There’s some sort of fashion trend to shut down access to certain places on the Internet and communist countries seem to be the first to take these steps.

Yoani Sanchez, a 32-year-old woman from Havana that graduated in philology (historical study of language), is the writer behind the “Generacion Y” website, a top blog in Cuba. She has been writing daily about her life, political issues and economic facts and managed to get 1.2 million hits in February. Just to make my point, her articles are getting from 200 to 1200 comments.

Seeing what a huge success Yoani has, Cuban authorities decided to cut down the access to her blog so that no one in Cuba will access it, including her.They see a “error downloading” message. All these happened because Yoany Sanchez has been criticizing the new leader, Raul Castro that took over from brother Fidel Castro, for failing to take the steps to improve the quality of life in the country.

There is no independent form of media in Cuba all the press being controlled by the state, so the new fresh air from bloggers like Yoani Sanchez is great for the people living there, but may not be a great idea for the authorities. They are trying to limit readership and awareness.

“They are admitting that no alternative way of thinking can exist in Cuba, but people will continue reading us somehow. There is no censorship that can stop people who are determined to access the internet,” she said.

Yoani that has “a bit of computer skills” managed to bypass the ban on her blog and resumed posting. If you speak the language, give her a read. Devicepedia.com supports the freedom of speech!

NVIDIA’s new flagship GeForce 9800 X2 graphics card, has seen a lot of buzz lately. But it’s bad advertising because it’s been associated with lots of system crashes. Bit-tech tested it thoroughly and the results are simple: “a number of heat-related crashes, hard locks and instabilities”. Apparently because of heating (90+ degrees Celsius), the motherboard enters an automatic self-protect mode.

China recently decided to ban Internet access to video sharing website, YouTube, and to GoogleNews. Obviously the bad publicity they’re getting over military forces attacking the Tibetans, is not “healthy” now that the Olympics are coming up. These are communist tactics to put a stop to the information flow, but I don’t think they will manage. People will eventually see what is to be seen.

by tiengdankeu

“Demonstrations in the city started on March 10, a day commemorating the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule after which the spiritual leader of the country, the Dalai Lama, fled to India. China has said the Dalai Lama is to blame for rioting in the country, and puts the civilian death toll at 13, while adding that police and security forces have also suffered casualties”, InfoWorld said.

Google is aware of the problem and announced they’re working towards restoring access to their two services penalized. More to it, rumors say that foreign media has been banned from Tibet, too. There are a lot of other places where videos or pictures can be uploaded so unless China cuts the whole Internet plug, the flow of information will go on like a river.

This has got to be the perfect solution for fast food restaurants. It’s a three-course table setting with disposable cutlery and traditional silverware. If not used for quick eating then it’s the best way to teach people how the cutlery should be placed on the table. I hope people will recycle.

via DemelZahill

R.E.M.’s new album, “Accelerate”, will be launched on March 24 on the social networking application iLike. The 11-song album will be free for iLike users and also for social networking websites that support iLike application. For example, Facebook and Hi5 will offer free streaming of R.E.M.’s album.

“It was one of those ideas that was presented to us and it seemed like a good one so we ran for it,” said Michael Stipe. Following the example of other online launchings, R.E.M. has created a big buzz. I think you’d remember Radiohead’s USB stick that was a total success. The official US release is scheduled for April 1, almost a week later than iLike streaming.

via Yahoo News

That’s a cool idea someone would say. I find it very interesting too and somehow very simple. Chris Armstrong, the business founder, started wondering about how difficult it is to rent a movie when he spent time in line to get one at a local store in Galway, Ireland. Then he thought to create a company that rents movies on flash memory cards.

The company called PortoMedia has kiosks where people can download movies directly on flash drives. The kiosks will have hard drives that can hold 350 to 5,000 titles. Depending on hardware speeds a movie could be download in less than one minute. PortoMedia will use IBM’s help to develop the transaction system, hard drives from Seagate Technologies, and Samsung’s flash memory devices. Toshiba will fabricate the chips for the high-speed interface.

Armstrong said, its company has signed deals with several retailers from US. The MoviePoint kiosks have already been tested in Dublin at the end of 2007. PortoMedia will sell a proprietary ultra-fast USB interface for customers. A start pack will cost $60 and will include a flash key, a dock, and six movies. Then the customers will use the same flash key to buy other titles from the MoviePoint kiosks. As Armstrong said, the company will establish the future fees for the number of viewings.

Renting movies on flash memory cards will be a great business for movie makers, as well as for the stores. There are many advantages upon DVDs or Blu-Ray discs. First of all, delivering the movies on flash sticks will reduce cost for transporting and packaging the DVDs. Furthermore, the stores won’t have the shelves full of DVDs. Comparing with the Internet downloads, this solution is faster and safer. I hope PortoMedia will be successful in this business.

The original story here.

If we were to take the definition Wikipedia gives to a drive-in theater it would say something like that “a form of cinema structure consisting of a large screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles”.

What you are about to see is probably the world’s smallest drive in theater. Under starry skies and the foliage of a potted oak tree and with the help of a one of a kind 1965 Ford Falcon Convertible that looks great, six people are able to see four decades of classic movies starting from 1960.

It’s dubbed DRV-IN, the address is 139 Norfolk Street, New York, and if you’re in the neighborhood have a few buddies or a sweetheart to impress (or have fun) then go on 139Norfolk.com and make your reservation for $75.

If it was popcorn you were concerned, yes they have a machine and you can slip one or two in the car. Just don’t forget to take it when the movie is over. See more pictures below.

Samsung have just announced their 3D-ready PDP plasmas to the Korean market, today.

Samsung PAVV Cannes 450 is the name, has 3D content support, comes in two sizes, both 42 and 50-inches with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and should work just fine with 3D glasses or high performance 3D software. It uses Cell Light Control, 2008 Daylight technology and a DNIe+ chipset and will have three entertainment modes : games, movies and sports. The prices are $1,850 for the 42-inch version and $2,656 for the 50-inch version.

There is also a HD version, dubbed Cannes 550 and should be sold for $4,145.

Electronic Arts is going to provide the 3D content.

Source and picture copyright: AvingUSA

If you haven’t heard by now the trucks or buses in Pakistan are given special treatment. All sorts of decorations and colorful paintings are applied no matter if it’s on the interior or at the exterior.

The result? Artists turned the streets of Pakistan into a national gallery without walls, an exhibition with something new every few minutes. They are against of mass production and this is how they fight it. Almost every truck or bus that gets out of their hands screams uniqueness.

Curious to know how much you’d have to pay to get your truck painted? It starts from $500 and goes above $1,000. If you need the body adjusted and then the truck painted then the price climbs up to $2,500 which is what a driver makes in two years. For special requests it even goes up to $13,000. Art is expensive …

If you have the time and want to read a small story about truck & bus paintings in Pakistan there’s a good one. Here is a small gallery. Let us know if you like them.

Pictures copyright : AutoMen, dibopics, iancowe, Khalid Bin Ismail, P Donovan, noorkhan, go2net, Suh@il , Raja Islam, Bobulix

A record fine of $1.3 billion has been issued today by the European Union to Microsoft because the company “charged unreasonable prices” for software information to developers that wanted to build Windows compatible products. If we were to make the total amount for the fines Microsoft has to pay we’ll end up with about $2.5 billion.

Though Microsoft had taken measure to make sure the company is meeting the anti-trust regulations in Europe, said that the issues for which they’re fined today have been taken care of.

Just to bring a smile on Bill’s face, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said “We could have gone as high as 1.5 billion euros ($2.23 billion). The maximum amount is higher than what we did at the end of the day”. They are still skeptical and have all their eyes on Microsoft to see their next steps.