I'd love to get an invite for http://mash.yahoo.com/ -- thanks in advance!

PS: I got one. Thanks!!

Back in 2003, the state of Oregon considered a driving tax, which would involve putting GPS devices on cars so the government could see how far you drove, and then tax you for it. The idea being that those who drive more should pay a larger portion of taxes to support the roads they drive on. Of course, for many, many people, the idea of the government keeping tabs on where you drive and how far you go seems rather Big Brotherish -- and those people note that you can accomplish pretty much the same thing (making heavy drivers pay more taxes) simply by taxing gasoline. Soon afterwards, the head of California's DMV suggested that a similar taxing and tracking plan made sense. Over in the UK, they've looked at similar proposals as well. It certainly seems a bit early to bet on such a concept as the next big thing, but that apparently hasn't stopped one company from building a device for exactly this purpose and showing it off at a recent conference. The company is smart in positioning it less as a device for tracking drivers and more as a way of "creating toll roads out of every road." The News.com article then goes on to rail against the very idea of toll roads -- but perhaps that's because they're quite rare here in northern California. In other parts of the country, they're a lot more common. Rather than worrying about the toll road aspect, it seems like the idea of government agencies having immediate access to information about where you drove at what time is a lot more troublesome.

NewsCloud writes "Google has raised the required minimum traffic limit for publishers who wish to use its AdSense API to 100,000 page views per day. The AdSense API was introduced in March as a way for sites with user generated content to share advertising revenue with their members. Says Google, "This policy change will probably result in fewer developers going live and give us a chance to enhance our support resources and processes to more easily support a greater number of developers in the future...we hope to be able to lower it in the future as we become more efficient at supporting our developers!" Meanwhile, some publishers report waiting a month for their API usage to be approved. I take Google at its word for now but worry that small developers could be increasingly squeezed out of the mashup space if this were to become a trend."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Click on the pic for more info.

American companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have all been accused of violating users privacy in working with the Chinese government. In fact, Yahoo's been sued for handing over info on a critic of the Chinese government. However, the latest such lawsuit to come out of China is a bit surprising and has absolutely nothing to do with government cooperation. A Chinese college student is suing the company for $180 for the fact that Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage system reports some information back to Redmond. There's already been a class action suit in the US suggesting that WGA violates anti-spyware legislation, but it's still somewhat surprising to see such a lawsuit come out of China, where you still expect most of the privacy complaints having more to do with the Chinese government.

I snapped this photo of three flying saucerlike clouds hovering over the 101 in Tarzana about an hour ago. I believe they are lenticular clouds. Google images has lots of nice examples of lenticular clouds. Link

We've been wary of news reports over the past few years hyping up various folks who were supposedly making all kinds of money playing online poker. While there clearly are some professional sharks out there who basically prey on bad poker players to take their money, almost every news story seemed to focus on people who (surprise, surprise) only claimed to win money (often lots of it). That's why we were skeptical of the story about a startup that skipped out on raising venture capital, and instead worked on funding the company through poker. Then there were the college students who felt that playing online poker was the best way to pay for college tuition. Even if these stories were accurate, leaving out how rare it is for someone to be able to make that much money in online poker seemed fairly irresponsible. The latest story, however, takes the cake. The San Jose Mercury News has apparently found a bunch of teenagers who saying that playing online poker is much better than getting a summer job. The article tries to portray this plan as not all that unreasonable, because (so the article notes), the kids approach the game as a job, rather than just as "gambling."

Oddly, the article brushes over the fact that online poker remains illegal in the US (well, at least according to the DOJ's interpretation of the law, over which there is some dispute) and most sites have age limits that these kids probably didn't qualify for when they started playing. While the ones profiled are now 19, at least one admits he's been playing online poker since he was a junior in high school. Obviously, a first question from many folks would be about the parents of these kids. Some are quoted, and they seem slightly embarrassed, but at the same time seem somewhat pleased that their kid is making some cash and doesn't need to borrow money any more. Some might take this article and use it as an argument against the evils of online gambling -- but that would be wrong. It really should be about yet another story in the press that plays up the gambling industry's marketing ploy that "anybody" can become rich gambling, while hiding and playing down the much more likely scenario of people losing money (sometimes a lot). While this article mentions that most people lose money gambling, it buries it in a single sentence towards the end. Suggesting that online gambling is somehow a suitable summer job replacement also seems particularly questionable. I have no doubt that some young folks are making a ton of money while playing online poker, and I think that the US's position in trying to ban online poker is silly and unreasonable -- but it still seems quite odd that so many stories about online poker seem to focus on the success stories, rather than those who ended up losing tremendous amounts of money.

coondoggie writes "Earlier this week researchers with the company ESG Elektroniksystem in Germany demonstrated a form of 'strap-on jet wing' that lets a user truly fly through the air. The system, called Gryphon, consists of a six-foot wing and hand-held rotary controls for the rudder. The pilot has several different instruments available to him, including onboard oxygen and helmet that features a heads-up display. 'Researchers say the final version of the flying wing will contain an electronic system that will take care of some of the steering for the pilot which today can be a little tricky, researchers say. The company also plans to add small jets to the wing making it a true jetpack in the future.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Over at my Rule the Web blog, my editor David Moldawer and I have been producing a daily 60-second podcast, each of which offers a tip on how to get things done online. Subscribe in iTunes

The Haunted Mansion ride at Walt Disney World has just undergone a major rehab that builds on the superb work done on Disneyland's Mansion last year. Inside the Magic's Ricky Brigante was there for opening day, and he recorded a high-resolution, night-scope-equipped binaural-sound video that starts at "rope-drop" at the entrance to Liberty Square and runs through the entire ride. The other riders are clearly Mansion-obsessed loonies (like myself) and their gasps of pleasure at the new grace-notes and improvements in the Mansion are a real treat. Link

From the beginning of SCO's rather odd strategy of claiming ownership of the intellectual property found in Linux, the company has (often pompously) declared that in the end it will be vindicated and that there was no way anyone could conclude that it wasn't the rightful owner. What was amazing was how the company continued to state the same thing in the face of increasing evidence that the claims could not be supported. Then, last month, a judge ruled that SCO didn't even own some of the copyrights it claimed to. Instead, those were possessed by Novell. Monday the two firms were supposed to be in court to figure out how much SCO now owed Novell, but that's going to take a back seat to the news that SCO has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The announcement uses the typical "hoping to reorganize" type language, but it seems pretty clear the company (which was already looking somewhat shaky in terms of its financials) would rather not have to pay Novell... or deal with the fact that it may owe quite a bit in the other lawsuits its involved in, which are likely to fall apart without these particular copyrights. It's a nice strategy, really. Claim ownership and sue lots of big companies. Hype up how sure you are that you're going to win. Watch your stock price rise... so you can sell shares and make some money. Then, as the whole house of cards collapses, just declare bankruptcy.

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NYC artist David Hochbaum’s solo show opens this Saturday at Corey Helford. It will include over 50 works including photo constructions, works on paper, and giant (20 x 24”) original Polaroids. Only four of these cameras exist in the world and kodak is discontinuing the film.

Link

Author and cultural critic Douglas Rushkoff is teaching an online course called "Technologies of Persuasion." A few years ago he wrote an excellent book on the subject called Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say.

I'm teaching a course through a distanced learning site called Maybe Logic Academy - where Robert Anton Wilson used to teach everything from James Joyce to economics theory.

My course, Technologies of Persuasion, is beginning in just two weeks. I haven't promoted it anywhere - I just haven't had time or energy these days to do more than what's right on my plate - so this should be a small and intimate group. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for NYU.

Plus, we'll get to be a little crazier than people are generally allowed to get in a college seminar room, with some no-holds-barred discussions on how media and technology shape the way we think, and why we seem to remain so pitifully unaware of the biases of the media we use.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Boing Boing interviews Doug Rushkoff about his Testament comic book
• Rushkoff's new book Get Back In The Box
• Douglas Rushkoff fiction in Nerve
• Rushkoff on Guruphiliac
• Interview with Douglas Rushkoff (MP3)
• Rushkoff's Testament issue #1, now free
• Barbara Rushkoff's new parenting blog
• Rushkoff's Thought Virus #4
• Douglas Rushkoff's Thought Virus #3
• Rushkoff on the futility of artificial workplace fun
• Doug Rushkoff's final Thought Virus from his new book
• Rushkoff's Thought Virus #5: The Ben & Jerry's Syndrome

Radar commissioned me to write them a science fiction story about "the day Google became evil." I wrote them a little short-short called "Scroogled," about the perfect axis of evil: the DHS and Google, working hand in hand. As part of the contract negotiation, I got Radar to agree to release the story under a remix-friendly Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, so you're free to make movies, slideshows, songs, art, or new texts from this one.

Greg landed at San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m., but by the time he'd made it to the front of the customs line, it was after midnight. He'd emerged from first class, brown as a nut, unshaven, and loose-limbed after a month on the beach in Cabo (scuba diving three days a week, seducing French college girls the rest of the time). When he'd left the city a month before, he'd been a stoop-shouldered, potbellied wreck. Now he was a bronze god, drawing admiring glances from the stews at the front of the cabin.

Four hours later in the customs line, he'd slid from god back to man. His slight buzz had worn off, sweat ran down the crack of his ass, and his shoulders and neck were so tense his upper back felt like a tennis racket. The batteries on his iPod had long since died, leaving him with nothing to do except eavesdrop on the middle-age couple ahead of him.

"The marvels of modern technology," said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration--Powered by Google.

Link

Mr. E writes "Ars Technica has an interesting look at pseudoscience as it applies to homeopathy. While most discussions about what science is get derailed by the larger controversies surrounding them, Ars chose a relatively uncontroversial pseudo-science to examine so that they could examine the factors which make homeopathy a psuedo-science: ignoring settled issues in science, misapplication of real science, rejection of scientific standards, claims of suppression, large gaps between the conclusion and evidence, and a focus only on the fringes of what we currently understand."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Oldsters Help Propel Wii to Number 1 Link

• Apple iPhone Early Adopter Store Credit Live Link

• NEW4LR Robot: Teach a New Dog New Tricks Link

• Optimus Maximus Keyboard Teaser Shot Link

• Immobilizer Stun Gun in the Shape of a Phone Link

• A Peek Inside the Minds of Rock Band Link

• Halo "Museum" Commercial Send-Up from Consolevania Link

• Morning Tech Deals Highlights Link

The science fiction blog Futurismic is now running a regular Friday feature devoted to rounding up the best free sf online this week. As more and more people have discovered it and sent them their picks, the list has grown, and this week, it seems to have achieved some kind of watershed moment, with a list of fiction so mind-croogglingly awesome that it makes me wish I could fork another instance devoted to nothing but reading. Here's just the first few, from manybooks.net:

• Beyond the Vanishing Point by Raymond King Cummings
• The Hunters by William Douglas Morrison
• Cubs of the Wolf by Raymond F. Jones.
• The Devil's Asteroid by Manly Wade Wellman
• The K-Factor by Harry Harrison
• The Misplaced Battleship by Harry Harrison
• A World is Born by Leigh Brackett
• Space Prison by Tom Godwin
• The Day of the Boomer Dukes by Frederik Pohl
• The Worshippers by Damon Knight
• The Burning Bridge by Poul Anderson
• Spell of Catastrophe by Mayer Alan Brenner
• Warning from the Stars by Ron Cocking
• -And Devious the Line of Duty by Tom Godwin
• Jubilation, U.S.A. by G.L. Vandenburg

Link

The latest iPods have a cryptographic "checksum" in their song databases that prevents third-party applications from synching with the portable music players. This means that iPods can no longer be used with operating systems where iTunes doesn't exist -- like Linux, where gtkpod and Amarok are common free tools used by iPod owners to load their players.

Notice that this has nothing to do with piracy -- this is about Apple limiting the choices available to people who buy their iPod hardware. I kept my iPod when I switched to Ubuntu Linux a year ago, and I've been using it happily with my machine ever since (though it took me a solid week to get all my DRMed Audible audiobooks out of iTunes -- I had to run two machines 24/7, playing hundreds of hours of audio through a program called AudioHijack, to remove the DRM from my collection, which had cost me thousands of dollars to build). I'd considered buying another iPod when this one started to show its age -- it's a perfectly nice player to use, provided you stay away from the DRM.

The new hardware limits the number of potential customers for Apple's products, adding engineering cost to a device in order to reduce its functionality. It's hard to understand why Apple would do this, but the most likely explanations are that Apple wants to be sure that competitors can't build their own players to load up iPods -- now that half of the major labels have gone DRM free, it's conceivable that we'd get a Rhapsody or Amazon player that automatically loaded the non-DRM tracks they sold you on your iPod (again, note that this has nothing to do with preventing piracy -- this is about preventing competition with the iTunes Store).

It won't be the first time Apple has rejigged iTunes/iPod to lock out competitors: back when Real built a DRM player for its own music that would run on an iPod, Apple threatened to sue them and engineered a firmware update to break their code (again, nothing to do with fighting piracy). This is the soul of anti-competitiveness: Real made code that iPod owners could use to get more legal use out of their iPods, Apple threatened to sue them for endangering their monopoly over delivering iPod software.

This is all par for the course, of course. Businesses have taken countermeasures to prevent competitors from interoperating with their products for decades. Apple had to break Microsoft's file-formats to give Numbers, Pages and Keynote the ability to read Office files -- they're enthusiastic participants in "adversarial compatibility." Decades ago, IBM lost a high-profile lawsuit against co