More than a quarter of people who bought Apple’s iPhone are using them on wireless networks other than AT&T’s, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S., a “stunning” number that will pressure the company’s business model…

Apple executives said last week the number of unlocked phones was “significant” but declined to give an estimate. Most analysts had estimated the portion of unlocked phones at under 20 percent.

The higher number is worrying for Apple because the company receives a cut of AT&T’s iPhone service fees, revenue that carries a high gross margin and has fueled optimism over its earnings potential…

If Apple cracks down on unlocked phones it could preserve its high margins but miss its sales target, whereas allowing them could erode profitability and make it tough to sign more carriers to similar revenue-sharing deals.

Looking at Apple’s business model – by product, they appear to spend reasonable time planning beyond the near term. This is looking more like a chunk of market space where they’ll be forced into reaction a lot sooner than they projected.

Shark pictures show amazing killing display – Telegraph.co.uk: After reaching speeds of up to 35mph on its ascent from the depths, the shark uses serried ranks of razor-sharp teeth to tear into the seal.

The original article includes even more pictures.

Click image to see Blob

Lewiston, Maine-A 50- to 60-foot doughy mass is clogging a sewer line under the city’s main drag, and crews have been unable to budge it. “We’re not sure exactly what it is,” Public Services Director David Jones said Wednesday. “We’re just trying to get rid of it. We want it to stop clogging up our pipe.” The clog starts in front of the United Baptist Church on Main Street and continues downhill to the Bates Street intersection.

The sewer line that it’s in begins in front of Sam’s Italian Foods, according to Deputy Public Services Director Kevin Gagne. The city has little choice but to replace the 12-inch diameter pipe, at a cost of between $40,000 and $60,000, Jones said. City crews discovered the clog earlier this month after responding to complaints of blocked sewer lines downtown. Jones said crews opened a manhole at the Bates Street intersection and saw the clog – an oozing, white blob that looks like uncooked dough. A Sam’s employee wouldn’t comment on the situation. Executives from the restaurant, which serves pizza among other dishes, couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday night.

Thats a whole lotta pizza dough.

U2’s last tour grossed $355 million

Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of rock band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce disconnection policies to end illegal music downloads and urged governments to make sure they do…

He spread the blame between record labels that “through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music”; Silicon Valley companies that create marvelous devices but “don’t think of themselves as makers of burglary kits”; and governments who “created a thieves’ charter” by agreeing that ISPs should not be responsible for what passes along their pipes…

To great applause from the audience of music managers, McGuinness insisted that disconnection enforcement would work. “I call on ISPs to do two things. First, protect the music, and second, to make a genuine effort to share the enormous revenues. They should share their ingenuity as well as the money. We must shame them. Their snouts have been at our trough for too long.”

Does McGuinness have a clue about how the Internet works? Where does he see this boatload of folks paying extra to their ISP because they’re downloading music?

Click pic for more video goodness

Or if opulence is your thing, try this guy’s.

Anybody here have a spectacular or unusual setup? Post links to photos of your baby in the comments.

Pope Benedict has warned of the “seductive” powers of science that relegate man’s spirituality, reviving the science-versus-religion debate which recently forced him to cancel a speech after student protests. “In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it’s more important than ever to educate our contemporaries’ consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness,” he told scientists…

The Pope reiterated a plea, made in many speeches since he was elected in 2005, for mankind to be “respected as the centre of creation” and not relegated by more short-term interests.

But the conservative German-born Pope’s public stand on issues such as abortion and embryonic stem-cell research lead critics to accuse him of holding antiquated views on science.

Why lend credence to an ideology which approaches reality as a myth – and myth as reality.

[Link fixed above]

For those who haven’t heard of the A380, it’s currently the largest airliner in the world. For those who wish to buy one, I think you can order one on-line from the Airbus website. Not sure if they take all credit cards, though. And if you do, or just plan on flying on someone else’s, you might want to check out how to evacuate one quickly:

From the YouTube description:

Hamburg, Germany, 26 March 2006. With only 8 of the 16 exits opened, the task for this evacuation certification was to get 853 passengers and 20 crew out of the plane within 90 seconds. This all happened in darkness, with only cabin emergency lights switched on. The footage is from night vision cameras. The crew and passengers did not know which exits would be blocked.

853 passengers is just the maximum number in a single-class economy configuration. The typical three-class configuation will be able to carry 525 passengers.

The regulations say that in this test:

– 35% must be aged over 50,
– a minimum 40% must be female,
– 15% female and over 50.

They did it!

In 1:17 – that is 77 seconds.

A hospital patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate.

“Understandably, he lost his appetite,” said Sakari Kela, chief administrator at the Northern Karelia Central Hospital…

The severed head most likely originated in a bag of Belgian vegetables. The body has not been found and being “a Belgian mouse, the rest of it could be anywhere in Europe,” Kela said.

Eeoouuh!

I’m among the legions who fume when the investigator on the TV show zooms in endlessly on a photo to uncover some minute detail that in reality couldn’t have been photographed by any camera. Worst is when the investigator clicks some “increase resolution” button to smooth a bunch of blocky pixels into a richly detailed image…

Although that Hollywood hokum is an information-theory impossibility with a single image, some limits are lifted when you have multiple shots of the same scene. And a start-up called MotionDSP is working on commercializing that technology to improve photo and video quality…

The technology also can get rid of chunky compression artifacts, smooth jagged lines, enrich colors, reveal details, and make text readable. It’s an example of computational photography–or videography in this case–in which sophisticated computer processing can improve a photo or video after it was taken.

MotionDSP has been funded by In-Q-Tel, the Central Intelligence Agency’s venture investment arm, which naturally is interested in software to extract information from grainy or low-resolution images. But the San Mateo, Calif.-based company is raising a new round of funding to underwrite a more consumer-oriented application of its software.

Good tech is always useful. It’s the ends – not the means – that get scary.

Thanks, Pat

Click photo.

This Episode’s Topics:

• San Francisco floods – loads of commuting fun!
• The red umbrella or the green umbrella?
• Neo liberalism – what is it and who are they?
• We need a podcast “wizard” to personalize downloads
• Adam’s trials at SFO airport (we’ll see you heading for Gitmo next trip)
• John’s Mac Expo and archival CD experience
• Political prognostications
• Taxing the world, and how Sarbanes-Oxley is bad for biz
• We rant on price fixing and cartels

A choir that planned to sing a list of complaints about life in Singapore cancelled its performances after the city-state banned its foreign members from singing, organizers said Saturday.

The 60-member “complaints choir,” a concept that originated from two Finnish artists, was scheduled to perform at a weekend festival but authorities granted a performance license on the condition that the foreigners would not participate…

Some of the complaints that would have been sung included, “when a pregnant lady gets on the train, everyone pretends to sleep” and “when I’m hungry at the food court, I see people (reserve) seats with tissue paper.”

Not only Cranky Geeks – but, Cranky Singers!