
<?phpxml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" 
xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
>
<channel>
<title>Haaze.com / riapnomin01 / All</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:10:37 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[What is geo-tracking revealing about you (week in review)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-is-geo-tracking-revealing-about-you-week-in-review</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-is-geo-tracking-revealing-about-you-week-in-review</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:10:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-is-geo-tracking-revealing-about-you-week-in-review</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If your mobile device has Wi-Fi enabled, the device's previous location may be listed on the Web, CNET reported this week.Google publishes the estimated location of millions of iPhones, laptops, and other devices with Wi-Fi connections, the latest twist in a series of revelations this year about wireless devices and privacy.Android phones with location services enabled regularly beam the unique hardware IDs of nearby Wi-Fi devices back to Google, a similar practice followed by Microsoft, Apple, and Skyhook Wireless as part of each company's effort to map the street addresses of access points and routers around the globe.Only Google and Skyhook Wireless, however, make their location databases linking hardware IDs to street addresses publicly available on the Internet, which raises novel privacy concerns when the IDs they're tracking are mobile. If someone knows your hardware ID, he may be able to find a physical address that the companies associate with you--even if you never intended it to become public.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Geo-privacy bills aim to curb warrantless tracking &amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Senator renews pledge to update digital-privacy lawMore headlinesGoogle announces host of search improvements Google unveils several search improvements to both its Web-based and mobile search services at the Inside Search event in San Francisco.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Google Voice Search offers natural user input&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Google refreshes mobile search appWho is behind the hacks Several hacking groups have taken credit for recent attacks on Sony and others. Who are they and why are they doing it&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Anonymous takes down Spanish police site&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' CIA Web site down' LulzSec claims responsibility&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Lulz hackers attack Senate site&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Report: U.S. Senate site hacked again&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' LulzSec fields calls via hacking request line&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Citigroup ups number of accounts breached in attackPandora shares jump, then slump in initial tradingThe Web music service gets off to a fast start on the stock exchange, with shares first surging above the IPO price of $16, followed by a midday nose dive.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Pandora IPO debacle: Shares plunge following debut&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Pandora, a good service but poor investmentFacebook shedding U.S. users as Brazil, Mexico gainOverall growth rate drops below 20 million new users for two months in a row, pushed by loss of users from early-adopting countries, according to an Inside Facebook report.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Facebook planning IPO on $100 billion valuation&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Facebook prepping photo-sharing iPhone app&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Facebook going Spartan to take on AppleApple agrees to pay Nokia patent licensing feesAgreement between the two settles a long-running dispute over wireless phone patents that was punctuated by a back-and-forth series of lawsuits.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Nokia likely to net $608M in Apple patent settlement&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Apple sued over use of iCloud name&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Apple sued over its use of 'iBook'Apple starts selling unlocked iPhone 4 for $649, $749The device is available in 16GB and 32GB options and in the user's choice of black or white. It's GSM-only.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' 5 reasons an unlocked iPhone is important&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Apple patent hints at 'find my iPhone' enhancements&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' iPhone lock-screen password app pulledBounty set for invalidating Lodsys patentsThe group that's gone after a number of mobile app developers and big companies alike is now having its four patents targeted for invalidation by a crowdsourced research group.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Lodsys sued by antivirus software makerChinese military warns of U.S. cyberwar threatThe official newspaper Liberation Army Daily says China must beef up its online defenses and create a &quot;strong Internet army,&quot; lest the U.S. seize the high ground.&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Clarke: U.S. lags in 'guerrilla cyberwar' with China&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Three jailed over iPad 2 leaks in ChinaAlso of note&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Study: DVR, set-top box use most energy at home&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Twitter gaffe sinks Congressman Weiner&amp;149'&amp;nbsp' Steve Jobs comic book 'biography' on the way.postBody h4, .postBody h4{font-size: 1.2em'margin: 10px 0 0 0 'padding: 0px'font-weight: bold'border-bottom: none'}<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Firefox 4 entering the home stretch]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firefox-4-entering-the-home-stretch</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firefox-4-entering-the-home-stretch</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firefox-4-entering-the-home-stretch</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mozilla programmers are gradually reducing the number of Firefox 4 bugs.(Credit:Mozilla)With plenty of competitors breathing down its neck--Microsoft's IE9 in particular--Mozilla is fixing the final bugs that lie in the way of aFirefox 4 release.Last night, Mozilla released Firefox 4 beta 10 (click to download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux). This version focuses mostly on stability and performance rather than on new features--although one new option is the ability to start Firefox in safe mode by holding down shift when launching on Windows.Flash should work better onMac OS X with the new beta, and memory usage should be better, Mozilla said in a blog post yesterday.Next up are one or two more beta versions, then the release candidates, and if all goes well, a final Firefox 4 release in February. In a planning message last night, release manager Christian Legnitto said Mozilla will build beta 11 and, if too many bugs remain unfixed, beta 12.Mozilla recently divided its blocking bugs into two categories, soft and hard, with only the latter able to hold up release of the new software. As of Wednesday morning, excluding security bugs, there are 194 soft blockers and 76 hard blockers.In practice, it won't make much difference whether Firefox 4 is released before Internet Explorer 9: most people don't change browsers that frequently. But competition is fierce right now, especially with Google's Chrome edging in on the early-adopter stronghold Firefox once had more to itself.IE9, currently in beta testing, changes the competitive dynamic in the browser marketplace. Microsoft for years lagged rivals for support of new Web technologies. IE9 embraces many of them, though, and adds significantly improved performance at the same time. It's not clear when exactly IE9 will be released, but Microsoft's developer-oriented Mix conference in April seems a fitting venue.One of the headline features in Firefox 4 is hardware acceleration using computers' graphics chips. However, Mozilla has decided to implement the feature cautiously to begin with to avoid crashes or other problems among its 400 million users. Specifically, Firefox 4 will disable hardware acceleration except with new graphics drivers and with a whitelist of video hardware makers: Intel, AMD, and Nvidia.&quot;We just want to minimize our initial risk here,&quot; graphics team member Joe Drew said in a mailing list discussion. Mozilla plans to remove the whitelist later, he said.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[EPA to delay CO2 permit requirements for biomass]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=epa-to-delay-co2-permit-requirements-for-biomass</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=epa-to-delay-co2-permit-requirements-for-biomass</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=epa-to-delay-co2-permit-requirements-for-biomass</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ WASHINGTON--The Environmental Protection Agency said today it will delay for three years requiring biomass-fired boilers to have permits for emitting carbon dioxide emissions. &quot;We are working to find a way forward that is scientifically sound and manageable for both producers and consumers of biomass energy. In the coming years, we will develop a common sense approach that protects our environment and encourages the use of clean energy,&quot; said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. The EPA said that it plans to finish by July a rulemaking that will defer permitting requirements for CO2 emissions from biomass-fired and other biogenic sources for three years. The EPA's decision affects facilities that emit CO2 from burning forest or agricultural products for energy, wastewater treatment and livestock management facilities, landfills, and fermentation processes for ethanol production. &quot;Renewable, homegrown power sources are essential to our energy future, and an important step to cutting the pollution responsible for climate change,&quot; Jackson said. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack welcomed the EPA's decision, saying it will benefit farmers, ranchers and forest owners who play a crucial role in providing renewable energy from wood, switchgrass, and other agricultural products. However, Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said the EPA's action is another concession to the agency's critics in both industry and Congress. &quot;It does mark a reversal by EPA, though the agency has made a plausible scientific case to delay these requirements,&quot; said O'Donnell. &quot;It should remove some of the congressional heat. At the very least, EPA supporters in Congress can argue that the agency is trying to be thoughtful.&quot; The EPA has been attacked by many U.S. lawmakers for trying to go around Congress to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. They fear such EPA rules will hurt the economy. This month, the EPA began air permitting requirements for large greenhouse gas emitting industries that are planning to build new facilities or make major changes to existing ones. These facilities, such as oil refineries and power plants, must obtain air permits and carry out energy efficiency measures or use cost-effective technology to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Rubenstein: Palm's ceiling limited without HP]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rubenstein-palms-ceiling-limited-without-hp</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rubenstein-palms-ceiling-limited-without-hp</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rubenstein-palms-ceiling-limited-without-hp</guid>
<description><![CDATA[HP&amp;39's Jon Rubenstein flashes good-natured exasperation at a question from All Things D&amp;39's Kara Swisher at the Dive Into Mobile conference.(Credit:Tom Krazit/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--Former Palm CEO and current Hewlett-Packard employee Jon Rubenstein is proud of the product his former company created but said there was no way Palm could turn it into a smash hit. WebOS, the mobile operating system that along with the Pre revived interest in Palm over the last few years, is actually the most forward-thinking mobile OS on the market, Rubenstein said today here at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference, dismissing comments made yesterday by Google's Andy Rubin that Palm belonged in the &quot;old&quot; category of mobile players. While's true that the old Palm OS was ancient and undernourished, Palm's decision to base WebOS on a clean slate of Web technologies actually means it has less legacy code than competitors such as iOS and Android, which at their core owe much to Unix and Java, he said. &quot;We took a real leap forward in doing what we did,&quot; Rubenstein said. &quot;It's very similar to what the Chrome guys are doing at Google right now,&quot; he said, going so far as to call Rubin's Android &quot;more backward-looking&quot; than WebOS. Still, for all that work, Palm wasn't going to be able to produce a mass-market hit on its own, Rubenstein said. That's partly because Palm reentered a fast-moving market a little too late and partly because its competitors include some of the biggest technology companies on the planet.Enter HP. Rubenstein resisted All Things D's Kara Swisher's repeated questions about the identity of Palm suitors but said &quot;six companies were very interested in Palm.&quot; HP won the competition because &quot;it made the most sense&quot; to join up with HP, both because of its size and because it needed a mobile strategy badly, he said. HP plans to bring out several products next year based on WebOS, including phones and tablets, Rubenstein said. Interestingly, he suggested that the Palm brand may not get carried over to the new products. &quot;HP needs to build a brand around what it's going to do going forward,&quot; Rubenstein said. He seemed personally ambivalent about the decision, seeing good things and bad things in the Palm brand.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Konarka touts gains on niche-y flexible solar cells]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=konarka-touts-gains-on-niche-y-flexible-solar-cells</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=konarka-touts-gains-on-niche-y-flexible-solar-cells</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:10:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=konarka-touts-gains-on-niche-y-flexible-solar-cells</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Konarka&amp;39's flexible solar cells are well suited for charging portable electronics or building-integrated photovoltaics(Credit:Martin LaMonica/CNET)Konarka said today that it has achieved a record in organic solar cell efficiency but its products are still seeking a viable commercial niche.The Lowell, Mass.-based company said the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has certified that Konarka's plastic solar cells have achieved an efficiency of 8.3 percent, the highest that NREL has recorded for organic photovoltaic cells.Founded in 2001, Konarka has a facility to make flexible solar cells using plastic in a roll-to-roll manufacturing process. It's one of a handful of companies pursuing organic photovoltaics and other so-called third-generation solar cell technologies, which also include dye-sensitized cells.Thin-film organic photovoltaic cells are cheaper than other solar cell technologies because of the material that's used. But the efficiency has limited their potential applications to areas such as embedded solar cells in buildings or portable solar chargers for electronic gadgets.Konarka, which has raised over $150 million, has announced commercial agreements with a number of companies, such as Konica Minolta, but commercial use of its technology is still in the early stages. Last year, Neuberg Energy of Germany started selling bags with a sheet of embedded solar plastic that can charge small electronic gadgets, such as phones and music players.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Original Game Boy becomes a Web app]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=original-game-boy-becomes-a-web-app</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=original-game-boy-becomes-a-web-app</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=original-game-boy-becomes-a-web-app</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Imran Nazar&amp;39's JavaScript emulator can run 1989-era Game Boy games in a Web browser.(Credit:screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)One consequence of the steady increase in computer power is that newer machines can emulate the behavior of older ones, with software running fast enough to simulate operations that formerly required hardware.Now, in an illustration of just how far Web programming has come, one coder has begun a project called jsGB that lets a Web browser emulate Nintendo's original Game Boy handheld game console.Imran Nazar, a 26-year-old programmer from Manchester, U.K., has begun work to emulate the Game Boy in JavaScript, the Web programming language whose performance has become a top priority of browser makers today. JavaScript is used for everything from pop-up dialog boxes on Facebook to the Google Docs online productivity applications, but Nazar is busy adding 1989-era Tetris and similar games to the list.&quot;New JavaScript engines such as [Firefox 4's JaegerMonkey] mean much higher speeds for the core processing, more than enough to cover emulation of a basic system,&quot; Nazar said in a blog post on Mozilla's gaming site. In addition, HTML5 now offers the Canvas element for easily controlling a two-dimensional graphical display, he said.&quot;Why write a console emulator It's a good way to learn the ins and outs of a particular console, and excellent for bringing together the lowest and highest levels of development,&quot; Nazar said. &quot;And why build a console emulator in the browser, using JavaScript and HTML5 I say: why not&quot;The work spotlights the growing capability of Web-based programs. JavaScript performance increases, though hard to measure, are opening new horizons for Web programmers. The cloud computing philosophy, which can let people get access to information and use online tools wherever they have a browser, is gaining credibility. New Web standards and browser features such as offline storage, advanced graphics, and hardware acceleration improve what browsers can do.It's not all easy going, though. Perhaps the most advanced embodiment of the Web-app future, Google's Chrome OS, is stumbling on its way to market. Its troubles aside, however, it's clear more and more gets done in a browser window.Nazar isn't the first to tackle the subject. Another JavaScript Game Boy emulator from 2009 is available on the Web, though like Nazar's so far, it's silent.But Nazar has been chronicling his Game Boy project at his Web site. It's interesting as much for the gory details of how the Game Boy works as it is for how Nazar brings it to JavaScript.The handheld computer introduced two decades ago didn't have much horsepower. The Game Boy came with a modified Zilog Z80 processor, an 8-bit model that could only address a 16-bit memory space of 65,536 bytes--less than a thousandth of what typical computers have today.Getting the performance right is tricky because browsers' JavaScript execution speeds vary more than the Game Boy's processor clock frequency, though.&quot;Timing of the games is pretty much bang-on, since the original games based their timings on the cycles of the CPU: since the CPU timing is accurate, games run in step,&quot; Nazar said in an interview. &quot;Actual running speed is highly dependent on the browser used: I've noticed that Chrome and newer beta builds ofFirefox run the emulation much more quickly, thanks to the new JavaScript engines in these browsers.&quot;Its screen was simple, too. The display measured just 160x144 pixels, each able to display black, dark gray, light gray, or white. The entire thing fits easily into a patch of &quot;frame buffer&quot; memory controlled through the HTML Canvas element.Nazar also has figured out how to simulate the input controls--a relatively simple layout with a four-way rocker switch and four control buttons.Nazar didn't have to figure out the hardware details himself. &quot;The Game Boy hardware is very well documented, since so many people have reverse-engineered its internals over the years. Pan/ATX compiled the more-or-less definitive specification of the Game Boy hardware' I've got it mirrored.&quot;The games themselves are hosted on his server, from which the emulator retrieves them to load them. &quot;All the games I've used to build and test the emulator are public-domain and available on pdroms.de, apart from a recompiled version of Tetris built from reverse-engineered source code,&quot; he said.Perhaps later he'll tackle the color version of the Game Boy, he said.&quot;The color Game Boy is a significantly more complicated beast, but I won't rule out putting together an emulation of it,&quot; Nazar said. &quot;It won't be for a while yet, though.&quot;Updated 9:58 a.m. PTwith comments from Nazar.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Powering San Francisco's cable cars]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=powering-san-franciscos-cable-cars</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=powering-san-franciscos-cable-cars</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=powering-san-franciscos-cable-cars</guid>
<description><![CDATA[San Francisco currently operates the only cable car system in the world. But while today&amp;39's cars are single vehicles, In the old days, cable cars were often actually two separate cars, a dummy--the locomotive--and a trailer. Today, the dummy and the trailer are combined into a single car. These two cars on display in the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco are Sutter Street Dummy No. 46 and Trailer No. 54. No. 54 used to be pulled by horses before the mechanized dummies came along.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--For almost anyone who's visited Baghdad by the Bay, a ride on one of the city's iconic cablecars is pretty much a must.What most people don't know, however, is that, once upon a time, these wooden vehicles, which are pulled along their routes by thick, heavy, metal cables, could be found in cities all over the world.From Paris to Melbourne to Bogota and elsewhere, the cable car was once seen as a fantastic alternative to having horses pull cars of people around. But when electric power made trolley cars efficient, most cities made the switch and abandoned their cable cars. Not San Francisco.Here, while trolleys, buses, and subways are big parts of the daily commute, cable cars are still the face of the city's public transit system. Whether it's the clanging of a cable car's bell as it crosses Lombard Street, or the lines of people waiting alongside one of the turnarounds, there's little doubt that the system, which operates 40 cars dating as far back as the 1880s, is one of San Francisco's most famous features.Cable cars: The San Francisco treat (photos) As part of my Road Trip at Home series, I visited the Cable Car Museum yesterday and got a chance to see up close what makes these timeless carriages tick. And up close is right because the building housing the museum is not just a place for cable car lovers to see the history of their beloved vehicles. It's also the home of the last remaining powerhouse and barn for the 40 cable cars that make up the fleet in 2010.To come near the building is to hear the constant whirring of the cable below the street. And you can even feel the vibrations as you walk across the tracks. Inside, one of the first things you see are the 12 giant wheels--known as sheaves (pronounced &quot;shiv&quot;)--that power the city's three cable car lines.While it might seem easy to use the word &quot;line&quot; to describe a route, it's also accurate, because a single line of thick metal cable is precisely what pulls along each and every cable car in the city. In fact, underneath the city, four cables pull three routes--the Powell/Mason line, the Powell/Hyde line, and the California line. There's 9,050 feet pulling the Powell cable' 10,500 feet pulling the Mason cable' 15,700 feet pulling the Hyde cable' and 21,500 feet pulling the California cable.But how do the cars workIn fact, according to Michael Phipps, one of the directors of the Cable Car Museum, the system that runs the cable cars is more or less unchanged since 1887.It all begins with the sheaves, those huge wheels that are found underneath the building, and which direct the cables out of and into the building. These are the actual cables that pull the cars.Phipps said that Andrew Hallidie, the man who is largely credited with inventing the cable car, referred to the cables as &quot;endless roadways,&quot; since they were essentially continuous wire ropes running the length of each route.The cables themselves are incredibly strong bundles of metal wires, capable of bending over themselves without breaking, and, of course, of keeping a cable car moving along its line.Halladie's father had gotten several patents on systems like this, and Halladie himself had figured out how to use the cables as a way of bringing gold ore from mines to mills. And even today, this basic system is in operation at ski lifts the world over.As for using the system to run cars around San Francisco, Halladie was inspired, so the story goes, by watching an accident when several horses pulling cars were yanked downhill by the car when the line between the driver and the car snapped. The horses had to be destroyed. Halladie seemed to feel, Phipps said, that there was a more humane way to get people around town.To keep the cars running, the cable is wound around the sheaves in a figure eight, and a system of additional sheaves known as a tension carriage is used to ensure that the lines stay taut at all times. The carriage is on its own set of tracks so it can adjust tension as required by the number of cars on the line and the number of passengers on the cars, Phipps said.Today, as for decades, the cable runs at a steady 9.5 miles an hour, and when a cable car is locked onto the line, that's how fast it goes, too. Watching a cable car from the street, it's hard to tell what's going on, but in fact, it's quite simple. There's a device called a grip which drops below the car into a channel and, yes, grips the line. The grip itself works by being dropped down into the channel, and having its jaw pushed open. By pulling back on the jaw, the gripman can close the grip around the cable. When it's fully gripped, the car moves at the speed of the line. By releasing some of the grasp, the gripman (or woman) can reduce the speed, and by letting go altogether, and using the brake, the gripman can stop the car. This is a standard grip, as is used with all of today&amp;39's cable cars. According to the Cable Car Museum, 'The grip is like a giant pair of pliers that reaches into the channel and clamps onto the moving cable. When the grip has hold of the cable, the car is pulled along with it.'(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)That's pretty much all the control the gripman has over the car, which is very much at the mercy of the cable as it winds its way under the street. All this, Phipps said, is why cable cars are capable of going up even very steep hills, even in very wet weather. They have terrific traction, as long as the gripman can successfully grip the cable. And because San Francisco is such a hilly city, that's one reason cable cars have survived the test of time.As for the brakes, Phipps explained, there are three kinds on board a cable car. There's the regular brakes, which have a foot pedal' track brakes, which shove wood down into the cable channel' and an emergency brake--otherwise known as a &quot;guillotine brake&quot;--which drops into the channel and essentially fuses with the cable. That will stop a car, Phipps said, but will require someone with a torch to burn it out afterward.1906As is the case with many things in San Francisco, 1906 was a turning point for the cable car system. That year, of course, was when the city was devastated by a massive earthquake and fire. All around the city, entire neighborhoods were leveled by the quake or the fire, and among the affected industries was the booming cable car business.Today, the cable cars are run by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). But in those days, there were cable car lines all over the city, each run by a separate private railway company. Indeed, in order to ensure that competing cars didn't run on their tracks, each company used a different gauge track. And around the city were nine separate car barns and powerhouses. Many were destroyed in 1906 (see video below of the view from a cable car going down Market Street in San Francisco just days before the earthquake).After the earthquake, some of the lines survived, but others didn't. Those companies that continued operating remained private, but gradually they were consolidated. The last consolidation took place in the 1950s, and from that time on, all cable cars in San Francisco operated out of the single building near Chinatown that today houses the carbarn and powerhouse and the museum.And when New Zealand finally shut down its last cable car system in 1957, that left San Francisco's as the sole remaining on the planet. Even San Francisco nearly abandoned the cars. In 1947, a group of politicians and business types tried to shutter the system in favor of newer methods of transit. But thanks to the dogged efforts of a community member named Freidel Klussmann who stood up and demanded that the system be saved.That November, San Francisco residents voted overwhelmingly to keep the system running, and today, the cable cars are part of the city's charter: only the voters can shut the system down, Phipps said.And that's fitting. Today, San Francisco operates 28 Powell Street cable cars, each weighing 15,500 pounds, and 12 California Street cars, each coming in at 16,600 pounds. They are, as Phipps points out, America's only moving national historic landmarks.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[OMG/JK: Mistletoe, AirPlay, And Other Forms Of Near Field&nbsp'Communication]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=omgjk-mistletoe-airplay-and-other-forms-of-near-fieldnbspcommunication</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=omgjk-mistletoe-airplay-and-other-forms-of-near-fieldnbspcommunication</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=omgjk-mistletoe-airplay-and-other-forms-of-near-fieldnbspcommunication</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It&amp;'s Black Friday, which means that many of you woke up this morning at the crack of dawn, shrugged off your Thanksgiving food comas, and made your way to the dreary parking lots of electronic stores across the country. Right about now, you&amp;'re probably just waking up from your recovery nap a4&quot;a4sand there&amp;'s nothing better to get your sluggish mind back on track than this week&amp;'s episode of OMG/JK.This week, we talk about The Daily, an iPad-only newspaper from News Corp that will reportedly be launching soon. We also discuss the latest iOS software release, which adds a slew of features to the iPad just in time for the holidays, including the aptly-named AirPlay. And don&amp;'t forget Gingerbread, the upcoming release of Android that seemed like it should have launched this month, but is still MIA. But don&amp;'t fret a4&quot;a4sGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt did tease us with a glimpse of Near Field Communication, which could well make it worth the wait. So grab a slice of leftover pie and sit back for a recap of the last week in tech a4&quot;a4snow with more facial hair than ever! Here are some recent posts that are relevant to the topics we discuss:What Should An iPad Newspaper Look LikeApple Unifies The iOS Line With iOS 4.2 For iPadiOS 4.2 Update Wipe Out Your iPhone Music Try This.Google a4ANexus Twoa4 Hardware Issue Delays LaunchAndroid Gingerbread Supports NFC: Tap Your Phone To Pay With Your Credit CardSubscribe to us on iTunes!<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Legendary network exec Silverman to launch social video-streaming site]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=legendary-network-exec-silverman-to-launch-social-video-streaming-site</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=legendary-network-exec-silverman-to-launch-social-video-streaming-site</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=legendary-network-exec-silverman-to-launch-social-video-streaming-site</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Former broadcast-TV titan Fred Silverman is launching some kind of live-video, social-media thing called Blip City, PaidContent reports.&amp;''This site will rock the entertainment world in the areas of mobile, online, TV and celebrity,&amp;'' according to a job ad quoted by PaidContent.Silverman isn&amp;'t giving details yet, but he promised that publicity for the site will begin by month&amp;'s end. Launch is slated for January.PaidContent&amp;'s Andrew Wallenstein writes:Blip City is something like Stickam.com in its intent to build a social network out of users who would live-stream content on subjects as varied as pets and music to offering a personal shopper for online retail.Given the job ad&amp;'s focus on the &amp;''entertainment world&amp;'' and &amp;''the areas of a4TV and celebrity,&amp;'' as well as Silverman&amp;'s history in television (he has been head of ABC, NBC and CBS), this sounds at best only slightly similar to Stickam, which has a mainly DIY focus. I wouldn&amp;'t be surprised if, say, Ashton Kutcher were to become involved with Blip City, with his own live-streaming channel. Twitter&amp;'s great and everything, but it doesn&amp;'t let users actually gaze upon Ashton&amp;'s visage. This would.Wallenstein characterizes live streaming as having &amp;''exploded this year, with sites like Ustream, Justin.tv and Livestream experiencing astronomical growth. While their size is not on par with the likes of YouTube,&amp;'' he writes, &amp;''they are scaling at a far faster rate as they build more sophisticated businesses heavy on mobile apps and self-publishing.&amp;''If they&amp;'re scaling faster than YouTube is now, it&amp;'s almost beside the point. If any one of them were scaling faster than YouTube did in 2006, that would be something.And where YouTube is filled with a dizzying array of content, including popular TV clips and Web memes that attract millions of viewers (many of whom watch again and again), a goodly portion of the channels on these streaming sites consist of an amateur talk show or a shot of somebody&amp;'s empty couch. The fact that the streams are live restricts their reach.Still, the audience for streaming sites grew more than 600 percent in the year leading up to September, according to ComScore. And Silverman knows how to please viewing audiences, or at least he once did (he gave America &amp;''All in The Family,&amp;'' &amp;''Charlie&amp;'s Angels&amp;'' and &amp;''Roots,&amp;'' among many other huge shows.) This is purely speculative, but if he means to create loud celebrity buzz on Blip City, using actual celebrities (even third-tier ones), perhaps creating communities around them, he might at least have an advantage over the competition.Silverman is working with Paul Wagner, a new media consultant who &amp;''creates live custom educational comedy for the Fortune 1000 and is currently working on a variety of entertainment projects as CEO, writer/producer, director, comedian and actor,&amp;'' according to his Web site.Previous Story: Clustrix picks up $12M from Sequoia to treat database upgrade headachesPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Social Media, streaming videoCompanies: Justin Tv, Stickam, usstream, YouTubePeople: fred silverman          Tags: Social Media, streaming videoCompanies: Justin Tv, Stickam, usstream, YouTubePeople: fred silvermanVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The latest in the hunt for HP&'s CEO: Pssst. Hey Larry, Leo is hiding out in Palo Alto]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-latest-in-the-hunt-for-hprsquos-ceo-pssst--hey-larry-leo-is-hiding-out-in-palo-alto</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-latest-in-the-hunt-for-hprsquos-ceo-pssst--hey-larry-leo-is-hiding-out-in-palo-alto</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-latest-in-the-hunt-for-hprsquos-ceo-pssst--hey-larry-leo-is-hiding-out-in-palo-alto</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you believe Oracle, Hewlett-Packard&amp;'s chief executive Leo Apotheker has been dodging Oracle&amp;'s subpoena in a lawsuit against SAP. But Apotheker has finally surfaced to speak on HP&amp;'s earnings conference call today, from HP&amp;'s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.Apotheker, who was formerly CEO of SAP and was appointed as HP&amp;'s CEO on Nov. 1, is wanted for testimony in a case where SAP allegedly set up a division to pirate Oracle&amp;'s software. Oracle is asking for $2.15 billion in damages. SAP has offered to settle the case for a smaller amount of money. But Apotheker has been traveling around the world visiting HP&amp;'s employees in recent weeks. As a result, Oracle&amp;'s subpoena servers haven&amp;'t been able to find him. It&amp;'s like a big game of Where&amp;'s Waldo.But Apotheker said in a press call today that he was at HP&amp;'s headquarters, within the area of the court&amp;'s jurisdiction.&amp;''That&amp;'s a bit of an odd question,&amp;'' Apotheker (pictured at bottom) said when asked by journalist James Rodgers of The Street.com where he was physically located for the call.&amp;''Why, I&amp;'m on the media call concerning our fourth quarter in Palo Alto at HP&amp;'s headquarters together with a bunch of people. Would you like a picture&amp;''Tell Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, that he can catch Leo if he hangs out in the HP parking lot.Next Story: Zamzee fights childhood obesity with activity meters and Omidyar funding Previous Story: As game business changes, Disney&amp;'s longtime game studios chief resigns (exclusive memo)PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: subpoenaCompanies: Hewlett Packard, Oracle, SAPPeople: Larry Ellison, Lo Apotheker          Tags: subpoenaCompanies: Hewlett Packard, Oracle, SAPPeople: Larry Ellison, Lo ApothekerDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Survey: Consumers Choose Cyber Monday Over Black&nbsp'Friday]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=survey-consumers-choose-cyber-monday-over-blacknbspfriday</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=survey-consumers-choose-cyber-monday-over-blacknbspfriday</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riapnomin01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=survey-consumers-choose-cyber-monday-over-blacknbspfriday</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Black Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving, has always been known as one of the year&amp;'s biggest holiday shopping days. But in the past five years, Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, has become a a serious shopping day for online sales and promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday brought in $887 million in sales compared to $595 million in online spending on Black Friday. Today, Compete is releasing a survey that indicates that once again consumers could be choosing Cyber Monday for shopping as opposed to Black Friday.According to Compete&amp;'s data, 45% of respondents indicated they will do their holiday shopping on Cyber Monday, versus 37% who plan to shop on Black Friday. Interestingly, Black Friday shoppers are planning to spend more money than Cyber Monday shoppers, with Black Friday shoppers averaging an expected $353 and Cyber Monday shoppers averaging an expected $233. Compete says the increased spend is likely due to more people shopping for high-end items such as electronics, clothing, toys and games on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday. The report shows that 11%, 32% and 23% more people will shop for these items, respectively, on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday.Last year Hitwise reported that Amazon took the top spot on Cyber Monday and Black Friday. It&amp;'s not surprising that Cyber Monday is becoming more popular than Black Friday, especially if deals are equally as good on both days. Who wants to wait in long lines at 4 am the day after Thanksgiving if they can just click Buy It Now on their computerCrunchBase InformationCompeteInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>
