pobject id="utv_o_847056" height="320" width="400" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"param value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/365750" name="movie" /param value="true" name="allowFullScreen" /param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess" /param value="transparent" name="wmode" /param value="viewcount=trueamp;autoplay=falseamp;brand=embedamp;" name="flashvars" /embed name="utv_e_568112" id="utv_e_684896" flashvars="viewcount=trueamp;autoplay=falseamp;brand=embedamp;" height="320" width="400" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/365750" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" //objectWe've featured a href="http://gizmodo.com/tag/christmas-lights"crazy ass Christmas lights/a on here before, and seeing as it's officially past Thanksgiving, it's time to show them off again. /p pThis Xmas light display, which is in its second year running by a couple named Willy and Deb, has a rotating array of music that's synced to their flashing lights; a technique pioneered by a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD4g0gmQSLk"this family/a back in 2005ish. Watch and enjoy. [a href="http://www.ustream.tv/channel/365750"Ustream/a]/p /embed br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d0a26afc99ffb59ef7d823d2b0cd70b0p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d0a26afc99ffb59ef7d823d2b0cd70b0p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=d0a26afc99ffb59ef7d823d2b0cd70b0" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=KOXFEOR6"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=RbVTatrJ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=HIMHClRo"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=HIMHClRo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=Xb4LTg84"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=Xb4LTg84" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/ofZUfSilQnE" height="1" width="1"/

Now that Google has added iCal-syncing support to Google Calendar, Calaboration makes adding Google calenders to iCal simple.br style=clear: both;/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:d583afcc60a2ea156c36e3058421ecae:%2FigLo%2FyiRpSzOGOdmRHGA3vMXGO2daFKJ6kAbTm%2B%2Bdt9FlsfoDH156pQICT3tBs0NYlTySw56sc6'img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/digg.gif'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:f5f5afae77f90f4c75844eca49841fe7:8mEHkwDkeUwDBpFS9Zh5YMK6Mf51Wu0Luj9AG291%2BBUswR6MufMH4BBej5SHEwMDK1EBR6QVq7pE'img border='0' title='Add to Reddit' alt='Add to Reddit' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/reddit.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:3634a9f514e55d745221cba3fc0f7d1e:uj7Gf0ay38d0n0QI9xNXn4AEaduPhxBwlyeYO5EoOF4dRag5Lu4hQZ6ps68c6XJhLJQMm%2Ffiyu6OgQ%3D%3D'img border='0' title='Add to Slashdot' alt='Add to Slashdot' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/slashdot.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:d041c078dcb62b0dbacfd123e416419e:5EnmX63s6SiOandMlOblqpvNpdi5cjRF5lEsT67mMIHEFHNzwTK3I64vJQ%2BeQSUd5hV1AIWGYGkA'img border='0' title='Email this Article' alt='Email this Article' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/emailthis.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:106f6803bbbcf782fe5d1ec3dbca372d:B6tCm%2BQzt2Amav28APrr06Q6Fj7r5pVbsAhMRVmpv32%2Fn2cAjhWIX1Kz9pPguSHEWAjNbS9%2B2eb8ZA%3D%3D'img border='0' title='Add to StumbleUpon' alt='Add to StumbleUpon' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/stumbleit.gif'//a br style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=a583a722e89205666a74a1c822fbca21p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=a583a722e89205666a74a1c822fbca21p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=a583a722e89205666a74a1c822fbca21 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

Earlier this year, we noted that the European Parliament overwhelmingly a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080925/1522352377.shtml"rejected/a the idea of various countries implementing any kind of policy that would kick file sharers off the internet -- often referred to as "three strikes" legislation. However, TorrentFreak is now reporting that, despite 88% of Parliament voting in favor of rejecting any such law for being a violation of basic human rights, the European Council (made up of the heads of state of various EU governments, a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-lobby-defeats-european-democracy-081129/" target="_new"has rejected the amendment/a drafted by the Parliament. Why? Well, TorrentFreak notes that French President Sarkozy just so happens to be President of the European Council, and as we recently noted, France just recently a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081102/1942132705.shtml"moved forward/a in approving a three strikes law, which was originally a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071126/021329.shtml"championed/a by Sarkozy. So, rather than listen to the vast majority of the EU Parliament, Sarkozy has apparently convinced the Council to let him push through this particular law, despite the widespread concerns about its draconian nature.br /br /a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081201/0245052983.shtml"Permalink/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081201/0245052983.shtml#comments"Comments/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20081201/0245052983op=sharethis"Email This Story/abr / br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=70491ef673754f0825ea982a7d376bc1p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=70491ef673754f0825ea982a7d376bc1p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=70491ef673754f0825ea982a7d376bc1" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?a=fanio"img src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?i=fanio" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/473090767" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/ashcraft.jpg" width="176" height="240" align="left" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="2" /Hey Brian, remember the book Kotaku's a href="http://gizmodo.com/5032501/japanese-arcade-mania-book-by-kotakus-b-ashcraft"Brian Ashcraft/a wrote? The one on Japanese game centers (arcades) and the different types of games, players and cultural influences surrounding them? It's available now! /p pI'm more than halfway through the book already and it's pretty fantastic, giving a non-textbook history of stuff like the sticker pictures (Purikura), shooting games, music games and more. And Ashcraft wrote it, so you know it's good. There's lots of pictures, because I know you like pictures, and some shots of Japanese schoolgirls showing a little bit of leg in their skirts, because I know you know I know you like Japanese schoolgirls. In any case, you can a href="http://www.amazon.com/Arcade-Mania-Turbo-charged-Japans-Centers/dp/4770030789"get a copy here/a./p pHere are some of my favorite posts from the last day or so./p pbull; a href="http://gizmodo.com/5101065/acekard-2i--becomes-first-to-crack-nintendo-dsi-for-homebrew"Nintendo DSi piracy is here again/abr / bull; a href="http://gizmodo.com/5100999/callpod-fueltank-two+in+one-portable-charger-lightning-review"My review of the Callpod Fueltank charger/a, because I wrote itbr / bull; a href="http://gizmodo.com/5100996/false-alarm-apple-mac-os-x-anti+virus-recommendation-is-old"False alarm on that Apple antivirus thing that everyone everywhere's been talking about/abr / bull; a href="http://gizmodo.com/5100707/nokia-n97-unveiled-the-first-high+end-n+series-touch-phone"Nokia's got a new N97 phone/a/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=62cccdc9d3105fc37d2424f889fafe0cp=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=62cccdc9d3105fc37d2424f889fafe0cp=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=62cccdc9d3105fc37d2424f889fafe0c" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=jpez5nk0"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=tLmuL75i"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=WlVBfPd3"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=WlVBfPd3" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=UF9Vuy9K"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=UF9Vuy9K" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/Jn_TkKyAeSc" height="1" width="1"/

img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/iphonewifi.jpg" width="316" height="476" /All iPhone users get free ATT Wi-Fi, hurray. But the text-message-based access system makes it a pain in the ass to log onto. Enter a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296273148mt=8"Easy Wi-Fi for ATT/a, an app that makes it, well, easy. When you fire up the app for the first time, you just enter your number. After that, when you hit an ATT Wi-Fi hotspot, like at Harbucks, you just mash a giant button to log in, no hassle required. Ars says Devicescape is planning more automated connection apps for other operators, ATT is just the first, thanks to the "approval store nightmare." It's free until Friday, then it jumps to $1.99. [a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296273148mt=8"iTunes/a via a href="http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/02/bypass-atts-sms-based-wifi-login-with-free-iphone-app"Ars/a] br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=213db307b59c7a72806e1e19d6c57e41p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=213db307b59c7a72806e1e19d6c57e41p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=213db307b59c7a72806e1e19d6c57e41" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=AuXpKtCY"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=PlGbKocM"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=Ui733L4f"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=Ui733L4f" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=SPHD3xrO"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=SPHD3xrO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/VRHV3PoiyqY" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/gizmodo-gallery-3m.jpg" width="494" height="328" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="2"/Our Toys for Tots fundraiser and all mega gadget exhibition, a href="http://gallery.gizmodo.com"Gizmodo Gallery/a starts this Thursday in NYC. And among the ~40 devices we'll have more than just a a href="http://gizmodo.com/5098715/at-giz-gallery-103+inch-plasma"huge TV/a; we'll have one of the world's tiniest projector, like the a href="http://gizmodo.com/tag/aiptek"Aiptek/a Wilson reviewed last week./p pI'd like to imagine that one day all cellphones have such components built in, but until then this is the best way to put a picture on your wall with hardware the size of a remote control./p pWhat should we play on it? What should we aim it at? I don't know, but if you've got the time, please stop by and try it out./p p[Thanks to a href="http://www.thereedspace.com/"REED ANNEX/a and thanks to our benefactor a href="http://www.gizmine.com/"gizmine.com/a]/p pbGizmodo Gallery/bbr /br / a href="http://www.thereedspace.com/"Reed Annex/abr /br / a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=151+orchard+street+nyie=UTF8oe=utf-8client=firefox-all=40.721226,-73.989122spn=0.009741,0.015814z=16g=151+orchard+street+nyiwloc=addr"151 Orchard Street/abr /br / New York, NY 10002/p pstrongGizmodo Gallery Reader Meetup/strongbr /br / The a href="http://gizmodo.com/5099673/at-giz-gallery-reader-meetup-with-a-back-to-the-future-delorean"reader meetup/a takes place across the street from the Gallery, at a place called a href="http://www.theannexnyc.com/"The Annex/a (not to be confused with REED ANNEX where the gallery is hosted.) The address is a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=152+Orchard+Street+nyie=UTF8oe=utf-8client=firefox-all=40.721112,-73.988628spn=0.00914,0.013411z=16g=152+Orchard+Street+nyiwloc=addr"152 Orchard Street/a and we'll be there at strong9 PM SHARP on Friday December 5th/strong./p pGallery Dates:br /br / December 4th-7th/p pTimes:br /br / 12/4 Thursdaybr /br / 12-8/p p12/5 Fridaybr /br / 12-8/p p12/6 Saturdaybr /br / 11-8/p p12/7 Sundaybr /br / 11-4/p p[Read more about our a href="http://gizmodo.com/5082811/gizmodo-gallery-our-wonderful-world-of-gadgets-on-display-in-nyc"Gizmodo Gallery here/a and see what else we'll be a href="http://gizmodo.com/tag/Gizmodo%20Gallery"playing with/a at the event.]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=5ba1710716a7907106446ba202e42af0p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=5ba1710716a7907106446ba202e42af0p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=5ba1710716a7907106446ba202e42af0" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=fwk1Gnli"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=uuGSSjSh"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=KBE4pR77"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=KBE4pR77" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=FwKd0K31"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=FwKd0K31" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/_FOd4u5I1IM" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/bitlygmailgadget.png" width="175" height="208" / URL-shortening service Bit.ly now offers a Gmail gadget that helps you make sure the long web site addresses you send out via email don't get wrapped and become unclickable. To install the Bit.ly gadgetmdash;which just adds a Bit.ly URL shortener module to Gmail's sidebarmdash;you have to have "Gadgets by URL" enabled in Gmail's Labs section. Then, in the Gadgets tab in Settings, add this URL:br / blockquotehttp://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/107368512201818821991/bitly-shortener.xml/p/blockquote p When Gmail refreshes you'll have the Bit.ly gadget on your sidebar, as shown. div class="related"a href="http://hackaddict.blogspot.com/2008/12/gmail-url-shortener.html"Gmail URL Shortener/a [Hackaddict.net via a href="http://blog.bit.ly/post/62635784/shorten-urls-with-bit-ly-inside-gmail-last-night"Bitly/a]/div /p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=23bc26d02d6f02b570e091a12bcca04dp=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=23bc26d02d6f02b570e091a12bcca04dp=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=23bc26d02d6f02b570e091a12bcca04d" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=suV7fF6W"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=lhNmkRHX"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=Y4V7IHMl"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=Y4V7IHMl" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=KuH7lT6k"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=KuH7lT6k" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/iKsUdWa8cCQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/bitlygmailgadget.png" width="175" height="208" / URL-shortening service Bit.ly now offers a Gmail gadget that helps you make sure the long web site addresses you send out via email don't get wrapped and become unclickable. To install the Bit.ly gadgetmdash;which just adds a Bit.ly URL shortener module to Gmail's sidebarmdash;you have to have "Gadgets by URL" enabled in Gmail's Labs section. Then, in the Gadgets tab in Settings, add this URL:br / blockquotehttp://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/107368512201818821991/bitly-shortener.xml/p/blockquote p When Gmail refreshes you'll have the Bit.ly gadget on your sidebar, as shown. div class="related"a href="http://hackaddict.blogspot.com/2008/12/gmail-url-shortener.html"Gmail URL Shortener/a [Hackaddict.net via a href="http://blog.bit.ly/post/62635784/shorten-urls-with-bit-ly-inside-gmail-last-night"Bitly/a]/div /p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=23bc26d02d6f02b570e091a12bcca04dp=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=23bc26d02d6f02b570e091a12bcca04dp=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=23bc26d02d6f02b570e091a12bcca04d" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=suV7fF6W"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=lhNmkRHX"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=Y4V7IHMl"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=Y4V7IHMl" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=KuH7lT6k"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=KuH7lT6k" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/iKsUdWa8cCQ" height="1" width="1"/

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing for free, nationwide wireless.br style=clear: both;/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:56693d743d78eaa7a6e6eab0f94343be:FjZaSHsdVjoAWskmQeqI3mNymWJVW7l60AEqFxCaalh7%2Fd%2FPsm42z5fItMAFEODsl168mfSjcq0q'img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/digg.gif'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:5a5a0a9cafca7e8a6942b794e3021842:lxHRJNDe76eWUJNthaNSromQw9chSHisY6HyFI5FXvbGSDkrkgtKB9ax7mm7%2FNHV6hRyJm%2FFBlMN'img border='0' title='Add to Reddit' alt='Add to Reddit' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/reddit.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:4b8948eae4c656cc127069ec3ba1805f:0iuf%2FkDSvgZjvGSJwbXWQ5V7pjRdvsU3o53x2PQGg3nzOL0FeWrYvVCzhRFuzwWcnLIzChyx3NOmug%3D%3D'img border='0' title='Add to Slashdot' alt='Add to Slashdot' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/slashdot.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:bb081220494f600520e034f6b1eebbea:RJpCZ0wxi3hczJOYXvo82lXLFY6RJCqYLJdkMw%2F%2Fym%2FqmqAJBzom58BPK7qf42QeWT5hItPVFka0'img border='0' title='Email this Article' alt='Email this Article' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/emailthis.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:6cfb166150e97356390b480aeb9f78f6:8fMEwsmXPG6wbmYzn3NaNMlETuzy8OX1OYFdAs1gl6bZcD4gqUBT%2FkUh9vZXKLjlEYWZMIcKDx7SLg%3D%3D'img border='0' title='Add to StumbleUpon' alt='Add to StumbleUpon' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/stumbleit.gif'//a br style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=c02dc845135260e7f17a86e960c133ddp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=c02dc845135260e7f17a86e960c133ddp=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=c02dc845135260e7f17a86e960c133dd style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/applepatent.jpg" width="800" height="513" style="display:block;float:none;" /While us normal folk were gorging on turkey and fixings, the tireless US Patent Office was busy filing an interesting Apple patent detailing a mobile liquid cooling system—something that looks like it could be used in a future portable device./p pInitially filed in May of 2007 (it's government, people!), the patent app describes a two-part cooling system for small form factors. In the first part a liquid coolant is used to transfer heat away from components (such as a quad-core mobile processor, perhaps?). In the second phase, the heat is transferred from the liquids onto a large aluminum plate which would then pass it off into the environment just as most laptop temperature management systems work today./p pWhether this is just another defensive or out-there research patent, or an actually useful new way to cram more power into a smaller space via liquid cooling remains to be seen. Let's hope Apple's next patent is for a brand new battery juicy enough to power the whole system for more than 20 minutes. [a href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2Sect2=HITOFFp=1u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.htmlr=1f=Gl=50co1=ANDd=PG01s1=%22Liquid-cooled+portable+computer%22OS=%22Liquid-cooled+portable+computer%22RS=%22Liquid-cooled+portable+computer%22"US Patents Office/a via a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/02/apple-patent-for-liquid-cooled-portable-computer-submitted/"CrunchGear/a]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=51aad14c177294570d2d81bfd2836e4fp=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=51aad14c177294570d2d81bfd2836e4fp=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=51aad14c177294570d2d81bfd2836e4f" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=b8pjk0Yi"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=ZjVxt0TI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=yBc36zQB"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=yBc36zQB" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=a4wUTHlk"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=a4wUTHlk" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/BwOrkt_vSc8" height="1" width="1"/

The Financial Services Authority said yesterday that more than half a million Halifax customers on tracker mortgages should benefit from further interest rate cuts even though the small print on their loans supposedly prevents them from doing so.

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/11/Preview_01.jpg" style="display:block;" /Desktop customizer extraordinaire and Lifehacker reader a href="http://lifehacker.com/commenter/Kaelri/"Kaelri/a showed us a href="http://lifehacker.com/5087956/customize-your-own-killer-enigma-desktop"how to customize your Windows desktop/a using a setup he called Enigma (pictured above), and since then the a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/lifehacker-desktop-showandtell/"Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Pool/a has been overflowing with killer Enigma-inspired desktops. Some of the desktops snagged a piece of Enigma while others are using it all, but all of them nicely illustrate the kind of impressive results you can get with the right tools and a great how-to guide. Keep reading for a closer look at X of the best Enigma-inspired desktops./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Flip Clock Enigma/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/flipclock-enigma_01.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31511405@N08/3067933402/"Who's desktop is it?/a by a href="http://lifehacker.com/commenter/projectvirus/"projectvirus/a. It's the a href="http://lifehacker.com/5097713/the-giant-flip-clock-desktop"previously featured Flip Clock desktop/a complete with a little Enigma thrown in for system stats./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Enigma Black/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/enigma_black.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchhackett/3063386660/"My desktop v2./a by Mstislav./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Desert Dreams/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/Desert_Dreams.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanboom/3039054543/"Desert Dreams - An "Enigma" Modification/a by a href="http://lifehacker.com/people/boomerang342126/"Dylan Boom/a./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Omniscient Eye/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/omni-eye.jpg" class="center" width="500" height="375" style="display:block;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12022573@N03/3055912645/"Omniscient Eye/a by silentmagician94./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Bluenigma/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/bluenigma_01.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlupus/3064899993/"Desktop November/a by a href="http://lifehacker.com/commenter/nlupus/"nlupus/a./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Moonigma/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/Moonigma.jpg" width="800" height="640" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deltablade/3042581442/"Shadow Earth Desktop/a by Deltablade./p pNothing like a a href="http://lifehacker.com/5087956/customize-your-own-killer-enigma-desktop"great customization guide/a to inspire some great setups. If you've got a favorite, let's hear it in the comments./p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=688468822fd1504cbb718abd45bedb38p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=688468822fd1504cbb718abd45bedb38p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=688468822fd1504cbb718abd45bedb38" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=ih4xsPnb"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=mM1k95PR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=kx8TAktj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=kx8TAktj" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=kMVKCzbH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=kMVKCzbH" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/IHvKd8Sm3Ug" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/11/Preview_01.jpg" style="display:block;" /Desktop customizer extraordinaire and Lifehacker reader a href="http://lifehacker.com/commenter/Kaelri/"Kaelri/a showed us a href="http://lifehacker.com/5087956/customize-your-own-killer-enigma-desktop"how to customize your Windows desktop/a using a setup he called Enigma (pictured above), and since then the a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/lifehacker-desktop-showandtell/"Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Pool/a has been overflowing with killer Enigma-inspired desktops. Some of the desktops snagged a piece of Enigma while others are using it all, but all of them nicely illustrate the kind of impressive results you can get with the right tools and a great how-to guide. Keep reading for a closer look at six of the best Enigma-inspired desktops./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Flip Clock Enigma/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/flipclock-enigma_01.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31511405@N08/3067933402/"Who's desktop is it?/a by a href="http://lifehacker.com/commenter/projectvirus/"projectvirus/a. It's the a href="http://lifehacker.com/5097713/the-giant-flip-clock-desktop"previously featured Flip Clock desktop/a complete with a little Enigma thrown in for system stats./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Enigma Black/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/enigma_black.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchhackett/3063386660/"My desktop v2./a by Mstislav./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Desert Dreams/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/Desert_Dreams.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanboom/3039054543/"Desert Dreams - An "Enigma" Modification/a by a href="http://lifehacker.com/people/boomerang342126/"Dylan Boom/a./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Omniscient Eye/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/omni-eye.jpg" class="center" width="500" height="375" style="display:block;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12022573@N03/3055912645/"Omniscient Eye/a by silentmagician94./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Bluenigma/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/bluenigma_01.jpg" width="800" height="500" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlupus/3064899993/"Desktop November/a by a href="http://lifehacker.com/commenter/nlupus/"nlupus/a./p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Moonigma/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/Moonigma.jpg" width="800" height="640" style="display:block;float:none;" /a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deltablade/3042581442/"Shadow Earth Desktop/a by Deltablade./p pNothing like a a href="http://lifehacker.com/5087956/customize-your-own-killer-enigma-desktop"great customization guide/a to inspire some great setups. If you've got a favorite, let's hear it in the comments./p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=688468822fd1504cbb718abd45bedb38p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=688468822fd1504cbb718abd45bedb38p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=688468822fd1504cbb718abd45bedb38" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=ih4xsPnb"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=mM1k95PR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=kx8TAktj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=kx8TAktj" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=kMVKCzbH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=kMVKCzbH" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/IHvKd8Sm3Ug" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/2008-Funde-Razor-Final_small.jpg" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="2" width="500" height="647" style="display:block;" /This year Gizmodo (along with Kotaku and Boing Boing Gadgets) is going to be hosting a Funde Razor event in San Francisco. What's Funde Razor?/p pIt's a chance of you to help raise money for the Penny Arcade Child's Play Charity by going to an event, playing Rock Band and drinking alcohol. Sound good? You'll also get to hang out with some Giz folks, such as Adrian and myself, so you won't want to miss it. We'll be at the San Francisco event, but if you're in Denver or NY and want to attend the other ones, feel free! It's for a good cause. Oh, and there are also door prizes, such as a Chumby, Xboxes, Zunes, Xbox games, and LEGO. Thanks to the respective sponsors who made this possible! [a href="http://www.funderazor.com/"Funde Razor/a]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=23a96abd3de333472bf02d9bfb3ec8c1p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=23a96abd3de333472bf02d9bfb3ec8c1p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=23a96abd3de333472bf02d9bfb3ec8c1" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=DXKJfExh"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=wjqRyIEa"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=wp1TscO1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=wp1TscO1" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=RjJZqai2"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=RjJZqai2" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/ICeY0p8_80M" height="1" width="1"/

The Register is covering the rather confusing a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/28/extreme_images/print.html" target="_new"porn guidelines in the UK/a, which add certain types of porn to the list of what is illegal to possess. Plenty of countries have laws against possession of child porn, but the UK is extending that to cover images that are "pornographic, grossly offensive and portray activity that threatens harm to life or limb, or involves sex with a corpse or animal." Of course, some of that is open to interpretation -- and TheReg points out that plenty of movies that were approved for viewing in the UK contain footage that probably meets those criteria. The question, then, is, if you have an offending still image from a legal UK video, do you run afoul of these guidelines? Also, oddly, the law says that you're okay if you delete an image -- but not okay if you can retrieve it after deleting. While, undoubtedly, this law is well-intended, it seems to be quite vague and it's difficult to see what public benefit it serves. If the concern is about the harm done in the making of such porn, why not go after the pornographers, rather than the possessors?br /br /a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081201/0325372988.shtml"Permalink/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081201/0325372988.shtml#comments"Comments/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20081201/0325372988op=sharethis"Email This Story/abr / br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=7d62581d5bcc58b37cc526d77458a124p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=7d62581d5bcc58b37cc526d77458a124p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=7d62581d5bcc58b37cc526d77458a124" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?a=AZJ3o"img src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?i=AZJ3o" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/473015294" height="1" width="1"/

embed src='http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4x3.swf' FlashVars='link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecbsnews%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fwatch%2F%3Fid%3D4632722npartner=newsvert=NewsautoPlayVid=falsereleaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=As6KBgyZzer17KSb873rIak3AgGptI5rname=cbsPlayerallowScriptAccess=alwayswmode=transparentembedded=yscale=noscalerv=nsalign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='494' height='395' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'/embedbr/Let it be known, Katie Couric is OK with saying you love someone over text message. Just don't dump somebody that way. Text messaging: Adequate for love, not quite seething enough for hate. [via a href="http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2008/11/021888.htm"textually/a] br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=df809e9cd1de0b2349367e4e620618c0p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=df809e9cd1de0b2349367e4e620618c0p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=df809e9cd1de0b2349367e4e620618c0" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=o51kncfH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=loWLH6p7"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=kJRrP6QR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=kJRrP6QR" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=IaQ1cGeV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=IaQ1cGeV" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/fuY5iwnOpSo" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/dealz122.jpg" width="600" height="209" /Just because Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over doesn't mean there aren't all sorts of deals out there to satisfy your impulsive seasonal shopping cravings. There's your usual selection of cameras, TVs and computer peripherals, but we also found a deal for the first season of Three's Company of DVD for $2.75. Now ithat's/i a deal. Hit the jump for the full bounty./p pBGaming:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.buy.com/prod/saitek-j62-rumble-force-pc-game-pad-saitek-p2500-rumble-force-pad-game/q/loc/108/90148141.html"Saitek Rumble Force PC Gamepad for $7.99 plus free shipping/a (originally $49.99).br / · a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001ABN834/itquotes101-20"Guitar Hero World Tour - Guitar Kit on PS3 for $59.98 plus free shipping/a (originally $99.99).br / · a href="http://www.buy.com/prod/plantronics-audio-370-ultimate-performance-pc-multimedia-headset/q/loc/111/202592346.html"Plantronics Multimedia Gaming Headset for $12.99 plus free shipping/a (originally $69.99)./p pBCameras:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GAPHOC?tag=i4ufututechne-20camp=0creative=0linkCode=as4creativeASIN=B001GAPHOCadid=0ZMC0RXWM312DM6R6C46"Pentax K200 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera for $599.94/a (originally $1,089.31).br / · a href="http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp=41523351"Sony Cyber-Shot 7.2MP Digital Camera (refurbished) for $84.99/a (originally $199.99)./p pBHDTVs:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889102180cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-89-102-180-_-Homepage"Samsung 50'' 720p Plasma HDTV for $999.99/a (originally $1,499.99)./p pBComputer peripherals and memory:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.nowdirect.com/exec/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?prcpart=SADHD103UI"Samsung 1TB Hard Drive for $84.99/a (originally $112.55).br / · a href="http://www.buy.com/prod/cyberpower-cp-h420mp-usb-hub-4-port-usb-2-0-480mbps-1-1-2-0-compatible/q/loc/101/203067541.html?2312"CyberPower USB Hub (4-port, 2.0) for $9.99 plus free shipping/a (originally $59.99).br / · a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208293nm_mc=OTC-Frooglecm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Memory+(Flash+Memory)-_-Transcend-_-20208293"Transcend 8GB SDHC for $13.49 plus free shipping/a (originally $32.99)./p pBUnlocked Cellphones:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IBIM00?ie=UTF8tag=mgnetwork-20linkCode=as2camp=1789creative=390957creativeASIN=B001IBIM00"Nokia N85 (unlocked) cellphone for $555.99/a (originally $1,200)./p pBPersonal Portables:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.buy.com/prod/v-touch-8gb-mp3-mp4-2-8-touchscreen-2mp-camera-expandable-minisd/q/loc/111/208370463.html"V-Touch 8GB MP3 Player for $69.99 plus free shipping/a (originally $249.99)./p pBStocking Stuffers:/Bbr / · a href="http://www.buy.com/prod/spider-man-3-blu-ray-single-disc/q/loc/322/208975622.html"Spiderman 3 on Blu-ray for $9.99 plus free shipping/a (originally $43.99).br / · a href="http://www.borders.com/online/store/Landing?view=2rpp=25type=3kids=falsenav=5187+10373simple=false"DVD Boxsets for 40% off/a (Use coupon code "CM2008" - valid only on 12/02).br / · a href="http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=5736017"Three's Company - Season 1 on DVD for $2.75 plus free shipping/a (originally $14.95).br / · a href="http://www.eforcity.com/pothhdmid2m1.html"HDMI-M to DVI-M Cable (6 feet) for $3/a (originally $23.99 - use coupon code "HDMIDVI6").br / · a href="http://sellout.woot.com"RCA Foreign Voltage Adapter for $4.99/a (originally $32.99)./p pBHobomodo:/Bbr / · a href="http://shop2.frys.com/product/5499649"SwissGear USB Notebook Cooler Fan for $0/a (originally $39.99 - use a href="http://images.frys.com/art/rebates_pdf/5499649_1202.pdf"this rebate form/a - valid only until 12/02)./p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=7cee3c6f64cbc473b7494736fb666642p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=7cee3c6f64cbc473b7494736fb666642p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=7cee3c6f64cbc473b7494736fb666642" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=sESetTgA"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=8ltfRBhW"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=NB8LfXUI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=NB8LfXUI" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=tI0jxETJ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=tI0jxETJ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/2Xg86G3ZSBw" height="1" width="1"/

div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft released the beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) to subscribers of its developer services Tuesday and said it would open the preview to the general public on Thursday./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"In a pair of postings to company blogs, Microsoft announced the availability of the single service pack that will update not only a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Microsoft+Windows+Vista"Vista/a , but also a href="http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/12/02/windows-server-2008-and-windows-vista-service-pack-2-sp2-customer-preview-program-cpp.aspx"Windows Server 2008/a, the company#39;s corresponding server software. This is the first time that Microsoft has packaged one download that applies to both the client and server editions of the operating system./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr"InfoWorld Test Center/a. ]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"As of Tuesday, subscribers to TechNet and the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) can download the beta of Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2, a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Mike+Nash"Mike Nash/a, vice president of Windows product management, said in an entry to the Windows Vista blog Tuesday./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Others will have to a target="_blank" href="http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/12/02/announcing-the-windows-vista-and-windows-server-2008-service-pack-2-customer-preview-program-cpp.aspx"wait two days/a, Nash continued. quot;Beginning Thursday Dec. 4, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP),quot; he said./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"According to a a target="_blank" href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd262148.aspx"just-revamped page on TechNet/a, the Vista and Server 2008 SP2 betas will be available Thursday to the public via downloads over Windows Update, Microsoft#39;s default update service. Links to downloads of stand-alone installers and disk images will also be added Thursday to both TechNet and MSDN./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"As is the company#39;s practice, Microsoft discouraged most users from trying out the beta. quot;The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release,quot; Nash said. quot;For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.quot;/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft has not set a delivery date for Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2, saying only that it hopes to ship the update sometime in the first half of next year. Last week, however, a Web site that had accurately predicted several Vista and a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Microsoft+Windows+XP"Windows XP/a ship dates earlier this year claimed that Microsoft would issue a release candidate in February and a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;articleId=9121778"wrap up work in April 2009/a./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"A limited number of beta testers has had Vista SP2 since a target="_blank" href="https://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;taxonomyName=noses_and_server_softwareamp;articleId=9118118"late October/a, when Microsoft released the preview to its Technology Adoption Program, a long-standing group of company partners and customers./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Users who want to try the beta of Vista SP2 must have SP1 already installed; those grabbing the beta from Windows Update must also first install a component meant to improve the chances of a smooth upgrade./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft estimated the size of Windows Update download of Vista SP2 beta at 41MB for the 32-bit version and about 60MB for the 64-bit edition. Windows Server 2008 SP2#39;s beta will weigh in between 47MB and 90MB./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"emComputerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate./em/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=03f6547366770cd729bd6c26c168f2cfp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=03f6547366770cd729bd6c26c168f2cfp=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=03f6547366770cd729bd6c26c168f2cf style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/