house

LED bulbs move in and mix up home lighting

In the space of a few years, I've gone from one lighting technology to another and now to three lighting types in my home. I suspect others will be in the same shoes as lighting options expand, notably those involving LEDs.

Eager to cut down my electrical load, I essentially converted to compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs) years ago. Recently, though, I've replaced CFLs with efficient LED bulbs and even energy-hogging incandescents to address an unfortunate feature of CFLs: turning them on and off frequently degrades their life.

CFLs are still a good deal both financially and environmentally. They … Read more

Obama wants you to watch his funny YouTube vid

The White House Correspondent's Dinner, an annual tradition where the media and political elite meet to roast/congratulate each other, with mixed results, just finished up. Seth Meyers of "Saturday Night Live" hosted the event, and you should be able to watch replays on C-SPAN if you're interested.

One new twist to the proceedings: The White House, which normally plays along with the event even though the chief occupant gets ribbed, has gone all in. Immediately after showing this video--a parody trailer based on "The King's Speech"--they released it on YouTube (via Twitter, of course).

The bit isn't LOL-worthy, IMHO. But it does contain jokes, and I think it's noteworthy that they're putting this out there for public consumption, at a time when much of the electorate seems particularly...susceptible to jokes. Even more so if they're easily accessible via Google.

Also, as The Atlantic.com's Gabe Snyder points out, the clip contains a Wu Tang Clan sample. Which is sure to upset someone (and please lots of us, too)

Meanwhile, you can see all 17 minutes of Obama's presentation here (much sharper, I think--good Fox News dig), via The Washington Post:

WikiLeaks releases secret Guantanamo prison files

A new classified data dump from WikiLeaks shines new light on the evidence, allegedly sometimes lacking, against the people that the U.S. government has held and is holding at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba.

The documents, provided in advance to news outlets including The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, and the U.K. Guardian newspaper, are classified at the "secret" level and include dossiers on individual prisoners, including their risk "assessment" by military evaluators. They were written between 2002 and 2008.

As of Sunday night, only a few dozen of the individual files … Read more

Obama jabs Republicans at Facebook town hall

PALO ALTO, Calif.--President Obama's visit here this afternoon to Facebook's campus was billed as an opportunity for him to "connect with Americans across the country" through a virtual "town hall" meeting.

But it also proved to be an opportunity for the president to throw political punches at Republicans in an ongoing tussle over deficit reduction, tax policy, and a looming spat over raising the debt limit.

A deficit reduction plan recently proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican House Budget committee chairman, is "fairly radical," Obama said. Ryan aims to reduce … Read more

Startup America gets Microsoft, Google, HP support

Microsoft, Google, Hewlett-Packard, and a host of other companies are providing funds and resources to the Startup America Partnership to further the group's goal of fostering the entrepreneurial spirit.

More than 15 companies will kick in a total of $400 million in money, services, training, and other benefits that will go directly to entrepreneurs trying to get their ideas and businesses off the ground.

Launched this past January with the backing of the White House and contributions from IBM and Intel, the Startup America Partnership tries to network entrepreneurs, investors, non-profit groups, and corporations in a bid to create … Read more

Obama moves forward with Internet ID plan

The Obama administration said today that it's moving ahead with a plan for broad adoption of Internet IDs despite concerns about identity centralization, and hopes to fund pilot projects next year.

At an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., administration officials downplayed privacy and civil liberties concerns about their proposal, which they said would be led by the private sector and not be required for Americans who use the Internet.

There's "no reliable way to verify identity online" at the moment, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said, citing the rising … Read more

Madama Butterfly to flutter in 3D

If you can't make it to London this summer, you can fake it with a 3D virtual visit to the Royal Opera House's production of "Madama Butterfly."

RealD, the 3D technology developer, will team up with one of opera's greatest venues and production companies to film the Puccini masterpiece in 3D for release in RealD 3D-equipped theaters.

The obvious challenge here is to get a decent-size moviegoing audience to care about the technology-rich extravaganza.

Don't shoot the singing-telegram messenger, but the truth is the average moviegoer isn't going to rush out to two-plus hours of opera regardless of how legitimately cool the technology that captures it. If they find opera stuffy and pretentious under normal entertainment circumstances, the advanced filming techniques will only render that tedium in unsurpassed depth and detail. … Read more

House gives final approval to nix Net neutrality

The U.S. House of Representatives voted this afternoon to overturn controversial Net neutrality regulations, a move that will invite a confrontation with President Obama if the Senate follows suit.

By a 240 to 179 vote that, as expected, fell largely along party lines, the House approved a one-page resolution that says, simply, the regulations adopted by the Federal Communications Commission last December "shall have no force or effect."

All but two Republicans backed the measure, while only six Democrats did.

"Congress has not authorized the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the Internet," said Rep. Greg … Read more

Privacy dispute tests Obama's earlier promises

An emerging dispute over electronic privacy is testing whether President Obama will live up to his promise to protect Americans' online rights.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice criticized changes backed by Internet companies and privacy groups that would update a 1986 federal law to extend greater legal protections to cloud-computing and mobile-device users.

Yet strengthening privacy laws is precisely what Obama pledged during the 2008 presidential campaign. He told CNET at the time that: "I will work with leading legislators, privacy advocates, and business leaders to strengthen both voluntary and legally required privacy protections." … Read more

Federal Web sites may go dark in shutdown

Many federal Web sites will go dark if the government shuts down tomorrow night, the White House indicated this afternoon.

A 16-page memo (PDF) to federal agencies says their Web sites may stay online only in a small number of situations, including tax collection and handling "exempted" activities such as payments and other functions that are paid for by previous annual budgets.

"The mere benefit of continued access by the public to information about the agency's activities would not warrant the retention of personnel or the obligation of funds to maintain, or update, the agency's … Read more