Mike Oh owns a store called Tech Superpowers. Guess where it happens to be located? Right across the alley from the new Apple Store. You may or may not have heard about the New York Yankees organization digging up a Boston Red Sox jersey that a construction worker buried under Yankee Stadium, but while that was making headlines, Oh slipped over to where construction workers were about to pour cement for the new Apple Store and buried one of his company’s work uniforms.

The whole story is here in the Boston Globe and explained in further detail on the Tech Superpowers web site. I ran into Mike outside of the big opening today and talked him into showing me where he buried the shirt. Good stuff.

The Ortiz Caper, Explained [TechSuperpowers.com]

Who knew Jennifer had such an advanced gadget sense? Or, and I think this the more likely situation, she’s secretly dating a blogger and he turned her on to Amazon’s angular e-book reader. Here’s another shot in case you’re a doubter (she’s even accessorized with a case).

You may have read that the Kindle is expected to generate more than half a billion in revenue for Amazon by 2010. They may want to revise those numbers now that supermarket loiterers everywhere will be seeing a picture of a nearly naked Aniston hefting the device. That’s called viral marketing, people.

Still don’t have your VIP tickets for this Friday’s MashBashNYC? We were sold out but I managed to finagle the venue into adding 50 more last minute tickets. Please buy them directly through Webster Hall. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door between 8pm and 9pm only.

Who’s ready for a crazy night?! Join Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, Adam Hirsch and Brett Petersel and some of New York City’s finest. We expect a variety of folks you want to meet, including bloggers and press to startups and venture capitalists. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Updated Schedule for the Evening:

08:00 - 10:00PM: Open Bar sponsored by kluster & Music by DJ Alex English
10:00 - 11:30PM: The Legendary Grandmaster Flash
12:00 - 01:00am: James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem)
01:00 - 04:00am: Sets by LA Riots / MSTRKRFT / Does It Offend You, Yeah?
What: MashBash NYC : Mashable’s NYC Spring Party!
Who: 2,500 sold out crowd, 450 Mashable VIP Tickets on Balcony, Grandmaster Flash starts the night off
When: Friday, May 16th, 2008
Drinks: Open Bar, 8 - 10 pm sponsored by Kluster (21+ only)
Where: Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, New York, NY

There are very few “Mashable VIP” tickets left ($50/ticket), which include:

* Private Access and Open Bar from 8 - 10 pm, Sponsored by Kluster.com
* Exclusive VIP Access from 8 pm till Midnight
* Front of the line status - party inside instead of waiting outside!

And now, a few words from our sponsor:

kluster empowers groups to collaborate + decide through three channels:

projects: kluster.com provides an online platform for small businesses to engage a community to get stuff done. consults: kluster works with brands to create custom community engagements, powered by the kluster architecture. brands: launching in April, klusterlabs is a breeding ground for community operated brands/businesses where 20% of all revenue generated by the community gets redistributed amongst influencers.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/15/mashbash-nyc-tomorrow-last-minute-tickets-added/

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

MashBash NYC is May 16th - Tickets Selling Fast, Get Yours Now
MashBashNYC Gets Bigger and Better - Last Chance To Get Your Tickets
100 Mashable VIP Tickets Left to MashBash NYC
MashBash NYC Reminder: Music, Drinks and More
MashBash NYC Reminder, Giveaway, and Discount
MashBashNYC with Grandmaster Flash: Win 10 FREE Tickets
MashBash NYC Featuring Grandmaster Flash

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Chicago residents are no strangers to the city's many CCTV cameras by this point -- if anyone knows exactly how long to stop at Roosevelt and State to avoid the red-light cam there, you let us know, okay? -- but it looks like this summer is going to bring a new twist to the city's surveillance racket: automated camera monitoring. Video from the several thousand cameras in Chicago's Operation Virtual Shield project currently comes into the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communication's ops center, but starting this summer, it'll also be watched by an IBM-developed autonomous system that can be programmed to watch for specific activities or objects, like certain cars or unattended backpacks. Since the video is stored on a 60TB storage array for 30 days, law enforcement can also do retroactive searches using the tech. That's a huge step up from San Francisco's useless CCTV system, sure, but we've never really believed any of this stuff is actually effective at deterring crime -- hopefully we'll be proven wrong. Check out the the full news vid at the read link.

[Via Boing Boing]

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Last month, we pointed out that the market for stolen credit card data was so saturated that prices were falling. Of course, that just inspired scammers to go looking for other types of data that was a bit harder to find: VoIP accounts. According to the BBC, scammers selling VoIP account info are now able to get higher prices than those selling credit card data. Of course, it's not at all clear how widespread this really is. The info seems to be coming from a company trying to sell a solution to deal with this -- which already makes it somewhat suspect. Also, you have to wonder how valuable VoIP account data really can be compared to credit card numbers which have much wider applicability. Either way, it will be interesting to see how the market deals with the "glut" of credit card data out there, and where else data scammers turn.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

I had a chance to talk to John McCrea today regarding the acquisition of his company by Comcast, and while a lot of the raw information is probably found elsewhere or in other analysis, the way he laid it all out to me showed me exactly how much sense the joining of these two organizations really made. This is a return visit for him, and he and I always have fun when he’s on the show.

Given that Comcast isn’t a huge shareholder in the Web 2.0 property market, a lot of questions were going around as to what this could possibly integrate with, how much integration Plaxo would make within the Comcast organization.

As it turns out, this buyout came as a result of a long relationship that they’ve had since the Plaxo tools were integrated into the suite of tools given out to Comcast broadband subscribers. Since then, they’ve continually discussed what an expansion of that partnership would look like.

When he was describing the future of all this, a conversation from an episode of Elite Tech News sprang to mind from a few weeks ago. The topic was whether or not Twitter and FriendFeed would ever see mainstream adoption, or if would forever remain the loved utility of us blogosphere folks.

The argument against it becoming widespread was that it just isn’t accessible.  For it to be useful, the users really need to be on a wide variety of services like Digg, Google Reader, and Twitter already. This is in contrast to the future that McCrea sees with Plaxo Pulse, where your TV and movie viewing habits will tracked through the Pulse system, and integrated into the set-top box experience.

Yes, the TV becomes the platform, but just as important, the barrier to entry will no longer be existent.  My 92 year old gramma knows how to use the TV.  Explaining FriendFeed to her would be about as useful as explaining underwater basketweaving to her in Latin. Thus, Plaxo’s lifestreaming utility is the first to break into the mainstream.

This is a potentially groundbreaking partnership in a number of ways, and McCrea definitely puts an interesting new spin on the whole partnership I hadn’t heard yet.

You can hear all about this in the embed available below, or you can download the MP3 file directly here.

Never miss an episode with these links:
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here.
Add directly to iTunes here (or give us a rating).
Add directly to your Zune here.

Are you a regular listener to Mashable Conversations? Consider filling out our Listener Survey.

mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/15/plaxo-john-mccrea-comcast/

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Podcast: A Conversation with Plaxo’s John McCrea
Rumor: Plaxo Sells to Comcast for $175M in Cash
Plaxo Confession: Acquired by Comcast
Google Social Graph API Spotted in the Wild: Plaxo Public Profiles
Why Scoble Got the Boot from Facebook: Plaxo’s New Feature
Plaxo Adds LinkedIn to Sync
Plaxo Now Syncs With Windows Mobile

Filed under: Laptops

It's been a controversial decision, but it looks like the OLPC XO has completed its transition from revolutionary education project to just another tiny Windows laptop with a useless keyboard -- albeit one with a pleasantly whimsical design. Yep, it's official: Microsoft and OLPC just put out a joint press release saying that XP-loaded XOs will be available starting in August or September, with some countries to get the machines as soon as next month. Users will get all the regular functionality of XP -- it's basically the same build as on the Eee and other ultraportables -- but Microsoft's spent over a year developing specialized drivers for the XO's various features like e-book mode, the writing pad, and camera. (We're pretty certain that doesn't include mesh networking, but WiFi is supported.) XP is too big for the built-in 1GB flash chip, so it'll come preloaded on a 2GB SD card, leaving just about 1.5GB free total for apps and media. It seems like Microsoft is thrilled about this partnership, but it's a not going to make NickNeg's search for new vision at the top any easier. As for Sugar? You'll still be able to get it, but we have a sinking feeling about its future. Demo video after the break.

Continue reading OLPC XO officially gets Windows XP, children of the world to be assimilated

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Today’s Top Posts:

• Android vs. LiMo: What’s the difference?
• From all of us at CG…
• Samsung F400 music phone: It’s good because it’s Bang & Olufsen
• T-Mobile officially adds text message blocking
• Daily Crunch: Flight of the Touchwall Edition
• Atari to sell Wii Fit clone
• Hackers will track conference attendees’ movements using RFID
• CrunchGear’s handy iPhone rumor confirmator
• Fujitsu U2010 Atom-based UMPC will cost $1,300
• OCZ offers DIY gaming notebooks, some assembly required

Editor’s Note: If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion in “The Startup Review” series, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Buru

20 word description: Users can collect web contents into collections and easily share them in buru.com.

CEO’s 100 word description: There is always someone who has better knowledge on a topic and has collected contents while browsing the internet. It make sense to provide a better way to collect and search for these user filtered contents in collections. Buru is a platform for people to collect and save the actual web contents based on their interest and also made for people who search for these topic related collections. Buru is based on the belief that human-filtered contents that are organized into collections are the most valuable information on the web.

Mashable’s Take: If you hadn’t noticed, we’re seeing a serious upsurge of new bookmarking tools, most of which are looking to provide a central, personalized service that enables individuals to better organize content they find across the web, or even from their computer.

Buru is a new bookmarking site that lets you bookmark items from across the web, or import options from a handful of blogs, photo and video-sharing sites, or Delicious. Even though Buru has a clean design and is easy to navigate, it’s still emerging in a space that’s becoming increasingly crowded as search and personal recommendations enter the equation of social and/or tailored bookmarking services.

Nevertheless, I like Buru for its current offerings, and appreciate the option to import items as well, though I had a bit of trouble importing some of my items. Viewing others’ items is also simplified, as there are slideshow features and FriendFeed-like following options. However, I’m still fully aware that the monetization of such sites is still being explored, and mainstream web users don’t seem quite ready for ultra-personalized recommendations beyond media (movies).

It’s not entirely clear how Buru provides recommendations for users, and it doesn’t even appear to be a major focus for the site right now. But as the space matures, we’re seeing a number of different ways in which bookmarking services are being applied towards practical scenarios, such as semantic search, and even task management.

Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials
mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/15/bur/

Next month GigaOM will hold Structure 08, a conference centered on the changing face of computing infrastructure. The event will discuss the wave of cloud computing technology that has been driving a revolution in web applications and has started to overthrow the notion of conventional servers.

Structure 08 will feature a workshop on Google App Engine, along with keynote presentations from Werner Vogels (Amazon), Greg Papadopoulos (Sun), and James Crowe (Level 3). You can see a full schedule here.

We’re giving away five tickets to the event, so leave a comment telling us why you’re too financially impaired to pay for a ticket and we’ll pick the best responses.

Structure 08 will be held on June 25th at San Francisco’s Mission Bay Conference Center. TechCrunch readers who register by May 20 can get a 10% discount on registration here.

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