I realized that I had used the email address about 5 years ago while setting up an account so that I could apply for work at Microsoft.  I never completed the application because the web based application running on IIS kept crashing and I couldn’t complete it.  Then I couldn’t log in and recover my work, so I created another login and the same thing happened.  I gave up on the process.

I reset the password today and signed up for the free Xbox Live account.  This is the one that lets you do things like create and avatar.  You know, things that are part of the Nintendo Wii straight out of the box.  That’s right.  In order to do things on the Xbox that one can do on a Nintendo Wii, you need to sign up for an account at Microsoft and make sure you don’t take the standard options, both of which will generate more marketing emails (as if you needed more of those).

Then I got the first sign-in window and I saw this:

You can change your gamertag once (this is one that was automatically created for me, without my option of input).  And I can change it once.  After that, I will need to upgrade to the ‘Gold’ account of around $5 per month (at the annual rate).

Dealing with Microsoft is like dealing with someone I don’t trust.  Dealing with them is like living in a third world country where everyone is working to separate you from your money and once the money leaves your hand, you are on your own.

I digress.  Wonderful pictures of Earth.  See them here.

A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev volcano (Russia’s Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain and is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island.

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to get some seeds started. Frequent MAKE contributor and off-grid aficionado Abe Connally teaches us how to make cheap and simple soil blocks to avoid transplant mortality (fromMAKE Volume 24). He uses a can as the soil blocker mold, one of the can ends as the press plate, and an eye bolt, nut, and washer as the plunger. To boot, Abe uses reclaimed plastic bakery containers as the trays.

Check it out.

NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI), the RFID leader for multi-applications, announced that ClearCount Medical Solutions has selected NXP RFID solutions to enable its SmartSponge® System. The SmartSponge System can easily and accurately detect and account for surgical sponges placed in a patient’s body when undergoing surgery, so that no items are “left behind,” thus improving patient safety.

I need a drink.

A DIY scanning electron microscope.  See the video there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

and

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are a lot of links at the web site.

Intel is pledging to spend between $6 billion and $8 billion to build a new chip manufacturing plant and upgrade its existing fabrication plants in Arizona and Oregon.
The influx of cash will allow Intel’s new and current fab plants to put more muscle behind building the next-generation, 22-nanometer microprocessors, which could eventually power sleeker devices that deliver higher performance and longer battery life at a cheaper cost.
Intel’s first microprocessors built on the 22-nanometer process, codenamed “Ivy Bridge,” will be in production in late 2011, the chipmaker said today.
Besides kicking in money into its U.S. facilities, which account for three-quarters of Intel’s global manufacturing plants, the investment will create 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs and lead to 800 to 1,000 new permanent high-tech jobs.

This is to support an instruction set architecture that was state of the art in 1979. ARM processors, drawn at 45 nanometer (four times larger) are more power efficient.

A national epidemiologic study finds a strong, consistent correlation between adult diabetes and particulate air pollution that persists after adjustment for other risk factors like obesity and ethnicity, report researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston. The relationship was seen even at exposure levels below the current EPA safety limit.

Read the whole thing.

It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed past the staff with barely a word and instead set upon the computers before carting them away. Taken were files that chronicled a generation’s worth of efforts to protect the Siberian wilderness  The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.  Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.

Across Russia, the security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken advocacy groups or opposition newspapers in recent years. Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia. Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.  As the ploy grows common, the authorities are receiving key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.

Interviews and a review of law enforcement documents show that in recent cases, Microsoft lawyers made statements describing the company as a victim and arguing that criminal charges should be pursued. The lawyers rebuffed pleas by accused journalists and advocacy groups, including Baikal Wave, to refrain from working with the authorities. Baikal Wave, in fact, said it had purchased and installed legal Microsoft software specifically to deny the authorities an excuse to raid them. The group later asked Microsoft for help in fending off the police. “Microsoft did not want to help us, which would have been the right thing to do,” said Marina Rikhvanova, a Baikal Environmental Wave co-chairwoman and one of Russia’s best-known environmentalists. “They said these issues had to be handled by the security services.”

Sounds like it is time for Linux, since Microsoft software does not run on Linux.