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Italy police probe monastery raid

Police probe a hooded gang's brutal attack on friars at a monastery in northern Italy, which left one victim in a coma.

Dem Convention Techiest Event in Party's History

: Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comThe four-day 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver this week is not just a political event -- it's a celebration of social media, high-definition video and really kick-ass internet connectivity. "This is America's convention, and we're using new technology this time, like text messaging and Google and YouTube, to really break down these walls to make this [convention] more open and interactive," says Brook Colangelo, the DNCC's director of technology. This year's convention sees multiple firsts in technological innovations for the quadrennial political party gathering. For starters, the Democratic National Convention Committee is providing bloggers (and floor delegates) with "video-upload booths" where they can upload their footage to YouTube or any other online-video platform. The DNC is using text messaging and streaming video to keep delegates (and those following along at home) up to date. Separately, an alliance of groups, including progressive group blog the DailyKos, ProgressNow and the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, are hosting and sponsoring an 8,000-square-foot "bloggers tent," where attending bloggers, vloggers and podcasters will have a place to work with a high-bandwidth internet connection. Here's a look at some of the tech inside the Pepsi Convention Center, where the event is taking place. High-Tech Podium The convention committee hired top talent to design its futuristic-looking stage: Designer Bruce Rodgers came up with the idea for the Democrats' flashy podium. Rodgers' other clients include Madonna, Mötley Crüe, the Dave Matthews Band and the National Football League. The DNC convention setup features 8,000 square feet of video-projection surfaces, and that includes three 103-inch Panasonic LCD HD screens, the largest of their kind. The screens will project daily themes of the convention and other relevant pictures as events unfold. The DNCC says that more than 50 technicians and 70 local stagehands have worked more than 25,000 hours to create the 70-foot-wide and 60-feet-high stage and podium. : Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark is blogging and vlogging about the Democratic National Convention for his personal blog cnewmark.com, Reuters and The Huffington Post. He's one of more than 120 bloggers who have been credentialed to "cover" the convention. On Monday, Newmark worked in The Big Tent, an 8,000-square-foot space for bloggers. His gear: A Lenovo ThinkPad x300, an iPhone 3G, a Flip Video, a Nokia n95, a Nikon P80 and a pedometer. He plans on streaming and shooting video during the convention, as well as writing, and he has plans to attend tech round tables taking place at the convention, as well as several parties with celebrities. "I've never been to a convention, and I've never done anything political before," he says. Newmark is a surrogate for Obama and speaks about technology issues. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comCNN chief national correspondent John King, at the "Mini Magic Wall." The touchscreen is a smaller version of the "Magic Wall" that CNN has used in election coverage. It is produced by Perceptive Pixel, a company founded by multitouch pioneer Jeff Han. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comJosh Braun, CNN Producer of New Media, works on a map of the convention floor, which will be geo-referenced to real-time voting data. His computer is connected to the nearby giant touchscreen used by John King. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comCNN uses a "Polecam" system on one corner of the floor for correspondent Candy Crowley. The monitor and controller at the opposite end of the pole holding the camera are shown here. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comA state-delegation voting kiosk with internet connectivity for bloggers is shown here. There are a total of 56 of these kiosks in the convention hall. The foreground computer is used to tally delegate votes. The monitor at right is for those who are sight- or hearing-impaired. A phone is on each side of the voting computer: one connected to Obama for America and one to the DNC secretary, both used to coordinate issues on the floor. The connection is hardwired so as not to compete with RF devices (such as video cameras) from the news media. The yellow cable gives internet access to bloggers. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comIn background is the DNC network hardware and in foreground is an OC-192 circuit, providing 10 Gbps of bandwidth -- enough, convention organizers say, to connect 220,000 homes to the internet. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comWith 56 blogging kiosks, a massive OC-192 internet connection, blogger-friendly amenities, streaming video and 8,000 square feet for bloggers nearby, the Pepsi Center is about to host the most-blogged event ever. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comDNC Committee technology director Brook Colangelo holds a cable at a state-delegation voting kiosk. The connection is hardwired so as not to compete with RF devices (such as video cameras) from the news media -- plus, it will provide a more reliable connection than WiFi could in an environment where so many people want internet access. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comJoe Silber and Lysandra Nelson from San Francisco mug at the podium for a photo op. Behind them are three Panasonic 103-inch HDTV displays; 8,000 square feet of video projection area is behind that.

Katamari Damacy King baby-hat

Veronica from ItchyStitchy has the pattern needed to make this child-sized Katamari Damacy Prince of All Cosmos hat thing. Someone get my smelling salts, I just went into a cute coma! The kid will be wearing it to GenCon (natch). FO and Pattern: Katamari Damacy Prince of All Cosmos Baby Hat! (via Craft)...

Gallery: Images From the 16th Annual DefCon

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comLAS VEGAS -- Last weekend, more than 9,000 hackers, freaks, feds and geeks gathered for the 16th annual DefCon, the world's largest computer security convention. Wired.com brought you live coverage of the most newsworthy events at DefCon 16. Here are some photos from the lighter side of the conference. Left: South Korean hackers compete in the Capture the Flag competition. The goal is to hack into and keep control of targeted servers. : Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comMr. Sinister and Dragon Cracker battle it out in a round of Guitar Hero -- one of DefCon's newest competitions.: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comBringing-your-own-booze supply ensures optimal buzz at DefCon. Shortly after this picture was taken, hotel security escorted this backpack-hacker to his room.: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comComputer geeks from the National Institute of Standards and Technology set up a network secured with quantum encryption in a conference room at DefCon. The quantum-entangled photons are being used to encrypt a video stream across a line-of-site network.: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comA compact optical bench and an atomic clock (left) are used to secure a network with quantum encryption. : Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comIn the Lock Pick Pavilion, DefCon attendees Dustin, Jennalynn and Kunfoozball practice their lock-picking skills. : Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comDefCon founder and organizer Jeff Moss, aka Dark Tangent, at the conference's closing ceremony Sunday. : Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comA collection of black badges awaits the winners of the various competitions. These badges give their holders lifetime entry to DefCon.: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comOne of DefCon's logos, the smiley-faced skull and crossbones, is welded inside a yellow sphere. The sphere is the primary stage of one of the most difficult competitions at DefCon: The Mystery Challenge. : Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comUnbeknownst to attendees, this laptop is sniffing RFID tags and taking photos of their owners when they pass in front of the detectors. RFID tags are used in everything from building access to some credit cards.: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comAt the closing ceremony, DefCon organizers turn off the lights while the attendees wave their high-tech badges back and forth.

Gallery: Rise of the Open Source at LinuxWorld

: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comSAN FRANCISCO -- LinuxWorld is the E3 for many open source visionaries, tinkerers and zealots who rally around the communal ethos of open software. This year's conference is especially charged. As more open source projects like Firefox go mainstream, it's an exciting time for the GNU gurus to show the rest of the world the light. The conference boasts various keynote speakers such as Kevin Clark, director of IT operations at Lucasfilm, and also featured an exhibition hall packed with booths spreading the good word of the latest open source edicts. Left: A skull-pture composed of various dead electronics greets visitors outside the Moscone North Convention hall. The skull interacts with passers-by, eliciting a creepy electronic voice. The skull was presented by the Alameda County Computer Resource Center which aims to refurbish 1,000 salvaged computers in three days with open source software and donate them to local schools. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comFusion-io demonstrates its silicon-based storage drive. While CPU processors have advanced continuously since 1987, disk drives have always had a hard time keeping up, says Rick White, co-founder and chief marketing director. "We'll be able to replace racks and racks of disk drives with just one flash," says White. "Computers will finally be completely silicon and use a lot less power, too." The new flash drives also promise to be environmentally friendly since companies that shift from spinning discs to the new drives would lower their carbon emissions considerably. According to White, a traditional 7200-rpm disk drive uses over 300,000 kwh a year whereas the new drive uses less than 100 kwh yearly. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comExpo attendees passing by the Fusion-io booth could sign a waiver to ride the bull, er, spinning hard drive. "We're putting the show back in trade show," says Rick White, co-founder and chief marketing director of Fusion-io. "Don't feel bad," jeers White to the drive's latest defeated passenger, "either way you're eventually going to have to let go of that spinning drive anyway." : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comShelly Milam, dressed as Tux the Linux penguin, and Ariana Parasco, dressed as The Gnu, dance their way around the expo showroom polling attendees on their favorite tech mascot. "We are doing a stunt to promote Groundwork Open Source," says Milam. "We're looking for the next open source idol." Those who participate have four competitors to choose from; Tux, Beastie, The Gnu and The Firefox. "So far I think Tux is winning," says Milam. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comHere, one unlucky machine blasted with sand and saltwater gets a second chance at life. DriverSavers Data Recovery displays various machines claimed before their time through unfortunate circumstances, and discusses how their company recovered the valuable data stored on the damaged disk. "With more people than ever recording their lives digitally, that data has become exponentially more valuable," says Jacqueline Cunningham, a strategic alliances specialist for the company. "We save data, we save reputations and we've even saved marriages," says Cunningham. "It's always either personal or financial but either way it's very important." : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comGloria Galicia, left, and Perla Ibarra, middle, aren't your typical booth babes -- both of the savvy beauties run personal blogs that cover both the operating system BSD and their personal lives. "I work for one of the sponsors of BSD," says Galicia. "I've never been to a trade show before and wanted to check it out and support BSD." Both women are on site to answer questions about the latest version of the OS, PC-BSD 7, Fibonacci edition. "This operating system has been under steady development since the '70s, and we're a viable alternative to Linux," says Matt Olander, who manned the BSD booth. "Yahoo's entire network is run on PC-BSD." : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comPossibly the only booth containing natural materials in the entire exhibition hall, Larry Frazier's display of his hand-carved mobius strips draws a crowd. "A mobius is a three-dimensional shape with only one edge and one surface," says Marian Frazier, who manned the booth with her husband. The beautiful sculptures fashioned from blocks of wood, both exotic and domestic, bronze and alabaster befuddle onlookers as they run their fingers along an edge only to end up back where they started. "People's eyes sparkle when they walk up," says Larry. "They've been very enthusiastic." : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comRackable Systems' modular data center is housed in a 40' x 8' container. The system's unique design allows the operator to get it up and running in just a couple of hours whereas a traditional data center can take a couple of years to build. "To run it we just need power, networking and water," says Jason Coari, Rackable Systems' senior marketing manager. "We've taken the fans out of the individual servers and replaced them with central fan bases." The larger fans not only keep the servers cooler and are less prone to break down but they're also more energy efficient, reducing energy costs up to 80 percent. The units' modular status and energy efficiency also makes it a likely candidate to be deployed in disaster recovery zones. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comA lost businessman is lulled to sleep by a barrage of geekery, jargon and woefully optimistic philosophies about open software's transformative potential.

Gallery: San Francisco Cable Cars Still Humming on 19th-Century Tech

: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comSAN FRANCISCO -- More than a century after their invention, cable cars still carry passengers up and over this city's hills. The picturesque mode of transport narrowly escaped extinction after the 1906 earthquake, which devastated the city as well as the cable car barn and tracks. New tracks were laid and the system was rebuilt -- despite the advent of more cost-effective electric streetcars -- partially due to cable cars' superior ability to climb the steepest hills in San Francisco. Cable cars faced extinction and persevered again in 1947, when San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham proclaimed that the lines should be removed in favor of buses. Thankfully, a campaign led by San Francisco's social elite saved the cars. Today, people come from all over the world to experience a ride on the tried-and-true cable cars, first tested 135 years ago today. Left: Cable car No. 20 of the Powell-Hyde line crests the hill on Taylor Street, fully loaded with passengers, against the backdrop of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz Island. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comRufus Bennett, a veteran cable car operator and gripman of "28 years and 7 months," transports passengers from the Powell Street turnaround to Fisherman's Wharf. According to Bennett, a trip on a San Francisco cable car is more than just a ride for the tourists who come from all over the world: It's an experience. "Today is the best day of my life," said Bennett, who clearly loves his job. "I've been through thousands of Thursdays, but I ain't never been here before." : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comThe winding wheels of the historic Washington-Mason cable car barn and powerhouse feed the approximately 58,000 feet of cable that runs cars on the city's three lines. The cable, composed of a hemp core wrapped in wires, zips unseen below ground at 9 mph. The cable cars grip the cable and are towed up and down the steep hills of San Francisco, carrying daily commuters and tourists alike to destinations around city. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comThe central control panel monitors "strand alarms" for all four cables that run under the city's streets. The alarm warns of a possible damaged cable. While the vintage panel appears at first glance to be straight out of 1930, it was actually installed during a 1984 overhaul of the system. "The system is designed to be relatively simple, and there's no reason to complicate it," said Wesley Valaris, a former gripman who now trains a new generation of operators. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comUrsula and Link Wolsram of Stuttgart, Germany, take in the sights and nearly deafening sounds at the Cable Car Museum, housed in the Washington-Mason powerhouse.: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comA coil of used cable awaits its fate in the cable car barn. The wear from the grips and dies of the cable cars clearly shows in its glossy appearance, just like a used brake pad would on your car. The cable generally needs to be replaced after anywhere from 100 to 250 days of use. The process takes around five hours, as new cable is attached to an end of the old cable and pulled through the system, with used cable recoiling around another spindle. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comBeneath each cable car lies one of the most essential mechanisms of the whole operation: the grip (at this angle, appearing to the right of and above the cable). The grip is hidden below the street and the cable passes through its center. When the gripman is ready to move the cable car forward, he closes the jaws of the grip slowly around the moving cable, accelerating relatively smoothly to the cruising speed of 9 mph. When the gripman is ready to slow the cable car, he slowly releases his hold on the cable, allowing the cable to slip through the jaws of the grip. To completely stop the car, he allows the cable to glide completely free through the grip, then steps on the brake. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comThe cable car barn houses the entire fleet of San Francisco's cable cars. The city operates 28 single-ended cars on the Powell Street lines and 12 double-ended cars on the California Street line.: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comThe gift shop in the Cable Car Museum is alluring to tourists of all ages, with its colorful baubles and picturesque postcards that commemorate a visit to Fog City.: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comA heavenly ride on San Francisco's famous cable cars attracts riders of all ages, nationalities and occupations.: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comA Powell Street car makes one of its last runs of the night near Union Square, delivering tourists back to their hotels. The cable cars run until after midnight some days.