2:24 PM CST     0 comments

Public Service Announcement

Chele and I will be on vacation through January 2nd so I'm not going to be online much if at all. I wish everyone the happiest of holidays and I'll see you in 2001!

9:01 AM CST     0 comments

Woo: Flight Attendants Allowed to Slap Sex Pests

An S&M airline... now I've seen everything.

8:49 AM CST     0 comments

Yep: Dell lops up to 20 percent off notebook prices

It's about time laptop prices started to fall. To be truthful I predicted commodity laptop pricing would take over by mid-2000, but it never quite took hold. Hopefully this is a first step toward making laptops a viable alternative for the casual user.

8:45 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: How many MS OSes does it take to change a lightbulb?

Our man John over at The Reg has his hands full trying to wedge Win98 onto a "legacy free" PC. The article brings up a lot of issues which Microsoft had better review in detail before they end up turning us all into OS pirates. Arrrr!

10:02 AM CST     0 comments

Bow wow wow: snoop dogg

Fallin' back on that ass, with a hellified gangsta lean, gettin' funky on the mic like a ol' batch of collard greens... It's the capitol S, oh yes I'm fresh, n, double o, p, d, o, double g, y, d, o, double g, ya see...

Not a bad use of Flash either.

9:19 AM CST     0 comments

Cool Tool: fontseek.com - finding fonts on the web

Just type in a keyword a get a list of applicable fontage from both established foundries and free sites. They even pull previews of the fonts when available.

8:42 AM CST     0 comments

Woo: The Annual NORAD Tracks Santa Claus Website

Track Santa via NORAD radar as he makes his Christmas rounds.

[link courtesy of Ars Technica]

4:12 PM CST     0 comments

Hell, yeah: Who Would Buy That?

Shauna and Drue dish on eBay. Not to be missed.

10:53 AM CST     0 comments

Ick: Celine Dion's Unborn Son Has a Frozen 'Twin'

As if just being Celine Dion wasn't creepy enough, she has to publicize things like this. I have no qualms regarding such practices, but for pity sakes people, keep it to yourself.

10:43 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Mixed reviews for new digital audio format

The title of this article is a bit of a misnomer. They really aren't discussing any new formats here... just a new label for existing ones. That being said, I can see no reason not to implement this idea. It's simple, cost-effective and consumer friendly.

The only people who stand to benefit from suppressing the standard are purveyors of equipment which cannot meet the standard. If these sub-standard equipment manufacturers are unable to profit from consumer confusion because of this new standard then isn't that a good thing? I fail to see a down side.

10:37 AM CST     0 comments

Damn: Slow Economy Won't Stop Technology Spending

And I quote:

"What we are hoping is that the Internet will get more people into the stores," said Ron Griffin, a senior vice president at Home Depot. That means investing in stores -- a new Home Depot opens every two days -- and also in the Internet.

A new Home Depot every two days. Can that really be necessary?

9:03 AM CST     0 comments

Interesting: Is the end looming for the Microsoft monopoly?

The author rambles about considerably, but in the end an worthy analysis of a few trends which I've been watching with a bit of interest over the past few months.

9:43 AM CST     0 comments

Cough, cough.

I've been sorta sick. Just like the Pope is sorta Catholic.

Anyway, I doubt I'll blog much today since I'm not terribly functional yet. I just wanted everyone to know I'm not dead. At least not yet.

I also wanted to mention that Barenaked Ladies are on Letterman tonight. Set your TiVo/RePlay/VCR thingies accordingly.

That is all.

4:33 PM CST     0 comments

Go figure: Whistler Gets Boot Floppies

Proof positive that when the chips are down Microsoft sometimes listens to their customers. Now if we could just get them to return to shipping an OS CD with new systems then we'd be seeing a newer, gentler Microsoft.

3:47 PM CST     0 comments

Egad: The Official 80's Music Quiz

222 snippets of lyrics. I can immediately name the song title and artist for nearly 90% of these. In some cases I even remember the name of the album.

What's really cool is that, for me at least, there are a lot of other memories tied up with those lyrics. It's almost like since the lyrics were laid down along with the experiences they are stored in the same part of my brain. I wonder if anyone has done a study on chronological access to memory? hmm...

[link borrowed from the incomparable maggy]

3:23 PM CST     0 comments

Grep this: Intro to NEXTSTEP

For the curious.

3:01 PM CST     0 comments

Fascinating: Graphical User Interface Timeline

I love geek history schtuff like this. Check out 1988 and compare the NeXT interface to anything else available at that time. To bad they got killed by their choice to build their own hardware.

[link courtesy of rabbit ears]

2:09 PM CST     0 comments

Sweet: NamStore - Arcade Gaming Goods Shop

Tekken and Soul Caliber posters and t-shirts direct from Namco. Their inventory is a bit sparse at the moment, but they promise to expand their offerings soon.

1:46 PM CST     0 comments

Hallelujah: Dodge ball targeted for elimination at schools

That's certainly a step in the right direction. Eliminating gym as a required credit is an even better option. If I didn't have to take gym in school I would certainly be a more well-adjusted adult.

No doubt in my mind.

[link nabbed from Lynda who seems to disagree with me on this issue]

12:04 PM CST     0 comments

Yeah, baby: TweakFiles.com

Although this site falls under the ZDNet umbrella it's still worth a visit. Particularly if you are a gamer. There are scads of utilities available to tweak every last drop of performance out of your ever-aging PC.

10:49 AM CST     0 comments

Cool Art: Refresh - The Art of the Screen Saver

I love it. Particularly Emptiness Is Form. There are some amazing minds out there.

9:57 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Universal sued for alleged copyright infringement

"Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same."

Book of Job (chapter 4, verse 8)

9:35 AM CST     0 comments

YAOR: Joys and Sorrows of the Mac OS X

An OSX review from a Windows 2000 user.

9:32 AM CST     0 comments

Props: Band rages against Napster ban of fans

It looks like at least a few artists understand that attacking their fans isn't the smartest move from a business perspective. Perhaps other artists will follow suit. Then again Rage Against The Machine has always been a different breed of band.

10:23 AM CST     0 comments

Cool: IBM scores memory breakthrough

After all the hype concerning advances in memory technology recently, it's refreshing to see a truly ground-breaking advancement. We're still a long way off from seeing consumer-level versions of such chips, but I can't see any way that this technology won't take off if it is proved to be even reasonably reliable.

9:15 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: FCC Weighs 10-Digit Dialing for All Calls

How odd. We were just discussing this over lunch yesterday. I still think the best solution would be to devise a new global standard for phone numbers. It's unreasonably complex to dial other countries under the current design.

That, of course, isn't likely anytime soon.

9:11 AM CST     0 comments

Interesting: High tech's missionaries of sloppiness

I've been seeing more and more of these articles lately damning the computer industry for its various and sundry faults and foibles, but this one is a bit better than most. The author slips into personal grudge territory a few times, but for the most part she stays on track. I was particularly intrigued by the disturbing parallels to the auto industry.

10:39 AM CST     0 comments

Huh: MP3.com Lets Streams Flow

Ok, so I'm supposed to pay MP3.com (and, by extension, record companies) another $50 a year so that I can play cd's I already own? I think not.

10:34 AM CST     0 comments

Cool: VA Linux seeks profits on programmer site

I'm not sure how the open source purists would rate this decision, but it's a certainly better than cramming more ads down users throats.

10:31 AM CST     0 comments

HoHoHo: 'Tis the Season/A Special Guide For Single Men At Tech Holiday Parties

I'm hoping this article is intended to be tongue-in-cheek... otherwise it's highly offensive to both men and women.

11:03 AM CST     0 comments

Ugh: Bigger tits for Lara Croft

<sarcasm>It's nice to see that game designers are finally concentrating on the important aspects of gaming.</sarcasm>

10:50 AM CST     0 comments

Sheesh: Couple Hoping for Sons Have 25 Children

My hat is off to this lady. By my calculations she spent nearly ninteen years of her life pregnant.

10:19 AM CST     0 comments

Excuse me: NASA, partners strive to build glitch-free, people-proof computers

"...the semiconductor industry has figured out a way to produce chips with relatively few errors -- at least in comparison to the software industry, which typically has from 6 to 30 errors per line of code..."

30 errors per line of code. Now that's a talented programmer.

10:03 AM CST     0 comments

Wow: ZapMe zaps free PCs, Net access for schools

Why is this even legal? I suppose ZapMe could have written an escape clause into their contract, but I can't see any school official signing such a farce. Regardless, it's a pretty nasty thing to do just before Christmas.

1:37 PM CST     0 comments

Dammit: Important Message from Alka-Seltzer

This sucks. Alka-Seltzer Plus was the only over-the-counter remedy that even comes close to touching my symptoms when I have a head cold. This morning I found out that the FDA has forced Alka Seltzer Plus off the shelves and I'm starting to get the early warning signs of a cold.

Such is life.

11:16 AM CST     0 comments

Interview: Being Brian Hook

VoodooExtreme has an interview up with the infamous Brian Hook. It's worth a read for most PC gamers.

[thanks to Ars Technica for the link]

9:56 AM CST     0 comments

Mmmm: Princeton Arcadia AR3.6T

36 inches of velvet smooth gaming for your console and PC both. Gotta love it. I just wish it didn't cost $4000.

11:50 AM CST     0 comments

I'll bite: How to Avoid the Looming PC Recession

Cringley seems to think a T1 in every home will save us from an economic stalemate. After reading his logic, I'm hard pressed to disagree. The big problem, as always, is the expense of such an endeavor.

Laying more cable is expensive in terms of both time and money. Even if the government steps in to subsidize the expansion of fiber networks (because that's what we're talking about here... copper can only take us so far), there will still be a genuine gap between what the public perceives as a reasonable monthly charge for such a service and what said service will need to cost to defray the installation expenses. Add that to the inconvenience of having their streets and sidewalks in a constant state of upheaval and I doubt many folks would support any wide-spread expansion model.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong on this, but I just can't ignore how much this sort of thing will cost. In my opinion, there are really only two broadband methods that will work: a 100Mbit wireless standard with a 20-30 mile range, or using the wires that already run to your house and mine. Neither one is likely in the short-term.

9:50 AM CST     0 comments

Yep: Mother of Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer Dies

Knowing Dahmer's Mom was nicknamed "Rocky" explains a lot.

9:43 AM CST     0 comments

Odd: eMachines bucks PC downturn

Most of this article is extremely boring. What's interesting to me is the the new eMachines e3 is an upside-down laptop. Rather than trying to force the innards of the pc into the keyboard portion, which must be thin for comfortable typing, eMachines decided to make the screen thicker. It's just a guess, but I would assume this allows them to use larger, and therefore less expensive, internal parts.

This is the first really unique idea to come out of laptop design in many, many years. I'm impressed.

9:30 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Opera to fan the browser-war flames

This could get interesting. I know a number of people who claimed to like Opera, but didn't see a future for it in a "free browser" world. Perhaps the ad-supported revenue model will work for them.

9:14 AM CST     0 comments

Hell yeah: Dell invests in Linux-for-the-masses company

I love it when a company with a sound business plan gets attention from the big wigs. Perhaps the crash and burn of all those vaporware startups has spurred VC's to fund real companies for a change.