::: bisonium.com :::

As promised, here are the details for Bill's memorial services from Mr. Marc, Bills co-host on the podcast and good friend.  Please re-post and advise anyone that is interested in paying their respects to Bill and his family.  Thank you.

Everyone,

For those of you that may not have been informed, it is with the deepest of sorrow that we inform you of the passing of our friend, brother, son, and co-host of the "Wizards of Technology" internet podcast, William "Digital Bill" Douthett.  Our dear friend passed away from a sudden heart attack on October 4th, 2006 at the age of 47.  He will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved him.

The family has made arrangements to hold a small, private funeral ceremony in Butler, Pennsylvania where Bill's ashes will be laid to rest.

In addition, a memorial ceremony will be held on Saturday, October 14th, 2006 at 3:00pm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Family and friends will be in attendance.  If you would like to attend, please visit The Wizards of Technology website for detailed information:

http://www.wizardsoftechnology.com

Please dress as you feel comfortable.  Whether you'd like to dress formally or in shorts and sandals, the choice is yours.  Bill would not have wanted it any other way.

Water and soft drinks will be provided, and if you'd like, please feel free to bring a simple, covered tray of finger food.

Also, we encourage everyone to send us their best pictures of Bill and/or a short video tribute that we can show at the services.  Please send your submissions to:

mistermarc@wizardsoftechnology.com

When visiting the website, we encourage you to post your condolences, comments, and anecdotes about our friend Digital Bill.  Your notes will be published on the website and will eventually live on as a digital archive in tribute to Bill and his legacy of achievements.

Lastly, to help Bill's family shoulder the cost of funeral arrangements, please consider making a donation in his memory.  Look for the "Make a Donation" button at the website.  Any funds in excess of expenses will be donated to the "Presbyterian Disaster Assistance - Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund", a charity that has been chosen by the family for memorial contributions, and a cause for which Bill believed in greatly.

Please forward this message to all of Bill's friends and acquaintances, so as to assist us in reaching them.

Our prayers go out to his family and friends in their time of need.

Best regards,

Marc "Mister Marc" Asturias
Wizards of Technology

Technorati Tags: Bill Douthett, Digital Bill

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I got the type of news nobody wants to ever hear, my friend, Bill Douthett, had passed away unexpectedly.  The last 18 hours or so have been pretty surreal to say the least.  It's taken me this long to even gather my thoughts into a cohesive post.

Yesterday the online world lost a great friend.  Fellow Mac geek and podcaster Bill Douthett, a.k.a. "Digital Bill", suddenly passed away at his home in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  Bill was well known within the Macintosh community as co-host of "The Wizards of Technology" podcast, and having also been an icon in the south FL Macintosh community as a long-time employee of the now defunct Mac Center.

Details on Bill's death are still unknown, but it appears he died of natural causes.  I am still having a hard time believing that my buddy is gone.  I literally just saw him the other day and we spoke via iChat almost daily.  Life sure has a strange way of throwing you a curve ball when you least expect it.

Memorial services have not been scheduled as of yet, but a small group of friends and family are working together to establish a memorial website which will provide everyone with information about when and where services will be held, where to send flowers, and also with the opportunity to leave condolences, comments, and memories about this wonderful human being.  I will provide you with a link as soon as I have it.

There are several websites that have already made mention of Bill's passing [UPDATED]:

http://www.macmerc.com/news/macmerc/3531
http://www.macosken.com/
http://www.jaronbrass.com/archive/entry/311
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/
http://suicidegirls.com/girls/Posh/1447524/
http://leoville.vox.com/library/post/bye-bye-wizard.html/
http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2006/10/rip-digitalbill-douthett-wizards-of-technology-podcaster/
http://www.surfbits.com/?p=921
http://theeducationalmac.blogspot.com/2006/10/have-good-rest-digital-bill.html
http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2006/10/06/rip-digital-bill-douthett/
http://digg.com/tech_news/DigitalBill_of_Wizards_of_Technology_has_passed_away

My thoughts and prayers go out to Bill's family.  It's going to be strange not seeing Bill online with his quirky status messages.  You will be missed my friend.  Godspeed.

Technorati Tags: Bill Douthett, Digital Bill, Podcasts

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

What in the heck is a Treemo you ask?  It's yet another Web 2.0 newcomer to the social media space, but this one comes with a twist!  To quote Treemo:

"Treemo is a media-sharing community where you can upload anything -- photos, videos, music, words, visual art -- and retain complete control of your content. And our mobile-browsing application makes it simple to stay connected. You can even upload photos and video straight from your mobile phone.

Treemo is a community with a conscience. We're committed to being a positive force by initiating social programs and enviro-initiatives. We make it simple for Treemo members to donate unused gear to our non-profit partners, so those mobile phones and digital gadgets get recycled or find a new life in the hands of those who need an avenue for expression. We're all in this together."

So what's all this mean and how are they different from the plethora of other social media sites?  There are a few very key differentiators about Treemo that will make this an interesting alternative to everything else on the market.  For starters, you retain control of what you post via the use of Creative Commons licenses.  Second, you can actually make money from your content.  TechCrunch is reporting that Treemo will be offering a revenue-sharing model with it's users that allows the user to decide whether they want to show advertising with their audio / video content or not, and share in the profits if they do.  There's no information about this on the website, but TechCrunch is reporting the the company's founder, Brent Brookler (don't ask me why, but that name just reminds me of Dirk Diggler), stated the the split will probably be 50/50.  Not a bad twist if I do say so myself.  Another major twist the environmental angle that the company is taking. Treemo is going all-out by enabling the recycling of used (and new) digital cameras, camcorders and mobile phones.  This benefits not only the environment, but through Treemo's partners, it enables youth of all ages to find new ways to explore their creativity.  I have to not only applaud them, but command mad props to the forward-thinking this group of people has done on with regards to keeping things "Green".

Overall the site has been tastefully done, graphics and visuals are clean, the UI so far is pretty decent and they provide more storage and bandwidth than FlickR.  The mobile related features are pretty outstanding as well.  It looks like this might actually be the service that consolidates my needs from using FlickR and Text America, down to one service.  I can't wait to see what additional features are in the works and how the service will unfold over the coming months.  My only request for the Treemo team so far is to RSS enable a "News" section of their site so I can keep track of them via my news aggregator.  Having a company blog would be pretty cool too.  I know where they can find a blogger looking to join something new and exciting!  ;-)   

Technorati Tags: Cool Sites, FlickR, Social Media, Treemo, Web 2.0

Posted by Frank Bisono at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few posts ago I blogged about who killed the electric car.  Well here's yet another alternative fuel which we won't have a problem finding plenty of - WATER.  This video is almost too good to be true.  You have to wonder what the implications of this could be on the world economy (and the Presidential Bush family's income) if overnight we could literally power all our vehicles with nothing but water.

Here is a Fox 26 News report on a guy who created the ability to power vehicles or just about anything by converting H2O into HHO.  The prototype vehicle shown can travel 100 miles on 4 OUNCES of water!

Technorati Tags: Alternative Fuel, Automobiles, EV Automobiles, Green Energy, Hybrid Vehicles, Science, Video

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today starts the week-long Apple developer love-fest in San Francisco - the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC).  This year, Apple's at it again with the ever so well-known arrogance that has become the norm in everything from their advertising to their conference banners.  Apple's latest poke at Redmond is the banner shown above (pics from Engadget).  But you know that wasn't enough.  Last year, Apple had a banner stating "Redmond, Start your Photocopiers."  This year they built on that with the following:

You have to admire a company that is so bold as to put it out there like that.  But then again, Redmond is sitting back laughing at Apple's market share.  So who's the winner?  I don't know, it will be interesting to see what Vista has in store.  But I can tell you this much, Microsoft has their work cut out for them.  OS X "Leopard" is showing some pretty promising and wicked things, and that's just what we know about.  There are some secret features that Steve would not discuss during the keynote.  Makes you stop and wonder.

The keynote didn't appear to be as exciting as others in previous years.  Quite frankly, it was boring.  The highlights are that Apple released some MONSTER desktops, now named the MacPro, which should just about be able to pilot you into the next solar system.  These Quad Xeon 64-bit machines are INSANE.  Aside from the ridiculous speeds, they finally added that 2nd optical drive bay and the ability to have 4 hard drives for a total storage capacity of 2 TERABYTES!  That's just insane people.

Ushering in a new era of outstanding performance — and completing the Mac transition to Intel processors at the same time — the new Mac Pro introduces the 64-bit Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processor to the Mac lineup. Running at up to 3GHz, it’s a state-of-the-art processor that — from day one — makes the Mac Pro one of the fastest desktop computers on the planet.

With the new build-to-order (BTO) options, there are more than 4 MILLION possible ways to configure your system.  Talk about an IT administration nightmare!  But hey - don't let it be said Apple doesn't give you choices.  Just remember, if you BTO a system - there are NO RETURNS!  Nice little gotcha that they don't make too obvious when you buy the system online.

Not to be outdone on the server side, there's a whole new breed of Xserves to play with.  A Quad Xeon 64-bit nasty one at that.

The Xserve packs phenomenal power and industry-leading capabilities into a high-density, 1U rackmount server that fits easily into any network environment. And this award-winning UNIX-based server just got a 5x (1) performance boost over the Xserve G5, thanks to quad-core 64-bit Intel Xeon processing. Additional features include up to 2.25TB storage, two eight-lane PCI Express slots, dual onboard Gigabit Ethernet, and a combo drive. With all this, the Xserve provides the stability you need and the performance you want, starting at just $2999.

The "Leopard" preview is not too shabby.  There are some much needed enhancements and upgrades made to Apple Mail, iChat and Spotlight.  One of the newest features that will make a lot of people yell "Hot Damn!" is the Time Machine feature.  This takes automated backup to a whole new level.  You will now have the ability to literally roll-back files to previous states and even recover lost or deleted files from your system.  This will be a life saver for many people and especially IT departments everywhere.  Just as a little kick in Redmond's rear, Apple decided to make the Time Machine interface a little bit like the way Vista navigates through open windows.  Just remember, Time Machine is worthless if the drive fails.  You still need to think about backing up to external media or running an internal RAID 5 configuration with those extra drives you can put into the MacPro.

All-in-all, there's still quite a bit of work left to be done on Leopard.  It will be Spring '07 before we really see the final product, and with any luck, Microsoft might just be able to pump out Vista by then.  It will be really interesting to compare the 2 systems side-by-side.  For now, we'll just have to be content with Tiger and some fast machines.  Not too shabby.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Macintosh, OS X

Posted by Frank Bisono at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now here's a company that just plain "gets it."  Southwest has always been a leader in the field and their customer service is second to none.  It's no wonder that they are among the few (if not the only) airlines to actually turn a profit in these trying times.  If there was one airline that I would have pegged as the first to have a blog, it would have been Southwest.  They have officially been bitten by the blogging bug and are now blogging online at: www.blogsouthwest.com. A glimpse of what you can expect...

"...we want this to be a place where you can see just who we are and why we are Nuts about Southwest.

In order to do that, we have lined up an exciting group of bloggers that include Frontline and Headquarters Employees. Among the Frontline Employees lined up to blog are some of our Pilots; Flight Attendants; Airport Employees; Mechanics; folks from our Marketing, Schedule Planning, Properties, People and Leadership, and Executive Office Departments. We hope to add additional bloggers as we go, including some of our Officers, who will show up as guest bloggers."

Not too bad if you ask me.  I'm adding this to my feeds...lets see if they can keep up with the pace of the blogsphere!

Technorati Tags: Aviation, Blogging

Posted by Frank Bisono at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posting has been slow around these parts hasn't it?  It's been over 2 weeks and Bellsouth STILL doesn't have a clue how to fix the problem with my DSL line.  Surprising isn't it?  Every time I call I get someone in India who is clearly having to call back to the states to actually get a real Bellsouth employee to tell them what to do.  I have had it, I am sooo over Bellsouth.

There is light over the horizon though.  By the time I get home tonight, I should have a brand spankin new 6Mbps connection through Adelphia.  I originally thought Comcast serviced my area, errr - technically I guess they do since they bought Adelphia, but for now everything is branded Adelphia.

I had the cable tv installed this weekend and got 2 Motorola HD / PVR receivers to boot.  I can't begin to express how absolutely AMAZING the HD picture is from regular cable or Satellite.  Watching Discovery HD Theater has just become my favorite past-time.  DirecTV, you lost.  If you offered me the upgrade at no cost, you would have most likely kept me as a customer.  So sad, too bad.  If the cable modem is anywhere near as fast as I am thinking it will be during those heavy peak hours, I will be one happy camper.  Next step - order up Supra telecom and completely dump Bellsouth services and related affiliates.  Unfortunately I am stuck on Cingular for another year, but rest assured - their days are numbered too.

For now, you can get your bisonium fix over at Gear Live with the following posts:

Sony Ericsson P990: The Ultimate Mobile Phone

Put Some DICE In Your Ride

VMware Server Released for Free

Major Nelson Giving Away Xbox 360 for Dummies

Adobe On Mactel: An FAQ

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well that didn't take long!  24 hours into his gig, Lasseter drops the hammer.  Rock on!  Someone needd to get Disney back in shape and I think the best of Disney is yet to come.

[via MacDailyNews ]

Pixar's Lasseter quickly axes Disney's 'Toy Story 3':

"John Lasseter, the creative chief of Pixar Animation Studios, has wasted no time asserting who is boss after Pixar's takeover by Walt Disney - by stopping production of Toy Story 3, the controversial sequel to the two wildly successful animated films," Jason Nissé reports for The Independent.

"The original Toy Story, completed in 1995, was the first major collaboration between Pixar and Disney. The highly lucrative partnership went on to produce the hits Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles," Nissé reports. Disney's desired to keep the Toy Story franchise running with a third and forth movie, without Pixar's input, as the deal between Disney and Pixar allowed. "Mr Lasseter was deeply opposed to the idea but Disney went ahead, as it owns the intellectual property, putting 100 scriptwriters, animators and other creative staff to work on Toy Story 3 at its own Walt Disney Studios animation complex in Burbank, California... [the new] Disney-Pixar deal gives Mr Lasseter creative control over all of the two studios' animated film output, while still maintaining Pixar's independence."

"On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Mr Jobs and Disney's new chief executive, Bob Iger, unveiled the merger, Mr Lasseter went to Burbank with Pixar's president, Ed Catmull. He announced that Toy Story 3 would now be scrapped, without a word about the fate of the animation team," Nissé reports.

Full article here.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[ via Mercurynews.com ]

Rest in Peace, Sony Aibo:

The Aibo lived seven years -- or 49 if you count robotic dog years. On Thursday, Sony pulled the plug on Aibo, its peppy robotic dog with a software-controlled personality and abilities that has entertained thousands of faithful owners. The dogs, which cost upward of $2,000 each, can dance, whimper, guard and play, developing personalities based on interaction with their owners. Sony has sold more than 150,000 Aibos since launching the product in May 1999.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, I want one NOW!!!  Just let me put all of Apple's technical documentation on this thing and I am good to go.  Wow, can you imagine being able to carry an entire reference library of books, technical briefs, white papers, magazines, etc...all in a little compact and READABLE form factor?  Awesome...

[ via Gizmodo ]

Live From CES: The Sony Reader:

Who needs Blu-ray? This is the Sony reader that uses the display technology from E-Ink I've been hearing so much about. To give you an idea of just how good this display looks... I walked up to the counter, looked at the text on the screen and asked, "So when will you have working units to play with?" The reply: "This is a working reader." I mistakenly though the text on the screen was some kind of plastic overlay—that's how ink-like it looked. Then the PR rep increased the text size, searched through the table of contents and showed me some Manga comics. It is the first e-reader that seemed like I could sit down and spend hours on without experiencing eye strain. Part of the reason it works is that it does not have a backlight, so forget about reading in the dark. There is also zero flicker, as far as I could see. It's small and lightweight too (.5 inches thick and smaller than a hardcover book). The reader accepts both Memory Stick and SD flash memory cards. It's got a USB plug, and could be used to download and read websites, JPEGs or PDF docs. The battery life, as they are selling it, is equivalent to "7,500 page turns, avid readers can devour a dozen bestsellers plus War and Peace without ever having to recharge."

The books will be available through the Connect Store, and there is some Connect software for managing your books (so far this is the only drawback). Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin-Putnam, Simon & Schuster and Time Warner Book Group are all on board with titles, along with Manga publisher Tokyopop. Sony is promising to deliver this reader by Spring.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sexy laptop...still no Powerbook, but damn nice.  If it comes pre-loaded with Linux, I give it a thumbs up!

[ via Foursprung ]

Notebook: First pictures of the Lamborghini notebook!:

The German Car Blog has the first pictures of the long awaited Lamborghini notebook.
The Lamborghini notebook will be produced in cooperation with ASUS and will be available in Lamborghini yellow and black with all the characteristics of a Lamborghini: Energy, Speed, Power and Beauty.

Expect more product details next week!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[ via Digital LifeTV ]

DL.TV goes to CES:

DL.TV is live from the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. We hit the road to show you all the latest gadgetry, before it hits the stores.
CES kicked off with a keynote by the Microsoft Founder himself: Bill Gates.

Click here to watch the Bill Gates (Microsoft) Keynote

We're going to bring you full coverage of CES over the next few days, so check in with us tomorrow!

[ UPDATE ]

DLTV hasn't updated their video link yet.  You can catch the keynote directly from MSFT here.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of weeks ago I decided to shut down our web hosting division to focus on some more lucrative projects.  For us being a small boutique company, it just wasn't worth keeping up with the support calls and infrastructure required to provide a top notch hosting service.  So after plenty of research, I decided on using Dreamhost due to the plans they had, and my requirements for development.  The single biggest feature they had was the ability to host MULTIPLE DOMAINS under one account.  This is huge for someone with more than one domain name.  Now I can host ALL of my sites for one low price.  As if that wasn't enough, they include a FREE domain name registration for every account!!!  So far I have been incredibly satisfied.  More after the jump...

Continue reading "Dreamhost has lost their minds!!!" »

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's official folks, my buddy Scott's Sony Aibo, Tron, is now blogging by itself on his very own TypePad blog.  I wasn't aware you could even get an Aibo to do this, but it is pretty damn slick if I do say so myself.  Apparently the AI on this thing is pretty advanced and can do everything from blogging, emailing you pics, to being able to email the pooch with specific commands and logging in to his "brain" via a web browser.  Now THAT is some cool stuff.  Just when you think you've seen it all...in comes a blogging robotic dog.  Make sure to visit TRON's Blog!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the past few weeks there have been an enormous amount of stories about the tech boom that has been happening in India.  As someone who works in IT, this is obviously a huge concern.  I can honestly say that I have been a huge advocate against outsourcing and placing the blame on the wrong people.  These articles should serve as a WAKE UP CALL for America.  Our jobs are leaving the US and heading east due to nothing more than corporate GREED.  The folks in India are merely taking advantage of an opportunity that has been literally handed to them on a silver platter.  The formula is quite simple: Go to school, excel at your chosen major, walk out with a degree AND an education, get paid a ton of money (at least it is for them) to do what you love.  Perform well and you will be rewarded.  Unfortunately that formula no longer works in the USA.  Corporate America is simply concerned about their bottom line and nothing else.  Loyalty is a word that no longer exists in ANY form when it comes to dealing with American corporations.

All too often here in the US there is no recognition for hard work.  The harder you work, the more they expect out of you.  And as I have been a victim of myself, if you do your job TOO WELL, then you are too valuable to promote and your opportunities to advance up the corporate ladder will pass you by as some less than qualified idiot takes your position, all thanks to the fear of litigation involved in letting someone go (ie FIRING THEM) for simply being incompetent.  This is today's corporate mantra.

Corporate executives expect that you will work for wages that would have been considered "fair" over 10 years ago.  It seems like we cant get past that mentality these days, even though our economy and cost of living has skyrocketed over the same period of time.  In south Florida for example, the price of real estate has more than tripled in the last 5 years.  Yet the average salary for the very people living in this area has stayed the same or declined.  So tell me this corporate geniuses, how can we afford to buy a new home if you are still paying us wages from 10 years ago in today's economy?  The answer is simple.  The average person CANNOT.  Now lets take a look at India.  If you follow the link to this multimedia flash presentation, it will seriously open your eyes.  Here are the very same folks taking our jobs, getting paid 1/10th or LESS than what we get here in the states, yet they are living the life with beautiful homes, chauffeured cars, maids and cooks.  Their education system is significantly better and their wireless infrastructure leaves us looking like amateurs in the almighty US of A.  How is this possible?  CORPORATE GREED and a corrupt political system.

Folks, you can either be part of the problem or part of the solution.  If you vote for officials that support outsourcing, you are part of the problem.  If you do business with companies that outsource labor overseas, you are part of the problem.  If you are lazy and try to skate by at work by doing as little as possible, you are part of the problem.  The money ship has set sail and it's on its way to India.  It's going to be hard to turn that ship back, but not impossible.  It's up to you...just don't complain later when it's too late and say nobody told you so or that you didn't see it coming.

[via Silicon Beat ]

Bangalore boom:

Matt already mentioned the stories that colleague John Boureau has written about the Bangalore tech boom. But I'll call special attention to the multimedia Flash presentation that our crack photo staff produced. It really brings the story to life with photos and narration by the people at the center of the stories. One slide show features an upscale Bangalore neighborhood that's become home for many Indians returning from the U.S. One person in the piece says that 80 percent of his neighbors are from the Bay Area. And then there's the contingent of young Americans who went to work for Ifosys in India to jumpstart their careers, and found many slices of America. "I never imagined I would move to India and be able to order Dominos,'' says one.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[ via Broadband Reports ]

BellSouth 6Mbps Launched:

Expected faster tier emerges. As we've been discussing for months, BellSouth today officially released their new 6Mbps/512kbps DSL tier at $46.95 per month for BellSouth phone customers (see official press release). The launch was intended for earlier this month, but was apparently pushed back due to hurricane recovery. Customers in our BellSouth forum discuss successful orders, and how close you need to be to the CO in order to obtain the full 6Mbps.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is one of those things that has been pissing me off for quite some time.  What the hell is the problem with these idiots that make their show 1:01:00?  It completely screws up the Tivo and causes you to potentially miss a show if you don't catch the goof.  Glad to see Tivo fighting back!

[ via Gizmodo ]

TiVo Now Prevents Overlaps:

TiVo's 7.2.1 software update will now include overlap protection, which will prevent you from missing the beginning of a show if it overlaps with another, less important, show in your schedule. Big deal? Kind of. This essentially solves the problem of TV programmers tacking on an extra minute or so to foil PVRs and piss off TiVo owners.

The system rates the shows by importance and stops recording the "less important" shows when more important shows start. Works on Series 2 TiVos.

Update: The overlap protection gets a nice dissection at Zatz Not Funny...

TiVo Adds Overlap Protection [PVRBlog]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is hands-down the best article I have read on the Windows Vista disaster.  I am glad to see that the people within Microsoft are dropping their archaic ways of thinking and learning to code in much better and more effective ways.  As much as I am a proponent of Apple and OS X, I would love to see MSFT get their act together and offer a QUALITY alternative.  People should have a choice and if these changes pull through and Windows is for once a decent product, then everyone will have to be on top of their game to deliver the best products possible.  The winners will end up being the consumers.  And THAT is how it should be in ANY industry.

[ via OSViews.com ]

Why Vista Had To Be Rebuilt From Scratch:

The Wall Street Journal has a long front-page article describing how Jim Allchin approached Bill Gates in July, 2004, with the news that then-Longhorn, now-Vista, was 'so complex that its writers would never be able to make it run properly.'

Also, the article says, 'Throughout its history, Microsoft had let thousands of programmers each produce their own piece of computer code, then stitched it together into one sprawling program. Now, Mr. Allchin argued, the jig was up. Microsoft needed to start over.' And start over they did. The article is astonishing for its frank comments from the principles, including Allchin and Gates, as well as for its description of Microsoft's cowboy spaghetti code culture.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What a great find by Jeff Nolan!  This is some serious stuff...it is both disturbing, but strangely intriguing.  Given the circumstances of Hurricane Katrina, if there was some kind of GPS and satellite based transmission system in place, the ideas presented here (using the wifi iPod) would have been invaluable.  I think our federal government should very seriously consider opening those satellites to communications services like this that are not land based and depend on something so archaic as an antenna or tower.  Googlezon, iPod and GPS will rule the world!!!  :-) 

Hang on to your eyeballs! Epic 2015:

this video clip is disturbing.

Link: Hang on to your eyeballs! Epic 2015.

Here is a must-see video clip called Epic 2015 that extrapolates current events and practices forward into a disturbing identity future.  I doubt many will be able to stop themselves from laughing while they watch this, but not many will walk away …

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google is on a friggin rampage to take over the word.  Check out this post from Rob:

Gmail email masking now operational:

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the most recent study by the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the consensus is that happy customers make good customers. In a study of some of Americas most famous brands, the ACSI concludes that revenue growth is directly correlated to customer satisfaction. It should be no surprise that Apple Computer beat out all other computer manufacturers with a score of 81, beating out Dell by a full seven points.

For the full story, check out ZDNET...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John C. Dvorak has been a tech industry pundit for as long as I can remember. I was a huge fan in the mid to late nineties when he was at the peak of his game, especially with ZDTV, Tech TV and CNet. Somewhere along the line he lost it. His predictions started making less and less sense and sometimes his rants were really off the wall. I basically stopped reading anything he wrote....until today. I dunno what disturbance is happening in the force recently, but it seems that Dvorak's writings are making a comeback. His appearances on This Week in Tech (TWiT) have also been pretty interesting. I really enjoy his sarcastic I don't give a "fsck" attitude. He's actually pretty entertaining. In one of his latest articles, he speaks his mind on the impact of Windows Vista in the industry. Lets hope his predictions are on the spot! :-)

Column from PC Magazine: Windows Vista: Where's the Buzz?:

Posted by Frank Bisono at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago I posted a piece about the new way to get spammed and scammed. Apparently, even after repeated warnings to Careerbuilder.com about the less than honest job postings I have been getting bombarded with, they continue to let unscrupulous individuals post jobs to lure unsuspecting and naive job seekers into their web of deceit. The most recent email comes from yet another Russian company and goes like this:

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Hello,
GLOD-Soft Lab is a fast-growing software development company that produces determinent IT solutions for its customers worlwide.
Over the past few years, it has been located in Eastern Europe. GLOD-soft has became one of the major partners in succeful fast-growing business.
Since 1994, GLOD-Soft has successfully operated at the determinent software development market providing our customers from Western Europe, USA and Canada with reasonably priced high quality software products and services.
Now, we focuse our business development strategy on expanding our US, UK and Canada market presence and you have an opportunity to join one of the most successful and fast growing companies in the custom software development market.

Our company head office is located in Moscow, Russia and also we have departments in Ukraine and Belarus. In the nearest future we plan to open our representation in Germany. As a result of the Canadian, UK and US market research we are convinced that our products have a good sales potential.
But after we have mave made approach to sell our programs, we regret to find out that we can't provide our customers sufficient payment options flexibility. Most of our clients prefer payment options that are not represented in Russia yet or lead to incredible charges.

We're looking for someone sincere, punctual and responsible who can help us to gain payments flexibility. The job we offer requires receiving payments from clients for our services and remitting the sum to our manager via Western Union.
Do not turn this offer down! Great opportunity!
Best Regards,
Alex Sahov
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Warning - THIS IS A SCAM. NO legit company that has anything good to sell will ask you to funnel their money via your personal checking account and then Western Union them the cash! If they can't afford to do business in the US, then they should stick to their country and not pollute us with their useless warez.

Be careful and remember - if it seems to good to be true, it usually is!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

This is truly amazing...you have to read the article to appreciate this....

[via Apple.com]

Fully-Autonomous Vehicle Driven by Mac OS X:

Team Banzai, one of 40 teams from around the country to advance to the national semi-finals of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, developed “Dora” — the world’s first fully-autonomous vehicle driven by Mac OS X. The team’s entire development and race management efforts use Apple Mac OS X technology. [Jul 20, 2005]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The entertainment world is in for a rude awakening. The Internet, combined with the dramatically reduced cost of audio & video editing hardware and software over the past few years, has given rise to a new breed of indie artist. Gone are the days where you needed a major network and big money to back your idea.

Today's indie artists are taking their content and paving the path to their own futures. For those of us in the tech industry, there wasn't much of a choice when it came down to super geek tv shows. With the acquisition of Tech TV by G4, our choices have all but disappeared. G4 has obliterated what was once a thriving and popular television network, and turned it into utter uselessness. Most of my friends, and myself, have stopped watching due to the poor quality of programming and content on G4. So what's a geek to do in order to get their propeller-head fix? Internet TV.

Several websites have begun to appear over the past year which are leading the way towards a new trend in entertainment. Two websites in particular (Systm and From the Shadows) strictly cater to the geek crowd. What makes these two sites great is that the majority of the content and talent is from people we have grown accustomed to seeing on Tech TV. Many of us had some serious withdrawal when Tech TV went dark. These guys have stepped in and are doing a great job. As a matter of fact, they are doing so well, that I seriously wonder how long it will be before a new network springs up out of this indie movement. I would argue that the content on these sites actually RIVALS what was on Tech TV. No longer are we limited to what the bean counters and clueless want to put into the program, this is all about the tech. These guys get down and dirty and cover the stuff we always wanted to see, but the "suits" would never air. And the best part: NO COMMERCIALS.

Not to be left behind are the new breed of radio broadcasters. Last week we covered the announcement of iTunes 4.9 and it's Podcasting capabilities. In the past week alone, Apple has publicly released figures that over 1 MILLION podcasts have been served to date. That number is absolutely astonishing, considering that only a fraction of what is out there is listed in the iTunes Music Store directory of podcasts. There are literally thousands more podcasts listed via ipodder.org. Among my favorite is This Week in Tech (TWiT). Yet again, here are the former cast members of Tech TV's various shows, taking their talent public and for FREE. No need to subscribe to cable, no need for DirecTV, no need for anything but a broadband internet connection. One would think that the quality is the first thing that will suffer, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Most of these shows are being produced by professionals that have been doing this for a very long time and are adamant about making sure they provide a quality experience. Shows like "From the Shadows" even provide you multiple formats in which you can download their content, including Apple's new Quicktime with H.264 codec. Leo Laporte spends countless hours editing his show to perfection. These folks use pro gear and pro talent behind their content.

So you might ask yourself, what does the future hold for these guys? Surely they can't go on for ever providing this stuff for free? Well, I wouldn't be too sure about that. As the movement grows and the top players in the field start to distinguish themselves, subscribers (which could donate to the cause) and advertisers will come knocking. This doesn't mean that the advertising will be injected into the show, it just means that these advertisers will pay big money for a plug in the show, or for some banner ads on the site. I can live with that. After all, what better way for a company to target their audience than to do it through a captive audience of the EXACT demographic they are looking for? Even Tech TV couldn't do that. Tech TV had to appeal to the masses which included everything from beginner to the advanced uber geek. With this new format, advertisers can pick and choose exactly who they are targeting and get the most bang for their buck. This is a win win for content providers, advertisers and consumers. The key thing here will be for the indie artists to keep their shows "real" and not sell out to "the man". By that I mean not reviewing bogus products or giving favorable recommendation to products they wouldn't use themselves, just in the name of money. I really believe this new trend will become the norm as long as consumers know they can trust the show to give them the real dirt on products and they keep it real. Only time will tell.

One thing is for certain, the face of television and radio is changing. This time the power is going back to and in favor of the consumer. Now WE can dictate what we will watch and when we will watch it, without regulation or fear of reprisals from the network or FCC. These are exciting times indeed. I would say the Internet is about to hit phase 2 and the next boom is just around the corner. Maybe this time I can be in the right place at the right time. :-)

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spammers and scam artists just don't know when to quit. We have all learned to accept that we cannot control the fact that we will get spam and not all of it will make it through the filtering systems we have put in place. It's just something we have to live with for the time being. But to get spammed and scammed by someone posing to offer you a job via a "respected and trusted" career site, is an entirely different animal.

In the latest attempt to lure unsuspecting users into making some cash, a "Russian" company has given a new twist to the good 'ol Nigerian money scam. The email, which comes via CareerBuilder.com, presents you with the opportunity to work for this European based company, that wishes to expand into the US market with their great software product. They speak of their expansion plans and how much potential their product has to be successful. But the poor saps can't seem to get a normal US based bank account to receive payment for their software. Boo Hoo. So the "job" entails you accepting payment for THEIR software, via YOUR bank account. And then of course, you are supposed to make nice and WIRE them CASH via Western Union to the "manager" in Russia.

Are you friggin kidding me? The fact that their grammar is atrocious is one thing. But to insult my intelligence with this stupidity is another thing entirely. They don't even bother to mention what your "pay" will be for providing them the opportunity to sell their product via YOUR bank account, in the USA. Gotta love it.

How something like this gets through the folks at Career Builder is beyond me. Maybe I should seriously reconsider where I am putting my resume these days?

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)