Cell-phone Spending Surpasses Landlines

Cell-phone Spending Surpasses Landlines
250 million cell phones to 170 million landlines...
09:37AM Wednesday Dec 19 2007 by Karl

2007 is likely to be the first calendar year in which U.S. households spend more on cell-phone services than landline services, according to the Associated Press. The latest government data says that American households spent an average of $524 on cell-phone bills in 2006, compared with $542 for residential and pay-phone services. There remains roughly 170 million land lines atill in use nationwide, though there are now more than 250 million cell phones.

Will the smoking ban in France mean the end of café society?

For more years than anyone can count, Paris's ubiquitous cafés have brimmed with people lingering for hours on end with cigarettes over coffee or drinks; over platters of cheese or bowls of onion soup; over newspapers, novels or textbooks; over gossip, break-ups or political debate. Sartre and de Beauvoir, philosophizing at the Café de Flore with spirals of cigarette smoke floating above their heads, helped create a smoking persona that to some extent still exists.

"Smokers are more passionate," said Véronique Moran, 51, who has smoked for 40 years, and is a regular at Le Cyrano, a café in Paris's bustling Place de Clichy. "We're more sensitive, we think about things and talk about things deeply, we get carried away, we rebel against things."

But today these rebels find themselves more marginalized than romanticized. "The ban on smoking in cafés is the end of a type of person," Moran said. "Now, people think about working more to make more money, being competitive, staying in shape, being good-looking."

----

"All my customers smoke, all my employees smoke. What are we going to do?" wondered Olivier Colombe, 43, owner of Parisian cafés Le Panier and Le Faitout.

For Colombe, the new ban poses practical problems, too. Without cigarettes to occupy them, he explained, smokers won't be so willing to wait a long while for their food and drinks; cooks and waiters will have to work faster, resulting in the sort of rapid customer turnover that is typically very un-French. "Long dinners with several bottles of wine and lots of discussion are going to be difficult," he said. "The ambience will be totally different."

Will the smoking ban in France mean the end of café society?
By Jon Frosch
Published: December 18, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/18/europe/smoke.php

The Future of Solar-Powered Homes - New York Times

The Future of Solar-Powered Homes - New York Times

By DAVID POGUE

Published: November 1, 2007

This weekend, at a few minutes past 9 a.m. EST, "CBS News Sunday Morning" will broadcast my report on this year's Solar Decathlon. (This show's stories often get rescheduled at the last moment, but so far it's looking good for Sunday.)

Anyway—yes, I know. The Solar what?

It's a competition, now held every other year (this was the third Decathlon since 2002). It's produced by the Department of Energy as a showcase for the latest high-tech solar homes—designed and built by college students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/technology/personaltech/01pogue-email.html?ex=1351656000&en=53ae030bd0d53dc2&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

----------------
Now playing: James Blunt - You're Beautiful
posted with FoxyTunes    

AT&T Invents Programming Language for Mass Surveillance

AT&T Invents Programming Language for Mass Surveillance | Threat Level from Wired.com

From the company that brought you the C programming language comes Hancock, a C variant developed by AT&T researchers to mine gigabytes of the company's telephone and internet records for surveillance purposes.

An AT&T research paper published in 2001 and unearthed today by Andrew Appel at Freedom to Tinker shows how the phone company uses Hancock-coded software to crunch through tens of millions of long distance phone records a night to draw up what AT&T calls "communities of interest" -- i.e., calling circles that show who is talking to whom.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/att-invents-pro.html

Hmmm - free training

Clinic 5230 : Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft ASP.NET
AJAX Extensions

In this 2-hour clinic you will learn about the rich functionality that
ASP.NET AJAX Extensions provides for building highly responsive and enhanced
web applications. In addition to learning about the different server and
client components of ASP.NET AJAX, you will also learn how to build new
ASP.NET AJAX applications and how to upgrade existing ASP.NET applications
to take advantage of ASP.NET AJAX. This clinic is appropriate for
experienced .NET Web Developers and Software Architects who are looking to
incorporate ASP.NET AJAX within their existing and future solutions.

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=117972

Find your friends on a cell phone: Pelago introduces Whrrl

Whrrl is a new service that allows mobile phone users to chronicle every social activity in their lives -- writing reviews of movies or restaurants or uploading photos from concerts and sporting events. It then plots that information on a map and combines it with similar content from friends, creating a personal mobile city guide. It also provides the real-time locations of people as they wander from place to place in a city, tracking chosen friends as dots on a map.

Whrrl -- not to be confused with a competing service called Whirrl -- is the first offering from Pelago, a Seattle startup that scored $7.4 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Trilogy Equity Partners last year.

Led by Jeff Holden and Darren Erik Vengroff, both of whom previously held high-ranking positions at Amazon.com, Pelago is one of a number of companies trying to tap the emerging arena of location-based services. The idea is that mobile phone users will want to locate friends -- who may be at a nearby restaurant -- or at the very least get a review that a friend wrote of the restaurant from a few weeks ago. The service is also accessible on a PC.

 

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/124189.asp

Mixing GPS and IM...

Google, Jaiku and Being Connected: Red Alert or Blue Heaven? on Compiler

Last week, we posted a few items here on Compiler and on Wired News about Google's recent purchase of Jaiku, the presence aware address book and communication service. Jaiku lets users keep their friends up to date about where they are and how they can best be reached at any given time. Some see Google's acquisition as the next step towards a living social web, one where our phones and our physical place become part of an ever-expanding social network. Some see it as the unequivocal death of privacy, making everyone reachable at all times.

Life is harder now, experts say - Gut_Check - MSNBC.com

Life is harder now, experts say - Gut_Check - MSNBC.com:

Bankruptcy law expert and Harvard University Professor Elizabeth Warren spent a lot of time crunching consumer spending numbers for her popular books, 'The Fragile Middle Class” and “The Two-Income Trap.” In both, she makes this point: Despite all those $200 sneakers you hear about and the long lines at Starbucks, consumers are actually spending less of their income — much less — on discretionary items like clothing, entertainment and food than their parents did. In fact, after taking care of essentials like housing and health care, today’s middle class has about half as much spending money as their parents did in the early 1970s, Warren says.

The basics, according to Warren, now take up close to three-fourths of every family's spending power (it was about 50 percent in 1973), leaving precious little left over at the end of the month — and leaving many families with no cushion in case of a job loss or health crisis.

Note: Fantastic table in this article, marked "Generational shift - Comparing budgets for two typical, four-member families". It shows the information for two fictional families, "Tom and Susan," single-income family, mid-1970s (adjusted to 2004 dollars), and "Kimberly and Justin," dual-income family, 2004.

Archaeologists see signs of clambake and makeup from 164,000 years ago

Life was a beach for early humans - Science - MSNBC.com:

In one of the earliest hints of 'modern' living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show. Call it a beach party for early man. But it's a beach party thrown by people who weren't supposed to be advanced enough for this type of behavior. What was found in a cave in South Africa may change how scientists believe Homo sapiens marched into modernity.

Google says working to solve health record dilemma - MSNBC Wire Services - MSNBC.com

Google says working to solve health record dilemma - MSNBC Wire Services - MSNBC.com:

Google Inc aims to apply Web search technology to a general set of health information problems and remains committed to the market despite slow initial progress, an executive said on Wednesday.

'We do have a broad interest in this area,' Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of Search Products & User Experience, told Internet industry leaders at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. 'It will start with search.'

Mayer said engineers stumbled onto Google's potential role in the field by noticing the number of searches users perform with its Web search services for hard-to-diagnose health problems, often simply by typing symptoms into a Web browser.

First Radiohead...now Nine Inch Nails bids adieu to music label | Crave : The gadget blog

First Radiohead...now Nine Inch Nails bids adieu to music label

Posted by Greg Sandoval to Crave on Oct 9, 2007

Less than a month after publicly calling executives at his music label unprintable names, rocker Trent Reznor has signaled that his days of working for a record company are over.

The only official member of the band Nine Inch Nails, Reznor announced Monday that the group is now "free of any recording contract with any label." Representatives from Reznor's music label, Universal Music Group, were unavailable for comment.

Reznor provided few details in a note on the band's Web site about how the group plans to proceed, but his announcement raised hopes among fans that he will follow the lead of British band Radiohead, which last week announced it would handle sales and distribution for its upcoming album, In Rainbows without the backing of a label.

Two well-known bands taking to the Internet to sell their own albums is not yet a trend, but it certainly must be a cause for concern in the halls of the four major music companies. The question raised by the defections is whether well-established performers need big music conglomerates in the digital age.

It costs relatively little to distribute songs over the Web. So why can't bands do it themselves from their own Web sites?

Groups like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails already have established followings. So promoting their music may require little more than posting an announcement online. (That is all Radiohead did to trigger enormous demand for In Rainbows.)

Who needs middlemen?

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9793541-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave

Google and Jaiku

We’re joining Google

October 9th, 2007 - Jaiku Blog

Exciting news: Google has bought Jaiku today.

What does that mean? First and foremost, we’re of course continuing to support our existing users. So fear not: your Jaiku phone, the Web site, IM, SMS, and API will continue to work normally.

That said, new user sign-ups have been limited for the time being. The idea here is to enable our team to get right to work with Google’s engineers on delivering a new, better service to you as quickly as we can instead of spending our efforts on optimizing the current back-end. Existing users will still be able to invite their friends, and those who are not yet on Jaiku can send us a request for an invitation to join.

We’ve put together a short FAQ about the acquisition, and we’ll continue to provide support on the #jaiku channel. But we’re eager to go beyond what’s there today, and build something completely new for you to enjoy. Take this as an invitation to join us on a journey to reinvent how you communicate and stay in touch with the people you care about.

Jyri, Petteri, and team

Posted by Jyri | Permalink | 310 Comments

 

 

O’Reilly Radar on Jaiku and iPhone

October 1st, 2007 - Jaiku Blog

Tim O’Reilly’s got a lovely a post titled I love my iPhone, but…bah, no Jaiku! on O’Reilly Radar.

Tim writes that as he switched from a Nokia S60 phone to an iPhone, he found himself missing Jaiku’s presence-enabled phonebook for the Nokia handsets.

“This is the way a phone address book ought to work. I continue to think that the address book is one of the great untapped Web 2.0 opportunities, and that the phone, even more than email and IM, and certainly more than an outside-in, invitation-driven “social networking application” represents my real social network. On the series 60 phone, Jaiku was able to embrace and extend the address book. That’s just not possible on the iPhone.”

It’s a great read, and a nice nudge towards Apple.

Posted by Jyri | Permalink | 5 Comments

OLPC video review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM33EEAszHA

[itvt] Bloggit: LiveHive's NanoGaming Two-Screen Interactive TV Platform Penetrates US

--Company Signs Deals with Turner Sports, ESPN     (posted October 16, 2007)

LiveHive Systems, an Ontario-based company that specializes in two-screen interactive TV solutions, says that its flagship Web-based NanoGaming platform--which is available in conjunction with US broadcasts of NASCAR racing and NFL football, and with Canadian broadcasts of "Big Brother" and Major League Baseball--is on track to reach a North America-wide audience of over 100 million viewers. "Three major shifts are taking place in the behavior of traditional TV viewers," LiveHive co-founder and president, Dave Bullock, said in a prepared statement. "First, people are multi-tasking and watching TV at the same time that they're on their laptop or wireless network. Second, televised fantasy sports is growing rapidly. And third, viewers want to interact and be engaged. The result? TV networks and advertisers now realize the impact of the changing television viewer, which is why they're flocking to NanoGaming."

http://blog.itvt.com/my_weblog/2007/10/livehives-nanog.html

Deal with cable companies good news for TiVo

"Consumers are now ingrained with the idea they get a DVR for free. But with
TiVo, it's pay up front and then $12 to $15 month," said Jeff Schreiner, an
analyst with American Technology Research. "This new model fits TiVo better
because they don't have to sell the hardware to the individual to get them
to use the product."

The other good news is the continuing patent battle with satellite
television provider EchoStar Communications Corp. TiVo originally sued
EchoStar for patent infringement in 2004 and won an $89.6 million judgment
last year. In oral arguments last week in EchoStar's appeal, a three-judge
panel seemed to suggest it would rule at least partially in favor of TiVo.

A final decision is not expected for several months and could still be
appealed to the Supreme Court. But analysts say TiVo is in a good position
to win and reap a potential windfall, depending on the extent of the court's
ruling.

If all goes TiVo's way, it could take in money from EchoStar and also go
after other DVR-makers, demanding licensing fees for its technology. Or it
could go straight to other television providers who sell DVRs and secure
deals for its TiVo software.

"If they win it, this could be really big for TiVo," said Kunal Madhukar, an
analyst with Bear Stearns & Co. "The EchoStar settlement alone could mean 5
to 6 dollars more per share."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/13/BUORSP7UP.DTL

TiVo To Offer Its DVR Software On Comcast Machines

TiVo To Offer Its DVR Software On Comcast Machines
by Wayne Friedman, Monday, Oct 15, 2007 7:45 AM ET
MediaPost Publications

ONE OF TIVO'S MAJOR AGREEMENTS has finally comes to fruition--that of
placing its highly touted DVR software on non-TiVo made machines.

TiVo, the struggling DVR machine and service company, has finally seen its
software put on DVRs installed in some of Comcast's New England homes.

This comes after TiVo and Comcast agreed to a deal in March 2005 where
Comcast would use the TiVo software--which critics say is the best of all
DVRs--on all Comcast DVR machines. Motorola manufactures the DVR machines
that are in those New England subscriber homes.

All this took longer than expected because of the complexity of merging
TiVo's software. Deals in place will also allow Comcast to put TiVo software
on DVR boxes made by Scientific Atlanta, a unit of Cisco Systems Inc. TiVo
has traditionally made its own DVR boxes integrated with its own software.

Comcast, which has over 24 million subscribers, will be the first U.S. cable
operator to offer TiVo software on their DVR machines. TiVo made a similar
deal with Cox Communications in August 2006.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleH
omePage&art_aid=69141

Free Financial Advice for Students Searching for Financial Aid

http://www.finaidfacts.org/

Introduction: How Are We Going To Pay For This?
First of all, don't panic! Help is available. All students, regardless of
financial need, are eligible for some type of financial assistance. The
assistance may be in the form of a loan or multiple loans that must be
repaid, but a quality education is the wisest investment you will ever make.
An often quoted statistic in the higher education community is that a
college degree equates to nearly $1 million more in lifetime earning
potential than someone with a high school diploma! That's significant and
worth the cost.

Grad School Tips

http://www.gradschooltips.com/

Attending grad school can be one of the best decisions a person can make.
Not only will it help you earn more money in the long run, but odds are
you'll enjoy a much higher level of job and career satisfaction while you're
earning your money. In our Grad School Guide, you'll read about the benefits
and challenges of attending grad school, and learn how to pick the right
school for you, as well as all your different options for financing your
graduate education. In our guide, you'll find lots of helpful information,
much of which you've probably never really thought about before. Having all
the facts can help you make a more informed decision.

Fujitsu scholarship to study business management in Hawaii

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/responsibility/community/scholarship/

Overview of Fujitsu scholarship
To commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1985, Fujitsu Limited established
this forward-looking scholarship program with the objective of providing
business people from the Asia-Pacific region with the opportunity to study
cultures, values and management styles of Japan, the United States and China
to strengthen relations and foster mutual understanding within this region.
The Fujitsu Scholarship is available for academic programs at JAIMS.

JAIMS, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a nonprofit postgraduate institute
established by Fujitsu Limited in 1972. Since then, JAIMS has educated and
trained over 20,000 program and seminar participants from over 50 countries
and is still dedicated to -- and has expanded upon -- the mission set out by
its founders: to contribute to the human and economic development of the
Asia-Pacific region by educating managers to be effective leaders in an
increasingly interdependent global economy.

Scholarship Help and Advice Center - Scholarship Information In An Easy To Understand Format

http://www.scholarshiphelp.org/

Mission Statement of Website:

The goal of this website is to educate students about scholarship access and
the necessary requirements for achieving maximum financial aid. In addition,
we provide our information free of charge to help students.

Damn script-kiddies

He's No Genius
 

BitDefender, a Bucharest-based data security provider, stated that Calin Mateias, the young Romanian recently indicted by a California Grand Jury for hacking into the online ordering system of Ingram Micro Inc. and placing more than 2,000 orders over a period of four years, is nothing more than a script-kiddy, with a stroke of luck.
 

Fwd: Home computers targeted by hackers '50 times a day'

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23370087-details/Home+computers+targeted+by+hackers+'50+times+a+day'/article.do

Fwd: Another interesting technology piece

http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2006/10/there_is_no_pri.html



 *** Suffice it to say, Big Brother is Everywhere.

A day on the Surface: a hands-on look at Microsoft's new computing platform

By Jeremy Reimer | Published: September 30, 2007 - 11:42PM CT

It's not often that one gets a chance to attend a demonstration of a new method of human-computer interaction. Having been too young to witness the development of the command line in the 1950s or the modern graphical user interface at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, it was a genuine thrill to visit Microsoft's campus for a personal demo of "surface computing." While future computer historians are unlikely to view this technology as being anywhere near as groundbreaking as the CLI or GUI, the multi-touch interface nonetheless serves as an innovative way of interacting with the personal computer.

 

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/surface.ars

Microsoft, HP add Media Center Extender functionality to MediaSmart LCD HDTVs - Engadget

Just in case Linksys and D-Link's introductions weren't enough to satisfy, Microsoft is now announcing yet another partner in its refreshed Extenders for Windows Media Center effort. Beginning in "early 2008," owners of HP's current 42- and 47-inch MediaSmart LCD HDTVs will be able to utilize all of the features of the Media Center Extender platform sans any additional hardware. According to Microsoft, users will simply download a software update for their set, after which they'll be able to kick back and enjoy a little Windows Media Center Internet TV while basking in the glory that is added functionality.

Microsoft, HP add Media Center Extender functionality to MediaSmart LCD HDTVs - Engadget
Posted Sep 27th 2007 7:09AM by Darren Murph

'Halo 3' video game smashes sales records - Los Angeles Times - Sent Using Google Toolbar

'Halo 3' video game smashes sales records - Los Angeles Times

By Alex Pham, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 27, 2007

Microsoft Corp. claimed one of the biggest opening days in entertainment history Wednesday, saying its "Halo 3" video game rang up $170 million in U.S. retail sales in the first 24 hours.

The tally, which didn't include international sales that will add millions more, outpaced Microsoft's prediction of $150 million. It also beat the all-time grossing box-office movie release, "Spider-Man 3," which racked up $151 million during its opening weekend in May.

Social networking comes to your WM Smartphone

Slam is a research project from the Microsoft Research Community Technologies Group and is designed to make it easier to stay in touch with those people in your personal network. Slam stands for Social, Location, Annotation, and Mobile. Slam uses HTTP to post messages to the server and also has a SMS leg for those without a compatible Windows Mobile Smartphone.

» Social networking comes to your WM Smartphone The Mobile Gadgeteer ZDNet.com

Can Halo 3 offset a BILLION dollar loss?

Casual Gamer Takes a Turn
At Halo 3 to Judge the Hype

By NICK WINGFIELD
September 24, 2007 10:02 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119068332035738233.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
 

This year has not been an all-together happy one for Microsoft Corp.'s videogames business.

In July, the company finally confessed to quality problems with the Xbox 360 after experiencing what it called an "unacceptable" number of repairs to the game console. That forced it to take steps to fix the problem and swallow a more than $1 billion charge, deepening the losses from a games business that hasn't turned a profit yet. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 combined are nearly being outsold in the U.S. by Nintendo Co.'s Wii, an inexpensive console that makes up with fun what it lacks in dazzling graphics power.

Microsoft wants an event beginning midnight Tuesday to obliterate those unhappy memories: the launch of Halo 3. The games industry isn't shy about hyping its products, but in the case of Halo 3 -- the third installment in an outer space franchise that has previously sold 14.8 million copies -- the buildup has been particularly deafening, with Microsoft billing the launch as an entertainment event that transcends games.

This past Saturday, when my copy of Halo 3 arrived in the mail, I got a chance to judge the fuss for myself. I need to first confess that I'm not a serious gamer. I am, however, at the start of the older demographic (late 30s) that the games business says it wants to increasingly engage with its products. I also follow the business of videogames as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Halo 3, among other things, is Microsoft's attempt to reassert the primacy of a certain kind of videogame, with an epic storyline and the trappings of a big popcorn movie, including a lush musical score and spectacular graphics. For the past year, that approach has been elbowed aside a bit by the huge success of the Wii, a relative weakling in the graphics department that has nevertheless captivated gamers with its intuitive motion-sensing controller and easy-to-play, "casual" games.

Like the previous installments of the franchise, Halo 3 manages the tricky feat of being both simple to pick-up and deeply immersive, a combination that explains how previous versions managed to find such crossover appeal among hardcore and casual gamers. The game continues the story of a band of marines as they do battle against an alien civilization called the Covenant. Players inhabit the armor of a genetically modified super-solider called Master Chief.

comparing salaries

hey... check this out...

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=Bachelor%27s&l1=kansas&q2=Master%27s&l2=kansas&q3=Ph.D.&l3=kansas&q4=MBA&l4=kansas

I've noticed this in my business research. apparently the MBA is not
considered just a master's, but almost equivalent to a PhD

Somebody Else's Problem field

Somebody Else's Problem field - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Else%27s_Problem_field

The Somebody Else's Problem field ( SEP field) is a fictional
technology from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" by
Douglas Adams. It is a cheaper and more practical alternative to an
invisibility field. A similar concept has been used in other British
science fiction.

An SEP field is a generated energy field which affects perception.
Entities within the field will be perceived by an outside observer as
"Somebody Else's Problem", and will therefore be effectively invisible
unless the observer is specifically looking for the entity. This
effect is greatly heightened if the entity within the field is already
unexpected or out of place.

ABC News: Dying Professor's Lecture of a Lifetime

"Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old Carnegie Mellon computer science professor, gave his last lecture this week, and it's getting a lot of attention. He talked to Diane Sawyer today on 'Good Morning America' about the inspirational talk. (ABC News)"

--------
Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has terminal cancer and expects to live for just a few more months.

This week, he said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams," on his life's journey and the lessons he's learned.

The Wall Street Journal called it "the lecture of a lifetime" and those who have seen it have more than agreed.

LINK: ABC News: Dying Professor's Lecture of a Lifetime

On The Dangers of Computerized Voting

This article originally appeared in the November 7, 1988 issue of The New Yorker Magazine. It was the cover story insofar as a glossy 1/4 page came covering the upper right hand 1/4 of the front of the magazine fastened at the binding which read:

Ronnie Dugger
On The Dangers of Computerized Voting

Read more at: http://www.votefraud.org/ronnie_dugger_dangers_computerized_voting.htm

What's Behind the Epidemic of Municipal Wi-Fi Failures?

The dream of wireless networks bathing U.S. cities in free and pervasive
internet access has come to an end, at least for now. As the number of
failed or stalled municipal wireless projects continues to rise, the focus
has shifted from closing the so-called digital divide to why plans for such
networks, in only a year's time, seem to be dissolving almost daily.

Last week, San Francisco, Chicago and St. Louis all announced significant
and perhaps fatal roadblocks in their municipal Wi-Fi projects.

Posted by Bryan Gardiner on 09.04.07
Read more at http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/09/muni_wifi

responses to 'The Internet is Dead and Boring'

Some people say he's a hack, and some that it is a publicity stunt... But
the comments are still worth reviewing.

Cuban's Theory & The Internet Infrastructure Questions
Written by Om Malik
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 6:12 PM PT |

Mark Cuban, the histrionics-prone billionaire and owner of the Dallas
Mavericks, caused a major ruckus over the weekend when he wrote a stinging
essay entitled "The Internet is Dead and Boring."

The essay lit a fire under the bloggers, who turned into NBA officials for
the day, declaring - loudly - that Cuban was in the wrong. But his arguments
- while laced with impatience and full of disregard for the financial
realities faced by incumbent carriers - when viewed through an
infrastructure lens are in fact quite sound.

Read more at
http://gigaom.com/2007/08/28/cubans-theory-the-internet-infrastructure-quest
ions/



The World According to ... Mark Cuban
posted by Lloyd Grove on Aug 23 2007
The maverick investor discusses the internet, trading, high-definition TV,
and Rupert Murdoch.

Much like Friedrich Nietzsche, who scandalized 19th-century Europe by
declaring that "God is dead," Mark Cuban has some bad news for all the true
believers who are investing billions in the Web.

The internet is "dead and boring," Cuban says in an interview with
Portfolio.com. "We have reached the point of diminishing returns with
today's internet. The speed of broadband to your home won't increase much
more in the next five years than it has in the last five years. That is not
enough to work as a platform for new levels of applications that will
require much, much higher levels of bandwidth."

Read more at
http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/the-world-according-to/2007/08/23/Mar
k-Cuban

In response to himself...
posted by Mark Cuban on Aug 24th 2007 5:53PM

A lot of people are all up and upset about my comments that the Internet is
dead and boring. Well guess what, it is. Every new technological, mechanical
or intellectual breakthrough has its day, days, months and years. But they
don't rule forever. That's the reality.

Every generation has its defining breakthrough. Cars, TV, Radio,
Planes,highways, the wheel, the printing press, the list goes on forever.
I'm sure in each generation to whom the invention was a breakthrough it may
have been heretical to consider those inventions "dead and boring". The
reality is that at some point they stop changing. They stop evolving. They
become utilities or utilitarian and are taken for granted.

Some of you may not want to admit it, but that's exactly what the net has
become. A utility. It has stopped evolving.

Read more at
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2007/08/24/the-internet-is-dead-and-boring/

Old Swedish Lady Gets World's Fastest Internet Connection

Although likely 39.99999 Gigabits more than she actually needs, Sigbritt Löthberg now has a 40 Gbps internet connection. She's never owned a computer until now but she did give birth to some famous Swedish internet guy.
How fast is the connection? She can download a full high definition DVD in two seconds. That would take many, many, many seconds (minutes or hours, even) over your typical broadband connection. And get this - her house is over 1200 miles away from the connection's original source.
According to the technology's creators, the distance is theoretically unlimited. The data is pumped over fiberoptic lines using a "new modulation technique" and apparently wasn't all that expensive to deploy.
If it can truly go an unlimited distance from the source without experiencing any loss of transmission speed, might we one day get our internet access from Sweden? I'd sure as hell go for it.
First beautiful women, then Ikea, and now this? Sweden, you're spoiling us!
originally posted by Doug Aamoth on July 12 as a comment onSigbritt, 75, has world's fastest broadband [The Local - Sweden's News in English]

A Man & His 100 Mbps Fiber Connected Life

Swedish grannies are connecting to the net at 40 gigabits per second life; 100 megabit per seconds are becoming common place in Japan and Korea; and even French are dreaming of an ultra-fast fiber future. And yet, in the US we are all stuck in the slow lane, settling for speeds between 768 kbps to 8 megabits per second. I have often wondered what it would be like to have a 100 megabits per second, and what I would do with that much bandwidth.

read more at http://gigaom.com/2007/09/02/verizon-fios-100-mbps/

How-To: Build yourself a front projection home theater

Posted May 23rd 2006 10:08PM by Will O'Brien

In today's How-To we get to play with other people's toys. We upgraded a home theater to a high definition front projection system. We lay it out, set it up, drill holes, nearly die in a Texas attic, and bring home the popcorn.

Our project home theater already has the essentials for taking advantage of a high definition display: a progressive scan DVD player with component video output and a hi-def DISH Network satellite receiver provide a HD video source for the projector.

Screen Selection
It may seem counter intuitive, but it's helpful to consider (but not purchase) the screen before choosing a projector. Knowing the size of screen you want in your room will determine where the projector needs to be mounted, and how bright it needs to be. If you're not sure, marking out the dimensions of the screen with some blue masking tape and checking out the view from your seating area can be helpful.

 

It's wise to consider the content you intend to view when choosing your screen. 16:9 (the ratio of width to height) is standard for HDTV content as you well know. The widest movies are presented in 2.35:1 format; standard definition television is 4:3. We've drawn these as constant height, just to give a rough idea of the differences. Check out the Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy page for a great explanation.

originally posted to http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/23/how-to-build-yourself-a-front-projection-home-theater/

 

post contains links to products including projectors and screens, as well as links to other how-to articles and information pages

Chrysler Admits Nitro & Sebring Are Mediocre Products, But Vows To Make Up

Friday, June 08, 2007

Chrysler Admits Nitro & Sebring Are Mediocre Products, But Vows To Make Up

We could've avoided being so blunt and titled the post as "…Nitro & Sebring miss mark", but what's the point of hiding behind your finger when this is so evident in a recent Chrysler Group internal employee question-and-answer report that "accidentally" fell into the hands of Detroit News.

According to the report, Bob Lee, head of powertrain engineering who answered several employee questions noted that Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda and Chief Operating Officer Eric Ridenour, are "quite upset" and agree the company "missed where the market was to end up versus our projections."

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2007/06/chrysler-admits-nitro-sebring-are.html

How to make money from your blog: 5 tips

By Jeff Wuorio in MS Small Business Center

Many of the people who write blogs today simply want to share their opinion
on something. But then there are the business-minded folks, who have found a
way to use blogs, or Web logs, to bring in a little extra cash too.

http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/marketing/online_marketing/
how_to_make_money_from_your_blog_5_tips.mspx

Entrepreneur uses high-tech tools to transform a low-tech industry

By Maureen Mcgrain from BizJournals
Paresh Patel started his vending business with one pop machine to help pay for his college education.
Fifteen years later, Portland, Ore.-based Courtesy Vending LLC is a growing $3 million business with 20 employees and more than 1,100 machines in the Portland area. Patel says the company, which grew 10 percent last year, has the potential to someday be a $100 million business.
That's ambitious, but the entrepreneurial Patel - Oregon's Small Business Administration Small Business Person of the Year in 2005 - may have the chops to do it.
.......
Yet as the company grew, Patel's control lessened. Drivers picked up the money and regulated machines' inventory.
"That's when I decided I had to do things to keep growing," Patel said.
In 2001, he invested $60,000 in handheld computers for his drivers to track sales and product. The data proved revealing: Drivers were putting what they liked in machines, with little variation.
Patel started varying products, which led to an uptick in sales. Courtesy Vending earns revenue strictly through machine sales; customers supply only space and power.
The computer data also allowed Patel to track sales by units per machine - the point of the actual sale - rather than unit per warehouse, as Courtesy had been doing. He auto-mated warehouse operations as well.
With those controls in place, Patel turned his attention to another problem, security. He invested more than $150,000 in electronic locks for all his vending machines to replace the easily picked external locks. Electronic keys are personalized - one employee's key allows access to specific machines at specific times.
....
read the full story at http://wichita.bizjournals.com/SBA2007/entrepreneur_uses_high_tech_tools.html

Geek Toys

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techandyou/default.aspx

Check out the Xacti VPC-E1 Waterproof MPEG-4 Camcorder!!

FTP Client Library for C#

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/danglass/FtpClient12062005053849AM/FtpClient.aspx

World Clock

http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

 

(we noticed that the Month and Week were backward, but other than that it is pretty cool.)

from console remotes to fast cars...

Posted by klee on VWvortex (a VW enthusiast site)

 

I got this idea after seeing some physics class use the wiimote in some kinda pendulum experiment.

Why not use the wiimote's built in 3-axis accelerometers to measue g-forces, acceleration and even calculate my own 0-60mph times!

So I did. I wrote a script to dump all the g-force readings from the wiimote to a comma separated value file, then did some post processing in MS Excel, and voila, I can see every bump, every curve, my acceleration and braking, and even calculated my current speed using high school physics (v=a*t)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3362586

SOF says:  absolute genius.

quote

THIS is what I think of it...   (man, that has been so hard to explain)

 

 

Ning!!

Ning! MySpace is dead. Long live social networking.

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 3:13 am

I stumbled across Ning a few weeks ago as I was looking for some end-of-year activities for restless students. Ning is a free service that actually lets you create your own social network. While this turned out to be an interesting exercise for my students, particularly once they understood that they weren’t creating mere web pages but actually building social networks, Ning (and other services like it) could prove to be an invaluable tool for schools and educators.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create a Ning account.
2. Create a social network
3. Create your own set of pages that will be your home in your social network
4. Invite people to join your social network
5. Manage users, friends, etc., on your social network

Students were a bit confused by the process at first until they realized that they weren’t just creating a MySpace. They were creating MySpace! Once you create a social network, others can join your network, just as they would join MySpace or Facebook, and create their own set of pages, have their own friends, etc. Every student in a class, for example, could be a member of a teacher’s network. The teacher would be like Tom of MySpace fame. All of the students could create their own pages and the teacher would be a friend to all of the students, enabling easy communication. Similarly, a school-wide Ning could have both teachers and students join the network, but with different user privileges, again enabling simple communication between staff and students in a way that kids understand all too well.

Google's $4.6 billion plan for an open wireless Internet

originally posted 2007.07.20 • 12:54 EST

Would that all kings were so benevolent. Google announced today it would set aside at least $4.6 billion to purchase a slice of the public airwaves in an upcoming government auction of radio spectrum. The company is imposing one condition on its money: It will only participate, it says, if the Federal Communications Commission requires that all bidders for the radio waves be forced to adhere to principles of Internet "openness."

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/07/20/google_fcc/index.html

Xinhua - English

Xinhua News - English

Study: restless legs syndrome linked to genes

www.chinaview.cn 2007-07-19 09:02:54

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists have discovered certain genes linked to restless legs syndrome (RLS) -- an uncomfortable and sleep-robbing neurological disorder characterized by repeated movement of the legs, media reported Thursday.

The discovery, published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine and in the online edition of Nature Genetics, suggested the twitching condition is biologically based and not an imaginary disorder.

The new studies are the first to identify specific genes responsible for restless legs syndrome symptoms.

Journal

I know that for the most part I have been using this thing to capture notes and links for myself, which probably makes it relatively boring most of the time. Still, I haven't quite figured out the reasoning for the whole thing... I mean, why blog at all? Are people really interested in your personal thoughts? If you had a strong opinion on something, wouldn't that be better expressed in a group or forum where multiple people could have a discussion?

But I'm still doing it - notes and images and videos that I like, the occasional journal entry, etc... I guess eventually I'll figure it out or someone will say that 'one thing' that trips it over in my head.

So - journal: wife is out of town visiting friends. This is her first time seeing the ocean and getting to play on the beach, which I think is great. She sends me pictures throughout the day, and has seen dolphins and ridden ferries, etc. I think that today or tomorrow she is coming back.

I was just going to hang out this weekend, maybe hit the gym or mow the lawn, but I hurt my back on Saturday so I spent most of the time she was gone just chillin on the couch and gettin caught up on my SciFi (she survivies it, but it isn't on the top of her list).

Haven't received word back from the advertising company downtown that was looking for contract webwork, so no extra money coming in right now. I think that I am going to shut down my website and web server... I just don't care much about that part of the industry anymore. I don't have the time or energy for sales, and support is a waste of my brain. I have four or five application designs floating in my head, and I think that I would rather go that direction that try to build another website that doesn't really go anywhere. (anyone want to buy WichitaBandScene.com?)

Fireblade

quote

 

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.

- Leonardo da Vinci

Prince of Persia movie script reviewed

More than a year and a half after it acquired an early draft of the Halo movie script, Latinoreview.com has apparently scored another game-film coup. This week, reviewer "El Mayimbe" recapped the script for the forthcoming film adaptation of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

After writing at length about his days as a gamer, El Mayimbe reveals some plot details about the film, which he describes as a "9th Century Indiana Jones." Without revealing any of the spoilers in the review, it confirms the movie will stick close to the game's plot. It also reveals that the script superficially calls for the use of parkour, the gravity-defying street gymnastics used in Casino Royale's opening chase scene. Overall, El Mayimbe loves the script and forsees it becoming a major film franchise.

Announced at DICE in 2004, the Prince of Persia movie is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) for Walt Disney Pictures, with Transformers director Michael Bay reportedly attached to the project. Its script is being written by Jordan Mechner, creator of the original Prince of Persia game, and The Day After Tomorrow screenplay scribe Jeffrey Nachmanoff.

Category: Bulletin

Posted by thorsen-ink, Jun 1, 2007 6:58 pm GMT

GameSpot Video: Killzone: Liberation E3 2006 Stage-Show Demonstration

You have GOT to check out this video... Killzone: Liberation is a wicked game for the PSP. Just the demo managed to get the three of us addicted, especially since they allow multiplayer in the demo. (good sales technique!)

http://www.gamespot.com/video/931635/6150706/killzone-liberation-e3-2006-sta
ge-show-demonstration

Xilisoft DVD to PSP Suite: Convert DVD to PSP, PSP movie converter

I copied this here because I was trying to figure out how to burn movies... but I think I may have found an even better way. I'll have to re-read this sometime this weekend and see if I want to delete it. (added 7/13)

Xilisoft DVD to PSP Suite Xilisoft DVD to PSP Suite is an easy-to-use DVD to PSP movie converter suite which can convert DVD movie to PSP MP4/MPEG4 movie, convert all popular video files to PSP movie with high quality and super fast speed. The DVD to PSP Suite includes Xilisoft DVD to PSP Converter and Xilisoft PSP Video Converter. You can convert DVD movie to PSP MP4/MPEG4 movie with DVD to PSP Converter. The PSP Video Converter 3.1(newly updated) helps you convert all popular video and audio formats such as AVI, MPEG, WMV, RM, MOV, DivX, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE, H.264/PSP AVC to PSP MP4/MPEG4 movie and PSP MP3 music. Now! It supports output of PS3 Video(480p, 720p, 1080i) MPEG-4 with excellent quality! Download Xilisoft DVD to PSP Suite for free! Transfer DVD movie to PSP and enjoy movies on your PSP now.

 

iPhone Review on The Mossberg Solution - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118289311361649057.html.html

The phone is thinner than many smart phones.

It feels solid and comfortable in the hand and the way it displays photos, videos and Web pages on its gorgeous screen makes other smart phones look primitive.

The iPhone's most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt -- who did most of the testing for this review -- was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years. This was partly because of smart software that corrects typing errors on the fly.

Top 10 Business Buzzwords - MSN Encarta

by Megan Aemmer

 

Whether you office from home or home from office, you've probably heard some of these best-of-breed words and phrases unleashed at you and wondered what exactly your boss or coworker was talking about. Whether humorous or just plain annoying, you'll probably hear some of these dynamic phrases from time to time. This list will help you translate, and maybe even repurpose a few words to grow your own business buzz vocabulary.

• Drive: No, it doesn't refer to your daily commute. Drive is a multipurpose buzz word, overused in such phrases as "drive out cost," "drive the project," and "drive the organization." Last I checked, costs, projects, and organizations don't typically have wheels and a chassis.
  
• Incent: A nonword that is often used in business as a verb. Instead of creating incentives, management types may try to incent their team to sell more by offering--you guessed it--incentives. Some other commonly verbed words: office (She likes to office from home), text (Hey, text me the address), google (I googled him before the first date).

• Delayering: A newer, more PC term for rightsizing, a.k.a. downsizing. Potato, potahto. It's still a layoff.
  
• Narcissurfing: If your coworker is late to a meeting again, it's probably because he's been narcissurfing all morning. That is, googling yourself to see where, when, and how often you show up on the Internet.
  
• Deep dive: If someone asks you to deep dive (or drill down), they're asking for in-depth information or discussion on a subject. "I did a deep dive on the Chinese market, and I don't think we'll be able to move product there. But I'll drill down on Brazil and see what sell-through potential there may be."

• Bleeding edge: The "cutting edge" is so passé. Even better is the bleeding edge. "The program Johnson's working on is bleeding edge. The concept is so new even he's not sure what the product will do yet."
  
• Offline: To take something offline is to discuss something in person or on the phone, rather than via e-mail or instant message conversation. This phrase usually crops up when an e-mail trail gets excessively long and/or involves more people than necessary to solve the issue at hand. Also used in meetings: "We'll deal with that offline, when this meeting's over."
  
• Ping: To get someone's attention, ping them via e-mail or IM. "Hey, ping me when you hear back from her about the London conference." Back in the pre-Internet era, "ping" referred to the sound of a submarine's sonar.

• Al desko: To save time, I often dine al desko, usually after five minutes of microwaiting. (In other words, I eat at my desk after heating up lunch in the microwave.)
  
• Defrag: It used to mean rearranging data files on a hard disk, but defrag can also mean "to relax." After a rough day of officing, you may want to defrag in front of the TV.

This list was architected to enable effective information deliverance while officing.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elearning/?article=Business_Buzzwords

Defense Secretary Doesn't "Do E-mail"

By Noah Shachtman June 22, 2007 | 8:28:12 AMCategories: Paper Pushers & Powerpoint Rangers

The U.S. military is the most technologically-sophisticated fighting force on the planet. And it is being lead by a man less computer-savvy than my 93 year-old grandmother.

You see, Lucile Shachtman has been e-mailing -- or, as she likes to say, "on the e-mail," since the turn of the century. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on the other hand, says, "I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person."

Not to get overly-serious here -- it is Friday, after all. But isn't it kinda screwed up that the Pentagon is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on "network-centric warfare" -- the idea that speedy information flow may be the most crucial advantage in combat -- while its head honcho is wasting his time writing off notes in long-hand?

Not that Gates' predecessor -- net-centric drum-beater-in-chief Donald Rumsfeld -- was any better. He never figured out how to get "on the e-mail," either.

Wind power blows away competition

Originally posted by Harry Fuller | June 20, 2007 1:27 PM PDT

Wind power #1 renewable energy investment

(Credit: United Nations)

Money is pouring into renewable energy. And it's a global trend. The United Nations on Wednesday reported that $100 billion went into renewable energy and efficiency technologies last year. That's a record--up $20 billion from 2005. Indications are 2007 will set another record. You can read a summary of the United Nations report here.

Once dominated by North America and Europe, renewable energy investments are spreading out. Last year, 9 percent went into China. Investors from India were active in acquisitions.

Money's coming from stock markets, venture capital investments and private individuals. Publicly traded renewable energy stocks rose more than 60 percent during the recent 15 months including the first quarter of 2007. That fuels even more investor interest.

Among the types of renewable energy, wind is most popular with investors. It's followed by solar and biofuels. High petroleum prices are given some of the credit for the strength of renewable energy investment, along with concern over climate change.

Topics:

Green tech

Tags:

wind, solar, renewable energy, United nations, energy,

Games - Papervision3D

My buddy sent me this link and I was so impressed with the game that I copied the link and intro here. This guy has put together some incredible objects and code to make 3D work in Flash...

excerpt from http://blog.papervision3d.org/tag/games/

New era of Flash gaming? Yeah, I think so.

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

I just released my first Papervision3D game this last friday (3/9/2007) , and received a ton of great feedback from users who tried the ObstacleCourse game. Thanks to EVERYONE who went out and put up their best scores!! Its been alot of fun to see people out there on the leader board.

(click here to play)

A friend sent you this link

A friend read this article and thought you would find it interesting

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/06/wimax_to_replac.html

HTC Mogul: iPhone Killer?

First Sprint chopped the antenna off the Palm OS Treo and now they've cut the fin off their flagship Windows Mobile phone as well. The Mogul replaces the venerable PPC 6700 with a flashier design, updated operating system and higher resolution camera - as well as the possibility of EV-DO Revision A. Sprint is expected to release a software update in the future which will allow the Mogul to access the net at even higher speeds than standard EV-DO.

You can check out the latest Windows Mobile phone here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_qr6vvs00

Heroes Taps Office, Alias for Reinforcements

by Natalie Finn (E! Online)
Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:08:29 PM PDT

Now that she's helped save the world, the cheerleader may finally be able to focus on her social life.

It was announced Tuesday that Nick D'Agosto, formerly Jan's hottie assistant on The Office, is joining the cast of Heroes next season as West, a would-be boyfriend for Hayden Panettiere's regenerative daddy's girl Claire Bennet.

The actor, who also was recently seen in the indie comedy Rocket Science, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is one of three new onscreen superhumans set to join the action on the hit NBC series' second season.

Also along for the ride will be Dania Ramirez, most lately of The Sopranos, where she played Blanca, the single mom who sent A.J. into a tailspin. The 26-year-old heartbreaker, whose powers are not yet known, will be a recurring character.

Meanwhile, E! Online's Kristin Veitch reported today that former Alias star David Anders is also coming on board, as 1,000-year-old (yet obviously extremely well-preserved) villain Kane, who, apparently, has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Anders, 26, is expected to report for work Monday.

There's no word yet on whether these newbies will show up first in Heroes: Origins, the six-episode companion series NBC has on tap for fall to bolster interest in the overall Heroes oeuvre, or whether they'll head right for the main event.

Ramirez's page on IMDb, however, already lists her as having appeared in the first episode of Heroes' second season, entitled "Generations."

Also rumored to be in line for a Heroic romance is Miss Universe Riyo Mori, who could end up getting close to Masi Oka's samurai sword-wielding time traveler Hiro Nakamura, per buddytv.com.

All of which NBC is hoping will sustain interest for what turned out to be its most-watched scripted show of the 2006-07 season. Heroes averaged 14.5 million viewers, second on the Peacock Network only to Deal or No Deal.

Future of the PSP?

Ken Kutaragi officially leaves PlayStation family behind today

Posted Jun 19, 2007 at 09:04AM by Ryan A. Listed in: News Tags: Sony, Ken Kutaragi, PS2, Howard Stringer, SCEI

Today is the day Ken Kutaragi leaves the PlayStation family behind. Back in April, the gaming industry was shocked with the announcement that the Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will step down from his post to "pursue his dreams beyond PlayStation and to accelerate his network vision."

Kutaragi's previously held position will now be manned by SCE's former president and COO Kaz Hirai. The former's departure will also terminate his slot in the the company's board. Despite this, Kutaragi will act as an honorary SCEI Chairman and will be Senior Technology Adviser to Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation Howard Stringer.

This development could have tremendous impact to Sony itself and more importantly, to its consumer base. Ken Kutaragi is the architect of every single PlayStation console (PSOne, PS2, PS3, and PSP). It would be interesting to watch what exact changes this will bring to Sony's future endeavors.

But for what it is worth, we all know that Kutaragi did his job well throughout these years. We just hope and pray that he finds contentment in what he decides to do next.

One idea of the future...

“Prometeus: The Media Revolution” a faux-documentary short released by Italian consultancy Casaleggio Associates that takes us into the year 2027

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/06/futurecasting_p.html

This is one of the weirdest, coolest things that I have seen in a long time. It shows how technology has changed our perception of the world up to now, and proposes an extension of that over time... really interesting.

Social Networks and the Law of Diminishing Coolness

By Adario Strange June 14, 2007 | 11:18:05 AM

The coverage of Facebook has been heating up lately. Ning co-founder Marc Andreessen offers an extremely detailed analysis of why Facebook works, while video curmudgeon Loren Feldman says he doesn’t get why the site is popular in the first place. I think both bloggers are right. There’s a lot about Facebook to pick apart and applaud, but in the main, the site is definitely over-hyped. In fact, I’ll engage in a bit of sacrilege and say that all the social networks are essentially over-hyped.
Having tried just about every popular social network, as well as the Web 1.0 precursors called “community portals,” my social network fatigue is authentic and well earned. The byproduct of my long involvement has resulted in the realization that these networks are nothing more than virtual nightclubs that get hot for a year or two before “the cool kids” move on to the next hot spot. So if you thought keeping up with the social network tango seemed to be getting more difficult with each passing year, you were right. More clubs are opening, and the competition for the cool kids has increased.
http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/06/social_networks.html

Q1 Ultra Microsite

This UMPC is on TOP of my wishlist... and of course, completely out of my price range. Lol.

http://product.samsung.com/q1microsite/

Cooling Cocktail Recipes

http://www.bhg.com/bhg/slideshow/slideShow.jsp?slideid=/templatedata/bhg/slideshow/data/cocktailcool_ss_05232002.xml&ordersrc=google2cocktailrecipes_slide&cobrandId=ww5&s_kwcid=ContentNetwork|394306702

How to make a mojo Mojito

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/10/23/FD224326.DTL&hw=mojito&sn=001&sc=1000

Born in Cuba during the early 1900s as an adaptation of a cocktail called the Draque, the Mojito embodies the flavors of the tropics. However, Mojitos are so alluring that they are more than just a hot-weather drink.

Traditionally, the Mojito is a rum-based cocktail, bursting with fresh lime,

mint and sugar muddled together and topped with ice and a touch of soda water.

However, variations are almost as numerous as the bars in the Bay Area. Simple syrups made from caramelized sugar, cane syrup and powdered sugar are just a few of the choices used to sweeten the mojito. Some use Rose's sweetened lime juice in place of fresh, and additions such as triple sec and peach schnapps have even been known to make occasional appearances.

For our tests, we started with a basic recipe of 10 to 12 mint leaves, the juice from 1 lime, 2 tablespoons of simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water heated until the sugar dissolves), 2 ounces rum, ice and 3 to 4 ounces of soda water.

The procedure is almost as important as the ingredients - the mint, simple syrup and lime juice are placed in a glass and mashed several times with a wooden muddler, a device resembling a miniature baseball bat that is used to press down on the mint, bruising it. Add rum, ice, soda water and stir: The Mojito is born.