OKYO - Toyota has developed a motorized stand-up-and-ride Segway lookalike designed to help people scoot around at malls and airports.

But the “Winglet,” shown Friday in Tokyo, takes some getting used to. A demonstrator was visibly worried about its safety while accompanying a reporter who cautiously tried it on a short course in a Toyota showroom.

Toyota officials insist anyone can learn to ride it with some practice, including the elderly — its major target buyer.

Still, Toyota Motor Corp. has no plans yet to turn the Winglet into a commercial product. The Japanese automaker will start testing the two-wheeler this year at an airport and resort complex and next year at a shopping mall, all in Japan, to get user feedback. Overseas test plans are undecided.

The Winglet goes up to 3.7 mph, about the same speed as pedestrians, far slower than 12.5-mph Segway, which costs $5,000. The Winglet can go about 3 miles before needing to be recharged.

It is designed to stop easily with little pressure, pivot full-circle and go smoothly over bumps on roads. And it is designed to respond almost intuitively — moving forward when you lean to the front, and turning when you sway to the right or left, similar to skiing. One of three models shown comes with a protruding handle that can be grabbed and used like a steering wheel.

Toyota executive Takeshi Uchiyamada, who zipped around on a Winglet as though he was on a skateboard, said the company is experimenting with new ways of mobility as part of a company strategy to spread robotics.

“We hope to create friendly robots that can exist side by side with people,” Uchiyamada said. “Winglet will help everyone move around safely and stay active.”

Winglet evolved out of Toyota’s takeover of parts of Sony Corp.’s robotics division last year. Sony, reshaping itself under Chief Executive Howard Stringer, decided to focus on electronics and wipe out its Aibo pet robot and other peripheral businesses.

Toyota envisions a future in which Winglet will be packed with wireless technology so it relays shopping information at stores. Or it may move on its own, Uchiyamada said. So it might go recharge its batteries itself, or come pick you up when you beckon it, toting your luggage.

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Chances are it’s the price of gas, not auto insurance, that’s driving you to the poor house.

But if you want to cut your auto insurance premiums to the bone, stay away from small, fast cars.

“It’s a common denominator among vehicles that have the highest losses — a lot of smaller, sportier vehicles, says Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

“Contrary to the idea that smaller cars can help you avoid crashes, the data shows that small cars get into more accidents,” he says. “If you feel like you have a vehicle that can zip in and out of traffic, chances are you’ll do that.”

More from Bankrate.com:

• 20 Things to Know About Auto Insurance

• Finding Private Health Insurance

• Bankrate’s 2008 Insurance Guide Tools

Each year, the institute, and its sister organization, the Highway Loss Data Institute, analyze the actual insurance losses associated with the most popular vehicle makes and models. Since insurance companies use similar kinds of data to set premiums, the rankings give consumers a window into how their vehicle choices affect their auto premiums.

And, once again, the data suggests that small cars and speed are an expensive combination for insurers — especially with a young driver behind the wheel.

“Sporty cars tend to be driven in ways that lead to more crashes,” says Rader. “They also tend to be driven by younger, riskier drivers.” And smaller cars also tend to be more affordable, which makes them more attractive to those same younger drivers, he says.

“The Subaru Impreza WRX, the Mitsubishi Lancer, the Acura RSX, the Nissan Sentra SE-R — these vehicles have the highest rates of collision,” says Rader. “And age is a part of it. It’s how these vehicles are driven.”

10 Most-Expensive Cars to Insure

The 10 vehicles that account for the highest dollar amount of losses for insurance companies (starting with the most expensive) are:

1. Cadillac Escalade EXT 4WD
2. Subaru Impreza WRX 4WD
3. Hyundai Tiburon
4. Mitsubishi Lancer
5. Scion tC
6. Acura RSX
7. Nissan Sentra SE-R
8. Suzuki Forenza
9. Nissan Sentra/Mitsubishi Eclipse
10. Chevrolet Cobalt two-door

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based on 2004-2006 models

10 Least-Expensive Cars to Insure

The 10 vehicles that account for the lowest dollar amount of losses for insurance companies (starting with the least expensive) are:

1. Ford Five Hundred 4WD (now the Ford Taurus)
2. Buick Rendezvous 4WD
3. Buick Lucerne/Buick Rainier 4WD/Honda Odyssey
4. Ford Freestyle 4WD/Subaru Outback 4WD
5. Buick Rendezvous/Honda Pilot
6. Chrysler Town & Country LWB
7. Honda Pilot 4WD
8. Buick LaCrosse/Chevrolet Uplander/Ford Escape/Volvo V70
9. Dodge Grand Caravan/Ford Freestyle 4WD
10. Ford Explorer 4WD/GMC Sierra 1500 4WD/Toyota Highlander/Toyota Sienna

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based on 2004-2006 models

The car that comes in fifth on the “most expensive to insure” list, the Scion tC, has one of the youngest demographics. Thirty-five percent of drivers are under 25, says Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president for the Highway Loss Data Institute.

But the car at the top of the list, the Cadillac Escalade, bucks the trend. So why is a luxury SUV most commonly driven by a more affluent and comparative older clientele on the list? Two words: theft magnet.

“The Escalade has a lot of buzz in the entertainment industry,” says Rader. “You can’t watch an episode of ‘Cribs’ without seeing an Escalade. So it’s desirable.”

So desirable that owners face a comprehensive premium of six times the national average, says Hazelbaker.

“It’s one of the iconic vehicles that continues to be popular with pop culture stars, so it continues to be popular for people to steal,” he says. Plus, “everything in an Escalade bolts into a Suburban,” he says.

Least Expensive to Insure

The vehicles that are likely to have the lowest insurance costs? Today’s version of the good old fashioned family car, says Rader. These skew toward large sedans, or midsize SUVs or minivans.

“They tend to be driven by people who are not as likely to speed or drive recklessly,” he says.

And they also aren’t as likely to be used to commute to and from work, says Hazelbaker. That means the cars aren’t on the road during rush hour, which also lowers their risk.

“We have an awful lot of soccer mom cars on that list,” he says. “The (Buick) Rendezvous, the (Subaru) Outback, the (Honda) Pilot, the Chrysler Town & Country — all of these are sort of ‘mommy mobiles.’”

And none of the vehicles on the cheapest to insure list “are very large,” either, says Hazelbaker. “As the size of an SUV or pickup goes up, you do have higher losses.”

The all-around least expensive to insure? The Ford Five Hundred, the study found. A medium-sized, affordable sedan now known as the Ford Taurus, “it’s probably driven by a favorable demographic in a favorable way,” he says. “It’s a suburban family second car.”

Cars of this type “are probably living in a garage,” which makes them less of a theft target. Plus they tend to be less desirable to thieves, he says.

“If you’re going to pick out something to steal, what would you choose?” says Hazelbaker.

When Bigger Isn’t Better for Premiums

But larger vehicles don’t automatically mean lower premiums. Some super-size vehicles could actually increase the cost of your insurance.

When two cars collide, the average repair cost for each is about $3,000, says Hazelbaker. But some larger vehicles are routinely linked to higher-dollar damage to other cars. And that could cost you in terms of more expensive insurance.

The top five linked to highest dollar damages to other cars, according to the institute, are as follows.

1. Hummer H2 SUT 4dr 4WD
2. Hummer H3 4dr 4WD
3. Hummer H2 4dr 4WD
4. Dodge Ram 2500 mega cab 4WD
5. Toyota Highlander Hybrid 4dr

“They’re big, heavy vehicles that tend to inflict a lot of damage on what they hit,” says Rader. See the top 10 list.

Keeping Premiums Down

Want to keep your premiums low? Talk to your agent before you buy your next vehicle, says Loretta Worters, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry organization. Once you’ve narrowed your choices to two or three models, ask if any of the premiums will be significantly different. Note if any of the models have high repair costs or theft rates, she says.

It can be tricky. Even different models of the same car can have different costs when it comes to insurance. “A different motor or different luxury items” can change your premium, says Worters.

One example is a convertible. That ragtop could cost you more than the hardtop version of the same car, says Worters. A convertible is “easier to get into, so it might be more costly,” she says.

Another tip off to high-priced premiums: higher-priced cars.

More from Yahoo! Finance:

• How Technology Can Help Trim Auto Insurance

• Insurers Offer Low-Mileage Discounts

• Reframing the Discussion Around Small-Car Safety
Visit the Insurance Center

“The more expensive the car is, all things being equal, the more it’s going to cost to insure,” says Dick Luedke, spokesman for the State Farm Insurance Cos.

And each car has more than one score to consider. The same car that shows lower-than-average losses in terms of inflicting damage might be worse in terms of theft. But insurance companies, and the premiums, take the whole package into account.

So what categories make the most difference, when it comes to your premium?

“The biggest portion of auto insurance is for liability,” says Luedke. Next is collision and comprehensive, fairly equally. And after that comes medical payments, he says.

Smart money: Look at your car’s scores in all categories, but in the end, shop safety. Pick up great safety information, like crash tests results, rollover ratings, recalls, service bulletins and consumer complaints with the following sites.

And the car is only part of the equation. You, your lifestyle and your driving record will also have a sizable impact on the premium. To calculate your premium, insurance companies analyze everything from your age, residence, and driving patterns to your prior driving record and credit history.

When it comes to the premium, says Hazelbaker, “the person in the vehicle makes the most difference.”

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Friday, August 1 is a red-letter day for eclipse enthusiasts. On this date, the sun is planning to be partially eclipsed within the duration of an immense community such a includes western and principle Asia, portions of northern and pivotal Europe, all of Greenland and still a diminutive slice of northeastern North America.

A overall solar eclipse — the principally in around two and a part decades — serves to be visible along a narrow track this are able to create for the duration of the Northwest Passage of Canada, supplies a glancing suck to northern Greenland, consequently shifts southeast over Siberia and western Mongolia and before ending close to the celebrated Silk Route of China.

The way of totality for such a upcoming eclipse is never a good amount of as opposed to 157 miles (252 km) wide.

Where it is visible

The whole eclipse begins at sunrise within the duration of Northern Canada’s Queen Maud Gulf, at which the moon’s umbra plans to earliest touch ebbed on the Earth, resulting in Canada’s hosting its beforehand overall solar eclipse since February 26, 1979.

As the sun comes to view more than the north-northeast horizon its disk serves to become utterly blocked by the moon. This is in the state of the renowned Northwest Passage, a sea way connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with the Arctic archipelago of Canada. The different islands of the archipelago are separated based on data from one an extra and the Canadian mainland by a chain of Arctic waterways collectively famous as the Northwestern Passages. Politically, currently sector belongs to Nunavut, the highest and fresh of the territories of Canada; it was separated lawfully based on the vast Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999.

Although the umbral shadow narrowly misses the areas of Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island, and Resolute on Cornwallis Island, its northern fringe recently clips the northernmost permanently occupied place in the world: Canada’s remote outpost of Alert, that lies recently 508 miles (817 km) from the North Pole and has a populace of only 5. Here, totality is able to endure 43 seconds.

Crossing the open Arctic, the south part of the totality direction slides throughout the a good number of fjords of northermost Greenland, following to during 450 miles (720 km) of the North Pole at 9:38 UT over the Arctic Ocean before changing southeast. Totality sweeps during the Norwegian island cluster of Svalbard, additonally the northern outside edge of the umbra’s direction merely grazes Russia’s Franz Josef Land island group, when that happens cuts everywhere the crescent-shaped island of Novaya Zemlya on its way to substantial Asia. The umbra previous touches the Russian coast on the Yamal Peninsula. Not far inland, biggest eclipse, setting off 2 seconds 27 moments of totality, is received pretty well the town of Nadym (pop. ~46,000), just inland of the boot-shaped Gulf of Obskaja.

Spending half of your summer in Siberia may sound a bit a great deal more tantalizing upon hearing too the major way passes virtually directly within the duration of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia’s third a large number of populous city (pop. ~1.4 million) at which totality begins at 10:44 UT and should go on 2 seconds 18 seconds. The core of the path should when that happens mimic the Mongolia-China margin for a large number of hundred kilometers, with Olgij, Mongolia going to get 1 min 36s of totality. Totality eventually whisks to north-central China, crossing the west end of the Great Wall before leaving the Earth at a rank northeast of the major city of Xi’an (pop. 3.9 million).

The northern portion of Maine as good as the Canadian Maritime Provinces may have a partial eclipse at sunrise.

Eclipse expedition

A many peculiar make an effort to rendezvous surrounded by the moon’s shadow would be attained by an Airbus A330-200 twin-engine long-range aircraft. Following a flight legislation optimized specifically for the purpose of viewing such a eclipse, all of the numerous peculiar facilities of their flight experience carried on evaluated and satisfied in amenities by the air charter organization Deutsche Polarflug (AirEvents) that has in the past Hello How Are you? triumphant over-flights of the North Pole amid such a same aircraft.

Glenn Schneider, based on data from the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory and a veteran of 26 general eclipses, has functioned out the detailed formulation of the flight plan. He is targeting a rate for the astronomical polar north, at nearly +83-degrees latitude and virtually 440 nautical miles based on what i read in the North Pole at an altitude of 37,000 feet above the Arctic Ocean.

This is able to be a unique happening in the annals of solar eclipse-chasing from the time there are no enters of any over&wshyp;arching solar eclipse observations as far north as this. While general solar eclipses in the polar districts are not rare, accessibility is outstandingly difficult. Until presently juncture in phase (and technology) basically high-latitude (north or south) general solar eclipses experience kept on elusive. The whole solar eclipse of 23 November 2003 was the above all in history to suffer continued witnessed for the Antarctic.

Once yet again it needs repeating: to check at the sun without ideal eye preservation is dangerous. Even if you are in the channel of the whole eclipse you should ask for to cover your eyes over the partial phases.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He records throughout astronomy for The New York things and supplementary publications, and he is in addition an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

* Original Story: Viewer’s Guide: Aug. 1 Solar Eclipse

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The survive two spacecraft of NASA’s Mariner series, Voyager 1 and 2 got the previous in so chain to be sent to explore the outer solar system. Preceeded by the Pioneer 10 and 11 missions, Voyager 1 and 2 got to be surveys of Jupiter and Saturn, the satellites, and the magnetospheres as enormously as reports of the interplanetary medium. An choice constructued to the Voyager 2 trajectory, and at last exercised, is able to direct it toward Uranus and Neptune to perform similar studies.

Although launched sixteen days ensuing Voyager 2, Voyager 1’s trajectory was a quicker path, imminent at Jupiter in March of 1979. Voyager 2 arrived right about thre cycles later on in July 1979. Both spacecraft got subsequently try on to Saturn among appearance times in November 1980 (Voyager 1) and August 1981 (Voyager 2). Voyager 2 was at that time diverted to the remaining gas giants, Uranus (January 1986) and Neptune (August 1989). A a greater amount of detailed table specifying the closest process distances/times for such experience is available.

Data collected by Voyager 1 and 2 got not confined to the periods surrounding experience through the outer gas giants, amidst the a large number of fields and particles experiments and the ultraviolet spectrometer collecting information as good as continuously throughout the interplanetary cruise phases of the mission. Data group persists in as the renamed Voyager Interstellar Mission searches for the margin of the solar wind’s lower (the heliopause) and exits the solar system.

Some scientific consequences mission

A broad insert of the achievements of Voyager 1 and 2 can be so full such a space does not permit. Here, then, are a (very) few possible outcome such a might height pretty near the top of various this kind of lists.

Discovery of the Uranian and Neptunian magnetospheres, both of them highly inclined and offset out of the planets’ rotational axes, offering such a methods are majorly strange based on a greater number of magnetospheres.
The Voyagers at last found 22 new satellites: 3 at Jupiter, 3 at Saturn, 10 at Uranus, and 6 at Neptune.
Io was discovered to experience active volcanism, the sole solar process person more and more as opposed to the Earth to be so confirmed. Triton was discovered to experience active geyser-like homes and an atmosphere.
Auroral zones got found at Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune.
Jupiter was discovered to hold rings. Saturn’s rings got at last found to contain spokes in the B-ring and a braided home in the F-ring. Two new rings got found at Uranus and Neptune’s rings, originally underlying thought to be alone ring arcs, got at last found to be complete, albeit composed of decent material.
At Neptune, originally considered to be too cold to validation these atmospheric disturbances, large-scale storms (notably the Great Dark Spot) got discovered.

The Phoenix lander’s first and foremost dig to the Martian soil for scientific projection was delayed Wednesday as of a communications glitch on a spacecraft the relays commands out of Earth to the red planet.

The orbiting Odyssey satellite headed to safe mode and failed to send instructions to Phoenix to claw to the permafrost to searching the web for evidence of the producing blocks of life, argued Chad Edwards, primary telecommunications engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

It’s the moment cycle a relay crisis has delayed the lander’s schedule. The earliest glitch happened two days following it landed, when an additional satellite, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, turned off its radio.

Engineers got the job done to fix the hassle with Odyssey, that plans to keep offline until Saturday, Edwards said. A preliminary researching revealed the protected mode was likely triggered by high-energy particles from space interrupting the satellite’s computer memory.

“The lander is fine,” Edwards said.

Phoenix set reduced in Mars’ northern latitudes to article whether the polar locations is fit of supporting primitive life. It communicates in Earth for the duration of Odyssey and the Reconnaissance Orbiter, that lead daily passes throughout the lander to send commands and beam coming back images.

With Odyssey temporarily out of service, engineers imparted upon the Reconnaissance Orbiter to be the middleman between the lander and Earth.

Phoenix had constructued to dig the mainly of 3 shallow pits north of at which it landed and dump the dirt to a efficient oven, at which it can be baked and studied now week. The first the lander can commence the excavation might be Thursday, when new commands will be able to be sent up.

The red sunlight to scrape the Martian surface came subsequent to an full preventing of Phoenix’s 8-foot robotic arm and a greater number of scientific instruments.

“It’s utterly an incredibly science-rich location,” declared primary scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who heads the three-month, $420 million mission.

Before the actual work, Phoenix had playtime in the Martian dirt, working at two practice works so faced scooping up and subsequently dumping out fistfuls of soil. The tests yielded an intriguing scientific find: In both cases, the loose soil was mixed amongst grey bits who scientists presume are either surface ice or salt deposits.

Phoenix zeroed in on 3 ones to the properly of the test dig sector the present scientists hold playfully named Baby Bear, Mama Bear and Papa Bear, in the wake of the “Goldilocks” fairy tale.

For the earliest dig, scientists need the lander to cut to the Baby Bear site at an angle, dig three-tenths of an inch to the permafrost and drag the dirt to the arm’s scoop covet a backhoe.

Then Phoenix can swing its robotic arm 90 amounts and wait for a great deal more instructions to lessen the scoopful of dirt to a minute oven calculated to heat the sample and look over the vapors for traces of organic compounds, argued Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a robotic arm engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Although the oven’s spring-loaded doors did not utterly open as scientists hoped, Smith claimed it will be able to not be a problem. Over the following a good number of days, Phoenix is able to scoop up soil from what i read in the larger number of two ones for its microscope and wet chemistry lab to analyze.

Phoenix cannot detect fossils or residence microbes. Instead, it could poke to the soil and ice to survey whether liquid water continually existed and whether there are any organic compounds, people containing carbon and hydrogen atoms. Scientists largely agree the water, organics and a heat source are needed for a habitable environment.

Twin rovers overly hold carried on roaming pretty near the Martian equator from the time of 2004 undergo uncovered evidence this water in the wake of flowed at or pretty near the surface of ancient Mars.

“We’re easily making an exploratory stage here,” Smith claimed that week. “Our instruments are not planned to decode DNA molecules. … We’re becoming for the obvious factors the present are able to make it easier for livlihood to prosper in now environment.”

As you can imagine, the crew on the International Space Station is ever on alert, consistently solving problems, and… repairing toilets? That is certainly somewhat you don’t look for to see cropping up in space. The crew is by now relying on the toilet on the Soyuz provide capsule, but given its limited capacity, fixing the broken toilet is critical.

As NASA spokesman Allard Beutel imparted upon the Associated Press, a making an attempt bathroom is a clamor as if in any other home. According to a NASA report, the firm consume collector is making an effort properly, but there are headaches amid the approach for collecting liquid waste.

The key to ISS crew’s challenge am able to most likely lie in Discovery’s “hands,” in spite of the Russian supervisors are significantly striving to send back out the suggest of the problem. Discovery is going to deliver replacement features for the toilet ensuing the Monday docking amidst the ISS.

The toilet on the International Space Station has broken before; however, the current has been heard the longest era of malfunction in its seven-year history.

Although anything and everything looks to be a measure of while now, from the time of we’re easily days away from what i read in Discovery’s docking providing the ISS, there is one a greater amount of detail NASA is able to hold to am sure out: at which to put the replacement parts, getting prepared to the current Discovery’s payload capacity is completely populated by the Japanese Kibo laboratory.

When we be sure of space and astronauts, right now is maybe not one of the chiefly situations such a appear to our mind; however, urinating in space is trickier as opposed to particular think, and a broken space toilet is recently somewhat you don’t covet to hear of when in outer space.
 

We love a good non-mystery around here, and Microsoft’s new Zunes are about as un-mysterious as they get. But we also love a good product refresh, and now that the cat’s officially out of the bag we can really dig into the new Zunes, which definitely have a lot going for them. There’s plenty to cover, so here’s what you need to know.

Hard drive Zunes

• It’s called the Zune 80 and, shockingly enough, it has 80GB of storage.
• Uses the new Zune Pad — four way touch-sensitive d-pad (with up, down, left, and right buttons).
• It will sell for $250 (with “premium” headphones).
• Available only in black (to start).
• Screen size has increased to 3.2-inches (from 3-inches). As far as we know the resolution is still QVGA.
  
• Dimensions are 61.1 x 108.2 x 12.9mm (2.4 x 4.25 x 0.5-inches), some 1/3rd smaller than the classic Zune.
• The classic Zune will now be known as the Zune 30 — it’s not going anywhere. More on that in a sec.

New flash Zunes

• Zune 8 and Zune 4 are the names for the 8 and 4GB flash based models.
• Also uses the Zune Pad.
• These will sell for $200 and $150 respectively.
• Both will be available in pink, green, black, and red.
• It will feature a 1.8-inch screen (compare to the nano’s 2-inch screen).
• Dimensions are 41.4 x 91.5 x 8.5mm (1.6 x 3.6 x 0.33-inches) — compare to the new iPod nano, at 69.8 x 52.3 x 6.5mm (2.75 x 2.0 x 0.26-inches).

Everything else

• New Zunes ship in November, date not yet announced.
• All Zunes (including the Zune 30) will have a new, redesigned interface and feature parity. In other words, early Zune 30 adopters will have all the same software features as new Zune 80, 8, and 4 users.
• Additional native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 — users no longer need transcode those file types to WMV.
• Zune can FINALLY sync video from your Media Center PC! Jeez, took you friggin long enough, guys!
• WiFi sync to host computer! Includes moving over music, movies, photos, podcasts, etc.
  
• Podcast support! (Sorry, no over the air downloads — sync only.) Podcasts can also be shared via WiFi.
• The 3×3 song sharing DRM has had its three day restriction removed, but users can still only play files three times.
• There is still NO wireless music store.
• The Zune software is all new and rewritten, and is supposed to actually be more than a rebadge of WMP10 now. Friggin finally.
• The Zune music store is going DRM-free, with over 1m MP3 tracks being made available for download. Other details (like which labels, whether there is a DRM-free upgrade path is for users who’ve bought music with DRM, price differences, etc.) are not yet revealed.

Accessories info after the break.

Gallery: Microsoft’s new Zunes: officially in 80, 8, and 4GB sizes

New Zune accessories

Zune Home AV Pack ($99.99) - “Home Dock with three faceplates to accommodate each Zune device, wireless remote, AC adaptor and composite AV output cable.”

• Zune Dock Pack ($49.99) - “Home Dock with three faceplates to accommodate each Zune device and AC adapter.”
• Zune Car Pack ($79.99) - “Redesigned FM transmitter/charger and dashboard grip pad.”
• Zune Cable Pack ($39.99) - “Sync cable, composite AV output cable and audio cable.”
• Zune Premium Headphones ($39.99)
• Zune Leather Case ($49.99)
• Zune Sync Cable ($19.99)
• Zune AC Adapter ($29.99)

Whenever I mention in a crowd that I use free software, someone always seems to comment that I must hate Microsoft. When I add that I write about free software for a living, someone is apt to call me a Microsoft-basher. In either case, the implication seems to be that my identity is defined by Microsoft, and, perhaps, is composed of an unhealthy amount of envy. When I reply calmly that Microsoft is mostly irrelevant to me, the people who made these comments seem disbelieving, or at least disappointed. But why would I care about what Microsoft is doing, beyond a mild interest in news that doesn’t particularly concern me?

Oh, I know that some free software users seem fixated on denouncing Microsoft at every opportunity. You can find them on any forum with a free software slant, writing about “Micro$oft” and referring to Windoze, and seeing a deep conspiracy in every move that the company makes. Mostly, I suspect, these users are in their teens, and either passionately young or anxious to sound as though they belong.

Personally, though, my teen years are long gone. These days, I tend to hold my beliefs with a quieter but no less deep conviction.

Yet, even when I was younger, I could never rally more than an abstract dislike about Microsoft. Sure, I object to a monopoly. I’d have to be an idiot not to think that the constant anti-trust cases brought against the company world-wide are coincidences. And my personal sense of aesthetics and quality revolt against anything that is designed poorly and intended to keep the user ignorant.

But I’ve never felt much need to convert others to my beliefs, and I certainly wouldn’t be rude to Windows users. I’ve even chatted amiably with a number of Microsoft employees; some of them are pleasant people.

My move to free software was not a rejection of Microsoft so much as a discovery of a philosophy that was in sync with the rest of my social principles, and a decision to go with the superior software.

Since I made that decision, I’ve generally had a small partition with Windows on at least one machine. But it’s been kept mostly for games, and months sometimes passed between the times I booted it. For the last eight months, I didn’t have a copy of Windows running anywhere in the house, and that only changed because my new laptop came with one. I immediately minimized the partition and allocated four-fifths of the hard drive to Fedora 7. Probably, I’ll only boot into Windows when I’m doing comparison articles. I certainly don’t need it for anything else.

Under such circumstances, why would I care about Microsoft one way or the other?

The only time I’m interested at all is when a Microsoft executive makes some far-fetched statement about free software or makes a tentative attempts to interact with the free and open source software community. Yet, even then, the most I can muster is a mild professional interest. Mostly, Microsoft interacts with free software-based companies, while I prefer to use community GNU/Linux distributions, so on a personal level, I don’t care much.

I suppose that one reason people assume that I must spend my time conducting Three Minutes’ Hate sessions against Microsoft is that I earn a living from free software, so all the related issues must be of absorbing interest to me. But, the truth is, I usually leave writing about Microsoft-related issues to other people. It’s a beat that I prefer not to cover.

Anyway, even those who do write about Microsoft are rarely rabid about it. They’re professionals. They work eight hours or more a day with free software, and very few people are capable of sustaining a fierce hatred for forty hours a week. Nor are editors especially interested in paeans of hate, even if some of them have a fondness for stirring up controversy. For these reasons, if you are passionately anti-Microsoft going into free software journalism, you either don’t last long or mellow.

I could be wrong, but I suspect that the main reason people assume that I hate Microsoft is the poverty of their own imagination. For many people, Microsoft is such a large fixture in their world that — love or loathe it — the idea of not caring what the company does is almost inconceivable. They seem unable to comprehend that, among other things, the free and open source communities are refuges where – unlike the larger world – Microsoft’s latest doings or Windows’ new security patch are irrelevant.

Frankly, the obsession with Microsoft is theirs, not mine. There are days, even weeks sometimes, when I don’t think of Microsoft one way or the other. Believe it or not, mostly Microsoft just doesn’t enter into my life.

CityWatcher.Com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself — until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms.

 The “chipping” of two workers with RFIDs — radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick — was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said.

“To protect high-end secure data, you use more sophisticated techniques,” Sean Darks, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based company, said. He compared chip implants to retina scans or fingerprinting. “There’s a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door.”

Innocuous? Maybe.

But the news that Americans had, for the first time, been injected with electronic identifiers to perform their jobs fired up a debate over the proliferation of ever-more-precise tracking technologies and their ability to erode privacy in the digital age.

To some, the microchip was a wondrous invention — a high-tech helper that could increase security at nuclear plants and military bases, help authorities identify wandering Alzheimer’s patients, allow consumers to buy their groceries, literally, with the wave of a chipped hand.

To others, the notion of tagging people was Orwellian, a departure from centuries of history and tradition in which people had the right to go and do as they pleased, without being tracked, unless they were harming someone else.

Chipping, these critics said, might start with Alzheimer’s patients or Army Rangers, but would eventually be suggested for convicts, then parolees, then sex offenders, then illegal aliens — until one day, a majority of Americans, falling into one category or another, would find themselves electronically tagged.

The concept of making all things traceable isn’t alien to Americans. Thirty years ago, the first electronic tags were fixed to the ears of cattle, to permit ranchers to track a herd’s reproductive and eating habits. In the 1990s, millions of chips were implanted in livestock, fish, dogs, cats, even racehorses.

Microchips are now fixed to car windshields as toll-paying devices, on “contactless” payment cards (Chase’s “Blink,” or MasterCard’s “PayPass”). They’re embedded in Michelin tires, library books, passports, work uniforms, luggage, and, unbeknownst to many consumers, on a host of individual items, from Hewlett Packard printers to Sanyo TVs, at Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

But CityWatcher.com employees weren’t appliances or pets: They were people made scannable.

“It was scary that a government contractor that specialized in putting surveillance cameras on city streets was the first to incorporate this technology in the workplace,” says Liz McIntyre, co-author of “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.”

Darks, the CityWatcher.com executive, dismissed his critics, noting that he and his employees had volunteered to be chip-injected. Any suggestion that a sinister, Big-Brother-like campaign was afoot, he said, was hogwash.

“You would think that we were going around putting chips in people by force,” he told a reporter, “and that’s not the case at all.”

Yet, within days of the company’s announcement, civil libertarians and Christian conservatives joined to excoriate the microchip’s implantation in people.

RFID, they warned, would soon enable the government to “frisk” citizens electronically — an invisible, undetectable search performed by readers posted at “hotspots” along roadsides and in pedestrian areas. It might even be used to squeal on employees while they worked; time spent at the water cooler, in the bathroom, in a designated smoking area could one day be broadcast, recorded and compiled in off-limits, company databases.

“Ultimately,” says Katherine Albrecht, a privacy advocate who specializes in consumer education and RFID technology, “the fear is that the government or your employer might someday say, ‘Take a chip or starve.’”

Some Christian critics saw the implants as the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy that describes an age of evil in which humans are forced to take the “Mark of the Beast” on their bodies, to buy or sell anything.

Gary Wohlscheid, president of These Last Days Ministries, a Roman Catholic group in Lowell, Mich., put together a Web site that linked the implantable microchips to the apocalyptic prophecy in the book of Revelation.

“The Bible tells us that God’s wrath will come to those who take the Mark of the Beast,” he says. Those who refuse to accept the Satanic chip “will be saved,” Wohlscheid offers in a comforting tone.

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In post-9/11 America, electronic surveillance comes in myriad forms: in a gas station’s video camera; in a cell phone tucked inside a teen’s back pocket; in a radio tag attached to a supermarket shopping cart; in a Porsche automobile equipped with a LoJack anti-theft device.

“We’re really on the verge of creating a surveillance society in America, where every movement, every action — some would even claim, our very thoughts — will be tracked, monitored, recorded and correlated,” says Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C.

RFID, in Steinhardt’s opinion, “could play a pivotal role in creating that surveillance society.”

In design, the tag is simple: A medical-grade glass capsule holds a silicon computer chip, a copper antenna and a “capacitor” that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader.

Implantations are quick, relatively simple procedures. After a local anesthetic is administered, a large-gauge hypodermic needle injects the chip under the skin on the back of the arm, midway between the elbow and the shoulder.

“It feels just like getting a vaccine — a bit of pressure, no specific pain,” says John Halamka, an emergency physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

He got chipped two years ago, “so that if I was ever in an accident, and arrived unconscious or incoherent at an emergency ward, doctors could identify me and access my medical history quickly.” (A chipped person’s medical profile can be continuously updated, since the information is stored on a database accessed via the Internet.)

Halamka thinks of his microchip as another technology with practical value, like his BlackBerry. But it’s also clear, he says, that there are consequences to having an implanted identifier.

“My friends have commented to me that I’m ‘marked’ for life, that I’ve lost my anonymity. And to be honest, I think they’re right.”

Indeed, as microchip proponents and detractors readily agree, Americans’ mistrust of microchips and technologies like RFID runs deep. Many wonder:

Do the current chips have global positioning transceivers that would allow the government to pinpoint a person’s exact location, 24-7? (No; the technology doesn’t yet exist.)

But could a tech-savvy stalker rig scanners to video cameras and film somebody each time they entered or left the house? (Quite easily, though not cheaply. Currently, readers cost $300 and up.)

How about thieves? Could they make their own readers, aim them at unsuspecting individuals, and surreptitiously pluck people’s IDs out of their arms? (Yes. There’s even a name for it — “spoofing.”)

What’s the average lifespan of a microchip? (About 10-15 years.) What if you get tired of it before then — can it be easily, painlessly removed? (Short answer: No.)

Presently, Steinhardt and other privacy advocates view the tagging of identity documents — passports, drivers licenses and the like — as a more pressing threat to Americans’ privacy than the chipping of people. Equipping hospitals, doctors’ offices, police stations and government agencies with readers will be costly, training staff will take time, and, he says, “people are going to be too squeamish about having an RFID chip inserted into their arms, or wherever.”

But that wasn’t the case in March 2004, when the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain — a nightclub catering to the body-aware, under-25 crowd — began holding “Implant Nights.”

In a white lab coat, with hypodermic in latex-gloved hand, a company chipper wandered through the throng of the clubbers and clubbettes, anesthetizing the arms of consenting party goers, then injecting them with microchips.

The payoff?

Injectees would thereafter be able to breeze past bouncers and entrance lines, magically open doors to VIP lounges, and pay for drinks without cash or credit cards. The ID number on the VIP chip was linked to the user’s financial accounts and stored in the club’s computers.

After being chipped himself, club owner Conrad K. Chase declared that chip implants were hardly a big deal to his patrons, since “almost everybody has piercings, tattoos or silicone.”

VIP chipping soon spread to the Baja Beach Club in Rotterdam, Holland, the Bar Soba in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Amika nightclub in Miami Beach, Fla.

That same year, Mexico’s attorney general, Rafael Macedo, made an announcement that thrilled chip proponents and chilled privacy advocates: He and 18 members of his staff had been microchipped as a way to limit access to a sensitive records room, whose door unlocked when a “portal reader” scanned the chips.

But did this make Mexican security airtight?

Hardly, says Jonathan Westhues, an independent security researcher in Cambridge, Mass. He concocted an “emulator,” a hand-held device that cloned the implantable microchip electronically. With a team of computer-security experts, he demonstrated — on television — how easy it was to snag data off a chip.

Explains Adam Stubblefield, a Johns Hopkins researcher who joined the team: “You pass within a foot of a chipped person, copy the chip’s code, then with a push of the button, replay the same ID number to any reader. You essentially assume the person’s identity.”

The company that makes implantable microchips for humans, VeriChip Corp., of Delray Beach, Fla., concedes the point — even as it markets its radio tag and its portal scanner as imperatives for high-security buildings, such as nuclear power plants.

“To grab information from radio frequency products with a scanning device is not hard to do,” Scott Silverman, the company’s chief executive, says. However, “the chip itself only contains a unique, 16-digit identification number. The relevant information is stored on a database.”

Even so, he insists, it’s harder to clone a VeriChip than it would be to steal someone’s key card and use it to enter secure areas.

VeriChip Corp., whose parent company has been selling radio tags for animals for more than a decade, has sold 7,000 microchips worldwide, of which about 2,000 have been implanted in humans. More than one-tenth of those have been in the U.S., generating “nominal revenues,” the company acknowledged in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in February.

Although in five years VeriChip Corp. has yet to turn a profit, it has been investing heavily — up to $2 million a quarter — to create new markets.

The company’s present push: tagging of “high-risk” patients — diabetics and people with heart conditions or Alzheimer’s disease.

In an emergency, hospital staff could wave a reader over a patient’s arm, get an ID number, and then, via the Internet, enter a company database and pull up the person’s identity and medical history.

To doctors, a “starter kit” — complete with 10 hypodermic syringes, 10 VeriChips and a reader — costs $1,400. To patients, a microchip implant means a $200, out-of-pocket expense to their physician. Presently, chip implants aren’t covered by insurance companies, Medicare or Medicaid.

For almost two years, the company has been offering hospitals free scanners, but acceptance has been limited. According to the company’s most recent SEC quarterly filing, 515 hospitals have pledged to take part in the VeriMed network, yet only 100 have actually been equipped and trained to use the system.

Some wonder why they should abandon noninvasive tags such as MedicAlert, a low-tech bracelet that warns paramedics if patients have serious allergies or a chronic medical condition.

“Having these things under your skin instead of in your back pocket — it’s just not clear to me why it’s worth the inconvenience,” says Westhues.

Silverman responds that an implanted chip is “guaranteed to be with you. It’s not a medical arm bracelet that you can take off if you don’t like the way it looks…”

In fact, microchips can be removed from the body — but it’s not like removing a splinter.

The capsules can migrate around the body or bury themselves deep in the arm. When that happens, a sensor X-ray and monitors are needed to locate the chip, and a plastic surgeon must cut away scar tissue that forms around the chip.

The relative permanence is a big reason why Marc Rotenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is suspicious about the motives of the company, which charges an annual fee to keep clients’ records.

The company charges $20 a year for customers to keep a “one-pager” on its database — a record of blood type, allergies, medications, driver’s license data and living-will directives. For $80 a year, it will keep an individual’s full medical history.

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In recent times, there have been rumors on Wall Street, and elsewhere, of the potential uses for RFID in humans: the chipping of U.S. soldiers, of inmates, or of migrant workers, to name a few.

To date, none of this has happened.

But a large-scale chipping plan that was proposed illustrates the stakes, pro and con.

In mid-May, a protest outside the Alzheimer’s Community Care Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., drew attention to a two-year study in which 200 Alzheimer’s patients, along with their caregivers, were to receive chip implants. Parents, children and elderly people decried the plan, with signs and placards.

“Chipping People Is Wrong” and “People Are Not Pets,” the signs read. And: “Stop VeriChip.”

Ironically, the media attention sent VeriChip’s stock soaring 27 percent in one day.

“VeriChip offers technology that is absolutely bursting with potential,” wrote blogger Gary E. Sattler, of the AOL site Bloggingstocks, even as he recognized privacy concerns.

Albrecht, the RFID critic who organized the demonstration, raises similar concerns on her AntiChips.com Web site.

“Is it appropriate to use the most vulnerable members of society for invasive medical research? Should the company be allowed to implant microchips into people whose mental impairments mean they cannot give fully informed consent?”

Mary Barnes, the care center’s chief executive, counters that both the patients and their legal guardians must consent to the implants before receiving them. And the chips, she says, could be invaluable in identifying lost patients — for instance, if a hurricane strikes Florida.

That, of course, assumes that the Internet would be accessible in a killer storm. VeriChip Corp. acknowledged in an SEC filing that its “database may not function properly” in such circumstances.

As the polemic heats up, legislators are increasingly being drawn into the fray. Two states, Wisconsin and North Dakota, recently passed laws prohibiting the forced implantation of microchips in humans. Others — Ohio, Oklahoma, Colorado and Florida — are studying similar legislation.

In May, Oklahoma legislators were debating a bill that would have authorized microchip implants in people imprisoned for violent crimes. Many felt it would be a good way to monitor felons once released from prison.

But other lawmakers raised concerns. Rep. John Wright worried, “Apparently, we’re going to permanently put the mark on these people.”

Rep. Ed Cannaday found the forced microchipping of inmates “invasive … We are going down that slippery slope.”

In the end, lawmakers sent the bill back to committee for more work.

Fatal1ty

In the world of competitive video gaming, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendell could be considered Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan. He’s traveled the globe, won several world championships, and made more money than most twenty-somethings will see in a lifetime. Steve Kroft meets Fatal1ty and gets a sense of what it’s like being America’s most famous “cyber-athlete.”