$250,000-a-day Minecraft strikes indie game gold – “Sales of one man indie game hit, Minecraft, have surpassed $250,000 per day. According to data provided by developer, Mojang, one copy of the €9.95 ($13) game is currently being purchased every 3 seconds, representing sales of $15,000 per hour…”

A Blind User’s Profound Review of the iPhone – “Editor’s Note: This review of the iPhone will probably be the deepest you’ll ever read. Austin Seraphin is legally blind, though he can some light and color. He believes the device is the future of accessibility for the visually impaired. The powerful story he tells here explains why…”

Sony’s 6X BDX-S500U External Blu-Ray Drive Burns 25GB in 20 Minutes – “Sony’s 6X BDX-S500U External Blu-Ray Drive Burns 25GB in 20 MinutesSony Optiarc’s new portable Blu-ray drive is fast: it can burn single layer discs at 6x speed and dual layer ones at 4x. That means you could burn 25GB in the time it takes to watch an episode of Fraiser…”

Stuxnet worm ‘targeted high-value Iranian assets’ – “One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected was probably targeting “high value” infrastructure in Iran, experts have told the BBC. Stuxnet’s complexity suggests it could only have been written by a “nation state”, some researchers have claimed…”

Turning Thoughts into Words – “A new approach allows more information to be extracted from the brain…”

How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users – “Firefox has long been the go-to web browser among power users for its impressive feature set, extensibility, and openness. But Google’s nimble, light, also extensible and open browser, Chrome, has won over Firefox’s core user base. Here’s why…”

Facebook is not worth $33,000,000,000 – “Facebook is now supposedly worth $33,000,000,000, but that number is entirely based on what star-struck minority investors have paid for a tiny slice of the company…”

Security Lessons Learned From The Diaspora Launch – “Last week, Diaspora  — the OSS privacy-respecting social network — released a “pre-alpha developer preview” of their source code. I took a look out it, mostly out of curiosity, and was struck by numerous severe security errors. I then spent the next day digging through their code locally and trying to get in touch with the team to address them, privately. In the course of this, I mentioned obliquely that the errors existed on Hacker News, and subsequently was interviewed by The Register and got quoted in a couple of hundred places…”

Blockbuster seeks turnaround in bankruptcy – “Video chain Blockbuster Inc filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday, battered by online and mail-order services such as Netflix Inc that have transformed how customers rent movies…” See also: Everything You Really Need To Know About Blockbuster’s Bankruptcy

Family’s Titanic secret revealed – “She said when the helmsman, who had been trained in sail, received the direction, he turned the vessel towards the iceberg with tragic results…”

Largest offshore wind farm opens off Thanet in Kent – “In total, 341 turbines will be installed at the site over the next four years. The world’s biggest offshore wind farm off the Kent coast has been officially opened. Swedish energy giant Vattenfall said the 100 turbines are expected to generate enough electricity to power 240,000 homes…”

Death-Wish Jobs: Smokejumpers Meld Sky Diving, Firefighting – “As seasonal wildfires rage in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Southern California, firefighters in those states have already mobilized. But not all fires can be reached by road. Some require a little more finesse. That’s where smokejumpers come in…”

‘Secretive world’ of suicide websites – “The self-inflicted deaths of a man and a woman who met online on a forum for people contemplating suicide has raised concerns over the role the internet has in helping or harming those thinking about taking their own life…”

Building An Office Of Shipping Containers – “Constructed from shipping containers, this office building in Providence, R.I., cost owner Peter Case $1.8 million, half of what he would have paid for a conventional structure…”

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects – “Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and urge the government to publicly confirm their reality…”

Deployment of Large Aerial Swarms

The PC Decrapifier

My Netgear Router Came Swathed In Dishonesty – “So I had to go pick up a new wireless router yesterday, and picked up a plain $35 Netgear one. Checking the back, I noticed this amazing, amazing panel, full of the most misleading garbage I’ve seen in a long time. Netgear should be ashamed of themselves. Let’s just take a look at what’s wrong with this panel…”

“WiFi on steroids” gets final rules, drops spectrum sensing – “At its monthly meeting today, all five FCC Commissioners set disagreements (mostly) aside and unanimously supported the final rules that will open empty TV channels to unlicensed broadband use. If all goes according to plan, these “TV white spaces” will be the raw material that unleashes another WiFi revolution—but this time with longer range, better building penetration, and even more speed…” See also: US frees unused airwaves for ‘super wi-fi’ technology

How the CIA ran a secret army of 3,000 assassins – “The US Central Intelligence Agency is running and paying for a secret 3,000-strong army of Afghan paramilitaries whose main aim is assassinating Taliban and al-Qa’ida operatives not just in Afghanistan but across the border in neighbouring Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to Bob Woodward’s explosive book….”

Interview with Rufus Pollock of the Open Knowledge Foundation – “Rufus Pollock, co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation (and Cambridge University economist) talks about the importance of making data and information open and useful to the world….”

Bill Maher On Anti-Science Republicans: ‘Not One Believes Global Warming Is Real’ – “Last week, the Wonk Room published an exclusive analysis of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, finding that only Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) supported action to fight global warming pollution. That Tuesday, Castle was defeated in his primary by Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell, who believes evolution is a myth and opposes stem-cell research. Yesterday, Bill Maher cited that report in a discussion with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, bemoaning the dominance of anti-science Republicans. After Matthews played a clip of O’Donnell warning in 2007 of “mice with fully functioning human brains” — evidently a mangled reference to a mouse with surgically constructed ear from cow cells grafted onto its back — Maher noted that the “real issue” is the Republican opposition to science…”

“Pledge to America” Unveiled by Republicans (Full Text) – “CBS News has obtained a final draft of House Republicans’ legislative agenda for the next Congress, a 21-page “Pledge to America” that they will formally unveil Thursday morning at a Virginia hardware store… “

Unedited Jon Stewart Interview – “Raw video of ‘Daily Show’ host on ‘The Factor’…”

Jon Stewart has the right idea – “Are you tired of the extremes dominating the debate? Angry about hyperpartisans hijacking American politics? Well, Jon Stewart has a rally for you and me…”

Behold, the “point your iPhone at a plane and know where it’s headed” app! – “Plane Finder AR is an iPhone augmented reality app that promises to identify the origin and destination of any plane you might point your phone toward, overhead in the sky….”

Interlopers Run Amok: Guys Crash Road Races for Women – “Men can register for these races, as footnotes on the event websites note. Technically allowing guys to run avoids legal spats, pleases charity sponsors whose fund-raisers are often male and engenders a magnanimous spirit. But these races tolerate rather than welcome male participants…”

Digg Traffic Plummets Following Redesign – “The infamous Digg redesign didn’t really go too well for Digg. It kind of incited an Internet rebellion. One may have suspected that the feelings of antipathy may have passed given time or that they were overblown by a small but vocal minority of dissatisfied power users, but a recent study from Hitwise Intelligence suggests otherwise: Since the Digg redesign went live in August, Digg’s US traffic has dropped 26%, while the UK traffic has dropped 34%. For an established site on the Web, much less one hoping to woo big advertisers, that kind of traffic decline in just one month is nothing short of alarming…”

Solar Roads Fix The Grid And Crumbling Pavement – “A revolutionary idea that converts existing roadways into a national solar power grid is up for a major cash prize. Scott Brusaw (shown above) is working on a project to encapsulate solar panels in high-strength glass capable of standing up to thousands of cars and trucks passing by each day. He estimates that a single parking lot paved with solar panels — even one where cars are parked — could power the big box store it serves, and a cul-de-sac paved with solar panels could take an entire subdivision off the grid even on a cloudy day…”

First Tri-Core 1.5 GHz Processors for Smartphones: They’re a Marvell! – “A new three-core processor from Marvell, the Armada 628, is a 1.5GHz processor with three CPUs on one chip. Designed for powering smartphones and tablets, this tri-core processor can purportedly deliver dual stream 1080p 3D video to your mobile device….”

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