Discovery Channel - Brain Plasticity

Posted by Mahdi at 6:21 PM

Telephone Designs For 2010

Telephone Designs For 2010

http://www.technology-news.us

The Molecular Telephone Oh fabulous simplicity. Wherefor art thou, the truest form of it? Is it the newest bricks, or the never-made sculpturals without “beer compass” applications? Judge for me! This is a concept cell phone made by Tjep Design for the O2 company. It is based on the same concept as O2, the molecularity, that is. It’s a cell-cell.
Designer: Tjep Design Available at: Yanko Design

Pink Furry Emerson corded novelty telephone
$39.99 Available at: Distinctive Telephones

Glass Phone Style Design These would definitely need protective cases to make it through a day in my pocket, or any other regular human-being for that matter. And with a full-glass (and a little bit of plastic) construction, I wouldn’t be using it on anything but pure-pc-clean-hands days. On the other hand, they are just gorgeous, as per usual.They're dubbed “Glassy Glassy” phones by Funamizu. Designer: Mac Funamizu - available at Yanko Design

Touch Screen Rotary Phone It’s a total hash of digital and analog ideologies and still looks uber-cool! I guess this is what an iPhone-esque phone would have looked like in the 80’s. Calling itself the Touch Screen Rotary, this phone is a Retro Blast but with modern functionality. Needless to say, touch controls on the rotary are there and so is a backlit screen.
Designer: Mark Miller Available at: Yanko Design

The Grassy Phone In today’s rapid consumerist society, consumption comes into question. How durable do we want our devices to be when they become near obsolete in 5 years? The source materials that make up their build often take hundreds of years to break down. An alternative ideology are disposable products made from natural sources. The Natural Year Phone is made of hay, sans screen and soft keys. The hard components get recycled while the hay is dry. Designer: Je-Hyun Kim Available at: Yanko Design

Apple Keyboard Concept Holds iPod/iPhone Apple keyboards generally aren't too exciting to look at, but then again a concept might just give it a kick in the pants that it so desperately requires. The Apple Keyboard concept you see above not only features all the necessary keys required in a Mac OS X environment, it also boasts an induction charge and sync segment on the right side that is able to hold an iPhone or iPod (from newer generations only, obviously). There are also half a dozen programmable OLED keys that are similar to the ones on the Optimus Maximus Aux keyboard. Would you get something like this, or do you think it is just overkill? The designer has priced it at $79.99, and heck, that's a whole lot cheaper compared to those Optimus ripoffs! No idea if he'll make a profit at that price point though.

Conduit cell phone concept A mobile workstation and phone all rolled up into one gorgeous package. Pan-pipe jokes aside, this concept was designed for SKY/Pantech, a Korean cellphone company. Let's all beg them to make this a reality. The Conduit is three devices in one. Designer Tirshathah Hunter used a roll-away flexible display to create a PDA with stylus, a regular cellphone with camera, and a slimline cellphone that snaps away from the other modules. "A creative approach to mobility seemed key," he says. When you use the slim phone alone, there's no keypad, so you use a scroll tool or voice commands for calls and texting. If you're going to use voice commands for texting, wouldn't it be easier to just call?

Posted by Mahdi at 7:47 AM

Can Evolution Run in Reverse? A Study Says It’s a One-Way Street

Can Evolution Run in Reverse? A Study Says It’s a One-Way Street

By CARL ZIMMER

http://www.nytimes.com

Evolutionary biologists have long wondered if history can run backward. Is it possible for the proteins in our bodies to return to the old shapes and jobs they had millions of years ago?

Examining the evolution of one protein, a team of scientists declares the answer is no, saying new mutations make it practically impossible for evolution to reverse direction. “They burn the bridge that evolution just crossed,” said Joseph W. Thornton, a biology professor at the University of Oregon and co-author of a paper on the team’s findings in the current issue of Nature.

The Belgian biologist Louis Dollo was the first scientist to ponder reverse evolution. “An organism never returns to its former state,” he declared in 1905, a statement later dubbed Dollo’s law.

To see if he was right, biologists have reconstructed evolutionary history. In 2003, for example, a team of scientists studied wings on stick insects. They found that the insects’ common ancestor had wings, but some of its descendants lost them. Later, some of those flightless insects evolved wings again.

Yet this study did not necessarily refute Dollo’s law. The stick insects may indeed have evolved a new set of wings, but it is not clear whether this change appeared as reverse evolution at the molecular level. Did the insects go back to the exact original biochemistry for building wings, or find a new route, essentially evolving new proteins?

Dr. Thornton and his colleagues took a close look at the possibility of reverse evolution at this molecular level. They studied a protein called a glucocorticoid receptor that helps humans and most other vertebrates cope with stress by grabbing a hormone called cortisol and then switching on stress-defense genes.

By comparing the receptor to related proteins, the scientists reconstructed its history. Some 450 million years ago, it started out with a different shape that allowed it to grab tightly to other hormones, but only weakly to cortisol. Over the next 40 million years, the receptor changed shape, so that it became very sensitive to cortisol but could no longer grab other hormones.

During those 40 million years, Dr. Thornton found, the receptor changed in 37 spots, only 2 of which made the receptor sensitive to cortisol. Another 5 prevented it from grabbing other hormones. When he made these 7 changes to the ancestral receptor, it behaved just like a new glucocorticoid receptor.

Dr. Thornton reasoned that if he carried out the reverse operation, he could turn a new glucocorticoid receptor into an ancestral one. So he and his colleagues reversed these key mutations to their old form.

To Dr. Thornton’s surprise, the experiment failed. “All we got was a completely dead receptor,” he said.

To figure out why they could go forward but not backward, Dr. Thornton and his colleagues looked closely again at the old and new receptors. They discovered five additional mutations that were crucial to the transition. If they reversed these five mutations as well, the new receptor behaved like an old one.

Based on these results, Dr. Thornton and his colleagues concluded that the evolution of the receptor unfolded in two chapters. In the first, the receptor acquired the seven key mutations that made it sensitive to cortisol and not to other hormones. In the second, it acquired the five extra mutations, which Dr. Thornton called “restrictive” mutations.

These restrictive mutations may have fine-tuned how the receptor grabbed cortisol. Or they may have had no effect at all. In either case, these five mutations added twists and tails to the receptor. When Dr. Thornton tried to return the receptor to its original form, these twists and tails got in the way.

Dr. Thornton argues that once the restrictive mutations evolved, they made it practically impossible for the receptor to evolve back to its original form. The five key mutations could not be reversed first, because the receptor would be rendered useless. Nor could the seven restrictive mutations be reversed first. Those mutations had little effect on how the receptor grabbed hormones. So there was no way that natural selection could favor individuals with reversed mutations.

For now it is an open question whether other proteins have an equally hard time evolving backward. But Dr. Thornton suspects they do.

“I would never say evolution is never reversible,” Dr. Thornton said. But he thinks it can only go backward when the evolution of the trait is simple, like when a single mutation is involved. When new traits are produced by several mutations that influence one another, he argues, that complexity shuts off reverse evolution. “We know that kind of complexity is very common,” he said.

If this molecular Dollo’s law holds up, Dr. Thornton believes it says something important about the course of evolutionary history. Natural selection can achieve many things, but it is hemmed in. Even harmless, random mutations can block its path.

“The biology we ended up with was not inevitable,” he said. “It was just one roll of the evolutionary dice.”

Posted by Mahdi at 7:45 AM

SETI at 50: 10 key moments in the search for extraterrestrial life

SETI at 50: 10 key moments in the search for extraterrestrial life

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, is 50 years old this month. We look at 10 memorable events in the search for life on other planets.

By Tom Chivers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

In 2015, Voyager 1 will become the first man-made object to leave the solar system Photo: NASA

SETI was founded in response to a September 1959 Nature journal article, “Searching for Interstellar Communication”, which suggested that a systematic search for alien life was worthwhile.

Since then, it has spent 50 years listening to the stars with radio telescopes, and at times trying to send messages of its own to other planets.

Here are 10 of the most significant events in mankind’s search for other life.

Little Green Men: Pulsars
In 1967, astronomers in the UK spotted a radio signal from another star. Nothing too remarkable in that, as all stars emit radio waves.

What was unexpected, though, was that this one turned itself on and off with perfect regularity: one 0.04 second pulse every 1.3373 seconds.

The metronomic beat sparked speculation that it might be a signal from an alien life form, and the signal was given the name LGM-1, standing for Little Green Men.

In fact, the astronomers had discovered a new type of star – a pulsar. A form of neutron star (an incredibly dense dead star: one just 12 miles across would weigh more than our Sun), they rotate at a huge velocity, giving off powerful beams of radiation as they spin.

Martian bacteria?
In 1984, a rock was found in the Allan Hills, Antarctica. It is believed to have been formed on Mars around 4.5 billion years ago, before being blasted into space by meteorite impacts around 15 million years ago.

It then wandered through space for millions of years, before crashing into our planet about 11,000 years before the birth of Christ.

An interesting enough history, but the meteorite – known as ALH84001 – really made the headlines in 1996. Structures that resembled tiny fossilised bacteria were found, as were organic molecules, sparking theories of ancient life on Mars. The excitement grew so great that US President Bill Clinton made a televised announcement about the find.

Arguments over whether these really are evidence Martian life, or whether the sample has become contaminated during its time on Earth, are still raging today.

Earth-like planets
‘Terrestrial’, or rocky, planets, are considered the most likely place for life to be found. There are four in our own solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

But in the last few years, the first possible examples of Earth-like planets outside our system have been found. In 2007 European scientists said they had found two – the third and fourth planets around the red dwarf Gliese 581 – which might be habitable.

Water on Mars
This month the news broke that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted evidence of ice in five locations on Mars. It is the latest in a series of discoveries of water on the planet, indicating that the planet may have had a more humid climate at some stage in the last few thousand years.

Water is required for all known forms of life, so the existence of water on other planets increases the likelihood that life exists elsewhere.

Drake equation
The first serious attempt to quantify the likelihood of humanity coming into contact with alien life, the Drake equation reads: N=f^p n^e f^l fⁱ f^c L.

It states that if we know the rate of star formation, the percentage of stars that have habitable planets, and the percentage of those planets that are likely at any given time to support life that signals its existence to the universe, we could estimate how many civilisations in our galaxy we might communicate with.

Unfortunately, none of those factors are known, so we are still guessing.

The Aricebo Message
Not part of the search for life per se, but rather helping anyone else who may be looking for us. In November 1974, a message was beamed from the Aricebo radio telescope towards the M13 star cluster, about 25,000 light years away. The message, created by Drake equation author Frank Drake and physicist Carl Sagan, included an image of a human and information about the makeup of DNA.

Sadly, M13 will have moved by the time it arrives.

A later broadcast - beaming the music of the Beatles at the Pole Star, 431 light years away - was, in all apparent seriousness, condemned as inviting an interstellar attack from warlike aliens.

Voyager
Three years later, in 1977, the two Voyager space probes were launched. As well as their scientific equipment, they contain gold discs containing information about Earth, including Mozart’s music and greetings in 54 human languages. It is currently around 10 billion miles from Earth; its radio signals take 15 hours to reach us, even at the speed of light.

In May 2005, NASA scientists said that Voyager 1 had reached the heliosheath, the boundary that marks the edge of the solar system. It is expected to pass through into interstellar space in 2015, becoming the first man-made object ever to leave the Sun’s orbit.

Kepler telescope
In March, the Kepler Mission was launched with the express goal of finding Earth-like planets around other stars.

It is designed to find small planets by watching stars closely to see if they suddenly get dimmer, indicating that something has passed in front of them. For an Earth-sized planet, that would mean the star becoming dimmer by just 0.01 per cent.

The Wow! signal and Radio source SHGb02+14a
In 1977, an astronomer with SETI spotted an unusual radio signal while working on a radio telescope at Ohio State University. He was so excited by it that he wrote “Wow!” in the margin of the printout.

However, it was never spotted again. After he had calmed down, the discoverer Dr Jerry R Ehman said he believed it was “an Earth-sourced signal that simply got reflected off a piece of space debris.”

Another candidate for evidence of alien life was SHGb02+14a, a signal spotted three times in March 2003. It was at a frequency expected to be used by extraterrestrials – the frequency at which hydrogen absorbs and emits photons.

However, again there were reasons to be sceptical, not least that it came from a direction in which there are no stars for 1000 light years. While impossible to rule out extraterrestrial origin, it may have been a distorted signal from a pulsar, or just random noise.

SETI@home
In the 21st century the search for extraterrestrial life continues in hundreds of thousands of bedrooms and offices around the world.

Launched in 1999, SETI@home is the name given to a virtual supercomputer made of huge numbers of internet-linked home computers. Anybody can download the software and allow SETI to use their spare processing power to scour data from radio telescopes for evidence of alien intelligence.

In terms of power it is the fourth most powerful computer on the planet. It was this network of home computers that spotted SHGb02+14a, and one NASA scientist has predicted that it will find an alien signal by 2025.

Posted by Mahdi at 6:49 AM

Nine Workspaces Where Famous Folks Get Stuff Done

Nine Workspaces Where Famous Folks Get Stuff Done: "

Whether you prefer the clean minimalism of Steve Jobs and 37 Signals or the creative chaos of Tina Fey and Pixar, there's a lot to learn from the workspaces of the well-known. We present nine such spaces here for inspiration.

Al Gore

If nothing else, former Vice President Al Gore's office helps anyone who needs that extra little push to convince themselves that, yeah, having three monitors is necessary for important work. Why noted environmental speaker Gore would go for a paper sketch pad over whiteboards, we can't quite say. (Original post) [via TIME]

David Allen

As Jason put it in his original post, Getting Things Done originator David Allen is a man who practices what he preaches, especially when it comes to capturing his thoughts and 'Oh yeah' moments. Two of the unique but fitting items on his desk are a label maker and a sand timer. The producers of the clip note that this was shot hastily, at the end of Allen's time commitment for an interview, but the essence of his David Allen Co. office comes through. [YouTube]

Bill Gates

He's since left this space, and his title of chairman and chief software architect at Microsoft, but Gates apparently had a mind for working clean while on the Redmond campus. These days, Gates is rocking three monitors and OneNote for his work needs, and we'd love to see that home office setup as well. [via CNN]

Steve Ballmer

When the Microsoft CEO looks straight ahead, there's a single monitor, a (Microsoft) mouse and keyboard, a phone, and a little space to eat lunch. When he looks to the side or reaches for files, it's a whole shelf and wall full of family and friend pics, along with his children's creative endeavors. Easy to forget these folks are human, no? [via The New York Times]

Steve Jobs

Apple's head honcho had only just begun working on the Macintosh computer and was living the single life when Diana Walker snapped this picture at his apartment. Easy to see where the focus on minimalist functionality comes from. The cutline: 'I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that's what I had.' [via Diana Walker/The Bigger Picture Gallery]

37 Signals

Another team of minimalist-minded tech thinkers, the team behind Basecamp, Campfire, and web coding language Ruby on Rails doesn't work in empty white rooms, but keeps the decoration lean and the spaces open. [via Signal vs. Noise]

Martin Amis

The British author shares a picture of his rather stunning outpost office, in a small building off his garden. He also explains why every worker needs a 'shed' of some sort: 'I used to have the attic in the house and Isabel, my wife, was meant to have this office, but I didn't think she used it enough so I reclaimed it. It's ideal - you can't hear the children and you can smoke.' [via Guardian UK]

'Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle'

Dilbert creator Scott Adams knows about repressive, uncomfortable working conditions, so he set out with the design firm Ideo to try and change things, if only by example. Garnering feedback from thousands of Dilbert fans, Adams and Ideo designed 'Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle,' a modular framework that changes the orientation of a light source to match the time of day, allows for snap-in hammocks and adjustable seat/computer/desk configurations, and even offers up hamster wheels and aquarium modules, if one wants to commune with similarly trapped creatures. Dilbert doesn't actually work here, but if he could let his mind go free, he probably would. [via Ideo]

Tina Fey

It was shot for an American Express ad, so the seriously cluttered look ('Too busy to use any other card!', the thinking might have went) might be a bit exaggerated. But we tend to believe that the 30 Rock writer/producer does organize her days and ideas with Post-It Notes—check out the oddly organized grid on her corkboard, and semi-organized notes on the wall further back. A messy mind, perhaps, but then again, she writes a show with about a half-dozen plot lines going at once. (Original post)

Pixar

If it wasn't rewarding enough to work at what most critics would say is the most dependably creative and rewarding film studio operating today, the Pixar team gets some serious free reign in how they work. Past project memorabilia is ever-present, creative lighting is the norm, dorms have been turned into tiny 1950's-style houses, and there's lots and lots of wide-open space around the campus. In case they get too distanced from what really earns their paychecks, though, the server racks are right around the corner for a quick reminder. [via Office Snapshots]

---

by Kevin Purdy

Posted by Mahdi at 12:37 AM

The post iPhone world

The post iPhone world: "

One fun thing I like asking representatives from Nokia, Microsoft, or Research in Motion is “what does the post iPhone world look like?”

It is my way of sensing whether they’ve done any creative thinking. So far I’ve gotten mostly blank stares.

It’s like Steve Jobs has convinced everyone in the industry that nothing possibly can replace the iPhone on the coolest device shelf.

Me? I’ve seen this play before. Remember Sony’s Walkman?

I like pretending we live in a post iPhone world.

How do we get there?

Well, what would happen if we lived in a Twitter world? One where every light switch, every device, every machine, had a Twitter account?

I asked a Microsoft executive recently why they haven’t released a .NET/Silverlight runtime that Tweets.

His answer surprised me “have you signed our NDA yet?”

That’s code for “we’re working on just that.”

After all, Microsoft probably doesn’t like it that IBM has ruled enterprise marketing with its “Smart Planet” meme.

So, why would Microsoft support a Twitter world? Because if Microsoft helped Twitter build a world where everything has a Twitter API then Microsoft would also get the keys to the post-iPhone world.

“Huh?”

Well, let’s assume that Microsoft had .NET runtimes on everything. Right now I’m staring at an IV machine in the hospital room where our next son will be born. Why couldn’t a doctor Tweet that machine? Using a message that looks something like this:

@sequoia_iv_0451 set level to 1 pt per hour

That would change the drip rate on her machine to 1 pint per hour.

That doesn’t seem that important, does it? But now what if EVERY device in the hospital had a runtime like this and could be queried through a Twitter language?

Wouldn’t that open up new application possibilities that don’t exist today? Absolutely!

Wouldn’t that encourage new kinds of devices to be built? Absolutely!

Wouldn’t that mean we’d need a replacement for the iPhone? Absolutely!

Why? Well, let’s put it this way. If you had tons of devices in your world that you wanted to interact with TweetDeck or SimplyTweet just wouldn’t cut it.

Now, what if Microsoft made such a Twitter system more reliable? After all, if a doctor is going to have a device that will talk to all sorts of machines during surgery there can’t be a possibility of a fail whale.

Once Microsoft got .NET runtimes out in enough things they could come in and build a shadow Twitter that’s more reliable than Twitter and that has some cool features.

Then once that’s done Microsoft could ship a post-iPhone world. Why? Because they would be able to build a device that would be optimized for this Twitter world.

Oh, OK, this is all science fiction. After all it’s preposterous to think that the iPhone won’t stay on the coolest device shelf forever.

Right?

"

from Scobleizer by Robert Scoble

Posted by Mahdi at 5:12 AM

Five Best Time-Tracking Applications

Five Best Time-Tracking Applications: "

Where does the time go? Whether you need to know for billing purposes or just want a better idea of how your work day is split up, you can always answer that question with a good time-tracking application.

Photo by judepic.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite time-tracking tool, and now we're back with the five most popular time-tracking applications to help you track the time you spend on projects and tasks of every size. Whether you're an old veteran of time tracking and are curious to see alternatives to your current system, or you're new to the premise and curious to see what kind of apps people use, we've got five solid tools to showcase.

Klok (All platforms with Adobe AIR, Free)

Built with Adobe AIR, Klok is a lightweight and cross-platform tracking solution. You can create a hierarchy of projects and sub-projects in the task-management sidebar and then track the time spent on each by dragging and dropping them into the workflow for the day. While you can delve into the details of each block of time, simple adjustments like expanding the amount of time you've worked on a project is as easy as grabbing the edge of the block with your mouse and tugging it down.

Manic Time (Windows, Free)

One area of resistance many people have to using time tracking software is a fear that they'll waste too much time actually plugging information into the system. Manic Time alleviates that fear by actively tracking what you're doing on your computer to make tagging and analyzing your daily work flow simple. Your day is represented by three time lines: Activity (either on the computer or off), Applications (which were open), and Tags (your personal annotations to your work flow). Mousing over any of the three time lines gives you additional data about that moment on the time line and you can always pull up the statistics window to see your work patterns over time. Check out their video tutorials to see Manic Time in action.

SlimTimer (Web-Based, Free)

SlimTimer is a web-based tracking solution. Once you've signed up for a free account, you can begin creating new tasks you want to track. You track those tasks by flagging time you spend on them in the little pop-out time manager you see in the screenshot above or by keeping the SlimTimer web site open. You can add tags to your tasks in the management section of the SlimTimer site as well as share tasks with coworkers. If you're concerned about using a web-based tracker and losing control of or flat out losing your data, you can export your time-tracking data or even have SlimTimer email you a backup once a week.

RescueTime (Windows/Mac, Free)

RescueTime aims to be the least intrusive time-tracker you'll use. Rather than have you log each individual activity you do in a journal-style system, RescueTime monitors the web sites you visit and the applications you use. You can set goals in RescueTime based on a variety of factors, like how much time you want to spend doing certain tasks or how much time you want to dedicate to certain projects. RescueTime analyzes your computer usage and reports back to you on whether or not you're meeting those goals. RescueTime takes a different approach from most time-tracking tools, so we'd definitely recommend reading their FAQ file for additional insight into how they handle time tracking.

Project Hamster (Linux, Free)

Hamster is a simple time-tracking tool for Linux-based systems. You enter tasks as they occur, and then you can categorize and sort them. When you're done with a given task, you simply tell Hamster to stop tracking it. You can also set up a reminder system that will remind you to record what your current activity is every X number of minutes. One of the more interesting features of Hamster is the ability to shift how your day is defined. If you're a night owl and do most of your work after hours, Hamster won't slice your 'day' in half at midnight just because the clock says it's a new day.

by Jason Fitzpatrick

Posted by Mahdi at 4:54 AM

Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required: "

Two weeks ago I detailed how to build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, with a little Terminal work. If you're not comfortable with command-line hacking, you can now install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh with just a few point-and-clicks.

So what's changed between my last guide and this one? In short, one of the incredibly helpful and generous people who helped walk me through the installation process last time was kind enough to wrap all the tedious Terminal work into one dead simple installer. Where two weeks ago I showed you how to prepare your thumb drive (and after that, hard drive) with a custom bootloader that allows you to boot into OS X on regular old PC hardware, now all you have to do is run a package, point it at the drive you want to prepare, and then let it take care of all the nitty gritty. It could not be more simple.

Now onto the revised process!

NOTE: Just like the last post, this guide is focused specifically on the hardware I suggested in the previous guide—specifically the motherboard. If you try following this guide on other hardware, there's a very good chance it won't work as advertised.

What You'll Need

• Supported hardware. I laid out my list of supported hardware in my previous post here. It's not the only hardware that will work with OS X, but it's the only hardware that's guaranteed to work with this guide.


• A USB thumb drive that's at least 8GB in size (I'm using this 16GB Corsair drive, but obviously any sufficiently sized thumb drive should do just fine.)


• A copy of the Snow Leopard Install DVD. You can use the $29 'Upgrade' disc to install, even though this is a fresh installation. Note: If you feel like being completely honest, go ahead and buy the Mac Box Set-though, honestly, Apple's practically made it hard *not* to buy the fully functional install disc.


• Another Mac to prepare your thumb drive. (You'll only need this other Mac for a few steps. I used my MacBook Pro, but you could also borrow a friend's for an hour or so, too.)


• The EP45UD3P Snow Leopard install package. This package allows you to skip all the command line work in my last guide, and you can download it here.

Step One: Prepare Your Thumb Drive

In this step, you're going to format your thumb drive and then restore the Snow Leopard DVD image to the thumb drive because later we'll be installing Snow Leopard to your hard drive using this thumb drive rather than the DVD. 'Why?' you ask. Because in order to boot the installer, we need to customize the disk image with some special helper files of our own.

I went into great detail on this process last time, so this time I'm just going to include the step-by-step video below (made by the same generous man who created the EP45UD3P Snow Leopard installer package). If you want to read the very detailed version for a thorough explanation of how to rip the Snow Leopard install DVD to a disk image and then restore that image to your thumb drive, go here. (Come back when you get to the 'Semi-heavy Terminal work' warning. That's when you're ready for the new and improved easy part.)

Note: Watch the video in HD and fullscreen to get a closer look at everything that's happening.

As you can see in the video, after you restore the Snow Leopard install DVD to your thumb drive, all you've got to do is fire up the EP45UD3P Snow Leopard.pkg file (if you haven't already downloaded and unzipped it, you can grab it here), select your thumb drive, and, let the installer take care of all the dirty work that you previously had to do one line at a time in Terminal.

Once you've finished there, you're ready to set your BIOS and install Snow Leopard.

Step 2: Set Your BIOS

Before you can boot into or install OS X on your Hackintosh, you've got to make some small adjustments to your system BIOS (press Delete at system startup to tweak your BIOS settings). Rather than taking you step by step through every change you need to make, I've simply snapped a picture of the relevant BIOS screens and added some notes. Just click through these images and make sure your BIOS settings match up.

Step 3: Install Snow Leopard

If you've made it this far, the hard part is over. Now it's time to install Snow Leopard, which—unlike what we've done so far—is extremely easy.

Make sure you've set the boot priority in your BIOS to boot from your thumb drive (you can see how in this pic), then simply plug your prepared thumb drive into your Hackintosh and power it up. Since screenshots aren't really an option—and since it's a fairly easy process—my install instructions come in video format:

The quick version goes like this: Boot into the Snow Leopard installer, format the hard drive you want to install Snow Leopard to (go to Utilities -> Disk Utility, then click on the drive, select 1 Partition, Mac OS X Journaled (Case-Sensitive Update: Several readers have suggested that case-sensitive formatting can cause problems with some applications, like Adobe's Creative Suite, so you may be better off sticking with plain old Mac OS X Journaled.), give it a name, and make sure GUID Partition Table is set in the Options. After you Apply the new partition, go back to the installer and install like normal to that drive. When you reboot after the install completes, press the arrow keys at the graphical boot menu and select the drive you just installed Snow Leopard to.

Two Last Tweaks

You could just stop there and be pretty happy at your new Hackintosh, but there are two little, easily performed tweaks you'll want to tackle to get everything in tip top shape: The first will get your sound fully working, and the second will allow you to boot into Snow Leopard without your thumb drive.

Tweak One: Snow Leopard should be up and running on your Hackintosh like a dream—with one exception: Sound isn't entirely working yet. You may notice that sound actually does work in some instances, but not all. In the old guide, you needed to install a custom audio kext (your Mac's equivalent to a driver); the setup has been slightly tweaked in this new method, so all you should actually need to do is open up the Sound preference pane in System Preferences (/Applications/System Preferences), click the Output tab, and change the output device to Built-in Line output (I haven't tested with digital out, but it should work fine in theory).

Tweak Two: At this point, in order to boot to your newly installed Snow Leopard installation, you need to have your thumb drive plugged in so it loads the custom bootloader, from which you can select your new Snow Leopard hard drive. To install the custom bootloader to your hard drive (so you no longer need the thumb drive to boot), again download the EP45UD3P Snow Leopard.pkg zip file and run it, but this time, instead of choosing to install the package to your thumb drive, select the hard drive you've installed Snow Leopard to. Once the installer completes, you'll no longer need your thumb drive plugged in to boot into Snow Leopard.

Congratulations! You've Got a Fully Functional Hackintosh—the Easy Way

Where the method I covered previously required a good amount of time and care in Terminal, this new and improved method is a breeze, and it works even better. (Sound works out of the box without any custom kexts, for example.)

It's also worth noting that you can go ahead and upgrade to OS X 10.6.1 without any problems.

by Adam Pash

Posted by Mahdi at 9:38 PM

Top 10 Tactics for Protecting Your Stuff

Top 10 Tactics for Protecting Your Stuff: "

We've offered up a wealth of tips on locking down your data, but old-school, straight-up stealing is another matter entirely. Try these 10 tips on securing, disguising, tracking down, and hiding your goods so they don't get nicked.

Photo by tom.arthur.

10. Sign your gear, add return incentives

Your wallet or purse already has your license in it for identification and mailing, but what about your other, possibly more expensive gear? You should definitely get a label on it. Adam kinda-sorta thinks the ImHonest label service makes sense, if you want to protect your mailing address and give gadget finders an offer of a reward to return your gear (even if that reward is, not surprisingly, just some ImHonest labels, unless you go further yourself). Homemade labels with an email address might be good enough for most, but for gadgets with memory cards inside, digitally signing with a .txt file makes sense as well. (Original post)

9. Make your lunch look less appetizing

This falls under the same category of ugly-as-deterrent mentioned elsewhere on this list, but office lunch thieves are a different kind of bandit. They (somewhat) know you, they (hopefully) don't want to sell your goods, and they're more of an opportunistic nuisance than a hit-and-run thief. Since we originally posted about designer Sherwood Forlee's faux-moldy anti-theft lunch bags, Forlee's put his bags up for sale at $10 for 25 bags. Not a bad price for semi-reusable bags, but you can likely replicate the effect on your own with non-toxic paint or food dye. Better still, if you're willing to sacrifice two slices of bread for the cause, we've heard a surreptitious coffee grounds sandwich often teaches a vital lesson about personal property to refrigerator prowlers. (Original post)

8. Get a carry bag that doesn't scream 'Steal me!'

Targus bags and other carriers meant to look like a laptop, or have a generally high-tech appearance, do a great job of letting everyone know that something inside is expensive enough to buy a single-purpose bag for. Getting clever with your gear holders is a good way to ensure you always know which bag is yours, and that laptop-hunting thieves are less likely to nick yours. The newspaper sleeve is a good reference point, although it might get your laptop mistaken for a left-behind periodical. You can also cobble together a clever carrier made from old plastic bags, cardboard, a FedEx envelope, or even an old wetsuit.

7. Put a cute baby in your wallet

When researchers left 240 wallets scattered around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, they inserted an equal number of cute baby, puppy, family, and elderly pictures in them, along with a relevant mailing address. They received 42 percent of the wallets back overall, but 88 percent of the wallets with cute babies in them came back. The researchers suggest it has to do with an evolutionary instinct to preserve the young, so if it's not terribly embarrassing, keep a cute baby in plain sight in your wallet or purse. If you lack for your own adorable tyke, it's a great reason to call that aunt you never speak to anymore. (Original post)

6. Destroy a credit card the right way

If you're looking to ditch one of your expired or unused credit cards, don't just give it one or two token scissor cuts and toss it where identity thieves would love to have a go at it. Try the method recommended by the Wallet Pop blog (and demonstrated in the video above), which involves using a strong magnet and 15 cuts across your little debt recorder. Worried you'll hurt your credit score by canceling your plastic? Don't be—if you've got no balance, canceling a card can make sense. (Original post)

5. Erase your hard drives the permanent way

Weekend editor Jason doesn't like to leave his hard drives loaded with personal data, like 40 percent of the used hard drives that can be bought on eBay. So he keeps a variety of total-erasure software on hand, knows how long he needs to run them, and firmly believes in the security power of fire, magnets, and other physical disruption tools. You might not need to mount your hard drives and fire at them with real ammunition, but a quick read through our feature on properly erasing your physical media will make you want to truly cleanse your drives before donating, selling, or handing them off. Photo by scragz.

4. Uglify gear you don't want grabbed

If the guts of your possessions are what matter to you most, and you don't mind a little creative shoddiness, 'uglifying' might be the way to go for your prized possessions. One blogger took his 'ugly camera' for a spin in some fairly harsh areas, and even had it left in his pockets by muggers who went for a $20 cellphone instead. So if a digital camera, a nice bike, or anything else you're concerned about looks like it might be a nice target, consider creatively junking it up a bit. (Original post)

3. Make little changes to prevent identity theft

The more people, companies, and places you ensure your identifying information to, the larger a target you are for whoever wants to masquerade as you until the packages arrive from eBay. You can, however, lock down your data life without moving into a mountain cave. Actively guarding your Social Security number takes patience and persuasion powers, but you usually don't have to give it out. The Get Rich Slowly blog suggests keeping in mind the Three 'D's of identity theft protection—deter, detect, and defend, bolstered by the FTC's identity theft tips. When you find a cheaper price at an off-brand store, use a virtual credit card to shield your real account from misplaced digits. Finally, be not afraid to bust out the shredder and feed it with the financial records you don't need.

2. Know where to hide your money

It might seem counter-intuitive, but a former burglar suggests that leaving a little bit of money in a few barely-hidden spots might save your living space, and your actual stash of cash, from being torn apart and tracked down by those who would take what you have. If you're looking for a place to store emergency money that you'll (almost) always have on you, the Cash 'Can' keyring is a good bet against being burglarized. (Original post)

1. Set up a laptop security system

Laptops hold a lot of data you probably don't want in the open, and they're not cheap to replace. If you'd rather your thin computer not find its way into the wrong hands, we have a few suggestions on securing your laptop on multiple fronts. From inexpensive, physical laptop locks to webcam mugshot takers and missing computer trackers, a lot of tools are available for Windows and Mac machines that make it hard for a thief to walk away with your system, or make him wish he hadn't if he makes it out the door with it.

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How do you secure your gear, money, documents, and other items against low-tech thievery—beyond, of course, locking your door and closing your windows? Tell us about your more creative theft deterrents in the comments."

from Lifehacker: Top by Kevin Purdy

Posted by Mahdi at 9:12 AM

Let’s Not Let Silicon Valley Become Just Like Hollywood

Let’s Not Let Silicon Valley Become Just Like Hollywood: "

I came across a post written earlier this week by A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson titled I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script. It’s worth a read because it is funny as hell. But I also can’t help thinking about how it all applies to our Silicon Valley community. Are we any different than Hollywood? Should we be?

Olson writes:

I will not read your fucking script…If that seems unfair, I’ll make you a deal. In return for you not asking me to read your fucking script, I will not ask you to wash my fucking car, or take my fucking picture, or represent me in fucking court, or take out my fucking gall bladder, or whatever the fuck it is that you do for a living…Yes. That’s right. I called you a dick. Because you created this situation. You put me in this spot where my only option is to acquiesce to your demands or be the bad guy. That, my friend, is the very definition of a dick move.

He goes on, giving a specific example of one time that he read someone’s script and how it all turned out badly anyway.

And, he’s right. Dead on right. Asking a writer to read your script is no different than asking a painter to paint your house for free. Except for one crucial thing – The person isn’t really asking Olson to read his script. What he was really asking for is access to the Hollywood power structure. A way in to a very closed off world.

There are direct analogies to Silicon Valley. In Hollywood everyone has a script. In Silicon Valley, everyone has a business plan. And when you don’t know many people here, you start networking to get people to read that business plan, and hopefully introduce you to a few venture capitalists or angel investors.

Sometimes those people start with me in their quest to break into Silicon Valley. They are way too early to have a story written about them, but they email in and ask me to look at their business plan and/or an early website and give them my feedback.

What they really want are introductions. To possible cofounders. Or investors. Sure, they listen to my opinion, but when they really have the fire in their eye, which all good entrepreneurs have, it doesn’t matter what I say. Nothing will stop them. They just want me to introduce them to the next person who can help them.

Usually I can’t take the time to look at these business plans, there is always too much to do in my day job. Sometimes, very rarely, I do. But, like Olson with his scripts, the result is the same whether I spend the time or not. If I don’t look at it I get called a jerk. If I do look at it but don’t help move the idea forward with the right introductions, I get called a jerk. It’s easiest just to ignore the requests.

We also see this with TechCrunch50 applications. Every year we get about 1,000 applications from bright eyed, hopeful entrepreneurs. Fifty get in. That’s 950 rejection emails we have to send out. Every year, a certain percentage of the rejected entrepreneurs go varying degrees of ballistic on us. Angry emails, trolling comments, etc. Very occasionally, worse.

But some of this is understandable frustration. As Silicon Valley gets bigger, with more strangers, it actually becomes harder to reach the power structure that can make your startup go from a business plan to reality (this is why I’ve written that periodic downturns, which weed out some of the fluffier parts of the startup scene, are such a good thing in our community).

Those of us in a position to help entrepreneurs need to do more of it. We need to take more time out of our day to read that business plan, and help make connections. Even when it comes at the cost of our day job, and even when there is nothing in it for us. In the past we’ve tried various projects to try to scale this. In the future, we’ll try new things until we get it right. One idea – a once-a-month open demo day at techcrunch where unknown startups can come and show their stuff, or just talk about their idea, to TechCrunch writers. It would be trivial to livestream and archive these events. And who knows, someone may make a crucial connection.

But this is a two way street. Budding entrepreneurs, trying to break down the walls that separate them from your angel funding, need to grow up. Most of the time people don’t have the time to help you, and you shouldn’t aim hate at them for it. Instead, try a different angle or a different person. A simple thing – learn to read body language and don’t approach people at the wrong time (like right after they leave a stage and are surrounded by a dozen other people). Choose your moment. If your strategies don’t work, try something new.

Dozens of startups have given up trying to get through my hated inbox and have instead reached out to other TechCrunch writers, and many of those have ended up with great connections to angel investors, potential partners, or future employees.

But don’t assume someone is a jerk just because they won’t paint your house for free. Or read your business plan.

Good luck, and remember that a lot of people want you to win, even when they don’t have the time to help you do it.

p.s. – I often find myself on the other side of this type of thing, trying to get someone’s attention for a story or to speak at one of our events or whatever. I try to never take offense at an unreturned phone call or email, or blame the person if they don’t have time to speak at one of our conferences. Instead, I try to think of ways to reverse the situation, so in the future it’s them calling me to write about their company, or to speak at our conference. It doesn’t always work, but it’s more productive than festering and spreading hate.

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

Posted by Mahdi at 9:08 AM

Five Hard-to-Kill Houseplants for Your Home or Workspace

Five Hard-to-Kill Houseplants for Your Home or Workspace: "

Plants can transform your home or workspace into a more peaceful, tranquil, and beautiful place, but if you're not good with them, your improved space can quickly turn into a depressing chamber of death. The solution: Get some more resilient plants.

All-things-home weblog Apartment Therapy rounds up five hard-to-kill houseplants that will keep your peaceful, plant-adorned space alive even if you've got the brownest of thumbs. Those five:

• Dracaena marginata


• Sansevieria


• Ficus


• Philodendron


• Bromeliad

Click on any of the images below to see a closer look at the plants.

Note that some of the plants aren't pet-friendly (actually, all but the Bromeliad is listed as toxic to cats and dogs by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), so you'll want to either avoid those if you've got a pet or make sure your pet isn't a plant-eater.

We've also covered plenty of other methods for helping keep your plants alive and kicking, like the previously mentioned wine bottle plant nanny and the self-watering garden. We've also highlighted plants that give you better air and plants that don't need much water, so between all those posts, you should be able to find a plant that works for you.

If you've had good luck with any particular plants despite your lack of a green thumb, let's hear what resilient plants you've had luck with in the comments.

Setting Up Home: 5 Hard-to-Kill Houseplants [Apartment Therapy]

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from Lifehacker: Top by Adam Pash

Posted by Mahdi at 2:15 AM