By way of our own Joel Johnson we get to see a very gritty, very geeky collection of photographs this fine evening. Above, the cab of a Panther Command vehicle. Below, the svelte cockpit of a Virgin Pendolino train:

Both images are the work of photographer Anthony Dickenson. Click 'em for full size.

I also encourage you to sample the rest of the portfolio, as they run an interesting gamut of urban landscapes, machinery and even a vintage pic of something our parents once called a "newspaper printing press."

Oh, I'm sorry, I've just been told that last one is still around. [Stem Agency]

It could have been worse. He could have been an unlicensed plumber caught with hallucinogenic mushrooms while playing...well, you know.

Down old mangrove way in Florida, our new favorite criminal allegedly stole a 1998 Dodge Durango (for reasons that escape us—a '98 Durango? Really?), which was then found outside a house, miles away. Inside, the suspect was sitting on his couch, playing Grand Theft Auto. He was then, appropriately, charged with grand theft auto (and a few other things, to be fair). You are now encouraged to chuckle. [CNET]

The WSj is reporting this evening that the Obama Administration, in an attempt to get NASA doing more space and environmental stuff, will float the idea of using private companies to ferry astronauts into space, among other things.

The policy change, described as controversial by those in the know, will be included in the Administration's next budget proposal.

Ultimately, the plan would establish "a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit-and eventually deeper into the solar system," reports the WSJ.

Safety concerns are at the top of the list of objections to the plan, as are concerns over shifting NASA funds for existing programs to a private initiative. Other additions to the NASA budget include stepped up climate-monitoring programs, and better cooperation internationally for manned and unmanned space programs.

Unsurprisingly, private contractors like Lockheed Martin are lobbying for such a shift, as they could experience substantial gains should a new private NASA wing open in the near future.

Those opposed to the change, like Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords, argue that because NASA's budget will remain the same under the new program, at about $18.7 billion, the private programs will only serve to spread the agency more thinly (hence the shifting funds worry stated above). During a hearing last month, Giffords said the private funds could weaken NASA and put human space flight "on hold for the foreseeable future."

Case in point, only $200 million are earmarked for privatization this year, but that number is expected to increase to about $3.5 billion over the next five years. [WSJ - Thanks, Pablo]

Up to 50 different "Apple Tablet" type devices were "detected" by Flurry Analytics testing various types of apps that may make its way to the upcoming machine. Flurry was able to geographically locate the devices to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.

In short, there were about 200 different apps being tested on the devices, most of which were games, media or some type of entertainment-type program. It more or less mirrors the type of applications we've been seeing in the app store for the iPhone.

In addition, the devices were running OS 3.2, which means either that the Tablet is running an iPhone-like OS, or that this is a bigger iPhone/iPod Touch type deal, and not exactly like the tablet we've been picturing. In any case, if earlier rumors were true, developers are already building apps for it.

Flurry didn't give any other details about resolution, memory or anything else they determined from their analytics tracking.

Apple Tablet – The Second Stage Media Booster Rocket
Using Flurry Analytics, the company identified approximately 50 devices that match the characteristics of Apple's rumored tablet device. Because Flurry could reliably "place" these devices geographically on Apple's Cupertino campus, we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing. Testing of this device increased dramatically in January, with observed signs of life as early as October of last year. Apple appears to be going through its cycle of testing and polish, which is expected from any hardware or software company as it nears launch.

Apple is expected to announce the yet-to-be named hardware on Wednesday, January 27 in San Francisco. There has been broad speculation about the functionality of the tablet, and what kinds of content and media partners the new device will feature. Additionally, there has been speculation about the most likely use cases for this kind of device, as well as which operating system the device will support. The choice of operating systems is particularly important for application developers because if the tablet runs on the same or upgraded operating system as the iPhone, then current applications running on the iPhone will also run on the tablet.

On these devices, Flurry observed approximately 200 different applications in use by testers. Studying category trends provides insight into the kind of user Apple is targeting and how it expects the device to be used. Below is a chart that shows the number of applications in use by category across test devices.

For Play not Work

Historically, tablet devices have been considered substitutes for anything where workers use clipboards, note pads or day runners. In more industrial settings, they could be used for inventory management, taking purchase orders or data entry. However, there was a surprising dearth of applications that support these use cases. Instead, the largest category was games. With a larger screen, more memory, multi-touch and multi-tasking expected, games will play better than ever on Apple handheld devices.
A Media Machine

The tablet device clearly targets consumers. The mix of applications observed comprises mainly of media and entertainment consumption as opposed to enterprise, productivity and computing. Specifically, popular tested apps include news, games, entertainment and lifestyle. In particular, there was a strong trend toward news, books and other kinds of daily media consumption, including streaming music and radio. In fact, the most widely downloaded of any single specific application was a new app. In its October Pulse report, Flurry studied iPhone as an e-reader and the threat this poses to Amazon Kindle. With rumors of large newspaper and book publisher deals, combined with its reading-friendly form factor, we speculate that the new Apple tablet will focus heavily on daily media consumption. Finally, across all applications detected, there was a strong theme of sharing and/or social interaction including social games, social networking, photo sharing and utilities like file transfer applications.

Not the Battle for Your Living Room

The device is positioned to appeal to the users who are out-and-about rather than compete directly against the TV, stereo and game console in the living room. With supply chain reports from Asia that light-weight 10.1" LCD and OLED screen components are in short supply due to large purchases presumably by Apple, we can surmise that the device will be thin and light, designed for portability. Further supporting this notion is the pattern of apps we detect for restaurant, movie show times and other apps that help users find points of interest around them, including travel guide applications.

A Rocket Booster for Developers

A noteworthy observation is that the Apple hardware we detected was running on OS 3.2, which has not yet been released. Currently the iPhone and iPod Touch are running on OS 3.1.2. Historically, Apple releases OS upgrades just before releasing new hardware. With significant expected changes (e.g., multi-touch, multi-tasking) for the tablet device operating system, there was concern among application developers that the tablet would not support existing iPhone applications. However, from the testing we observed, it appears that Apple wants to leverage the 130,000+ applications already available in the App Store on day one for the new device. For the developer, this is good news. Senior research analyst with Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster, is forecasting 2010 sales of iPhone and iPod Touch devices at 36 million, an increase over his estimate of 25.7 million for 2009. With tablet shipments for 2010 perhaps reaching 10M, according to AVI Securities, we see this as a major boost to application developers.

As you're probably aware, the Apple iPad, like the iPhone and iPod Touch, doesn't support Flash. Apple has its reasons for this, but clearly Adobe isn't happy about it. Here's their response.

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.

If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I'll be out of luck.

Adobe and more than 50 of our partners in the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliver to any device, so that consumers have open access to their favorite interactive media, content, and applications across platform, regardless of the device that people choose to use.

The main arguments against Flash running on the iPad are that it's a resource hog and a security risk. Both true! Hopefully the web is moving away from relying on Flash for videos and ugly menus, with HTML5 acting as a more-than-adequate replacement. But we're not there yet. While I can appreciate the fact that Apple is trying to keep the iPad more stable by not including Flash, the fact that it kills off most online gaming and video streaming in the process makes the tradeoff questionable. [Adobe]

It most definitely takes longer than two minutes to take apart a PSP Go and figure out how to piece it back together, but this neat stop-motion video makes it look like it's a quick and easy task.

I wish every gadget teardown were done like this. Sound effects and all. [Engadget]

Why carry a jack, tent and sleeping bag on your back when all these items can fold into one, wearble 3lb bundle?

The JakPak is a three seasons tent built into a sleeping bag built into a jacket. Constructed of breathable but waterproof urethane coated ripstop nylon/polyester fabric, through the miracles of velcro-secured chambers, the jacket portion of the JakPak can unfurl to the body bag you see in the lead shot—complete with no see um netting and armpit ventilation!

The JakPak will be available this March for $250 and seeks to eliminate homelessness as we know it. [JakPak]

By way of our own Joel Johnson we get to see a very gritty, very geeky collection of photographs this fine evening. Above, the cab of a Panther Command vehicle. Below, the svelte cockpit of a Virgin Pendolino train:

Both images are the work of photographer Anthony Dickenson. Click 'em for full size.

I also encourage you to sample the rest of the portfolio, as they run an interesting gamut of urban landscapes, machinery and even a vintage pic of something our parents once called a "newspaper printing press."

Oh, I'm sorry, I've just been told that last one is still around. [Stem Agency]

It could have been worse. He could have been an unlicensed plumber caught with hallucinogenic mushrooms while playing...well, you know.

Down old mangrove way in Florida, our new favorite criminal allegedly stole a 1998 Dodge Durango (for reasons that escape us—a '98 Durango? Really?), which was then found outside a house, miles away. Inside, the suspect was sitting on his couch, playing Grand Theft Auto. He was then, appropriately, charged with grand theft auto (and a few other things, to be fair). You are now encouraged to chuckle. [CNET]

The recent Apple craze led John Markoff of the NY Times to contact Beat-era poet Gary Snyder and ask him to pen a poem reflecting on "the milestones of the digital age". The result is a delightful read.

You can read more about Snyder in the NY Times article and I recommend that you do, because the man sounds even more fantastic than his poem:

Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh

By Gary Snyder

Because it broods under its hood like a perched falcon,

Because it jumps like a skittish horse and sometimes throws me,

Because it is poky when cold,

Because plastic is a sad, strong material that is charming to rodents,

Because it is flighty,

Because my mind flies into it through my fingers,

Because it leaps forward and backward, is an endless sniffer and searcher,

Because its keys click like hail on a boulder,

And it winks when it goes out,

And puts word-heaps in hoards for me, dozens of pockets of gold under boulders in streambeds, identical seedpods strong on a vine, or it stores bins of bolts;

And I lose them and find them,

Because whole worlds of writing can be boldly laid out and then highlighted and vanish in a flash at "delete," so it teaches of impermanence and pain;

And because my computer and me are both brief in this world, both foolish, and we have earthly fates,

Because I have let it move in with me right inside the tent,

And it goes with me out every morning;

We fill up our baskets, get back home,

Feel rich, relax, I throw it a scrap and it hums.

Between this poem and the old-school gadgets, I'm getting lost in a nostalgic daze today. And absolutely loving it. [NY Times]

Picture by blakespot

We're fans of Novatel's MiFi hotspots, which allow a 3G connection to be converted into Wi-Fi. What we are not fans of is a new exploit that lets hackers reveal your location and all your security info.

The exploit, which affects the MiFi 2200s sold by Verizon and Sprint, kicks in when users visit a certain website.

"Among the information the MiFi 2200 will readily share is the WiFi security key â€" sent in clear text â€" and with some Javascript Baldwin showed it was possible to change the hotspot's settings to the point where a factory reset is required in order to restore functionality to the user. Even if GPS is turned off, a remote command can be used to switch it back on.

A further exploit can extract the entire configuration of the MiFi, again in clear text, including all of the security settings."

If you're a MiFi user, just be careful out there until Novatel issues a fix. [UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

We're fans of Novatel's MiFi hotspots, which allow a 3G connection to be converted into Wi-Fi. What we are not fans of is a new exploit that lets hackers reveal your location and all your security info.

The exploit, which affects the MiFi 2200s sold by Verizon and Sprint, kicks in when users visit a certain website.

"Among the information the MiFi 2200 will readily share is the WiFi security key â€" sent in clear text â€" and with some Javascript Baldwin showed it was possible to change the hotspot's settings to the point where a factory reset is required in order to restore functionality to the user. Even if GPS is turned off, a remote command can be used to switch it back on.

A further exploit can extract the entire configuration of the MiFi, again in clear text, including all of the security settings."

If you're a MiFi user, just be careful out there until Novatel issues a fix. [UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

You know what's great? My smartphone puts the world in my pocket. Broadband puts 2,454,399 channels on my HDTV. I can access the internet from a freaking airplane! You know what's unsustainable? Paying for it all.

Here's why: a well-equipped geek will, in our research, have a subscription and service bill total of between 200 and 750 dollars a month.

Let me break it down. You've got your smartphone bill, your cable bill, your home broadband bill. Those are unavoidable expenses—there's not much you can do about them.

Then think about the must-have gadgets on the horizon: a smartbook that requires a data plan. A tablet that'll require Wi-Fi HotSpot access or a 3G dongle. The same for a thin-and-light notebook. And those are just your 1:1 service fees for devices.

Now throw in all of the wonderful content and service subscriptions you either already have or will soon. You've got TiVo, which is better and cheaper than most cable-provided DVRs but still about $11 a month. Netflix, to rent or stream unlimited movies. Hulu's free for now, but we know they're going to start charging any week. If you've got an Xbox 360, you've got an Xbox Live Gold membership. I'm a city slicker with no car, but if I had one I'd need a navigation app that's good enough for everyday use. A free Flickr membership is fine today, but once HD camcorders gain prominence, you're going to want a Flickr Pro membership for high-def playback. And so on.

If that doesn't sound so bad, see how it looks when you add it all up:

That's right: if you want to stay even close to fully connected, you're expected to cough up nearly $1,000 a month. Not for hardware. For fees. And that doesn't even include niche services like Vimeo and Zune Pass, or one-off purchases like eBooks or iTunes downloads. Or, god forbid, food and shelter.

A couple of years ago, we talked about the Infinite Video Format War, and the dozen-plus disc-free video formats that each come with their own subscription models, fees, and offerings. There's still no resolution there. Think of the Subscription War like that, only extrapolated across all of your devices, content, and services.

The problem isn't subscriptions themselves. Content subscriptions reward risk-taking, which is great! How many movies have you discovered because of a Netflix recommendation? How many shows have you watched on Hulu that you never would have found on your TV's channel guide? And individually, they seem cost effective.

The problem is fragmentation. The problem is that each service provider thinks within a bubble, without recognizing the larger ecosystem of payments we live in. It's like those nights in high school when each teacher would assign you two hours of homework. There weren't enough hours in the day then, and there's not enough money in a paycheck now. And there shouldn't have to be.

There are some ways out: you don't actually need cable or satellite TV to enjoy your favorite shows. If you've got a smartphone, you really don't need a land line, and you can probably get away with the minimum 450 minutes if you lean on messaging and Skype. There are also free navigation apps that'll work in a pinch. But at the end of the day, you're still looking at hundreds of dollars a month for services you don't need constant access to.

So what's the answer? Well, ad-supported content generally comes free or highly discounted. But ad-supported solutions require people to purchase the things being advertised. Hulu's plans to start charging indicates that that model's not sustainable in the long run. One blanket subscription that lets you access several different sites or services works for the online porn industry, but those linked sites all operate under the same umbrella parent company. Not feasible when the participants are major competitors.

The honest answer is that there may not be one. Not yet, anyway. Eventually the monthly bills will stack up so high that people will have to start cutting ties with companies, who will in turn have to either lower prices or fade away. You've already started to see it with AT&T and Verizon cutting prices on unlimited plans last week. Until everyone gets on board, though? We're all just casualties.

When rain is afoot, there's only one tool in Batman's arsenal that will keep his logo dry: The Batumbrella. [MaxiGlob via SuperPunch via ComicsAlliance via technabob]

One moment it's a table, the next it's a fort...well, a fort that any dog would be happy to sleep in, at least. Sadly, the table fort is nothing more than a design concept. [Daily Shelter via boingboing]

Meet Paul Chambers. Like thousands of frustrated passengers, this British finance supervisor thought he wouldn't be able to travel because of the snow. So frustrated, in fact, that he tweeted an obviously exaggerated threat that got him into jail.

"Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high."

Not long after that—on January 13—the police knocked on his door carrying a copy of the tweet. He tried to explain that he was only venting his frustration on Twitter, but they didn't even know what Twitter was. The officers arrested, interrogated, and jailed him under the Terrorism Act, only to release him under bail until a February 11 hearing.

In addition to that, the threatening tweet was deleted, and his computers and iPhone was confiscated. I understand that some people are a bit paranoid, but couldn't have they searched first for connections of this guy with any terrorism group? Or maybe check his house for traces of explosives? But then again, who cares about a proper investigation. Jailing someone because of a tweet just makes so much sense.

The best part: When he tried to explain the whole thing, the only answer he would get from the officer was "it is the world we live in."

Indeed, it's the world we live in, giving up on all our civil liberties for a sense of false security, and allowing morons to run the world. [Daily Mail—Thanks AJ]

Created for the Lego Graffiti Styles Convention in Munich, Cole Blaq made a fiery Lego display with some bee-yoo-tiful photo results.

The Lego bricks spell out his name, with a downlight emphasizing the colors of the bricks. Someone should build a big Lego downpour now, those flames look OUT OF CONTROL. [Cole Blaq on Flickr via Brothers Brick via @Katiesol on Twitter]