Summer Is… [II]
Posted by sqbbe | Filed under Nikon youtube

I took these pictures with a Nikon D50, and at the "P", or Programmable setting. I normally use "AUTO" because it sets everything for me but for some silly reason the onboard flash kept popping up so I had to switch over to "P". Music Info: * Amon Tobin - Adventures In Foam - Disc 1 - 08 - Traffic
Author: LuminolBlue
Keywords: nikon d50 dslr digital single lense reflex summer is series test pictures cat etobicoke ontario canada video blog vlog
Added: July 31, 2008
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Jasmina Tešanovi?: Dragan Dabic Defeats Radovan Karadzic
Posted by Xeni Jardin | Filed under 0Disney
Jasmina Tešanovi?:
Dragan Dabic Defeats Radovan Karadzic
Belgrade: July 29, 2008
photo: Bruce Sterling
Despite wise warnings from the American embassy to avoid all large, possibly violent Serbian demonstrations, I was there today in Belgrade's Republic Square.
My American friend and I were sipping two beers to pay for our cafe table. I also noticed some lone men alertly drinking coffee there: they were undercover Belgrade police. Standing outside the cafe were strong, heavily armored lines of hyper-geared riot policemen. There were even riot policewomen on duty.
Last night I spoke to Dejan Anastasijevic, an expert on internal issues and a witness in Hague trial against Milosevic. We concluded that this grand public event was the swan song for the Radical Party, and for Radovan Karadzic, one of its founders: for the Radicals, tonight was now or never.
Well: the verdict is never. The ethnic holy-warrior Radovan Karadzic has lost out to the New Age guru Dabic: his other Jeckyll-and-Hyde personality for the last 13 years. Maybe 16,000 people trickled into Republic Square, a good-sized crowd for downtown Belgrade, but a fragment of the three million Radical voters, a full third of the Serbian population. Two months ago the Radicals were gleefully smashing foreign embassies over the Kosovo issue; today they are bewildered and crestfallen.
The political climate has changed in Serbia. Boris Tadic, the Pro-European president, is wisely minding the nation's business and doing it relentlessly. The ex-president Kostunica was doing the opposite.
A couple of days ago, journalists from various press groups were beaten up by Radical goons; at that point the new government declared Serbian journalists to be equivalent to Serbian police performing public duties, and severely penalized the street-thugs for attacking free speech.
Tonight the supporters of Radovan Karadzic, better-known as the bizarre quack Dragan Dabic, were saying goodbye to their ultimate leader, who is bound for The Hague. Clearly the Radicals have shifted their motivating fear and hatred toward Boris Tadic, who now looms huge in their imagination as the traitor who authorized the extradition. The Radicals wore t-shirts with the faces of Karadzic and Mladic, but those were photographs from 14 long years ago. Nowadays Karadzic looks like a cartoon, and not even the Radicals know what Mladic must look like these days. These much-tried Radical loyalists had long, grim faces. They were mostly men, and impoverished men at that. They had a sprinkling of younger football hooligans, who can't remember the war, but hate anything they can't understand. The speaker, a nationalist actress, screamed in tears: Radovan, go to The Hague, because they need you there. You must bring the whole world justice and heal everyone!
At that point, wandering the streets, we spotted an uncanny double of Dragan Dabic: a strange local guru with a long white beard, long white hair, a black priest's robe and a big Orthodox cross. Everybody was pointing at this strange character and grinning. Single-handedly, Dragan Dabic has reduced the bitter Yugoslav civil war to a black-humored Serbian wisecrack, yesterdays news. The Radicals cannot forgive their idol for healing gullible idiots and not going down with artillery blazing into Sarajevo.
Trying to stoke the crowd, the Radicals played the hymns of the disbanded Red Berets, the paramilitary group of Legija, the convicted criminal behind the killing of Zoran Djindjic. As always, murder remains the Radical's best political bet. Still, with enough time and enough bizarre deceit, even murder becomes ridiculous.
Journalists lurk near Belgrade's special court for war crimes, hoping for a scoop over Karadzic's final journey toward justice. Nobody knows when this historic flight will happen, but the legal time for his appeal is almost over and it seems mere a matter of hours. Dragan Dabic has been preparing the defense for Radovan Karadzic: but his laptop is in the hands of the police. For a humble healer, Dr. Dabic seems to have a surprising number of documents concerning the war in Bosnia. He was also in touch with the lawyers for the late Slobodan Milosevic, old hands at endless pantomime inside the Dutch courts. This will be Dr. Dabic's last incarnation: the new star of an old war-crimes trial.
I hear with shock that my very close friend, a great Serbian poet, died in a Belgrade clinic haunted by Dragan Dabic, whose "quantum human energy" obviously cannot cure lung cancer. My friend the poet never committed genocide, nor did he ever hide from justice by stealing the identity of an innocent man. He wrote his verse about his beloved city and he published books. He also smoked too much to survive, but his mortality was not his sorest problem, because his verse outlives him. His deeper tragedy was to perish in the madhouse that his Serbia became, a stricken nation where the poets and criminals cannot tell each other apart.
As a final farcical insult, a group of hooligans destroyed the Radical's rally. The Radical Party had intended a mass march through the city, a grand show of their popular strength, but their mass turnout never showed up, and their deeply frustrated fringe element spontaneously attacked the cops. In the summer heat, half-naked male teens yanked their sweaty t-shirts over their heads as impromptu masks, then set off firecrackers and tossed bricks and blazing road-flares into the massed ranks of the riot-squad.
The provoked cops replied with tear-gas canisters and some ragged baton-charges. The hooligans scattered in a hurry, set fire to some trash containers and broke some plate-glass in the shopping streets. There were more than forty injuries, to rioters, cops and various journalists. No fatalities. In half an hour the grand rally had collapsed in this shabby debacle. The Radicals will naturally blame the police, but since the rally was lavishly televised, it's rather obvious that the cops were not flinging any bricks at the protesters.
My widowed father died recently. This week it has been my obligation to clean his apartment. Mr. Tesanovic was an engineer, a diplomat and a Yugoslav loyalist. His personal effects now seem as distant to crazy modern Serbia as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
I had to dispose of many of his things, and I had hoped that the humble but clever gypsies who pick through Belgrade's garbage would find some use for his effects. But that did not happen. The Radicals tossed their flares into the rubbish bin outside his house. They set fire to everything they could reach.
Update: July 30, 2008
Radovan Karadzic handover
Early this morning the new star of the Hague tribunal arrived in Hague: here in Belgrade , the lack of bad news is good news for us. They call this summer the new beginning for Serbia. The Radical Party has reached a dead end, and there are big questions for the Republika Srpska and its future.
The other major figure in the genocide in Bosnia, Ratko Mladic, will be the next step. Until a couple of years ago his movements were known to the secret police, while now many dubious rumors are running about his secret life underground or abroad.
From Hague, in a direct press conference, we listen to promises of an efficient and just yet complicated trial, for the sake of the victims and their families. Belgrade is calm today: the secret police are praised for the arrest and extradition of Karadzic, while the public police managed to contain the Radical Party hooligans with no fatalities . The Serbian people are facing the future, though if they still fail to face the past and the crimes committed in their names, their steps will be slow and hampered.
Update 2: July 31, 2008
Finally we saw him, live: we heard him. Good old Radovan is back. He killed Dabic with one haircut and a thorough shave. It's literally the same voice, with the same intellect behind it. What's different is a grim new tic of his mouth, as if he is on the verge of tears.
The press turnout for Karadzic was as big as for the first day of the trial of Milosevic. Yet only 40 people could enter the court, again the same as Milosevic.
The general opinion in Serbia is how old, how white and how distracted he now seems, alone, without soldiers, lawyers or family members. He declares himself as member of three states, Republika Srpska, where he lived, Montenegro where he was born, and Serbia where he lived under cover with different identities.
He is the veteran of one of the greatest put-up jobs in the history of world crime, and he declares that he was hiding in order to save his life. He says his life was guaranteed to him by the Dayton treaty and by Richard Holbrooke, in exchange for his stepping down from politics.
Karadzic seemed calmly determined to act in his own defense, demanding the return of his laptop, formerly in possession of Dragan Dabic. That computer is now in the hands of the police together with various official documents from Republika Srpska.
His judges say that the indictment against Karadzic will be altered and focused. Basically it charges him with practically every crime that the court in the Hague was built to try.
We are eager to see him handle all his legacies with all his identities.
Jasmina Tešanovi? is an author, filmmaker, and wandering thinker who shares her thoughts with BoingBoing from time to time. Email: politicalidiot at yahoo dot com. Her blog is here.
- - - - - - - - - -Previous essays by Jasmina Tešanovi? on BoingBoing:
- Who was Dragan David Dabic?
- My neighbor Radovan Karadzic
- The Day After / Kosovo
- State of Emergency
- Kosovo
- Christmas in Serbia
- Neonazism in Serbia
- Korea - South, not North.
- "I heard they are making a movie on her life."
- Serbia and the Flames
- Return to Srebenica
- Sagmeister in Belgrade
- What About the Russians?
- Milan Martic sentenced in Hague
- Mothers of Mass Graves
- Hope for Serbia
- Stelarc in Ritopek
- Sarajevo Mon Amour
- MBOs
- Killing Journalists
- Where Did Our History Go?
- Serbia Not Guilty of Genocide
- Carnival of Ruritania
- "Good Morning, Fascist Serbia!"
- Faking Bombings
- Dispatch from Amsterdam
- Where are your Americans now?
- Anna Politkovskaya Silenced
- Slaughter in the Monastery
- Mermaid's Trail
- A Burial in Srebenica
- Report from a concert by a Serbian war criminal
- To Hague, to Hague
- Preachers and Fascists, Out of My Panties
- Floods and Bombs
- Scorpions Trial, April 13
- The Muslim Women
- Belgrade: New Normality
- Serbia: An Underworld Journey
- Scorpions Trial, Day Three: March 15, 2006
- Scorpions Trial, Day Two: March 14, 2006
- Scorpions Trial, Day One: March 13, 2006
- The Long Goodbye
- Milosevic Arrives in Belgrade
- Slobodan Milosevic Died
- Milosevic Funeral
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like a stone
Posted by sqbbe | Filed under Nikon youtube

projekt revolution 08 072208 nikon theater, jones beach, ny
Author: me000w
Keywords: like stone projekt revolution 08 chris cornell
Added: July 31, 2008
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Ultra DSLR: The New LEAF AFi 10
Posted by Stephen | Filed under The Digital Camera Blog

The new Leaf AFi 10 camera system challenges the standard of the medium-format frame with its True Wide Frame (TWF) 56×36 mm, able to capture 56 megapixel digital imaging sensor. The TWF sensor can be rotated internally, giving you the control to shoot the way you visualize it in your mind. Leaf Verto internal sensor rotation technology allows you to flip the sensor from landscape to portrait and back on the push of one single button. With this camera, possibilities are endless, only your imagination is the limit. The price will be in the range of £22,000, hitting public display on Q4 2008. [PearTree]
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Nikon D700 Caution
Posted by sqbbe | Filed under Nikon youtube

This video is an official announcement that Nikon announced regards of Nikon D700 body only. Read the captions on the video because I won't be answering your comments with questions. Nikon announced to pause D700's production to go back to the beginning to repair and fix problems, bugs, and machine errors - such as: Defective sensor, fails to deliver results without blown highlights at minimum aperture at low ISO, CF door are very fragile, focusing screen is slightly misplaced, AF points will not be able to move around in CL / CH mode, Auto WB (White Balance) fails to change the color temperature when SB-900 have a color temperature filter attached (SB-900 reads the filter to send information to D3-Series / D700 to adjust the white balance), D700's popup flash is not working properly for Nikon Creative Lighting System as the master flash, short battery life (expects to have at least 1,500 shots per charge but it dies after 250 shots), LiveView have wrong shooting modes (It have to be switched - Tripod Mode is Handheld Mode, Handheld Mode is Tripod Mode), D700's popup flash menu doesn't include "M" (manual flash input), and AF-C tends to back-focus slightly.
Author: Lilkiwiguy87
Keywords: Nikon D700 Announcement Bugs Fixes Problems American Sign Language ASL
Added: July 31, 2008
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Femisapien robot review..
Posted by Phillip Torrone | Filed under 0Disney
Robotsrule has a giant review of the new Femisapien robot, for $99 it's look worth it for the parts, sensors and learning interface alone...
For me the posing interface is the most powerful and fun method of playing with Femisapien. As you can see in the accompanying video review, you can create a Femisapien dance or skit in literally seconds. You put her in Learning Mode and you simply move her at one of two different speeds, slow or fast. That's it. After each movement she will beep at you to tell you she's memorized the movement. Then just adding keep movements until you're done, up to 80 movements total. To finish the sequence just wait 4 seconds or tilt her head out of Learning mode. Any time you want to see the sequence just wave your hand in front of her face. It really is that simple. This brings us to her second interface mode, the Hand Gesture interface.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Reviews | Digg this! Tags: make
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The Group Shot expert: Fuji Z200fd
Posted by Stephen | Filed under The Digital Camera Blog

Fuji Z200fd comes with 5x zoom able to capture resolution up to 10.0 Megapixel via a 2.7-inch LCD. It also adds sensor-shifting mechanical image stabilization. This time Z200fd is equipped with unique Dual Shot Mode allows user to take two pictures – one with flash and one without – in rapid succession. This will allow shooter to pick best picture from the two modes. Another useful feature is face detection functions that are expanded to include Couple and Group Timer Modes. User can select number of faces (up to four) in the frame; the camera will hold off on capturing the shot until the set number of faces have been detected. What a cool trick! Retail pricing will start at $299.95. [DigitalCameraReview]
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Creative rolls out (working) driver update for X-Fi cards
Posted by Donald Melanson | Filed under 0Disney
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
While at least one enterprising individual did his best to get Creative's X-Fi sound cards to play nice with Vista, Creative wasn't exactly keen on that idea and apparently decided to have a go at updating its drivers itself instead (go figure). Among other things, the new, long overdue drivers supposedly fix the problematic Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, and they add DVD Audio playback, which previously worked under Windows XP but not in Vista -- you know, the little things. Hit up the link below to find the link to the drivers themselves, which work with all X-Fi cards except the X-Fi Extreme Audio, which is clearly so "Extreme" it doesn't need driver updates.[Thanks, Bamboo]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Sony introduces another hot China-only PMP, the PMX-M80
Posted by Nilay Patel | Filed under 0Disney
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Sony's China-only PMPs have always been a little more interesting than the gear we see Stateside, and the new PMX-M80 is no exception. The 4.3-inch touchscreen player packs 16GB of storage and decent codec support into a sleek white box, as well as a new mapping application that's apparently a novelty in China. Too bad this thing won't ever make it over here -- although at 2,260 yuan ($331), it probably wouldn't shake things up too much.[Via PMP Today]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Spring constant measurement
Posted by Phillip Torrone | Filed under 0Disney

Pete writes in...
Talk about retro. I hand coded this page (for the first time in years) describing my homebrew spring constant measurement experiments. This is really the starting point for solid material characterization. If you have something cool that you've made with that chemistry kit, you should take a look to see how you can start characterizing it, so you can model it and know what you can do with it.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this! Tags: brew, digg, homebrew, make, talk
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Five Best Note-Taking Tools [Hive Five]
Posted by Adam Pash | Filed under 0Disney

Despite the wealth of information a Google search box puts at our fingertips, good old-fashioned note-taking is still one of the best ways to build a personal knowledge database. The only sensible solution used to be pen and paper, but computers have introduced a handful of excellent alternatives for capturing notes in computer-friendly digital form. On Tuesday you shared your favorite note-taking tools, and today we're back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a look at the five best note-taking tools, then cast a ballot for the note-taking tool you prefer. Photo by Dvortygirl.
Evernote (Windows/Mac, Free)
Evernote is a free, cross-platform universal capture application. With support for text, images, audio, tagging, and syncing between its web interface and all of your desktop installations, Evernote offers seamless capturing of information no matter where you are. Images you add to Evernote are searchable by text, and Evernote even supports several mobile devices—including the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones. If you can't install Evernote on a computer, you can also use Evernote's web interface and clipping bookmarklet to pull anything into your notebook. Evernote is free to use, provides 40MB per month of upload space; for $5 per month or $45 per year, you get 500MB. Pen(cil) and Paper

Despite a multitude of high-tech note-taking tools, the classic pen and paper still holds a special place in many a note-taker's heart. The low-tech gadgets readers prefer for pen-and-paper notes vary greatly. From classics like the Moleskine or simple notebook to the Hipster PDA or Post-It notes, the dead-tree route is still the place many prefer to take their notes. If paper is your preference, check out how to customize your notebook to take great notes.
Microsoft OneNote (Windows, Shareware)

Whether you're a fan of Microsoft products or not, Microsoft OneNote it a killer note-taking app that integrates with every corner of your Windows PC. In fact, some readers even admit to running Windows in virtual machines on their Macs solely for the note-taking goodies available in OneNote. OneNote 2007 syncs with the web and other computers, provides two-way sync with Windows Mobile phones, boasts quick searching of your all your notes, and much more. Finally, if you miss putting pen to paper with digital note-taking apps, OneNote's marquee feature is support for handwriting recognition on tablet PCs (you can even search your handwriting without converting it to text). OneNote is shareware, costs $100. Photo by DannoHung.
Google Notebook (Web-based, Free)

Google Notebook is a web-based note-taking application that brings Google's familiar interface and excellent search capabilities to your notes. The application includes a rich-text editor, labeling (Google's version of tagging), and the recent integration with Google Bookmarks. The Google Notebook add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer makes adding notes and clips to Google Notebook a breeze. With the right setup, Google Notebook also makes for one helluva GTD application.
Personal Wiki

Whether you've installed your personal MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) or you're getting things done with GTDTiddlyWiki on a thumb drive, wikis are excellent tools for note-taking. You can easily link pages together, collaborate with others, or just use it as a simple notebook you can access from anywhere. Since the primary point of entry for a wiki is your web browser, you can access your wiki from any computer with a browser—whether it's web-based or running locally.
Now that you've seen the favorites, it's time to vote for the tool you like best.
Which Is the Best Note-Taking Tool?
( polls)
This week's honorable mentions go to DevonThink (Mac), OmniOutliner (Mac), and voice-to-text service Jott (web-based). Whether it made the list or not, let's hear more about your note-taking app of choice in the comments.
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Citizens Spy On Big Brother
Posted by Administrator | Filed under 0Disney
An anonymous reader writes "Citizens of the world are striking back at 24/7 state surveillance by pulling out their cameraphones and filming inept officials, deadly healthcare lapses and thuggish cops. So-called Sous-veillance is seeing more and more people posting damning footage of official misdemenours to sites such as YouTube to shame them into action." I wonder what happens if you inform a cop that you are recording him when he pulls you over.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Dell Vostro 2510 laptop pops up in flier, $899 for Core 2 Duo and 256MB GPU
Posted by Joshua Fruhlinger | Filed under 0Disney
Filed under: Laptops
The Inspiron-like Dell Vostro laptops have been haunting us for weeks now, but the mystery deepens with this Vostro 2510 that was spotted in a flier. The August 2008 Dell Business flier reads as such: "Coming this month: New! Dell Vostro 2510. Style meets performance." As far as listed specs, we've got an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 160GB hdd, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GPU, and integrated webcam. Pretty decent specs for the $899 price tag, we gotta say. The URL listed in the photo is indeed for the Vostro lappies, but the 2510 is, as of right now, mysteriously absent.UPDATE: The Canadian Dell site has some official Vostro 2510 information and specs. [Thanks, jorvay!]
[Thanks, Dirk]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Beatles music, deconstructed
Posted by Patti Schiendelman | Filed under 0Disney

If you're interested in how music is made, Kevin Futhey found this fascinating article about part of what, musically, made the Beatles be the Beatles, and helps us understand a little of why they had such a revolutionary effect on music. I've been reading Daniel Levitin's book, This is Your Brain On Music; it's really neat to learn why music affects us the way it does.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this! Tags: makeRelated posts
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HOW TO - make piezo crystals at home
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Filed under 0Disney

Piezoelectric crystals are fascinating - when physical stress is applied, these materials produce a voltage. The effect can be reversed as well, apply electricity, produce a stress/vibration. Rochelle salt(potassium sodium tartrate) is an easily synthesized piezoelectric substance you can make with readily available items -
- 500 g (1 lb) of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)[NaHCO3]
- 200 g (7 oz) of cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate)[KHC4H4O6] [see note below]
- Oven
- Pyrex container
- Jar with lid
- 500 mL (2 cup) glass beaker or Pyrex measuring cup
- Sauce pan with water
- 2 mL (1/2 tsp) measuring spoon
- Spoon for stirring
- Coffee Filter
- Filter paper or paper towelling
![]()

Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments
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Sega adds Dream Hamster to its Dream Pets collection, girls say “kawaiiii!”
Posted by Joshua Fruhlinger | Filed under 0Disney
Filed under: Robots
Sega Toys has been up to all sorts of shenanigans lately, what with its rolling speaker robots, kissing bots, and workout headsets. Now the Japanese toy maker has drummed up a new addition to its Dream Pets collection. The Dream Hamster, a tiny furry thing that moves when you hold it, will be available in Japan on August 8th for around $11, and Sega fully expects to win the hearts of lonely women everywhere with these balls of puffy love. We mean, c'mon: it's a furry cute thing that wiggles. What's not to like? [Warning: read link is a PDF][Via Akihabara News]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Solar-cell material can soak up more Sun
Posted by New Scientist Tech - Technology | Filed under 0Disney
Today's solar cells ignore the 50% of the Sun's energy that reaches Earth as infrared light, but cells made from the new material could harness that tooRelated posts
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What Webapp Combinations Work Best Together? [Ask The Readers]
Posted by Kevin Purdy | Filed under 0Disney
The ReadWriteWeb site lists a few webapp combinations that add up to more than the sums of their parts. In the list: Jott & EverNote (as guest Brad Isaac detailed for us), AideRSS with the ticker-display Snackr, Facebook filtered through Dapper, and other clever ideas. But you're the folks who actually read about and use the services we write about—so let's hear some of your own killer combinations. What webapps filter/feed/pipe each other best? Post your link-ups in the comments.
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NES controller cake
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Filed under 0Disney

Aah, Chris' groom's cake is picture-perfect gaming confection -
The single most awesome groom's cake ever. Note the raised buttons made of butter creme frosting. It was delicious.Dibs on the crosspad! - His Cake on Flickr [via Neatorama]
More:

Gamer wedding cake on CRAFT
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Welcome To The Mobile Web, Now Here Come The Viruses?
Posted by Sarah Perez | Filed under 0Disney
Ever since our cell phones started shipping with web browsers built-in, security companies have been warning us about the threat of mobile viruses and malware. While this was likely just an attempt to broaden their reach by selling us anti-virus protection for our phones, some recent numbers make us wonder if there's perhaps some truth to their claims.
What's Out There?
Earlier this month, AdaptiveMobile, a mobile security provider for enterprises and individuals, released some findings about the increase of mobile virus attacks. According to the company, two mobile viruses, CommWarrior and Beselo, are causing particular damage. CommWarrior currently only affects Nokia Series 60 phones, but Beselo attacks all smartphones, and is spread via Bluetooth and MMS as a Symbian SIS installation file. Beselo is also growing at four times the rate of CommWarrior.
How Bad Is It?
But just how bad are these virus attacks? AdaptiveMobile had stats provided by one major mobile operator who preferred to not be named. That mobile operator has seen a rise in attacks from 0.5% of all messages to 6% over the last 12 months. On average, this mobile operator sees 100,000 virus incidents per day - up from 70,000 only one year ago.
AdaptiveMobile, who has some of the world's largest mobile operators as customers and partners with leading security and telecom vendors, is now recommending that mobile operators step up their security for their subscribers. Of course, they do have a vested interest in saying so, but the increases do point towards what may be a growing trend.
There's no great danger yet, though. Most mobile viruses aren't nearly as dangerous as their PC counterparts. Says Gareth Maclachlan, COO of AdaptiveMobile: "It's a worrying trend that's not going to slow down yet. Fortunately, most subscribers are not infected as viruses are still immature and of limited virulence; but those who do get infected can lose up to 100 EUR a day from the MMS being sent by the virus...these are typically corporate users with the latest phones, and who do not scrutinize their bills..."
Is The iPhone Next?
The mobile web today is still a relatively safe place. Despite the fact that phones have had web browsers now for many years, the spread of mobile viruses has been minimal. But now that the iPhone has been introduced, the mobile web's landscape has changed. As the easy-to-use device makes its way into the hands of more and more mainstream users, the more virus writers will want the perceived glory of writing something that attracts big attention...and they know they could get that with the iPhone.
It's not as if the iPhone has never been hit before - in January of this year, the first trojan for the iPhone was discovered, initially by the enthusiast site modmyiphone.com and was later confirmed by security research company F-Secure. This particular virus only affected "jailbroken" phones and masked itself as an update to a 3rd-party application. All the app did was say "shoes," but when uninstalled, it removed the files from the /bin directory, breaking valid apps in the process. At the time, F-Secure warned everyone: "This time it was an 11-year-old kid playing with XML files who created the trojan. Next time it might be someone else with more skills and with specific target."
In June, another iPhone virus, this one called "MyPrecious," took advantage of a security hole in iTunes and locked the infected iPhone at random intervals with a picture of a gold ring on the screen. The phone remained locked until the touchscreen was stroked, and the words "my precious" were spoken into the microphone. More of an annoyance than a lethal virus, but still concerning...especially when you consider the words of the Lithuanian hacker, Evel Soron, who created it. On the web site 4chan, Soron claimed that he's a "big fan" of the iPhone and expects it to be "the one phone to rule them all." The virus had been made available on his web site where it has been downloaded over 300,000 times.
Apple has a reputation for being secure - you rarely hear of Mac viruses - but one of the reasons for that (although not the only one) is because virus writers like to go after the largest install base possible to do the most damage. For computers, that was Windows machines So what will happen when the mobile web becomes dominated by iPhone users? Certainly there's still (evil) glory to be had by writing viruses for the iPhone and if there's anything you shouldn't underestimate, it's the know-how and determination of those who write malicious code.
Perhaps it's too soon to be worried about mobile web viruses or perhaps they never will become a real threat, but we should still apply common sense and caution - especially if you choose to jailbreak your iPhone, use Bluetoooth, or send and receive a lot of SMS/MMS messages. With personal computers now safer and more secure, the next frontier could very well be our phones.
iphone image courtesy of gizmodo



