Social-video Electric Eyewear

I am not entirely sure how much use I would have for something like this, but the concept of wearable computers certainly has piqued my interest as of late.  With this said, I do know of a number of people within my social circles who would be all over these glasses.

Top 10 Cheap or Free Home Theater Upgrades

via Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy on 2/7/09

You've got a mind-blowing picture, surround sound, and streaming content set up, but it wasn't cheap. Heal your wallet with ten upgrades, fixes, and setup tips that take your system to 11 on the cheap.

Photo by chunkysalsa.

10. Hide away your discs in style

Not everybody wants their CD or DVD collection to be a proud, visible part of their living room. And a lot of people have had old-school, giant-box speakers shoved in their garages, or offered up constantly by parents, aunts, uncles, or anyone else with a formerly hi-fi system. An Instructables user came up with a media cabinet made from broken speakers. If you're still feeling like you've got too many disc boxes to shove in any container, consider clearing out your DVD clutter.

9. Make your own speaker mounts

Once you start buying home theater components, the little high-margin items add up real quick, and speaker mounts are no different. For $2 in materials and an hour's work, you can get your 5.1 components off the ground for better sound and hoist them on your DIY speaker wall mounts. Because, seriously, you're paying at least $20 for a set of brackets that don't have to hold much, and doing it yourself also gives you more flexibility in placement and spacing.

8. Childproof your setup

This is definitely the cheapest hardware hack we whole-heartedly recommend. We know the smell of stretched plastic wrap and the thrill of getting your new gear set up, but the safety anchors that come with most every TV stand are definitely worth revisiting, or buying if you've already tossed them. Even if there's no tykes in the house, you never know who's coming to visit, or which dark and tired night sends your screen to its doom. Hit up the Wired How-To Wiki for more child-proofing suggestions.

7. Get the right antenna (or build your own)

You've probably seen more rabbit ears in electronics stores recently than since the Cosby Show was still airing. That's because stores, and manufacturers, are anticipating a consumer scramble for antennas to pick up the the soon-to-be-all-digital signals. Before you join the herds, find the best antenna type for getting the most reception at your home with AntennaWeb, which can sometimes get down to street level to explain which direction and sizes you'll need to grab your over-the-air channels. Looking for a weekend project? Try building your own antenna to feel like you're truly getting something for nothing.

6. Calibrate your HD TV for free

You paid for those deep blacks, the contrast with real pop, and all those hundreds of vertical and horizontal pixels, but you might not be seeing them. You could pay a professional (or, uh, the Geek Squad) to swing by and stare at your set, or you could follow Popular Mechanics' step-by-step troubleshooting guide, or follow the New York Times' advice and take the DVD route. Many films come with a setup feature, and tinted glasses, dubbed the THX Optimizer—here's the full list of discs—that can get your screen crisp and bright-looking with just a little eye-exam-style testing.

5. Create a multi-room wireless system for one-tenth the price

Controlling all the music playing across your house isn't reserved for people living in the near-futuristic movies or those willing to shell out a grand or more for the Sonos Bundle and other one-brand solutions. If you've got a wireless router, and already own an iPhone or iPod touch, it's just a (relatively) small purchase and some iTunes tweaking to turn your iPhone or iPd touch into a master music remote. Plus, you're getting a lot more control over your tunes than you would with a single-provider setup, and you get control over your multi-room system from your computer as well. And there are a lot of good reasons to invest in an iPod touch, anyways.

4. Turn Your Xbox (or Wii) Into a Media Center

Anyone reading Lifehacker for a while would know we're huge fans of the Xbox Media Center, a free, open-source project that turns your old, first-gen Xbox into a killer media center. That alone puts streaming music, downloaded videos, feed-fed media, and other goodies into your TV and speakers, and there's always plenty of add-ons and goodies to grab. But what if—for the kids, for the fitness aspect, for just the bowling—you own a Wii? Using the free Orb streaming media server from a Windows PC, you can use your Wii as a media center, giving you access to video, music, pictures, and lots more. Just want some remote music playing? Use a similar browser-based tweak to streaming your iTunes library to your Wii.

3. Set up your optimal theater space

You want everyone in your viewing room to be able to see and hear the show, but you don't want feet near heads, direct window glare, covered heating vents—sometimes, in other words, you need a plan. You could take one of our clever reader's tips and template your furniture to get a clear-eyed look at what should go where. For those with better eyes for computer layouts than floor plans, try one of the Charles & Hudson blog's 10 virtual room planning tools. If it's all about the screen—and, let's face it, it probably is—than make sure you're getting the best viewing distance for your investment with CNET's size/distance guide for HD TVs.

2. Skip the DVR fees, roll your own

All it takes is a sub-$100 TV tuner, in plug-in card or USB form, to turn pretty much any PC into a DVR box. Whether that's a computer you've already got, or a new box you grab for that express purpose, it's truly within anyone's reach to build their own DVR. Which app you pick to record and manage your TV is up to your—but our readers, and editor, all prefer Windows' built-in Media Center. It gets the job done, costs nothing (more than a Windows install, anyways), and looks pretty slick sliding around the biggest of screens.

1. Wire your living room over Wi-Fi (wherever your router is)

Most of us get our internet from a cable or DSL connection, and have to put our wireless routers wherever that pipeline happens to be hooked up. But what if you've got devices that want (or benefit from) a hard cable connection—Apple TVs, media center PCs, TiVos, certain Xbox models, and the like? Skip buying the proprietary, huge-margin Wi-Fi adaptors and wire your living room over a Wi-Fi bridge. A bridge is less than $100, but you can also turn a standard $50-ish Wi-Fi router into a bridge with the super-charged DD-WRT or Tomato firmware upgrades. Now you've brought the net into your living room without a 100-foot cable, and the world's your broadband oyster. Just need a fix for your Xbox, old or new? Consider using your laptop as a free Xbox Wi-Fi adapter.

What's the best thing you've done for your home theater with a cheap purchase, or at no cost at all? What makes your living room the ultimate viewing room (other than the 60" plasma, of course)? Swap some shop talk in the comments.

Man killed by cell phone explosion in China

from Releaselog | RLSLOG.net by Martin It’s being reported that a man has died after putting a new battery in his phone. After the initial charging, he put the phone in his pocket and shortly thereafter it exploded, killing him. This is the ninth such explosion reported since 2002. The Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News reports the accident occurred on January 30 at 7:30pm local time at what may have been a Lenovo shop. A nearby employee heard a loud bang, looked over and saw her co-worker lying on the floor in a pool of blood. While the make and model of cell phone is not yet known or not being reported, police are currently investigating whether or not the phone and/or battery were counterfeit. Authorities have issued warning tips that cell phones and batteries should not be tampered with or replaced with counterfeit parts. In 2007, a 22-yr old welder died from chest wounds when his mobile phone exploded while working at an iron mill. Authorities concluded in that case that the battery had been exposed to sparks and high heat in the iron mill.

Drug From Genetically Altered Goats Approved

AP WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration made history Friday as it approved the first drug made with materials from genetically engineered animals, clearing the way for a new class of medical therapies. GTC Biotherapeutics said regulators cleared its drug ATryn, which is manufactured using milk from goats that have been scientifically altered to produce extra antithrombin, a protein that acts as a natural blood thinner. The drug's approval may be the first step toward new kinds of medications made not from chemicals, but from living organisms altered by scientists. Similar drugs could be available in the next few years for a range of human ailments, including hemophilia. The FDA cleared the drug to treat patients with a rare hereditary disorder that causes a deficiency of the protein, putting them at higher risk of deadly blood clots. The injectable treatment will be marketed in the U.S. by Deerfield, Ill.-based Ovation Pharmaceuticals About 1 in 5,000 people don't produce enough antithrombin protein, according to Framingham, Mass.-based based GTC. As a result, their blood is more likely to stick together, occasionally causing clots that can travel to the lungs or brain, causing death. Half of patients with the disorder experience their first life-threatening clot before age 25. Pregnant women with the ailment are at higher risk of miscarriage or stillbirth, because of blood clots in the placenta. Patients with hereditary anithrombin deficiency are currently prescribed conventional blood thinners, like Plavix from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis. That will not change with the new approval. ATryn is only approved for use when patients are undergoing surgery or having a baby, times when the risk of dangerous clots is particularly high. Those patients would receive the drug by intravenous infusion for a limited time before and after their procedures. To make the drug, scientists from GTC put modified DNA, or rDNA, for the human antithrombin protein into single-cell embryos of goats. Goat embryos with the gene were then inserted into the wombs of surrogate mothers who gave birth to baby goats that produce the protein-charged milk. Genetically engineered, or GE, animals are not clones but rather animals that have had their DNA changed to produce a desirable characteristic. "We looked carefully at seven generations of these GE goats," FDA Director for Veterinary Medicine Bernadette Dunham said in a statement. "All of them are healthy and haven't seen any adverse effects from the rDNA construct or its expression." Amid growing questions about GE technology, the FDA last month issued guidelines on how it will regulate products made from the animals. FDA said it will not allow any such products to be sold without first submitting them to scrutiny by independent advisers at a public meeting. The agency's panel of blood product experts recently concluded ATryn was safe and effective. But consumer groups said the FDA's long-awaited policy will not require all genetically engineered foods to be labeled as such. And they said the government has not done enough to examine the potential impact of genetically engineered animals on the environment, particularly if some escape and begin to mate with animals in nature. ATryn should be available for patients in the second quarter of this year, GTC said. The drug received European approval in 2006. Shares of GTC Therapeutics fell 7 cents, or 9 percent, to 75 cents in midday trading.