Google has added a new service for mobile users, CNET News tells us. Now when callers concentrate too much on what they are saying and lose track of where they are, Google comes to the rescue with map directions online to a cell-phone.

A downloadable Java application of Google Maps enables cell phone users to get live traffic information on the map. That information can be taken into account when providing estimated travel time, product manager Gummi Hafsteinsson said. In addition, users will be able to save favorite locations into the application, such as a home or work address, and frequently used driving directions, he said. Google also changed its Personalized Home page for mobile devices so that users can customize the content for their smaller screens, rather than having the same personalized home page that they have on their computer, Hafsteinsson said.

This is the sort of thing that creates hardly a stir when it first appears but a decade later is universally recognized as one of the key steps toward an entirely new industry. If it knows where you are, it can not only give you directions, but tell you what is going on and available in your area. Location based services are on the march, and the world will never be the same.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Angloslavia was originally a term coined by Ken MacLeod in his science fictions series about The Fall Revolution. If you have not picked these four books up, you should do so, now! The term is utilised here as a playful reference to the current flow of immigration from East Central Europe into the United Kingdom. This flow has serious consequences due to the interplay between immigration and public services. East European workers naturally respond to…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Where the people of Malaysia would be without their government to do their thinking for them, I really do not know. Malaysian authorities have published a list of undesirable titles to prevent parents giving their children names such as Hitler, smelly dog or 007. It is a classic 'Samizdata' story which allows us to make fun of the silly politicians but behind it is the serious point that the Malaysian government is arrogating for itself…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Kevin Connors mentioned this blog story about the fascinating new small jet from Honda to me a few days ago and I remembered it when I ran across this today: Honda announced today it will begin taking orders for a new, small jet aircraft later this year. The HondaJet, unveiled last year, will enter the "very light jet" market in the United States, the company said. It sounds like quite a nice piece of kit:…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic expects to start flying in 2008. Designer Philippe Starck, former soap star Victoria Principal and “Superman Returns'' director Bryan Singer have booked their flights for tourist trips in outer space, an official from the company selling the galactic voyage said Monday. Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group company, has sold some 200 tickets to passengers for suborbital flights, starting in 2008, said Will Whitehorn, the company's president. It has collected 8.5 million…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

The official report on the SpaceX Falcon-1 launch termination at Kwajalein in the Pacific has been released and as it turns out, the problem was not human error after all. it was subsurface corrosion, possibly due to the tropical ocean climate and galvanic action, of a single nut on a fuel pump. You can read more about it here. Elon Musk's next launch is now scheduled for November….

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

By now, everyone knows that Mel Gibson has finally gone off the deep end. Here are some details about how far he’s taking it:
TMZ has learned that Deputy Mee audiotaped the entire exchange between himself and Gibson, from the time of the traffic stop to the time Gibson was put in the patrol car, […]

From Hammer Of Truth

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

“Our mission is clear in Iraq. Should we have to go in, our mission is very clear: disarmament.” — George W. Bush
No quagmire in Iraq, you say? Here’s yesterday’s news:
The tours of 4,000 American soldiers who had been scheduled to leave Iraq in the coming weeks have been extended for up to four months, […]

From Hammer Of Truth

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Question: What has four legs, is big, green and fuzzy, and if it fell on you out of a tree would kill you?
Answer: A pool table.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I am not alone in wondering what the Monetary Policy Committee will decide when they meet on Thursday. Inflation is running at its highest for eight years, so some must be tempted to squeeze some money out of the system through an interest rate rise. Yet business leaders, especially manufacturers, have warned that economic conditions are too fragile. A rate rise which made money dearer and made cash scarcer might hit economic growth and lengthen the unemployment lines. Hard one.

Now Alistair Osborne in a Telegraph Business Comment suggests another factor the MPC might be taking into account. Bad debt. Although the banks will be announcing soaring profits, watch out for the rocketing bad debts they’ll also be reporting. The banks have handed out money with what some have called reckless abandon; now they find that increasing numbers are not paying it back on schedule. It’s not hard to see why.

The official inflation rate of 2.5pc is the highest for eight years, but it hardly reflects most people’s perception of their rising living costs. In the past year alone, average gas bills are up 35.8pc, electricity 24.7pc, petrol and oil 12pc, water 5.5pc, council tax 4.7pc and rail fares 4pc. As the shopper’s purse gets squeezed and the lid is kept on higher wages, our disposable income is vanishing fast. That’s not just bad news for the high street but for the economy as a whole because it’s our plastic in the shops which has kept the show on the road for so long.

Do bear in mind that an inflated public sector has added jobs, concealing those lost in manufacturing and some other sectors. But the public sector expansion days are over now. And that lost spending power didn’t just vanish; a lot of it went into the Chancellor’s pocket, where much of it was wasted. Many people kept going by venturing deeper into debt, egged on perhaps by a rise in house values. Now an interest rate increase could push more of them over the edge. So, between the devil of inflation and the deep blue sea of debt, what does the MPC do when they meet? They keep things as they are, put off the day of reckoning, and hope that conditions will be better by then. It’s not entirely reassuring, is it?

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom