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Misteri Al Quran dari Darah Saddam Hussein

Fun — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:31:30 GMT

Pemerintah dan ulama Irak dibuat bingung oleh sebuah salinan Al Quran. Sebab, kitab suci tersebut konon ditulis dengan darah mantan penguasa negeri itu, Sadam Hussein. Salinan itu dibuat di akhir tahun 1990-an. Kala itu, Saddam memerintahkan para ahli kaligrafi untuk menyalin Al Quran menggunakan darahnya. Dengan dalil sebagai ungkapan rasa syukur pada Allah, Saddam menyumbangkan 27 liter darahnya, dalam waktu dua tahun, sebagai pengganti tinta.

Ada dua pilihan yang sulit yang harus segera diambil terkait salinan Quran itu: dihancurkan atau dipertahankan.
"Apa yang dilakukannya, menulis Quran dengan darah adalah salah, haram," kata salah satu ulama Irak, Sheikh Samarrai.
Peninggalan Saddam tersebut saat ini disimpan di sebuah ruangan dengan tiga pintu terkunci di masjid di Baghdad.
Sejumlah ilmuwan Barat turut memberikan pendapat soal ini.
Konservator di Museum Winterthur sekaligus profesor University of Delaware, Bruno Pouliot, mengatakan dari sisi seni, darah biasa digunakan untuk melukis atau menulis.
Tapi, itu biasanya menggunakan darah hewan bukan manusia--meski ada juga seniman yang memakai darah atau rambut manusia dalam karyanya. "Yang biasa digunakan adalah darah sapi," kata dia.
Penggunaan darah manusia, kata Pouliot, sangat terkait dengan persoalan etika. Bahkan dalam seni sekalipun, penggunaan darah manusia ditabukan. "Tabu, karena berkaitan dengan risikonya," kata dia.
Risiko yang dimaksud terkait penyakit yang berhubungan dengan darah seperti Ebola, Hepatitis B, dan HIV.
Sementara itu, Wakil Direktur Eksekutif Pusat Darah Amerika Serikat, Celso Bianco, mempertanyakan kebenaran penggunaan darah Saddam Hussein yang mencapai 27 liter dalam dua tahun.
Menurut regulasi di AS, donor darah yang dibolehkan hanyalah lima atau enam liter selama satu tahun, atau kurang dari segalon. Normalnya, 27 liter darah Saddam itu diambil selama sembilan tahun.
"Ini jumlah yang luar biasa. Kalau angka itu benar, pasti bikin dia anemia," kata Bianco.

Desa Ini Diyakini Sarang Alien & Bebas Kiamat

Fun — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:29:27 GMT

Seorang walikota di Prancis frustasi dan meminta bantuan militer untuk mengusir para pemburu UFO yang terus berdatangan ke wilayahnya.
Tak hanya itu, ia juga kesal menghadapi arus kedatangan orang-orang yang meyakini wilayah itu satu dari sedikit wilayah di Bumi yang akan selamat dari kiamat.
Picturesque Bugarach berada di wilayah Aude di selatan Prancis. Sebuah desa kecil yang damai yang hanya dihuni 189 orang.
Namun, dalam beberapa bulan terakhir, ketenangan para penduduknya terusik pendatang yang yakin kaki gunung Pic de Bugarach, yang tingginya 4.000 kaki, adalah sarang alien.

Desas-desus beredar bahwa alien menetap di sebuah lokasi di bawah gunung, menunggu saat berakhirnya dunia, dan menyelamatkan beberapa orang yang beruntung. Ada juga yang menganggap gunung itu keramat dan akan terhindar dari kehancuran pada 21 Desember 2012, akhir penanggalan Bangsa Maya.
"Jika tiba-tiba 10.000 orang datang besok, penduduk desa yang kurang dari 200 orang bakal kewalahan," kata Jean-Pierre Delord.
"Aku telah memberitahu pihak berwenang dan kami ingin tentara berada menanganinya. Jika perlu, militer datang ke sini pada Desember 2012."
Menurut dia, kecemasan penduduk bertambah saat mengetahui sebuah situs di Amerika Serikat menjual tiket menuju Bugarach. "Mereka melakukan bisnis, mengorganisasi orang untuk wisata religi, berdoa, dan meditasi di sini," kata dia.
Diceritakan Delord, orang-orang mulai datang ke wilayahnya saat seorang penduduk lokal melaporkan penampakan UFO. "Dia mengaku melihat alien dan mendengar dengung pesawat mereka di bawah gunung."
Rumor tersebut diperkuat dugaan bahwa peramal Prancis, Nostradamus pernah tinggal di wilayah itu pada abad ke-16. Juga isu penemuan galian misterius Nazi di sana.
Tak hanya sekadar datang, sejumlah orang yang percaya keajaiban desa itu bahkan membeli properti di kaki gunung tersebut. Kursus soal UFO juga mulai ditawarkan di sana.
Valerie Austin, yang pindah dari Newcastle 22 tahun lalu mengatakan, Bugarach adalah daerah yang indah dan tenang. "Sekarang, Anda bisa menjumpai orang sedang berdoa dan bermeditasi di mana pun."

7 Fitur Android Gingerbread

Fun — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:28:55 GMT

Google telah resmi memperkenalkan Nexus S, ponsel Android penerus Nexus One. Ponsel buatan Samsung ini punya spesifikasi yang sangat mirip dengan Galaxy S.

Satu hal yang dijanjikan Google, perangkat ini akan selalu mendapatkan fitur dan software terbaru dari Google. Termasuk sistem operasinya yang akan menggunakan Android 2.3 alias Gingerbread.

Apa saja fitur Gingerbread yang patut jadi perhatian?

NFC (Near-Field Communication)

Aplikasi NFC akan tersedia di dalam Gingerbread, ini memungkinkan produsen gadget untuk membuat perangkat yang bisa digunakan untuk transaksi nirkabel alias dompet elektronik.

Dukungan pada Kamera Depan

Aplikasi kamera di Android 2.3 sudah mendukung kamera depan sejak awalnya. Artinya produsen seperti HTC, yang salah satu versi ponsel Androidnya sudah memiliki dua kamera, bisa langsung memasang dua kamera di ponsel Android.

Ponsel Internet

Kemampuan teleponi via internet, atau Voice over IP, akan didukung pada tingkat sistem operasi. Tanpa aplikasi tambahan, pengguna sudah bisa membuat panggilan VoIP, tentu dengan setting SIP manual.

Tampilan yang Lebih Rapih

Tampilan antarmuka dari Gingerbread konon bakal makin rapih dan mudah dipelajari. Menu dan tema visual diperbaiki oleh Google untuk memudahkan navigasi.

Manajemen Aplikasi

Akan tersedia shortcut untuk sebuah aplikasi bernama Manage Applications. Di sini pengguna bisa melihat berapa besar memori yang diserap oleh masing-masing aplikasi yang sedang berjalan.

Input Teks Lebih Cepat

Keyboard Android Gingerbread dijanjikan akan lebih baik, dengan beberapa perubahan lokasi dan bentuk. Selain itu ada kemampuan memperbaiki salah ketik lewat kamus bawaan.

Copy Paste

Kemampuan untuk memilih (select) lalu melakukan Copy, Cut atau Paste di Gingerbread menjadi semakin baik. Cara penggunaannya mirip yang dilakukan Apple pada iOS, lengkap dengan marker yang bisa digeser sebelum menyalin.

MENGENAL LEBIH DEKAT SIAPA WIKILEAKS?

Fun — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:41:02 GMT

Pekan silam jaringan internet heboh ketika WIKILEAKS melansir video penembakan warga sipil oleh tentara Amerika Serikat. Video ini kemudian diketahui terjadi di Baghdad, Irak pada tahun 2007.

Ketika itu, Helikopter Apache milik tentara Amerika sedang dalam perjalanan untuk membantu rekannya yang terlibat dalam baku tembak. Helikopter ini mengidentifikasi warga sipil yang kemudian diketahui wartawan Reuters sebagai salah satu militan.

Sontak awak helicopter langsung meluncurkan serangan membabi buta terhadap warga sipil tersebut. Serangan ini mengakibatkan tujuh warga sipil tewas.

Dua puluh empat jam setelah video berdurasi 17.47 menit ini masuk di YouTube, sebanyak 1,3 juta orang telah melihatnya.

Sebelum merilis video penembakan warga sipil oleh tentara Amerika Serikat, tidak banyak yang tahu tentang WIKILEAKS. Masih banyak msiteri tentang situs ini, termasuk siapa orang yang mengelolanya. Siapa dibalik WIKILEAKS adalah pertanyaan besar?

WIKILEAKS adalah sebuah situs yang khusus memposting dokumen-dokumen rahasia. Situs ini tidak menerima kontribusi dana dari pemerintah manapun, guna manjaga integritasnya.

“WIKILEAKS adalah organisasi nirlaba yang didanai juru kampanye hak asasi manusia, wartawan investigasi, teknologi dan masyarakat umum,” kata WIKILEAKS.

Tetapi siapa yang mengelolanya?

Wajah yang paling umum terlihat adalah seorang pria yang dikenal dengan nama Julian Assange. Pria berambut putih ini adalah warga Australia yang kini menetap di Afrika Timur.

“Orang tuanya mengelola sebuah perusahaan tur theater. Assange mengaku pernah bersekolah di 37 sekolah dan 6 universitas di Australia,” lapor koran Sydney Morning Herald, mengutip wawancara e-mail dengan Assange.

Lebih lanjut Assange tetap merahasiakan detail dirinya kepada publik, termasuk usianya. tetapi dari penelusuran, Assange pernah dinyatakan bersalah atas serangan hacker terhadap intelejen AS dan penerbitan majalah yang menginpirasikan orang untuk melawan Persemakmuran.

Siapapun Assange atau orang lain dibalik WIKILEAKS Satu hal yang pasti, situs ini telah memberikan informasi rahasia yang selama ini ditutupi. Tanpa memandang benar atau salah cara WIKILEAKS mendapatkan informasi ini, tetapi terbukti informasi yang disebarkan dengan cepat menjadi perbincangan dan mampu membuat negara adidaya seperi AS kebakaran jengot. (Aolnews)

Teknologi Dibalik WIKILEAKS

Baru-baru ini dunia digemparkan oleh bocoran dokumen tentang perang Amerika Serikat (AS) di Afganistan. Berkas-berkas rahasia itu dipublikasi oleh situs yang bertujuan menampung dokumen bocoran, WIKILEAKS.Sejak didirikan pada tahun 2006, ini mungkin salah satu bocoran yang terbesar yang pernah ditangani oleh WIKILEAKS. Tidak hanya karena sangat sensitif, tetapi juga dokumen-dokumen yang hendak dipublikasikan berjumlah besar, terdiri dari 92.000 laporan sejak Januari 2004 sampai Desember 2009.

Sebelum dibuka kepada orang banyak dua surat kabar ternama, New York Times dan The Guardian, serta majalah Jerman Der Spiegel mendapat akses terlebih dahulu. Ketiga media tersebut kemudian menuliskan laporan berdasarkan dokumen yang dibocorkan tersebut. WIKILEAKS juga telah mempublikasikan video tentang perang di Irak sebelum membuka dokumen tentang Perang Afganistan.

Meskipun banyak perhatian yang diberikanterhadap dokumen bocoran yang menyangkut tentara AS, sebenarnya WIKILEAKS tidak hanya memberikan perhatian kepada negara Paman Sam itu saja. Dokumen tentang negara-negara lain juga dapat ditemukan di situsnya, termasuk tentang Indonesia. Dokumen WIKILEAKS tentang Indonesia berkisar dari analisis intelijen US Marines, analisis tentang masalah Lumpur Sidoarjo/Lumpur Lapindo, analisis Congressional Research Services tentang berbagai topik Indonesia, antara lain tentang gerakan separatis dan terorisme di Indonesia.

Apa yang digunakan?

Meskipun nama dan tampilannya mirip dengan situs Wikipedia, WIKILEAKS sebenarnya sangat berbeda dengan situs ensiklopedi bebas tersebut. Misalnya dalam masalah kebijakan publikasi, WIKILEAKS jauh lebih ketat dibandingkan Wikipedia yang membebaskan siapa saja untuk mengirim dan menulis artikel.

WIKILEAKS bertindak sebagai wartawan, dan GoMBANc Nan Cengka Kontributor Bisnis Indonesiakontributor dokumen diperlakukan sebagai sumber. Hukum Swedia, negara tempat situs WIKILEAKS berada, melarang investigasi terhadap sumber jurnalis. Selain itu di Swedia bila wartawan membocorkan identitas sumber, dia dapat dituntut karena telah melakukan tindak kriminal.

Selain perlindungan hukum WIKILEAKS juga mendayagunakan teknologi untuk melindungi sumber dan personelnya. Ini cukup menarik pula untuk dilihat. Pada intinya, WIKILEAKS memanfaatkan proses dan teknologi informasi untuk menjamin kerahasiaan dan keanoniman. Pada saat pengiriman dokumen, sumber WIKILEAKS dapat memanfaatkan situ https//sunshinepress.org.

Koneksi ke situs tersebut terenkripsi, memanfaatkan teknologi SSL (secure socket layer). Teknologi SSL banyak ditemukan pada situs perbankan Internet untuk mengamankan sambungannya. SSL juga memungkinkan pengguna mengecek identitas situs. Situs ini menyediakan sidik jari (fingerprint) untuk mengkonfirmasi bahwa situs tersebut benar-benar Sunshinepress.org, bukan situs lain yang menyam.

Selain situs aman dengan koneksi terenkripsi WIKILEAKS juga menyediakan situs menggunakan jaringan TOR (The Onion Router). Jaringan TOR ini memungkinkan penggunanya untuk menyembunyikan alamat IP (Internet Protocol) asalnya.

Meskipun tidak selalu dapat menunjukkan identitas penggunanya dengan pasti, alamat lP memudahkan orang lain untuk melakukan pelacakan lebih lanjut. Jaringan TOR membuat akses ke suatu situs seolah-olah berasal dari alamat IP komputer lain, yang bertindak sebagai simpul keluar (exit node), sedangkan pengakses asalnya sendiri tidak dapat terlacak. Penggunaan jaringan TOR ini memperkuat keanoniman kontributor dokumen.

Kendati menggunakan koneksi aman dan anonim, identitas kontributor dokumen masih bisa dilacak lewat informasi yang terkandung dalam dokumen itu sendiri. Katena itu WIKILEAKS melakukan proses untuk membersihkan metadata. Metadata suatu dokumen dapat memberikan informasi tentang pengiri mnya.

Metadata yang paling dikenal mungkin pada foto, yang memberikan informasi kapan foto diambil dan model kamera yang digunakan. Tapi ada pula metadata pada dokumen lain, seperti pada berkas Microsoft Word. WIKILEAKS menunjukkan cara bagaimana membersihkan suatu berkas Microsoft Word dari metadata, menurut standar NSA (National Security Agency), sebelum dikonversi ke PDF. Petunjuk pembersihan metadata ini dapat diunduh di http//www.WIKILEAKS.ch/w/images/7/75/NSA-redact.pdf

Bila proses pembersihan metadata ini dirasakan terlalu rumit, personel WIKILEAKS akan melakukannya sendiri.

Untuk berkomunikasi langsung dengan personel WIKILEAKS, situs ini juga menyediakan saluran chat yang juga terenkripsi untuk mencegah penyadapan. Karena tidak dapat disadap, komunikasi dapat dilakukan dengan aman. Saluran chat ini dapat dibuka lewat browser di https//chat. WIKILEAKS.ch/

Selain lewat Internet, WIKILEAKS juga menerima kiriman lewat pos. Namun karena jauh lebih beresiko, cara ini tidak dianjurkan. WIKILEAKS misalnya menganjurkan agar mengirim dari tempat yang tidak terpantau oleh kamera video.

Bisa diperkirakan, tidak semua orang senang akan WIKILEAKS. Menurut situs WIKILEAKS, China misalnya sejak tahun 2007 telah memblokir situs ini sehingga tidak dapat diakses dari dalam negara itu. Namun blokir ke akses berkas-berkas WIKILEAKS ini dapat dengan mudah diakali dengan mirroring, atau situs cermin yang menyalin isi WIKILEAKS.

Situs-situs cermin ini jugalah yang tetap menyediakan akses ketika WIKILEAKS sempat terpaksa nonaktif karena kehabisan dana. Karena teknologi modern memungkinkan menyalin berkas digital memang memudahkan orang untuk menghindari blokir dan sensor.

DoTA 2 Hadir 2011, Resmi Diusung Valve

Fun — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:50:41 GMT

Game favorit untuk LAN Party, Defense of The Ancient alias DoTA akan dibuatkan sekuelnya bernama DoTA 2. Tidak seperti versi sebelumnya, sekuel game ini resmi diusung oleh Valve.

Sudah bukan kejutan besar lagi kalau Valve akhirnya mengusung sekuel dari game DoTA. Mereka juga telah merekrut Icefrog, developer yang mengelola mod DoTA paling populer, DoTA-AllStars.

Valve telah resmi mengumumkan DoTA 2 yang rencananya akan hadir pada 2011. Salah satu janji Valve adalah, dasar dari game itu tak akan banyak berubah dibandingkan DoTA yang sekarang populer.

"Icefrog adalah salah satu developer paling cerdas yang pernah kami temui. Dia telah banyak membuat keputusan tepat selama bertahun-tahun membangun produk ini," ujar Erik Johnson, pimpinan proyek DoTA 2 dari Valve.

Apa Saja Isi DoTA 2?

Valve menjanjikan, DoTA 2 akan menyertakan seluruh heroes dari DoTA-AllStars. Demikian juga dengan semua jalur upgrade, item dan skill-nya akan tetap ada dalam DoTA 2.

Perbedaan mencolok, lanjut Valve, adalah engine Source yang digunakan. Beberapa upgrade grafis akan terbawa dari engine tersebut, ditambah kemampuan tambahan seperti Voice Chat.

Fokus game ini tentunya tetap pada Multiplayer. Namun Valve menyediakan kemampuan untuk bot (artificial intelligence / AI) mengambil alih kendali jika koneksi pemain tertentu tiba-tiba putus di tengah permainan.

DoTA 2 akan hadir untuk PC dan Mac pada 2011. Game ini akan dirilis secara ritel, yang kemungkinan akan membuka pintu bagi banyak pemain-pemain baru yang selama ini belum kenal DoTA.

America's Most Popular Jobs

777 — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:51:11 GMT

The following is a list of jobs with little in common. Annual salaries for these jobs range from just over $18,000 to more than $110,000. Some don't require workers to graduate from high school, while others require a master's degree or higher. The reason they all appear here? They are the most popular jobs in America.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the following 15 jobs account for more than 25 percent of total U.S. employment. For comparison purposes, the largest job retail sales employs 4.21 million people, or 3.2 percent of the total American work force. By contrast, a mere 660 people are employed as prosthodontists, 1,170 as geographers and 870 as radio operators nationally.

So what are these mega-professions that employ so many people? According to the BLS, the following jobs are America's most popular:

1. Retail salespeople: Perhaps a testament to consumerism, retail salespeople rank No. 1 in job popularity. Besides great communication and customer service skills, retails salespeople also have to know how to close a deal; many of these jobs are commission-based.

Total employment: 4.21 million

Salary: $24,630*

Requirements: A high school diploma is preferred for entry-level positions. For those who hope to move on to retail management, a bachelor's degree is helpful.

2. Cashiers: Cashiers are responsible for working registers, monitoring cash drawers and taking payments at establishments that range from supermarkets and gas stations to retail stores and theme parks. Like retail salespeople, cashiers must have good customer-service and people skills, since they spend their day dealing with the public.

Total employment: 3.44 million

Salary: $19,030

Requirements: On-the-job training

3. Office clerks: Workers spend their days filling a variety of roles in an office environment, from entering data to preparing mailings. An office clerk's duties may vary daily, according to the needs of the company.

Total employment: 2.81 million

Salary: $27,700

Requirements: A high school diploma and a combination of word processing, computer and proofreading skills.

4. Combined food preparation and service workers: This category primarily encompasses those who work in fast food establishments as counter attendants and food prep workers. Duties often include taking orders and accepting payment, filling beverage cups, assembling food items and providing customer service.

Total employment: 2.69 million

Salary: $18,120

Requirements: On-the-job training. Employers look for workers with excellent customer-service skills, a neat appearance and the ability to multitask in a fast-paced environment.

5. Registered nurses: Nursing is the most common profession in the health-care field. RNs treat patients in hospitals, outpatient facilities and doctors' offices. Some provide home care to patients.

Total employment: 2.58 million

Salary: $66,530

Requirements: RNs are required to have a bachelor's degree in nursing. Many hold master's degrees or an advanced practice nursing license (APRN).

6. Waiters and waitresses: Waiters and waitresses take food orders, accept payment and provide menu information to restaurant customers.

Total employment: 2.3 million

Salary: $20,380

Requirements: There are no minimal education requirements, though many establishments prefer staff to have high school diplomas.

7. Customer service representatives: Customer service workers answer questions, provide information, fulfill customer requests and handle customer complaints. While many work in call centers, others are employed in retail stores or at banks.

Total employment: 2.19 million

Salary: $32,410

Requirements: High school diploma, on-the-job training.

8. Material movers: This broad job category encompasses laborers who literally move materials. Think truck loaders, loading dock workers and baggage handlers.

Total employment: 2.13 million

Salary: $25,290

Requirements: On-the-job training

9. Janitors: Janitors are responsible for maintaining cleanliness in places such as office buildings, museums, schools and hospitals.

Total employment: 2.1 million

Salary: $24,120

Requirements: On-the-job training, ability to perform physical work for extended periods.

10. Stock clerks and order fillers: Stock clerks and order fillers work in storage facilities, warehouses, and shipping and receiving departments, ensuring that orders are properly filled, stocked, priced and accounted for.

Total employment: 1.86 million

Salary: $23,460

Requirements: High school diploma, on-the-job training, ability to perform physically strenuous work.

11. Secretaries: Secretaries (not including medical, legal and executive secretaries) provide administrative assistance to an office in the form of answering phones, greeting visitors, ordering catering services, proofreading, entering data, scanning and faxing documents, and more.

Total employment: 1.8 million

Salary: $31,060

Requirements: High school diploma, though an increasing number hold an associate or bachelor's degree. Secretaries must also have good computer and communication skills.

12. Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks: Employees in these positions serve as a corporation's record-keepers. Tasks include maintaining accounts payable and receivable, documenting and tracking budgets and preparing financial statements.

Total employment: 1.76 million

Salary: $34,750

Requirements: High school diploma, though many employers now require workers in these positions to hold an associate or bachelor's degree.

13. General managers: General managers are the top executives of establishments and organizations such as restaurants, hotels, amusement parks and sports teams. They are in charge of the business's day-to-day operations and long-term goals.

Total employment: 1.69 million

Salary: $110,550

Requirements: Most hold a bachelor's or advanced-level degree.

14. Tractor-trailer truck drivers: This category includes only those drivers who operate trucks with a capacity of more than 26,001 pounds. These drivers are responsible for the timely delivery of goods along routes that may cover multiple states.

Total employment: 1.55 million

Salary: $39,260

Requirements: A commercial driver's license is necessary for all drivers. Some states also require a training program.

15. Elementary school teachers: The category includes elementary school teachers except those who teach special education. Elementary school teachers are responsible for instructing students in kindergarten through fifth grade on a variety of subjects.

Total employment: 1.54 million

Salary: $53,150

Requirements: Bachelor's degree, teaching certification.

Phone apps to navigate traffic

Ankh — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:26:15 GMT

Dreading traffic jams this holiday season? There are apps for that. The advent of GPS-enabled cellphones has generated a wave of applications, many of them free, that turn drivers into veritable traffic reporters.

Here’s how they work: Your GPS-enabled phone automatically transmits bits of data to Waze, Inrix, Google and other traffic app makers that show where you are and how fast you’re moving. Some apps also allow users to report accidents, closed roads or construction (when parked or in standstill traffic, of course). Each company then combines the information to get an idea of traffic conditions and distributes that across its network.
Call it crowd-sourcing from your car. While you are fuming in traffic on I-95, other drivers can benefit from that information and avoid getting stuck themselves. In turn, you get free traffic reports from other users.
“It’s real-time traffic, not just where there are road sensors but anywhere anyone is driving,” said Di-Ann Eisnor, a vice president at Waze, a start-up based in Raanana, Israel. Waze has been adopted by about 550,000 users since it became available in the United States last summer.
Before GPS-enabled cellphones, traffic reporting companies like Inrix relied on data from road sensors, police scanners, commercial truck fleets outfitted with GPS tracking devices, and other sources. But even with such a wide range of information there were gaps in traffic coverage. Road sensors are found only along sections of major highways, for example, not along back routes that get tied up during apple-picking season.
That’s where crowd sourcing comes in. “No matter where those consumers go, it allows us to get speed data for all the roads they travel,” said Jim Bak, a spokesman for Inrix, a traffic services company based in Kirkland, Wash. That data includes “backroads and arterial city streets,” he added.
Worried your speed might get back to the authorities? Each company emphasizes that your identity isn’t compromised. “All we’re getting back is: 50 cars passed through a stretch of road all going this speed,” Mr. Bak said. “I don’t know whose phone or I.P. address or user it is.”
With the Thanksgiving holiday season coming up, I wanted to see how well these apps worked on a route I knew well. So I downloaded three free apps — Waze, Google Maps and Inrix Traffic — to my Android phone and, with my husband at the wheel, took them for a test drive to Grandma’s house in upstate New York on a Friday night in late October — at the height of rush hour.
Each app, which is also available on the iPhone, offered a decent overview of road conditions for major routes and, perhaps more notably, immediate gratification: Instead of waiting for the radio traffic report, I powered up an app to get an instant idea of traffic conditions. None offered Riverside Drive as a way to get around traffic on the West Side Highway — which is what any New Yorker with a car would have recommended during rush-hour traffic.
Asking Google
Google Maps turns your phone into a navigation system with voice-guided driving directions and offered the best at-a-glance display of road conditions. Opening up the maps application in Midtown Manhattan, I got a bird’s-eye view of traffic across much of the city and along bridges and tunnels to New Jersey. Color-coded lines corresponded to the intensity of traffic: green for no traffic jams, yellow for medium congestion, red for heavy congestion, and red and black for stop-and-go traffic. Not surprisingly, at 5 on a Friday evening, the Lincoln Tunnel and West Side Highway were blazing red.
To determine which way to go I plugged in my destination and Google Maps spit back a snapshot of a route through the Lincoln Tunnel and Route 23 North in New Jersey. Estimated drive time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.
But who wants to sit in traffic in the tunnel? I selected the icon for alternate routes and was offered two options, both of which bumped the drive time up by a few minutes. I chose the one over the George Washington Bridge — if I was going to get stuck in traffic, at least I’d have a view. And the snapshot showed promise. While the West Side Highway was red, the lower level of the bridge was green.
At that point, the radio finally looped back to the traffic report, confirming that the West Side Highway was “backed up from the 50’s to the GW.” No matter: we had already decided to take 11th Avenue up to Riverside Drive toward the bridge to speed up the trip.
Asking each other
Like the Google app, Waze offers voice navigation and traffic conditions. Coverage was lacking on much of my drive, with color-coded arrows indicating speed popping up only occasionally, despite traffic jam alerts from other Wazers (“complete standstill W 49th St.”). And for some reason, the alternate routes function didn’t work for me.
Where Waze stood out was the fun factor. Each user starts out as a cartoon “baby wazer” who can “evolve” and gain points by reporting accidents, blocked roads and other traffic issues or by simply driving. Around 125th Street, for example, the app chimed and a message appeared: “You’ve driven 5 miles! Look for a yummy 25 pt. Bonus candy on the map.”

Later, at the ramp to the lower level of the George Washington Bridge, a Waze “road-muncher,” reminiscent of Pac-Man, showed up and started munching the highway, indicating a road that Waze is in the process of mapping out. There was also something therapeutic about blasting alerts to other Wazers while sitting hopelessly in traffic. And it felt good to tell drivers who could be seen sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the West Side Highway of our alternate route on Riverside Drive.
Yet you can also see how all these “geo-gaming” elements, as Waze describes them, could cause one of the accidents that showed up on the map. To deter drivers from gaming while driving, Waze said it disables texting while the car is moving. But that can be overridden by selecting O.K. for passenger mode, as I did.
Gazing into the future
Inrix Traffic was the only app I tried that offered traffic predictions. Selecting “forecast” from the menu allowed me to see what conditions were expected in 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes, a nifty feature if you’re trying to decide whether to wait for an accident to clear up or forge ahead. For example, the southbound lane of the West Side Highway gradually shifted from red to orange to green over the course of an hour. Unfortunately, we were heading north so that didn’t help us much. Inrix says it offers an upgraded Pro version of its app ($9.99 a year on the iPhone) offering faster, alternate routes for some destinations based on traffic conditions.
Unlike Google and Waze, Inrix doesn’t offer a voice navigation feature, but it did take factors into account that could cause traffic like major sporting events.
Bottom line
Ultimately, none of the apps were as good as I had hoped. Yes, they all offered a decent snapshot of driving conditions with the flick of a finger. But deciphering that snapshot often left me squinting at my phone’s small screen — not something I want to be doing in the driver’s seat.
And while I appreciated their immediacy, none of them produced what my husband and I already knew from experience — the quickest way to Grandma’s house.

RIM aims to challenge iPad with PlayBook pricing

Ankh — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:24:33 GMT

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, a late entrant in the booming tablet market, will take on Apple's iPad with competitive pricing of its rival Playbook device.
The Canadian firm's tablet, set to launch in the first quarter of next year, will start contributing to its sales "right at the gate," said RIM Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie.
RIM, which later said it will sell the PlayBook for less than $500, is confident the 7-inch tablet would help sustain "fast sales growth," Balsillie said.

"You have seen the smartphone market just explode...we are in the right sweet spot... This idea that there are two players and a small pie and they are divvying that between them — you are missing the point," Balsillie told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the G20 CEO Summit in Seoul.
Balsillie was referring to a perceived two-way battle for mobile dominance between Apple and Google's Android operating system.
RIM has eagerly touted its tablet's ability to support Adobe's widely used Flash multimedia software, something Apple's iPad does not.
Last month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said a batch of seven-inch-screen tablets, including the PlayBook, that will compete with Apple's 10-inch iPad would be "dead on arrival" when they hit the market. RIM insists the seven-inch tablets would be a big portion of the market.
The iPad's Wi-Fi-only version, sells at $499 and runs up to $699 for a 64-GB model. A 3G iPad starts at $629.
RIM will be lagging rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which aims to sell at least 1 million units of Galaxy Tab this quarter alone. Apple's iPad controls 95 percent of the market.
"It's (tablet) a long strategic market and we are still growing 20 percent plus... We are still growing fast and we haven't factored into tablets and we have great products," Balsillie said.
International sales of the Playbook start in the second quarter.
Threat to BlackBerry
RIM has long been the dominant player in the corporate smartphone market, but its dominance of the corporate sector, where its secure e-mail once reigned supreme, is weakening as companies increasingly allow use of iPhone and a slew of devices running on the Android system.
Blackberry's stranglehold on corporate communications is being eroded by rival devices, with Bank of America and Citigroup joining a growing throng of financial institutions eyeing alternatives to the Blackberry.
The company has also being dogged by demands from countries including India and the United Arab Emirates for easier access to the encrypted data sent over its network.
Balsillie shrugged off market concerns and said sales of its smartphones are set to grow by two-thirds in two years.
"We're close to 60 million BlackBerry subscribers now and if we continue to perform moderately, we'll be 100 million (subscribers) in couple of years...two years."
He said enterprise demand for BlackBerry remained strong and its Asian business was not affected by the security issues, dismissing investor concerns it keeps losing market share to rivals such as Apple.
Apple overtook it as the world's No.2 smartphone maker last quarter, trailing only Nokia, by selling 14.1 million units. RIM sold 12.4 million phones in its July-September quarter and saw its market share slipping more than 4 percentage points from a year ago, according to industry tracker IDC.
Balsillie reiterated that Apple was surrounded by a "distortion field," saying RIM's staggered quarters made the comparison difficult. RIM's last fiscal quarter ended August 28 while Apple's ended September 25.
RIM is increasingly dependent on lower-margin emerging markets in Latin America and Asia for sales growth but India and other countries are also causing headaches with demands for access to encrypted data.
"We have seen tremendous growth in India, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, China...It is paradoxical, the security issue," adding it is not affecting the company's business.

World's most romantic islands

Ankh — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:23:00 GMT

It’s easy to fall in love on an island. “I wore a bikini for five days straight and never put on real clothes for anything,” recalls Christina Greer, a New York professor who took a vacation to Panama’s Bocas del Toro a few years back with her boyfriend. “We went dolphin watching and snorkeling all day,” Greer says. “It was total relaxation.”

Slideshow: World's most romantic islands
The two are now married and have visited 15 countries together on a tireless quest to uncover the world’s most romantic destinations.
Being marooned in the middle of the ocean with your beloved brings out the starry-eyed traveler in all of us. Travel agent Julia Douglas runs Jetset World Travel, a Virtuoso-member agency that attracts well-heeled couples looking for ultra-romantic escapes. Her clients often use words like “authentic,” “exclusive,” and “pampered” to describe their ideal island destination. Not surprisingly, bells and whistles like Wi-Fi and 24-hour room service aren’t as important as a beautiful beach and warm weather.
That perfect romantic island getaway might be a longtime favorite destination. Santorini, for example, offers black-sand beaches, sweeping views out over the Aegean Sea, and the classic whitewashed architecture that Greece’s islands are known for. Increase the romance factor even more by heading to one of the Old World vineyards that produce fantastic wines.

Sometimes, however, romantic-island seekers have to travel a bit off the beaten path. Pamalican Island is a tiny island — not even 1/2-mile wide at its widest — surrounded by crystal-clear blue water in the Philippines’ Sulu Sea. And it has just one resort — Amanpulo — with only 40 villas, each with a private chef and butler. Luxurious seclusion on a pristine beach is what lures travelers — and keeps them coming back.
Whether you’re after all-out luxury or sand-between-the-toes casual, there’s a romantic island for you. And while many of these dream destinations have “remote” and “secluded” as their principle selling points, others are surprisingly close to home. (One you can practically see from the Hollywood sign.)
No matter whether you’re a new couple just getting to know each other or you’re celebrating your golden anniversary, these romantic islands will help you holiday happily ever after.