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Society RSS FeedsJAJAH Babel and JAJAH Concierge Launch - JAJAH today launched two brand new JAJAH services called JAJAH Babel and JAJAH Concierge. JAJAH Babel is a speech-to-speech translation service. Currently, it only translates English-to-Chinese (Mandarin) and Chinese-to-English. Perfect timing for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Summer Games, but I wish JAJAH also launched with English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English. My wife and I hire the Maids Home Services on occasion to help clean up our house ...Feed Source: feeds.feedburner.com Take Home a Concert on Your Wrist - Now we finally have a really useful application for USB drives -- besides just for backing up or taking yhour files with you on your rambles. The Aderra Audio System allows a single technician to record an event and duplicate up to 1,000 USB flash drives within 15 minutes after the event has ended. They record live events, duplicate them on the spot and sell them to attendees as they are leaving the venue, usually on a&... Free Those Trapped Cell Phone Photos! - Getting your great candid pictures off your camera phone is no easy matter -- it should be so simple!CNET gives us a couple of ways to do it. One of them has got to work!The least labor-intensive way to rescue your pictures from being trapped on your phone is to send them to an e-mail address in a multimedia message. But as you know, this costs money, so you'll be pleased to hear there are alternatives. If your phone accepts a memory card, y... Why Pay Twice as Much for a Mac? - Is Windows really that bad, you may ask?Well, Apple Watch asked that very same question and came up with some very interesting statistics.Last weekend, they got to wondering about Mac versus Windows PC pricing after seeing two HP notebooks on sale at the local Target. One of them, a 14-inch model, the HP DV2946NR (pictured at left), sold for $699.99 and packed 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive. Capacity for both features is twice that of the $... Free World Dialup (FWD) No Longer Free - Saw this news on http://www.freeworlddialup.com/ stating that Free World Dialup, often referred to as FWD is now no longer "free" but now has a $30 annual "fee". Well, at least they get to keep the FWD acronym since both have the letter 'f', but the domain name is no longer accurate. Anyway, FWD was one of the first free SIP-to-SIP calling services using their SIP registrar (fwd.pulver.com:5060). It seems to me that FWD has had its loyal but sm... Teaching an Old Blockbuster a New Trick - Blockbuster to roll out DVD rental kiosks! Yes, in another tactical shift, Blockbuster will begin testing 50 DVD rental kiosks to compete with Redbox, which rents DVDs for $1 per night.According to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Blockbuster plans to roll out 10,000 kiosks over the next 18 months. The kiosks are designed for DVD rentals, but could include digital downloads and sales of movies in the future.In related news... Nintendo Goes Holographic! Wow Wii! - Nintendo, the maker of the market-leading Wii videogame console, has reportedly co-signed for a patent on holographic storage and may be gearing up for development of this ultra high-capacity storage concept. Nintendo signed the patent with Inphase Technologies, but bringing holographic storage to market won't be easy. (Inphase has been at this a looong time.) Nintendo, one of the world's top three videogame console and handheld device makers, ... Cheap Broadband is the Oil of the Modern Economy -- Shouldn't This Have a Greener Hook? - Very interesting post comparing cheap broadband to cheap oil on Mashable. Here's the lead of the piece: Oil and broadband Internet access are the twin fuels of both brick and mortar businesses and Internet based businesses. When oil prices are low, economies can zoom at light speed. When prices are high, many businesses can barely put one foot in front of another. A look at the history of oil might serve to help us understand the importance of ... How much data does fring consume? - Ever wonder how much data fring consumes when making a VoIP call or even when idle? Personally, I really like fring which I like to call "the Swiss army knife of mobile VoIP and IM", since it works with Skype, SIP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and AIM.Well, I found the answer to this question on fring's blog which was posted today.... Xbox Prices Going Lower? - Hey hey hey -- what's wrong with lower prices as Microsoft is reportedly considering dropping the price of Xbox to $200 to appeal to the mass gaming market. According to one report on CNET, an Xbox console with no hard drive could retail for $199 as soon as next month. Nintendo's Wii is currently the lowest-priced console on the market at $249. In related news, Xbox Live avatars are reportedly coming soon to new version of EA Games. ... Enter the Netbook - Lenovo today announced it is entering the "netbook" PC market with the new IdeaPad S10 netbook PC. Lenovo designed the super-slim, super-small IdeaPad S10 to complement a customer's primary PC or as a first-time, introductory PC purchase. The IdeaPad S10 allows users to perform simple activities such as surf the Internet, check and write emails, listen to music and run basic applications. Lenovo also plans to introduce netbook models designed ... Seeing a Windows-less Future ... - Hard to image (but many have thought about it, I'm sure), but Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows. Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different from Microsoft's older programs, being Internet-centric rather than depending on being tied to a single PC. Although Midori has been heard about before now, more details have now been published by Softwar... Well there goes VoIP's 5 nines (99.999) of reliability! - Check out this alert on the University of Buffalo's website:UBIT AlertCampus Wide Services ImpactedVoIP System MaintenanceEffective: 8/6/2008 Expires: 8/6/2008 Posted: 2008-08-04On Wednesday, 8/6, between 6:00 - 7:00 AM system maintenance will be performed on the VoIP server infrastructure. Technical staff will be updating web security certificates.During the system maintenance window, users will experience a momentary interruption of approximate... OpenSIPS Forks OpenSER - Came across an announcement that OpenSIPS is forking from the popular open source OpenSER solution. OpenSIPS (Open SIP Server) became active today, with its first release (OpenSIPS 1.4.0). I found it a bit surprising that someone is forking OpenSER, since it's a very powerful SIP routing platform. I recently mentioned how OpenSER can be used to bridge Asterisk with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. So what is OpenSIPS about? Well, let ... Using Asterisk to Scam Credit Cards - Received a news tip that fraudsters are using Asterisk as a "collection tool" for their credit card scam. While that's nothing new by itself, since there are plenty of scammers leveraging Asterisk, I found it fascinating to be able to actually call into the scammer's system.Asterisk has become hacker's tool of choice because it's free, flexible, and feature-rich. Just install Asterisk on an inexpensive PC and you have yourslf a powerful PBX that ... The IP-PBX Energy Wars... - So today I get a new report from the Tolly Group stating that the ShoreTel Unified Communications system is significantly more energy efficient than the Cisco Unified Communications Manager. ShoreTel apparently topped Cisco in using less energy to drive VoIP communications in specific large, medium and small enterprise-class scenarios. This energy usage comparison reminded me of Nortel's "The 'Nortel' Tax Relief Plan", which aims to "stop paying... New Controllers Coming for Guitar Hero + Music Studio! - Software publisher Activision and peripheral maker Logitech have announced a joint venture to make premium controllers shaped like instruments for Guitar Hero World Tour. The game is expected to debut this fall, and will be available for the all the popular gaming consoles, including Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlaytStaion 3 and Nintendo Wii.The new game will use new controllers, including a more responsive and freshly designed guitar along wit... Kindle Moving & Grooving - Ever since Amazon launched the Kindle last November, TechCrunch has been wondering about just how successful it's been. (Me, too!)The electronic book initially sold out and supplies have been tight. The Kindle is such a small part of Amazon's overall business that the company does not break out how many it's sold. But we found out anyway: 240,000 Kindles have been shipped since November, according to a source close to Amazon with direct knowledge... Apple Stays Exclusive with AT&T -- Boo! - According to USA Today, AT&T and Apple have agreed to extend their exclusivity relationship through 2009, meaning the next iPhone will be made specifically for AT&T service. The report claims that Apple originally signed the deal with AT&T through 2008 and next year would start selling iPhones on other carrier services. But after AT&T offered a $300 subsidy on each iPhone instead of the revenue-sharing model that became such a h... More Ways To Watch TV Coming ... - NewTeeVee has been bursting with startup news this week, including news from a bunch of new companies that have barely been mentioned elsewhere, if at all. Here they are:Onecast/1castZadbyAnvatoGoAnimateAnybody care to venture a guess on what any of these companies actually do?No, well then, check out the nice summaries of each on GigaOM.
Tags: anvato, goanimate... Looks Like 1080p is Coming - Now it looks like Dish Network will be giving us true 1080p HD! In its press release, the company says that in addition to a host of 17 new national high-definition channels, it will also offer pay-per-view movies in 1080p. The first, available on Friday, is I Am Legend, the Will Smith sci-fi film. While the satellite company may be the first to sell 1080p content, they're not the first to announce it. Those honors go to DirecTV; on Monday the... Dynolicious for your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch - Coolest Apple App ever! - Dynolicious utilizes the accelerometer built in to your iPhone or iPod Touch to sense the motion of your vehicle to calculate performance statistics including 0-60 acceleration, 1/4 Mile Elapsed Time, Lateral G's, and Horsepower. Is this not the coolest Apple App ever? I would have headed over to the Apple App Store to buy this app pronto, except I no longer drive a high-performance Dodge Viper - I now drive a pokey Volvo. ... Skype 4.0.0.155 Beta 1 for Windows - Skype just released a new beta of 4.0.called Skype 4.0.0.155 Beta 1 for Windows. Just remember there are some caveats to using Skype 4.0 beta. Read here for more.Here's what's new / fixes:30.07.2008 Skype 4.0.0.155 Beta 1 for Windowschange: Firefox Skype plugin updated to version 2.2.0.94bugfix: Video mood and instant messages did not work when user had Flash Player 10 installedLocalizations updatedAlso, here's what was fixed in the prior version... Level 3 & Packet8 major outage - BREAKING!A source is telling me that Level 3 Communications and Packet 8 are having a system-wide network outage for the last 30 minutes. Level 3 is a huge provider of VoIP termination and I believe Packet8 uses their network for termination. Other VoIP service providers (Vonage?) will also be affected if indeed Level 3 is having an outage. I'm trying to confirm this as I type this. I'm currently on hold (5min so far) for Packet8's technical supp... SimpleSignal hosted VoIP lets Mobile Workers Listen to Emails and Manage Microsoft Outlook Calendar with Voice Commands - Today, SimpleSignal is announcing that it has successfully married Microsoft Exchange 2007 with its BroadSoft-based Hosted PBX offering to offer a new solution called SimplyMobile. SimplyMobile offers some really cool features, such as the ability to listen to emails from any phone -- even a mobile device by leveraging TTS (text-to-speech). Also, it features the ability for users to use voice commands to call the people who emailed them. T... 3CX Free SIP Softphone - 3CX has announced the release of a totally free new VoIP softphone called 3CX VoIP Phone that allows users to make and receive calls from their computer using SIP-based VoIP providers or SIP-based IP-PBXs. This free SIP softphone client isn't the first "free" softphone on the market. That distinction belongs to Counterpath's popular X-lite SIP softphone. However, I'm glad to see more free SIP softphones on the market. In fact, I'd like to see fre... Dymo DiscPainter Review - Printing CD and DVD labels can be a chore. It often requires special labels and only certain printers can accept CD/DVD labels. Certainly burning CDs and DVDs has become more popular so users are looking for quick, easy, and fun ways to label and decorate their CD/DVD collections. I have an Epson printer at home that doesn't print the size labels I need, so I resort to using a black Sharpie pen and hand scribbling on the CD or DVD. And when I ha... Dell's New Line Makes Like Apple - Finally it seems like somebody in the PC business besides Apple has grabbed the idea that style matters -- the message is in the medium, so to speak Dell's smallest, most personalized and most environmentally responsible consumer PC, the Studio Hybrid, launched today; that's it in the photo at left. Available immediately at www.dell.com/hybrid, the PC's new unique shape and size can be personalized with six optional, external jewel-toned color o... Early Termination Fees Going Bye-Bye? - Hey, hey, hey Sprint Nextel was dealt a major blow in its early-termination-fee case when a California judge ruled it would have to pay $73 million. Bad news for Sprint but good news for us! The decision could bode poorly for the various trials that are taking place throughout the country, as well as the attempt by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make wireless carriers exempt from these state court cases."This ruling sounds th... VoSKY launches T1/E1 PBX-to-Skype Gateway - VoSKY today launched a high-density T1/E1 PBX-to-Skype Gateway. Who needs SIP trunks when you can have 23 or 30 simultaneous Skype trunks? Though I'd like to see a 100% software-based gateway solution for IP-PBXs, since like Skype, they run on the IP network already. Still for traditional PBXs with T1/E1 interfaces, getting a PBX-to-Skype gateway to migrate away from expensive per minute charges on the traditional PSTN makes a lot of sense. Ofte... RNB Quicklinks - Anonymous vs. Scientology, Interview with the former vampire, religion-motivated littering, Bahai, and sundry other items of possible interest.A new Religion News Blog feature.... Victoria Osteen, wife of Christianity-lite preacher Joel Osteen, in court over temper tantrum - Osteen and her family were on Brown's flight from Houston to Vail, Colo., two years ago when, according to court documents, witnesses said Osteen became upset about a spill on the armrest of her first-class seat. She asked the flight attendants to clean up the spill and when they did not respond quickly enough, Osteen became confrontational, according to documents filed in the civil case that goes to trial today.... Westboro hate group pickets stage show about its founder; plans to also picket funeral of young man decapitated on a bus - A despicable hate group that masquerades as a Christian church is helping to advertise a play about its founder by doing what it does best: spewing putrid hatred.The Westboro Baptist Church also plans to protest at the funeral of a young man decapitated on a Greyhound bus last week.... Scientology buys prime parcel in Clearwater, Florida - In 1978 the so-called Church of Scientology snuck into Clearwater, Florida under false pretenses ([video]).Ever since, the cult has expanded its presence in the town, which it now considers to be its international spiritual headquarters.The ultra-controversial movement has just scooped up another 5 acres of waterfront property.... Arrested: Christian biker gang members and Phil Aguilar of Set Free Churches Worldwide - More than 150 officers are serving search and arrest warrants this morning on members of a Christian motorcycle gang and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club stemming from a double stabbing that occurred at a Newport Beach bar more than a week ago, police say.Also behind bars is Pastor Phil Aguilar. He is the founder and director of Set Free Churches Worlwide, according to the group's Web site. [video]... Data bolstering case against Warren Jeffs - Marriage records, dictations and even love letters to Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs are being used to bolster Texas child welfare authorities' claims of underage marriages within the Utah-based polygamous sect.
Documents filed in a San Angelo court on Tuesday allege more marriages ? including a pair of 12-year-old girls married to Jeffs.
"I am praying to become a Heavenly comfort Wife for you. I love you so much I pray I may b... Arizona court: Polygamy with minors not a right - Arizonans have no religious right to practice polygamy, at least not with minors, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
The judges rejected arguments by a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that he was legally entitled to have sex with a 16-year-old girl because she was his "celestial wife" as recognized by his religion.... Fight for 8 FLDS children renewed - Texas Child Protective Services moved Tuesday to return eight polygamist sect children to foster care, the first such action since the Texas Supreme Court ordered these children and more than 400 others returned to their parents in May.
The six girls and two boys, ages 5 to 17, are in four Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints households that either refuse to condemn underage marriages in writing or are actively involved w... Homosexuality - punishable by death? - The Norwegian Islamic Council is still waiting for a reply from the European Fatwa Council before it decides whether or not it is in favour of the death penalty for homosexuality.
"Unacceptable," says lesbian Sara Asmeh Rasmussen.
Religious insanity, says Religion News Blog.... Controversy continues to brew over Twelve Tribes sect cafe - The practices of messianic Christian sect The Twelve Tribes continue to divide opinion in the Blue Mountains, Australia, with an ex-member and a potential new member throwing another log into the fire of debate.Winmalee resident Matthew Klein, is sounding another warning to Mountains residents to recognise the Twelve Tribes as a potentially destructive cult.... |