talking

U.N. climate talks end with bare-minimum deal

COPENHAGEN--U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China, and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.

"Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this...is an important beginning."

A long road lies ahead. The accord--weaker than a legally binding treaty and weaker even than the "political" deal many had foreseen--left much to the imagination.

It set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times--seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms, and rising seas. But it failed to say how this would be achieved.

It held out the prospect of $100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but did not specify precisely where this money would come from. And it pushed decisions on core issues such as emissions cuts into the future.

"This basically is a letter of intent...the ingredients of an architecture that can respond to the long-term challenge of climate change, but not in precise legal terms. That means we have a lot of work to do on the long road to Mexico," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico. Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen--a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But there are no guarantees.… Read more

Open house? Google has also been eying Trulia

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia, the real-estate search engine.

It is unclear what price Google would pay, but sources estimate that Trulia's valuation ranges between $150 million and $200 million, although there could be a big premium on that.

Rumors about Google's interest in the real-estate search market--and specifically in Trulia--have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year.

But Google has pulled the trigger on a number of … Read more

U.S., China help climate talks, but tangles remain

OSLO--Promises of greenhouse gas curbs by China and the United States brighten prospects for next month's U.N. climate summit but leave big tangles over cash, rich nations' emissions cuts, and how to tie down a legal treaty.

"This is clearly some progress on the Copenhagen road," Frank Jotzo, deputy director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, said of pledges by the world's top two emitters to tackle global warming.

But he noted China's goal of slowing its rising emissions by 2020 was voluntary and President Barack Obama's plan to cut … Read more

Overcoming missing AppleTalk printer connectivity in Snow Leopard

A number of people who have just updated to Snow Leopard are still running into printing problems now that Apple has dropped AppleTalk support in OS X. AppleTalk was an old, proprietary communications protocol that was rather slow and inefficient, and in OS X 10.6 Apple removed it in place of more modern printing and networking protocols.… Read more

Digital City Podcast 57: Hands on with PS3 Netflix; luxury laptops; and Modern Warfare 2 drops early

This week on the Digital City, Joey tests the new Netflix/PS3 BD Live disc, with mixed results; we talk about all the cool new luxury laptops you'll never buy, including Sony's Vaio X, Dell's Adamo XPS, and HP's Envy.

We also show off Nokia's new Booklet 3G Netbook, and debate the relative merits of games sequels, from Bioshock 2 to God of War 3. We also note how everyone in New York seems to have gotten their hands on a copy of Modern Warfare 2 early, giving the holiday season's biggest game an … Read more

Crappy Clunker Yugo Taken out by Tank!

As we've seen this week, some automobiles generally referred to as "lemons" or "clunkers" find new life as modified street racing cars or as nostalgia novelty acts. But some cars are so lame and unattractive that they're forever known as a joke vehicle. Probably the best example is presented here for you today in the form of the Yugo 45.

The Yugo is a crappy little compact that was foisted upon the American market from Europe, and was belittled so much in the States that in 1991 the Yugo couldn't even break 4,… Read more

Pidgin gets Google Voice--sort of

Pidgin has introduced a major update with version 2.6.0, and the current bug-fixing 2.6.1, and along with more than 100 fixes between the two comes support for Google Voice and Google Talk. If you're on Windows, though, this won't mean much--the protocol currently only works with XMPP at the moment, not the derivative protocol that Google uses. Pidgin Portable 2.6.1 is also available for USB keys.

Other changes include splitting the Yahoo protocols into two, one for Yahoo Japan, and one for the rest of the world. Both protocols in Pidgin now … Read more

Customizable speaking clock

Speaking Clock Deluxe is a customizable clock that can alert users to the time in a variety of ways. The clock's various features and simple interface make it an appealing choice.

The program's interface is fairly intuitive, although some features that seemed like they would be accessible in the Settings menu could actually only be accessed by right-clicking on the program in the system tray. No matter; that's about as complicated as the program got. Although there were some aspects of the text-to-speech features that weren't intuitive, the built-in Help file explained everything clearly. The interface … Read more

Simple EMDR program

EMDR Aid allows users to continue Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy outside their therapist's office. The program's simple interface and functions make it an attractive treatment option.

EMDR should be performed only with the guidance of a qualified therapist, and EMDR Aid makes it clear that this program is not for self-diagnosis or treatment. In fact, users looking to treat themselves without professional guidance will likely be disappointed in this program; there's not much to it. For therapists and their clients who have established an EMDR treatment plan, however, this program may be useful. The interface … Read more

Google Apps shed beta label

Google Apps have all grown up.

No longer must Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Talk carry the beta tag of shame; they are all now full-fledged members of the Google family of products. Google has been hinting this was coming over the past few months, but is finally ready to make the official announcement along with the news that Fairchild Semiconductor has decided to embrace Google's suite of Web-based office productivity applications.

In truth, it's hard to tell exactly what technical advancements may have prompted the decision to lift the products out of beta. Matt Glotzbach, … Read more