Archive for August 8th, 2008

Eight iPhone owners have joined an elite clan: Their Apple gadget is running a program that cost nearly $1,000.

W hen the iPhone first hit the market in June 2007, those who paid the $499 entry price — and signed the two-year AT&T contract — owned a status symbol. A year later, we have the iPhone 3G, Apple’s speedier, sleeker and, most important, less expensive smart phone, which introduced a section for downloading third-party applications. Now that the phone is affordable enough for a wider audience, a new status symbol has emerged: a seemingly useless application called I Am Rich.

Its function is exactly what the name implies: to alert people that you have money in the bank. I Am Rich was available for purchase from the phone’s App Store for, get this, $999.99 — the highest amount a developer can charge through the digital retailer, said Armin Heinrich, the program’s developer. Once downloaded, it doesn’t do much — a red icon sits on the iPhone home screen like any other application, with the subtext “I Am Rich.” Once activated, it treats the user to a large, glowing gem (pictured above). That’s about it. For a thousand dollars.

Apple apparently had some problems with I Am Rich. After initially approving it for distribution, the company has since removed it from the store. Heinrich, a German software developer, has yet to hear back from Apple concerning the removal. “I have no idea why they did it and am not aware of any violation of the rules to sell software on the App Store,” Heinrich said in an e-mail with The Times today.

But Apple couldn’t pull it down before curious aristocrats — eight of them — had purchased it. Six people from the United States, one from Germany and one from France dropped a grand for the gem in the first 24 hours it was available, Heinrich said. That’s $5,600 in revenue for Heinrich and $2,400 for Apple, which collects 30% of each sale for “store upkeep.”

In the e-mail, Heinrich said there seemed to be a market for the program. “I am sure a lot more people would like to buy it — but currently can’t do so,” Heinrich said. “The App is a work of Art and included a ‘secret mantra’ — that’s all.”

A possible explanation for its removal: A screen shot of an App Store review that has been circulating around the Web recently, showing a user’s complaint that he purchased it accidentally. “I saw this app with a few friends and we jokingly clicked ‘buy’ thinking it was a joke, to see what would happen. … THIS IS NO JOKE…DO NOT BUY THIS APP AND APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THIS FROM THE APP STORE,” it read.

I Am Rich isn’t the first software that has been removed from Apple’s store. Box Office, a movie showtime resource, and NetShare, which let users connect a computer to the Internet using the iPhone’s 3G wireless data service, disappeared without a trace. Apple did not respond to phone calls for comment.

UPDATED: In a follow-up e-mail, Heinrich said he had not yet received his $5,600 check from Apple, which has a policy of paying developers at the end of each calendar month. He’s unsure how the app’s removal will affect the payment process.
“I’ve got e-mails from customers telling me that they really love the app,” adding that they had “no trouble spending the money,” he said.

UPDATED: Heinrich confirms the validity of the review pictured in the screenshot, and Apple has refunded his and another buyer’s money. “I don’t want to collect money from people who did this by accident and I am glad that Apple returned the money for two orders,” Heinrich said.

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As an addendum to the earlier post about css resetting, here’s another version from Yahoo though it’s far less user friendly:

YUI Reset CSS

The foundational YUI Reset CSS file removes and neutralizes the inconsistent default styling of HTML elements, creating a level playing field across A-grade browsers and providing a sound foundation upon which you can explicitly declare your intentions.

Note: YUI Base CSS (introduced in version 2.3.0) can compliment Reset by applying a style foundation for common HTML elements that is consistent across A-grade browsers.

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Well shit. On the one hand it does continue to build the rep of parallels to JFK. But then doing it while the wife had cancer, yea, that’s not cool. Even moreso because he made so much hay about his having to be there for her during her illness. Really had thought he’d be able to pull though, but I donno if he’ll be able to make it past this one with anywhere near the standing that he had before. One thing that’d been just mentioned, which sounds probably, Obama’s people were probably background checking in their hunt for VP candidates which brought this tidbit from underneath a rock.

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday admitted to an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. He denied fathering the woman’s daughter. Edwards told ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter but said that he didn’t love her.

He said he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn’t the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

A former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.

Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, and Edwards denied it.

“The story is false,” he told reporters. “It’s completely untrue, ridiculous.” He professed his love for his wife, Elizabeth, who had an incurable form of cancer, saying, “I’ve been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and as anybody who’s been around us knows, she’s an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story’s just false.”

Last month, the Enquirer carried another story stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child’s birth. Edwards called it “tabloid trash,” but he generally avoided reporters’ inquiries, as did his former top aides.

In the interview, scheduled to air on ABC News’ “Nightline,” Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.

Most mainstream news organizations refrained from reporting the story, but newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., recounted the Enquirer’s allegations in prominent articles on Thursday. Edwards acknowledged the affair on Friday afternoon, traditionally a slow-news period even when the Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies are not preoccupying millions of Americans.

Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party’s nod even after announcing in March 2007 that his wife’s breast cancer had spread to her bone. Elizabeth Edwards revealed in November 2004, shortly after her husband’s defeat, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. After months of remission, the couple announced the recurrence of the cancer 2 1/2 years later.

He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Barack Obama. The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

The Edwardses have three children — Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Another son, Wade, died at age 16 in a 1996 car accident.

David Bonior, Edwards’ campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said Friday he was disappointed and angry after hearing about Edwards’ confession.

“Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he’s let them down,” said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. “They’ve been betrayed by his action.”

Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards’ future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: “You can’t lie in politics and expect to have people’s confidence.”

In 2006, Edwards’ political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.

The payments from Edwards’ One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.

Midline provided “Website/Internet services,” according to reports that Edwards’ PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Midline’s work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as he prepares for an appearance on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and travels in Uganda in 2006.

Edwards’ PAC followed the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.

At the time Hunter was compiling the videos in 2006, Edwards was preparing a run for president.

Episode One of the four videos captures a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.

“I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues — yes, me a Democrat using that word — the great moral issues that face our country,” Edwards tells the crowd. “If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can’t wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it.”

The sound track for the six-minute video is the song “True Reflections” which begins with these words: “When you look into a mirror, do you like what’s looking at you? Now that you’ve seen your true reflections, what on earth are you gonna do?”

The video entitled “Plane Truths,” opens with Edwards relaxing in his seat on the plane, telling the unseen woman that “I actually walked the country to see who I am, who I really am, but I don’t know what the result of that will be.

Edwards adds: “But for me personally, I’d rather be successful or unsuccessful based on who I really am, not based on some plastic Ken doll that you put up in front of audiences, that’s not me, you know?”

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Over at MyerWeb.com, Erik has a create file that he has culled together for use as a full reset across browsers, so in theory, when you add your css back in after calling it, your css will look the same across the main browsers and versions. Here’s the link to the original article.

But below is the css reset code:

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    border: 0;
    outline: 0;
    font-weight: inherit;
    font-style: inherit;
    font-size: 100%;
    font-family: inherit;
    vertical-align: baseline;
}
/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {
    outline: 0;
}
body {
    line-height: 1;
    color: black;
    background: white;
}
ol, ul {
    list-style: none;
}
/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table {
    border-collapse: separate;
    border-spacing: 0;
}
caption, th, td {
    text-align: left;
    font-weight: normal;
}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after,
q:before, q:after {
    content: "";
}
blockquote, q {
    quotes: "" "";
}

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Georgia says Russian aircraft bombed its air bases

By MUSA SADULAYEV, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago

DZHAVA, Georgia – Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive Friday to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, threatening to ignite a broader conflict.

Hundreds of civilians were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won defacto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.

“I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,” said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. “It’s impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.”

The fighting broke out as much of the world’s attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were in Beijing.

The timing suggests Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia — a key to his hold on power.

Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor. “Most decision makers have gone for the holidays,” he said in an interview with CNN. “Brilliant moment to attack a small country.”

Diplomats called for another emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.

The United States was sending an envoy to the region Friday to meet with the parties involved. “We support Georgia’s territorial integrity,” State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters. “We are working on mediation efforts to secure a cease-fire.”

Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili told CNN that the troops would be called home Saturday in the face of the South Ossetia fighting.

Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership — a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.

Ten Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded when their barracks were hit in Georgian shelling, said Russian Ground Forces spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry accused Russian aircraft of bombing two military air bases inside Georgia, inflicting some casualties and destroying several military aircraft. Rustavi 2 television said four people were killed and five wounded at the Marneuli air base.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements for its peacekeepers, and Russian state television and Georgian officials reported a convoy of tanks had crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.

Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said government troops were now in full control of Tskhinvali, but the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Konashenkov as saying late Friday that Russian tanks were firing on Georgian positions in the city.

“We are facing Russian aggression,” said Georgia’s Security Council chief Kakha Lomaya. “They have sent in their troops and weapons and they are bombing our towns.”

Putin has warned that the Georgian attack will draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship.

Chairing a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also vowed that Moscow will protect Russian citizens.

“In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located,” Medvedev said, according to Russian news reports. “We won’t allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished.”

An AP reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia — supporting the reports of an incursion. Some villagers were fleeing into Russia.

“I saw them (the Georgians) shelling my village,” said Maria, who gave only her first name. She said she and other villagers spent the night in a field and then fled toward the Russian border as the fighting escalated.

Yakobashvili said Georgian forces had shot down four Russian combat planes over Georgian territory but gave no details. Russia’s Defense Ministry denied an earlier Georgia report about one Russian plane downed and had no immediate comment on the latest claim.

Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt.

More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were at the base last month to teach combat skills to Georgian troops. Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain.

South Ossetia officials said Georgia attacked with aircraft, armor and heavy artillery. Georgian troops fired missiles at Tskhinvali, an official said, and many buildings were on fire.

Georgia’s president said Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.

A senior Russian diplomat in charge of the South Ossetian conflict, Yuri Popov, dismissed the Georgian claims of Russian bombings as misinformation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry denounced the Georgian attack as a “dirty adventure.” “Blood shed in South Ossetia will weigh on their conscience,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev later chaired a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, vowing that Moscow will protect Russian citizens.

“In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located,” Medvedev said, according to Russian news reports. “We won’t allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished.”

Saakashvili long has pledged to restore Tbilisi’s rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and built up ties with Moscow.

Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia.

The Georgian attack came just hours after Saakashvili announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast late Thursday in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict.

Georgian officials later blamed South Ossetian separatists for thwarting the cease-fire by shelling Georgian villages in the area.

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