AJITH's ASAL

Stills : Behindwoods.com

Kamal's DASAVATHARAM

Ipods -- Crime ??

BOSTON -- It's easy to see why iPods would be alluring targets for criminals: The music players are valuable and easy to resell, and people absorbed in their personal soundtracks can be vulnerably oblivious to their surroundings.

But could the temptation for stealing iPods be so strong that they're behind an increase in the crime rate? Researchers at a public policy institute say yes.

They argue that the tantalizing gadgets are perhaps the main reason U.S. violent crime rose in 2005 and 2006 after declining every year since 1991 -- although a close look at the findings suggests the hypothesis has holes.

The Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, first raised the subject of an "iCrime wave" last September, and held a panel discussion Tuesday to explore it further. The researchers don't blame iPod maker Apple Inc. or any other device maker for crime, but they do say consumers should demand technologies that would render stolen gadgets useless.

Apple -- which has explored anti-theft locks in patent filings -- had no comment.

A key point in the Urban Institute's argument is that robberies -- the taking of something by force or the threat of it -- had seen dramatic reductions since the 1990s, but jumped in 2005 and 2006. FBI statistics show the robbery rate went from 137 per 100,000 people in 2004 to 141 per 100,000 in 2005 and 149 in 2006. That helped boost the overall rate of violent crime in those years, even as rape rates fell and aggravated assault was generally flat.

During those years, iPods were going mainstream. In late 2004, Apple had sold about 5 million iPods. By the end of 2005 that had ballooned to 42 million, and in 2006 the number neared 90 million.

One widely accepted theory holds that crime happens when three things come together: A motivated offender encounters a suitable victim and perceives a high chance of getting away with it. And the Urban Institute researchers believe the sudden prevalence of iPods increased all three factors.

Motivation: The iPod's several-hundred-dollar expense and pop-culture buzz made potential thieves, especially young ones, crave the device for themselves or for a lucrative resale market. Suitable victims: People listening through the iconic white earphones are easy to pick out and often unaware of their surroundings. Easy to get away with: IPods lack a mechanism that would pinpoint a thief's location or a subscription that could be canceled by the rightful owner.

Anecdotal evidence bears out a lot of this. Subway officials in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., reported big increases in iPods being stolen from passengers. News reports cast the iPod as the latest must-steal item for some thugs, following in the footsteps of things like Air Jordan sneakers.

Furthering this idea, the rate for robberies by juveniles increased during this "iCrime Wave" to a much greater degree than the rate for adults, Urban Institute researcher John Roman pointed out. And if economic woes could explain the jump -- a traditional place to look in crime research -- Roman doesn't believe the overall rates of property crimes would have dropped in '05 and '06, as they did.

But is it plausible that so many iPods and similar gadgets were stolen that they drove the rising robbery rate? That robbers would not have just stolen something else if not for shiny music players? This is where the iCrime Wave begins to seem less certain.

For one thing, homicides also increased in this same span, albeit slightly, from 5.5 per 100,000 people to 5.6 in 2005 and 5.7 in 2007. Since crime trends are often murky, whatever caused the bump in homicides might also explain the rise in robberies.

Roman responded that increases in violent crimes like robberies tend to correspond with rises in the homicide rate: Muggings often go badly and end in murder, so with more muggings going on, more homicide victims should be expected. But without good data indicating lots of people killed in iPod thefts, Roman acknowledged it's possible that "we've got our causation backwards."

It's also curious that while iPod thefts on subways and other crowded urban settings provide the best anecdotal evidence, the 2005-06 crime increases were highest in small and midsized cities -- places with less-dense pedestrian traffic, let alone teeming subways.

Also, some stolen iPods might fall into the category of larceny -- a theft without force, such as when something is filched from a backpack -- and larcenies dropped in '05 and '06.

In other words, there might have been an iCrime wave, but it would be hard to be sure. After all, robberies also jumped in pre-iPod 2001.

"There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence of cell phones, iPods, GPS systems that have been targets for theft. No research can tell us those wouldn't have been substituted for other things," said Jack McDevitt, associate dean at Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice.

"I guess I could sort of understand and buy that in a very narrow place, in a short period of time -- a short spike for a few months," he said. "But to suggest that that's driving the crime numbers in any major way, I don't think so."

Kodak Easyshare C763 7.1MP Digital Camera !!

Let the Kodak Easyshare C763 7.1MP Digital Camera be your first line of defense. Strength through obscurity! The 7 megapixels are completely insufficient to show a vampire on film, and the auto focus and image stabilization work to keep the shot in frame at all times. This helps the vampire hunter by making it obvious what he or she can’t see, which in turn should make it obvious who the real vampire is. There’s also a USB connection, so moving the video back to your Vampire Hunter’s Laptop (running Vindows VP or Mac OS V) should be as easy as that chick who changed her name to Darkchylde Rosepetal after her parents split up. Which reminds me, the Kodak Easyshare C763 7.1MP Digital Camera has a built in Tripod socket.

3x optical zoom, 15x digital zoom, and a wrist strap designed to keep your Kodak Easyshare C763 7.1MP Digital Camera close as you run from the wolves, bats, gnarled assistants and evil mist. Man, nothing is worse than evil mist. It gets all in your lungs and you get a cold and you’re coughing out vampire for a week. Which the doctors never believe. Stupid World Health Organization coverup. I just wanted some penicillin.

The Kodak Easyshare C763 7.1MP Digital Camera comes with battery, battery charger, and power adapter as well. So don’t live in fear! Order a steak with extra garlic and grab the camera. The next knock on the window… could be your last!

Choose between Silver or Copper at check out

Warranty: 1 Year Kodak

Features:

• 7 megapixels, Captures a resolution up to 3072×2304 and prints out 11×14 photos
• Auto focus for easy to take photos, point and shoot
• Image stabilizer, counteracts small vibrations and movement for sharper photos
• Tripod Socket
• USB connection to your computer
• 3x optical zoom, 15x digital

Specifications:

CCD:	1/2.5 in. CCD, 4:3 aspect ratio
Output Image Size:	7.1MP: 3072 x 2304 pixels 6.1MP (3:2): 3072 x 2048 pixels 5.0 MP: 2592 x 1944 pixels 3.1 MP: 2048 x 1536 pixels 2.2 MP: (3:2) 1800 x 1200 pixels 2.1 MP: (16:9) 1920 x 1080 pixels 1.2 MP: 1280 x 960 pixels
Display:	6.35 cm (2.5 in) color hybrid LCD, 154 K pixels
Lens:	3X optical zoom lens f/2.8–f/4.9 35 mm–105 mm (35 mm equivalent)
Lens Barrier:	Automatic built-in
Digital Zoom:	5.0X continuous with 0.2X increments Nor supported for video capture
Focus System:	TTL-AF, selectable: Multi-zone AF, Center-zone AF. Working range: 0.5 m (19.6 in.)–infinity @ wide 0.5 m (19.6 in.)–infinity @ telephoto 0.1–0.5 m (3.9–19.6 in.) @ wide close-up/macro 0.4–0.8 m (15.7–31.5 in.) @ telephoto close-up/macro
Exposure Metering:	TTL-AE; Center-weighted
Exposure Compensation:	+/-2.0 EV with 0.5 EV step
Exposure Bracketing:	Yes
Long Time Exposure:	Yes
Shutter Speed:	Mechanical shutter with CCD electrical Auto: 4–1/1400 sec.
ISO Speed:	Auto: 80–200 Selectable: 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 (800 available only for smallest picture size setting)
Electronic Flash:	Guide no. 5.6 Auto flash with pre-flash Working range at ISO 200: 0.5–2.3 m (1.6–7.5 ft) @ Wide;0.8–1.4 m (2.6–4.6 ft) @ Tele
Flash Modes:	Auto, Fill, Red-eye, Off
Capture Modes:	Auto, Digital Image Stabilization, Portrait, Night Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Close-up, SCN (Scene Modes), Video
Burst:	Maximum 3 pictures; 1.9 pictures per second
Video Capture:	VGA (640 x 480) @ 15 fps QVGA (320 x 240) @ 30 fps
Image File Format:	Still: EXIF 2.21 (JPEG compression); file organization: DCF Video: QuickTime (CODEC MotionJPEG)
Image Storage:	SD/MMC Card Not compatible with SD cards over 2GB
Internal Storage Capacity:	32 MB internal memory/26 MB available for image storage (1 MB equals one million bytes)
Quickview:	Yes
Video Output:	NTSC or PAL selectable
Power:	Kodak Li-Ion rechargeable digital camera battery KLIC-7005; Kodak 5V AC adapter
Communication With Computer:	USB 2.0 full speed via USB cable model U-8, EasyShare camera dock, or printer dock
PictBridge Support:	Yes
Self Timer:	2 seconds, 10 seconds, or 2-shot
White Balance:	Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent
Auto Power Off:	Selectable 1, 3, 5, 10 minutes
Color Modes:	Color, Black & White, Sepia
Date Stamp:	None, YYYY/MM/DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY
Tripod Mount:	1/4 inch
Operating Temperature:	32-104°F (0–40°C)
Size:	90 mm (3.5 in.) x 60 mm (2.4 in.) x 23 mm (0.9 in.) @ power off
Weight:	130 g (4.6 oz.) without battery or card

In the box:

• Kodak C763 Camera
• USB Cable
• Wrist Strap
• Lithium-Ion Rechargeable Battery
  
• Battery Charger
• Power Adapter
• Kodak EasyShare Dock Faceplate
• Kodak EasyShare Software for Mac and Windows
• Users Guide