The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook

" You've just leapt off a building and, noticing a Dumpster below, you thank your stars that you've spent several hours listening to this cassette, and you can now land in said Dumpster without breaking your back.

Although it is rather unlikely that you will ever use any of the material presented in the book how to perform a tracheotomy, or bring a plane in for an emergency landing these things do happen every once in a while. To someone, somewhere maybe. So it couldn't hurt to bone up on some skills, right?

Though neither written nor read in a humorous manner, the book nevertheless amuses in a strange way; the decision to group numerous bizarre crises into two hours of tape, not to mention some of the particularly far-fetched scenarios ("How to Leap from a Motorcycle to a Car" or "How to Escape from Killer Bees") often exceed our expectations of absurdity. You can imagine needing to know CPR some day, but how many of us will have the opportunity to wrestle free from an alligator? As a man who has seemingly leapt into Dumpsters and jumped into moving vehicles (or had a stunt double perform these things), Reynolds seems a wise choice for a reader. Unfortunately, his presentation is flat and unenthusiastic, and it sounds like he's reading the material for the first time.

Misplaced emphases render several passages difficult to understand. However, Reynolds's familiar voice, combined with the offbeat material, affords some camp appeal in the tradition of outdated high school safety films. Based on the Chronicle paperback ..."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811825558/002-4508790-8056007?v=glance&n=283155

IPod players outsell mainstay Macs

" For the first time, Apple Computer rang up more sales of its iPods during a quarter than its mainstay PCs, the company reported Wednesday. But executives cautioned that overall sales might not be as hot in the current quarter.
That sober tone dampened Wall Street's enthusiasm for Apple's stock, which had shot up more than 15 percent this month. In after-hours trading the price dropped 3 percent ... "

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/
technology/13662314.htm

Feds after Google data

" The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.
The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

The Mountain View-based search and advertising giant opposes releasing the information on a variety of grounds, saying it would violate the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets, according to court documents.
Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort ...

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13657386.htm

Computers that know when you're angry

" Let's see a show of hands: how many of you have ever kicked, punched, shaken, thrown, or cursed your computer? How many have wanted to? Interesting. You can put your hands down now.

Using computers can be frustrating; there is just no feeling that can compare with a blue screen of death at one in the morning while you were working on that (unsaved) presentation. Computers are incredible devices for receiving and interpreting certain types of human sounds and gestures, but until now they have proved as insensitive as a husband watching a playoff game to the emotions of those they know best.

Enter the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany (the same folks who brought us the MP3 compression format). Scientists at their facility in Rostock have been working on ways to interpret and react to a computer user's emotions, especially the aggression and frustration that build up in users who know exactly what they want to accomplish but cannot get their computers to do the job. The system has two components: a camera and a glove. The camera watches a PC's user for outward signs of emotion, such as frowning or certain postures. But many indicators for motion are internal and invisible to the camera's eye, which is where the glove comes in. Christian Peter, one of the project's researchers, has developed a glove fitted with sensors that record a person's heartbeat, blood pressure, and body temperature, all of which can give valuable clues into that person's state of mind.

The goal of the project at this time is simply to develop an accurate system for gauging user emotions, but the real benefit of such technology will be seen when computers are smart enough to act on the information and to head off computer-related aggression before it starts. Of course, it's entirely possible that a poor implementation of this idea (think Clippy) could actually increase user frustration, so caution is in order. Those who want to get hands-on with the technology can see a demonstration during CeBIT 2006 in Hanover, while the rest of us can simply get back to calling our computers vile names ..."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060119-6010.html

Digital music sales tripled in 2005

" According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), legal sales of digital music increased by over 200 percent in 2005 over the year before. Sales were split between mobile phone ring tones, which consisted of 40 percent of the total, and online music downloading services such as Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS), which took the other 60 percent.

Digital music sales represent six percent of the total recording industry's revenues, which is up from about two percent in 2004 and only a fraction of a percent in 2003. This represents significant growth, although clearly sales of traditional media (such as CDs) continue to provide the lion's share of the recording's industry's revenue ..."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060119-6015.html

Following the money: how Subway ads ended up in Counter-Strike

" Big brands, strange places
If you've ever seen a computer infested with spyware (not your own, of course), you know that it's not uncommon for ads from well-respected companies to start popping up on the desktop. How the money makes its way from a Fortune 500 company to a dodgy purveyor of spyware makes for fascinating reading and has been well documented in various magazine articles and on the Web. Sometimes the major companies involved don't know where their ads end up... and sometimes they just don't ask many questions. But even as the furor over spyware begins to die down (and better blocking tools become commonplace on users' PCs), the next battleground in the war between advertising dollars and ethics is already taking shape.

Advertising within video games, though generally a legitimate practice, does have its seedier side. This was illustrated this week with news that Subway ads had been popping up in the popular on-line game Counter-Strike without Valve's permission and in explicit violation of the game's EULA (end user license agreement). How did it happen? Who was involved? And who's liable? To answer those questions, let's take a peek inside this specific ad campaign. We'll take it apart and see how it works, then consider the implications for the nascent in-game advertising industry. So without further ado, let's follow the money ..."

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/subway-cs.ars

German Wikipedia site goes offline after lawsuit

" A German Court has ordered the German-language version of Wikipedia shut down after the family of deceased phreaker/hacker "Tron" sued Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. for using the deceased's full name in an entry. Currently, visitors to wikipedia.de are greeted with a notice that the site has been taken offline as the result of a provisional court order.

Tron, (Boris Floricic) died in 1998 under mysterious circumstances. He had spent much of his teen years working on hacking and at one point, produced working clones of German phone cards. He also created a working prototype for a phone that could handle voice encryption on its own. In October 1998, he was reported missing, and his body was found a few days later in a Berlin park. The official verdict was suicide, but his family and some of his associates harbor suspicions that he was the victim of foul play ..."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060119-6013.html