How could we resist a story involving robot-powered babies? The Ithaca College Tots on Bots project aims to mobilize infants with physical disabilities by setting them atop a "mobile robot" equipped with a Wii Balance Board to let the young operator steer by leaning -- which, it turns out, works pretty well. Additionally, the vehicle uses sonar to avoid nasty crashes and a remote control that an adult can use to take control. Further study has to be made before any long term developmental benefits can be ascertained, but in the meantime it does look like a lot of fun. See it in action after the break.

Continue reading Wii Balance Board-controlled robot a hit with toddlers in Ithaca (video)

Wii Balance Board-controlled robot a hit with toddlers in Ithaca (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Switched  |  Cornell University  | Email this | Comments

pickens writes "The NY Times reports on a digital camera put together at Kodak's Elmgrove Plant labs in Rochester, NY during the winter of 1975 from a mishmash of lenses and computer parts and an old Super 8 movie camera that took 23 seconds to record a single digital image to its cassette deck and using a customized reader could display the image on an old black and white television. Called 'Film-less Photography,' it took a 'year of piecing together a bunch of new technology' to create the camera which ran off 'sixteen nickel cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter.' When the team of technicians presented the camera to Kodak audiences they heard a barrage of curious questions including — 'Why would anyone ever want to view his or her pictures on a TV?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

How do you differentiate one portable HDD from the next? Well, let's see: You can bump the storage capacity up to 1TB. Or you can give the monkey a mohawk. Yep, that's pretty much it! The Rikiki Go supports USB 2.0, sports an aluminum case, and is available now (with 1TB capacity) for $150. There is also a 500GB version that's not yet in stock, but will be at some point for $90. PR after the break.

Continue reading LaCie Rikiki Go external HDD features 1TB storage, new and improved monkey

LaCie Rikiki Go external HDD features 1TB storage, new and improved monkey originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Engadget Spanish  |  LaCie  | Email this | Comments

after two days business trip.i back company yesterday.

read more

One of the big problems with drug and prostitution transactions is that they tend to involve a lot of cash, and cash is hard to launder. Taking credit card payments has never been easier via Square, which lets anyone swipe credit cards with their iPhone.

Sure, it leaves one heck of a paper trail, but you have to wonder if at least a few of those person to person transactions aren’t being done via that sexy startup. I certainly have.

Founder Jack Dorsey has told me that exactly zero drug or prostitution transactions have been completed through Square. I believe he believes that, but I wonder how he really knows for sure.

Anyway, I came across this very funny spoof video by Chris OConnell that just dives right in to exactly what I’ve been saying. Says Chris: “So I got my blow, and I got my 19 year old hooker. Life couldn’t be much better thanks to Square.”

Trust me, you’ll want to watch this:

CrunchBase InformationSquareInformation provided by CrunchBase

A unique spin on the concept of co-working space, Sunfire Offices was started three months ago by ex- Google engineering manager Niniane Wang and and ex-Facebook engineering manager Yishan Wong. While there are plenty of other co-working spaces in downtown Mountain View, like Hacker Dojo and Plug In Play,Wong and Wang, not satisfied with the available options, decided to create a co-working space of their own.

They found an office space and got funding from a number of angel investors including Keith Rabois and Justin Calbeck, who completely sponsored Sunfire Offices, meaning that Wong and Wang were then able to offer space rent free to other startups and individuals working on personal projects, “Our goal was to build a co-working space focused on top-tier talent.”
(They shied away from talking about a future business model.)

While it does incorporate incubator type qualities, the two emphasize that invite-only Sunfire Offices is not a incubator,“We’re optimizing for the quality of people, since they’re what really matter in a start-up,” says Wong. They wanted to “avoid the problem often associated with incubators: the theory that stronger startups don’t need an incubator so the startups that apply to incubators tend to be weaker ones, resulting in incubators naturally selecting for poorer startup performance.”

Unlike most incubators, the only obligation at Sunfire is to attend a weekly mixer where one of the sponsors’ portfolio companies does a pitch or demo. This benefits Sunfire sponsors because they end up getting first look at potential companies and Sunfire residents because they get exposure to potential investors and recruiters.

Looking for “aggressively productive individuals” as residents, Wang emphasizes that applicant pedigree doesn’t matter. But the the inevitable Google and Facebook connection is strong, “due to our backgrounds, we are able to source from a very high-quality pool – Niniane knows all the great early engineers at Google, and I know everyone from PayPal and Facebook.”

Aside from free rent, office residents gain the being around intelligent people/environmental aspect of working at a giant company while still maintaining a small scale. “Working in coffee shops or at home can be very lonely and unmotivating,” says Wang.

Wang also brings up the example of a Nextstop engineer who didn’t want to move to Facebook when Facebook acquired Nextstop — preferring to stay at a startup.

“We invited her to come work at Sunfire, during which time she worked on a small project of her own while talking with various companies associated with our sponsors and network. And just last week, she accepted a position at one of those companies as their first full-time engineer.”

A visit to the offices reveals an amazing view and a lot of people hard at work on some secret and not so secret projects including YouTube co-founder Jared Karim, former astronaut and Google Manager Ed Lu, and co-founders of iTeleport Jahanzeb Sherwani and Vishal Kapur.

You can get an invitation to the Sunfire weekly mixer (and maybe even to Sunfire) by contacting office manager (and former Googler) Elaine Yu or tag along vicariously as they eat their way through Castro Street.

In a rather small survey conducted by a young psychologist, Facebook was shown to have some interesting correlations with self-esteem and narcissism in young adults.

In a survey of 100 college students, young people with narcissistic personality traits were shown to exhibit Facebook activity that was distinctly more self-promotional. These people had “About Me” sections that referred to their intelligence and photos that were more about displaying the user’s physical attractiveness than about capturing memories with friends.

Narcissism is defined in this study as “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.”

For the average narcissist, Facebook “offers a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication.” More importantly for this study, social networking in general allows the user a great deal of control over how he or she is presented to and perceived by peers and other users.

The study postulated that narcissists would show more overall Facebook activity than average users and that their activity would be more self-promotional, either descriptively or superficially. The survey’s results showed “significant positive correlations between narcissism and self-promotional content in the following areas: Main Photo, View Photos , Status Updates and Notes.”

People who scored higher on the study’s narcissism test also spent more time on Facebook and checked it more times each day than their less narcissistic counterparts.

Male narcissists were more self-promotional in their “About Me” descriptions, using this section as an opportunity to highlight their intelligence and wit. Female users with narcissistic tendencies tended to use images in their self-promotion, uploading content that “include[d] revealing, flashy and adorned photos of their physical appearance.”

The researcher notes that this study is intended to be a preliminary look at nonynous social networking, a fairly new field for academic scrutiny. As we abandon the fake avatars and cryptic usernames of years past and begin associating our online identities with our real-world lives, our online activities begin to have more relevance to our true personality traits.

We’ve talked before about how social media relates to self-centered behaviors. Do you think that Facebook is overused by the more self-promotional of your friends? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

[ img credit: novembering]

Reviews: Facebook

More About: facebook, narcissism, researchs, tudy

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Ferroelectric isn't just a ridiculously fun word to say, it might just also be the future of computing. While that possibility is still a ways off, researchers have been making considerable progress in recent years, and a team from Japan's Tohoku University has now set a new record for ferroelectric data storage. That was accomplished with the aid of a scanning nonlinear dielectric microscope, which allowed the researchers to hit a data density of 4 trillion bits per square inch. As you might expect, the exact process is a bit complicated -- involving a pulse generator that's used to alter the electrical state of tiny dots on the ferroelectric medium -- but the researchers say that the technology is a leading candidate to replace magnetic hard drives and flash memory, or "at least in applications for which extremely high data density and small physical volume is required." Unfortunately, they aren't going so far as to speculate when that might happen.

Researchers set new record for ferroelectric data storage originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Gizmag  | Email this | Comments

theodp writes "Out of necessity, reports Slate, tech startups are changing the way workers are screened and hired. Take database technology startup RethinkDB, whose old-school recruiting effort — job boards, external recruiters — yielded hundreds of resumes, dozens of phone screens, and numerous four-hour meetings with viable candidates, but no one who fit their criteria. 'They [recruiters] can't tell the difference between the competent ones and the stars,' complained Y Combinator's Paul Graham. Instead, the RethinkDB founders turned to sites like Github.com and stackoverflow.com to pick up six people (they're still looking), a mix of full-timers and interns, both senior and junior. 'You can see the code being written and how technically accurate they are,' explained RethinkDB's Michael Glukhovsky."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you're like us, you're constantly on the hunt for the perfect small computer. Now, we're not saying we've found it in this new set of Zotac Zboxes... but we do like where they're coming from. The minimal slivers pack Ion chipsets along with Intel CULV CPUs, making for a power-sipping experience that can actually push a couple of pixels (a couple, not many more). The company is dishing out a few varieties of the mini PCs, all loaded with some variation of Intel's Celeron processors. The HD series (the NS21 and ND22) pack a Celeron 743 or SU2300 CULV (respectively), DDR3 RAM slots, a 2.5-inch hard drive slot, HDMI and DVI-I ports, along with NVIDIA's Ion GPU. There's also an ITX series, all sporting those same CPUs, a single PCI Express x16 slot, a handful of SATA / eSATA hookups, and HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA connections. All the systems have a slew of USB ports, the boxes can be mounted in four different positions (including on the back of a monitor), and though retail pricing hasn't been announced, it looks like at least the ND22 should list for around $270. Hit the source link for all the details, and More Coverage for a review.

Zotac's Zboxes are small, Ion-fueled, and cheap originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GadgetMix  |  Zotac  | Email this | Comments

The 2010 Emmy Awards are this Sunday, and NBC is using the ceremony to embrace social media in a big way.

NBC is using services such as Twitter, yfrog and Ustream to bring a more real-time experience to the event. These services will also let fans and viewers interact with Emmy presenters using social media.

Due to time-shift viewing and a growing number of viewing alternatives via cable or the Internet, network television ratings are in a period of decline. Award shows, which are historically considered tentpole events, haven’t been immune to this trend, either.

In 2010, the Golden Globes were broadcast live nationwide (without the standard tape delay), and the resultant ratings boost is just one reason that the 2010 Emmys will also be airing without delay.

Tweet to the Host

To play into this “live for everyone” angle, NBC has a special website set up for fans to send tweets to host Jimmy Fallon.

Fans can send messages using the site or the #imontheemmys hashtag along with a presenter’s name and a comment about him or her. Fallon may use some of these tweets as part of his introductions for these presenters during the live show.

NBC is also taking red carpet question requests for stars on its message boards.

Live-Streamed Backstage Show With a Twist

On Sunday night, red carpet arrivals will be streamed live on NBC.com, Ustream.com, AccessHollywood.com and Emmys.com. Red carpet live streaming has become a pretty standard online affair for award shows. What’s new for the Emmys, however, is that during the show itself, a live backstage show will be streamed online via NBC.com, Emmys.com and Ustream.com.

Not dissimilar to what CBS did with the Grammy Awards this year (which may have contributed to the show’s higher ratings), NBC will be having a backstage show with multiple cameras that fans can view from the Internet.

These locations include the producer’s table, control room (side note: if you ever want to see brilliance in live directing, watch this channel), the green room, makeup and the press room.

We actually think this is pretty innovative, as it provides a nice compliment to the live telecast. What we really like about this approach is that this isn’t just the press room, which would be the easy approach. By showing many aspects of the backstage process, fans and viewers can become more invested in the show itself.

Real-Time, Red Carpet Photo Sharing

Twitter service yfrog will also be participating in real-time fun with the award show. Yfrog has its own page that will be bringing fans photos and videos in real time from the event.

Starting today, celebrities will be posing for pictures from the yfrog Photo Booth; those images will instantly be delivered via Twitter.

On Sunday, Ryan Seacrest will be streaming his red carpet pictures and videos live and showing behind-the-scenes shots of the E! crew hard at work.

Yfrog is also aggregating images and videos tagged #Emmys and is offering live streams of tweets from Emmy nominees.

Will This Work?

NBC has a lot riding on the Emmys this year. General Electric is currently working towards closing a deal to sell NBC-Universal to Comcast, a deal that has caught the interest of the FCC and the Justice Department.

The network has maintained high ratings through the summer, but Sunday night will be an important time to advertise its new and returning slate of shows. Bringing in a large audience for the Emmys could help the network get off to a solid start once the fall television season officially starts.

By making the show live nationwide and tapping into social media to bring more of the experience to fans at home, NBC might just see its ratings increase.

As for us, well, we’ll be watching not just because we love award shows (we do), but because if Conan wins for Best Late Night show for the The Tonight Show, we really want to see what he says about NBC in his acceptance speech. Contractual rules be damned, we want fireworks!

What do you think of the social campaign the Emmys are launching this year?

Reviews: Internet, Twitter, ustream

More About: award shows, emmy awards, Emmys, television, twitter, ustream, yfrog

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

I promise this is my last word on the subject.

I had already promised myself, actually, that I wouldn’t write any more about my decision to quit Facebook, Linkedin, Foursquare, Blippy, Yammer, Dopplr and every other social network other than Twitter. But then I added Twitter to the list – deleting my 10,000+ follower account and returning to more traditional blogging – and suddenly all (social media) hell broke loose.

For reasons I can’t quite understand – it’s not like I’ve quit food or oxygen – my inbox has since been flooded with emails. Some are just standard notes of congratulations for cutting the cord while others scream that I’m a Luddite who doesn’t ‘get’ Twitter (by and large these are the same people who describe themselves as “social media ninja”s on their profiles: the modern day equivalent of those “My other car is the Batmobile” bumber stickers).

The majority of messages, though, are from people who are strongly considering following my lead, but are worried that their body or mind might not be able to cope with the shock.  How do I feel since quitting? Can I offer them any advice?

The semi-amusing thing is, this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this kind of email flood of congratulations, insults and pleas for guidance. It happened last October too: when I finally made the decision to quit drinking. Make of that what you will.

The difference is that, back in October, I completely understood the tsunami of mail. Millions of people struggle with alcohol addiction – and for those who do, it’s a serious problem. Any advice or encouragement could be the difference between life and death. Certainly it was for me.

But giving up Twitter? Seriously? Are there really people who can’t get out of bed in the morning without sending a 140 character update, just to stop their thumbs shaking from the night before? (The RT DTs?). Or addicts who surreptitiously tweet throughout the work day, from a phone hidden in their desk drawer, hoping that their workmates don’t find out? People who are unable to stop at just one “OH:”, sending more and more before they blackout, ready to start the whole Bukowskian cycle again the next day?

Judging by my inbox, the answer is yes, there are.

But, unlike with drink, I don’t feel their pain. In fact, giving up Twitter (and the rest) has been a veritable walk in the park. I’ve barely suffered any withdrawal symptoms, I don’t feel any sense of loss, and I’ve certainly not found it any harder to enjoy parties or talk to women without a phone in my hand (and I say that as someone who not long ago started dating a flight attendant after I tweeted about her on a plane. Seriously: I had a problem.)

I admit, though, it does feel odd. For more than two years I’ve been accustomed to sending half a dozen tweets a day, whenever something even vaguely notable happened. Lunch with a friend? Tweet. See someone nearly get hit by a car? Tweet. Think of a funny (ish) joke? Tweet. Fight with a friend or loved-one? Cryptic tweet. Like a Japanese tourist compulsively photographing everything he sees, it was almost as if something didn’t really happen unless it was captured in 140 characters and shared with the world.

At a stroke, that’s all changed. Now if I see someone nearly getting it by a car, my initial reaction is the same as before – “holy shit! someone just nearly got hit by a car!” – but that reaction remains inside my head. And yet, amazingly, even without my 140 character acts of vital citizen journalism the world has carried on turning. And what of jokes? Is my brain filling up with amusing observations and bons mots that, unless released, will cause it to haemorrhage? No. I just write them down in my notebook to be used later: an act which – and this did surprise me – gives me almost exactly the same satisfaction as sharing them with 10,000 followers.

The only downside, really, is the occasionally jarring sense that something is missing from my enjoyment of an experience. An involuntary twitch as I reach for my phone and realise I don’t do that any more. I imagine anyone who has quit smoking feels a similar way occasionally; particularly in postprandial or post-coital situations. But the feeling soon passes. Maybe I should start chewing gum?

As for the benefits: they’ve been both noticeable and persistent. For one thing I’ve rediscovered the joy of making notes, and then refining those notes – sharpening jokes and tweaking arguments, all using a pen and paper – prior to publication. I’ve also come to re-appreciate sharing thoughts with my actual friends – taking the time to email or text or IM someone who I actually know in the real world, to share something I think they alone would enjoy or appreciate. I’ve remembered what it feels like to laugh loudly at a joke without having to disrupt the flow of conversation for two minutes while I “overhear” it. I’ve become closer to my real friends, and more distant from total strangers. Which seems like the right direction for things to be moving in.

One of the other things I’ve been asked – probably fifty times – if whether I expect to stick to my decision over the long-term or whether, like others who have tried to quit Twitter before me, I’ll come crawling back in a few weeks.

My knee-jerk response is to scream “are you kidding me? I’ve been sober for 312 days. If I don’t miss that shit, then I think I’ll be fine without knowing what Guy Kawasaki thinks about the world.” (SPOILER ALERT: nothing)

My more, uh, sober answer, though, is disturbingly similar to the one I give about returning to the sauce: I don’t know if I’ll go back to it. Certainly my life is noticeably better without it, I have more time, I’m closer to my friends and I’m getting more work done. But who knows how I’ll feel tomorrow?

The only thing I do know is that, in terms of things that are actually hard to live without, I’m far more likely to succumb to the craving for delicious, delicious beer before I surrender to the almost negligible desire to send another fucking tweet.

John3 writes "Searching Google Maps for the Lincoln Memorial is returning the location of the FDR Memorial instead. Conservative bloggers smell a conspiracy since Glen Beck is holding his 'Restoring Honor' gathering at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow (August 28). Notes for the map listing on Google state 'This place has unverified edits'; so, did someone claim the listing and edit the location?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We know, half of you aren't even going to read past the headline before you start angrily banging away about Apple's admitted antenna gaff and the still-not-totally-fixed proximity sensor, but we're urging you to look deeper. Think harder. Critique your criticisms. In all seriousness, Apple's iPhone 4 garnered more attention (negative or otherwise) than any other phone released this calendar year, and for good reason -- in fact, Apple itself had to hold an emergency press event just to announce what could've been announced in a PR blast: everyone's getting a free case. That said, Cupertino has still managed to move millions of units in just a few months, and that demand doesn't seem to be dropping off at any significant rate. If you're one of the lucky (or unlucky) ones that have managed to procure Apple's latest iPhone, we're overly anxious to hear your thoughts on changing it. How would you have addressed the antenna issue? Would you have preferred a less drastic departure from the 3GS form factor? Would you have offered more colors than white and black? Thrown in Bluetooth 3.0 for kicks? Go ahead, the floor's yours -- just don't abuse it, cool?

How would you change Apple's iPhone 4? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Yesterday, Facebook held a developer’s garage event at their headquarters in Palo Alto. To kick things off, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to talk a bit about the history of Facebook. Notably, he focused on Facebook Photos as being a key catalyst that led to everything the social network is today.

He noted that when they launched the product, they didn’t have all of the features that their competitors did. For example, they didn’t have high-resolution photos and you couldn’t print them. But one thing they did have was the social element — and this changed everything.

“Those features by themselves were more important than anything else combined,” Zuckerberg said of the social elements of Facebook Photos. He then dropped the competitor bomb. “The photo product that we have is maybe five or six times more used than every other product on the web — combined,” Zuckerberg stated.

Wow. Everyone knows Facebook Photos is huge, but if Zuckerberg’s stats are accurate, it’s becoming YouTube-level huge compared to their competitors. Of course, what he means by “used” isn’t entirely clear — do they just browse more, or upload more as well? Either way, it’s massive.

And it was clear from both Zuckerberg and CTO Bret Taylor’s talk at the event that photos to them was the harbinger of things that eventually came — and will still come.

Taylor noted that he had been “brainwashed by Silicon Valley” before he saw and understood the power of Facebook Photos (he was likely working at Google at the time). He had been thinking like an engineer about the best way to organize photos on the web. But he quickly realized that “the best possible organization of photos is around people,” Taylor said.

“There are ten other industries waiting to have this type of disruption,” Taylor said noting the travel industry, e-commerce, and music as a few of them. Earlier, Zuckerberg agreed. Because of the social element, “every single vertical will be transformed.“
CrunchBase InformationFacebookInformation provided by CrunchBase

We’ve seen marriage proposals, political protests, high-profile resignations and daring escapes executed via Twitter; here’s a new one for the list of bizarre and significant tweets.

Ben Huh, founder and CEO of the Cheezburger Network and meme mastermind, has offered to buy link-sharing site Reddit for an undisclosed sum.

After approaching a few Reddit staffers privately about his desire to acquire the struggling site, he made the offer publicly via The Daily What and then tweeted his intentions for all the world to read.

Reddit is currently owned by Condé Nast, publishers of print publications from tech-focused Wired to fashion rag Vogue. The site went freemium just last month after its staffers found themselves in financially dire straits — an odd circumstance given the stature of the parent company. At that time, Reddit’s admins had been given a fixed budget for the site, and their Condé Nast-imposed bottom line was not being met. After around 6,000 Reddit members donated, the site was deemed “saved.”

It’s that sense of community that’s inspired Huh to make a bid for the site. “I’ve tried before,” he wrote to us in a private Twitter exchange, “and been told a flat out ‘not for sale,’ hence the public version.”

In Huh’s public offer, he wrote:

I believe that Reddit is one of the best communities I have seen on the Internet. I also believe that Reddit would benefit from more resources and less corporate interference. We can offer all of the above. And we’d love to buy Reddit and all those pesky, troublesome users that we love so much.

Condé, we’ll be waiting for a call.

Reddit’s traffic profile and meme-surfacing abilities fit beautifully with the Cheezburger family, we have to admit. And if anyone knows about printing paper, financially speaking, based on memes and critical masses of web traffic, it’s Huh.

But after being turned down in the past, do you think Huh will make an impression on Condé Nast with his tweeted offer? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Reviews: Internet, Twitter, reddit.com

More About: Ben Huh, Cheezburger, conde nast, reddit

For more Business coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Ricoh's released a new point and shoot, the G700. This little camera's water and dust resistant, it will supposedly withstand a drop of up to 2 meters, and its resistant to chemicals such as ethanol and hypochlorous acid, so shooting pics of the chemically-driven, zombie-infested apocalypse shouldn't be much of a challenge. Other than that, you've got a 12.1 megapixel sensor, a 5x optical wide-angle zoom lens, a 3-inch color LCD, and password protection. You know, so the zombies can check out your shots! This baby will be released on September 10th in Japan, but as of yet, there's no word on pricing or a US release.

Ricoh outs rather rugged, water-resistant G700 point and shoot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Let's Go Digital  |  Ricoh  | Email this | Comments

While checking into a Facebook Places location recently, one Mashable reader noticed a new tab: Photo Memories.

We’ve been unable to duplicate the same tab ourselves, which means Facebook may be testing this feature with a small number of users first before committing to a larger roll-out. But this offering is consistent with how Facebook has presented its newest feature.

At its launch, Facebook’s Vice President of Product, Chris Cox, described Places as a digital repository for all your location-based memories. He described a couple’s children being able to use Facebook Places data to pinpoint the spot of their parents’ first kiss, for example. But a large part of how we store our memories on Facebook and on the larger web is via images and photographs. Imagine not only being able to get textual clues about that first kiss but to also see images of your parents’ first date.

We can imagine that tagging images with a given location or uploading images of a specific location to that location’s Places page would fit nicely into how Facebook has positioned Places so far.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for confirmation that this feature is, in fact, being tested and may come to all users soon; we’ll update you as soon as we hear back from the company.

Photo Memories would further pit the social networking giant against startups such as Brightkite, which offers a core feature of uploading images about places. And a Facebook-driven, Places-based photo feature would also one-up startup such as Foursquare, which has yet to include a multimedia facet in its checkin process.

While we’re sure that Facebook will continue to add core features, such as photo and video support, over its Places location framework, we’re equally certain that the company will leave many other features — including potentially money-making ones such as social gaming — to third-party developers.

Are you seeing the “Photo Memories” section appearing in Facebook’s Places pages yet? Let us know in the comments what you think of the feature, and feel free to send us screenshots if you see any new ways the images are being integrated with location technologies.

[hat tip: Rob Gonda]

Reviews: Brightkite, Facebook, Foursquare

More About: facebook, Facebook Places, Photos, places

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix is reporting that an Indian technology company has been porting the ZFS filesystem to Linux and will be releasing it next month as a native kernel module without a dependence on FUSE. 'In terms of how native ZFS for Linux is being handled by this Indian company, they are releasing their ported ZFS code under the Common Development & Distribution License and will not be attempting to go for mainline integration. Instead, this company will just be releasing their CDDL source-code as a build-able kernel module for users and ensuring it does not use any GPL-only symbols where there would be license conflicts. KQ Infotech also seems confident that Oracle will not attempt to take any legal action against them for this work.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

While not the biggest Microsoft-related lawsuit news of the day, Microsoft just announced that it wants to take its patent infringement case against Canadian technology firm i4i to the highest level, seeking review by the US Supreme Court.

Last May, a federal court of appeals upheld the decision of a lower court that Microsoft had in fact infringed i4i’s XML patent (’449), by introducing Microsoft WORD in 2003 and continuing the XML editing capabilities through 2007. Microsoft was ordered to pay i4i $290 million dollars in fees and change the disputed version of Word.

i4i CEO Loudon Owen responded to Microsoft’s petition for a writ of certiorari, “This next step of filing a petition was anticipated — indeed, proclaimed for months by Microsoft. We continue to be confident that i4i will prevail.”

The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will review the case.
View this document on Scribd

CrunchBase InformationMicrosoftInformation provided by CrunchBase