Houston, We Have Liftoff: Human BirdWings Guy Finally Enjoys The Miracle Of Human Flight

While I am indeed guilty of being pretty fly for a white guy, it’s never been able to help me achieve my life-long dream of actual flight. You know, in the air, like a bird. Or maybe like Superman or Captain Planet. Hence my excitement back in December when we caught wind of a mechanical engineer from the Netherlands who was pulling out all the stops to transform this dream into a reality. His name? Mr. Jarno Smeets. At the time, however, his so-called HumanBirdWings project was just in its infancy.

Smeets was busy trying to manage a successful pairing of the accelerometers of a WiiMote and an HTC Wildfire S, which would together allow him to control the outrunners on his giant, self-built wings. Gradually, the engineer honed his mechanical pinions to the point at which, in late January, he actually took flight. Well, when we say “flight,” we really mean that the motion consisted more of two or three extended hops. But, damn you, it was progress.

Today, Jarno took his wings out for a second/tenth try, and, in the process, may just have made semi-self-propelled aeronautical history. We’ll check on that, but as far as hacks go, this one is pretty high up there. Finding just the right concoction of wind velocity, speed of departure, and whispered Hail Marys, Jarno today flew over 100 meters on his self-built wings.

Move over Orville, Wilbur, and Leo da Vinci, there’s a new birdman in town. After 8 months of hard work, research, and testing, this mechanical engineer was able to defy gravity and participate in the miracle of self-propelled, human flight.

His inspiration? Why the majestic albatross, of course. If only Samuel Taylor were here to see this.

For more, check out Jarno’s blog, which provides a glimpse into his work.

But, without further ado, here’s Jarno in flight:

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Apple sells 3 million new iPads in 3 days

(USA TODAY) - It was "the strongest iPad launch yet," says Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

The first iPad in 2010 sold 300,000 on its first day, and it took 28 days to get to 1 million. Apple didn't announce initial iPad 2 sales in 2011, but estimates ranged from 400,000 to about 1 million during its first weekend on sale.

By contrast, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S smartphones in the first weekend last October.

Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee, calls the 3 million haul for the new iPad "bigger than I expected, a big number."

Wireless carrier AT&T also said Monday that the company set a "single-day record" for iPad sales and activations on March 16, the day it went on sale.

The new iPad - which starts at $499 for a Wi-Fi-only model with 16 gigabytes of storage - has received a mixed reaction online, where consumers have questioned just how big an improvement the new sharper screen is and the speed of the faster 4G cellular network. There are scattered reports that the new iPad is prone to overheating after about 30 minutes of use. Apple declined to comment.

But those concerns didn't stop consumers from snapping them up.

Wu says the new features are "huge upgrades, enough to drive incremental buyers."

Shipments for online sales are backed up two to three weeks, and in-store stock is hit and miss.
A clerk at an Apple Store in Seattle said iPads that connect to the AT&T network were sold out, while a store in downtown New York City also had run out of AT&T iPads in black.

Details about iPad sales for Verizon Wireless were not immediately available.

In its release, Apple said it would expand iPad sales Friday to 24 new countries, including Italy, Greece and New Zealand. The iPad went on sale last Friday in 11 countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

As happens with most new Apple releases, lines formed outside Apple Stores the night before it went on sale as consumers looked to be the first on their block with the new device.

In Los Angeles, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who regularly joins the line for new products, was part of the consumer rush - spending the night outside an Apple Store.

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The Warren Buffett Haters Club

After his manifesto in the New York Times last August titled “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett—a man who had seemed universally admired in capitalist circles for both his business acumen and kindly Midwestern disposition—found himself under attack. In the article he’d questioned a tax code in favor of the “mega-rich,” and declared “it’s time for a shared sacrifice.” A Republican chorus called on him to simply open his checkbook if he felt his taxes were too low. Corporate titans such as former General Electric (GE) Chairman Jack Welch and former American Express (AXP) CEO Harvey Golub expressed their disappointment, as well. Now that the Obama administration hopes to make the “Buffett Rule” official policy (in his State of the Union speech in January, President Obama invoked it as a proposed 30 percent minimum tax on incomes over $1 million), Bloomberg Businessweek compiled some of the criticisms of Buffett and his namesake rule—and the instances when the Oracle of Omaha deigned to respond.

“He should just write a check and shut up. Really. And just contribute. OK? I mean, the fact of the matter is that I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he has the ability to write a check. Go ahead and write it.” —New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Feb. 22, 2012, regarding the Buffett Rule

Buffett’s Response:
“It’s sort of a touching response to a $1.2 trillion deficit, isn’t it? That somehow the American people will all send in checks and take care of it?” —Feb. 27, 2012

“If he’s feeling guilty about it, I think he should send in a check. … But we don’t want to stagnate this economy by raising taxes.” —Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sept. 18, 2011, regarding the Buffett Rule

Buffett’s Response:
“It’s sort of astounding to me that somebody that has the responsibility for being the Minority Leader in the Senate would think that you attack a $1.2 trillion or so deficit by asking for voluntary contributions.” —Feb. 27, 2012

“If Warren Buffett believes that he is not paying enough taxes, then he should write a check today to the United States Treasury.” —Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Sept. 19, 2011, regarding the Buffett Rule

“I think Mr. Buffett is a real intelligent individual, but I can promise you, he doesn’t know what’s going on in places where the job creation is at a zero because of over-taxation and over-regulation.” —Texas Governor Rick Perry, Sept. 29, 2011, regarding the Buffett Rule

“If Warren Buffett really believes in BYD’s electric car technology, then why doesn’t he drive a BYD car instead of an American car? Doesn’t that tell you something about what he really thinks of BYD?” —Terry Gou, chairman and founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry (HNHPF) and Foxconn, June 9, 2011 (Buffett is an investor in BYD, Hon Hai’s competitor. The two companies were embroiled in an intellectual property lawsuit)

“Class warfare will simply divide this country more. It will attack job creators, divide people, and it doesn’t grow the economy. Class warfare may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics.” —Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Sept. 18, 2011, regarding the Buffett Rule

“I pay over 30 percent every year. I don’t feel undertaxed in any way at all.” —Jack Welch, Feb. 22, 2012, regarding the Buffett Rule

“Buffett has skirted our attention for many years and he will be in our crosshairs. He has made a bet on coal being around for longer than we anticipate, and we are going to make sure he never sees that dream.” —Bruce Nilles, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, Dec. 22, 2011, referring to Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in coal

“Apparently, Warren Buffett thinks that the best way to get out of debt is to go deeper into debt. I agree with his premise that the dollar’s going to go down—and that there’s a lot of inflation in the future, and it’s a problem—but I disagree that he supports the Obama administration, Congress, all the actions they’re doing now that are causing these problems. Apparently, Warren Buffett thinks the short-term benefits of inflation outweigh the long-term pain of suffering inflation. He is dead wrong.” —Peter Schiff, chief of Euro Pacific Capital, Aug. 19, 2009, regarding Buffett’s support of federal stimulus during the financial crisis

“What is this? Is he completely a socialist and he’s playing into Mr. Obama’s hands of ‘Tax anyone who makes money’ and give it to people who don’t work?” —Eric Bolling, Fox News host, Aug. 15, 2011, regarding Buffett’s column in the Times

“He wants to raise taxes on other people, but he doesn’t want to pay a dime more than he has to pay. And he doesn’t trust Washington with his money, either.” —Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), Nov. 6, 2011, regarding the Buffett Rule

“[I] resent that Warren Buffett and others who have created massive wealth for themselves think I’m ‘coddled’ because they believe they should pay more in taxes. I certainly don’t feel ‘coddled’ because these various governments have not imposed a higher income tax.” —Harvey Golub, former CEO of American Express, Aug. 22, 2011, regarding Buffett’s Times column

“They are paying for national defense, infrastructure, basic research, education. And when you have a small group providing all of the government to the rest of America, it strikes me as exceedingly weird to say ‘Pony up.’ They’ve already paid for the whole thing. Why are we asking for more?” —Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a top economic adviser to President George W. Bush who now runs the American Action Forum, Feb. 4, 2012, regarding the Buffett Rule

“The President is promoting and marketing a Buffett Rule policy that he may never produce and that it appears he may not really want Congress to enact. That’s vaporware.” —Keith Hennessey, former Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy and Director of the U.S. National Economic Council, Feb. 22, 2012, regarding the Buffett Rule

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Microsoft finds Google bypassed Internet Explorer's privacy settings too, but it's not alone (update: Google responds)

There was quite a stir sparked last week when it was revealed that Google was exploiting a loophole in a Apple's Safari browser to track users through web ads, and that has now prompted a response from Microsoft's Internet Explorer team, who unsurprisingly turned their attention to their own browser. In an official blog post today, they revealed that Google is indeed bypassing privacy settings in IE as well, although that's only part of the story (more on that later). As Microsoft explains at some length, Google took advantage of what it describes as a "nuance" in the P3P specification, which effectively allowed it to bypass a user's privacy settings and track them using cookies -- a different method than that used in the case of Safari, but one that ultimately has the same goal. Microsoft says it's contacted Google about the matter, but it's offering a solution of its own in the meantime. It'll require you to first upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 if you haven't already, then install a Tracking Protection List that will completely block any such attempts by Google -- details on it can be found at the source link below.

As ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley notes, however, Google isn't the only company that was discovered to be taking advantage of the P3P loophole. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab say they alerted Microsoft to the vulnerability in 2010, and just two days ago the director of the lab, Lorrie Faith Cranor, wrote about about the issue again on the TAP blog (sponsored by Microsoft, incidentally), detailing how Facebook and others also skirt IE's ability to block cookies. Indeed, Facebook readily admits on its site that it does not have a P3P policy, explaining that the standard is "out of date and does not reflect technologies that are currently in use on the web," and that "most websites" also don't currently have P3P policies. On that matter, Microsoft said in a statement to Foley that the "IE team is looking into the reports about Facebook," but that it has "no additional information to share at this time."

Update: Google's Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, Rachel Whetstone has now issued a statement in response to Microsoft's blog post. It can be found in full after the break.

Microsoft omitted important information from its blog post today.

Microsoft uses a "self-declaration" protocol (known as "P3P") dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form. It is well known - including by Microsoft - that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft's request while providing modern web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other websites.

Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational. A 2010 research report indicated that over 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.

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ZTE Mimosa X official: ICS, Tegra 2, HSPA+ and 4.3-inch qHD display, arriving in Q2

And then there were three. Not 24 hours after announcing a pair of Android 4.0 handsets, ZTE is back with the Mimosa X, a 4.3-inch, HSPA+ device running Ice Cream Sandwich. Interestingly, this is the first time since NVIDIA acquired wireless chip maker Icera that we've seen a phone packing both Tegra 2 and an NVIDIA-made modem (in this case, the 21Mbps-capable Icera 450). In its press release, NVIDIA also goes so far as to say this is the first time "a premium mobile computing experience is coming to the mainstream smartphone market," as if Tegra 3 hadn't already pushed Tegra 2 down into mid-range territory. Anyhow, marketing spin aside, this is indeed a middle-of-the-road device, with a qHD (960 x 540) display, 5-megapixel camera and 4GB of internal storage. It also supports A2DP Bluetooth and DLNA, and makes room for dual mics and a gyroscope. No word yet on how much it'll cost or even what markets it'll hit, though we do know it will go on sale sometime in Q2. Until then, something tells us we might get our first look much sooner, sometime in Barcelona next week.

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EU digital exclusion is ‘unacceptable’ -

 The fact that more than 100 million European Union citizens have never been online is ‘unacceptable’, says Martha Lane Fox, the UK’s digital champion.

The new figure emerged last week in a report from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, which showed that there was a widening gap between the technologically-able northern Europe and the poorer eastern and southern countries.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Lane Fox described the gap as “terrifying”. However, she said that it was “unsurprising considering how the big the UK numbers [of those who haven’t been online] are”.

Lane Fox is tasked with getting the 8.7 million adults in the UK who have never used the internet online for the first time

Lane Fox is tasked with getting the 8.7 million adults in the UK who have never used the internet online for the first time.

 
She recently launched a campaign, as part of ‘Race Online 2012’, to encourage people to use the hour when the clocks went back to help a friend or relative to get connected to the web.

However, with nine out of 10 new jobs requiring online applications and web users commanding salaries on average 10 per cent higher than non-users, the Government is keen to improve usage rates.

The new Eurostat figures have shown that more than half of the Romanian population do not have internet access at home.

While only 45 per cent of the Bulgarian population are connected to the web, compared to the 94 per cent in the Netherlands.

“For many people today it seems difficult to live without the Internet," a Eurostat spokesman said.
"However, a decreasing, but still non-negligible, part of the EU population has never used it," they added.


Just under a quarter of per cent of 16-74 year olds across the 27 countries in the European Union have never even logged onto the web.  

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New Google office in England (based on a space ship)

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Crack a code to get hired by U.K. spy agency -

Google is no longer the only employer that wants to recruit via tough-to-crack math questions.

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intelligence agency has launched a Web site challenging visitors to crack a code, according to the BBC. The purpose is to find potential candidates to fill its posts dealing with cyberthreats, which the U.K.'s spy chief recently identified as a disturbing threat.

The competition started November 3 via an unbranded Web site at canyoucrackit.co.uk that displays a visual code resembling a grid of random numbers and letters. Visitors have to first crack that code before getting redirected to GCHQ's Web site, which further directs them on the types of jobs that they can apply for.

GCHQ told the Telegraph today that a number of people have solved the riddle, but the competition will continue for another 10 days until December 12.

The idea behind the challenge, the GCHQ says, is attracting candidates who might be difficult to reach otherwise. And this isn't the first time the agency has relied on unusual recruiting tactics.

The BBC reports that in 2009, the GCHQ placed content on the Xbox Live network that appeared during Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, and other games. Prior to that, it targeted gamers by putting digital posters in online titles including Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas and Splinter Cell Double Agent.

Go ahead and try to crack the code yourself, but note that you have to be a British citizen to be hired by the spy agency.

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