Privacy in the work place was long gone, email spoofing, social networks monitoring, cameras, phone tapping, etc, just when you thought enough, KDDi Japan has come up with a novel way to monitor employee activity using data from acceleration sensor embedded on cellphones. The motion sensor on an iPhone can detect simple moments like running, walking etc, but combine that sensor with an analytical server and it can detect complex moments as well.

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Motion sensor in cell phones to keep track of employees

When Stian, a friend of mine, came to me a few days ago and told me I could now find his music on various online music services I just had to find out how. It’s no secret that record companies are becoming more and more uselss with most of them being sadistic about both stealing the artist’s money and chase pirates, but I was unaware of just how easy it had become to publish music on your own.

There are apparently several ways to go about this using various services that do the work for you, but the one Stian used is called Zimbalam. You basically pay them €30 (Euro, a little over $40) and your album will then magically appear on various music services a few weeks later. These include Amazon MP3, iTunes, Spotify, eMusic, Napster and Rhapsody as well as some smaller services.

This of course doesn’t help you with the recording part of the production process, and while the artist in this case made all the music using various computer software, most artists will need to record the album first. Still, there’s a lot of potential for this kind of service both for smaller unknown artists who record at home or at concerts and it brings down the cost of getting out there considerably. Digital downloads of music is the future for sure, and not having to worry about everything that goes with a CD release opens for a lot of new music to be released.

If you want to check out Stian’s masterpieces and see proof that €30 is really all you need, you can now find him on iTunes, Amazon and eMusic among others.

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Publish your music for €30

When Stian, a friend of mine, came to me a few days ago and told me I could now find his music on various online music services I just had to find out how. It’s no secret that record companies are becoming more and more uselss with most of them being sadistic about both stealing the artist’s money and chase pirates, but I was unaware of just how easy it had become to publish music on your own.

There are apparently several ways to go about this using various services that do the work for you, but the one Stian used is called Zimbalam. You basically pay them €30 (Euro, a little over $40) and your album will then magically appear on various music services a few weeks later. These include Amazon MP3, iTunes, Spotify, eMusic, Napster and Rhapsody as well as some smaller services.

This of course doesn’t help you with the recording part of the production process, and while the artist in this case made all the music using various computer software, most artists will need to record the album first. Still, there’s a lot of potential for this kind of service both for smaller unknown artists who record at home or at concerts and it brings down the cost of getting out there considerably. Digital downloads of music is the future for sure, and not having to worry about everything that goes with a CD release opens for a lot of new music to be released.

If you want to check out Stian’s masterpieces and see proof that €30 is really all you need, you can now find him on iTunes, Amazon and eMusic among others.

Continue reading from the original source:
Publish your music for €30

If you’re the kind of person who puts off writing tasks until the last minute, it might be worth your time to check out Write or Die, a web app that exacts swift punishment for procrastination.

It’s a straightforward enough interface: just tell Write or Die how many words you need to write in how many minutes (or hours). If you keep pace, no worries! If not, there are three degrees of vengeance:

* Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
* Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
* Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Write or Die is also available on your desktop. The downside: it doesn’t save your writing, so when you’re done you have to copy and paste back into the word processor or text editor of your choosing. That’s a bit of a hassle, but futzing around with your clipboard can be a great time waster.

Regardless, Write or Die works. Believe me. Or at least believe the most unpleasant sound ringing in my ears. [Write or Die via Geekosystem]

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Write or Die Anti-Procrastination App Is Not Kidding Around [Apps]

So you want to get some cycling practice but you’re worried about all of the reckless drivers out there. But you don’t want to resort to one of those lame stationary bikes, either. The solution? Free motion bicycle rollers.

I would love to bike more often, but the thought of cycling here in New York City is utterly daunting. This alternative, however, seems even more terrifying.

If you want to brave your unfinished basement on two wheels, a free motion set up only costs about $35 in parts and can be assembled by following this Instructable. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. [Make and Instructables]

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The Only Indoor Biking That’s More Dangerous Than Its Outdoor Alternative [Bicycling]

Here’s and interesting concept for a kitchen – not only portable and compact, but completely collapsible too – the work of Burkhard Schäller, the Magdelena Gravity kitchen exhibited at the Talents section at Ambiente 2010 Consumer Goods …

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Collapsible kitchen – Kitchen Clarity

Apple’s famous desire for total control over its operations seems to have extended to its manufacturing facilities as we’ve come across Cupertino’s Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report, which details audits the American company has done of its overseas suppliers and the failures identified therein. The findings are pretty damning on the whole, with more than half (54 percent) of all factories failing to meet Apple’s already inflated maximum 60-hour work week, 24 percent paying less than the minimum wage, 37 percent failing to respect anti-discrimination rules, and three facilities holding records of employing a total of eleven 15-year olds (who were over the legal age of 16 or had left by the time of the audit). Apple is, predictably, not jazzed about the situation, and has taken action through train-the-trainer schemes, threats of business termination with recidivist plants, and — most notably — the recovery of $2.2 million in recruitment fees that international contract workers should not have had to pay.

It should come as no shock to learn that cheaper overseas factories are cutting illegal corners, but it’s disappointing to hear Apple’s note that most of the 102 audited manufacturers said Cupertino was the only vendor to perform such rigorous compliance checks. Still, we’ll take what we can get and the very existence of this report — which can be savagely skewed to defame Apple’s efforts (as demonstrated expertly by The Daily Telegraph below) — is an encouraging sign that corporate responsibility is being taken seriously. We hope, wherever your geek loyalties and fervor may lie, that you’ll agree Apple’s leading in the right direction and that its competitors should at the very least have matching monitoring schemes. They may have to swallow some bad PR at first, but sweeping up the dirty details of where gadgets come from is juvenile and has no place in a civilized world. Hit the source link for the full report.

Apple supplier audit reveals sub-minimum wage pay and records of underage labor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple supplier audit reveals sub-minimum wage pay and records of underage labor

Matthew Inman, aka “The Oatmeal,” is a former web designer turned comic artist. He subsists primarily on a diet of dead crickets and malt liquor. He also keeps a handsaw right next to his phone for emergencies.

Reprinted with permission from Matthew Inman. You can see more of his work on The Oatmeal or in 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth, the comic book which he self published last year.

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10 Reasons to Avoid Talking on the Phone [Humor]

Textbook publisher Macmillan is hip the ways of the internet, see! They’re rolling out a new product/concept/news item called DynamicBooks, which lets instructors change the content of online textbooks, even if they didn’t write them. And why not?

The practicality of the DynamicBooks concept will almost immediately be overshadowed by kneejerk criticism, so let’s just get that out of the way now: Yes, the editing method resembles Wikipedia, and yes, a professor could conceivably replace a passage that conflicts with his research, partially out of genuine belief but more out of spite against the guy who got his work published in A Comparative Gender Theorist’s Guide to Infant Osteopathy instead of said professor, but that’s not what DynamicBooks is for, or what it will be used for. In reality, it represents a ceding of control by a notoriously stodgy and monolithic industry, which an only be a good thing.

Think of it this way: With DynamicBooks, an instructor can order the chapters in the book to fit a practical syllabus; he can supplement the textbook directly, with links and extra material instead of disorganized handouts; he can essentially assemble an entire class worth of material atop the skeleton provided by the textbook, which is what professors do anyway, albeit in a much more complicated, ad-hoc fashion. As long as it’s clear—and this is very important—which parts of the material have been added after the fact, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

More to the point, it’s a step toward electronic textbooks, and away from the bizarre economy of print textbooks. DynamicBooks textbooks, which will accessible on an computer, as well as the iPhone (and presumably the iPad) will be much—about 50%—cheaper than print textbooks, which are sold at high prices with the expectation that they’ll later be resold.

MacMillan’s first 100 titles will start “printing” in August, just in time for this year’s crop of freshmen, uniformly equipped either with iPads, or about four months’ worth of Zune-style iPad flop jokes. [NYT]

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Macmillan’s Future Of Textbooks Looks a Lot Like Wikipedia [Ebooks]

When you are thinking up kitchen decorating ideas, you often think about the accessories like placemats, canister sets and window treatments but did you know.

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Kitchen Bar Stools Are A Great Kitchen Decorating Idea | home …

They say that one of the most essential piece of furniture that you could ever have in your own home are the kitchen cabinets, which could instantly create the.

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Designs of Contemporary Kitchen Cabinets to Choose From | home …

Venture into the behind-the-scenes world of growers, artisans and chefs, and learn how their passion for their work helps maintain and re-interpret the traditions and flavours of a nation’s food in the World Kitchen: Thailand …

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World Kitchen: Thailand | BookOffers.com.au

Venture into the behind-the-scenes world of growers, artisans and chefs, and learn how their passion for their work helps maintain and re-interpret the traditions and flavours of a nation’s food in the World Kitchen: Thailand …

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World Kitchen: Thailand | BookOffers.com.au

There’s a lot of hostility swirling around Foxconn these days. First, Foxconn security assaulted a photograph-snapping reporter in China. Now there’s a report that workers at a Mexican Foxconn factory burned the joint down after being forced to work overtime.

Apparently at the end of the work day on Friday, supervisors at the Foxconn factory in Juarez, Mexico weren’t quite ready to wrap up for the weekend, so they told the workers that the transportation trucks that take them home everyday were being held up at a military checkpoint. In the meantime, the workers were forced to keep toiling away without any extra compensation.

Well, that bit about the military checkpoint wasn’t entirely true, and when the workers found out that the trucks were just being blocked-in in the parking lot, they expressed their anger by setting fire to the gymnasium, the area of the building in which the factory’s finished computers and cell phones are stored.

This reportedly isn’t the first time the slimy managers at the Juarez plant had tried to strong arm their employees into staying overtime without extra pay, so the explosive reaction is not entirely surprising. Sometimes you just gotta fight fire with arson. [El Norte (sub. required) - Thanks Wilibaldo]

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Foxconn Workers Don’t Get Mad, They Get Even (By Burning Their Factory Down) [Revenge]

What is your future plan of decorating the most dynamic zone of your home-kitchen? Have you recently decided to make over this place? If you are really serious about adoring this place then you can refurbish your imagination with …

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Flourish Your Home Beauty With Amazingly Designed Kitchen Tiles