Has U2 finally lost their relevance?

We go through the six stages that every 'It' band goes through -- eventually

By DARRYL STERDAN -- Sun Media

U2

It happens to the best of them. In fact, it only happens to the best of them. And it seems it's finally happening to U2.

After more than a quarter-century of virtually uninterrupted tenure as The Most Important Band in the World (TM), it would appear Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton have reached the ultimate plateau in a band's life -- the magical place where fame meets irrelevance.

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Do you agree or disagree with Darryl?

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Just look at the initial response to their 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon, in stores and online Tuesday. Oh sure, it's getting plenty of attention -- but not the same sort of attention as their previous discs. Despite its much-hyped global premiere in January, the upbeat leadoff single Get On Your Boots didn't have legs, barely denting the Billboard Hot 100 before it tumbled off the chart. Their performance at last month's Grammy Awards was met with yawns of disinterest, with many fans suggesting Bono seemed tired and out of breath. None of it bodes well for Horizon's prospects with the public, which seems to feel that with U2, they've been there, heard that and thrown away the T-shirt already.

Bet Bono didn't see that coming. Tell the truth, neither did we. But we did know it was bound to happen. As any music geek can tell you, there are several stages in the life of an artist. And every act that hangs around long enough walks the same path: Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bowie, Dylan, KISS, R.E.M., Madonna, Springsteen, and countless others. Granted, not all of them go through the stages in the same order or at the same rate. Some skip stages. Others repeat them. A few get stuck in one for most of their careers. But eventually, most get to where U2 now find themselves.

Of course, the band that blazed the trail -- like so many others -- is none other than The Rolling Stones. Now that U2 is catching up, let's follow the line that the British rock gods drew -- and that leads inexorably to the Irish icons' limited horizons.

STAGE 1
Baby Steps
Every act starts out the same: Lean, hungry, committed -- and convinced they're destined to rule the world. Any musician who tells you different is a liar.
- Rolling Stones: 1962-1964 -- From their formation to their first album. Fresh from the blues clubs, they were still basically a glorified cover band.
- U2: 1976-1981 -- From their formation to their first two albums. Boy started the ball rolling with I Will Follow, but the following dwindled after the sophomore-slump October, featuring the aptly titled I Fall Down.
See Also:
- Elvis' Sun Sessions
- The Beatles in Hamburg
- Bob Dylan's first album
- Nirvana's Bleach
- Madonna's first album

STAGE 2
Hitting Your Stride

You're not an amateur any more, but you're not yet at the top of your game -- artistically or commercially.
- Stones: 1964-1965 -- From their first album to Satisfaction. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started writing songs -- after famously being locked in a room together -- while the band's relentless touring made inroads in America.
- U2: 1983-1984 -- War and Unforgettable Fire. Okay, maybe Fire wasn't that unforgettable. But on War, Bono found his political feet with Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day. A glimpse of the greatness to come.
See Also:
- Metallica's Ride the Lightning & Master of Puppets
- R.E.M. from Reckoning to Life's Rich Pageant
- KISS' Hotter Than Hell & Dressed to Kill
- The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope
- Eagles' Desperado & On the Border

STAGE 3

At the Summit

The glory days when you can do no wrong. Everything you release turns to gold (and then platinum). Every show is a sellout and every award has your name on it.
- Stones: 1965-1972 -- From Satisfaction to Exile on Main St. The era of Jumpin' Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Street Fightin' Man, and nearly every other Stones classic. Even Altamont, Their Satanic Majesties Request and the death of Brian Jones couldn't stop them.
- U2: 1985-1990 -- Live Aid, Joshua Tree, Rattle & Hum. They played for millions. Joshua earned them their first Grammys. Even Bono's giant white flag (and equally outsized ego and ambition) couldn't stop them.
See Also:
- Bruce Springsteen from Born to Run to Born in the U.S.A.
- Elton John from Your Song to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
- Pink Floyd from Dark Side of the Moon to The Wall
- Michael Jackson from Thriller to Dangerous
- Nirvana from Nevermind onward

STAGE 4

Missteps & Stumbles

Self-indulgence, supermodels, substances and solo albums -- they all take their toll. And when you're at the top, there's only one way to go.
- Stones: 1973-1977 -- Goat's Head Soup to Black & Blue. Mick marries Bianca. Keith gets busted in Toronto. Bill Wyman makes solo albums. Things get so bad Mick Taylor quits the best-paying gig he'll ever have. Yep, it's only rock 'n' roll -- but they've lost it, lost it, yes they have.
- U2: 1991-1999 -- Achtung Baby, Zoo TV, Zooropa, Pop. Bono called Achtung "the sound of four men trying to chop down The Joshua Tree." It worked. High-concept tours with Bono as MacPhisto, umpteen TV screens and giant lemons didn't help. On the plus side: Clayton didn't marry Naomi Campbell.
See Also:
- Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his cousin
- KISS solo albums
- Van Halen hiring Gary Cherone
- Britney Spears shaving her head (and marrying Kevin Federline, and, and, and ... )
- Virtually every decision Axl Rose made between 1995 and 2008

STAGE 5

Reclaiming the Throne

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there were no second acts in American lives. Maybe he was right -- but everybody know there are encores in rock 'n' roll. And every band gets one. Sometimes more.
- Stones: 1978 -- Some Girls. Revitalized and challenged by the no-nonsense spirit of punk, they shake off the cobwebs, reawaken their inner rockers and produce their last undeniably brilliant work. And their biggest-selling CD to date.
- U2: 2000-2006 -- All That You Can't Leave Behind & How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. As Bono put it, they reapplied to be the best band in the world. And they got the job by getting back to basics with straightforward songs and shows that connect with fans.
See Also:
- David Bowie's Let's Dance
- Tina Turner's Private Dancer
- AC/DC's Back in Black
- KISS' reunion tour
- Led Zeppelin's 2007 reunion concert

STAGE 6

The Endless Plateau

You'll always be huge. You'll sell out stadiums. You might even make some great albums. But you'll never be the It Band again. You're too big, too rich, too coddled, too removed from the streets, the kids and the zeitgeist -- no matter how much your personal assistants and image consultants assure you otherwise.
- Stones: 1980 - ? Everything from Emotional Rescue to A Bigger Bang. Some of it's good. Some of it's bad. But none of it matters.
- U2: 2009 - ? It begins with No Line on the Horizon. Who knows how it will end? With one final return to greatness? Or with The Edge falling out of a coconut tree?
See Also:
- Rod Stewart
- Paul McCartney
- Madonna
- Bon Jovi
- Michael Jackson

Good Chunk of Wow: Cool New Dutch Coin

Matthew Dent's new coinage for the UK was pretty great, but this Dutch commemorative coin is a fully contemporary chunk of wow.

On the front, the names of famous Dutch architects form an image of the queen while some Dutch architecture books on the back form an outline of The Netherlands. The design was done using free software running on Ubuntu/Debian. (via design observer)

Jimmy Fallon Promises More Gaming Exposure on 'Late Night'

New 'Late Night' host says they'll treat game releases "like movie premieres."

By Kris Pigna, 02/28/2009
Ever wondered why big new game releases don't get the same promotional attention on late night talk shows as new movie or music releases? Well, sure, part of that has to do with the relative lack of recognizable star power in gaming, but it appears it's something that new Late Night host Jimmy Fallon intends to correct.

Speaking to Canada.com (via Joystiq), Fallon -- who follows in the footsteps of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien when he takes the reigns of Late Night starting Monday -- talked about how his show will treat gaming differently. "We're going to treat a videogame premiere as if it was a movie premiere," Fallon promised. "My generation grew up with the computer. We grew up with the Internet. We live in a videogame type of world -- videogames are second nature to us. Games make more money, as an industry, than the film industry."

Fallon went on to explain that he's a tech-savvy guy in general; "I want tech people to come on my show, whether it's Bill Gates or the guy who designed the new Palm Pre, to talk about new inventions. I want to know what makes it so great," he said.

Sure, replacing Conan O'Brien will be a monumental task, but we have a feeling this will at least earn the sympathies of gamers. It seems like a good fit, anyway -- after all, how many people who are up and watching television at 12:35AM on a regular basis aren't at least a little bit interested in gaming, anyway?

Best Home Server Software

By Jason Fitzpatrick

Media files, data synchronization, and remote backups, oh my! Home computing has advanced to a point where it's practical to run your own home server, and we're running down the five best tools for the job.

Photo by Rudolf Schuba.

Earlier this week we asked you to tell us what software you used to power your home servers and add that extra kick of convenience and power to your home networks. After tallying up the votes we're back to share the top five contenders for the home server championship belt. The following server implementations cover a broad spectrum of solutions ranging from install-it-and-forget-it to tinker-your-way-to-perfection and everything in between.

FreeNas

FreeNAS is by the far the most bare bones home server software in the top five. More specifically, FreeNAS is an extremely minimal distribution of FreeBSD. How minimal, you ask? You can run FreeNAS off a 32MB flash drive. Designed to be an absolutely skeletal operating system to maximize the resources devoted to storage FreeNAS is great for when you want a simple operating system that leaves every hard drive bay and disk platter wide open for file storage goodness. Despite being so slim, FreeNAS is still feature packed, including support for BitTorrent and remote web-based file management via QuiXplorer; it even serves as the perfect iTunes music server. You can boo FreeNAS off nearly any media: hard drives, optical discs, floppy disks, and flash-based media. It has support for both hardware and software based RAID, disk encryption, and management of groups and users via local authentication or Microsoft Domains. Even an old dusty Pentium III can become a headless file-serving powerhouse with the addition of a basic $20 SATA PCI card to pack it full of modern hard drives, thanks to FreeNAS's scant 96MB of RAM requirements.

Ubuntu Server Edition

Ubuntu Server Edition shares the ease of use that has catapulted its desktop-edition sibling to popularity. The automated LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) installation makes installing the core components of a robust server a walk in the park compared to manually configuring each component on your own. While configuring Ubuntu isn't going to be as easy as grabbing a pre-configured Windows Home Server off the shelf at your local Best Buy and plugging it in, there are a wealth of applications to help you integrate your Linux based home server with the rest of your network. It won't be as straight forward as using Windows Home Server or a Time Machine backup, but Ubuntu is more than powerful and capable enough to handle all your media streaming, remote back up, and file serving needs. We've covered using Ubuntu as the basis for a home media server before, so if you're considering trying it out check out how to build a Linux media server and build yourself an affordable media server to get an idea of what you're in for.

Apache

Apache is the only entry in the top five that isn't a completely stand alone server package. Apache is, however, open source and cross platform; it support a dozen operating systems; and it's the backbone of many of your fellow readers' home server operations. Because of its widespread adoption and extreme compatibility with a variety of platforms, we're including it here. No matter what operating system you throw on your home server, you're almost guaranteed that you can run Apache on it. Nearly four years ago we covered how to set up a personal web server using Apache, and it's still relevant and worth a look for getting an idea what the setup entails. While you're at it, you may also want to try setting up a home Subversion server with your Apache installation for keeping track of file revisions.

Debian

Why use Debian for a home server? There are over twenty five thousands software packages available for Debian, and the operating system supports 12 unique hardware architectures. There's a a slim-to-none chance you've got a computer that can't run it. Like Ubtuntu—a Debian derivative by the way—you can configure this flexible operating system to do nearly anything you can imagine, from serving media and remote backups to running your own web server with a wiki and running your own mail server. Like other Linux distributions, Debian can be used to run a low-power and headless server when run without a GUI and using remote administration. Along with FreeNAS, Debian is a prime candidate for turning an aging computer into a quiet, tucked-in-the-basement server.

Windows Home Server

If your home is filled with Windows-based computers—which the average American home certainly is—it's tough to go wrong with Windows Home Server. It isn't free, and until recently you couldn't even buy it separately from the home servers sold by Hewlett Packard and others—but even though it has the distinction of being both the only commercial and closed-source software package on the list, that doesn't mean you should dismiss it out of hand. Windows Home Server stands definitively as the most Average Joe-friendly server implementation on the list. Not only is it the only server package you can buy pre-configured and installed in a ready to go off-the-shelf server, but Microsoft has gone out of their way to make the experience of using Windows Home Server as transparent and painless as possible for the end user. In fact, many Lifehacker readers expressed the "It just works" sentiment when logging a vote for Windows Home Server. Once you have all your computers connected to your Windows Home Server, you'll have a centralized backup location that supports up to 10 remote PCs and indexed remote file storage. Printers are shared and there is easy to use remote server access to log into your archives from anywhere in the world. Files are no longer lost in a mass of drives, add a few terabyte drives to a Windows Home Server and you'll never wonder if that movie file is on the F, G, or H drive again. Windows Home Server spans drives using Drive Extender so that files are located in a single folder namespace, sans drive divisions. The most recent update of Windows Home Server even adds an option to backup the server itself to external drives for extra data redundancy. Since the Microsoft site for Windows Home Server is heavy on promotion but low on actual screenshots, check out our screenshot tour for more.

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Now that you've seen the contestants vying for the title of best home server, it's time to log your votes to see who will go home with the belt—and the task of storing your mountains of media files and remote backups.

If you have tips or tricks for running a home server, sound off in the comments below. Many readers will be considering running a home server for the first time after reading over the top contenders above, so your experience (and accolades) could help them find a home server package that works for them.

Microsoft shows a glimpse at the future of computing and the people who can afford it

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 9:44AM

Hey, want to know what the future looks like? Okay, how about what Microsoft thinks the future will look like? If you're still reading, Stephen Elop, Microsoft's Business Division President, recently presented that vision as part of this year's TechFest. In an embedded video below you can get a glimpse, which includes plenty of augmented reality, a personal identification device that could (finally) replace your wallet, and naturally lots and lots of Surface action -- extending from tables to walls and beyond. Some of these conceptual clips are old, but overall it looks like something of a computing utopia to us, and according to Elop these are all representative of currently active projects. But, with the company shedding employees and surely focusing on tangible revenue right now, we're wondering how long they'll stay that way.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

Casting Out Devils, BMW’s 7 Becomes More Heavenly

2009 BMW 750Li. More Photos >

By LAWRENCE ULRICH

Published: February 26, 2009

THE BMW 7 Series has long been a car for, shall we say, the mature gentleman who wants a gold-watch reward without the whiff of impending retirement.

More on This Car

2009 BMW 7 Series

Multimedia

Slide Show

Overview: 2009 BMW 7 Series

Compared with sumptuous but conservative competitors — the Mercedes S-Class, the Jaguar XJ and the Lexus LS 460 — the BMW says of its owner, “My hair may be gray and I may wear funny hats in Boca Raton, but you won’t catch me doing 55 in the fast lane.”

Unfortunately, the delights of the 7 Series, which include blowing away rosy-cheeked lads in Subarus, had become weighed down by baggage. The often-derided iDrive controls made it hard to tune in Neil Diamond without wanting to punch out the display screen. And while I usually have no beef with icy Germanic interiors, the outgoing model took the dominatrix-in-Berlin theme too far; no flagship luxury sedan should make people suffer for their driving pleasure. Cabin demerits included obtuse controls and rigidly minimalist appointments.

That’s why the 2009 7 Series is such a double delight, whether in standard (750i) or stretched (750Li) guise. Yes, the new 7 is faster, nimbler and more fun than any plus-size sedan has a right to be. But with all due respect to the Bavarian engineering on display, that’s almost an easy birdie on the BMW course. More surprisingly, the big BMW has ditched its misanthropic ways to embrace anyone in its rich presence. And rich it is, with the 750i starting at $81,125 and the 750Li topping out around $112,000 with every conceivable option.

The 7 arrives just as Chris Bangle — that’s his picture with the dictionary citation for “controversial” — departs BMW after 16 years as design director. And it was the last-generation 7 Series of 2002 that spawned the term “Bangle butt,” a snarky characterization of that car’s jutting, coffin-lidded trunk.

In Mr. Bangle’s defense, talk is cheap and BMWs are not. Actual buyers, as opposed to dittoheads on car blogs, made the departing model the best-selling 7 ever. In the same vein, be wary of revisionist nonsense suggesting that the new 7 succeeds because it erases Bangle’s memory faster than a Communist re-education camp.

Those willing to remove their anti-Bangle blinders will see the latest car as a clear evolution of his work. Certainly the 7 looks better, yet it is no mea culpa. All the cues are there — even a slimmed-down Bangle booty — but they are better integrated.

I began my testing in the short-wheelbase 750i, whose ski-sack pass-through made it ideal for a quick ski trip to Vermont. Later, I switched to a glossy black 750Li. The preschool ease with which I linked my Bluetooth phone, address book and iPod was the first omen of a great road trip.

The new iDrive, defying expectations, has gone from worst to first in the wacky world of rotary-knob systems controllers. It essentially mimics the best features of Audi’s M.M.I. system and in some cases improves on them. Nearly all the infuriation is banished — buried submenus, illogical functions, stingy displays, even the gummy knob itself. Toggling between menus is now a simple left-or-right operation; call up a radio station, press the downsized iDrive button and file it as a preset.

At 10.2 inches, the high-resolution display screen may be the largest I’ve seen in a production car, big enough to contain split-screen maps plus a submenu.

Ease of use extends to Driving Dynamics Control, with simple up-down buttons to range through four settings (from comfort to sport plus) that urge the steering, suspension, throttle and transmission to ever-snappier levels of performance. The 7 is still a driver-first car, with basic-yet-gorgeous analog gauges and a serious mien. But this 7 is less stark inside, with warmer finishes like a flowing wedge of wood along the instrument panel. Seats are a long-haul fantasy, with built-in heating and ventilation, an optional massager and an additional adjustment for the upper seatback. As before, storage is meager up front, and at 14 cubic feet, the trunk is fairly puny in the big-car league.

The rear seat is the Rorschach test for owners. Stretched 5.5 inches, the long-wheelbase 750Li has a lounge-worthy 44.3 inches of rear legroom, two to three inches more than key rivals. The 750i is nearly 100 pounds lighter, but loses nearly six inches of rear kneeroom.

In the past, I’ve favored the short-bus 7, but now I’m inclined to go long: the 750Li gives up almost nothing in performance, so at these prices you may as well treat passengers to the decadent back seat with its cute carpeted footrests. And this time, BMW created a length-disguising roof for the 750Li.

Naturally, BMW engineers couldn’t resist showing off. Options include a camera-based lane-departure warning that vibrates the steering wheel when you stray over lane markers. There’s a blind-spot monitor, a backup camera and side-view cameras in the front bumper that let you see around corners — useful for spotting a pedestrian as you’re nosing out of a parking garage.

The latest infrared night vision system highlights a pedestrian in your path by wrapping the person in an animated on-screen border; it can also flash a warning in the heads-up display.

Some of this technology is of debatable necessity; night vision will have my vote when it can help detect and splatter zombies. But on a darkened two-lane road in Vermont, the new high-beam-assist feature proved pretty slick. Once activated, the system automatically dimmed the brights when it sensed an approaching car, then flicked them back on the instant the car passed. Allow me also to praise the toasty heated steering wheel, a feature that I find more beneficial than seat warmers.

Active front and rear steering, part of a $4,900 sport package, turns the rear wheels opposite the ones in front at lower speeds for easier maneuvering. With a low-speed steering ratio that requires 2.1 revolutions from full left to full right — compared with 3.1 in normal operation — the pivoting rear wheels reduce the turning circle by more than two feet, to a class-best 39.4 feet. Above 50 m.p.h. the rear wheels turn in tandem with the fronts to increase stability and comfort by generating less lateral turning force.

That sport package also adds 19-inch wheels, a sport steering wheel and active antisway bars to reduce body lean.

The only AWOL option is the full Internet access available to Europeans. For now, liability concerns will keep Americans from posting chocolate-covered-baby photos on Facebook while at the wheel. But next year, BMW will roll out the first all-wheel-drive 7-Series in the model’s five generations.

Like the compact 3 Series sedan and even tinier 1 Series coupe, the 7 has adopted dual turbochargers to bump up the power from a relatively small engine. Here, a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 develops 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque — much more torque than any direct rival makes, and only 15 pound-feet less than Mercedes’s S63 AMG, a $135,000 hot rod with a monumental 6.2-liter V-8.

Drop the hammer and the 750i blows from 0 to 60 in 5.1 seconds. Yes, this four-wheel McMansion is faster than the much smaller 335i, and quicker than the previous 12-cylinder 760Li, too. Alas, the mileage is estimated at 15 m.p.g. in town, 22 on the highway, for the 750i.

A slick double-wishbone front suspension, a first for a BMW passenger car, combines with computerized shock absorbers. The longer model adds a standard self-leveling rear suspension.

During a four-hour jaunt through the Hudson River Valley, I thought of all those digital zeroes and ones whirring around to increase the 7’s uncanny capability. Yet the car still feels communicative and natural, not an automaton.

Pricier sedans like the Bentley Flying Spur and Mercedes S-Class AMG, pushed near their limits, still betray some 2.5-ton insecurity, a sense that it’s time to back off and drive as if you’re in a normal car. The BMW is nothing like that. In normal or comfort mode, the car is cushy, yet seriously sporty. Move up to sport or sport-plus mode, and the BMW hustles with almost indescribable brio. The only big sedan that feels this athletic is the Maserati Quattroporte, which also costs significantly more.

Of course, the 7 remains the most expensive BMW, one reason you rarely see a 20- or 30-something at the wheel. But whether you’re a snowbird or a spring chicken, the car will trim hours off your next Florida getaway.

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INSIDE TRACK: Good things in a big package.

This Weed Bust Could Pay for Itself

70.photobucket.com — I saw an article on Digg which referenced a large drug bust and I decided to estimate the cost of the annual salaries of those involved, plus consider some other associated costs. Turns out if the confiscated marijuana was legal and taxed it could cover those costs!

Modern Showers and Creative Shower Heads

February 28th, 2009

Modern showers and creative shower head designs from all over the world.

Pocket Shower

This tiny gizmo unfolds to reveal a high performance waterproof reservoir that holds a mighty ten litres of water. The black fabric will (given a sunny day) warm the water up in no time. [link]

Tosca Oasis Shower Panels

Modern European luxury shower panels from Tosca line by Visentin. [link]

Ishi Shower by Lockie von Moger

Besides looking good on the wall, Ishi shower features a slider that allows you to control the flow of water. Convenient pause button allows you to pause the flow mid-way so that you can lather-up the soap and then resume for the rinse. [link]

WaterTile Rain Shower Panel

To further heighten your custom showering experience, WaterTile Rain shower panel provides targeted water delivery where you need it most with four 54-nozzle fully adjustable spray-heads. [link]

The Aquavolo Shower

Creative waterfall shower becomes rain shower in one flip. [link]

Hansgrohe Raindance Rainmaker

Rainmaker shower system enriches the water with drawn-in AIR to create voluminous raindrops from a conventional shower spray. Unlike with a conventional continuous “spaghetti” shower spray, the subjective perception of the water coming into contact with the skin is more gentle. [link]

Gas Mask Shower

Chris Dimino has turned a gas mask into a shower head. [link]

Elemental Spa Shower

Part plumbing fixture, part architecture, the SATI and SANGHA shower heads are part of the new Elemental Spa collection by Dornbracht. [link]

Pipe Shower

Floor mounted industrial style shower design from Boffi. [link]

Vola 50 Shower Head

Designed by Teit Weylandt, Vola 50 shower head features 5 parallel bars arranged horizontally, each comprising of 15 nozzles. [link]

Euridice Glass Shower Heads

Modern glass shower heads designed by Ritmonio. [link]

Eco Drop Shower

After showering for a long time, the concentric circles will rise to force you to stop showering and save water. [link]

Charade Orchidea Trio Shower Head

This shower head uses three shallow domes to form one giant shower head. Each head features three rings of anti-scale transparent silicon nozzles that rain sensuous streams of water. Combined, the three heads are then set into a larger circular body. [link]

Drops Lighted Shower

Imagine standing under a beam of light that highlights each shimmering droplet of water as a shower of refreshing water cascades down upon you. Sound nice? Then the illuminating showering experience of the Drops Lighted Shower from Cisal is definitely for you. [link]

Jet Shower Head

The X-Touch head is a jet shower head from Newform that juts down from the ceiling like a shiny pipe. [link]

Geo 180 Shower

Modern tub by Kos of Italy combines a whirlpool option with a cascading ceiling mounted shower head that doubles as a soothing mood light. [link]

DF50 and DR50 Shower Heads

Totally stripped-down forms of pure steel, the DF50 and DR50 shower designs are striking industrial style shower heads from Balance. [link]

Viteo Outdoors Inverted Shower

Designed by Danny Venlet, the shower sits on the ground and shoots water up 4 meters in the air. It’s like a super-bidet! You activate the water stream by stepping on a little button in the middle of the unit. [link]

Amazon Caves to Snippy Authors: Kindle's Text-to-Voice Feature Now Optional

By Dan Nosowitz

We reported the Author's Guild's litigious anger about the Kindle 2's text-to-voice feature, claiming it violates audio book copyrights. It's an arguable position, but Amazon has gone ahead and caved to the literate man.

Amazon has backed down for the Guild's comfort rather than for any legal motivation, since it's pretty clear that a robotic reading isn't the same as an audio book. "We strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat," Amazon said.

But instead of removing the feature, Amazon has simply made it optional, so publishers can decide for themselves what's best for their property. That means it's unlikely the much-advertised (though not necessarily much-loved) feature is going to be too useful for Kindle 2 owners. We're not thrilled, since the Guild has no real legal leg to stand on and seems to need Amazon more than Amazon needs them, but then again, we're not fancy-pants authors. [CNET]

I'm a fancy-pants author and I say this is crap! -JC

Poor Joe the Plumber Looks Lonely at His Own Book Signing

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville

Never have I longed to be in DC so much as reading about this splendid event.

Joe the Multi-Faceted Hat-Wearer puts on his "Writin' Hat" to sign autographs last night at a Borders in DC, where "about 11 people wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement" who he addressed "from behind a lectern and with a microphone … that seemed unnecessarily formal."

Never have I longed to be in DC so much as reading about this splendid event:

The only heat generated by Joe's appearance last night came when a young man named Jabari Zakiya recounted great moments in American racism (slavery, annihilation of Native Americans, segregation, etc.) and asked Wurzelbacher if the "hegemony" of the white man in America is "doomed" now that five states and the District of Columbia have majority minority populations.

Joe replied that he believes "our American heritage is being torn apart" by flag burners, critics of the military, and those who mock Christian values. He expressed his admiration for patriotic immigrants, and said he dislikes terms like African American and Asian American ("We're all Americans," he said). For some reason, he concluded by saying, "America has always been a kick-butt, take-names kind of country."

Wow.

The event was scheduled to last three hours, but ended after 55 minutes, with Joe having sold a total of five books.

Fan created NIN double audio release hits torrents

professionally mastered audio release - 2009-03-01

After two rounds of intense torrent testing, art work updating, a skipped dinner replaced by ice water, and a trip in to work at 3am to take advantage of the fast internet, it comes with great excitement (and even more relief) to present to you the audio release of Another Version of the Truth.

This double-feature audio torrent captures the final stages of the Nine Inch Nails: Lights In The Sky 2008 tour.

'Las Vegas' - consists of a fully fan co-ordinated, recorded, and produced version of the final show in Las Vegas, mixed and mastered from a variety of hi-quality fan audio sources.

'The Gift' - takes footage supplied by Nine Inch Nails from 3 different shows in the final part of the tour, edited and mixed together by us to get the best of each show.

The torrent is available in either 320kb MP3 or FLAC.

Thanks to all involved from the thisoneisonus.org community that have helped this project move at such a fast pace.

- aaron

Struggling States Look to Unorthodox Taxes

By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: February 28, 2009

In his 11 years in the Washington Legislature, Representative Mark Miloscia says he has supported all manner of methods to fill the state’s coffers, including increasing fees on property owners to help the homeless and taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, most of which, he said, passed “without a peep.”

And so it was last month that Mr. Miloscia, a Democrat, decided he might try to “find a new tax source” — pornography.

The response, however, was a turn-off.

“People came down on me like a ton of bricks,” said Mr. Miloscia, who proposed an 18.5 percent sales tax on items like sex toys and adult magazines. “I didn’t quite understand. Apparently porn is right up there with Mom and apple pie.”

Mr. Miloscia’s proposal died at the committee level, but he is far from the only legislator floating unorthodox ideas as more than two-thirds of the states face budget shortfalls.

“The most common phrase you hear from the states is, ‘Everything is on the table,’ ” said Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst with National Conference of State Legislatures, who predicted the worst financial year for states since the end of World War II.

Nowhere is that more true than California, where Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a freshman from San Francisco, made a proposal intended to increase revenue, and, no doubt, appetite: legalizing and taxing marijuana, a major — if technically illegal — crop in the state. “We’re all jonesing now for money,” Mr. Ammiano said. “And there’s this enormous industry out there.”

In Nevada, State Senator Bob Coffin said he would introduce legislation to tax the state’s legal brothels, a fee that would be “based on the amount of activities.” And unlike the Washington porn proposal, which drew the ire of the adult entertainment industry, Mr. Coffin’s plan has the backing of the potential taxpayers, in this case brothel owners who employ women as independent contractors.

“I think they figure if they become part of the tax stream, the less vulnerable they will be to some shift in mores,” he said.

Hawaiian legislators were also considering capitalizing on another potential shift in public attitudes when they proposed legalizing same-sex unions, which supporters say could help the slumping tourism trade.

In Massachusetts, meanwhile, state legislators have introduced a proposal to build two resort-style casinos, including one in Boston. A similar push died last year in the State House of Representatives. But Representative Martin J. Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat and co-author of the new casino bill, said a $2 billion budget deficit might have changed some minds.

“Every state in the nation, including Massachusetts, needs to figure out a way of raising revenues,” Mr. Walsh said. “So we need to be creative.”

Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, said many lawmakers were loath to tap more traditional tax sources during a downturn. “What’s pushing it is this incredible desire to raise revenue,” Mr. Pattison said. “But it’s coupled with the desire not to raise the general and sales and income taxes.”

Whether such proposals can pass is another issue, though each idea has its supporters. Betty Yee, chairwoman of the California Board of Equalization, the state’s tax collector, said that legal marijuana could raise nearly $1 billion per year via a $50-per-ounce fee charged to retailers. An additional $400 million could be raised through sales tax on marijuana sold to buyers.

The law would also establish a smoking age — 21 — effectively putting marijuana in a similar regulatory class as alcohol or tobacco. Marijuana advocates argue that legalization could also decrease pressure on the state’s overburdened prison system and law enforcement officers.

All of which, Ms. Yee said, at least makes the proposal worth talking about in a state with chronic budget problems and a law already on the books allowing the medical use of the drug.

“We know the product is out there, and we know marijuana is available to young people as well, but there’s no regulatory structure in place,” Ms. Yee said. “I think it’s an opportunity to begin the debate.”

Such a debate, of course, does not always favor tax innovators. Several law enforcement groups have already objected to the idea of legal marijuana, which would conflict with federal law.

John Lovell, a lobbyist for several groups of California law enforcement officials, said the plan would create a large, illicit — and thus untaxed — black market, in addition to magnifying substance abuse problems. “The last thing we need is yet another legal substance that is mind-altering,” Mr. Lovell said.

Having taxes on illegal activities, like a seldom-collected tax on marijuana sales in Nevada, also has its drawbacks, said Robert MacCoun, a professor of law and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, who has researched drug policy.

“It is very hard to tax illegal vices unless one is comfortable with contradiction,” Mr. MacCoun said. “How can you collect the taxes without documenting the behavior? And how can you document the behavior without making an arrest?”

In Washington State, Mr. Miloscia said he had also received criticism from an array of residents and business owners, who accused him of attacking the First Amendment and other sacred institutions with his pornography proposal.

“I had people call up saying their marriages would fall apart,” said Mr. Miloscia, who represents a suburban district between Tacoma and Seattle. “I didn’t know how passionate people are about this stuff.”

What’s a Hulu? The Origins of 8 High-Tech Names

by Rob Lammle

You know the names, but do you know where those names came from? Here are the stories behind the naming of TiVo, BlackBerry and more – including what they were almost called.

1. TiVo

Can you imagine if, instead of “TiVo-ing” the latest episode of Lost, you were “Bongo-ing” it? “Bongo” and “Lasso” are just two of the 800 possible names the marketing folks kicked around before settling on TiVo. The final name was cobbled together from “TV” and the engineering acronym “I/O,” which stands for “input/output.” Little did they know their noun would become a verb and their oddly-named invention would forever change the way people watch television.

2. Bluetooth

Despite the lack of dignity displayed by people who shout into their Bluetooth headsets wherever they go, the name of the device actually has a rather regal origin. In the 10th Century, Danish King Harald Blatand was able to unite warring factions in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark under one banner. Similarly, the developers of the Bluetooth signal wanted to unite many different forms of technology – cars, computers, and mobile phones – under one communications network. So when they were coming up with a name, they went with the English translation of the Danish king’s last name, “Bluetooth.”

3. Hulu

Hulu means many things to many people. To some, it’s a great online resource for watching their favorite TV shows and movies. But to a native Hawaiian, it means “hair.” To someone who speaks Swahili, it means “cease.” To an Indonesian, it means “butt.” While these translations are accurate, the folks behind naming hulu.com were inspired by a couple of Mandarin Chinese definitions instead – “interactive recording” and “a hollowed-out gourd used to hold precious things.” Despite this often misunderstood word, the website is rapidly becoming one of the biggest names in streaming video. Well, except in Indonesia…

4. BlackBerry

Would President Obama have fought so hard to keep his “LeapFrog” phone? Because the phone was leaps and bounds over everything else on the market, this was one of the names considered for the BlackBerry. Another possibility was “Strawberry,” because the tiny keys resembled seeds. But when someone felt the word “straw” sounded too slow, another berry was suggested as a placeholder until something more official was developed. Over time, the temporary berry became so synonymous with the new device, it was adopted by default. For anyone addicted to their BlackBerry, the origins of the nickname “CrackBerry” should need no explanation.

5. Nintendo Wii

Although the off-color jokes almost write themselves, Nintendo had other ideas when they named their latest video game system. First of all, the word is pronounced “we,” which emphasizes the social concept that Nintendo envisioned for the console. The name is also universal, without any direct translation into any particular language, reinforcing that all-inclusive idea and avoiding any Hulu-like situations. They even liked the double-i spelling because it looks like two people standing side-by-side. The name was not popular at first, but the concept obviously caught on, because Americans have purchased over 20 million Wiis since its debut in 2006, making it one of the most successful video game systems ever.

6. Wikipedia

While the origin of the second half of the name might seem rather obvious, the first half is still a mystery to many. “Wiki” is used to describe any website content that is specifically designed to be edited by its users. The name was first coined by Ward Cunningham to describe software he wrote back in 1994 that was meant to speed up the communication process between computer programmers

. He borrowed the word from the Hawaiian language, where it means “fast”, after hearing it in the Honolulu airport when an employee told him to take the “Wiki Wiki Shuttle” between terminals. Many people mistakenly believe Wiki is an acronym for “What I Know Is.” However, that definition was actually applied to the word after the fact, making it instead a backronym (which is now my new favorite word).

7. Asus Computers

Netbook computers are the hottest gadget out there, with around 14 million of the cheap little laptops sold in 2008. One of the big names in netbook production is the Taiwanese computer company, Asus, which gets its name from the winged horse of Greek mythology, Pegasus. But if you took a quick glance at the phone book, “Pegasus” wouldn’t have been too high in the directory of computer companies. So, to increase their visibility in alphabetical lists, they dropped the first three letters of their name. It was an unusual strategy, but apparently it worked.

8. Prius

While developing the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, Toyota believed the Prius was going to be the predecessor of the cars of the future. So to name their groundbreaking car, they turned to the Latin word, “prius,” meaning “[to go] before,” the root of our modern word “prior.” And with the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles, it appears they were right about the Prius’ legacy. What they couldn’t have predicted, though, was the controversy the name would create when people want to refer to more than one of the cars. Many think the plural is “Prii”; others believe it should be “Priuses.” Technically, the plural of the Latin word would be “Priora,” which sounds better than the other two choices anyway. The official word from Toyota is that there is no plural form, it’s just “Prius” (sort of like “moose”). But I’m sure they really don’t care what you call them if you’re buying two or more.

America's 100 Worst Intersections

The Cross Bronx Expressway, that fume-choked expanse of concrete and steel that slices through New York City's mainland borough, occupies a uniquely tragic place in the history of urban planning. It displaced more than 60,000 middle-class residents during its construction between 1948 and 1963, and it cost $250 million--more than any highway proje...

click here for the list.. | digg story

Oral Microbiome: Spit Reveals A Lot About What Lives In Your Mouth

ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2009) — Like it or not, your mouth is home to a thriving community of microbial life. More than 600 different species of bacteria reside in this "microbiome," yet everyone hosts a unique set of bugs, and this could have important implications for health and disease.

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Researchers have found that everyone hosts a unique set of salivary microbes in his or her mouth. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Scientists have now performed the first global survey of salivary microbes, finding that the oral microbiome of your neighbor is just as different from yours as someone across the globe.

The human body harbors ten times more bacterial cells than human cells – a stunning figure that suggests a likely dynamic between ourselves and the bacteria we carry, both in healthy and disease states. The National Institutes of Health recently launched an initiative to categorize the microbiomes of several regions of the body, with early studies focusing on the intestines and skin. It is appreciated that the human mouth, a major entry point for bacteria into the body, also contains a diverse array of microbial species. Yet microbiome diversity between individuals, and how this relates to diet, environment, health, and disease, remains unexplored.

In this study, scientists have conducted the first in-depth study of global diversity in a human microbiome, characterizing the microbial life in human saliva from regions around the world. The researchers, led by Dr. Mark Stoneking of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have sequenced and analyzed variation in the bacterial gene encoding 16S rRNA, a component of the ribosome, in the salivary "metagenome" of 120 healthy subjects from six geographic areas. Stoneking and colleagues then compared the sequences they found with a database of 16S rRNA sequences to categorize the types of bacteria present.

The group observed that there is considerable diversity of bacterial life in the saliva microbiome, both within and between individuals. However, they made an unexpected finding when comparing samples from different geographic areas. "The saliva microbiome does not vary substantially around the world," Stoneking described. "Which seems surprising given the large diversity in diet and other cultural factors that could influence the human salivary microbiome." Stoneking explained that this suggests the life inhabiting the mouth of your next-door neighbor is likely to be just as different from yours as someone on the other side of the world.

Stoneking noted that by studying sequences from an easily obtained saliva sample, their work has provided the foundation for future studies exploring the influence of diet, cultural factors, and disease on variation in the saliva microbiome. In addition, the group's findings could help analyze human migrations and populations. While it may not be pleasant to think about the life teeming in your mouth, it is now evident that we will be able to learn a lot about oral health and disease by understanding what is living there.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, Germany), the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (Shanghai, China), and China Pharmaceutical University (Nanjing City, China) contributed to this study.

This work was supported by the Max Planck Society.

If you only knew the power of the dark stout!

Matt Cassel Traded To Kansas City

Associated Press

The New England Patriots sent Matt Cassel to the Kansas City Chiefs and a message to their own fans: Don't worry about Tom Brady's knee.

One question, though, remained.

Matt Cassel

#16 QB
New England Patriots

2008 STATS

• Att516
• Comp327
• Yds3474
• TD21
• Int11
• Rat89.4

How could the Patriots obtain only a second-round draft choice for a solid, young quarterback and a 12-year veteran leader, linebacker Mike Vrabel?

That mystery persisted Saturday after the Patriots announced the trade for the 34th pick in this year's draft, which the Chiefs earned with a franchise-worst 2-14 record.

Cassel, who hadn't started the previous seven seasons with Southern California and the Patriots, led New England to an 11-5 record, but no playoff berth, after Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in the opener -- on a hit by Kansas City's Bernard Pollard, who said it was an "accident."

Cassel's steady improvement sent his stock soaring as he entered free agency. So the Patriots put the franchise tag on him, requiring any team that signed him to give them two first-round picks. But that tag would have cost the Patriots $14.65 million if they kept Cassel as insurance if Brady's health was questionable.

By shipping him out so early, they must be sure that 2007 NFL MVP Brady will be ready for the regular season after undergoing surgery for torn ligaments in his left knee on Oct. 6 and a later operation for an infection in the knee.

On Feb. 18, Brady said his recovery was on schedule for him to be ready for the opener.

"I'm feeling great. I'm feeling really good. Everything is progressing just as I expected," he said at a charity event.

Cassel and Vrabel join a team being run by new general manager Scott Pioli, who went to the Chiefs in January after serving as vice president of player personnel for the Patriots, the team he joined in 2002.

"I have a long history with both players," Pioli said. "Mike and Matt are men that I respect both personally and professionally. I look forward to having them as new members of the Chiefs family."

About a month after joining the Chiefs, Pioli fired coach Herm Edwards and replaced him with Arizona offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick praised Cassel in a statement issued by the club.

"It is very easy to root for guys like Matt Cassel, who do everything the right way and flourish as a result," he said. "As much as we would have loved to continue working with Matt, we wish him nothing but the best as he takes this next step forward in his career."

The Chiefs needed help at quarterback after Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard were hurt and Tyler Thigpen, the first player from tiny Coastal Carolina to be drafted by the NFL, struggled as their replacement but did throw for 21 touchdowns and 2,994 yards.

Cassel, meanwhile, finally showed what he could do after waiting behind Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC and two-time Super Bowl MVP Brady.

The seventh-round draft choice in 2005 took over when Brady was hurt midway through the first quarter of the first game and went on to throw for 3,693 yards and 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while starting 15 games.

Vrabel fills a need for guidance and playing ability in a Kansas City defense that managed just 10 sacks all season and allowed a team-record 54 points to Buffalo. His departure also creates space under the Patriots' salary cap.

"Mike Vrabel epitomizes everything a coach could seek in a professional football player: toughness, intelligence, play, leadership, versatility and consistency at the highest level," Belichick said. "Behind the scenes, Mike's wit and personality is one of the things we have all enjoyed about coming to work every day."

But the Patriots restocked at linebacker last season with rookies Jerod Mayo, the Associated Press' defensive player of the year, Gary Guyton, Vince Redd and Shawn Crable. They also have veterans Tedy Bruschi and Adalius Thomas.

The day after their season ended, Vrabel lamented missing the playoffs.

"It's tough," he said. "You try to think that it's a pretty positive ending to a season, a good finish. You finish 11-5 and then you come in here and you realize that you're cleaning your locker out."

Cassel, standing nearby, looked to the future.

"This is a satisfying season for me," he said. "I proved a lot to myself and to a lot of others."

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Gene therapy gets closer to a 'cure'

Success stories, and fewer risks

Gene therapy helped Corey Haas, 8, regain some sight. He has a rare disease that was causing him to go blind. (COURTESY OF ETHAN HAAS)

By Carolyn Y. Johnson Globe Staff / February 28, 2009

Two decades ago, medicine seemed on the cusp of a revolution. Doctors would soon treat diseases at their very roots, inserting "good" genes to replace patients' faulty ones. Gene therapy was a seductively straightforward idea that offered promise for treating everything from cancer to sickle cell disease.

But only now, after overcoming unexpected scientific obstacles and the high-profile death of a teenage patient, is gene therapy racking up some clear-cut successes. Promising studies are sending ripples of excitement through the field. Some researchers are daring to use the word cure.

"Yes, we have endured a few more years of questions about gene therapy: Does it really work? Is it really safe?" said Savio Woo, a professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a past president of the American Society of Gene Therapy. "Now we can show it does work, and it's safe."

That doesn't mean that people will be lining up for gene therapy any time soon. No treatments have been approved yet. But researchers are finally pointing to a few inspiring successes, untainted by the kind of tragedy that cast a shadow on the field in the past.

Gene therapy started the year with a bang: Researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the technique cured eight of 10 children suffering from usually lethal "bubble boy disease," a lack of immunity that leaves children vulnerable to infections. After two to eight years, all the patients were alive, unlike a previous trial.

That came on top of an announcement last year that two groups of researchers independently used gene therapy to treat a form of hereditary blindness in a small number of patients, restoring some vision. The evidence, also published in the New England Journal, was presented at a scientific conference in April.

"I've never seen [such] a response. . . . The audience basically burst into applause, sustained applause, cheering even. It was just amazing," said Sam Wadsworth, group vice president of translational research for Genzyme Corp. in Cambridge, which has its own gene therapy program.

Two other studies this month add to the momentum. The journal Nature Medicine, reporting on a trial of 74 HIV patients, said gene therapy had modest but promising effects. A study in the journal Human Gene Therapy reported that two patients with rheumatoid arthritis saw a reduction in pain and swelling with gene therapy.

Eight-year-old Corey Haas of Hadley, N.Y., received gene therapy for a rare disease called Leber's congenital amaurosis, which was causing him to go blind. His family knew the treatment worked when, soon thereafter, Corey asked his parents when two of his friends changed their hair color. He could finally tell they were blonde, not brunettes.

Ethan Haas, Corey's father, said the treatment was worth it. "He'll be sitting in the back of the car and say, 'I can see the trees go by, and I couldn't see them before,' " Haas said.

The optimism generated by recent gene therapy advances is a far cry from just a few years ago.

"I reached a point I wouldn't even admit I was doing gene therapy," said Xandra Breakefield, a professor of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, describing the shadow cast on the field by the death of Jesse Gelsinger, 18, in 1999. He suffered from a genetic liver disease.

The idea of gene therapy emerged decades ago, as it became clear that scientists could isolate genes and insert them into cells. The first patient was treated with gene therapy in 1990 and since then, hundreds of trials have been conducted.

But with the simple idea of gene therapy came a slew of scientific challenges. Researchers use viruses, which can trigger the body's natural defenses, to deliver genes into cells. Viruses can also insert genes into the wrong place in the genome, potentially causing cancer.

Gelsinger died when the viruses used in the experiment triggered a massive immune response that led to his death. With his death came an outpouring of national concern. Some trials were suspended, a Senate hearing was held to examine the need for regulation, and it turned out some clinicians were not properly reporting adverse events.

Another shadow was cast beginning in 2002, when several children, part of a French trial treating "bubble boy disease," began to develop leukemia.

A sobered scientific community continued to work on the technology, but with more caution and without the hype.

Around the time Gelsinger died, Connie Burnett-West, diagnosed with fatal lung cancer and told she had seven months to live, enrolled in a gene therapy trial at the Mary Crowley Cancer Research Center, now in Dallas.

She is cancer-free today, something she credits to gene therapy. "It looks like to me, in my little nonscientific way, that this might be the wave of the future," said Burnett-West, 63.

What has changed since the days of doubt? Over the years, medical knowledge has improved. Researchers understand better how the immune system works and how to reduce the virus risk, in some cases by using a different virus. The tools doctors use are safer and more effective, said Dr. Jean Bennett, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania, who treated hereditary blindness in Corey Haas and others.

Gene therapy "is now having results across different branches of medicine," said Dr. Fabio Candotti, a senior investigator with the National Human Genome Research Institute. "That's what makes you feel some things are beginning to work now."

Still, scientists proceed cautiously. Christopher Evans, a professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School who worked on the arthritis trial, said it had been reduced from six patients to two because of an adverse event in an unrelated gene therapy trial.

A second planned trial, he said, has been set back a year because a patient died in a gene therapy arthritis trial led by a Seattle company in 2007, even though that death was not necessarily connected to the therapy.

Now one of the biggest challenges for the field may lie in the transition from basic science lab to clinic and eventually to the market.

"Because the medicine is so fundamentally different than what the pharmaceutical industry knows, it's been very difficult to engage the industry," said Richard Mulligan, director of the Harvard Gene Therapy Initiative. ". . . I think the technology is actually moving very nicely, but what's not been fixed is the interest of the industrial concerns that can really make the stuff happen."

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.