Quotes of the Day:

• Alfred E. Wiggam "A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time."

  
  

• Groucho Marx "I don't have a photograph, but you can have my footprints. They're upstairs in my socks."

  
  

• George Santayana "To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood."

  
  

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

  
  

• Kin Hubbard "Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation."

  
  

Motivational Quotes of the Day:

• Hugh Elliott "It�s such a part of me, I assume Everyone can see it."

  
  

• H. Jackson Brown Jr. "Strive for excellence, not perfection."

  
  

• Hazrat Inayat Khan "The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels."

  
  

• Paul Goodman "Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity."

  
  

• Ellen Goodman "I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another."

  
  

Dictionary.com Word of the Day:

• salient: Dictionary.com Word of the Day salient: noticeable; also, projecting; also, leaping.
  
  
  
• Presented By:

Santa Fe, New Mexico Weather :: 32F Clear

Clear 32°F

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6 MPH

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29.98 in.

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10 mi

NPR News (Audio):

• Common Ground On The Time Horizon?
• Romney Moves Up As Potential McCain VP
• Romney Moves Up As Potential McCain VP
• Helms' Passage A Hinge Of History
• Dream Ticket? Less Likely by the Day
• Bush Enjoying a Good Month for a Change
• McCain's Possible Running Mates
• Who Did This To Hillary?
• No Easy Picks for Either Party's VP

NYT > Home Page:

• Ground Zero Workers Reach Deal Over Health Claims A settlement of up to $657.5 million has been reached in the cases of thousands of rescue and cleanup workers who sued the city over damage to their health, according to city officials.
  
  
• Lehman Brothers Hid Borrowing, Examiner Says The Wall Street bank used accounting gimmicks to hide its financial weakness in the months before its bankruptcy, according to a 2,200-page report.
  
  
• Cuomo to Recuse Himself From Paterson Investigations Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo appointed an independent counsel, Judith S. Kaye, to take over his office’s investigations of Gov. David A. Paterson.
  
  
• Obama Social Secretary Ran Into Sharp Elbows The rise and fall of Desirée Rogers, the White House social secretary, is in some ways a familiar Washington tale.
  
  
• How Do You Say 'Jersey Shore' in Russian? At a casting call in Brooklyn for the Russian equivalent of "Jersey Shore," some of the accents are different but the lifestyle seems familiar.
  
  
• ‘The Demons’: 12-Hour Play, and Endless Bragging Rights “The Demons,” a 12-hour production of a grim Dostoyevsky novel that will be performed only twice, may be the must-see show of the New York theater season.
  
  
• Rapid Rise in Seed Prices Draws U.S. Scrutiny A Justice Department antitrust investigation of the seed industry is apparently focused on Monsanto.
  
  
• A Trailblazer of Civil Rights Dies Forgotten Neighbors were startled to learn that Juanita W. Goggins, who had frozen to death at home, was the first black woman elected to the South Carolina legislature.
  
  
• U.C.L.A. 75, Arizona 69: U.C.L.A. Ends Arizona’s N.C.A.A. Tournament Streak Arizona’s streak of 25 consecutive N.C.A.A. appearances has ended, and with it their hopes of an automatic bid.
  
  
• Patchwork Retirement Plan Adds to Greece’s Debt Woes Greece’s retirement plan, which lets 14 percent of its work force retire early, has become divisive in Europe.
  
  
• Top Obama Priorities Collide as Student Loan Legislation May Be Attached to Health Care The deal would bundle a bill on student loan overhaul into an expedited budget package along with the Democratic health care legislation.
  
  

Buzzworthy:

• Follow me on/to Twitter Hi, folks. Long time no see.
• Still here, for now Yes, I'm continuing with seattlepi.com as it spins off into a standalone online news operation after the demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
• Secrets of navel lint An Austrian scientist has "solved" the mystery of how belly button lint is generated, The Telegraph reports.
• Newspaper industry woes not a global crisis From the International Newsmedia Marketing Association, a fascinating contrarian take on how the doomsaying about the imminent demise of the newspaper is, to a significant degree, a uniquely American problem. Newspapers elsewhere, which have different business models and competitive environments, are actually doing quite well.
• The war against mutton methane Down in New Zealand, researchers are engaged in "one of the most sophisticated efforts in livestock stomach research," according to The Wall Street Journal. Their goal: to keep sheep from belching.
• Road map for financial reboot From Wired magazine, we have a very interesting manifesto arguing for radical transparency as a road map for financial recovery. Writer Daniel Roth's argument is fairly intricate, but the basics can be summed up in three bullet points:
• The Twittering classes now include Congress Yes, social media transparency and unrestrained sharing can be taken too far. Witness this rather dispiriting account of the tweets sent by members of Congress while President Obama was addressing them about the economy on Tuesday.
• Paper still profitable Here's an interesting fact that I don't see mentioned very often: Most newspapers are actually still profitable, despite the industry's overall financial straits.
• Small chance for micropayments Some ideas, no matter how thoroughly discredited, just keep popping up again.
• Get rich through blogging? Nah Dan Lyons, who once pulled off the nifty trick of becoming famous as the anonymous author of the satirical Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, explains how he came to conclude that you can't get rich through blogging.
• Why subscription music lives Why does the music industry keep pushing subscription music services? Universal Music Group executive David Ring offered an explanation at a conference this week, reports CNet News.com's Greg Sandoval:

Fast Company:

• iPad Pre-Orders Begin at 8:30 AM EST Tomorrow: Start Practicing Your Speed-Refreshing

  

  Okay, Apple fanatics, publishing hopefuls, and reckless early adopters: tomorrow is your day. Start warming up your refresh finger (mine's the right middle finger--it's like I'm saying "screw you! Work this time!" with every furious refresh), because Apple's iPad, in both Wi-Fi and 3G configurations, is allowing pre-orders starting tomorrow at 8:30 AM EST (5:30 AM PST). You can pre-order either online at Apple's site or through any of their individual stores over the phone--if you're seriously pre-ordering this thing, the latter option is probably your best bet to get your new iPhone XXL into your greasy hands as soon as possible. The Wi-Fi version will ship (or be available for pickup) on launch day, April 3rd, while the 3G version won't launch until an undetermined day in "late April." Best of luck to all you crazies!

  [Via TUAW]

  Image by Jon Marshall.

  
  

  
  
• Today in Most Innovative Companies

  Daily news of note from our most Innovative Companies, including HP, Microsoft, Spotify, and Intel.

  

  HP: The Palo Alto-based computer giant has launched its first corporate advertising campaign in a half-decade, and they've pulled in favors, from Dr. Dre to Annie Leibovitz. The $40 million Let's Do Amazing ad-campaign is aimed at expanding the scope of HP's brand, which is normally associated with printer technology. We recommend the Dre clip, which shows the megastar producer pumping out beats with Rhys Darby, the manager from New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo, Flight of the Conchords. Still, Darby and Dre are no match for Jay-Z, who starred in an HP ad four years ago.

  [youtube fsE0g-8CDQo]

  Microsoft: Speaking of marketing campaigns, Microsoft has started a contest to find the best viral video for its Office 2010 release. To get a shot at the $10,000 prize, all you have to do submit a short video that creatively shows how Office products have helped your business. Rumor has it that OK Go, fresh from ditching EMI, is working on another rendition of "This Too Shall Pass," this time with ex-Microsoft employee, Clippy.

  Spotify: The popular cloud-based music service just updated their catalogue, adding about 300,000 new tracks ready for listening. When is Spotify coming to the U.S. again?

  Intel: It's always good for businesses to know their customers, but Intel's latest viral marketing campaign is targeting quite the unexpected demographic: the slovenly and unemployed. In promoting their 2010 Core processor series, Intel is going after "man-taskers," male users that multi-task to the extreme, alt-tabbing between basketball games, more basketball games, and nacho dip, all while their girlfriends presumably are at work. Check out the man-tasker rap below to see what I'm talking about, and head here for Intel's quiz to find out if you have what it takes to be an alpha-male user--the questions have a promising start ("Have you ever put the remote control in the freezer while cooking dinner because you are not able to multi-task?") but then degrade into generic questions ("Do you multi-task?"), which a man-tasker like myself has no time for. So how about it Fast Company readers? Are you man-taskers?

  [youtube Ey9d8ShlYVE]

  
  

  
  
• "Red Steel 2" Director on Motion Control Gaming, Making a "First-Person Brawler"

  This month, Western-meets-Samurai Anime game Red Steel 2 takes a giant leap forward in translating players' movements into epic on-screen swordfights. Creative director Jason Vandenberghe gives us an inside look at the making of an action game with detailed motion controls and shares his enthusiasm for PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Project Natal.

  Kevin Ohannessian: Tell me about Red Steel 2.

  Jason Vandenberghe: Red Steel 2 is a first-person sword and gun-slinging action game, with the Wii Motion Plus required. We have broken through the first-person swordfighting barrier and have created what I affectionately call a first-person brawler. The game is played fast and furious at a close range. We started over with the franchise, the setting and the world; a new hero, a new look, a new style. It has more of a graphic novel look this time, in a world more fitting for swordfighting gameplay.

  

  How is making a game with such detailed motion control different than a typical game?

  It's revolutionary. We are one of a small group that can say that. Are you familiar with the "Wii Waggle"? The style of gameplay that's become common in many of the games--you can't play Red Steel that way. You have to treat the Wiimote like a sword, like you are holding a katana. The goal we had was to give you the sensation that the Wiimote you are swinging is a blade and when you make contact with your enemies you're really cleaving them. With the Wii Motion Plus, we can do it. It lets us take a first-person shooter, Red Steel, and turn it into a first-person fighter, Red Steel 2. We have been able to finally satisfy the promise of swordfighting on the Wii.

  Wii Motion Plus at its core is a gyroscope. It tells us at all times what position the Wiimote is in, what angle is space the Wiimote is pointing. This turns out to be very useful for a few key things. Imagine your Wiimote is a sword and you are going to whack some dude with it. What's the first thing you do? Generally the first thing you do is pull back for the swing, you ready the swing. Well, if you holding the Wiimote like a sword that means the Wiimote isn't pointing at the sensor bar. Without the Motion Plus, the Wii has no idea where it is. With the Wii Motion Plus we know all throughout: drawing back for the swing, the moment you begin to accelerate, and we know that you're doing that and we know what direction you're moving; we can calculate the arc of your swing.

  Without the Wii Motion Plus you swing the Wiimote and a half-second later it goes "Boom" on screen. With the Wii Motion Plus it's simultaneous; there's no lag. The difference between that half-second of lag is the difference between frustration and immersion. It's the key difference. And that why you haven't seen this kind of gameplay prior to the existence of the Wii Motion Plus, because it is not satisfying without it.

  

  When making action-based motion control games, players' actual physical capabilities become more of an issue.

  This is the core issue with human interface. We solved it in a whole bunch of ways, through experimentation and play testing. We looked for as many problems as we can find and looked for clever solutions to them. In Red Steel we have different difficulty modes. What we demand of the player, in terms of challenge and thinking, shifts. We found that humans are not as equally accurate with the blade. Almost everyone can be fast, which I was surprised by. You can ask people to swing that thing pretty quickly and they will go ahead and do it. It's the accuracy that's the issue. The thing that is really hard for people is understanding that there is someone next to them, knowing how to block and parry, how to respond to someone that is attacking them--these are the things we found that are really challenging to be in an action-style of play.

  We found that really clear tutorials, we have these lessons in the game when you learn to do the actual motions, everyone seems to get that. If you are an Easy-level player, you are going to have to think about only one enemy at a time, even if you are surrounded. And the number of times you have to parry or block accurately is less. We scale down the type of skills we ask the player to do and let them focus on Conan-ing their way through the game. Everyone can do that; that's a human ability, to run in and start swinging. It's doing it with accuracy and grace that is the hard part.

  When you are playing on a higher difficulty, you really have to focus on the motion, and you got to be moving--being surrounded is really dangerous. Combat in the real world--this is what we are discovering--if you get surrounded, you are screwed; it doesn't matter how skilled you are. In our game you really need to think about that: thinking about isolating your foe, diving in and then stunning them so they can't attack, taking advantage of that opening, and then getting the hell out of there. The game on Ninja difficulty is pretty challenging. But you know what? Our game is kind of like Guitar Hero, in that by the time you get down with Normal, you are ready for Ninja. It's a learnable skill; it's been a really fascinating study for us.

  

  As someone who has now made a motion-controlled game, how do you feel about PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Project Natal?

  It's thrilling; I'm very, very excited. I've been wanting to make a swordfighting game my entire career; I've pitched a swordfighting game at every studio I've worked at. And now that I've made one, my primary ambition in life is to make another one. I really want to keeping doing it--the technology is just going to keep getting better and better. I learned a huge amount about what it takes to do this--the human interface part is the hard part. We overcame a lot of those challenges with Red Steel 2. I want to keep going.

  As far as what's going to happen with Red Steel, Red Steel 2 is Wii exclusive and always will be. As for the future, we are all waiting to see what happens when the game comes out: is it well received, did we do our job, is it a good thing, is there a demand--do people want to play this way? I want to play this way--but I need facts and statistics to back me up. Do me a favor and buy a million and a half copies. And tell your friends to buy a million and a half copies. And their friends too.

  If you have been carrying around a swordfighting fantasy, if you were a kid that wished they were a samurai or a pirate and swinging a stick around in the backyard, you have to try this game. Pick it up and give it a chance; it's a lot of fun. It's something that the industry has been missing.

  Ubisoft's Red Steel 2 for the Wii will be released March 23.

  
  

  
  
• Logos Get Lost in the Supermarket, Here's Why

  

  Have you seen Logorama, the movie comprised entirely of animated logos, that just won the Oscar for best animated short film? It's an excellent representation of the technicolor tapestry of branding that our world has become. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your point of view.

  [youtube p10UE3O8s24]

  But what would the world be like if there were no more brands to differentiate products, inspire us, or give us a good feeling about a company or product we've never tried before? I'm one who thinks it would be bad for brands to meld together into a homogenized mess, and I see that starting to happen in places. At the rate things are going, someday soon all brands will look like Walmart 's Great Value label.

  Why is this happening? It's partly because value is in great demand now, with unemployment still in double digits throughout parts of the country. It's also because retailers are putting pressure on manufacturers to differentiate their brands inside their stores, so that a brand doesn't look and act the same in one store chain as it does in another. If brands fold to this pressure, they become diluted and change what they really stand for. This erodes brand equity with consumers and eventually, retailers decide they don't need certain brands anymore and can easily outsource the product cheaper themselves to increase their margins. So now those manufacturers are out, and jobs are lost. And so is the brand.

  Walmart 's newly-redesigned Great Value products

  Private label brands grew at twice the rate of national brands over the last decade, according to a Saatchi & Saatchi X and POPAI study. Retailers like Walmart, Target and Costco are narrowing consumer selections everyday. Walmart recently took out Glad and Hefty storage bags to give more space to their Great Value brand. They then brought Hefty back, once the company agreed to manufacture Great Value bags for Walmart.

  That sort of manipulation will continue to happen unless brand managers, strategists, designers and manufacturers stand up to big-box retailers and reinforce the naturally differentiating attributes of their brands. They must build their brands so the retailer depends on them and the manufacturer, like the good old days.

  Private label cereal at Publix, in-house branding that's won design awards

  Over the last 100 years, brands have played an important role in our society. The danger of private labels taking over the national branding landscape is the loss of meaning and value in the brands we love, prefer and recognize. Not only do our favorite brands help us distinguish product attributes, they inspire and motivate us, and give us a sense of individualism and choice. People who buy computers and products from Apple, for instance, usually believe earnestly in the company's position of thinking and being different.

  If price is the only thing we as consumers are driven by, then sure, just make all the brands the same, Big Brother. But understand that what starts at retail can mushroom to other industries. Soon, we could all end up buying gas from one brand of gas station. Bank at one brand of bank. Wear clothes from one clothing company because they're all alike anyway. Reminds me of old photos I've seen. Doesn't it, comrade?

  Publix photo by MSLK

  Jamey Boiter's Brand Innovatr blogBrowse more Expert Design blogs

  Jamey Boiter is a nationally recognized brand strategist and practitioner. As BOLTgroup's brand principal, he oversees all brand innovation and graphic design teams. He has received numerous awards, ADDYs, and citations for his work in brand development, packaging, and corporate identity, including award-winning projects for AirDye, Lowe's, IZOD, Nat Nast, G.H. Bass, Marc Ecko, and Forté Cashmere. Jamey has been involved in strategic brand development and design management programs with world-class brands such as Kobalt Tools, Ryobi, Coca-Cola, Kraft, IZOD, and Phillips-Van Heusen, and has been a featured speaker at national conferences and college campuses on the subject of brand strategy, innovation and development.

  
  

  
  
• Crib Sheet: Mozilla's Mitch Kapor, Lotus-Leafer or Berkeley Agitator?

  Just how do you go about introducing Mitch Kapor? Designer of Lotus 1-2-3, founder of the Open Source Applications Foundation, first chair of the Mozilla Foundation, current chair of OneWebDay.. oh, blah, let's leave it up to his Twitter bio. "Tech entrepreneur, startup investor, activist philanthropist."

  Mitch Kapor, Born in Brooklyn and now residing in San Francisco, is a mogul of many colors--although mostly green. The Lotus Development Corporation, Mozilla Foundation and Open Source Applications Foundation are all doing good work for the world thanks to him--and he took over the chair of OneWebDay after its founder, Susan P. Crawford, went to work for President Obama. If you could draw a simple venn diagram to show the overlap between technology and doing good, Mitch would be at its heart.

  Or would he? Head on out to Berkeley, California, to a plot of land that Mitch and his wife Freada Kapor Klein have earmarked for their green palace. Trouble is, neighbors are saying that a 10,000-square foot house with a 10-car garage just can't be that ecologically friendly (and the town has a 60-point green scale it uses as a measuring stick). The spat--between residents, and Kapor's architect--is getting out of hand. So, in the emerald corner, team Kapor. And in the eau de nil corner, the Berkeley-ites.

  Eau de Nil: "That the staff, the owners and the architects indulge in this kind of greenwashing only serves to make a joke out of Berkeley's environmental aspirations."

  Emerald: According to an email from Kapor's architect, Donn Logan, both he and his client were too busy to respond to questions.

  Eau de Nil: "...absurd."

  Emerald: "..."

  Anyway, enough about that, let's shine the spotlight back on Kapor.

  Forget about software, we want to know about the first piece of hardware you made at Junior High: "It was a gated adder with a rotary telephone dial as the primary input device."

  What Mitch most identifies with: Long Island in the 60s and the Pastrami sandwich.

  Getting off his Lotus leaf and becoming a VC: "I'd been a great angel investor, but professional venture capital was clearly not the right thing for me."

  Crossing continents "I'd always wanted to live in San Francisco and my circumstances never permitted it. I'm so happy I made the move. I'd been married (it ended in 1996) and I found myself thinking about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life."

  So, you made a whole lotta money, why carry on working? "Even more compelling than the idea of working for a living--at least to me--is to make a difference, to give something back, to do some good in the world, to create something."

  Seriously? "I just consider it incredible good fortune that I'm in a position to be able to do that with as much of my time as I want. So I'm more motivated about working now than I've ever been. It's great to find yourself, to find a passion."

  You're so money, baby: "None of us who made huge fortunes in the early days really deserved it. The insanity that saw Amazon achieve a higher capital value than General Motors has largely been leached out of the system, and so if that's what you're after, do something different."

  Mitch's golden rules about start up culture: "Have an impact. Be prepared for bullying and public humiliation. Diverse teams are better. inaction is an action too. Hold people accountable. Be serious about keeping a tight leash. Beware angel investors, they can be disruptive.

  The Secret life of Mitchell Kapor (he appeared in a conference in the VR world in 2007) "People are hungry for community. They're hungry for meaning in a society that is oriented around the production and consumption of consumer goods. Buy more stuff. I mean, it doesn't make people happy. But when there is an alternative to be able to reach out and to find kindred spirits who have come in interest or share a common perspective on life to feel fulfilled by that, people will do that even if it is a somewhat low-resolution version of reality."

  If Mozilla had been smaller, would he have called it Mozuki? "I think it was like the Harry Potter of open source. you know how all the movies open with him living with his aunt and uncle, who give him no respect and lock him up? People had written off Mozilla on multiple occasions."

  Just check out Number Two, in the Apple Dating Game of 1983. He looks like a bad boy, doesn't he?

  [youtube NVtxEA7AEHg]

  
  

  
  
• Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Inside the Check-In Wars

  

  If you ever visit the downtown Manhattan offices of Foursquare, the popular location-based social game for smartphones, don't say the word Gowalla. When I made that mistake during a visit there last November, 27-year-old cofounder Naveen Selvadurai sent me to the Foursquare time out chair. It was a joke. I think.

  Gowalla is Foursquare's arch-rival. The companies both launched eight months earlier at the South by South West interactive festival. Their products pioneered the then-uncharted territory of location-based social networking. On Foursquare, a user "checks in" to locations (as pinpointed via satellite) to invite along friends, leave tips glued to GPS coordinates (like ordering advice at restaurants), and compete for digital rewards in the form of badges, or titles like "mayor" (for the user who checks in the most at a venue). Similarly, Gowalla asked users to check in places in order to collect digital goodies, akin to virtual geocaching. Gowalla's app was initially buggy, and Foursquare, with an appealing social element, stole the show. Social media blogs like Mashable named Foursquare the "breakout app" of SXSW, and a few months later Crowley and Selvadurai raised $1.35 million from investors including Fred Wilson (Twitter, Boxee, Tumblr) who bet that Foursquare was the next big thing. CNN called it "next year's Twitter."

  

  Back at Foursquares offices, cofounder Dennis Crowley, 33, proceeds to show me screenshots of Gowalla, explaining how they blatantly ripped off features. "I'm waiting for the first original thing they come out with," Crowley said. "Everything they've come out with so far is a derivative of ours."

  Gowalla's CEO, Josh Williams, says he didn't know about Foursquare until after version 1.0 of his app was released. "When we set out to build Gowalla, we simply wanted to use collectibles and a lightweight game to reward users for exploring the world around them," Williams says. "Honestly I had know idea we were stepping into what would become a very hot space." Left in the wake of Foursquare's popularity and superior functionality, Gowalla lurked in the shadows until this Fall. Shortly after Foursquare attracted its first investment, Gowalla raised about $8.4 million from several investors, including a few angels who kicked themselves for not sealing a deal with Foursquare.

  Then Williams released Gowalla 1.2 in September. And Selvadurai debuted the time-out chair.

  The new and improved Gowalla included features that mimicked many Foursquare's existing ones: a top 10 user list at venues patterned after Foursquare's mayor award; unlockable badges for venturing to new places, some with identical names as Foursquare's (such as the "explorer" and "discoverer" badges); and a focus on sharing your location with friends, a social element largely absent in Gowalla 1.0 that spurred a network effect in Foursquare adoption.

  

  Imitation may be flattery, but the cash-disadvantaged Foursquare team was not flattered. And the competitors coded furiously through the winter. Foursquare attracted mainstream partnerships with Bravo TV, Zagat, Harvard University, and a host of national retailers. Gowalla struck advertising deals with media companies such as Travel Channel and retailers like Incase.

  Four months later, as both companies prepare for their sophomore year at the SXSW conference, the drama has mellowed for the founders, but not the users. Foursquare is positioning itself primarily as a social utility and city guide, while Gowalla is leaning toward its gaming roots and attempting to bridge the gap between virtual and tangible goods. But it's clear that an "unofficial" competition will ensue at the festival which begins on Friday. Gowalla, on its home turf in Austin, is buddying up with Chevrolet for some slick games and promotions during the festival. Foursquare will vie for user checkins through an array of partnership promos, including SPIN, Pepsi, Good, Adobe, and Paypal. So who's going to win?

  Foursquare broke the 500,000 member mark a week ago, while Gowalla has a loyal following, numbered in the mid 100,000s. Each is dominant in its home city (Foursquare in New York, Gowalla in Austin), and until Foursquare's January update allowing check ins in any city, Gowalla ruled small to medium sized cities like Topeka, Kansas, with Foursquare generally dominating larger metro areas.

  When asked about Gowalla earlier this week, Crowley doesn't spit. He acknowledges it as a great company, even playing them off as hardly a competitor. "I think we're both doing interesting things in the location space, but working at it from two different perspectives," he says. "We've always been about 'friends going places' . . . The big difference is our focus on social utility and badges for real life achievements, and it seems their focus is on collecting digital goods."

  While the future of these companies may not be at stake at SXSW this year, the winner will matter to the many voracious users of each platform. But the race is no longer about which app works better; it's about whether you like a sort of real-life Pokemon (Gowalla), or to socialize and compete with friends (Foursquare). And there's no reason you can't do both (if you're an obsessive type with lots of battery life).

  But the sad truth is that both companies could lapse into obscurity now that behemoths like Twitter and Facebook are bringing their big guns to the geo-social networking space. In fact, this week it was revealed that Facebook, which has 800 times the users as Foursquare, will be adding location check ins as early as next month.

  Maybe by summer Foursquare will be giving me a "time out" for saying the word Facebook.

  Read more: Facebook to Add Location Data, Encourage Epic Levels of Oversharing

  
  

  
  
• BART Gets Official Augmented Reality App: "Couldn't Find the Train" Is No Longer a Viable Excuse

  

  BART, in partnership with San Francisco-based developer Junaio, released its first official augmented reality app--or, more accurately, its first official augmented reality layer.

  Augmented reality adds text or graphic overlays onto real objects as seen by a phone's camera, and while it's often of questionable use (like, say, turning your neighborhood blue as an homage to Avatar), it has a lot of potential to help people find specific locations faster and easier than looking at a map. Typically, individual searches will have their own layers--there might be a pizza restaurant layer, or a hotels layer--and Junaio has added a BART layer to its own iPhone app, so you can always find a nearby BART station, along with estimated arrival times (which are impressively accurate).

  [youtube MP1VuRIJYd4]

  Junaio adds a few features not seen in the leaders in the augmented reality category, like Layar: its best might be the element of interactivity. You can add little notes for friends or whoever wants to see them--take a picture of your favorite coffeeshop, write a quick note ("great service, macchiatos are incredible!"), and post it, so the next time somebody walks out of a nearby BART station and wants coffee, they'll see your note pointing them in the right direction.

  Junaio is free, but only available for the iPhone 3GS (not 3G or 2G) at the moment. A version for Android is underway.

  [BART]

  
  

  
  
• Maya Romanoff Celebrates 40 Years of Design History with Tie Dye and Pink Socks

  Maya Romanoff, the man who made tie-dye hip for non-hippies, celebrated four decades of creating drop-dead wall coverings last night at New York's Museum of Arts and Design. Resplendent in pink striped socks and a tie-dyed velvet necktie, Romanoff sat silently in a metallic red wheelchair as his wife, Joyce, the company's president, closed her thank you speech with a quote from Oscar Wilde who, on his deathbed, reportedly said, "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do." "Except if it's from Maya Romanoff," she quickly added.

  Romanoff, whose speech has been robbed by Parkinson's disease, munched a cashew and looked amused.

  In recognition of Romanoff's work, the walls of the museum's seventh floor were hung with 70's era tie-dyed fabric in psychedelic reds, yellows, and oranges. In the corner, two mannequins modeled vintage Woodstock-era dresses that Romanoff had created for upscale hippie-wannabes, who shopped for their Lucy in the Sky wardrobes at such tony shops like I. Magnin and Bergdorf Goodman.

  After graduating from Berkeley in the '60s, Romanoff took off with his girlfriend to bum around the globe. In Tunisia, he discovered the ancient art of tie-dye and, once back in the States, the two experimented with the technique, using Rit dye and rubber bands. After selling out their entire supply of T-shirts at a Rolling Stones concert in Miami, they headed for New York.

  In Manhattan, they were all the rage, creating a leather vest for The Who's Roger Daltry, and a caftan for supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. An opera coat Romanoff conjured up hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But designer Jack Lenor Larson cautioned Romanoff that fashion was a fickle business and urged him to turn his talents to something a little less volatile. He discovered that there was a business to be had in exotic wall coverings, and soon he was selling to society decorators like Albert Hadley and Sister Parish.

  Romanoff, whose given name is Richard, but who long preferred to be called Multifarious Maya, a moniker given him by an Indian guru, soon branched out into wall coverings made of things never before used on vertical surfaces--Capiz shells, glass beads, paulownia wood, and kenaf reed.

  David Rockwell has designed wall coverings for Romanoff that resemble stitched leather and embroidered felt. Romanoff's "Bedazzled" pattern, made of tiny glass beads, decorates the new Barbie store in Shanghai. In last year's Kips Bay Showhouse, Romanoff created a three-dimensional floral pattern for the mansion's dramatic staircase. Recently, the company introduced a pattern called Meditations, Nepalese Iokta paper with flecks of mica, handmade in the Himalayas.

  Although the company manufactures in eight countries, the majority of its work takes place in its factories in Skokie, Illinois, where 60 workers glue mica to paper, or painstakingly build a pattern of Capiz shells like an elaborate puzzle, into rectangles of precious wallpaper.

  Long before sustainability was fashionable, Romanoff was committed to preserving the environment. "Maya is cheap," his wife says. "He always wanted us to use every bit of material."

  But frugality is only one part of the equation. Romanoff's glues are all water-based, and no toxic chemicals are used in his plants. "The only thing you smell in our factories is food from the microwave," says Joyce.

  Before urging guests to go and see a demonstration of the company's techniques taking place in a studio at the museum, Joyce Romanoff had one more message for the assembled group: "Please give generously to Parkinson's research," she says.

  
  

  
  
• This Underwear Is Bananas, Literally

  

  Banana hammock, anyone? AussieBum has cheekily released a range of boxers and briefs made partially from sustainable banana fiber--a world first, according to the company. The lightweight, absorbent skivvies are made from 64% organic cotton, 7% lycra, and 27% banana fiber made out of the plant's bark weave. Any more than 27% fiber and the underwear would be a little too squishy. Want to check out the banana underwear in action? Check out the video below (mildly NSFW).

  [youtube FdN9pKdWXXE]>

  [Via Ecouterre]

  
  

  
  
• Four Apps From the Google Marketplace Worth Installing Right Now

  

  The launch of the Google Apps Marketplace means GOOG's giving every Web service the same privilege Buzz had: integration with Gmail, Docs, Calendar and the rest of the GApps gang. If you administer a Google Apps account for your business, family, or softball team, there are four applications that are worth installing right now.

  What You'll Need

  In order to install apps in the Google Apps Marketplace, you'll need to be an administrator on a Google Apps account. Setting up a Google Apps account isn't difficult, but it requires both a domain name and some elbow grease. The Apps Marketplace doesn't work with vanilla Google accounts (your you@gmail.com email address).

  To install an app, first find it in the Google Apps Marketplace, then click on the "Add it now" button. Enter the domain name associated with your Google Apps account. Log into your administrator account, and GApps will walk you through a three-step process for getting the new app set up. Once that's done, it will appear in the "More" drop-down at the top of your Gmail, Google Docs, and Calendar accounts, as shown in the screenshot above, for every user on your domain.

  Got it? Now, here are four apps worth trying. Click on the title to install them.

  Zoho Projects Project Management

  

  The underdog in Web-based office suites, Zoho, makes several products that directly compete with Google Docs--but a few that also fill in GApps' gaping holes. For example, Zoho Projects is a Web-based project manager that's worth taking a look at for your GApps workgroup.

  What you get: Access to your Google Docs inside Zoho, and the ability to show project deadlines on your Google Calendar, plus easy account creation for everyone in your Google Apps workgroup. Zoho Projects is free for one project, pricing starts at $12/month.

  Alternative: Manymoon is a free alternative with a more social bent, with Twitter-like status updates and similar Google Docs, Calendar, and Contacts integration.

  Aviary Design Suite Image and Sound Editor

  

  Aviary is a powerful Web-based image and audio editor that helps you add effects to and tweak images, create logos, business cards, labels, vector graphics as well as edit audio files like podcasts. This is a must-have for anyone who wants to edit images for inclusion in a document or slideshow in Google Docs.

  What you get: Aviary for GApps automatically saves the files you create to your Google Docs account, in a folder it creates automatically called "Aviary."

  OffiSync Microsoft Office Integration

  

  When you want to work in Microsoft Word on your desktop but save all your files in the cloud for anywhere-access, you need a good syncing tool, like OffiSync. The toolbar for Microsoft Office uploads your work on the desktop to Google Docs or Google Sites every time you save it, seamlessly.

  What you get: OffiSync spares you the hassle of manually uploading files to Google Docs every time they change. Unilike the other apps listed here, OffiSync is a Windows download that adds a toolbar to Microsoft Office. Using it, you can set group access permissions to the document, and browse your Google Docs and Google Sites folders to choose where to save your document online, as well as search Google

  Alternative: Google's recent acquisiton, DocVerse, offers very similar functionality.

  TripIt Travel Plans Sharing and Coordinating

  

  One of the most useful travel planning Webapps out there, TripIt, now lets you see who in your GApps workgroup is going where when. Using TripIt is simple: when you book travel online and get an email of your itinerary from the airline, you forward that email to plans@tripit.com. TripIt automatically parses out your trip's details, and builds an itinerary page with useful information about the weather, local time, directions, online check-in, and travel delays, which you can share with your friends, family, and co-workers.

  What you get: With TripIt in Google Apps, you can automatically notify everyone in your company (and only people in your company) of your travel plans, and integrate them into your Google Calendar. You can also see who's traveling where on a company travel map.

  The biggest benefit to using these apps in Google Apps boils down to three things: the ability to skip the separate site registration process, automatically sharing information with other users in your domain, and easy hooks to Google Docs, Calendar, and Gmail. While Google Apps users don't get all the services of a vanilla Google account--like Voice, Reader, and Wave--the new Marketplace makes a GApps account a whole lot more desirable for enterprise users.

  
  

  
  
• Tweetsii Taps Twitter Locations, Mashes-Up Gowalla and Foursquare in the Mix

  

  As location-based apps proliferate, so does the need for umbrella services that can aggregate data from multiple networks. Tweetsii, which is being introduced at SXSW, is one such service that looks promising. The app exploits Twitter's location-tagged data stream to tell you who's Tweeting nearby, and it also ties in Gowalla and Foursquare data too.

  The way Tweetsii's Web site explains the app is almost adorable: "Tweetsii connects people and places across networks. Tweetsii is breaking the wall between the real world and the digital world, where power of the Internet is in real time to have more fun, meet more people, and do more cool stuff ... " But it's undeniable that the app really is trying to break down the barriers between location-based social networking/gaming apps like Twitter and Gowalla and Foursquare because as well as being primarily focused on showing you who's Twittering nearby your location, it also synthesizes all local data from each of these other LBS games into one stream.

  And it also goes one further than the simple information-light "check-in" systems that drive Gowalla and Foursquare, by offering its own place-creation code, as well as data-rich upload powers like tagged photos and comments. That means a Tweetsii check-in location can reveal far more to you about who else is checking in there than the simpler systems exploited by Foursquare, for example. It also offers a localized trending topics feed, for hyperlocal news and event alerts.

  Essentially Tweetsii is trying to out-Twitter Twitter, while simultaneously lacing in feeds from your other LBS games--and thus turning itself into a one-stop shop for LBS-based social networking. This makes it sound pretty clever...but will the gamble work? It may do, for rabid fans of location-based smartphone gaming who prefer to use Twitter as their primary gateway to the LBS social net world.

  [Tweetsii]

  
  

  
  
• Believable Rumor: iPhone 4.0 Software Includes Multitasking

  

  Some tech rumors pop up then fade quickly into obscurity, while others just keep coming back--one of the biggest of this sort concerns multitasking on the iPhone. It's here again, centered on the upcoming 4.0 firmware. And it rings slightly true.

  This time the rumor's popped up at Appleinsider, based on information from sources that the site trusts based on past "proven track records" in predicting what Apple's next moves will be. The details that the site's revealed are sparse, because its sources have requested that some data remain under wraps since the iPhone 4.0 code is still very far from being finalized--it's not due at least until the next-gen iPhone hardware hits sometime around June.

  But what these guys are suggesting is the key feature of iPhone 4.0 will be a fully-enabled multitasking solution. This is something that iPhone critics have wailed about ever since the iPhone hit the World in 2007, even while Apple has made sure the iPhone "user experience" remained seamless and rewarding without it. Apple's hardware has been technically capable of multitasking right from the get-go, and some of the built-in apps (most obviously the iPod player) are capable of running in the background while another task assumes control of the phone: It's only third-party developed apps that are locked out of running in parallel to another, and they have to resort to Apple's odd "push notifications" system instead.

  Apple has cited many reasons for this, including highlighting how multitasking can sap battery life and necessitate complex fiddling around with task management UIs--such as Windows Mobile and even Android demands. Security is also a big feature--sandboxed, single purpose apps are much less likely to seize control of your phone or the data within and do bad things with it.

  The thing that makes this new rumor slightly believable is the suggestion that the multitasking UI will leverage "interface technology already bundled" with Mac OS X. This instantly makes us think of OS X's mind bogglingly useful Exposé system, which with a simple gesture lets you switch between which task you have running in the foreground. Recent rumors have suggested that Apple will be bringing more complex gesture support to the iPad and next iPhone code, so may we hook these two rumors together and imagine that Apple's got a super-slick touchscreen-optimized version of Exposé in mind for iPhone 4.0?

  What would Apple need to do to make this work technically, though? The issue of battery life is a real one, and can't be managed completely away by clever coding. If Apple's to deliver the same sort of battery lifespan as for current iPhones, or possibly more (since delivering less would be a PR disaster,) it'll need a bigger battery. This can be achieved inside the form factor of the current iPhone design by shrinking other components--which is certainly something Apple may have achieved. Or it could use a slightly bigger case, and there are a few images of the glass for the alleged 4th-gen iPhone in circulation that suggest a similar, but longer form factor.

  Apple could also use more efficient tech elsewhere in the device to make up for multitasking battery-sapping: The fact it's using its own custom silicon, based on ARM's super-efficient designs, inside the iPad may well indicate Apple has similar plans for the iPhone 4th-gen too. And a new super-speed Apple iPhone chip could also alleviate one of the other problems associated with multitasking, which is performance slow-downs caused by several apps over-burdening a mobile CPU. Smart app management, with perhaps a limit on how many apps can run at once, and how many CPU cycles a background app is permitted to soak up, would also help with this.

  After all that thinking, do we believe this rumor? It's tempting to do so--on many technical levels it makes sense, and it would be a powerful PR coup to challenge the growing ranks of the multitask-capable Android Army.

  [Via AppleInsider]

  To keep abreast of rumors like this as the iPhone 4th-gen approaches, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

  
  

  
  
• Google's Blue Dot Alerts Shoppers to the Last Tickle Me Elmo on Earth

  

  Google has just added a nifty little 'blue dot' feature to its mobile Shopping search engine. Anyone with either an iPhone, Palm WebOS phone, or any Android-powered device will be able to discover immediately if the item they're after is in stock with nearby retailers, which will mean cutting out all that thankless traipsing around stores as you try and hunt down the latest Toy Story 3D merchandise for that special ankle-biter in your life.

  As long as whatever it is you're looking for is sold by participating stores--which include Best Buy, Sears, Pottery Barn and West Elm--then the blue dot will show you the way. And if your geo-locator is enabled, then it will tell you just how far away you are from consumer nirvana.

  [Via Google Merchant Blog]

  
  

  
  
• What If Your Postage Stamp Was the Letter--Or an Entire Book?

  Who says print is dead? Rotterdam designer Richard Hutten produces a stamp-sized book for the Dutch postal service.

  

  "Hey, did you read the stamp I sent you?" There's no need for a letter when the stamp you use is a book. Rotterdam designer Richard Hutten has designed a new stamp for Royal TNT Post, in honor of this year's Dutch Book Week, that doubles as a tiny tome. The 3x4 centimeter stamp opens up into an 8-page, 500-word story by Joost Zwagerman.

  

  We have Charles and Ray Eames and Calvin and Hobbes, fine, but we also have Dolphins. Meanwhile, TNT Post has always pushed great design. They've had an official design department since they were founded in 1911, and have commissioned designers like Martijn Sandberg and staat, who immortalized Dutch icons like, no joke, the Heineken bottle on their stamp set from 2007. Hutten's stamp went on sale Tuesday for €2.20, enough to mail about a pound--or, according to TNT Post, a life-size book.

  

  [Via moco loco]

  
  

  
  
• Verizon's Bringing 4G Speeds in Mid-2011, but Wave Buh-Bye to Unlimited Data

  

  Verizon's just revealed its going to have Long Term Evolution (LTE) handsets ready for mid-2011, which is six months earlier than it had previously said it would be available. It looks like the big carriers are making the first moves to snatch the next-gen mobile market.

  The company will have infrastructure installed in some locations by the end of 2010, but it'll take up to six months for suitably equipped 4G (also known as 3GPP) mobile devices to arrive. At first these will most likely be dual-chipped devices, that can hop on to super-fast LTE networks when they're in range and fall back on 3G tech for the moments when 4G signals are patchy. Which they will be at first. While cell phone handsets will be the things that consumers will be keen to get their hands on, many of the first 4G applications will probably be 4G data dongles for laptops, since using a laptop in a static location will result in less 4G drop-outs, and thus a better consumer experience (which networks like Verizon will be keen to promote.)

  But Verizon's CTO, Anthony Melone, also had things to say about how 4G is going to cost us, when interviewed on the subject by the Wall Street Journal, and his words are a good indicator of how the whole mobile industry is going to work in the future. The main point that concerns users is that all you can eat plans, delivering unlimited 4G data for a fixed monthly fee, aren't going to happen. This is "the big issue that has to change" according to Malone. It won't be a restrictive move, and consumers shouldn't worry, Malone also noted--Verizon doesn't want users to sit there concerned with questions like "'Can I stream this radio?'"

  Looking at the disastrous PR that's hit AT&T thanks to the explosion in mobile data traffic caused by Apple's invention of the iPhone, as well as the trend toward ever-smarter mobile cell phone tech and large-screen mobile Net devices like the iPad and its upcoming host of competitors, this is inevitable. And it's even been echoed by other industry players. The key reason is obvious: It's going to cost Verizon, AT&T and all the other network providers around the world a huge pile of cash to get 4G up and running, and the companies have to recoup that cost somehow. What this does make clear, though, is that we're all going to have to think differently about how we pay for our mobile calls and data payment plans in the future--and we'll have to get our minds around the matter sooner than we may have anticipated.

  [Via Wall Street Journal]

  Follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter to read more news like this.

  
  

  
  
• Pink Floyd to EMI: We Don't Need No Digital Singles

  

  Although it's been clinically proven that sympathy for major record labels is a medical impossibility, some people may be feeling a slight twinge of compassion towards EMI*. Yesterday, OK Go dispensed with their services following a row about over video embedding, and today, the big boys joined in. A judge in London has ruled in favor of Pink Floyd, after they went to court to stop EMI from chopping up its albums and selling the tracks individually.

  The band went to court asking for clarification of their recording contract, which was signed over a decade ago--when sales of digital music wasn't even a ball of fluff on the end of the stylus that is the music business. Rather embarrassingly for EMI, its Queen's Counsel (Britishism for "Lawyer"), Elizabeth Jones, claimed that the word "record" in the band's contract applied only to CDs and vinyl. The judge, however, saw it differently. "There is nothing in the terms "album" or "record" to suggest they apply to the physical product only."

  With digital sales accounting for over a quarter of major labels' revenue, this will come as a big shock to them. iTunes was still offering Pink Floyd tracks individually this morning, a bone of contention for many bands, who feel aggrieved for two reasons--firstly, that their albums are to be listened to as a whole, and secondly, that they lose revenue when consumers are allowed to cherry-pick individual songs.

  The judge has ruled that the label hand over $60,000 as an interim payment for costs, but has yet to pass judgment on the size of EMI's fine, although EMI was granted a request to have the part of the judgment relating to royalties given behind closed doors. The result is not great for EMI, which posted a $2.25 billion loss last month, and may well have a mammoth struggle on its hands to keep its existing acts, such as Queen (also said to be unhappy) and Lily Allen, within its stable.

  *No? Congratulations, you've got a clean bill of health.

  [Via BBC News and Image Via Flickr]

  
  

  
  

USATODAY: Top Stories:

• Uneasy relations: China, foreign press continue
• Georgia says Russian tanks in Gori violate truce
• Cocaine found hidden in unmarked R.I. police car
• U.S. looks to next steps in Georgia crisis
• Bomb in northern Lebanon kills 18
• Dogs maul, severely hurt Wash. cancer patient at home
• Ex-Va. governor to give Dems' convention keynote
• U.N., Iraqi govt outline plans for aid through 2010
• Russian military seen going deeper into Georgia
• Unarmed missile tested in launch from Calif. base

Christian Science Monitor | All Stories:

• Privacy, Schmivacy! Twitter now lets you broadcast your location too...

  Sad because Twitter has been just too restrictive? Now Twitter let's you broadcast your location too.

  
  

  
  
• Tiger Woods to play at the Masters?

  Sources tell the Associated Press that Tiger Woods is likely to play at the Masters in Augusta.

  
  

  
  
• "She's Out of My League" a swing or a miss for Jay Baruchel?

  Does Jay Baruchel hit a home run in "She's Out of My League"?

  
  

  
  
• "Remember Me" -- worth remembering or best to forget?

  The movie "Remember Me" comes out on Friday. Plan to go to it or pass?

  
  

  
  
• Does Carlos Mencia make it work in "Our Family Wedding"?

  With Carlos Mencia and Forest Whitaker starring in "Our Family Wedding" what could go wrong?

  
  

  
  
• Herbert Hoover was no deficit-cutter

  Hoover is often blamed for deepening the Depression by cutting the federal deficit. He didn't. He expanded the deficit.

  
  

  
  
• In Nashville, a new microfund for entrepreneurs

  
  

  
  
• US passport: Your first one will now cost $135

  As of Thursday, the State Department has increased fees for a US passport. The cost of a renewal jumps to $110.

  
  

  
  
• Can Matt Damon live up to Jason Bourne in "Green Zone"?

  Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are together again but can they make it work in "Green Zone"?

  
  

  
  
• Federal court approves 'under God' in Pledge of Allegiance

  Atheist Michael Newdow challenged 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance and 'in God we trust' on US currency as unconstitutional endorsements of religion. But the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals said the references to God are grounded in historical philosophy and politics.

  
  

  
  
• Teens and drugs: After long decline, drug use climbs

  Teens in high school used illegal drugs - alcohol, marijuana, and Ecstasy - at rising rates in 2009, a report shows. It's the first uptick in teen drug use since 1998.

  
  

  
  

Slashdot:

• MetaLab Accuses Mozilla of Ripping Off UI Elements In Mockups
• William Shatner Takes On Social Networking
• Researchers Beam 230Mb/sec Wireless Internet WIth LEDs
• SolarPHP 1.0 Released
• Best Smartphone Plan Covering US and Canada?
• Pennsylvania CISO Fired Over Talk At RSA Conference

Wired Top Stories:

• March 12, 1790: Batteries Now Included Before J.F. Daniell develops a much improved battery, the devices were impractical and downright dangerous. His innovations enable the telegraph and other technology to take off.

  
  

  
• The '70s Photos That Made Us Want to Save Earth Shortly after the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the new organization sent 100 photographers out to document the human and natural environments. After a lively few years, the Documerica project was canceled and the photos were archived. Now, this incredible portrait of America in the mid-1970s is making its way onto Flickr.

  
  

  
• Plug and Play: USB Albums We'd Like to See Out with the CD, in with USB drives, maybe in the form of a cassette tape or spork?

  
  

  
• NASA's New Jumbo Jet Keeps Giant Eye on Heavens With a 45,000-foot cruising altitude, the world's biggest airborne telescope will begin collecting data this spring.

  
  

  
• Alt Text: Resurrected Movie Gimmicks of the Future With 3-D making a comeback, it's time to dig into Hollywood's history and excavate other cinematic technology that was groundbreaking for its time.

  
  

  
• Al Franken Jokes, But Google Fiber Is No Laughing Matter Minnesota seeks to distinguish itself in the increasingly reality TV-esque race to convince Google to build a high-speed fiber optic network there with a video featuring junior US Senator (and former comedian) Al Franken. It's funny stuff, but also serious business as Google shakes up the notoriously uncompetitive ISP business just by showing up.

  
  

  

MacOSXHints.com:

• Set photo titles to picture capture date in iPhoto The titles iPhoto chooses for just-added photos is the annoying "IMG_nnnn" serial number from the camera. This AppleScript simply takes the date of the photo (EXIF info that iPhoto knows very well) and uses it as the photo title. The format is: yyyy-mm-dd-hh.mm.ss, so it's a bit easier to read than the ISO version, but also easily sortable.
  
  Here's the code:

  tell application "iPhoto"   --  activate -- bring iPhoto back to front   copy (my selected_images()) to these_images      if these_images is {} then error "Please select some images before using this script."   set thename to ""   set thepaths to ""   set thedates to ""   repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_images     set this_image to item i of these_images          --set this_file to the image path of this_image         set thename ...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=bf6a25e1d6ebb63d3af6a84885bb809c][Create Growl alerts for Address Book contacts' birthdays]] 
   I have a lot of people in my Mac OS X Address Book. I thought it would be a nice idea to have the system check the birthdays in Address Book, and inform me of any forthcoming birthdays via a Growl notification. So I've created an Apple Script to do that (with a lot of help from a few other peoples). 
  
   First, install Growl if it isn't installed. Also install the Terminal growlnotify command, which you'll find in the Extras folder on the Growl disk image. Next, copy and paste the following into AppleScript Editor:  
  delay 0.5 set isRunning to 0 set timer to the time of the (current date)  repeat while isRunning = 0   tell application "System Events"     set isRunning to ¬       ((application processes whose (name is equal to "GrowlHelperApp")) count)           ...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=c879e786067e7bf4c73a5c6fe941794d][Avoid a potential issue with voice control on iPhone 3GS]] 
   If you have entire albums, artists, or playlists excluded from shuffling in iTunes (The 'Skip when shuffling' flag is set), your iPhone 3GS will fail to play these albums, artists, or playlists when you select them using Voice Control if it has shuffle play mode enabled. 
  
   The manner in which it fails makes it seem as if something is seriously amiss (hence this hint): It acknowledges your voice input, indicating that your selection is about to play (e.g., 'Playing album Avatar'), but then returns to whatever had been playing before. If nothing had been playing before you gave the voice command, the iPhone will remain resolutely silent after acknowledging your input. 
  
   The solution to this 'issue' is, of course, to simply to turn off shuffle play mode. Unfortunately you can't do this with a voice command (as far as I know).
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=dbbf5405cd4d9d9da6e5e7816353014d][Experiment with GIMP's new single window mode]] 
   Are you curious, like me, about the new Single Window Mode (most excellent; see this article at Ars for more details) available in the newest unstable 2.7.x GIMP releases? Well, sadly, the final and stable GIMP 2.8 release won't come out before the end of this year, and there are still no experimental 2.7.x binary releases available for Mac OS X (via X11). One could always try to compile everything from source, but that might be quite complicated and time-consuming. 
  
   So, let's look at another, definitely easier way of running GIMP 2.7.x on Mac OS X: not (semi) natively through X11, but through virtualization. First of all, we need a virtual machine with the latest Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), or even 10.04 (Lucid, in Alpha at this time) installed: you can create a 32- or 64-bit Ubuntu VM in...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=84f65eee766ce0663206a00e3d7f3cc5][Use one bookmark to load different versions of a site]] 
   I have several sites that I access on both my iPhone and desktop, so I like to have quick access to them via the Bookmarks Bar. However, these sites have different versions for the desktop, for mobiles, and, in some cases, yet another version for the iPhone. Usually, the full version doesn't work so well on the iPhone, and the iPhone version is undesirable on the desktop. 
  
   Instead of creating a plain bookmark, a little Javascript can make a bookmark context-sensitive, and allow you to have one bookmark that opens the right version of a page, depending on which platform you're browsing from. The basic idea is to use some client-side Javascript to check the browser's platform (a.k.a. operating system), and then tell the browser to access a URL based on that check.  The code looks like this:  
  javascrip...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=5ef1c742acf3fa31f1f8481cf4992e3c][Poll updates - iPad results and new Intel/PowerPC survey]] 
   Two poll updates today. First, I've posted a new poll about the mix of Macs you're presently using -- Intel (via Apple), Intel (via build-it-yourself), PowerPC, or some mix of the above. I'm curious to see not only the mix of Intel and PowerPC, but how many are using self-built Intel powered Macs. 
  
   The second poll update is that the iPad interest poll has now closed, with just over 10,000 votes. Of those who voted, nearly 44% are planning on buying iPad 1.0 when it comes out in April, with a virtual tie (two votes' difference) between then cheapest and the most expensive versions for the most-popular spot (11.3% each). In total, Mac OS X Hints readers will be buying at least (as the poll didn't allow for more than one purchase) $2.92 million worth of iPads! 
  
   An additional 29% claim they'll buy the second gen...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=d91cca268299990f243120b9cb3e1650][Disable AirPort when Ethernet cable is connected]] 
   At my office, I needed to find a way to turn of the wireless network when someone plugged in their network cable. I also did not want them to be able to turn the wireless network back on until the network cable was unplugged. I came up with the fallowing solution. 
  
   I created a launchDaemon called com.companyname.ethernetmonitor, and saved it in /System » Library » LaunchDaemons:  
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict>   <key>Label</key>   <string>com.companyname.ethernetmonitor</string>   <key>ProgramArguments</key>   <array>     <string>/Library/Scripts/CompanyName/turnOffAirp...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=00dfdc0c2181c6504dea7e4bc46c7379][Clean .DS_Store, .Trash, and ._resources files prior to copy]] 
   Frequently we need to clean a directory before zipping it or copying it to an external USB drive to be used by Windows or Linux users. 
  
   Apple Finder has the custom of populating directories with those unavoidable .DS_Store files, volumes with .Trashes, and some files (especially pictures) with ._resources. The following interactive script will safely remove these files prior to copying.  
  #!/bin/sh # bash script to clean (delete) Finder .DS_Store, .Trashes and ._resources # Use cleandsstores.sh  # juanfc 2010-03-06  if [ $# != 1 ] then   echo "ERROR:  use\n\t`basename $0` dirtoclean"   exit 1 fi  res=`find "$@" \( -name ".DS_Store" -or -name ".Trashes" -or -name "._*" \) -print`   if [[ -z $res ]]; then   echo "nothing to delete"   exit 0 el...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=03fce126f53f0236b66ac9a321e3685f][Create SuperDuper! backup reminders using Growl and cron]] 
   I use a couple of shell scripts that use Growl to remind me to run SuperDuper backups. The first script (backupcompleted) is set to run after each SuperDuper backup. It writes a timestamp into an invisible file called .lastbackup in my home directory; here's the script:  
  #!/bin/bash # This script is run by SuperDuper each time a backup is completed. date "+%s" > ~/.lastbackup
    The second script (lastbackup) reads the .lastbackup file and calculates the time elapsed. It takes one argument: the desired number of hours to wait before showing an alert.  
  
   If the elapsed time is greater than the time suppled to the script, it shows a Growl notification. If the elapsed time is greater than twice the time suppled to the script, it also increases the priority of the alert (so you can set a diferent colour for it in Growl preferences). Here's the script:   ...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=668897a7887e416cf73bf4260dc8c138][10.6: Use AppleScript for precise trimming in QuickTime X]] 
   Most of us know that Quicktime X, included with Snow Leopard, can trim movie and audio files. However, this trim is less than precise, as you cannot specify an exact trim start and stop point. Worse yet, if you want to make 10 minute segments for YouTube, you have to write down the last trim end time, undo the previous trim after uploading, and hope the trim slider will let you select the same trim point to start your next clip. What a pain. 
  
   Enter AppleScript -- trim is a scriptable function. Open your movie in Quicktime X, and open the AppleScript Editor in the Application » Utilities folder. In the AppleScript Editor enter this script:  
  tell application "QuickTime Player"   activate   trim document 1 from start_trim to end_trim end tell
    Replace start_trim and end_trim with the time, in seconds, at which you wish ...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=2e5d98dcbff57bf3ebfa3592cd9a3d96][One solution to finding missing free space on an iPod]] 
   Over the weekend, I plugged in my old-style 80GB iPod for the first time in, well, a long time -- so long that the battery needed to be charged a bit before it would even sync. Once the sync started, things seemed to go well, but near the end of the photos section, iTunes displayed a message telling me there wasn't enough room to copy all my photos. 
  
   This was a bit odd, because best as I could recall, my iPod had about 20GB of free space the last time I synched. And while it had been a while, there's no way I took enough photos to fill 20GB -- especially at the iPod's resolution (I don't sync full-sized copies).  
  
   I noticed that the Other (orange) section of the Capacity gauge in iTunes was huge -- basically all the remaining space was used up by Other. Switching to the Finder, I quickly scanned through the iPod's various folders (it was set to enable disk use) with the Inspector open (Command-Option-I), and they all looked normal in size ... until I got to Photos &r...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=7c4f64ccffe7aa5d1364fb198c886c88][Batch update Faces in iPhoto to match Address Book entries]] 
   I bought a new iMac and went crazy with Faces in iPhoto. Two days later I had a lot of tagged photos in Faces. Then I noticed that since I synced my Address Book with Google Contacts, Address Book entries were appearing as suggestions in Faces. 
  
   I didn't want to re-tag all my existing Faces photos, but there didn't seem to be an obvious way to link a new Address Book contact to an existing Face. So I took the only honorable course of action and starting messing around. 
  
   I discovered that you can transfer a Faces collection to an Address Book contact very quickly. Assume you're working on John in your Faces collection, who has the entry John Doe in your Address Book. Go into Faces and pick any photo of him, double-click to view it and then click name. Start retyping John and John Doe should be one of the suggested values, with an Address Book icon next to the name. Click to select it. 
  
   Go back to the Faces cork board and you should now have your original John ...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=2dd710c9878e43c1b847a33e8d279bed][10.6: Type accented characters without the Option key]] 
   If you regularly use a language that requires letters with diacritics -- such as á, ä, é, ë, í, ã, ñ, õ, etc. as they are used in Spanish, French or Portuguese -- and you recently switched from Windows to Mac OS X as I have, you might find this hint useful. 
  
   In Windows, while there were various ways to enter these characters, the best one of them was just to enter a ' and then the vowel, and you would get the accented version of that letter (in this example, the letter with the acute diacritic). 
  
   In Mac OS X however, if you set the keyboard layout to a language that has these letters (such as Spanish), you cannot use this trick; the only way of inputting these letters is the standard way supplied in Mac OS X (Option-e then e for é; Option-e, then i for í; etc.). I personally found this very annoying, and searched for...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=829f31bf5a6a1d21f5200bfb24765779][Pay with an AmEx (Gift) Card in the iTunes Store]] 
   A few days ago, I wanted to get iTunes to accept my AmEx Gift Card, but somehow it always said the security code was invalid. Different from VISA and MasterCard, the security code from an AmEx Card is on the front and is four digits long. There was no doubt this code was in fact valid, and I was typing it correctly. 
  
   Obviously I wasn't the only one with this problem -- Apple's Support Discussion Board was filled with people complaining about that, and the "hints" there weren't working at all. 
  
   As for me, it worked after I put an empty space after the last number on the card. The reason: iTunes wanted to have 4 4-digit parts (16 digits) of the credit card number, but the AmEx had only had 15 digits. This was causing the invalid security code. 
  
   However, you couldn't tell that in the first place, because all iTunes showed after rejecting the code was **** **** **** 4123. In fact, 123 were at positions 13 to 15 in the real credit card. But iTune...
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=c9466a05e3233270e28638daa1cdeca1][10.6: Copy URLs from downloaded files]] 
   If you download a file with Safari or certain other programs, you may be able to copy its download URL from its Get Info window. 
  
   Select the file in the Downloads folder (or elsewhere) and press command-I. Find the Where From ntry in the More Info section of the Get Info window. Hold down the mouse button and drag across the URL listed there to select it, then choose Copy from the Edit menu (or press Command-C). 
  
   [robg adds: This will only work in 10.6; 10.5 won't let you select the text in that field. I'm not sure which browsers/apps other than Safari record this data; Firefox does not.]
   
                  
    
  	* [[http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=f939d7afd285d538e3fc51dbf1e2b1db][Do some basic image manipulation via a free AppleScript app]] 
   Want to do quick and dirty image editing on the fly? Let Image Events do the work for you. I created a free AppleScript app, which I've named uPad; download the script (112KB) (macosxhints mirror -- but use the original link as long as it works.), and then read on for some notes on how to use it... 
  
   uPad is an image manipulation utility that can convert, crop and pad, scale, and rotate images. It's an AppleScript that uses the Image Events process to read and manipulate images. For convenience, use a launcher to launch the AppleScript -- I'm using Spark. Or, for access from the menu bar, enable Show Script menu in menu bar in AppleScript Editor's General preferences, and put uPad in ~/Library » Scripts » Applications » Finder (you might have to create some of those folder...
   
                  
    
  
  
  
  ---+ Popular Feeds
  ---++ [[http://www.syndic8.com][Most popular feeds from Syndic8.com]]:
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/][This feed contains a list of the most popular feeds]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=658][Slashdot]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=675][Wired News]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=134603][AlphaProfit News]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=10210][Boing Boing]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=670][The Register]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=835][kuro5hin.org]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=10381][Slashdot:]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=1][Moreover - moreover...]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=1765][Scripting News]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=738][mozillaZine]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=36084][A List Apart]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=676][Ars Technica - Front page content]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=7384][Google Weblog]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=37951][Slashdot]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=1791][MetaFilter]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=1681][Joel on Software]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=45134][Bloglines | News]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=31306][]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=15265][]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=27031][Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=669][Techdirt]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=19865][]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=748][]]
  	1. [[http://www.syndic8.com/feedinfo.php?FeedID=13504][Don Box's Spoutlet]]
  
  
  HeadlinesPlugin ERROR: 500 Can't connect to www.daypop.com:80 (connect: timeout)
  
  
  ---+ Entertainment
  
  ---++ [[http://www.cybergrass.com/][Cybergrass Bluegrass Music News]]:
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/CUiIQPeraBA/modules.php][Blue Highway at National Heritage Museum Saturday March 20th]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/Un_bcKwSLhg/modules.php][Opry Country Classics Show To Move To The Historic Ryman Auditorium]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/E4O88dCyBgk/modules.php][Nashville Selected to Host the National Folk Festival 2011 – 2013]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/wg4JLsLJhkw/modules.php][Washington Dignitaries at Library of Congress Country Music Celebration]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/WhV8n09NtLA/modules.php][Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie Announce March 27 and 28 Events]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/RfHXUGtpWAY/modules.php][Bob Iery's New Board Game Takes Players on Bluegrass Routes]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/dZUay4ZnapI/modules.php][Rebel to Release 'Dark as a Dungeon: Songs of the Mines' March 30]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/y0V6NEeOMSU/modules.php][Bluegrass Legend Curly Seckler Celebrates 75 Years in Music]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/lDuNS2QTNk4/modules.php][Early Bird Ticket Prices For MerleFest 2010 Extended Until April 6]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/iAw2KQTCXpI/modules.php][Music From The Crooked Road: Mountain Music of Virginia]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/Jw-Tc5GXFLw/modules.php][Pete Wernick's Kentucky Bluegrass Jam Camp Extended June 21-24]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/SQ-Jvpv5pew/modules.php][Bordergrass Music Festival 2010]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/6d2m1Q8mF4k/modules.php][Fiddlers Grove Ole Time Fiddlers and Bluegrass Festival this May]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/Z3KtmbCNMis/modules.php][Planet Bluegrass Complete's 2010 Telluride Bluegrass Roster]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicNews/~3/yYvtf59c5ac/modules.php][Bluegrass Music and the Tennesse Skyline in Hiltons Virginia]]
  
  
  
  ---++ [[http://www.cybergrass.com/][Cybergrass® Bluegrass Music Reviews]]:
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/BHe8u--BsmI/modules.php][Gold Heart: My Sisters And Me]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/NFse0Qa0Dyo/modules.php][Josh Williams: Down Home]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/dL1JhAytwzI/modules.php][Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/V3cuTUXFvuc/modules.php][Jett's Creek:  Supposed To Be]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/jBXnq3iPJaE/modules.php][Alecia Nugent: Hillbilly Goddess]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/vL-XfQAYj0M/modules.php][Mike Marshall: Big Trio]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/v5FIt5B8byA/modules.php][Jerks of Grass: Come On Home]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/f_aATi2kNx8/modules.php][The Greencards:  Fascination]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/UoOS-zmdst8/modules.php][The Rosin Sisters: Sweet Sunny South]]
  	* [[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybergrassBluegrassMusicReviews/~3/0SyiBJOt8Vw/modules.php][Cherryholmes III:  Don't Believe]]
  
  
  
  ---++ [[http://www.moreover.com/rss][Moreover Technologies - Consumer: book reviews]] (Book Reviews):
  	* [[http://context4.kanoodle.com/cgi-bin/rss_query_image.cgi?a=click&bid_id=92429716&creative=286012&clickid=87877635&format=xml1&cgroup=consumerbookreviews&query=general%20network&ts=ad20100312000000][Free Homework Help - Sponsored Link]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2618742772][Book review: Bankers, cadets reveal greater goals do work]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2618627106][Telling it like it is]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2618579577][National Book Critics Circle winners announced]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2618320259][Film review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2618172282][Book review: 'Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs']]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2617974136][Book places: Powell?s Bookstores North]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2617818823][[Book Review] Sociology: Putting Law into Practice in Personnel]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2617818759][[Book Review] Psychology: Bad Theories Can Harm Victims]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2617638161][In Praise of Little Books]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2617468339][International Affairs 86/2 - Book Reviews]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2617420764][The Kreutzer Sonata: Film review]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616919170][Book Review of Organic Azides: Syntheses and Applications]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616801136][Book review: Fun, Inc.]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616563995][Small Press Month: Flood Editions Press]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616508852]['Loose Knit' review: Women on the verge, onstage]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616295124][A Job Interview to End All Job Interviews]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616118451][Book reviews - March 11, 2010]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616065278][Book review - March 11, 2010]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2616064893][Book reviews - March 11, 2010]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615925593][Book Review: Counterpoint (The West Australian)]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615828725][Book Review: Counterpoint (The West Australian)]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615730977][Book review: Best Served Cold (The West Australian)]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615714062][Book review: Best Served Cold (The West Australian)]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615644372][Book review: The Shakespeare Curse (The West Australian)]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615519133][Book review: The Shakespeare Curse (The West Australian)]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615276832][Ian McEwan warms to climate change]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2615125123][Hilary Duff to write young adult book series]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2614739642][Beady Eyes That Just Can?t Help It]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2614277330][Book Review | 'About a Mountain,' by John D?Agata - Yucca Mountain, Nevada]]
  	* [[http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r2614148843][Review: 'In the Land of Believers' By Gina Welch]]
  
  
  
  #TheComics
  ---+ Comics 
  
  Comics displayed here are curtesy of 
  Dilbert
  
  The Boondocks
  
  Doonesbury
  
  For Better or for Worse
  
  
  ---++ [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org][phpGrabComics strips]]:
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/eightbittheatre][Today's 8-Bit Theatre strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/ninetofive][Today's 9 to 5 strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/adamathome][Today's Adam@home strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/alienlovespredator][Today's Alien Loves Predator strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/altan][Today's Altan strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/animalcrackers][Today's Animal Crackers strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/anntelnaes][Today's Ann Telnaes strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/annie][Today's Annie strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/apartmentthreeg][Today's Apartment 3-G strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/applegeeks][Today's Apple Geeks strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/archie][Today's Archie strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/askshagg][Today's Ask Shagg strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/babyblues][Today's Baby Blues strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/baldo][Today's Baldo strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/barneygoogle][Today's Barney Google strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/beetlebailey][Today's Beetle Bailey strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/betweenfriends][Today's Between Friends strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/bigtop][Today's Big Top strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/bizarro][Today's Bizarro strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/blondie][Today's Blondie strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/bobthesquirrel][Today's Bob the Squirrel strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/bobo][Today's Bobo strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/boondocks][Today's Boondocks strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/bottomliners][Today's Bottom Liners strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/boundandgagged][Today's Bound and Gagged strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/boxjamsdoodle][Today's Boxjams Doodle strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/brendastarr][Today's Brenda Starr strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/brewsterrockit][Today's Brewster Rockit strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/broomhilda][Today's Broom Hilda strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/buckles][Today's Buckles strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/cestlavie][Today's C'est la Vie strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/ctrlaltdel][Today's CTRL+ALT+DEL strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/calvinandhobbes][Today's Calvin and Hobbes strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/cathy][Today's Cathy strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/catswithhands][Today's Cats With Hands strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/chanlowe][Today's Chan Lowe strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/cigarro][Today's Cigarro and Cerveja strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/citizendog][Today's Citizen Dog strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/clasi][Today's Clasificados strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/clearbluewater][Today's Clear Blue Water strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/cleats][Today's Cleats strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/clemente][Today's Clemente strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/closetohome][Today's Close to Home strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/computoon][Today's Compu-toon strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/condorito][Today's Condorito strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/cornered][Today's Cornered strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/crankshaft][Today's Crankshaft strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/crist][Today's Crist strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/crock][Today's Crock strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/curtis][Today's Curtis strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/danwasserman][Today's Dan Wasserman strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/dmfa][Today's Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/danasummers][Today's Dana Summers strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/davidhorsey][Today's David Horsey strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/dennisthemenace][Today's Dennis the Menace strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/diogenes][Today's Diógenes y el Linyera strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/dicklocher][Today's Dick Locher strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/dicktracy][Today's Dick Tracy strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/dilbert][Today's Dilbert strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/donwright][Today's Don Wright strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/doodles][Today's Doodles strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/doonesbury][Today's Doonesbury strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/dougmarlette][Today's Doug Marlette strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/drabble][Today's Drabble strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/drewsheneman][Today's Drew Sheneman strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/edgecity][Today's Edge City strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/elgoonishshive][Today's El Goonish Shive strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/elroto][Today's El Roto strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/facesinthenews][Today's Faces In the News strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/familiatipo][Today's Familia Tipo (Spanish) strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/familiatipus][Today's Familia Tipus (Catalan) strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/familycircus][Today's Family Circus strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/ferreres][Today's Ferreres (Catalan) strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/ferreras][Today's Ferreres (Spanish) strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/flashgordon][Today's Flash Gordon strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/fontanarrosa][Today's Fontanarrosa strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/forbetterorforworse][Today's For Better or For Worse strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/forges][Today's Forges strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/foxtrot][Today's Fox Trot strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/fredbasset][Today's Fred Basset strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/funkywinkerbean][Today's Funky Winkerbean strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/garfield][Today's Garfield strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/gasolinealley][Today's Gasoline Alley strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/gilthorp][Today's Gil Thorp strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/girlgenius101][Today's Girl Genius 101 strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/girlgeniusmain][Today's Girl Genius: Advanced Class strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/glasbergen][Today's Glasbergen strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/glennmccoy][Today's Glenn McCoy strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/goats][Today's Goats strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/grassilli][Today's Grassilli strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/grinandbearit][Today's Grin and Bear It strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/hagarthehorrible][Today's Hagar the Horrible strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/heartofthecity][Today's Heart of the City strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/hiandlois][Today's Hi & Lois strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/hipopopopotatamo][Today's Hipo Popo Pota Tamo strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/hipopopopotatamo][Today's Hipo Popo Pota Tamo strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/housebroken][Today's Housebroken strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/idiotbox][Today's Idiot Box strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/inthebleachers][Today's In the Bleachers strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/jackhiggins][Today's Jack Higgins strip]]
  	* [[http://server.phpgrabcomics.org/comic.php/jackohman][Today's Jack Ohman strip]]