http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/-kNgEacwkY0/dear-google-you-keep.html

Google's Jonathan Rosenberg wrote a paean to 'open,' in which his company's commitment to 'open' is pitched at great length. The most remarkable paragraph, however, is the one dealing with things that Google keeps closed:

While we are committed to opening the code for our developer tools, not all Google products are open source. Our goal is to keep the Internet open, which promotes choice and competition and keeps users and developers from getting locked in. In many cases, most notably our search and ads products, opening up the code would not contribute to these goals and would actually hurt users.

How odd that of all the products Google would be forced to keep proprietary by its commitment to an open internet, it just happens to be the ones that make it all of its money.

Does anyone here make that chopped ham/pick/relish cracker spread for the holidays? Or at all? My aunt used to make it, and I'm really craving some. I can't find her recipe, though. Do you have a favorite one?

I know normally it's made with part of the Christmas ham, but we're not having any ham. Can lunchmeat be used? I feel like this would be kind of gross, but I have no idea if I can buy real ham without buying a whole one. I've never needed to before and can't recall seeing anything like that at stores (though I also wasn't ever looking).

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/several-bidders-line-up-to-buy-motorolas-set-top-box-division/

Several bidders line up to buy Motorola's set-top box division originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/IvnMS6IftIE/75-tablet-touted.html

Forbes on another tablet: "The $75 Tablet Computer." You'll never guess who!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/nvidia-ion-2-coming-in-early-2010-compatible-with-pine-trail/

Well, here we go: NVIDIA just gave us the heads-up that the next generation of Ion chips (which we'll be calling Ion 2 until it gets a proper name) will be compatible with Intel's new Pine Trail platform and arriving in Q1 of 2010. That's good news, seeing as the Pine Trail-based Eee PC 1005PE we just reviewed didn't offer much of a performance benefit over the older Diamondville chips and definitely couldn't bust through the first few seconds of a YouTube HD clip. Though we got NVIDIA to confirm that it'll improve some of the battery life concerns we've had, we couldn't get much out of them in terms of how Ion 2 will play with the Intel GMA 3150 GPU that's now integrated into the Atom N450 die. NVIDIA also didn't hold back when it came to Intel's reliance on third-party HD accelerator chips for video duties -- they think customers want richer gaming and multimedia experiences on netbooks than Atom alone can offer, and they don't seem to care that Intel keeps calling Ion "overkill." All drama aside we're looking forward to just getting some YouTube and Hulu HD playback on our netbooks -- we'll see what NVIDIA has to show off at CES.

NVIDIA Ion 2 coming in early 2010, compatible with Pine Trail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shopping at Walgreens, saw a guy getting no service at their photo area. Got a cashier for help. No dice. I got the boss to help him.

You know when people start asking questions like, "What's the best gift you ever received," and, "What's the best compliment you ever got"...I finally have an answer to the latter.


This is probably the best compliment I've ever received:

"She is the most beautiful of souls. She is unassuming, even to the point of being unaware, of the incredible light that flows though her. I could tell you about how smart and kind and funny and talented she is, but none of those words are enough to capture her essence. She can touch the tenderest place in you with just a phrase or image. To know her is to know Light and to be counted among her friends is above an honor."


Thank you, kind friend.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/UyvHGHLueDE/most-popular-free-iphone-apps-and-posts-of-2009

The iPhone is the most popular cellphone in the country, and with good reason. Despite occasionally awful choices by Apple, it still has the most—and best—applications around. Here are the most popular free iPhone apps (and posts) of 2009.

As with our most popular Windows downloads and Mac downloads of 2009, this collection of applications is based solely on the popularity of the associated post here on Lifehacker. We always prefer free applications that offer a little productivity boosting, so this is by no means a complete look at the most popular apps of the 80 billion in the App Store.

First, the downloads...

GV Mobile Makes Google Voice the Default for Your iPhone

In April, an industrious iPhone developer released GV Mobile to the iTunes App Store. It was followed by other Google Voice apps, and then Apple went brain dead and removed every Google Voice application from the App Store (along with rejecting Google's official Voice app). Annoying, to be sure, but users still willing to jailbreak can still get GV Mobile for free on Cydia.

Stanza Turns Your iPhone into a Kindle, Kindle App Counters

At the beginning of the year, the beautiful Stanza (iTunes link) iPhone app came along and wowed us with how good ebook reading on the iPhone could be. Then, when Kindle for iPhone (iTunes link) was released a few months later, it gave iPhone users a pretty good reason not to buy a Kindle. In the end, Amazon liked Stanza so much they ended up buying it, so that's probably the app we'd choose.

RunKeeper is Like Nike+ for Your iPhone-Only Better

RunKeeper (available in free and pro versions) uses your iPhone's GPS to do some seriously cool tracking for your running, walking, or biking routine. Apple was extremely slow in bringing Nike+ to the iPhone (once they did, it only supported 3GS), and even then it doesn't take advantage of the fact that the iPhone has a built in GPS and excellent mapping capabilities. RunKeeper is an excellent alternative to people who don't want to pay for the Nike+ dongle, want advanced GPS and mapping capabilities, or don't have an iPhone 3GS. Still, if we could marry these two apps, we happily would.

Email 'n Walk Lets You Multitask Without Getting Hit By a Car

We get it. You are seriously busy, and you don't have time to make sure you don't walk into traffic while you're composing that email. Email n' Walk overlays an email composition window on top of the view from your iPhone's camera, so you can type out an email and watch where you're going. It was free when we first covered it; now it'll set you back a buck.

Dropbox Comes to the iPhone and iPod touch

Dropbox is far and away our favorite file syncing tool, so we were thrilled this September when Dropbox for iPhone (iTunes link) finally made its way to the iPhone. Users can access any of their synced files, view files supported by the iPhone (including documents, photos, music, and video), upload photos and video to Dropbox, and save files for offline viewing. Handy.

CardStar Creates Scanner-Friendly Bonus Cards on iPhones

Lifehacker readers hate a bulging wallet, which is presumably why CardStar (iTunes link) resonated. The free app replaces keychain tags and wallet-cluttering bonus/discount/rewards/"shopper's club" cards with scanner-friendly barcodes that live on your iPhone. Users report mixed results in the App Store, but if it does the trick in place of your rewards card, it could be worth the download.

Skype for iPhone Brings Reliable VoIP to Your Pocket

Skype is far and away the most popular VoIP service, so it's understandable that people were pretty excited when it finally made its official plunge onto the iPhone with Skype for iPhone (iTunes link).

Dragon Dictation Does Voice-to-Text Transcription on Your iPhone

You spend plenty of time typing at the computer all day, so we forgive you if you're not eager to continue pecking away at the software keyboard on your iPhone. Dragon Dictation (iTunes link) does voice-to-text transcription you can copy to your clipboard and use anywhere.

Epicurious App Puts an Entire Cookbook in the Palm of Your Hand

Epicurious for iPhone (iTunes link) puts access to over 25,000 recipes from the likes of Gourmet and Bon Appetit at your fingertips. When you find something you like (I seriously love this app and would strongly recommend the simple-yet-delicious Mario Batali Basic Tomato Sauce), you can add it to your favorites, generate a shopping list, and get cooking. The entirety of The Gourmet Cookbook is inside this killer kitchen supplement.

Put Google Calendar and Notes on Your iPhone Wallpaper

By default, the iPhone lock screen shows you the time, date, and possibly a pretty picture. With gCalWall Lite, your home screen also displays your upcoming Google calendar appointments. Handy.

---

And now, the popular iPhone-specific posts/how-tos:

Set Up "Push" Alerts for Anything from Your Computer to Your Phone

When push notifications finally rolled out to iPhone 3.0 this year, lots of applications started using them—but not everything we wanted. In this guide, we demonstrate how to use Growl (for Mac and Windows) in conjunction with Prowl (iTunes link), a $3 iPhone app, to set up push notifications for virtually anything. Our guide focused on Gmail push (which wasn't available at the time, and still isn't available with message previews), but anything that sends an alert with Growl can also work with Prowl, so your options are only limited by your creativity.

Enable Tethering on Your iPhone 3G or 3GS Running 3.1.2

It's been a feature of the iPhone forever now, but AT&T is still dragging its feet on iPhone tethering—that is, allowing users to enjoy their iPhone's data connection on their laptops. We've shown you how to enable tethering on your iPhone 3G or 3GS running 3.1.2 (the latest iPhone OS), and before that we helped you pull it off with the 3.0 OS. You may not want to tempt the AT&T billing gods with flagrant use of this one (wild fees may apply if AT&T decides they do), but it's a godsend in a pinch.

---

Got a favorite iPhone app we covered (or didn't) in 2009 that you love? Let's hear more about it in the comments.

Never forget: I'm always lurking under your bed.

Poor old Gyro is feeling sick today from the new antibiotics they were going to release him on. They are changing them today. They don't take the drip out until 8 am tomorrow, a close shave in getting him home. I hope he is okay at home and not released too early!

No visiting Gyro today - he feels too c**p for visitors. I did get him some flowers because I felt sorry for him, also he could do with a new pair of undies. Oh, well. It's been hard finding his clothes, I tell ya!

I have done 4 loads of washing now that I have some water, and am watching it closely so it doesn't get rained on. This includes dusty curtains from Gyro's room. I have been telling him to do them for months, but he hasn't done anything about it. I could see they needed doing from the outside - I finally gave in and washed the outside. Still finding more dust in his room! I am thinking he needs as dust-free environment as possible, but I can't do anything about the cat hairs that he has been having trouble with the last few months, apart from keep Tom out of his sleeping area.

I have done as much Christmas food shopping as possible. I had to change the password on Gyro's account and my keyboard is faulty (yes, I still haven't changed it over), so somehow it is not what I thought it was, and I am locked out of his account. *&$#@! Teh Bank were not any help, unless I get Gyro to sign forms...which means a big trek down the hill. Oooh, well, we will have to make do with what I've got ...unless I get paid tomorrow, which I might.

Gotta go and get some lunch. I am starving!

hey all.

I'm working on a new website for myself and against my preference have chosen to largely use wordpress in constructing it due to the pretty handy iphone app for wordpress.
i was hoping that i would be able to upload images through this app [i can] and then use wordpress to automatically sort those images based on tags etc and make corresponding gallery pages. i can't seem to find any plugin that does this.

so does anyone know of any apps that allow uploading of photos to a personal server? [not flickr, photobucket etc.]
or just a straight out "FTP" type app?
[preferably cheap/free]

http://www.metafilter.com/87741/I-almost-despair-of-putting-it-in-a-comprehensible-form

One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick Inspired by Zak Smith's (previously) Illustrations for Each Page of Gravity's Rainbow, self-taught artist Matt Kish is posting One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick. Some favourites: 8, 40, 48, 54, 66, 74, and 85. While he's only through about 100 of the Signet Edition's 552 pages, you can follow along on the artist's blog.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/SLG8M7S3PSk/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/android-htc-profile/

Taiwanese cellphone maker HTC finds a powerful godfather in Google, as it focuses on Android. It's rapidly gaining market share to pull ahead of rivals Samsung and LG in the smartphone market. So, what makes this company tick?

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/UOkS5QThn4Y/

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/found_wildlife/

This month's Found gives you a closer look at wildlife in the mid-22nd century. Navigating the Everglades in 2150 will be no glide through the park. Here, we envision how evolution, human tampering and happy accident could transform the subtropics.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/JPQhRryjbQs/

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/found_contest_athleticgear/

This month's Found contest asks you to imagine the future of athletic gear. Today, aerodynamic outerwear is making superjocks sleeker. Safety equipment is making them less vulnerable. In 50 years, what else will tech do for the sports set?

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/CX_npaMDe6E/stephen-watt

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/stephen-watt

A former Morgan Stanley coder has been sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the TJX hack.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/asus-eee-pad-rumored-to-have-multitouch-tegra/

Details on ASUS's rumored Eee Pad were fairly light when the rumors first surfaced, but it looks like things are now starting to get fleshed out a bit more as we near a possible announcement at CES next month. The latest word comes from Netbooknews' sources, who have reportedly all but confirmed that the tablet / handheld will indeed have full multitouch capabilities, and that it definitely won't be running Windows CE (still no word what it will be running). Slightly less certain but more interesting is talk that the Eee Pad will run on NVIDIA's Tegra platform -- or, possibly, Tegra 2, which just so happens to be slated to launch at CES as well.

ASUS Eee Pad rumored to have multitouch, Tegra originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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*no credit required
*enjoy!!

teasers:

( happy holidays! )

http://www.metafilter.com/87740/Alma

An eerie tribute to countless Twilight Zone episodes, Pixar Animator Rodrigo Blaas has published his animated short film Alma.
Apparently only available for a short time. [via Vizworld, an excellent visualization community]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ZwSyAlhVCHU/remains-of-the-day-when-its-best-to-pretend-you-dont-know-anything-edition

Nielsen statistics show the most popular cellphones and mobile sites around, the Kindle gets cracked once again, Netflix starts streaming Criterion classics, and sometimes knowing a little bit about computers is a curse.

• The meaning of open
  Google's Senior VP for Product Management opens up a dialog on what open software, and open information, mean for the firm, its products, and its future. A long read, but well worth the scroll. [Official Google Blog]
• iPhone, Meet Razr: The Ten Most Popular Phones in the Country
  The iPhone (3G) tops the list, two BlackBerry models make the cut, and LG and Motorola own the declining "dumbphone" market. Nielsen's stats also reveal that the top 10 mobile sites look an awful lot like the top 10 desktop sites. [Gizmodo]
• Criterion Adds Thirty-Five Films to Stream via Netflix
  A big chunk of the film aficionado firm's remasters—most of them foreign, and including a huge chunk of Akira Kurosawa's work—make their way onto Netflix's tubes. Somewhere on your calendar, an empty weekend just got filled (with samurai). [Slashfilm]
• Israeli programmer hacks Kindle, breaks DRM protection
  It's actually a re-hack of Amazon's copyright protections on sold books, but it goes to prove that for all the effort put into restricting digital rights, there's somebody out there with a free weekend to crack it. [Boy Genius Report]
• Make Way for youtu.be Links
  The new youtu.be links aren't all that short, especially once more people start covering more videos, but they do let the link recipient know exactly where they're going. And, presumably, Rick Astley can only own a few of them. [YouTube Blog]
• Why It's Better To Pretend You Don't Know Anything About Computers
  The Oatmeal continues its one-man crusade to make you nod your head and go, "Oh, God, yeah, I know how it is." This time 'round, it's about that uncle who discovers your inherent abilities to both fix computers and agree to the most asinine request. Oh, and happy holidays! [The Oatmeal]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2fBy6HRpBtw/cinch-brings-windows-7s-aero-snap-to-the-mac

Mac only: Accurately named menu bar app Cinch lets you set windows up side by side, à la Windows 7's Aero Snap feature, just by dragging them to the side of your screen.

After installing Cinch, you are given the option of having it launch at login, and whether you want to see it in the menu bar. The app itself is very simple—to snap a window to half-screen size, just drag it until your cursor hits the side of the screen, and a dotted line will show you where the window will go. Releasing the mouse button will snap it into place, allowing you to have two windows side by side to work with. In addition, you can drag a window to the top of your screen to maximize it. After you're done working, drag the window away from its screen edge and its original size will be restored.

Cinch is free as nagware, costs $7 for the nag-free version, and is Mac only. Thanks, Jasmeet!

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/IsG-AWqg640/

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/12/nrel-evaluates-ups-diesel-hybrds/

Tests show that diesel-hybrid trucks provide greater fuel economy and lower operating costs than standard diesel delivery trucks, with comparable performance.