Author: Duncan Geere
Things You Should Not Twitter
People often tweet stuff they regret but beware, because it could now be preserved for posterity on a website set up exactly for the purpose. ThingsYouShouldNotTwitter.com contains screengrabs of Tweets that are a little bit on the iffy side, like people saying they’re going to cheat on their partners, or tweeting about watching porn.
Some examples include one user promising to masturbate on his roommate’s bed, a girl saying she’s going to ‘look for’ her boyfriend’s best friend, and plenty of people expressing how much they hate their boss.
The usernames are stripped out, but it’s pretty easy to track down the users responsible. The site’s creator says he made it to highlight how much personal info people share, and to try to get people to think twice about what they’re Tweeting.
Have you ever Tweeted something you’ve regretted? Send us a link at @techdigest. We won’t tell the whole world about it, promise…
JVC launching full HD LCD display aimed at photographers
The catchily-titled LT-42WX70 is a new 42″ display from JVC that’s aimed at imaging professionals and home cinema enthusiasts. It’s full HD and will display a far greater range of colours than most displays.
The screen is particularly adept at displaying high-resolution still photos, which probably makes it the world’s most expensive digital photo frame. It’s also got a full colour management system, though, for accurate reproduction of movies. It’ll display 100% of sRGB, and 96% of Adobe RGB.
There’s no price on this baby yet, but it’ll be available from May, so we should know pretty soon. It’s quite a niche product, so I wouldn’t expect it to come cheap, but if you’re determined to buy the best, then it’s definitely worth considering.
JVC LT-42WX70
YouTube's content ID system – copes with volume, but not pitch changes
An enterprising techy in the Computer Science department at Rochester University, NY, has undertaken an investigation to find out exactly how much you have to mangle audio tracks before YouTube’s content identification system can’t recognise them any more. The findings are quite interesting.
For starters, he learnt that despite YouTube still easily recognising when a song’s volume is massively increased or decreased, it can’t cope with any pitch scaling beyond 5% or so. Also, interestingly, it only seems to recognise the first 30 seconds or so of a track.
The full analysis is right here, and there’s some fantastic comments on the white noise test video, here. Also interesting is that despite infringing copyright on the website 35 times and, at once point, 15 times in an hour, the account hasn’t been banned or removed.
Climbers get phone coverage on Everest
Climbers of Sagarmatha, Chomolungma, Qomolangma, Zhumulangma, or – as we call it in the West – Mount Everest, will soon be able to chat from the summit. Nepal Telecom is setting up four cell towers in Thakdin, Manjo, Pheriche and Gorak Shep.
You might know the latter because Nokia’s planning some crazy cricket game there. Normally climbers depend on satellite phones to keep in touch with base stations, but now your N95 should be able to perform the same job. It’s hoped that the work will be completed by mid-June.
Toshiba issues its second netbook – the Mini NB200
Not very hot on the heels of the Toshiba NB100 comes the second netbook in the range, the NB200. It’s not blowing any other netbooks out of the water, but it’s a solid improvement on the original.
A 10.1″ display at 1024 x 600 will be displaying Windows XP. Sadly there’s no Linux option, though you might want to try Windows 7 on it. There’s a 160GB hard drive, with ‘shock protection’, and a 1.66GHz Atom processor. A ‘premium edition’ comes with an isolation keyboard and 9-cell battery.
The NB200 will be out in May, and cost from £319 to £359. There’s a few different configurations available, so that price might wobble a bit, but it’s basically about £350. Worth it? We’ll get one in for review and let you know, but it looks good on paper.
(via Trusted Reviews)
YouTube testing real-time chat
Video-sharing site YouTube has been increasing the ‘social network’ aspects of the site gradually over the years, but it’s just taken a big step towards that by the announcement that it’s testing a social chat layer over videos.
Users will be able to talk to their friends while watching videos, and you’ll be able to see what videos they’re watching. You can also recommend videos in real-time. It’s still a little clunky, but TechCrunch has a full review on their website.
(via TechCrunch)
"Baby Shaker" application pulled from the App Store
“On a plane, on the bus, in a theatre. Babies are everywhere you don’t want them to be! They’re always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”
Those are the words of app designers Sikilasoft, who have designed an application called ‘Baby Shaker’ that’s just been pulled from the app store after complaints from parenting groups. It’s a surprise that it got through Apple’s rather rigorous approvals procedure.
The app first appeared on the store on Monday, and was withdrawn yesterday after intense criticism. Patrick Donohue, founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, responded: “As the father of a three-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction.”
Apple’s been relaxing its approvals procedure lately, but a scare like this could see them ramp it right back up again. We’ll have to hope that’s not the case.
(via the Guardian)
Facebook polls users on whether they'd pay for vanity URLs
Social networking goliath Facebook is considering offering paid-for vanity URLs to users. It would mean that, for a fee, you’d be able to get Facebook.com/whateveryoulike.
The URLs might go through a bidding process, so that whoever bids the highest gets access to a particular shortcode. The site currently only offers them to selected high-profile users to encourage them to use the site more.
Most sites usually take a ‘first-come, first-served’ approach to usernames, but that’s resulted in many companies having trouble getting their trademarks because they’re being squatted on by other users. Companies that try and shift the squatters often gain intense criticism.
Would you pay for a vanity URL on Facebook? If it wasn’t too expensive, I think I might. Let us know your thoughts on Twitter – message @techdigest.
(via AllFacebook)
Breaking: Pirate Bay Judge biased?
This is currently a breaking story, so we don’t have a lot of detail right now, but Pirate Bay defendant Peter Sunde has accused the judge in the Pirate Bay case, Tomas Norström, of bias. He made the accusations on Twitter, claiming “the #spectrial judge seems to be working within the copyright lobby”.
Swedish news sources claim that the judge is a member of a couple of organizations that might have compromised his neutrality in the case. Firstly the Swedish Association of Copyright (SFU) and secondly, the Swedish Association for Industrial Property. The former body also counts rights holders’ lawyers Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, and the latter pushes for stronger copyright.
It’s unlikely that this could have a effect on the trial, as it’s come to light after the judgement has been passed. The Pirate Bay’s lawyers have had ample opportunity to raise this. It does mean, however, that the verdict of the promised appeal could turn out very different.
Several law sources have criticized the judge for taking the case under these circumstances, but the judge has resisted pressure, saying; “I have not felt that I am biased because of those commitments”.
Eric Bylander, Associate Professor of Procedural Law at the School of Gothenburg, disagrees, saying that in such a high-profile case the judge should have been more careful. Peter Sunde is promising more detail later on today, so keep an eye on this developing story.
via @brokep and Sveriges Radio P3 (Google translated)
Government gets behind 2Mbps broadband for all by 2012
The UK government has signalled its backing of at least one section of Lord Carter’s Digital Britain interim report from earlier this year by setting aside enough cash to give everyone in the UK a minimum of 2Mbps broadband by 2012. The cash will come primarily from an underspend in the promotion of digital TV.
It’s not yet clear exactly what form that broadband might take – ADSL, cable, wireless and satellite are all options – but that information will hopefully be contained in the final version of the Digital Britain report, which is due out in early Summer 2009.
(via BBC)
