Characters of every stripe fill the streets of Austin, Texas, during the annual South by Southwest music festival. Oh, and there are some bands, too.

In the next few weeks, the ReadWriteWeb events guide will take you from New York City, to San Francisco, to Portland, Oregon. Along the way you'll find a conference on search engine strategies, a showcase for startups, an in-depth look at the freemium business model, and a day filled with of social media case studies.

How do you like your events calendar? As a world map? As an iCal (and Google Calendar-importable) file? You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

Sponsor

22 – 26 March 2010: New York City

Search Engine Strategies New York Conference & Expo

Go beyond search at Search Engine Strategies New York. Learn the newest trends, strategic action plans, and technology that industry leaders are employing today. Our experts will trace the natural evolution of search exploring topics such as: digital asset optimization, mobile application development, transition from search to discovery and more.Book your pass today. Enter RWW15 to save 15% off the registration. Sessions include:

• Digital Asset Optimization
• Deep Dive Into Analytics
• Augmented Reality: It's a Brave New World
• Bringing SEO In-House: The Pros and Cons
• Advanced B2B Search Marketing
• Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

23 March 2010: San Francisco, California

S.F. Beta 4.0

After a long winter's hiatus, S.F. Beta is back, for its forth year straight! Join hundreds of founders, investors, developers, and technologists for a lively evening of demos, drinks, conversation, and new connections. Early bird tickets are available, and they're going fast. Register now for discounted admission. As always, we feature startup demos all night. This time around, the theme is Search & Discovery. If you're building the next Google (or the next Google acquisition), we want you here! Email cperry@sfbeta.com for more info.

26 March 2010: San Francisco, California

Freemium Summit

The first Freemium Summit is a one day event focused on exploring what it takes to succeed under the freemium business model. Across all segments of the media landscape, entrepreneurs and executives are pioneering models that combine a free offering with a premium, paid offering. This hybrid business model is one of the most exciting areas of business model innovation impacting the world of media and the Freemium Summit will explore the most important topics on the minds of leading practitioners.

Confirmed Speakers: Toni Schneider, Automattic (WordPress); Matt Brezina, Xobni; Aaron Levie, Box.net; Phil Libin, Evernote; Tom Conrad, Pandora; Drew Houston, Dropbox; Ranjith Kumaran, YouSendIt; Ben Chestnut, Mailchimp; Lance Walley, Chargify; Isaac Hall, Recurly; and Lincoln Murphy, Sixteen Ventures.

March 29, 2010: Portland, Oregon

Social Fresh Portland

The social media conference for marketers, Social Fresh is not about concept, but focused purely on case studies from the front lines. Learn what social media can really do for business bottom lines. Over the course of the day, you'll hear from 35 speakers from companies like Intel, Ford, Comcast, Nike and many more, as well as keynote Peter Shankman. Register now and use coupon code RWW15 for 15% off.

4 April 2010: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

ConnectNow

TEDx CMU is an independently organized TEDx event that will be held on April 4th, 2010 at Carnegie Mellon University and will feature a full day of talks by prominent speakers as well as recorded videos from past TEDTalks. Confirmed speakers include Jonathan Fields (author, blogger and entrepreneur), Stacey Monk (founder of Epic Change, a startup nonprofit), Chase Jarvis (photographer, director and social artist) and Nathan Martin (CEO of Deeplocal, an innovation studio in Pittsburgh).

The theme of the event is "Fearless", and we are inviting speakers from cross-disciplinary backgrounds to talk about their experiences, and tell us a little about what inspires them to be fearless in the pursuit of goals. We hope to spark discussions and foster connections between participants, encouraging aspiring individuals to follow their dreams and make a difference. The event is free to attend, and the application deadline is March 21, 2010.

For more information about the event, visit tedxcmu.com or email info@tedxcmu.com. You can also find TEDx CMU on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

7 – 9 April 2010: Sydney, Australia

ConnectNow

ConnectNow brings together international specialists and thought leaders in social media, emerging technologies and their intersection with business. Learn how the realtime web, location based services, augmented reality, ubiquitous computing and personalised services are changing marketing and communications. Understand the importance of trust in relationship marketing and what is "social currency". For more info email info@connectnow.net.au.

13 – 15 April 2010: Dallas, Texas

PubCon South

PubCon, the premier search and social media conference, features the industry's biggest names and key players shaping the future of the Web. PubCon South will include cutting-edge panel sessions exploring tracks dedicated to search, social media and affiliate marketing, an intensive professional search and social media training program, and some of the world's top keynote speakers. PubCon South at Dallas will also hold a one-day, two-track slate of intensive educational training programs led by some of the industry's most respected search professionals. The event takes place at the Richardson Conference and Civic Center. Register here.

16 April 2010: Mountain View, California

Under the Radar: Cloud

Under the Radar: Cloud is must-attend event for dealmakers and heads of IT from large enterprises, SMBs, service providers, carriers and media companies who are responsible for helping their companies leverage new technology and innovation in the fast-evolving IT ecosystem. Join us for the 15th Under the Radar conference, featuring a hand-picked selection of the world's most innovative cloud startups among 350 top tech, media, telcom and finance executives. For ticket and more information, visit http://undertheradarblog.com.

16 – 17 April 2010: Royal Oak, Michigan

FutureMidwest

FutureMidwest is the region's largest technology and knowledge conference. Founded by Adrian Pittman, Jordan Wolfe and Zach Lipson, FutureMidwest is the fusion of two successful conferences held in Michigan in 2009 - the Module Midwest Digital Conference and TechNow.

Both conferences highlighted how technology and digital tools have dramatically changed the way we do business and the effect this transition has had on companies. FutureMidwest kicks things up a notch with presentations, group breakout sessions, relationship-building opportunities and influencers who are taking action to redefine business in the digital age. Register here.

April 19, 2010: St. Louis Missouri

Social Fresh St. Louis

The social media conference for marketers, Social Fresh is not about concept, but focused purely on case studies from the front lines. Learn what social media can really do for business bottom lines. Over the course of the day you'll hear from 35 speakers from companies like Ford, Best Buy, Scottrade, Hardees, CMT and many more. Register now and use coupon code RWW15 for 15% off.

19 – 21 April 2010: San Francisco, California

DrupalCon

DrupalCon is the premier conference focused on Drupal, the award-winning open source content management framework that is galvanizing social publishing and web development today. For a registration fee of $195, attendees get three full days of sessions led by the best and brightest Drupal experts.

Drupal has been downloaded over 2 million times since its inception, and project growth has doubled annually for several years. Drupal is used to deliver a wide variety of application types including blogs, wikis, community networks, digital media portals, and web content publishing and management.

26 April 2010: San Francisco, California

Future of Money and Technology Summit

The Future of Money & Technology Summit will bring together the best and brightest thinkers around money, including visionaries, entrepreneurial business people, developers, press, investors, authors, solution/service providers, and organizations who work where cash and commerce collide. We meet to discuss the evolving ecosystem around money in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment. Featured speakers include Jolie O'Dell from ReadWriteWeb, as well as representatives from Wells Fargo Bank, Kiva, SharesPost, Jambool, Founders Fund, Outright.com, SoftTech VC, and many more.

Use discount code "rww" to get 10% off registration.

7 May 2010: Mountain View, California

ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010

The ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010 will be an exploration of the latest Mobile development trends - both the technology and the emerging business applications. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of Mobile with the brightest in the industry, your peers! As in our last Summit, The Real-Time Web, the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit is an unconference.

An unconference is a participant driven conference where the agenda is created on the day, in real-time and discussions are lead by conference participants. Read about the history of unconferences.

We will have two main tracks at this Summit - Development and Business - so the Summit will be of interest to managers, marketers, developers, innovators, entrepreneurs and thought leaders alike. Here's a sample of some of the topics we'll explore in both of these tracks.

• 
  
• Geo-location services - what can you do using location as a platform?
• 
  
• Commerce & Marketing - as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel?
• 
  
• Content, Publishing & Recommendations - the technologies and best practices.
• 
  
• Mobile Social Networking - how to tap into communities on mobile devices.
• 
  
• Internet of Things - the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data.
• 
  
• Augmented Reality - the technology and business applications of AR.
• 
  
• Native App vs. Browser Based - Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian.
• 
  

Click here to register now, or to become a sponsor, or to help shape the conference.

11 May 2010: San Francisco, California

FinovateSpring

FinovateSpring 2010 will again showcase the most cutting-edge financial and banking technology innovations to Silicon Valley and the world. With Finovate's signature mix of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) from handpicked companies and intimate networking time with their executives, this conference packs a ton of unique value into a single day.

Come see the cutting edge of banking and financial technology and network with hundreds of the leading financial executives, venture capitalists, press, industry analysts, bloggers and fintech entrepreneurs. Early bird registration rates are available.

May 17 2010: San Francisco, California

SF MusicTech Summit

The SF MusicTech Summit will bring together 700-plus visionaries in the music/technology space - the best and brightest entrepreneurs, developers, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music, business and technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive-to-dealmaking environment. Enter the discount code "rww" to get 10% off.

25 – 27 May 2010: Denver, Colorado

Glue

Glue is the only conference devoted solely to exploring the problem-sets facing architects, developers and IT professionals in a "post-cloud" world. Glue focuses on the APIs and protocols (Twitter, Facebook, Websockets, PubSubHubBub, XMPP), formats and standards (RDF/Linked Data, JSON, Microformats, HTML5), platforms and providers (Amazon, Rackspace, Google App Engine, Salesforce.com, Eucalyptus), Identity Protocols (OAuth/WRAP, SAML, OpenID, SPML) emerging NoSQL data models (Cassandra, CouchDB, MongoDB, Riak, HBase), and other mechanisms that are building the post-cloud world.

ReadWriteCloud will be blogging live from Gluecon and CloudCamp, and ReadWriteWeb's Alex Williams will be moderating the "Managing Complexity in the Cloud" session. Please join us May 25-27 in Denver, Colorado. ReadWriteWeb readers can receive 10% off of registration by using the code "RWW12".

15 – 16 June 2010: New York City

Corporate Social Media Summit

The Corporate Social Media Summit is a two day conference focused exclusively on how big businesses can take advantage of social media to enhance their marketing/comms strategy. Featuring:

• Practical and relevant insights from peers who have already used social media successfully
• 20-plus corporate speakers (including PepsiCo, Whole Foods, Dell, McDonald's, General Motors, Citi, Johnson & Johnson),
• Best practice, benchmarks and practical next steps you can use to take advantage of social media in your business
• A tightly-focused agenda with 14 in-depth, practical workshops giving you knowledge on only the most critical business issues surrounding corporate use of social media

Save $400 if you quote RWW400 when booking. Book here.

29 – 30 June 2010: London

Cloud Computing World Forum

The 2nd annual Cloud Computing World Forum is the perfect event to learn and discuss the development, integration, adoption and future of cloud computing and SaaS. Building on the success of the 2009 show, this two day conference and free-to-attend exhibition will provide a focused platform for the global cloud and SaaS industry. Show highlights include:

• Co-located with CloudCamp London
• Co-located with Green IT conference
• Free-to-attend exhibition with seminar and scenario theatre
• Free-to-attend evening awards presentation
• Hear from leading case studies on how they have integrated cloud computing and SaaS into their working practices
• Learn from the key players offering cloud and SaaS services
• Evening networking party for all attendees

5 October 2010: New York City

FinovateFall

FinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders(...)

Amidst talk of an aging society and a depleting demographic dividend, appeals for a reconsideration of China’s One-Child Policy were voiced during the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held Mar. 3 to 14.

Zhang Yin, China’s wealthiest woman and member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, called for a “gradual release” from the 30 year-old policy, with a three to five year trial period allowing some the right to have a second child before the nation as a whole.

In an interview with Southern Weekend Zhang said she was one among many who voiced concern over China’s low birth rate and the consequences of an aging society.

(photo/Don Weinland)

In an open letter issued by the Communist Party’s central committee in September of 1980, the One-Child Policy was suggested in order to relieve the demographic tensions of runaway birth rates.  The letter states that after 30 years of state controlled family planning, “different demographic policies can be adopted.”

As the policy completes its 30 year course, the future of family planning has become a topic for debate.  Despite a long tradition of large families in China, online opinion concerning a possible “Two-Child Policy” is mixed.

Blogger You Xin sees the One-Child Policy as inseparable from China’s long-term growth and conservation of resources.

è@¡åˆ’生育是我国的基本国策，人å£æ•°é‡æŽ§åˆ¶åœ¨ä»ŠåŽå¾ˆé•¿ä¸€æ@µæ—¶é—´å†…还是è¦æœ‰åŠ›æ‰§è¡Œçš„。åªæœ‰å°†äººå£æ€»é‡æŽ§åˆ¶åœ¨ä¸€ä¸ªé€‚度范围，é¢ä¸´æ—¥ç›ŠåŒ@ä¹çš„资æºçŸ­ç¼ºï¼Œæˆ‘国人å‡èµ„æºé‡æ‰ä¸ä¼šåŠå…¶åŒ@ä¹ï¼Œäººæ°‘生活水平æ‰ä¼šæœ‰è´¨çš„æ高。

Family planning is a fundamental policy in my country.  Population control for a long period of time in the future must be carried out with force.  In the face of daily increasing shortages of resources, only population control on a suitable scale will prevent extreme per capita resource shortages.  Only then can the people’s quality of living be raised.

You Xin says China’s demographic dividend, the world’s largest group of labor-aged workers largely responsible for powering the country’s manufacturing engine, has not helped develop a white-collared job market suitable for university graduates.

为什么大学生就业难？并ä¸è¦æ‰¾ä¸åˆ°å·¥ä½œï¼Œè€Œæ˜¯æ‰¾ä¸åˆ°åˆé€‚的工作。大学生作为知识分å­ï¼Œå½“然ä¸æ„¿èžå…¥åˆ¶é€ ä¸šå½“中了。对于”人å£çº¢åˆ©“时代的æ‹ç‚¹ï¼ŒåŠ³åŠ¨åŠ›ä¸‹é™ï¼Œæˆ‘们å¯ä»¥é‡‡å–其他措施，而ä¸æ˜¯æ”¾å¼€äºŒèƒŽæ”¿ç­– ... éšç€ä»¥åŽç»æµŽå‘展，我国也å¯ä»¿æ•ˆå‘达国å@¶ï¼Œå°†åˆ¶é€ ä¸šå¤§æ‰¹è½¬å…¥å…¶ä»–更贫穷的国å@¶ã€‚

Why can’t university students find a job?  It’s certainly not because we can’t find work, but because we can’t find suitable work.  Students, as intellectuals, of course aren’t willing to go into manufacturing ... As the economy develops further, [China] can follow the example of developed countries and transfer manufacturing on a large scale to other poorer countries.

Blogger ‘Grassroots Public Servant’ disagrees, saying growth in the manufacturing work force is essential to China’s future and may influence the passing of a “Two-Child Policy” sooner than later.

如果中国ç»æµŽèƒ½å¤Ÿè¾ƒå¿«å¤è‹ï¼Œåˆ™æ°‘å·¥è’会加剧，且远比å‰å‡ å¹´åŽ‰å@³ï¼Œæœ‰å¯èƒ½ä¿ƒä½¿å…¨é¢æ”¾å¼€äºŒèƒŽæ”¿ç­–çš„æå‰å‡ºå°ã€‚未æ¥ä¸­å›½ç»æµŽå‘展的一大制约因素，必然是劳动力，特别是低端劳动力的供给ä¸è¶³ã€‚

If China’s economy recovers relatively quickly, dramatically increasing the  laborer shortage even more than the last few years, this may expedite the passing of the Two-Child Policy nationally.  A major limitation to China’s future growth will certainly be labor power, especially shortages in the supply of low-level labor.

Blogger Wan Yu, who calls herself a basic level family planning officer, says the One-Child Policy was adopted to meet the economic challenges caused by the Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976 and resulted in widespread unemployment.  She says the policy was directed toward one generation of citizens and should be reviewed.

A deterioration of tradition family relationships is one of many problems Wan Yu cites with the continuation of the One-Child Policy.

…曾å¬è§éŸ³åƒåº—播放一ç§å„¿æ­Œï¼Œå†…å@¹æ˜¯“爸爸的哥哥是伯伯，妈妈的妹妹是姨妈......”，åˆå¬é¢‡è§‰åŒªå¤·æ‰€æ€ï¼Œç»†æƒ³ä¸èƒœæ„Ÿæ…¨ï¼Œå‡ ä»£ç‹¬ç”Ÿå­å¥³çŠ¶æ€å¦‚果延缓下去，这些å@¶åº­ä¼¦å¸¸å…³ç³»å°†æˆä¸ºåŽ†å²é—迹，孩å­ä»¬åªæœ‰åœ¨å„¿æ­Œé‡Œæ‰èƒ½å¬æ˜Žç™½ï¼Œä»–们的社会关系会与现在出现æžå¤§å·@别。

I once heard a music store playing a children’s song that went like this: “My dad’s brother is my uncle.  My mom’s sister is my aunt...” When I first heard it I thought it was unbelievable and couldn’t help but sigh.  If generations of single children continue, the traditional family relationships of these families will become a historical artifact.  Children will know [these names] from children’s songs only.  Their social relationships will be extremely different from ours.

Blogger Shui Lian disagrees with the idea that a “Two-Child Policy” will permanently solve China’s demographic problems and argues that higher birth rates will continue the cycle of China’s once-endemic overpopulation problems.

…如果放开二胎政策的构想æˆä¸ºçŽ°å@žçš„è¯ï¼Œä¸ºäº†å…»è€å°±å¯ä»¥å¤šç”Ÿå­å¥³ï¼Œé‚£ä¹ˆï¼Œå½“这些å­å¥³è€åŽ»çš„时候，他们åˆè¦ä¾é è°æ¥å…»è€å‘¢ï¼Ÿè¿™ä¸ä»…会人为增加社会养è€çš„æˆæœ¬ï¼Œè€Œä¸”势必加大æ¯ä¸€ä¸ªå@¶åº­çš„å…»è€è´Ÿæ‹…，是一ç§ä¸æŠ˜ä¸æ‰£çš„逻辑悖è@ºã€‚

If two-child policy thinking becomes a reality, and we can have more children in order to take care of the elderly, then who will they rely on to take care of them when they grow old?  This will not only artificially increase the costs of care for the elderly but will increase every household’s burden for caring for them.  It is purely a contradiction in logic.

Results from China’s sixth national census point to the possibility of an easing in family planning policy.  Southern Weekend reports that conditions that were once described as “population pressures” are now being called “advantages in human resources”.  What was once called “population control” has now been dubbed “population development”, the article says.

In the most interesting interview OSV conducted with Catholic iconographer Marek Czarnecki, that I referred to yesterday, we gain a sense of how we can properly understand the real language of icons. Before I quote from the second part of that OSV interview let me answer a question or two about this subject.

Am I suggesting that you cannot worship fully without icons? Not in the least. Am I suggesting that icons must be used in public worship? No. But are icons a form of idolatry? Those who answer yes to this question are numerous in evangelical Protestant circles and can easily impress others to follow their simplistic and iconoclastic reasoning without the evangelical having a framework for considering this subject. I am attempting to give such a framework and at the same time telling you why I use icons in my own worship.

Here is the second part of the interview that I began sharing yesterday from the (February 7, 2010) OSV.

*************

OSV: It seems like there is a lot going on in icons that many of us are not aware of. Is that true?

Czarnecki: When you look at an icon, the meaning of it should be absolutely open. There shouldn’t be anything hidden in an icon. There shouldn’t be anything esoteric in an icon. There shouldn’t be anything so complicated in an icon that you can’t immediately start praying with it. It’s like the Gospels. You don’t need a degree in philosophy or theology to open up the Gospels and read them and understand them. The icon has to be exactly the same. . . . People think icons are some very complicated symbolic map, and they’re not. They express the reality of a person’s life. Iconographers only use signs and symbols when the language when the language of naturalism is inadequate to express a spiritual truth.

It’s forbidden to make an icon of God the Father because the First Person of the Trinity is inexpressible. Like when Jews write up the Torah, they leave an empty space, and that absolutely correct. We have no adequate expression of God the Father, even though our churches are filled with them. In order to express that Jesus is divine, we can only make an image of his physical presence. To show that he’s divine we have to use signs and symbols because there is no adequate way to express his divinity. So we start with a halo, we put a three-barred cross in his halo, and the Greek characters that in English look like WON, which is an abbreviation for “I am Who I am.” Y putting in those characters, we demonstrate what Christ himself said, which is, “I and the Father are One.” But there’s no way that I can figure out how to paint that so we have to lapse into the use of semantic symbols, but it should be minimal, and it should only be used when you can’t express something in a very straightforward way.

OSV: For Westerners, icons can sometimes seem foreign, even off-putting. What’s behind that and how can we get past it?

Czarnecki: When the schism [between the Eastern and Western Churches] happened, it was such a profound thing, like a divorce. The Western Church moved toward more incarnational theology. The Eastern Church developed into more mystical theology. And the art in both churches reflects that theology. Both are correct. . . . Western art was much more naturalistic because it talked about the immanence of God in the world. Orthodox iconography just kept developing internally to show the transcendence of God in the world.

There are a couple of things that make the artistic language of the icon a little bit different than Western art, and one is the idea of space. When we make a naturalistic painting of a landscape, for example, an artist uses what’s called one-point perspective. You have a horizon line and all space recedes as it gets to the horizon line and things become smaller. In the icon, the idea is that we are looking through a window into that space of eternity. Since we’re looking into an eternal space, there can’t be a horizon. There can’t be an end. We use what’s called inverse, or reverse, perspective so that all things continually open up in front of us. . . . The other thing that’s different is the way the iconographer uses light. In a naturalistic painting, you always have some definite light source. In the icon, the light has to look like it comes from inside the figure and from many different points outside it. In an icon, you’ll never have cast shadows because a shadow means that there’s some light source.

OSV: If icons are looking into eternity, where does Western religious art look?

Czzarnecki: If you think of St. Francis of Assisi and that traditional act of making the first Nativity scene, what he was doing was starting the process of the humanization of Catholic art. . . . . When he made that Nativity scene and people were able to walk into a setting where they felt themselves participating in that space and God was participating in their space by statues, it was an articulation of God coming out into our space, and that’s an articulation of immanence.

It’s also a reflection of the very strong social mission of the Catholic Church. We aren’t afraid to get our feet dirty. I think of Dorothy Day. We put ourselves out into the world, go out into the world and find God.

Orthodoxy is inverted. It’s not better or worse, it’s just a different vision. In Orthodoxy, the approach is usually to leave the world, go find some high mountain, some dense forest, some dry desert and go into God’s space. That’s also the vision of the icon—to go into God’s space—whereas statues articulate God coming out into our space. Both ways are correct, but that schism created what I call a psychosis, two halves of the same picture.

*************

Several years ago I was involved in a dialogue with a group of Anglican priests and lay folks in an annual meeting of the Anglican Mission in America in Dallas. I was in a room where Dr. James I. Packer and I were asked to discuss theology and ministry with mostly younger leaders. It was a memorable time for me. There was a moment when someone asked Dr. Packer if he still held to the view he held against religious art being used in worship as a clear violation of the second commandment. (He expresses such a view in his classic book, Knowing God.) I was not surprised to hear Dr. Packer say that he had changed his mind about his understanding and that he no longer held to a strict Puritan view about religious art. I came to the same view many years ago but did not know Jim had also changed his mind. I thought to myself, “This is another reason why I love this man so dearly. He is willing, in his eighties, to keep thinking and to even admit that he had changed his mind regarding a particular section of a best-selling classic book that he wrote decades ago.”

Whatever you think of art and icons I hope you will better understand the positive role that they have in the hearts and experience of Christ’s people now. The word iconoclast broadly refers to those who oppose widely accepted traditional views. The word actually originated in the church. An iconoclast was a person who made it their goal to write and speak against icons. Some even worked to destroy icons as their special ministry for Christ. The spirit of the iconoclast lives on in many forms, literally and spiritually. An understanding of the real purpose of icons just might change all of that. I expect that we will see a growing number of younger Christians return to the use of icons as they see them in the way that I have explained in this mini-series. I welcome this and hope that they will discover more of Christ’s power and love in the process.

World soccer's governing body sees its annual income pass $1 billion for the first time.

The Penny Arcade Expo is mixing things up a bit for its inaugural east coast occurrence -- the annual showcase of independent games will now focus on local flavors. According to an update on the PAX East site, the Boston Indie Showcase (which attendees can spot on the show floor at Booth 117) will offer six games the chance to be prominently displayed at a major gaming event without "eating into their elusive indie budgets."

Here's a list of the games which made the cut, along with links to additional info.

• Slam Bolt Scrappers - Fire Hose Games
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - Dejobaan Games
• Dearth - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Waker - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Turba - Keith Morgado
• Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch

Boston Indie Showcase participants selected for PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Penny Arcade Expo is mixing things up a bit for its inaugural east coast occurrence -- the annual showcase of independent games will now focus on local flavors. According to an update on the PAX East site, the Boston Indie Showcase (which attendees can spot on the show floor at Booth 117) will offer six games the chance to be prominently displayed at a major gaming event without "eating into their elusive indie budgets."

Here's a list of the games which made the cut, along with links to additional info.

• Slam Bolt Scrappers - Fire Hose Games
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - Dejobaan Games
• Dearth - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Waker - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Turba - Keith Morgado
• Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch

Boston Indie Showcase participants selected for PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The annual Triangle Game Conference, which focuses on the development scene concentrated in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, is back for another year, and has announced its tracks and speakers. The event will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center and Marriott City Center April 7-8, and organizers say it will offer five tracks plus a "new and improved" Career Lounge where job seekers can meet with industry professionals. "We wanted to make this year's ...

Daytona Beach, Fla. - Traffic and decibel levels picked up here at the 24th annual Spring Break...

Two marathon typists faced off at the annual event in Austin—and one reached some amazing speeds.

The annual BAFTA Video Games Awards take place at the Park Lane Hilton in London tonight, and Tech Digest will have live coverage from the event, as well as a run down on all the winners and losers. Hosted by...

The fourth annual Pwn2Own contest—which takes place at the CanSecWest security conference every year—kicks off next week. Like last year, 2010's contest will offer security experts and hackers the chance to "pwn" a number of mobile platforms in addition to various browser/OS combinations. Though no mobile devices were successfully hacked last year, expectations are high that the iPhone will go down in this year's contest.

"With all the recent research on mobile phone security being presented worldwide, these devices are quickly becoming a ripe target," wrote Aaron Portnoy, security researcher at TippingPoint and Pwn2Own contest organizer. "First to fall: the iPhone."

Mac OS X security expert Charlie Miller, known for his past exploits of Safari and discovery of a possible arbitrary code execution exploit for the iPhone, is also confident that the iPhone will go down this year. "Someone I know quite well says they have an exploit for it and plan on using it," he said recently during a chat with Kapersky Labs' ThreatPost. "From an exploitation perspective, iPhone is no harder than [Mac] OS X now that Snow Leopard has data execution protection," Miller explained.

However, Miller plans to stick to Safari, which he successfully attacked the last two years, netting him thousands in cash and two MacBooks. "There isn't as much exposed code on the iPhone," he said. "The easy to exploit bugs I know about happen to live in the code that Safari has but Mobile Safari doesn't," mostly due to Mobile Safari's lack of support for Java, Flash, and other third-party plugins.

Also, Miller said, "in real life the iPhone is harder because you can't just execute a shell. You have to write your return-oriented payload to do all your dirty work, which can be a pain."

Miller said that attacking Safari this year will be harder than last year, since Snow Leopard has DEP and Safari sandboxes plug-ins in separate processes. However, he noted that Snow Leopard's incomplete support for address space layout randomization still leaves the Safari and Mac OS X combination open to vulnerabilities.

This year, contestants will have a chance to nab a laptop and a $10,000 cash prize for demonstrating exploits for IE8, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome 4 running under Windows 7, or Safari 4 running on Mac OS X 10.6. Contestants that successfully hack an iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Nokia E62, or a Motorola Droid will get to keep the device as well as $15,000 in cash.

Read the comments on this post

The fourth annual Pwn2Own contest—which takes place at the CanSecWest security conference every year—kicks off next week. Like last year, 2010's contest will offer security experts and hackers the chance to "pwn" a number of mobile platforms in addition to various browser/OS combinations. Though no mobile devices were successfully hacked last year, expectations are high that the iPhone will go down in this year's contest.

"With all the recent research on mobile phone security being presented worldwide, these devices are quickly becoming a ripe target," wrote Aaron Portnoy, security researcher at TippingPoint and Pwn2Own contest organizer. "First to fall: the iPhone."

Mac OS X security expert Charlie Miller, known for his past exploits of Safari and discovery of a possible arbitrary code execution exploit for the iPhone, is also confident that the iPhone will go down this year. "Someone I know quite well says they have an exploit for it and plan on using it," he said recently during a chat with Kapersky Labs' ThreatPost. "From an exploitation perspective, iPhone is no harder than [Mac] OS X now that Snow Leopard has data execution protection," Miller explained.

However, Miller plans to stick to Safari, which he successfully attacked the last two years, netting him thousands in cash and two MacBooks. "There isn't as much exposed code on the iPhone," he said. "The easy to exploit bugs I know about happen to live in the code that Safari has but Mobile Safari doesn't," mostly due to Mobile Safari's lack of support for Java, Flash, and other third-party plugins.

Also, Miller said, "in real life the iPhone is harder because you can't just execute a shell. You have to write your return-oriented payload to do all your dirty work, which can be a pain."

Miller said that attacking Safari this year will be harder than last year, since Snow Leopard has DEP and Safari sandboxes plug-ins in separate processes. However, he noted that Snow Leopard's incomplete support for address space layout randomization still leaves the Safari and Mac OS X combination open to vulnerabilities.

This year, contestants will have a chance to nab a laptop and a $10,000 cash prize for demonstrating exploits for IE8, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome 4 running under Windows 7, or Safari 4 running on Mac OS X 10.6. Contestants that successfully hack an iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Nokia E62, or a Motorola Droid will get to keep the device as well as $15,000 in cash.

Read the comments on this post

The fourth annual Pwn2Own contest—which takes place at the CanSecWest security conference every year—kicks off next week. Like last year, 2010's contest will offer security experts and hackers the chance to "pwn" a number of mobile platforms in addition to various browser/OS combinations. Though no mobile devices were successfully hacked last year, expectations are high that the iPhone will go down in this year's contest.

"With all the recent research on mobile phone security being presented worldwide, these devices are quickly becoming a ripe target," wrote Aaron Portnoy, security researcher at TippingPoint and Pwn2Own contest organizer. "First to fall: the iPhone."

Mac OS X security expert Charlie Miller, known for his past exploits of Safari and discovery of a possible arbitrary code execution exploit for the iPhone, is also confident that the iPhone will go down this year. "Someone I know quite well says they have an exploit for it and plan on using it," he said recently during a chat with Kapersky Labs' ThreatPost. "From an exploitation perspective, iPhone is no harder than [Mac] OS X now that Snow Leopard has data execution protection," Miller explained.

However, Miller plans to stick to Safari, which he successfully attacked the last two years, netting him thousands in cash and two MacBooks. "There isn't as much exposed code on the iPhone," he said. "The easy to exploit bugs I know about happen to live in the code that Safari has but Mobile Safari doesn't," mostly due to Mobile Safari's lack of support for Java, Flash, and other third-party plugins.

Also, Miller said, "in real life the iPhone is harder because you can't just execute a shell. You have to write your return-oriented payload to do all your dirty work, which can be a pain."

Miller said that attacking Safari this year will be harder than last year, since Snow Leopard has DEP and Safari sandboxes plug-ins in separate processes. However, he noted that Snow Leopard's incomplete support for address space layout randomization still leaves the Safari and Mac OS X combination open to vulnerabilities.

This year, contestants will have a chance to nab a laptop and a $10,000 cash prize for demonstrating exploits for IE8, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome 4 running under Windows 7, or Safari 4 running on Mac OS X 10.6. Contestants that successfully hack an iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Nokia E62, or a Motorola Droid will get to keep the device as well as $15,000 in cash.

Read the comments on this post

People gather at the Exit-Entry Administration Office of Nanjing public security bureau  to apply for overseas trips. More mainland tourists are expected to spend money on overseas travel this year, said a report by a think tank to the national tourism authority. The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010, released by the China Tourism Academy [...]

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao confirmed his government's new policy towards the United States during a press conference at the close of the annual session of the Popular Assembly. He didn't simply condemn the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and the reception given by the White House to the Dalai Lama, as he had done in the past. This time, he qualified both the arms sale to a separatist region and the backing of a separatist leader as acts of intrusion violating the sovereignty of the Popular Republic. This declaration denotes that China's new foreign policy does not emanate from the ascension of a few "hawks" to power [1] - Mr. Wen having been Prime Minister for 7 years -; it embodies the consensus prevailing within the Communist Party and marks a new balance of power between Beijing and Washington. == [1] See Difficult adjustment between Beijing and Washington, Voltaire Network, 9 March (...)

Charity GamesAid has made a call for a new wave of ambassadors to help organise new events and expand the organisation's visibility.

After organising a number of charity events, including its third annual golf day in January, organisers have made a call for new ambassadors to help "maximise fundraising efforts, spread the word throughout the industry to get more GamesAidÂ’s members and be an even bigger part of GamesAid."

  Ambassadors would be expected to devise and organise at least one fundraising event a year, with suggestions ranging from a poker night and sponsored run to an auction, party or cricket match.

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I am honoured and delighted to report that I have been named one of the winners of the annual Arthur Kroeger College Awards for Public Affairs.  I received the award for Policy Leadership.  Other winners include Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson, Purdy Crawford, Hire Immigrants Ottawa, and Al Johnson.

Warren Buffet does Axl Rose in Geico annual meeting video.