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/