JooJoo refund issues creating some bad juju originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The long-running campaign to restore Silicon Valley's beloved 1930s mega-relic, Hangar One, has passed another milestone: the US Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have jointly "committed" to reskinning the toxically troublesome edifice....

The power of collaboration within unified communications

In a world of web-based services that depend on various other services, like Twitter or Google Maps data, your product will only be as strong as your weakest API call. I’ve found it’s actually a fun topic to discuss. For developers and web-based businesses, thinking about and managing federated flows of information has a big impact on the end-user experience.

I moderated the Can You Run a Serverless Business panel a few hours ago, and two of the panelists brought that up as an issue, with Jim Louderback of Revision3 (an occasional columnist for GigaOM) saying that at one point he ended up slowing down their video delivery because the company had relied on too many services located in the cloud, a sentiment echoed by Ethan Kaplan of Warner Music. It’s a topic I discussed yesterday with Sam Ramji, at Sonoa, which offers a service that helps track the health of APIs.

But after surveying the audience at the panel via a show of hands on what type of different web and cloud services they use, it was clear that most were using a mix of software, platforms and infrastructure as a service, with some also using traditional hosting or running their own data centers. Information technology has always been a confusing mix of gear and services, but it seems like that complexity is only expanding in terms of how and where you can build an offering as well as the “partners” whose APIs you might use to build a product.

• UPDATED: Twitter's @anywhere: Not a Bang But a Whimper Tech Insider
• Entrepreneurial Stereotypes on Display at SXSW Tech Insider
• SXSW: Twitter to Launch @Anywhere, Fails to Live Up to SXSW Hype Tech Insider
• SXSW: As MOG Goes Mobile, the U.S. Waits (and Waits) for Spotify Tech Insider

Making all of those elements work together, ensuring a good user experience, and eventually delivering service level agreements seems inordinately complex, but if done right we should see the emergence of new ecosystems of data, maybe built around cloud providers like Amazon or Google, or maybe popular APIs such as Twitter’s. But like any ecosystem, the effects of small breakdowns will ripple throughout the whole, something we’re only now beginning to react and build tools and contracts for.

For the GigaOM network’s complete SXSW coverage, check out this round-up.

Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub. req’d): Report: The Real Time Enterprise

Expect those yellow teeth ads to pop up on top of your YouTube videos any day now, as Google has added an option to build display ad overlays for YouTube within its Display Ad Builder, making it possible for Adwords customers to easily generate and run overlays that make use of their own imagery.

YouTube has been running ad overlays for close to three years now, and the site has called the format “one of the most effective ad formats.” However, generating those ads was previously fairly complex, and even many large advertisers have so far opted for text overlays instead of display ads. The new self-serve ad generator could lead to a huge number of display ads finding their way to YouTube, but also significantly increase monetization for the site, which could make as much as $1 billion in 2011, according to a recent Citigroup estimate.

Adwords customers can use Google’s Display Ad Builder to upload graphics sized 480*70 and then book these banners for regions, categories, or even a specific video. Display overlays can be booked either on a cost per click or CPM basis.

The move towards self-serve advertising on YouTube doesn’t come entirely as a surprise: GoRumors uncovered a patent application for such a feature in January. In that application, Google wrote:

The new ad generator on the other hand is squarely targeted at small advertisers. YouTube’s blog post announcing the new self-serve option specifically mentions small businesses as its target audience, musing that this would be a great way for a small beauty products outlet to “create an overlay ad and then run it on popular fashion and beauty videos.”

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Why 2010 Still Won’t Be the Year of Mobile Advertising (subscription required)

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Microsoft should make Bill Buxton its front man -- the main spokesperson. Buxton,  principal researcher for Microsoft Research, has style, great enthusiasm and vision. In an alternate universe, Buxton founded  a company like Apple; only better. Buxton is more visionary than Apple CEO Steve Jobs, has better sense of good design (he is a designer, after all) and understands great design in context of the flow of history. Perhaps if Buxton had more ego, he would run a company as successful as Apple, or Microsoft. But humility is part of his appeal.

Buxton stormed the Microsoft MIX10 stage today, bringing along hearth of wisdom and loads of energy. His energy is simply intoxicating. Last year, Buxton kicked off the MIX keynotes. This year he ended them -- and not with enough stage time. The first keynote, yesterday, started with sedate Scott Guthrie, Microsoft corporate vice president, talking Windows Phone 7 Series. Today's keynote began with Internet Explorer 9 team leader Dean Hachamovitch debuting the new browser, which is available as developer preview.

Hachamovitch, like Guthrie, is a competent  speaker. By comparison, Buxton is dynamic, enthralling -- and he tells great stories about great design. Buxton roams the stage like a caged tiger, but his ferociousness is insight. Scattered grey hair and lean build give him a stereotypical mad scientist look, and he rambles like one, too. I look at Buxton and think of Uncle Monty from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. "Some of you might say I'm hysterical," Buxton joked today.

Microsoft should have made MIX10 Buxton's birthday bash. He turned 61 last week. Buxton shows that excellence knows no age -- that Baby Boomers have user interface design and user experience (UX) wisdom that tech-savvy Gen Xers and Net Gen-ers need to understand. Today's cutting-edge technologies are descendants of earlier generations' bleeding edge tech. Decades, sometimes centuries, of refinement define many established technologies' UX. Take the design of AAA batteries, for example (mine not Buxton's).

Bill Buxton is principal researcher for Microsoft Research

Buxton's personal mantra reveals something important about his design philosophy. From his Website:

Ultimately, we are deluding ourselves if we think that the products that we design are the 'things' that we sell, rather than the individual, social and cultural experience that they engender, and the value and impact that they have. Design that ignores this is not worthy of the name.

This philosophy defines the differences between his approach to good design and UX from Apple's. Buxton sees good design as an expression of culture and history rather than the personality of a single designer or company. For Apple, good design is about "the things that we sell."

Buxton is an expert about natural user interfaces and their historical context

Good UI design is often about human usage context, and understanding longstanding design interfaces requires some understanding of historical context. Buxton used the example of buttons on a woman's shirt. He called the buttons wrong, because of their placement. But why are they that way? Buxton explained that when buttons were introduced, women didn't dress themselves. The buttons were correctly positioned for the person doing the dressing. Men dressed themselves, so the buttons are on the right, rather than the left.

"Do it naturally," Buxton commanded the MIX10 audience, referring to user interface design. While Microsoft and some other tech companies treat natural user interfaces as something new, Buxton made clear they are something very old. Natural user interfaces are varied, depending on function.

Buxton demonstrates a natural user interface

Buxton asked: "What the heck does natural mean?" One of his answers: "It's the ability to acquire skills." Good natural user interfaces affect the skills that the users have acquired. He answered with another question: "How well does it [the user interface] reflect me, the end user?"

Ultimately, a good natural user interface must address four human skill sets:

• Motor sensory skills
• Cognitive skills
• Social skills
• Emotional skills

Stated differently, good natural user interfaces answer question: "How do people function?" He emphasized that it's not technology that is changing but people. Good user interface design isn't about technology. It's about people. The message is particularly important for MIX's developer audience.

Demonstration of what Buxton calls a "pen and touch" user interface

Sadly, Buxton could only briefly touch on one of the most important natural user interface challenges facing Microsoft and many other technology developers: Mobile devices. Development of applications for mobile must have a "sense of place," understanding changing contexts, he said. Mobile devices are all about usage context.

Buxton joined Microsoft about four years ago, after running his own Toronto-based design firm (Yes, he ran a company in this universe). Before Microsoft, Buxton was perhaps better known for being chief scientist of Alias/Wavefront -- from 1994 to 2002. He is one of Microsoft's best hires in years.

While Buxton talks about putting user interface design in context of human use, its his ability to put UIs in cultural and historical context that makes him so unique among technologists. Microsoft should set up a mentorship program under Buxton and his research team for all product managers. To Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer I ask: Do you get it?

Hit the auto-update button for the latest posts, email simon.burnton@guardian.co.uk and view tonight's live scores

40mins: No clear chances to report at either end, though both Eto'o/Milito and Drogba/Anelka have come pretty close to creating something in the last few minutes.

36mins: "Delightfully unsubstatiated rumour would have it that CBJT has had a captain's armband tattoed on his upper left bicep, with 'CAPTAIN4EVER' in big bold blue letters," notes Patrick Cullen, apropos James Lilley's question (20mins) "Any truth in it, do you think?" Cripes, I hope not.

35mins: Baseless rumour department: "If Ben Dunn is correct that Cole does not fit three man system due to lack of pace, then rumors of Chelsea swoop for usa, usa, usa! Landon Donovan make sense as Donovan would do well in such a system and has speed to burn," writes John Williams. "I hear Lord Ferg would then grab Joe Cole."

33mins: Great chance for Inter. A good cross by Maicon (of course), Terry misjudges it and Eto'o, taken by surprise, gets his header all wrong and it bounces over the bar.

32mins: A half-chance for Chelsea. The ball falls to Anelka on the right side of Inter's penalty area but he seems unsure whether to pass to Lampard or Drogba, and just pats the ball between them, straight to a defender.

29mins: Alex goes for one of his long-range free-kicks. It goes nowhere near the goal at all. Enormously wide, and tremendously high.

28mins: Maicon's crossing has been really terrible. He seems to like to drive the ball, like there's no difference between a cross and a clearance.

26mins: A high-ball into Inter's penalty area bounces off Lucio's back straight to Drogba, 15 yards out. Maicon slides in and blocks his shot excellently.

25mins: So with the match a quarter over, Inter have got to be pretty chuffed. Chelsea have done very little, though Malouda has hinted that he is a potential match-winner. The Italians have been tough at the back and have done enough to suggest that they can grab a goal of their own at some point. And the referee's been very good. Firm, and not entirely against a bit of physical contact.

20mins: "Is CBJT is wearing an armband underneath his shirt's armband?" asks James Lilley. Surely not...

16mins: The referee, in the end, gives Chelsea an indirect free-kick. Andy Gray says he's "not sure we have them any more". Drogba shoots anyway, straight at the wall. Inter break, and Milito is barely a yard offside when played clean through.

15mins: Lucio tries to kick a ball at head height, and comes a good deal closer to kicking Malouda in the head. Didier Drogba takes exception to this, and the two shove each other for a while. While the referee speaks to them, Lampard and Thiago Motta briefly get involved.

11mins: Ballack, from a good 20 yards, sends a shot whistling about a yard wide of the post.

10mins: "Cole doesn't fit into their system," answers Ben Dunn. "He doesn't possess the pace required to play wide in the front three. If Chelsea played two up-front, Cole would be the best choice to play behind. They don't, and if one of the front three is removed then Kalou is the better replacement. Deco and Cole are there if a change of system is required. It rarely is and they are pretty much redundant."

8mins: Then Samuel Eto'o tries to take the ball past Mikel, runs into him and goes down for several minutes, clutching his nose and theatrically checking his hand in case it's stained with profusely pouring blood. Pathetically theatrical. There was almost no contact and he was responsible for all of it.

6mins: A pretty encouraging opening. Chelsea haven't come here to park the proverbial bus, that's for sure. Florent Malouda, who's in excellent form at the moment, jinks past a few Inter defenders before running into Lucio in the penalty area. A loud appeal, but the referee's not interested.

5mins My Twitter sources report that the Rainbow classic Since You've Been Gone was played on Chelsea's PA system in the run-up to kick-off. Excellent themed programming. Thoroughly approve.

2mins: "Any ideas on why Joe Cole never gets to start for Chelsea?" ponders Aidan Gibson. "I think he is probably the second best technical English footballer, after Rooney." None, Aidan. He should surely be fit enough by now, and he's certainly good enough.

1min: And, finally, they're off!

7.42pm: A surprisingly aggresive team selection, is the consensus on Inter. "That's Mourinho for you," says Andy Gray. Even emails to suggest that "the media's mancrush on Mourinho is completely adorable". I think that as far as the public is concerned a manager's place, like a child's, is to be seen but not heard. And certainly not this much.

7.37pm: Is the Just For Men advert that's just been on Sky Sports 2 a deliberate attack on Mourinho? Because although he would appear to fall into the product's core market, I don't think he's watching.

7.30pm: "None of all that chat would affect me," says Graeme Souness of Mourinho's bluster. "I'm sitting here wondering, is there a game of football on here tonight? This is just a sideshow."

7.26pm: You'll never guess who Sky are interviewing now. OK, you probably could. "If the crowd boos me, I'd be very disappointed. Because I don't deserve," Mourinho says. "If they don't sing my song, I understand."

7.14pm: And here are your big match teams!
Chelsea: Turnbull, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Zhirkov, Ballack, Mikel, Lampard, Anelka, Drogba, Malouda. Subs: Taylor, Carvalho, Joe Cole, Kalou, Sturridge, Belletti, Bruma.
Internazionale: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Sneijder, Motta, Pandev, Eto'o, Milito. Subs: Toldo, Cordoba, Stankovic, Quaresma, Mariga, Materazzi, Santon.
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany).

Preamble: So what a night we have to look forward to tonight. Having read, seen and heard a large amount of the pre-match gubbins, I am happy to provide you, dear reader, with a simple resumé of what we'll be watching from Stamford Bridge: 22 irrelevant players. One irrelevant ball. An irrelevant referee. A lot of irrelevant people in the stands. An irrelevant manager. 90 minutes, and possibly more, of utterly irrelevant football. And Jose Mourinho.

"We love him, make no mistake about that," was Richard Keys' line pre-match. Richard Keys is a broadcaster. Broadcasters do love him. Mourinho gives good interviews. Me, I'd love him more if he had an off switch.

Making your way through the pre-Mourinho buzz, the presidential periphery orbiting José Mourinho's first public appearance back at Chelsea since his departure in 2007, it was hard to avoid the low-lying thrill of A-list event-glamour. Among the pan-European crowd of at least 200 crammed into a sweaty room in the Stamford Bridge museum, there was genuine expectation.

The first sighting of the man himself brought an audible gurgle of pleasure.

There he was at the front of the stage in a surprisingly shiny black body-warmer: the irresistible smile and the air of natural celebrity still thrillingly intact. He stopped to embrace a white-haired old man; you half expected him to rise up and throw away his crutches rather than merely offer his scarf for autograph. As Mourinho disappeared again, leaving the stage to his warm-up act – a sullen Marco Materazzi – there was another groan, this time of disappointment. But that was enough. Mourinho has still got it.

The English press always loved Mourinho. Right from the start they swooned and gushed as he fed them lines: no filler, just ready-loaded, perfectly-pitched wise-guy gobbets. At his first Chelsea press conference in June 2004 Mourinho had looked like a time-traveller, a managerial format update, not to mention the bastardishly handsome Mafiosi business tycoon in a Mediterranean daytime soap opera. Six years of elite management have taken their toll very slightly. Mourinho is still ferrety and slender. He now has the face of a slightly worn but still precocious boy prodigy. The silky hair has atrophied a little into a greying bouffant. Previously he had pin-up hair. This is being replaced by something more substantial: senior diva hair, Hollywood hair, Liz Taylor hair.

As he mounted the podium in earnest, we got a different Mourinho, however.

And, at first, a slightly puzzling one too. For a start, he was eating custard creams: loads of custard creams, one after another. At least the first question was a gimme. "José, would beating Chelsea be special for you?" We craned forwards in anticipation. "No ..." the answer eventually came. This was a little disorientating. He mumbled a bit. He looked bored.

He took the air out of the room. Slumped in his seat, he engendered an unlikely lull. Still rock star-ish, still potent behind his tiny microphone, this was Keith Richards rather than Mick Jagger.

Was he worried he might be booed during the game, somebody asked, encouragingly. Mourinho looked, briefly, as though he'd found a woodlouse in his custard cream. This really wasn't going the way the press had planned it. "José," someone else appealed. "You used to go out of your way to stoke up the pre-match atmosphere. Is this a new José, playing it cool?"

"I can't do this in Chelsea," he shrugged. "Chelsea is different." At which point Mourinho looked so theatrically pious, as though Chelsea — rather than a football club — was his estranged virgin bride, and this very room his dear old dead mum's mausoleum, that you started to get a sense of what he was up to.

Because Mourinho is always up to something. Generally football managers hate press conferences. The media are grudgingly tolerated, their probings blandly repulsed. Only Mourinho loves them. These occasions are part of the game for him. This is where it kicks off. He prepares carefully for a press conference. He brings his A-game. This is his moment, his perfect moment.

So as he balefully confided his still-tender feelings for "the team I worked with for three and a half years ... the same players ... the same supporters", you could almost hear the surge of tearful violins. This is why Mourinho isn't cross with Chelsea. Mourinho has no need to be cross with Chelsea. Because Chelsea, basically, still belongs to him. He wasn't performing because we were in his front room. His coat was hanging up on the door (actually it was hanging at the back in a glass cabinet). So take a seat.

Have a custard cream. Carlo, even you. "I feel at home," he gushed, and you felt the full force of his wiles, his props and his shiny black body-warmer. You suspected he was wearing slippers. He even started to look a little bit silvery and sly, perhaps even, at a push, a bit like the evil twin in a film where Philip Schofield has an amusingly diabolical imaginary alter ego.

Mourinho couldn't play this entirely straight, however, because at the bottom he also loves doing this stuff. He is unable to resist the theatre. His instinct for the big scene and the pressure point is too keen. "Life goes on," he shrugged, musing on his departure. "I keep winning important things ... They win ... something." Even new, pious, relaxed, feet-up-on-your-desk José couldn't help laughing along at that one.

• Champions League
• Chelsea
• Internazionale

Samsung is resurrecting the ghost of the Q1 and planning to jump into the now-hot slate PC market in the second half of 2010. According to Emmanuele Silanesu, National Product and Marketing Manager for Samsung Australia’s IT division, Samsung’s slate device will contain a faster, more robust processor than the iPad and will offer more connectivity options through a diversity of I/O ports. Consumer friendly in price, the Samsung slate will be a primary device designed to replace a netbook or a notebook in your personal arsenal of mobile computers. As Silanesu explained, this is a device that “you could take to university and do a PowerPoint presentation on it, for example, or a device that could be taken home or to the office and docked.” From Silanesu’s brief revelation, we can expect the Samsung slate to feature an Intel Atom processor, contain ports for multiple video sources, support a multitude of peripherals including a docking station, sport a sub-$500 price tag, and mostly likely run some flavor of Windows. Any interest in an Intel Atom-powered slate running Windows or have we already been there, done that as shown above?

Read

Today at the South By South West festival in Austin, three finalists competed in the Microsoft BizSpark Accellerator finals in the "Innovative Web Technologies" category.

The companies, RecycleMatch, Siri and Skimble argued their positions on stage in front of three judges and tonight the winner will be announced at 6pm CST.

Sponsor

The Accelerator competition is in its second year and started out with a list of 32 finalist companies in three categories. While all three categories have some strong entries, we wanted to check out the innovative technologies to see what was, well, innovative.

"There's really no place to do this now," said Farrell. "Let's say I've got this piece of polyester fiber waste but I don't know anyone around who can use it. It's the perfect use of the internet - to connect people like that."

We can see this not only having a great impact on the world, but certainly stepping into the ever popular "green" genre and sticking around.

"For decades, Hollywood has been paintinh this picture of machine assistants with Hal 9000 - what Siri is doing is taking some steps to make that a reality," Kittlaus said.

As our own Frederic Lardinois has written before about the iPhone app, Siri is "one of the most ambitious mobile services we have seen in the last few years."

You simply hold the phone up, hit a button, and tell it what you need and it translates your speech into text, uses natural language processing algorithms to determine what you need and then launches the appropriate services. Whether you want to schedule a taxi pick-up, make a dinner reservation or remind yourself of that Monday morning appointment, just ask Siri and it will do it.

"What if you could make it easy to ask your phone to do something?" asked Kittlaus. "It's all about simplification."

While the app looks to simplify your life, the technology behind it is anything but simple and it makes us feel a little bit like we've finally arrived in the future.

Yes, you heard that right - she did push-ups with both legs behind her head. This woman is living what she's preaching, that we can attest to.

"We would like to inspire active lifestyles across the board," she started off in her explanation.

Skimble is a hybrid social network, physical fitness tracking app, that lets you track your physical activities, whether running, doing yoga, or playing kickball and compete with your friends. As you keep track of your activities, you can compare with your friends on a leaderboard and even compete to win real-world prizes. As with Siri, Skimble is primarily an iPhone app, although it has an accompanying website with additional features.

For the final word on what company will take the top prize, watch live tonight at 6 pm CST or check out the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator page.

the only workaround I know is to use Maven's own tools, i.e. running "dependency:tree"

Portable Start Menu is a simple and free start menu application that can be installed on USB sticks or local PCs. Organize your programs in a simple menu system and launch them via a tray icon. If you close Portable Start Menu on an USB-Stick, running applications can be closed automatically, too.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Legal chief tells of killings and torture in early days of invasion

Eight or more civilians died in the custody of British troops in the weeks after the invasion of Iraq, despite frequent warnings by the army's most senior legal adviser there about unlawful treatment of detainees, an inquiry has heard.

In devastating evidence to an official inquiry, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer described the way Iraqi detainees were intimidated and hooded by British soldiers as "repulsive". He said that 10 days after the invasion in March 2003 he saw 20 or 30 detainees lined up with sandbags on their heads.

He was shocked, he said, adding that it was "a bit like seeing pictures of Guantánamo Bay for the first time".

Mercer said he had had a "massive row" with the commander of the Queens Dragoon Guards about the army's legal obligations under the Geneva conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights. He had walked out of a meeting between British officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross after being told by a "political adviser" to keep his mouth shut, he added.

Mercer's repeated protests about the unlawful treatment of Iraqis in British custody was so unwelcome within the Ministry of Defence that his boss, Martin Hemming, head of its legal service, threatened to report him to the Law Society, he said.

Mercer, who is still serving, was giving evidence into the death of Baha Mousa, a Basra hotel worker who died in British custody in September 2003. This was months after Mercer had persistently warned senior army officers — including General Robin Brims, commander of British troops in southern Iraq — that detainees were being subjected to unlawful treatment.

He revealed that he and Brims later refused to sign statements pre-prepared by Hemming as evidence to the Commons human rights committee.

He said the abuse of Iraqi prisoners might have been prevented if a British judge had been appointed to oversee the handling of detainees, a proposal that he said was blocked by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general.

Goldsmith, who has said he never authorised the use of five banned techniques, including hooding, may be asked to give evidence to the inquiry with the former defence secretary Geoff Hoon, and former armed forces minister, Adam Ingram.

In his evidence, Mercer described how in May 2003, two months after first issuing his warnings, military police investigators told him about two deaths in custody. They added that they thought there were "five or six more deaths that required investigation".

Speaking later outside the inquiry, Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, which represents Iraqi detainees, said there were 47 "unresolved cases" involving the mistreatment of civilians by British troops. "There are so many cases, that is why we need a single inquiry [to cover them all]", he said.

Mercer recalled seeing one prisoner, Faisal Sadoon, held in "appalling conditions" in a container "with a barbed wire door in 40 degrees-plus of heat". He was told of prisoners appearing bruised and hooded at detention centres. He recalled seeing "a generator running outside the interrogation tent, which seemed to me to create a culture of intimidation and possibly with the aim of muffling any noise".

He warned that "in no circumstances should [detainees'] faces be covered as this might impair breathing" "I felt I was banging my head against a brick wall. We found ourselves in a constant legal battle," he told the inquiry.

He regarded hooding, banned in 1972, as repulsive. "It amounts to violence and intimidation and it degrades the individual so I don't like it in any circumstance," he said.

He said he felt vindicated when the Red Cross began to express concern in May 2003. British soldiers were handed cards before the invasion saying that civilians should be treated "humanely". But there was no training in interrogation techniques, Mercer said.

His warnings, and those of the Red Cross, reached ministers and top military commanders in London. But hooding was not banned until after Mousa's death more than six months later, the inquiry heard.

"The issue of prisoners had very low priority and was treated more as an inconvenience than an obligation under international law," Mercer said in a written statement to the inquiry. It was partly a question of resources and lack of planning, he said.

But he added that it was also about "proper education, training, and the moral compass". He said there was a "classic dilemma" in the army. "You're in the command structure and there's always pressure to do one thing, when legally you may believe something else".

An MoD spokesman said: "All deaths in British custody in Iraq have been thoroughly investigated. Having committed to a public inquiry, it would be wrong to comment upon any evidence presented to it."

He said the ministry will have an opportunity to respond to the report written by the chairman, Sir William Gage, at the end of proceedings.

• Baha Mousa
• Iraq
• Military

Internet Explorer -- GPU-accelerated HTML5/Interwebs; ALL apps hardware accelerated originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ten weeks after the launch of Google’s Nexus One smartphone, sales continue to remain slow. Mobile analytics firm Flurry, who also projected first week and first month sales for the snazzy device, has just released its latest sales estimates, deducing that in 74 days, 135,000 devices have been sold.

This is in sharp contrast to the Motorola DROID and the original Apple iPhone, which both sold a million units in the same period of time.

Flurry actually used 74 days as a barometer, because that was how long it took for the original iPhone to sell one million units back in 2007. Motorola’s DROID sold 1.05 million units by day 74, and that’s to say nothing of future iPhone releases, which all crossed the one-million-sold mark even more quickly.

Flurry lays out some good arguments for why Nexus One sales have lagged behind DROID sales (and we really do think that DROID is the more accurate barometer, rather than using the 2007 iPhone benchmarks), but we think it’s really all about one thing: Carrier.

Although the Nexus One is available unlocked (for a higher price), it is still largely tied to a single carrier in the United States (and in Canada). That carrier, T-Mobile, has the smallest 3G coverage area of the major wireless telecos. That’s a big problem when you are talking about a phone that really needs to be connected to 3G or Wi-Fi to show off its best features.

Conversely, Verizon has a huge subscription base, the most consistent 3G network and is running a very aggressive ad campaign promoting the DROID.

AT&T may be the bane of many iPhone users’ existence (although it is slowly improving), but the coverage options still trump T-Mobile, even with 3G out of the equation. Fortunately, Google has just made unlocked Nexus One phones available for AT&T and Rogers 3G networks. Unfortunately, this is still a separate version from the T-Mobile Nexus One, which means that if you wanted to switch carriers in the United States or Canada and keep 3G, you’re still SOL.

Once the Nexus One hits Verizon, we expect sales to really start to increase.

When Google officially released the Nexus One, I commented that it wasn’t really about the phone, it was about Google’s new phone marketplace.

Seventy-four days later, this phone marketplace has a lot of problems that still haven’t been completely resolved. First, customers complained about an additional (and excessive) early termination fee that Google charged for users who terminated their contract in the first 120 days of ownership. This fee was in addition to T-Mobile’s fee and as expected, consumers went ballistic. Google has since lowered the ETF to $150, but that still means you’re paying two early termination fees if you cancel in the first four months of use.

Then, there’s the ongoing issue of getting support for the Nexus One. Google has since improved support options, but you still need to potentially deal with three different people: the manufacturer, the wireless company and then Google. That’s problematic and it is something that doesn’t happen for other phones, even on the same carrier. When I had problems with my BlackBerry, I called and was served by a T-Mobile person — sometimes I had to jump through hoops to talk to a RIM specialist, but I didn’t have to call RIM directly.

Plus, I do think that perhaps Google underestimated how many people like to, I don’t know, physically touch a phone before buying it. Now, I’m not one of those people (Hey, I pre-ordered the iPad sight-unseen), but many users are — and not having any store presence is problematic, if only because it decreases visibility.

The Nexus One is clearly not the big hit that many expected it to be — and even on Verizon, it might never be a hit.

However, the fact that DROID numbers are so strong shows that this isn’t a platform problem, it’s an execution problem. It will be interesting to see Google’s next attempt.

What do you think of Nexus One sales? Are you surprised that they are as low as they are? Let us know!

Tags: droid, flurry, nexus one, phone sales

• Replaced the font used for menu screen and in-game text.
• Fixed a timer bug that reduces CPU usage greatly.
• Improved some sounds and visual effects.
• Made some minor changes to interface graphics.

Donnie Dong (Hao Dong), a Berkman Fellow, is giving a Berkman Tuesday lunchtime talk.

NOTE: Live-blogging. Getting things wrong. Missing points. Omitting key information. Introducing artificial choppiness. Over-emphasizing small matters. Paraphrasing badly. Not running a spellpchecker. Mangling other people’s ideas and words. You are warned, people.

Donnie begins by asking us to play “spot the difference”: Google’s homepage on March 14 (3.14 — the Google pi logo) and Google.cn (Google’s Chinese home page) on that day. Besides not having the pi logo, the link to gmail is missing on China.cn, there’s no sign-in link, therte’s a link to tianya.cn, and the Chinese version has an official government ICP license number.

Tiany.cn is a massively popular social network. At the hot topics in the forums, there can be millions visitors and millions replies. (Donnie shows one topic that has over 4 million replies, and it was only posted in February of this year.) There are hundreds of boards and board masters, organizationally structured in a way similar to the Chinese government: A secretary general, branching powers, judges, appeals judges, etc. The structure works well. The rules say that no posts can be deleted or edited, so people consider carefully what they are writing. You can petition for a change to any edits made by the board master, but that’s embedded in an administrative bureaucracy. This is “decentralization under a super power,” he says.

QQ.com is an instant messenger app with over 1.4 billion accounts. It offers many kinds of services, all based on IM. It is a closed system with an open API.

Douban.com is a Web 2.0 site. (“Douban” is a Chinese dish.) Douban provides links to media (books, DVDs), etc., and enables its 36M people to comment, review, and discuss them. Everything posted at Douban is public. “Douban has a lot of Habermas’ public sphere.” But, Donnie adds, it strongly supports censorship.

Donnie points to common features of Chinese Web sites. First, they accept Web 2.0 ideas, but make user-generated contents controllable. Second, they only comply with Chinese culture. Third, they provide integrated services, not an open API. Fourth, they are driven by instant messaging, with a bulletin board management style. The Chinese Internet is not driven by email but by IM.

Google has never made money in China, Donnie says.

Donnie points out the “music” link on the Google.cn page. Google.cn actually is provided by t0p100.cn [I may not have transcribed accurately]. You can download legal music there. But at mp3.Baidu.com you can search the Internet and download what you find. Baidu has been sued, but it’s been defended by the safe harbor laws. Google has been copying Baidu, but not very successfully, Donnie says.

Until 2005, the Chinese control over the Net was accomplished mainly by technical control. From 2003-9, there was more and more legal enforcement. In 2010, there is a legislative rebooting. There is now a jungle of licenses: domains, commercial websites, webcast website, news website, online games…

The switch from tech to law has increased certainty because the authorities have explained why sites are being shut down. It has also caused important discussions to occur. But, the law is immature and thus enforcement is somewhat arbitrary. And the “clouds of licensing systems” are still difficult to navigate. But, these are temporary.

Hillary Clinton said there is a single Internet, says Donnie. “I do not think it is really true from the cultural, legal, and linguistic aspects.” Tim Wu, in Who Controls the Internet, says that the Internet is splitting, and there are under-appreciated advantages of this. “I agree,” says Donnie. Can we get along with each other in this world if the Net splits? “I think we can,” he says, because the Net consists of autonomous systems connected without hierarchy. We have to look at the Internet as pluralist, he says.

What we should really care about, he says, is that those with wealth, who have more access to the Net, do not replicate the economic/social divide on the Internet. [This is based on a brief conversation with Donnie afterwards.]

Q: The Chinese language itself is a barrier, in both directions, but not with Taiwan. Are the sites accessible?
A: Most of the Taiwanese Web sites are accessible in China, including the official government sites. Some sites that advocate Taiwan’s continuing autonomy are not accessible.

Q: What will be the effect of the announcement that access to the Internet is a basic human right?
A: The BBC had a survey that showed that 80% of people believe that, and that news was published all over the Chinese Web sites without problem. The problem is the law from the 1990s. I believe they will be changed sooner or later.

Q: To what extent does the system of govt bureaucracy account for the siloed nature of their services?
A: I think those structures were based on the notion that the Internet is just like other public media, such as TV.

Q: How does the censorship look from the inside?
A: As Rebecca MacKinnon said, most of the citizens don’t feel the censorship. There’s so much information available, so much news, so many services, so many forums. And if you really want to get some information, you can find a way to. And if you really want to express something, you can. The filtering mechanism can’t work perfectly, and their are many examples of this.
Q: What’s wrong with the system?
A: Because it reflects the old mass media, not on the Internet’s nature. It’s old logic. If we can reform the law so that it fits the Internet better, the question will be less urgent.

Q: You’re optimistic about the future of the split Internet. But there should be a common denominator wherever you go. A core function of the Net is to foster the circulation of info. What about the Chinese attitude toward copyright protection?
A: You can compare the systems of censorship and copyright protection. In China, there is a great deal of “freedom” (in quotes) in using copyrighted materials, even though China’s copyright laws are pretty much the same as everyone’s. The govt could do a campaign to fight piracy just as it does to fight pornography, and it could be very effective.

Q: It’s normal that a medium would be adapted to local needs. But do you think there is something about the Net’s design and essence that is core so that if it were changed, it’s not the Internet?
A: I believe everyone in the world has universal rights that should be complied with. But I’m suggesting that the separated parts of the Net could have universal principles and universal protocols.
Q: What separates the Internets?
A: Infrastructurally, linguistically, culturally, legally. By infrastructure, I mean the physical base of the Net. The protocols are the same.

Q: Can you compare the Chinese Internet to other linguistically isolated cultures? E.g., Would you say that Japan has a different Internet as well?
A: The term “pluralism” itself has many layers.

Q: What’s the effect on the ordinary Chinese citizen on Google’s departure? A Nature poll says that Google is the first choice of scientists in China.
A: Google won’t quit all of China. (This is just a guess, he says.) Resourceful users will be able to get to Google even after it departs.

Hey guys,

We have two build agents set up now.

Just noticed that when DeveloperA checked into ProjectX and 5 mins later, DeveloperB also checks into ProjectX that his check-in kicked off a second build even though DeveloperA's first build has not even completed.

Somehow this seems strange to me. I would like to see the first checkin complete (and either pass or fail) before a second build on the same project is kicked off.

Is there a way to configure TC so that our second agent is never "used up" to start running a build on a project that is already building??

This seems like a waste of processing, I mean, why would you want to be running two separate builds simultaneously (just staggered) on the same project?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Hey guys,

We have two build agents set up now.

Just noticed that when DeveloperA checked into ProjectX and 5 mins later, DeveloperB also checks into ProjectX that his check-in kicked off a second build even though DeveloperA's first build has not even completed.

Somehow this seems strange to me. I would like to see the first checkin complete (and either pass or fail) before a second build on the same project is kicked off.

Is there a way to configure TC so that our second agent is never "used up" to start running a build on a project that is already building??

This seems like a waste of processing, I mean, why would you want to be running two separate builds simultaneously (just staggered) on the same project?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the moments posted so far!

Today we take a look at the initial story arc from Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos' Alias...

Enjoy!

With the news that Jessica Jones would be returning to the superhero game in New Avengers, I thought it'd be a fun idea to re-visit the early days of Jessica Jones in the pages of Alias.

When we first meet Jessica, she is accosted by a jerk of a client and she ends up throwing him through her door after he tries to hit her.

Thus we learn her background...

And soon after, we discover that she is in a dark, dark place in her life right now...

At the end of issue #1, after Jessica is hired to find the sister of a woman, she tapes the sister with a man, who turns out to be, well, someone that Jessica did not expect...

Jessica is then thrown into a whole big mess of a conspiracy that goes all the way to the highest level of national politics, and it all revolves around the world of superheroing that Jessica left behind long ago.

The greatest thing about Alias is that Brian Michael Bendis did such a good job creating a multi-faceted character in Jessica that he basically can just throw her into different situations just to see how she will react.

It makes Alias a very interesting book to read, especially because she's a likable enough character that you WANT to see her make the most out of her life.

Michael Gaydos handles the darkness of the tale quite well - he is a strong storyteller and the sequences in the book are top rate.

This first storyline is collected in the first Alias trade, along with the following story arc.

If you enjoyed Bendis' earlier crime comics, then Alias is right up your alley as it has the same character-driven focus that his crime comics had. Very well crafted comics.

Filed under: Etc., Ferrari, Middle East

Continue reading Video: Ferrari World roller coasters pull into the station in Abu Dhabi

Video: Ferrari World roller coasters pull into the station in Abu Dhabi originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Iranian opposition is planning to take to the streets again tonight as part of a traditional fire festival in defiance of the authorities. Follow live updates

5.05pm:
The number of incidents reported by the Tehran fire department has increased to 66 up to 7.45pm local time (4.15pm GMT), according to the semi-official Mehr News.

4.48pm:
As usual on one of these protest days there is virtual media blackout in Iran which means that reliable information is difficult to obtain. If you are in Iran and have news, please email me at matthew.weaver@guardian.co.uk or for a more secure encrypted message email me at matthew_weaver@hushmail.com and please post updates or interesting links in the comments section below.

4.39pm:
Three people have been arrested in Enghelab Square in Tehran, according to the INA news agency.

And there is a heavy police presence in Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square and the Saadat Abad and Velanjak areas of the city according to France24.

Earlier today the Committee of Human Rights Reporters said that women's rights activist Laleh Hassanpour was arrested after a police raid on her home.

4.31pm:
The Tehran fire brigade reports 36 separate incidents across the city tonight, according to the state run news agency ISNA. Eight of the incidents were due to handmade fireworks, it said according to our translator.

4.18pm:
There are numerous reports of firecrackers going off and even of clashes on the streets of Tehran from usually reliable sources on Twitter. Video footage has been released but there are doubts about its veracity, some claim it shows last year's fire festival.

4.14pm:
Police are banning petrol stations from filling up containers, according to CNN's Reza Sayah.

4.08pm:
Tehran police chief General Hossein Sajedinia told the ISNA news agency his forces were deployed to prevent "any event in the city".

The police have also announced that riding motorbikes will be banned tonight.

Opposition website, Norooznews, reported that Mousavi told a group of activists that the green movement would continue into the Persian New Year, which starts on Sunday.

"We have to call the next year the year of patience and resistance, until the aims of the Green Movement are achieved," he said.

4pm:
Tonight demonstration is a key test of the strength of the opposition after a disappointing turnout at last month's protests.

Some commentators, including former US security council middle east expert, Flynt Leverett, said the turnout on 11 February showed that the opposition was running out of steam.

The planned protest tonight is different from the other demonstrations staged since the disputed elections last June. It is due to happen at night rather than the day to coincide with Chaharshanbe Suri or the Feast of Fire celebrations.

Even before the election this Zoroastrian ceremony had become a way of showing defiance to the regime. It involves letting off fireworks, jumping over bonfires, and men and women dancing on the streets - an activity banned in the Islamic Republic.

The festival often turns dangerous as young people traditionally chuck petrol bombs and other homemade explosives.

This time round the authorities have banned the festival and stepped up security. The supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei described Chaharshanbe Suri as corrupt and counter to Islam.

Yesterday the authorities announced that six people arrested in earlier protests will be executed. The move is being seen as a way of warning the opposition not to take to the streets tonight, according to the New York Times.

The defeated opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi have not overtly called for supporters to take to the streets tonight. But yesterday Karroubi pointedly said the Iranian government was "plagued with despotism".

And the Facebook page of Mousavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard has expressed support for the festival. It is the festival of light against darkness, it said.

• Iran
• Protest
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• Mir Hossein Mousavi
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
• Middle East

As weather warms up again, it’s about time to drag out your flip flops.  These flip flops from Teva are no ordinary sandals.  They come with a set of LED lights strapped to the front.  They’ll shine out brightly in front of you, ensuring you won’t step on anything.  Don’t worry, for those times you don’t want to look like a complete dork, these can pop off and be attached to your keychain.

This is one of those things that you don’t buy until you’re already very securely in a relationship.  Otherwise, you’re probably going to repel the opposite sex with these sandals.  On the bright side, at least you’ll be able to watch them running away from you, even when it’s pitch black out.  The sandals will be available sometime this coming May and will cost you $60 per pair.

Source: OhGizmo
Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Teva Illum Sandals have headlights for your feet copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]