-month hiatus.

If you want to see him play, you’ll be able to do so in a new way: Comcast will stream live video of the Masters in addition to its traditional cable broadcast of the event, and both will be available in 3D.

You’ll need a 3D-enabled television or computer to experience it, but if you’ve got the hardware, tune on April 7 – 11 to see Tiger and the other golfers show off their skills. Comcast plans to stream about two hours of live footage each day. While the 3D web stream will be powered by Comcast, the official Masters website will host it.

It’s not clear whether or not the 3D streams will be limited to Comcast customers.

Tiger’s return to golf has been anticipated ever since his multiple extramarital affairs went public and dominated the news and Twitter’s trending topics for days.

Woods has already proven that he can draw a lot of viewers to a live stream — his post-affair press conference attracted 683,000 viewers on Ustream. We’ll see in a few weeks if his golfing prowess — and the intense consumer appeal of 3D — can pull in big numbers, too.

[img credit: Keith Allison]

Tags: 3D, comcast, Golf, live video, masters, masters-2010, sports, streaming video, tiger woods, video

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker release sneaks to June 8 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker release sneaks to June 8 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) says the Nexus One, which is the first device it is selling directly to consumers, is now available with frequencies used by AT&T (NYSE: T) in the U.S. and Rogers Wireless in Canada, in addition to the one that’s been available for T-Mobile USA.

The phone will be sold at www.google.com/phone and will cost $529, a hefty price tag considering the $179 subsidized version available with a T-Mobile contract. While common sense may lead you to believe that sales will increase with the availability on other carriers, the uptake of the well-received device will likely continue to be low. Rather than teaming up with a carrier to get sales and marketing support—and a subsidy—Google has opted to sell the phones directly to consumers. Without that backing, it’s easy to see that the device will lag behind others. After all, why would a consumer opt to pay $529 for an unlocked Nexus One on the AT&T network when an iPhone costs as little as $99?

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) says the Nexus One, which is the first device it is selling directly to consumers, is now available with frequencies used by AT&T (NYSE: T) in the U.S. and Rogers Wireless in Canada, in addition to the one that’s been available for T-Mobile USA.

The phone will be sold at www.google.com/phone and will cost $529, a hefty price tag considering the $179 subsidized version available with a T-Mobile contract. While common sense may lead you to believe that sales will increase with the availability on other carriers, the uptake of the well-received device will likely continue to be low. Rather than teaming up with a carrier to get sales and marketing support—and a subsidy—Google has opted to sell the phones directly to consumers. Without that backing, it’s easy to see that the device will lag behind others. After all, why would a consumer opt to pay $529 for an unlocked Nexus One on the AT&T network when an iPhone costs as little as $99?

The application deadline for the Summer 2010 internships is 11:59 p.m. PDT, Friday, March 26, 2010. Please submit your cover letter and resume (portfolio, as well, for design students) to apply soon!

We’ve heard fantastic feedback about our internships over the years. Here’s what a few students had to say about their San Franciscan summers in the CC office:

“I wanted to spend my summer doing something important and socially responsible, so interning at Creative Commons was an obvious choice for me. What wasn’t obvious until I started working was just how much I would learn about copyright law, software development, and how effective nonprofits operate. With just a handful of staff in the San Francisco office, all of them friendly and welcoming, I quickly felt like a valued member of the team. I was given ample opportunity to meet and chat with CC staff as well as with staff and interns at peer organizations such as the Electronic Frontiers Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology. The people that I met that summer continue to be great friends and valuable resources who generously offer their mentorship in my post-CC work.”
— Parker Phinney, Tech Intern 2009

“Working at CC provided a complete immersion into how the organization operates, and made clear why CC has become such an important part of the online licensing landscape. In addition to specific projects and tasks, I had plenty of autonomy and opportunity to get involved in other projects or just chat about new ideas. The staff were accessible and encouraging. I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in such a challenging and rewarding environment. In addition to legal research and project development, there were many opportunities to meet other organizations in the area, visit their offices, and interact with a range of students and professionals. I can’t think of a better way to spend the summer.”
— Joe Merante, Legal Intern 2009

“My internship with Creative Commons was probably the most fruitful and definitely the most enjoyable of my student career. I spent my time in a close-knit small-office environment, with a bunch of passionate people working on interesting real-world problems. At CC everyone is a little bit techie, a little bit law geek, a little bit free culture activist, and a whole lot of awesome. It’s an amazing place to be, and as internships go, I can’t recommend any other more highly.”
— Frank Tobia, Tech Intern 2008

Diagnostics and Repair Use the Check Computer feature to perform a complete diagnostics check of the computer and the Macintosh formatted hard drives with one click of the mouse. This includes a SMART test of the computer's built-in hard drive to check for impending drive failure, a test of the computer's available RAM, a check of the disk directories, and much more. If problems are found, advice is provided on how to proceed to repair the problem. Use Check Computer regularly as a part of a preventive maintenance program.

Volume Rebuild In addition to testing the disk directories of hard drives, TechTool Pro can also perform a complete rebuild of them. This optimizes these critical data structures and, on a corrupted drive, repair any problems. Use volume rebuild to keep your hard drives operating at their peak performance.

Optimization TechTool Pro performs both file and volume optimization. File optimization consolidates each individual file into a contiguous area of the hard drive. Volume optimization consolidates the free space on a hard drive. Optimizing enhances the overall performance of your drives and simplifies the file storage layout.

Data Recovery TechTool Pro includes several methods of data recovery. Use them to recover data from corrupted drives that don't mount on the desktop and save the data to another location. Use the Trash History feature to track the location of deleted files and increase the chance of their recovery in the case of an accidental deletion.

eDrive One of the unique features of TechTool Pro is the eDrive. This is a bootable Mac OS X partition containing TechTool Pro and a small copy of your system that you can use when performing regular maintenance or in the case of an emergency. It is created on one of your hard drives without the need to reformat it.

Protection TechTool Pro includes the option to install the TechTool Protection system preference. This is where you configure automatic functions that operate in the background. In particular, you can configure Protection to track deleted files, monitor the free space on your hard drives, save backups of critical directory data to help with recovery in the event of drive corruption, and to monitor the SMART routines of your hard drives. If problems are found, Protection provides an onscreen alert and can even be configured to send an email alert.

• Added 64-bit support to the TechTool Protection system preference.
• Major improvements and fixes to the File Structures test.
• Fixed issues with TechTool Protection on non-administrator user accounts.
• Additional support for SSD (solid state drives) in SMART Check test.
• Fixed Cache size for Intel i5 and i7 processors.
• Fixed SMART Check reporting issue.
• Addressed support for SD cards in Tests category.
• Fixed low memory issue with Volume Rebuild tool and eDrive creation.
• Updated dynamic volume mount/unmount for Surface Scan and File Structures tests.
• Addressed FileVault when creating an eDrive volume.
• Updated and fixed localization issues for French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified).
• Included additional machine identification models to Check Computer.

• PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel Mac
• Mac OS X 10.4.9 or newer
• DVD-ROM drive

Non-profit hackerspace The Geek Group has been hit with a hefty tax bill despite their tax-exempt status. We featured a boom camera built by the organization back in November. It is the goal of The Geek Group to fulfill the thirst to explore and create by providing facilities, peer group, and camaraderie that make knowledge and learning not only acceptable, but desirable. In the video after the break you can hear a bit about the organization’s role in servicing donated computers and putting them out into the community, as well as its role in education through groups like the Boy Scouts of America.

This is all done without the goal for profit and accordingly they have attained 501(c)(3) status with the federal government (we’ve seen their 990 forms stating this). To the best of our knowledge this doesn’t mean that they don’t need to pay property taxes, but it does make property taxes ridiculously low (we’ve heard of one cent per acre for non-profit land holdings before). That’s why it comes as quite a surprise when the township slaps a sticker on the doors giving notice of seizure and demanding payment for $47,652.78 in back taxes or the assets will be auctioned off. The entire story, from The Geek Group’s point of view, unfolds in a video of the quarterly Board of Directors meeting from last Saturday.

We’re hoping this is just a mistake and can be remedied. That being said, it’s not easy to run this type of operation. It’s unfortunate that the Board of Directors needs to deal with a tax battle in addition to fulfilling the mission of the organization. Good luck to them in navigating the road ahead.

[Thanks Jeremy]

We reported in early January that PowerReviews (which ... well, powers reviews on e-commerce sites, like Drugstore.com and Staples) had so far raised $4.9 million in a third round of funding. The company now tells us that it’s closed the round at $6.1 million, bringing its total funding to just over $27 million. The new details, in addition to the final figure: The round was led by Menlo Ventures and Tenya Capital and the money will be used to “fuel current customer acquisition momentum and drive new product development.” The official announcement is coming next Monday.