It's still very early beta, and there's a lot of polish missing from the current builds, but in the short time I've been using it, I've seen it make massive improvements. I'm really looking forward to future releases -- give it a whirl, send 'em some feedback, or hack some code.

Chandler gives you the flexibility to collaborate with others on projects at a variety of different levels. Take full advantage of all the Chandler Desktop features by collaborating with other desktop users in your office to share read-only or writeable calendars, tasks, messages, notes and keep track of priorities. You can also manage a shared task list or calendar with others who prefer to use their web browser directly with Chandler Hub, they don't even have to have an account on the server to access the information you share with them.

Chandler Hub is a common connection to share your schedule and coordinate with other people. Chandler Hub supports you whether you're a committed everyday user or just 'dropping in' to leave a comment. Begin collaborating with other people today without all the commitments. Find flexibility in Chandler Hub--all the tools you'll need in work collaboration or to just simply keep yourself organized.

Free the Net is a community-built network. Meraki provides the technology, but we rely on people to help build and grow. There are a number of ways you can help:

* If you can see the Free the Net signal, sign up for a free repeater to boost your signal.
* Volunteer to host an outdoor repeater on your roof or balcony. The outdoor units help spread the signal throughout your neighborhood and are critical to the growth of the network.
* Spread the word! Tell your friends and neighbors to sign up at http://sf.meraki.com.
* Check out the network map and keep yourself up-to-date on our progress.

But he made special mention of the popularity of games – and said they have reduced the amount of time young people spend outdoors "burning off energy"...

"Then there's a lifestyle element: there's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside."

But the Peltier coolers that Nextreme is touting are tiny—so tiny, in fact, that they can be integrated into a chip's packaging and used to target specific "hot spots" on the chip for cooling. If Nextreme's technology works as advertised, it is to the traditional Peltier cooler what the integrated circuit is to the vacuum tube...

Nextreme's big idea is to take those copper pillars and turn some of them into tiny Peltier coolers that can move heat off of small sections of the chip. (For a good, brief explanation of Peltier cooling, see the aforementioned Ars article.) As you can see from the diagram below, some of the copper pillars are still traditional power, ground, or I/O pads, while others would be there solely for the purpose of using the Peltier effect to move heat off of the chip.

In the 45-minute speech, Sarkozy declared the death of the 35-hour week, suggested that large companies may have to double or triple the part of their profit they are obliged to share with employees and vowed to replace gross domestic product with a more holistic indicator of economic welfare that he has commissioned from two Nobel laureates in economics, Amarthya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz. He also said that he would put a state bank in charge of defending French industry against sovereign wealth funds and other financial predators.

Saw the article you posted on Boing Boing about the five year old on the no-fly list. My son, also five, is on that same list and it's a nightmare. Every time we fly with him, we can't use the computer terminals to check in and the attendant has to call some never named government agency to make sure he's not a terrorist. Some attendants joke it off but some are insanely serious about it. His seat always goes unassigned (even if it was assigned when the reservation is made) which always causes problems.

I've tried everything that anyone has suggested. There's a TSA form that you can fill out for this situation, which I did, but they won't tell you if they've removed your name. We got him a passport -- that didn't work. We've tried booking the tickets with his full name (including middle name), that didn't work. We tried booking the ticket under Master Samuel Adams, with still no luck.

(Image: Coffee Beans, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from Jeff Kubina's Flickr stream)

Saturday, January 19
The Variety Preview Room
The Hobart Building, 1st Floor
582 Market Street at Montgomery, adjacent to Montgomery Street BART
Lounge and cash bar open at 6PM
7:00PM readings

Join us as we present PETER S. BEAGLE and MARK FERRARI. Each author will read a selection from their work, and it will be followed by Q&A from the audience, moderated by author Terry Bisson. Authors will schmooze and sign books afterwards in the lounge.

Miro combines BitTorrent (a downloading system that gets faster as more people download the same file) with the open VLC video player (which lets you watch every video format without worrying about which program you're using) and RSS technology, so that you can subscribe to any of thousands of channels and get the new videos when they're published. Miro comes from the nonprofit Participatory Culture Foundation, who also make Broadcast Machine, a tool that lets anyone publish channels for their own video.

Miro is also hiring hackers and fundraisers, so here's your chance to help keep the world safe for open video. Link

(Disclosure: I am on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit Participatory Culture Foundation)

Small Faces -- Itchycoo Park (1967)

An innocent song about teenage drug use and truancy. Itchycoo is slang for stinging nettle, an herb I swear by for pollen allergies.

The American Breed - Bend Me, Shape Me (1968) This band's only huge hit was a remake of the The Outsiders' song from year before.

Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine (1967)

Françoise Hardy -- Ce Petit coeur (1965)

The Osmonds -- Chilly Winds (1970) (No video, just this groovy pin-up.)

This song appeared in Pretty Maids All in a Row, an underrated creepy movie from 1970 written by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Roger Vadim, and starring Rock Hudson, who plays a high school football coach who rapes and murders the female students. If you want to watch it, you'll have to TiVo it, Torrent it, or buy a used VHS copy.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Sixties music videos
• 9 great old punk videos
• 8 punk and post-punk female singer videos

Here's another episode of the combination Photoshop tutorial / comedy routine, "You Suck at Photoshop." This time, Donnie Hoyle shows you how to remove an object from a photo (a cat) and replace it with another object (a stain). NSFW dialogue Link

Copyranter has been collecting old print advertisements that feature the World Trade Center.

Left: Pakistan International Airlines, 1979. Center: Asbestos Corporation Limited, 1981. Right: World Trade Center, circa 1984.

Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

But the good news is that the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group has gotten so big (37,000+ members!) that it's splitting into local groups that can effectively lobby their local Members of Parliament when Minister Prentice reintroduces this bill without consultations with Canadian artists, technologists, educators and archivists.

The Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group has attracted considerable media attention in recent weeks as its continued growth (over 37,000 members) and impact on the policy debate is a noteworthy part of the Canadian copyright reform story. While the public concern over a Canadian DMCA likely contributed to the decision to delay in the bill last December, indications over the past few days are that the legislation may be back on track. The bill is coming sooner rather than later and though it may feature some changes, Industry Minister Jim Prentice is pushing forward with a Canadian DMCA.

If true, Canadians must continue to press their elected officials to listen to the concerns of Canadians on digital copyright. To that end, I am delighted to announce that the Fair Copyright for Canada group is expanding with local chapters and website outside Facebook. The local chapters will organize local events, facilitate meetings with area Members of Parliament, and educate their communities about fair copyright. The initial chapters include Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, London, Montreal, Ontario East, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Windsor/Essex County, and Winnipeg/Manitoba. Many of these groups launched quietly over the holidays with great success - the Montreal chapter alone already has over 200 members.

My hope is that people will join both the national group, which will continue to be the home to a robust conversation on copyright, as well as their local chapter. If your community or school is not represented and you would be interested in getting involved, let me know.

See also:
Canadian DMCA cancelled (again) (for now)
Canadian DMCA to be reintroduced -- your action needed NOW!
Canadian DMCA stalled, won't be introduced (today, at least)!
Canadian DMCA rally in Calgary -- photos, videos, reports
O Canada! The Canadian DMCA version of the national anthem
Canadian DMCA introduced
CANADIANS! Tomorrow is your best chance to fight the Canadian DMCA! Event in Calgary, national phone-in
Canada's DMCA won't get any consumer rights added to it for a decade
Facebook group for fighting Canada's DMCA growing fast
Ranting hand-puppet tackles Canada's DMCA
HOWTO Fight Canada's coming DMCA copyright law
Canada's coming DMCA will be the worst copyright yet
Canadian DMCA: how it might have happened
CBC radio show needs your input for question with Minister responsible for Canadian DMCA
Canadian Industry Minister refuses to defend Canadian DMCA in public

The Wired Science blog posted a YouTube video of a liquid that changes color from clear to yellow to blue over and over again.

In 1973, the spectacular demonstration was perfected by Thomas Briggs and Warren Rauscher, two amazing high school science teachers.

Over thirty-five years later, chemists are still trying to fully understand how it works.

What they do know: Several reactions take place at once. One of them produces iodine, which gives the amber color. Hydrogen peroxide reduces other chemicals into iodide ions. Along with normal iodine, the charged particles interact with starch to create it a blue-black color. The speeds of those transformations are constantly changing. As one overtakes the other, the color suddenly changes.

Instead, I've provided network access to innumerable people -- people like me: I can't count the number of times I've had my ass saved by an open wireless network at the right moment (e.g., in good time to help me look up directions, a phone number, or flight details). I figure the more open wireless I provide to the world, the more people I'll turn on to providing their own open wireless access, and the more open WiFi I'm likely to find.

To me, it's basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea. But to some observers, it's both wrong and dangerous...

I remain unconvinced of this threat, though. The RIAA has conducted about 26,000 lawsuits, and there are more than 15 million music downloaders. Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research said it best: "If you're a file sharer, you know that the likelihood of you being caught is very similar to that of being hit by an asteroid."

I'm also unmoved by those who say I'm putting my own data at risk, because hackers might park in front of my house, log on to my open network and eavesdrop on my internet traffic or break into my computers. This is true, but my computers are much more at risk when I use them on wireless networks in airports, coffee shops and other public places. If I configure my computer to be secure regardless of the network it's on, then it simply doesn't matter. And if my computer isn't secure on a public network, securing my own network isn't going to reduce my risk very much.

Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?

I was one of the 165 participants, and wrote about what I learned from Boing Boing's community experiments, under the guidance of our community manager Teresa Nielsen Hayden: Link to "Online Communities Rot Without Daily Tending By Human Hands."

Here's a partial link-list of my favorite contributions from others:

Tor Nørretranders, W. Daniel Hillis, Ray Kurzweil, David Gelernter, Kai Krause, Clay Shirky, J. Craig Venter, Simon Baron-Cohen, Jaron Lanier, Martin Rees, Esther Dyson, Brian Eno, Yossi Vardi, Tim O'Reilly, Chris Anderson, Rupert Sheldrake, Daniel C. Dennett, Aubrey de Grey, Nicholas Carr, Linda Stone, George Dyson,Steven Pinker, Alan Alda, Stewart Brand, Sherry Turkle, Rudy Rucker, Freeman Dyson, Douglas Rushkoff .

Abrams started his talk by showing a wrapped box he's owned for decades. It's a "mystery package" he bought from Lou Tannen's Magic store in New York. It has a big question mark on it. He's never opened the box and never will open it because he says the mystery of what's inside the box is more interesting than anything that might be in the box. "It represents infinite possibility; it represents hope; it represents potential... mystery is the catalyst for imagination... maybe there are times where mystery is more important than knowledge."  

J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery -- the heart of Alias, Lost, and the upcoming Cloverfield -- back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box.

As a speaker, Abrams' enthusiasm -- for the construction of Kleenex boxes, for the quiet moments between shark attacks in Jaws, for today's filmmaking technologies, and above all for the potent mystery of an unopened box -- is incredibly infectious, and sure to appeal to everyone from budding filmmakers to die-hard Kill Your Televisionistas.

Browsing the web from Guatemala is always an adventure. Works okay when there's electricity, which hasn't been very steady while I've been down here over the last few weeks (there have been some big blackouts here related to a sketchy power grid, and unusually intense windstorms). What sucks worse than the lights dimming, or DSL or sat bombing out? Constant Google cockblocking. I keep getting these dumb-ass messages that say I'm spyware. Google demands a captcha input (en Ingles), and even after I comply, I'm blocked (now en Espanol). Other pals who are native chapines, or who live in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, are saying over IM that this is super super common for them down here, and friends in Ghana get this all the time, too. Gah. Sorry my ass!

Today on Boing Boing tv -- more subversive animated genius from David O'Reilly, a 22-year-old experimental filmmaker from Ireland whose style lies somewhere between Kubrick and Kaufman and Ketamine. We've featured his work before here, and were instantly smitten with his vectorpunk vibe -- so we asked him to cook up something exclusive for BBtv. This is the result. INNOVATE OR GTFO.

Part two of today's episode: more animated awesomeness from O'Reilly, with music composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. It's for MeeBox, a net-video-themed BBc3 TV pilot featuring Adam Buxton.

Link to BBtv post with video and comments.

Passengers board the first local train at any point, and it stops every 50 seconds for a period of 10 seconds. When the doors close, a gong sounds and the local platform starts moving. Now there is another signal and gates open for a second platform, or express, on which the passenger takes the major part of his trip. After ten seconds the gates close and the local slows down for another stop, while the express picks up to a 22 m.p.h. speed.

Noise of the system is at a minimum, and passengers are delivered at no more than 300 feet from their streets. All stations are controlled from one central point, all elements being so timed that there can be no hitches.

The University of San Francisco School of Law, Intellectual Property Law Bulletin is sponsoring "The Toll Roads: The Legal and Political Debate Over Network Neutrality," a symposium to increase awareness about network neutrality, bringing together lawyers, academics, economists, and technologists for a balanced debate on the issue. Panelists include Timothy Wu, Richard Clarke, Lawrence Spiwak, and an attorney from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, among many others. There's also a chance some surprise political figures may make an appearance...

When: January 26th, 2008 8 AM - 7 PM
Where: Fromm Institute on the University of San Francisco main campus
Web: http://www.netneutrality2008.org
Cost: Professionals (6.0 Units MCLE Credit): $100
Non-professionals: Free - $75 (see registration page for details)
Register: http://www.netneutrality2008.org/Registration.html