::: 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:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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 (12)

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 (10)

What a day in iPod land. Today Apple has announced a plethora of iPod related news. First, we'll start with the new iTunes 4.9 Update. This update includes a new Podcasting support feature. We'll talk more about this in a minute. Second, a nice update to the iPod itself (clickwhell and shuffles only) to enable that Podcasting feature. Third, the iPod line has been retooled and all iPod models have been merged into either iPod (no more iPod Photo), iPod mini, or iPod Shuffle. The entire iPod line is now full color and there are 2 models to choose from (this includes a new 20GB U2 version). There is the standard 20GB model with a nice new price point of $299. Or you can opt for the mambo monster 60GB rig for a mere $399. Not too darn shabby. The Shuffle price point has quietly been lowered as well. The new price is $129 (down from $149) for the 1GB model. So those are the major announcements. Now for the reviews.

Lets start with iTunes 4.9. The killer on this update is the podcast support. Apple has really outdone themselves on this one. It isn't perfect (yet), but it's one heck of a promising start. It couldn't be any easier to find and subscribe to a podcast (although the categories still lack depth). There are the usual and popular podcasts to choose from, but if your favorites aren't listed, fret not. You can simply go to the advanced menu, click Subscribe to Podcast, and enter your favorite podcast feed URL and it will magically appear. If you have an audio file that you downloaded, you can also import that into iTunes as well. Apple has added a new setting under the AAC Encoding menu for Podcasts. The setting will encode your imported file at 64Kbps, which is more than ample for voice podcasts.

The way iTunes manages the podcasts is great. I have been a long time user of iPodderX and find it to be a great app. However, you have to configure every feed just right in order to have it dropped into your playlist (unless you just accept the default settings, which you may or may not like).

For me, iPodderX sometimes worked, sometimes it didn't. iTunes has made the process incredibly easy by creating a Podcast menu in iTunes, just like you have the Music Store, party shuffle or radio menus. Better yet, when you sync up with your iPod, there is now a Podcast category and all your podcasts are neatly organized by title. One previously annoying thing about having certain podcasts on your iPod was that the interface was horrible. For certain podcasts with long names, it was impossible to easily see what podcast episode you were selecting. More tech savvy podcasters created their own naming conventions which made it a little easier to identify each podcast by its title, but it was a far from flawless method of overcoming the iPod's limited interface. With the new iPod user interface (UI), the name of the podcast will scroll automatically and let you see the full name without having to actually play the podcast. Apple has also added a date field at the end of the title menu that is fixed, so that as the title scrolls, you will always see the date of that podcast. Nifty...VERY nifty. Apple has been listening indeed. If I am not mistaken, Leo Laporte himself had made that very suggestion on one of his many podcasts. No doubt that Adam Curry had a bit of input on these improvements as well.

On the negative side of things, I have seen some people complaining that iTunes is not all that and that you should stick to iPodderX. Well folks, being that I am not exactly biased by being personal buddies with the good guys August and Ray at iPodderX, I can give you a more realistic viewpoint on this. One of the complaints I have read is how iTunes doesn't handle bit torrent very well. That is true, no question about it. However, I only know of ONE podcast (at least of the popular ones) that is delivered via bit torrent. That would be The Week in Tech (TWiT) by the former Screen Savers gang. Great podcast, but guess what? It is also delivered via MP3 through another feed that works just fine in iTunes. That doesn't exactly call for the use of another app other than iTunes. I must say though, I would like to get that bookmarkable AAC feed via normal channels. I don't see iTunes EVER supporting bit torrent, as I am sure Apple wants complete and total control over what you are downloading from their apps and music store. It's no secret that a lot of folks use bit torrent for downloading music in more nefarious ways than we would like to admit. Don't expect Apple to facilitate this practice any time soon. If bit torrent is your thing, then iPodderX is definitely a better choice for you. iPodderX also has really nice RSS support built-in, something iTunes has yet to implement.

The second complaint I have read about is that iTunes won't fetch your podcasts while it isn't running. And the point? That is a pretty simple thing to overcome folks. Just leave iTunes running and if you don't want the controller visible, hit COMMAND-H to HIDE the darn thing! It will still be running and catching all your podcasts on whichever schedule you tell it to retrieve those podcasts. If you want iTunes to startup when you log in, just add it to your Login Items under Accounts in the System Preferences. But again, if this is just too much trouble for you, iPodderX is your best choice.

Another observation I have made is that the list of categories for podcasts in iTunes is too limited. If you go to iPodder.org, you will see that there is an extensive list of categories that better defines what you are looking for. I am sure this will improve in future updates of the music store. Remember, this is only day one.

Enough on the negative, lets go uber geek. So what is new and uber kewl in the new iTunes? Plenty. If you are into making your own podcasts, there are some nice updates that should make you happy. Lets start with the ability to publish your podcast to the iTunes Music Store. Apple has added a "Publish a Podcast" button to iTunes. Apple still has the final word on if you get in or not, but I don't think it will be too hard judging on what they have in there at the moment. If you are just starting out and don't know how to create a podcast, Apple has provided a step-by-step guide to get you going. It isn't the most sophisticated setup, but it works. For a more real-world view on how to podcast, you may want to check out the tutorials at Engadget, or check out the Podcasting Primer on Mac Merc, courtesy of the Wizards of Technology.

Back to geeking out. Apple has also added a Chapter Tool to the mix. Word of advice, this tool is NOT for the faint of heart. It is a COMMAND LINE tool at the moment. If your unix skills are not up to snuff, you may want to pass on this until Apple releases the commercial version. This tool will allow you to add chapters, images and web links to specific time codes in the podcast. iTunes (and iPod Photos) will then display those assets real-time as you listen to the podcast. This will be HUGE for people that like doing Sound-Seeing Tours, another Adam Curry invention, in which he records audio commentary as he strolls through scenic (or some not-so-scenic) areas. Imagine what this will do for Museums and such, where you can be walking through a self-paced tour and viewing the images the author wants to convey right on your iPod or in iTunes. This is the future folks! Any podcast that has been encoded with this feature will now sport a new icon to the left of the iTunes status window with a list of chapters and images encoded in the podcast. Since at this time Apple can only control the AAC audio format, these types of podcasts are limited to the MPEG-4 AAC (.m4a) fie format (same as the tunes you download from the music store).

That pretty much wraps it up folks. Lots of great and exciting news today. If you are new to the world of Podcasting, welcome! If your an old hat, I am sure you can appreciate today's announcements. In either case, one thing is for certain. The face of radio is changing and control is being put back in the hands of the listeners. Radio stations across the country should afraid. BE VERY AFRAID. No longer will we be held at the mercy of the junk being played on the radio. Between satellite radio and podcasting, can anyone tell me why they would listen to the radio anymore (except for live coverage of news or sports)? For the first time that I am aware of, ANYONE now has the ability to create their own radio show and be heard by the masses. You gotta love technology and Apple Computers.

[ Update ] Apparently Apple slipped one more goodie into iTunes which hasn't been publicized much. If you download a podcast from iTunes that has officially been added by Apple, the MP3 file will be bookmarkable! That takes the cake. Way to go Apple. Thanks to Jon for the heads up.

[ Update 2 ] Another interesting bit of info, when encoded properly, podcasts now carry the show-notes into the iPod! Just click the center button of your iPod twice and it will load any show notes that were part of the podcast. It just keeps getting better...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You gotta hand it to some folks. Creativity is one thing, but isn't this taking it a little too far? Someone had WAY too much time on their hands and not enough money for the basics. This guy actually built the furniture for his apartment out of FEDEX shipping materials!!! You gotta take a look at the site for more pictures. Fellow geeks of the universe...here is a hint for those of you about to start off on your own. If you can't afford furniture for that new apartment, you aren't ready to leave home! :-) Anyone out there got a UPS furniture pad? :-)

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

None other than the Steve "Woz" Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, will preside over the Commencement Ceremonies at Nova Southeastern University this weekend (June 25, 2005). Most of you know the history behind the Woz, so we won't get much into that. Should be interesting to see what he has to say, especially following Steve Job's speech at Stanford recently. Too cool...the Woz right here in my backyard!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past weekend Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at Stanford University. From all accounts I have read, it wasn't the most exciting speech, but it brought home some very good points to those about to hit the real world. The full story can be read at SFGate.com.

But that isn't the reason I am writing this today. I am writing about something I found to be somewhat ironic. In his speech, Steve referenced the days when he started college and how certain things in life played out as a result of his dropping out.

"If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do," he said. "Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference."

Here is Steve Jobs, one of the wealthiest people on the planet, and undoubtedly one of the best and most admired CEO's in history, addressing a bunch of kids that just dropped around $100,000 on their education. A college dropout just addressed the graduating class at Stanford. Wow.

So that leads me to the point of this post. Just recently Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" pitted college grads vs. those without a degree. Ultimately a girl with a degree won the battle, but not to be outdone by those that did not have the degree.

I am all for education. I am a college grad myself. Certain professions require it. I certainly wouldn't want a doctor, for instance, that didn't have a top notch education. However, when it comes to the business world and certain trades, I just don't believe that a college education is a necessity. A more practical approach would be a technical or trade school. Then there are those people that just have a natural God-given talent without ever having to pick up a book or attend a lecture. Should those folks be penalized?

There are those who will disagree with me and insist that if you don't have a degree (from a name-brand school at that), you must not be worthy. Heck, they even base hiring decisions on such nonsense. Imagine THAT! But the fact remains that there are those who are book smart, but are completely clueless in the real world. Then there are those that are DOERS. They are self-starters, independent thinkers, aggressive and determined. They are the TRUE Entrepeneurs. I'll take one of those guys in my organization ANY day over the so called "educated" candidate who really has nothing more than good study habits and no practical real-world experience to back it.

Lets face it people, school has become a BUSINESS. It is no longer about education. It is all about the money and how much money the sports teams and alumni can raise. Curriculums are filled with useless classes that are supposed to "round you out", but do nothing more than waste precious time and fill up an already busy schedule. If you are a career student, great. Knock yourself out. But I would rather spend my class time on classes that will directly affect my chosen profession.

So back to the point of this. I found some interesting facts on the net that I am betting many of you aren't aware of. For those of you that insist a college education is a must, I propose a question to you. Where are you in your career today? Take a good hard look at yourself, and evaluate your status in life. If you can tell me that you are more successful that any of the following people, then I want you in my rolodex. Lets take a look:

Steve Jobs
Steve Wozniak
Bill Gates
Larry Ellison
Michael Dell
Wayne Huizenga

These are just a few names that you might recognize. What the hell is the point you ask? Every one of them (and a whole bunch more) are college dropouts.

So again. I ask you. Where are you in your career today? Do you think it is fair to pre-judge a candidate in an interview based on whether they have a degree or not? If that was the case, just look at what we may have missed out on. Many of us wouldn't even have a career in our chosen professions. It's kind of hard to make a case against someone without a degree when you look at some of these people I listed above.

So for those of you in management with hiring authority, I ask you to open your minds before you open your mouths. You just may not be as smart as you think YOU are. The candidate you pass on today, just might be the guy who puts you out of business tomorrow.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seems like people just can't get enough of Apple these days. In yet another unimpressive attempt to rip off Apple's design teams work, here is a new case (via KREX Computers) for those in the PC world that are jonsing for a taste of Mac. A valiant effort I must say, but it's still no G5. The price is certainly right at $79.95. If I had a decent PC laying around, I might have gotten this. I do however like the blue LED's everywhere. I don't know what it is, but it seems like blue LED's are taking over everywhere these days.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Todays weather report from HELL: It's COLD, REAL COLD. Why heck...slap me silly and call me Sally...did I just see a flying pig go past my window? Yep, sure did, and it just IM'd me requesting a flyby. That would be a "Negative Ghostrider...the pattern is FULL".

Today marks a day in history which we Apple zealots will never forget. It almost feels as if we have been violated. There comes a time in a man's life where he must humble himself and admit he was wrong. My predictions were a tad bit off we could say. I am still trying to recover from todays madness and must regroup myself and accept the fact that this is NOT an alternate universe we have just been tele-ported to.

Well folks, the rumors as reported by CNET were in fact, TRUE. Apple has announced a partnership with Intel that will put an Intel based processor at the very soul of the next generation Macintosh, beginning this time next year (2006). Apple will transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007.

I guess this comes as a shock to us who have always believed the hype that RISC based processors were faster and more efficient. I for one not only drank the kool-aid, I lived it and preached it. The fact that Microsoft switched their next generation XBOX 360 to the same processor used in a Mac was kind of a validation that we Mac-heads were indeed correct, and had the baddest processors on the market. So that leaves many of us asking: WHY? The answer is actually quite simple. IBM dropped the ball in a MAJOR way. Lets get this out of the way first, IBM Makes a kick-ass processor. There is no question that the G5 processor is by far superior to anything on the market. However, IBM missed the mark in delivering a 3GHz processor to Apple as promised, and they have not been able to produce a mobile version of the G5 for the PowerBook line. These are not exactly things to be taken lightly by Apple. It does Apple and the rest of us no good to have this great processor if we can't create new products that are worth upgrading to. It is really that simple. So if you are feeling a little betrayed and Jaded, you can put the blame on nobody but IBM. Way to go Big Blue.

So what's this mean for Apple? A lot of people are truly pissed off. I attribute that to more of an emotional state of mind than a logical rationalization. It is human nature to cry foul and say you are going to go buy a Dell. But seriously, who are we kidding folks. Lets not lose focus of the real story here. It's about the OS dummy. Quite honestly, I could care less about what is under the hood as long as my computing experience does not change for the worse. In NASCAR racing, everyone is running different engines (Ford, Chevy, Dodge, etc), but they are all limited to the same amount of horsepower. The real difference in the race is the driver and the team. Well, a Mac will still be driven by OS X, no matter what the CPU powering it will be, and the same engineering team will be innovating us into the future at Apple. This is probably a good move on behalf of Apple and I for one am not one to say it wont work. If I were that smart, I would be sitting right next to Steve Jobs helping pilot the mother-ship. But alas, I am a humble schlep in the grand scheme of things.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered, but the writing is pretty clear. The biggest concern was the ability to port apps to an Intel architecture and Apple has all but blown us away with their solution for this. Between the Rosetta emulation technology and the new X-Code tools, running PPC apps on Intel will honestly be painless. This probably won't be anywhere near as painful as some people would like you to believe. For those of you wondering if this means you can run Windows on your Mactel, well...that is a big question mark that is yet to be determined. I also wouldn't expect you to be able to grab an Intel version of OS X and be able to drop it on that old x86 beige box you have lying around. These are but a couple of the many questions that will be brought to the table over the following year.

A lot of people (including myself) speculated that sales will drop for Apple over the next year until the new hardware is released. After giving this a lot of thought today, that may not exactly be true. Keep in mind that although Apple is switching to Intel, they will still be supporting PPC code for a VERY long time. There is honestly no reason for anyone to wait up to 2 years to buy a new machine. The G5 you buy today will be running for a VERY long time since a developer can recompile for both platforms effortlessly. In the near future, you will be seeing software released with the code base for both architectures on the same CD/DVD. This will in essence future-proof your purchase. It would be complete lunacy to go buy a Dell in lieu of a Mac at this point in the game. Apple is without a questionable doubt the most innovative company on the planet, and I have no reason to suspect this move will be anything but a success.

Full Quicktime archive of the WWDC 2005 Keynote will be available via this link very shortly. Other points of interest today is an interview with Steve Jobs on CNBC this afternoon. More in-depth discussions can be found at the usual news sources. So there ya have it. No new hardware (but the week isn't over yet). Whatever happens, I think it is safe to say that whatever other news we read this week will not top today. This was a biggie. I hope everyone is coping with this ok. Don't everyone go get drunk all at once and tattoo Apple on one ass cheek and Intel on the other! :-)

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lately I haven't been posting much because quite frankly, everything making the news has been quite <yawn> ... BORING. There has been ONE bit of news hitting the wire in the last couple of days that finally merits some attention. The pundits of CNET have reported that somehow they have an "inside source" that claims Apple is switching over to an Intel based architecture and will be announcing it on Monday at WWDC.

I am here to tell you folks (IMHO)...this is pure HOGWASH. It make absolutely NO sense at all for Apple to make such a monolithic move and the WRONG direction. For starters, this would mean yet another major overhaul and porting effort on behalf of all Macintosh developers out there. They did it once because they had to do it for the OS X transition. But to do it twice in the space of a few years? Ain't gonna happen people. Second, announcing such a move that would not happen on the PowerMacs until 2007 would essentially bring sales to a grinding halt. Nobody is going to spend $3,000+ on a professional system that will be out of date in a MAJOR way in the next 2 years. Apple has spent A LOT of time and energy dispelling the myths surrounding CISC vs. RISC based architectures and the so called "Megahertz Myth". And now, at a time when everyone is finally starting to understand the difference and major gaming platforms like the XBOX 360 and PS3 switching to what is essentially a G5 processor, what would Intel be able to offer that could throw all of that away?

It just makes no sense folks. What DOES make sense is Apple announcing Intel SUPPORT by creating an x86 version of OS X. Apple is a software and hardware company. Although keeping OS X solely on the Mac platform would obviously be good and help increase Apple's hardware sales, it would make more sense to announce that OS X will now run on an x86 machine. At a time when people have reached their threshold for pain on the Windows side of the house, it would tactically be genius to offer those folks an alternate OS that will run on their existing hardware. No more viruses, spyware or Blue Screens of Death. Just like the Mac mini concept, this is not a far fetched idea. Once the general public sees what they have been missing, they will no doubt think of Apple in an entirely new way. That only means one thing, increased hardware sales in the not too distant future. As those folks switch to OS X on Intel, when that hardware becomes obsolete and they need a replacement, now they will be looking long and hard at an Apple box.

The next logical move is the enterprise. One of the biggest concerns for an enterprise migrating platforms is cost. Porting OS X to Intel would allow an enterprise to transition to OS X with minimal cost and pain. The money saved on IT support costs alone would more than justify the money spent on training employees on the new OS. Productivity apps like MS Office would require practically no training. Overall, it just makes sense for an enterprise to switch to a safer and more stable computing environment.

Now we all know hell has frozen over at least once in recent history at Apple. So we can't be 100% sure of what exactly Steve has up his sleeves until Monday morning. It's going to be an interesting week to say the least. Stay tuned for more to come...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Now THIS is what I call bandwidth! Bring it on Bellsouth!!!

[via Broadbandreports.com]

broadband �� News �� BellSouth DSL Upgrades This Year - 4-6Mbps later this year:

BellSouth DSL Upgrades This Year

4-6Mbps later this year...

BellSouth shareholders aren't pleased with the news that BellSouth profits last quarter fell by nearly thirty-three percent. At a shareholders meeting this morning, BellSouth is telling those investors not to worry, in part because they have DSL upgrades planned for the second half of this year. However while BellSouth insists they'll offer 12Mbps of bandwidth over a single copper line, or 24MBps over a line-bonded pair, they also say they'll only at first offer speeds between 4-6Mbps.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Could corporate America finally be getting a reality check? This is definitely encouraging news...

[via the Register]

Big boys turn backs on offshoring | The Register:

Many of the world's largest organisations are turning their backs on outsourcing and one in four are actively bringing services back in-house.

A survey from Deloitte Consulting reveals that 70 per cent of respondents have had significant negative experiences with outsourced projects. Just under half, 44 per cent, did not see outsourcing contracts achieving significant cost savings.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNA is what the federal government now refers to as a Computer Network Attack. Our boys in the Pentagon have created a group known as the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare. Network Warfare? Holy crap...this is some serious beef. "In simple terms and sans any military parlance, the unit could best be described as the world's most formidable hacker posse. Ever." For the full story, check out WIRED Magazine...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our dearest Adobe Systems Inc. announced this morning that it has agreed to buy "Web King" Macromedia, Inc. in a deal worth $3.4 BILLION in stock.

[So who can guess the new name? Acromedia? Adomedia? Macrobe? Macrodobe?]

The deal values Macromedia���s share at $41.86, 25% higher than Friday���s closing price of $33.45. Adobe also plans to buy back $1 billion of stock after the purchase. Adobe Systems��� CEO, Bruce Chizen, will retain his position, while Macromedia���s Stephen Elop will become president of worldwide field operations, Adobe announced.

"The primary motivation for the two companies' joining is to continue to expand and grow our business into new markets,''

[I bet! Talk about a monopoly! I am not sure if this is a good thing or not yet. My guess is, NOT.]

"While we anticipate the integration team will identify opportunities for cost savings by the time the acquisition closes, the primary motivation for the two companies' joining is to continue to expand and grow our business into new markets," Mr. Chizen said.

Adobe said it expects the transaction to be "break- even to slightly accretive to earnings" in the first 12 months. It expects the deal to close in the fall of this year.

The deal still requires shareholder and regulatory approval.

[Hang on folks...gonna be a wild ride this year!]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank God that there is a judge and jury with some common sense on this planet! I hope this is a new trend we will see more of. These spammers need to be taught a lesson and this looks like it might finally get the point across. WE DON'T WANT YOUR SPAM!

[via Slashdot]

Spammer Sentenced to 9 Years in Jail:

Iphtashu Fitz writes "Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, NC now has the dubious honor of being the first spammer sentenced to jail for the felony of spamming. Virginia judge Thomas Horne sentenced Jaynes to 9 years in prison based on a jury recommendation after he was convicted of sending out 10 million e-mails a day. Jaynes, who sent out much of his spam using the name "Gaven Stubberfield", has held a position on the SpamHaus Registry of Known Spam Operations for a long time. Unfortunately the sentence has been postponed while the case is being appealed." Commentary on the sentence available at Forbes as well.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't used this yet, you have GOT to try this out. You aren't going to get NSA level detail on the maps, but the level of detail is pretty amazing. You can also grab the image and scroll with your mouse rather than using the navigation buttons. This is some really wicked stuff folks. Check out the story for the details and don't forget to check out the site!

[via eWeek]

Google Takes to the Sky with Map Service:

Google integrates satellite and aerial images from its Keyhole acquisition into its online mapping service.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, This is pretty lightweight, but that price tag is a heavy weight contender! I like IBM, don't get me wrong, but I will take a 12" PowerBook G4 over this any day. What gives IBM? Let it never be said that Mac's are more expensive than PC's!!!

[via Engadget]

IBM busts out featherweight ThinkPad X41:

IBM knows we like ‘em light. We’ll take 2.7 pounds, and we’ll take it frequently. IBM’s PC wing — which will soon get swallowed by Lenovo — is kicking out a decent swan song in the ThinkPad X41, which sports a 1.5 GHz Pentium M 758 processor and 12.1-inch screen and includes a fingerprint reader like its cousin, the ThinkPad T43. When this starts shipping at $1999, they’ll keep selling the ThinkPad X40 (retailing for about $1500 to start) for another year.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And here I thought I was losing my mind...this explains A LOT! :-) Engadget and CNET have the scoop...

Do you suffer from Attention Deficit Trait?:

Might explain why it took us so long to write this post, but a psychiatrist has coined new condition called ADT, or Attention Deficit Trait, to describe people who weren’t born with ADD but who do find themselves unable to focus or concentrate because of all the ever-present distractions of modern technology (which includes email, the web, and all over our gadgets, natch) overloading our “brain circuitry”. We couldn’t be bothered to read CNET’s entire interview with the Dr. Edward Hallowell (damn IMs kept a-poppin’), but apparently the symptoms include not being as productive as you could be (that’s us!), working ever-longer hours, sleeping and exercising less (ummmm….), and spending less time with your friends (do computers count as friends?). So why isn’t this just regular old ADD? Dr. Hallowell says it’s because he noticed that people suffering from this form of attention deficit would return to normal when they went on vacation and weren’t overstimulated anymore.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:36 PM | Permalink

Google is quite the search engine folks. Adobe made the mistake of posting the press release for the New Photoshop CS 2 online but in a "hidden" directory. This was supposed to be announced on April 4th. Google just doesn't care. It found it, indexed it and cached it! All you have to do is Google "Adobe Pushes the Boundaries" and you will see the results for yourself. The link to the press release is now dead, but the Google cache file isn't.

Let this be a lesson to all designers out there. If you don't want your stuff indexed, either don't "park" it in a hidden folder, or make sure to include the code in your pages that prevents Google from indexing the page. Sux to be Adobe.....

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:38 PM | Permalink

New Microsoft Tool Helps Outlook 2001 Users Migrate to Entourage 2004:

Microsoft released Monday a new import tool for helping Outlook 2001 for Mac users transition to Entourage 2004.

The new PST Import Tool allows PST files from Microsoft Outlook 2001 for Mac to be brought in to Microsoft Entourage 2004.

Microsoft notes that "Administrators who are deploying the PST Import Tool in their companies will want to review the error messages and troubleshooting information in the PST Import Tool Help in order to assist users. The PST Import Tool Help is available after the PST Import Tool is downloaded."

The 1.4MB download is available in seven languages and requires Entourage 2005 version 11.1.0 (Service Pack 1).

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:05 PM | Permalink

Yet another reason to go with Sirius radio!!!

XM Radio Online getting integrated into Windows Media:

Slowly but surely more and more details are leaking out about what’s going to be announced at the big Windows Media press even Microsoft is holding later today. We already told you about Plays For Sure, their new system for ensuring that when you buy a song from an online music store it’ll be able to play on a certified digital audio player, and the launch of Windows XP Media Center 2005, but the latest bit of news to dribble out is that XM’s new XM Radio Online service is going to be directly integrated into Windows Media Player, though you’ll still have to keep waiting for a version of Windows Media Center that works with a proper satellite radio tuner.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:25 PM | Permalink

Dell Recalls Millions of AC Adaptors:

matgyver writes "Both CNET and CNN are reporting that Dell is recalling 4.4 million AC adapters worldwide. About 990,000 of those were sold to US consumers, 1.5 million to US businesses, and the rest where outside the US. The adapters were sold with laptops between 1998 and 2002 and included Dell's Latitude, Inspiron, and Precision laptops. The part numbers for the adapters are 9364U, 7832D and 4983D. Apparently the adapters run the risk of overheating and can be a fire and electrocution risk."

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:52 PM | Permalink

Non-Apple news: Howard Stern signs deal with SIRIUS satellite radio:

From time to time we bring you news items that are not Apple-related - unless we'll be able to get SIRIUS satellite radio on our next generation iPods, that is.

"King of All Media" Howard Stern and SIRIUS announced today an epic agreement whereby Stern will move to SIRIUS beginning January 1, 2006. SIRIUS is the premium satellite radio provider known for delivering the very best in commercial-free music and sports programming to cars and homes across the...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:09 PM | Permalink

Another Apple reseller bites the dust:

Following a saddening turn of events, a longtime Apple reseller has decided to call it quits.

Aft...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:35 PM | Permalink

ORCA saves sailors' lives:

No, not the vicious killer whale from that 70s movie.&nbsp; Going overboard? No problem. See, you’re sporting the Orca (Overboard Recovery Communications Apparatus), a new device worn by deck personnel in the military that alerts the ship if, and when, you take a little involuntary swim.&nbsp; The ORCA provides a unique ID for each individual, and it triggers pre-set messages to the bridge at the time of the big dive.&nbsp; It is also capable of triggering several beacons at once (in case a few deck hands go down for whatever reason) and pinpoints each one using GPS. It lets nearby helicopters know what your name is, and to what ship you belong. And for those thinking more hellacious scenarious, the device even forces the host ship to redirect itself, helping to avoid any close encounters with the ship’s propellers. Now, if we could just get these things for kindergarten kids, we should be all set.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:46 PM | Permalink

It's official: TiVo and Netflix teaming up on movie download service:

Well, it’s official: As expected, Netflix and TiVo are teaming up on a video-on-demand service, with Netflix handling all the gory details of arranging licensing deals with the movie studios and TiVo focusing on all the technological stuff of actually delivering online movie downloads. They wouldn’t discuss a date about when they might introduce the service, what it might be called (TiVoFlix? NetVo? NetfliVo?), or any other specifics, but TiVo CEO Mike Ramsay says that the two companies are absolutely, definitely not merging.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:36 PM | Permalink

Sony ditches copy-control CDs:

Seems Sony is going through something of a change of heart recently: following its decision to support MP3 in its audio players comes news that, in Japan at least, Sony Music Entertainment is ditching copy-control CDs from November. They claim the reason is “an increase in awareness by music consumers”, which we assume is supposed to mean that they’ve succeeded in educating everyone that copying CDs is a bad thing. Dare we suggest that the truth is simply that they’re starting to see the light?

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:25 PM | Permalink

BellSouth Price Cuts:

Drops 'Ultra' tier price, offers deals. Bellsouth has announced they'll be cutting the price of their flagship 1.5Mbps Ultra DSL tier $7, from $50 to $43. The company also launched a number of new incentive programs, including a $15 per month discount for six months for new customers who ..

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:47 PM | Permalink

Phone Lines Deliver Next-Gen TV:

On-demand viewing isn't just for TiVo owners anymore. Television over internet protocol, or TVIP, offers custom programming over standard copper wires.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:19 PM | Permalink

Microsoft ends free Hotmail access from Outlook:

Script-happy spammers to blame

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:18 PM | Permalink

The Future of DSL:

Yankee Group: 'VDSL2 is the future'. The Yankee Group seems rather bullish that both ADSL2+ (20+Mbps) and VDSL2 (not yet standardized by promises up to 100Mbps) can compete with fiber as a telco route for TV services. The report takes a quick peek at the status of various DSL flavors, ..

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Spysats Keeping Watch on the U.S.:

Anonymous And Slightly Nervous Coward writes "USA Today is carrying an AP story that claims three years' worth of domestic satellite surveillance courtesy of a DoD agecy called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Their work includes getting cooperation from entities pointing cameras onto private property such as hotels (all you HOPE and Defcon attendees, please wave for the camera). The agency seems to be taking the aw-shucks line on what they know and to what extent they evaluate the data they get, but it's clear that their mandate is seriously overpowering the oversight structures that would normally be watching it."

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:40 PM | Permalink

Kubotek's man-sized speakers:

Something is seriously mentally WRONG with the designer of these speakers. WTF!?!?!

Spotted at Tokyo’s Hi-End Show, a showcase for preposterously expensive audio gear, were these speakers from Kubotek. Aside from having a shape that suggests the result of a warped mind playing with a Donald Duck head, a jumbo pot of varnish and a mirror, they stand 174 cm tall, which is, well, bigger than the guy in the black t-shirt. When these come out in spring 2005 a pair of them will set you back Y7.35 mn ($66,000), which is probably about what it’ll cost to put a down payment on the massive, soundproofed apartment you’ll need to put them in.

[Via Impress AV Watch (Japanese)]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:13 PM | Permalink

Star/OpenOffice XML Format To Become ISO Standard?:

Emil Brink writes "According to this entry in XML spec co-author Tim Bray's excellent blog, the European Commission has formally asked Sun to make the XML file format used in OpenOffice.org into a true ISO standard. Hopefully this will cut down on vendor lock-in and lure people from using Microsoft Office. "

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:07 PM | Permalink

BMW's H2R: 185mph powered by hydrogen:

We dig the zero toxic emissions, but come on, that you can let BMW’s H2R open up to 60 in about 6 seconds and top it out at 185 mph while the exhaust squirts steam out the back is pretty rad. The body styling something to be desired, but they more than made up for it by, you know, having a non-polluting engine. Besides, it’s not like you’re ever going to ride (or see) it anyway, so who cares?

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:48 AM | Permalink

Watson bids Sherlock farewell:

When Apple took the wraps off Jaguar in 2001, one of the features that garnered the most amount of criticism was the new and improved Sherlock, which Steve toted as &quot;Internet services for the rest of us.&quot; Sherlock 3 incorporated mini browsers into OS X, which brought commonly-used, customizable information to a user’s fingertips:

Continue reading "Watson bids Sherlock farewell" »

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Hotmail Begins to Upgrade Free Accounts:

Myrmi writes "It looks as if Hotmail have started to upgrade free Hotmail accounts to 250Mb of space as promised. The account the screenshot is from is an old account - created August 1999 - so I guess they're upgrading the accounts in chronological order. Hopefully they'll get round to newer ones soon."

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:17 PM | Permalink

Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 slated for early 2005 release

New versions of Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and GoLive will ship in the first quarter of 2005, sources say, with Acrobat 7.0 scheduled to ship around year's end.
[Think Secret]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:49 PM | Permalink

This is about the most ass-backwards study and report I have ever seen. Since when are names like Cisco, EMC and Network Appliance HOUSEHOLD names? In my books, a household name is something CONSUMERS know and use at home. I don't think 99% of home users know who the hell Cisco and EMC are. Not only that, but I would love to know how they chose these 13,000 corporate IT decision makers. Just another typical CNET uninformed story.

-----0-----

Loyalty study lists IT's top household names

A report indicates that many giants of the industry have been able to capture lasting feelings of customer loyalty.
[CNET News.com]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:00 PM | Permalink

The Motley Fool writer gives Steve Jobs odds of 3-to-1 to become Disney CEO

"It's been barely a week since Disney CEO Michael Eisner announced that he would be stepping down when his contract runs out in two years. However, even though he has seemingly tapped his successor, a lot can happen between now and September 2006,' Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes for The Motley Fool.

Munarriz gives Steve Jobs odds of 3-to-1 to become Disney CEO and writes, "There are more than a few Disney purists -- I among them -- who would like to see Apple Computer's Steve...
[MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:48 AM | Permalink

In-flight cellphones on Airbus planes by 2006?

When British Airways CIO bitched that plane makers should be building new wireless technologies into airplanes rather than expecting them to be retrofitted (and thus grounded for extended periods of time), we guess Airbus was listening, since they decided it’d be a good time to announce that they’d made some progress towards enabling in-flight cellphone use (not that we’re dying to have to listen to fellow passengers yammer away while we’re buckled in or anything). During recent test flights Airbus was able to use cellphones to successfully call and send text messages to both people on the ground and other mid-air cellphones. The test flights used an onboard base station which routed calls with the Globalstar satellite communications network to ground cellular networks, and yes, it’s absolutely shocking, but they didn’t encounter any navigation or communication problems. They’re predicting that in-flight cellphone service could be a reality as early as 2006.

[Transportation]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:19 PM | Permalink

"Valley" Movie To Feature Mac Icons/Personalities

Anonymous Coward writes "A road movie / documentary is currently being shot in Silicon Valley. In Search of the Valley will visit places and people of historical and personal significance, including but not limited to: local artists, hackers, hobbyists, venture capitalists, academics, and robots! Through digital video interviews, digital photography, web journals (blogs), and original music, In Search of the Valley will create a unique interpretation of Silicon Valley – a social fabric that has produced some of the most remarkable technological advances of the 20th Century, and spawning an infectious dichotomy of counterculture and entrepreneurship. So far they have met a lot of Mac people including Jef Raskin, John Draper (Captain Crunch), Andy Hertzfeld, Bruce Damer (DigiBarn), Guy Kawasaki, Dan Kottke, as well as hopefully speaking to Woz later in the trip. You can check out the blog here and the trailer here."
[MacSlash]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:52 PM | Permalink

Airport Extreme 3rd Party Routers Site

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:37 PM | Permalink

Airport Extreme 3rd Party Routers Site

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:37 PM | Permalink

Amazon's new Web search offers 'TiVo-like' features

Amazon.com has officially unveiled its new Web search engine, reports CNET News...
[MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:34 PM | Permalink

Yahoo! snaps up Musicmatch

$160m cash purchase to propel digital music market entry
[The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:14 PM | Permalink

Step Toward Universal Computing

A Silicon Valley company claims to have developed a universal emulator that's uncharacteristically fast. For one thing, it could mean the latest games are immediately available for the Mac. By Leander Kahney.
[Wired News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:23 AM | Permalink

Does Google's Gmail Run On Xserves?

Anonymous Freak writes "Well, long-time industry commentator Robert X. Cringely's current article is interesting, but the fact in it I found MOST interesting was the quote in the fourth paragraph:

...especially since Gmail, itself, runs on Apple xServe 1u boxes.

(For those who don't know, Cringely has been commenting on the computer industry for over 20 years, and was one of Apple's first 10 employees, so he has contacts everywhere.)" This is the first I've heard about this and it doesn't seem to be confirmed by NetCraft or fit in with Google's strategy of using lots of low cost servers.
[MacSlash]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:06 AM | Permalink

DirecTV Plans 1,500 HDTV Channels by 2007

DirecTV has announced plans to add four new satellites to their constellation, which once fully launched an integrated by early 2007, will allow them to broadcast up to 1,500 HDTV channels. The first two, Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2 (if you care to get personal) should go up by next year, and will add 500 HD channels. With terrestrial broadcasting seeming to drop the ball on HD broadcasts, cable and satellite television may be the great hope for widespread adoption of the high-quality format.

Read - DIRECTV Press Release [Yahoo]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:00 AM | Permalink

Students Develops Bluetooth Cameraphone Jammer

Blueserker passes on information from an article in Singapore's Asia One about three students from Temasek Polytechnic who have figured out a way to disable the camera function of select Nokia phones via Bluetooth. While the concept itself is interesting - enter a 'no camera' zone, and your phone disables itself automagically - the fact that Nokia's Bluetooth implementation allows a remote user to disable functions is probably the more immediate issue here. The affected phones are the 6600 and the 7210 - an attempt to shut down a 7650 failed.

Read - Asian students figure out how to shut down cameraphone voyeurs [Blueserker]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:14 AM | Permalink

Faster Updates for DNS Root Servers Arrive

Tee Emm writes "VeriSign's DNS Rapid Update notice period (as announced on NANOG mailing list) expires today. Beginning September 9, 2004 the SOA records of the .com and .net zones will be updated every 5 minutes instead of twice a day. The format of the serial number is also changing from the current YYYYMMDDNN to a new one that depicts the UTC time." We first mentioned this back in July, but it's finally launching now.
[Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:48 PM | Permalink

This would be smokin awesome!

-----0-----

TiVo and Netflix to Partner for Downloadable Content?

Hey, guys. I'm sort of taking the day off from news - finishing up some freelance and doing a lot of behind-the-scenes catch up for Gizmodo - but this was just too interesting not to talk about. Newsweek is reporting that TiVo and NetFlix are planning on releasing a system that would allow subscribers of both services to download movies and television programs directly to their TiVos over broadband. There's no confirmation from the companies yet, but this could be huge. If they could figure out a way to let us take TiVoToGo onto mobile media devices, we could finally have an all-you-can-eat, legal video download option.

Read - I Want a Movie! Now! [Newsweek]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:23 PM | Permalink

Isn't this special? On these lovely systems, when compared to Mac G5 Dual 2.5, you get to pay for these extras: 1) Restore CD $14 (who has ever charged for a restore CD?) 2) No Modem included - $67 extra if u want it 3) The 2 serial ATA drives they include are only 74GB vs. the standard 160GB in the G5. Heck you can throw 500GB in the G5 and only 400GB in the Alienware. 4) and a bunch more.

As a matter of fact, if you take the standard configuration sitting on the Alienware site right now, it will cost you a whopping $5458.00. And all that for the pleasure of running Windows XP on a 32 bit system. No thanks guys, for this price I will take a G5 2.5 Dualie and a 23" Cinema display (which is exactly what I just ordered).

-----0-----

Alienware Reveals 4GHz desktop

keeleysam writes "c|net news.com is reporting that Alienware is going to ship a 4GHz desktop. The new Area-51 ALX, introduced on Friday, uses overclocking, or the practice of pushing a processor past its factory speed setting, to elevate a standard Intel Pentium 4 chip to 4GHz. Because overclocking a processor can cause it to overheat, the desktop also includes a special liquid-cooling system devised by Alienware. Purchasing the 4GHz Area-51 ALX desktop is an expensive proposition for most consumers, as the machine starts at about $4,200, according to pricing on Alienware's ALX Web site."
[Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:04 PM | Permalink

IT Labor Boomerangs Back Home

Hidden offshoring costs are frustrating enough that disillusioned enterprises are starting to bring the work home.
[eWEEK Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:46 PM | Permalink

Chalk up a win for the little guy against corporate America. Thank God for a judge that had some common sense.

-----o-----

A bid by drive maker Seagate Technology to prevent a former executive from joining rival Western Digital Corp. has been rebuffed. [eWEEK Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:19 PM | Permalink

What did NASA expect form a DOS operating system? Jesus, just throw an Apple IIc in it why don't ya! :-)

-----0-----

A software glitch that paralyzed the Mars "Spirit" rover earlier this year was caused by an unanticipated characteristic of a DOS file system, a NASA scientist said Monday. [eWEEK Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:20 AM | Permalink

StarBand Communications Inc. has announced its new 484 Small Office service. The satellite-based broadband Internet access service offers 256Kbps upload speeds and download speeds up to 1Mbps -- the service is an alternative for users looking for broadband access who are unable or unwilling to have a cable or DSL line installed. Starband's 484 modem is compatible with Mac, Windows, Unix and Linux operating systems, and comes with 15 free e-mail accounts with a total of 1.9GB of total free storage, 200MB free basic Web hosting space and one free static IP address. The system also includes a four-port Ethernet router, and costs from US$139.99 to $159.99 per month based on term commitment. An additional cost for the dish and associated hardware is incurred -- the cost ranges from $699.99 to $999.99 depending on contract duration. More details are available from the Web site. [MacCentral]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Holy smokes Batman!

-----0-----

SBC ADSL2+ Trials in Missouri. Users in our SBC Southwestern Bell forum have discovered that SBC is conducting a new trial (see thread) for ADSL2+ service; a circulating e-mail promising speeds up to 25 megabits per second. Unfortunately, the trial is currently only being offered.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:58 PM | Permalink

Not good. I have high hopes for Vonage and I am hoping they can make a good run at this. We need alternatives to the Baby Bells and this one so far looks the best. Hang in there Vonage!

-----0-----

Another outage hits user favorite. Users in our VoIP forum are discussing yet another widespread Vonage outage; the third in just a few weeks. The string of outages - and the subsequent finger pointing that have followed - have many wondering what's up with the VoIP industry favorit.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:15 PM | Permalink

Save your money folks. This is another desperate attempt by Iomega to save their company. I really used to love their products, but it just doesn't make any sense any more. Zip Drive - too small capacity, too expensive. Does anyone remember the click of death? How about those Jaz drives? Wicked cool back in the day, if you like paying $100 for 1GB of storage. With DVD's costing less than a buck these days & CD's at mere pennies, who can justify the cost of these cartridge type products anymore? Certainly not me. With a CD/DVD I can drop off my work and not worry about getting the disc back, or the service bureau not having the same drive. Maybe Iomega can get into the music biz...apparently it is lucrative enough that Roxio dumped their only profitable division in exchange for hopes of success in the online music world. HA! Idiots....

-----0-----

[Graphics.com]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Brings out satellite service discounts. Though they announced the partnership last summer, BellSouth only today took the wraps off of their deal with DirecTV. The telco says they'll be offering customers $2, $5 or $10 off of DirecTV service if they bundle it with BellSouth DSL and phone s.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:29 AM | Permalink

The software company, which had argued that movie fans have a right to back up their DVDs, couldn't afford to fight the deep pockets of the Hollywood studios. By Katie Dean. [Wired News: DAT's Entertainment]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:24 AM | Permalink

"With the campaign fundraising season in high swing, Republicans are making a play for corporate support from an industry that is regarded as a Democratic stronghold: information technology," Josephine Hearn reports for The Hill. "Information technology has had a natural bent toward Democrats, with its roots in Silicon Valley, not far from the liberal bastion of San Francisco. During the 2000 election cycle, new-economy entrepreneurs gave handily... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:38 AM | Permalink

I would love to see the total cost of this system including the RAID in comparison to a G5 XServe cluster with XServe RAID. I am willing to hang out on a limb and right off the bat say that the Apple solution would have come in SIGNIFICANTLY less for the same performance and storage capacity. Hell, I bet you anything that the G5 would have BEAT the IBM in every aspect. The golden question is: Did the NAVY even consider the Apple solution? But all is good, IBM has to win something here and there. They DO make the G5 processor so they can't be all that bad. Congrats IBM! Now go back and perfect the 90nm chip for the next gen G5 damnit!!!! I should have been ordering a Dual 3GHz G5 instead of a Dual 2.5 last night!!! BAH!

-----0-----

Defense Dept. to buy second supercomputer for Naval Oceanographic Office. [CNET News.com]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:34 AM | Permalink

Sony Corp.'s new hard disk-based Walkman is the product with the biggest brand recognition that Apple Computer Inc.'s market-leading iPod has had to face since its introduction. But it's not the Walkman's 25-year history that bothers Apple executives, it's Sony's marketing message. When Sony released the 20GB Walkman they claimed to have trumped Apple with the number of songs that their device could hold -- 13,000 compared to the iPod's 10,000 -- even thought the total capacity was half of the iPod's. That message is misleading to consumers, according to Apple. [MacCentral]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:24 PM | Permalink

Ok, so piracy is definitely a problem and I don't think anyone will argue that. But don't you think that if the greedy corporate sons-of-bitches lowered the prices of their software, more people would be willing to PAY for it? Does Photoshop REALLY have to cost $700? If it were more like $150, I don't think that anyone would hesitate to pay for a legit copy with tech support. Hell, a business might then be able to afford a legal copy for every machine! But until someone gets a grip on reality, people will continue to pirate software. And no matter what measures are put in place, someone will ALWAYS find a way to crack it. That's just da way it is folks...

-----0-----

In its annual survey released today, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) says that software piracy reached nearly US$29 billion in 2003, notes Reuters... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:28 PM | Permalink

It takes the UN to friggin get spam under control? This is insane. Rock On UN! At least somebody thinks it is important enough to pursue. Lord knows our Congressional representatives are clueless...

-----0-----

The United Nations is aiming to bring a "modern day epidemic" of junk e-mail under control within two years by standardizing legislation to make it easier to prosecute offenders. [eWEEK Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:52 PM | Permalink

Night vision goggled employee busts pirate. A 16-year-old boy was caught early Wednesday using a camcorder to record the first showing of "Spider-Man 2" at a Los Angeles theater, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has announced. The announcement comes a month after movie theater.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:05 PM | Permalink

Oh great. the spooks in the CIA and terrorists throughout the world are gonna love this!

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Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. on Wednesday said that the company had developed a technology to embed numerical data inside a printed color image that could be decoded with a cell phone. [eWEEK Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:43 PM | Permalink

Help! I'm being oppressed!. If you've recently upgraded to BellSouth's 3Mbps Extreme tier and find you can't send mail via non-BellSouth servers, you aren't being censored by the man, as one forum user is quick to suggest. Since December of 2003, the company has been blocking .. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:27 PM | Permalink

Down with IE!!! We must unite and kill this virus-magnet, insecure, poor excuse of a browser! Switch to a new browser today!

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The Mozilla Foundation -- in partnership with Apple, Adobe, Macromedia, Opera and Sun -- has announced a series of changes to Web browser plug-ins that they say "will allow Web developers to offer richer Web browsing experiences, helping to maintain innovation and standards on the Net."... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:12 PM | Permalink

A new Windows vulnerability—delivered from graphics on Web pages—is being exploited across the Internet. Analysts expect a widepread denial-of-service attack to be launched shortly. [eWEEK Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:27 AM | Permalink

New console, new games [The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:27 AM | Permalink

The Pentagon creates a video-game studio to make simulations for all kinds of military and government jobs, like safeguarding the White House or training special ops forces. John Gaudiosi reports from Cary, North Carolina. [Wired News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:28 PM | Permalink

"It appears that Microsoft, which launched Xbox in late 2001 after Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube consoles, will be the first company to unleash its next-generation home console. The tentatively codenamed 'Xbox 2,' set to receive a name revision before its release because Microsoft doesn't want consumers to assume it's inferior to PlayStation 3 based on end numerals, hasn't yet been given an official release date. But just because Microsoft isn't yet talking doesn't... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Yet another reason to switch to a Mac!

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"Windows users are being warned about a virus that is 'aggressively stealing' credit card numbers and passwords," BBC News reports. "The Korgo virus debuted on 22 May and since then has been steadily racking up victims.""Although the virus is not widespread, security firms are issuing warnings because it is proving so effective at stealing confidential data," BBC News reports. "Those infected by Korgo are being urged to change passwords and credit... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:47 AM | Permalink

Pixar's public announcement that it won't be working with Disney after the end of its current distribution deal hasn't stopped Disney CEO Michael Eisner from holding out hope that the two studios can broker some sort of arrangement. "I will not believe it is over until it is over," he said to investors during a recent Webcast conference, according to Forbes. In late January, Pixar announced that it had ended efforts to extend its seven-picture distribution deal with Disney, which will expire after the companies release "The Incredibles" and "Cars." In announcing the end of the effort, Pixar CEO Steve Jobs said it was "a shame that Disney won't be participating in Pixar's future successes." [MacCentral]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:28 AM | Permalink

Gee...I wonder why? Did Sony think that people everywhere were just going to plunk down $500-$800 on average for their pretty PDA's? You can buy an entire PC for that these days!

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Sony said today that it will stop selling its Clie handheld personal digital assistants (PDA) in the United States later this year... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:15 AM | Permalink

ZDnet reports that Microsoft has delayed Virtual PC 7 for the Mac.Initially, our development and testing time line was estimated based on our experien... [MacRumors]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:59 PM | Permalink

Key election issue [The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:06 AM | Permalink

"RealNetworks on Wednesday reported a wider net loss and brisk revenue growth compared with the same period a year ago, and announced that the company's president, Larry Jacobsen, is stepping down," Evan Hansen reports for CNET News. "The Seattle-based digital media company posted a net loss of $10.4 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $2.8 million, or 2 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2003. Revenues hit $60.4 million, a gain of 29 percent over... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:29 AM | Permalink

For months, governments have been working secretly to fix a flaw in the underlying technology of the Internet. A researcher says hackers could exploit the flaw to shut down key routers, blocking traffic through broad swaths of the global network. [Wired News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:16 PM | Permalink

Protocol flaw sends nations scurrying. Late last year, a man in Milwaukee discovered a flaw in the TCP/IP protocol that has quietly sent governments and security researchers scurrying the world over. Paul "Tony" Watson identified a method to reliably trick hardware (both PC's and routers.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:16 PM | Permalink

If you have an account through America Online (AOL), you don't need to use AOL's software to check it anymore. America Online Inc. on Wednesday announced its new Open Mail Access feature, which enables Mac and PC users to check their AOL mail using third-party applications that support the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) protocol. [MacCentral]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:51 PM | Permalink

This would be interesting and VERY tempting. BUt the bottom line is that I still don't trust Comcast with their bullshit invisible caps....I want my speeds in WRITING and GUARANTEED before I shell out a penny to these dirtballs....

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Provider planning bell response. Multiple sources contacted us this week, informing us that Comcast executives are considering raising the company's standard speed to 6Mbps/384Kbps. The move would be an effort to combat recent changes by both SBC and BellSouth. Seemingly terrified.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:51 AM | Permalink

Finally, something GOOD to come from sending something to India....

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India bound [The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:39 AM | Permalink

But only for new customers it seems.... Additional details of Earthlink's speed upgrades are popping up in our Earthlink forum. From an e-mail making the rounds among subscribers, it looks like new Earthlink subscribers in Covad territory will have access to 3Mpbs speeds starting today, p.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:21 AM | Permalink

STOP THE INSANITY!!!

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I own several domain names and like many of you I have managed to create an online identity for several businesses and myself. But, the most important domain name I own (or used to own anyway) is the one that was created way back in 1996 in order to establish a personal presence on the Internet. The domain name is not all that common, it’s simply my last name, but it allowed me the opportunity to establish the easiest email address possible, my first and last name separated by the @ sign.... [MacNETv2]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:38 AM | Permalink

Maybe gateway can outsource its stores to India? Serves them right. It's too bad the CEO and top exectuvies weren't the ones being fired....

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Through its branding efforts, store locations and unique products, analysts said Apple Computer Inc. is well positioned in the retail market. [Computerworld Macintosh News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:16 AM | Permalink

Aint this the truth! I have actually gotten MORE spam since the law went into effect!!!

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The number of spam campaigns continues to rise, despite a new U.S. antispam law that went into effect in January, according to a survey released Thursday by antispam vendor Commtouch Software Ltd. Part of the problem with the new Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act is that 40 percent of spam e-mail comes from outside the U.S., said Avner Amram, Commtouch executive vice president. [MacCentral]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:13 AM | Permalink

I kid you not...it seems that Canada, for as small a country as it is, has a pretty damn good thing going. Great scenery, a decent justice system, and free healthcare. Maybe the canooks to the north could show the US a thing or two 'eh?

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Offering files is not the same as distributing them [The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:26 PM | Permalink

"AMD owns 64-bit desktop computing at this time.” WTF? What crack pipe are you smokin over there @ Lockergnome Pirillo? Last I checked IBM is rockin the 64 bit world thanks to the Apple G5. I have yet to see an AMD 64 bit processor do jack shit due in part to the lack of operating systems in the Wintel world that can handle 64 bit!!!

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Jeff Partridge writes: “This item will disappoint the Intel fans who were looking for some solid technology to oppose the AMD lock on the 64-bit consumer desktop arena. It leaves the door open for Intel to offer a “64-bit P4.” Personally, if I was a true-blue Intel fan reading that article, I’d be… well… mildly hopeful of some good news sometime down the road. In concrete terms, though, AMD owns 64-bit desktop computing at this time.”

[Full article here] [Lockergnome’s Technology News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:50 PM | Permalink

This would be something insane....

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Ikanos set to demo uber-VDSL. Ikanos Communications is set to demonstrate next week that it's possible to achieve 100Mbps via ordinary single-line copper. The capability of their Fx-based Optical Network Unit will be shown off next Monday and Tuesday at the FastNet Futures confe.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:10 PM | Permalink

This ought to be interesting...Tech TV has gone into the toilet lately, especially with the so called "dark tipper" and his on-air romance with Sara Lane. Somebody please gag my with a Dell. I didn't sign up to watch the love-fest. Gimme the nerd stuff - nuttin more, nuttin less. How 'bout upping the ante on Mac coverage while you are at it?

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Comcast announced on Thursday that it would buy cable channel TechTV from Vulcan Programming for an estimated US$300 million in a move to boost the subscriber base of G4, its video game channel... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:19 PM | Permalink

Ohhhhh geee....now what was this moron from Real Networks claiming just the other day? Ohhh yeah...that Apple is going to go down in flames and lose the war on formats by not opening the iPod up to his shitty Real or the WMP format. Well...well...well. Looky what we have here. AAC is now going to be a key technology in all future DVD's. Hmmmm....interesting....anyone still think Apple is anything but shit hot?

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Tony Smith writes for the Register, “The AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), the audio format supported by Apple’s iTunes Music Store, has been chosen as a key future DVD Audio disc technology by the standard’s governing body, the DVD Forum.” [Mar 25] [Apple Hot News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:30 PM | Permalink

'Extreme' tier coming next quarter. BellSouth yesterday confirmed they'll be offering a 3Mbps DSL tier next quarter (and that marketing departments still think "Extreme" is a popular buzz-word). Rumors surrounding the "DSL Extreme" 3Mbps tier have been bouncing around in our BellSouth.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:52 PM | Permalink

. Bway.net is hoping to lure customers afraid of the RIAA with a new anonymous DSL service dubbed AnonDSL. The company says the service is "the ultimate tool for protecting your identity from tracking by the RIAA, MPAA or anyone else" because it makes.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SLOW is sometimes GOOD....

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"Security concerns are slowing things down at Microsoft, but the company is still chugging along with its more ambitious projects including Windows Longhorn, a company executive said on Tuesday," Ina Fried reports for CNET News. "The need to make its current software more resilient to attack is part of the reason that several projects have fallen behind schedule, Senior Vice President Bob Muglia said in an interview.""'It's absolutely slowed things down,'... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:03 PM | Permalink

Got the munchies? Doritos has launched the "Download it Sweepstakes," a contest where they are giving away a 40GB iPod and a US$150 iTunes gift certificate for the grand prize, and two daily winners of $20 iTunes gift certificates... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:50 PM | Permalink

CNN on newsreaders: “Hang on to your hats boys and girls, because your experience of the World Wide Web is about to change, possibly for the first time since Mosaic...” [Ranchero]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:35 PM | Permalink

RedWolves2 writes "As was mentioned yesterday, Viacom was trying to warn Dish Network customers over the weekend that its channels were going to be pulled from ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:47 PM | Permalink

Yet another big FUCK YOU to the RIAA....

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The music industry cannot file one lawsuit against 200 alleged file swappers, says a federal judge in Philadelphia. Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America will have to sue each individually. By Katie Dean. [Wired News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:37 AM | Permalink

Here is a word of warning to all web developers / designers out there - ALWAYS GET A CONTRACT BEFORE WORKING ON A PROJECT. No matter how well your intentions may be, working without a contract can land you in JAIL. That's right folks..JAIL. Here is a great example of how Law Enforcement in this fine country of ours, the USA, can abuse their power and EXTORT American Citizens under the name of the"law". Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...

As a former law enforcement officer, it angers the hell out of me to see these cowboy, hillbilly sheriff's treat one of their own (or any other citizen) in this way. POLITICIANS ARE ALL SCUMBAGS BY NATURE. Remember that in most places, the Sheriff is an ELECTED official (ie. a politican).

Read on...

Continue reading "Justice 4 Pat!!!" »

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:58 PM | Permalink

The Inquirer posts an internal IBM memo in which IBM promotes their major win in beating Intel at providing technology for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox a... [MacRumors]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:36 PM | Permalink

Holy Bajingas! This is it folks...the end of MSFT's dominance is near. When a major developer like Macromedia starts supporting Linux, they see the value in an operating system alternative to Windows. They already have it on the Mac and have had tremendous success. I predict soon we will see Adobe follow the same path and expanding their presence in the Linux market. Soon after that - it is goodbye MSFT...

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LnxAddct writes "An article on CNet reports that Macromedia will start taking Linux more seriously. It will start this new initiative by making it's suite of ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:25 PM | Permalink

Michael Dell will give up his position as chief executive officer (CEO) to Kevin Rollins in July... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:39 PM | Permalink

Pixar's "Finding Nemo," the 2003 box office hit about a clownfish searching for his lost son, won the Academy Award on Sunday for best animated film... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Covad, others impacted. A number of Covad customers went out from 5pm today due to, supposedly, a DDOS (distributed denial of service attack) on a key Level3 data center, which later was described as a route leak (misconfiguration). This kind of data center outage would not.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:44 AM | Permalink

You go girl! I hope she wins and sues their asses into oblivion! The RIAA executives and attorneys are the ones who should be going to jail!!!

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Negadin writes "According to CNET News, a New Jersey woman, one of the hundreds of people accused of copyright infringement by the Recording Industry ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:52 AM | Permalink

As much as I have a beef with Microsoft, this is where I draw the line. Support your AMERICAN based companies and co-workers by keeping AMERICA strong and ensuring job security for our own people. Office is a solid product (on the Mac platform) and I see no need to stray from what works. Now if Apple releases an Office Suite that compares....well.....that's a whole different game. ;-)

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Evermore Software LLC, a Chinese software developer, is taking on Microsoft Office with the first-ever English language version of their Evermore Integrated Office (EIOffice) product... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:18 PM | Permalink

This is an unusual Slashdot Interview, since instead of using email I asked all the questions in person last week either at LinuxAsia2004 or in casual meetings ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:15 PM | Permalink

Bidding war ends with $41 billion deal. Cingular Wireless has agreed to pay $41 billion to acquire AT&T Wireless, in a deal that should create the largest wireless phone subscriber base in the country. The deal comes after Vodafone (a European provider that holds a 40% stake in Verizo.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:51 PM | Permalink

National Association of Photoshop Professionals Earns National Accreditation [Graphics.com]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:25 PM | Permalink

The router maker says it has agreed to buy NetScreen Technologies, a network security provider, as it gears up for battle with heavyweight Cisco. [CNET News.com]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Yet another reason DSL is STILL king of the hill. Cable modems just plain SUCK (unless it is the ONLY source of broadband in your area).

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Customers apparently confused about term 'Unlimited'. The Contra Costa Times is the latest publication to follow up on the invisible Comcast download limit debate. A Comcast spokesman argues that when they're talking about "unlimited use" in marketing materials - they're talking about the lack of a per.. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:09 PM | Permalink

Former Disney board members Stanley Gold and Roy Disney think Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs would make a great choice to run Disney if CEO Michael Eisner were to be ousted later this year... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:54 AM | Permalink

I just got back from Disney in December and I am here to tell you - the writing is on the wall. EVERYTHING at Disney was going down hill. The park used to be impeccable and everything was always clean. This time, everything was dirty and the food was extremely OVERPRICED. Just like everything else. With moves like this Pixar deal by Eisner, I don't think Disney has a chance in hell at surviving much longer. It's time for the Board to oust Eisner as the flunkie loser he is.

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In a conference call with analysts to discuss Pixar's financial earnings, Steve Jobs blasted Disney for being weak creatively and unwilling to compromise on a distribution agreement... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:04 AM | Permalink

Pixar, the animation studio headed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, on Wednesday reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 3, 2004... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:56 AM | Permalink

The Mercury News reports that Microsoft will use the G5 chip in its next-generation Xbox due in the ... [MacNN]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:20 AM | Permalink

"Shares of Pixar Animation Studios Inc. rose while those of Walt Disney Co. fell on Friday after the two failed to renew a lucrative film deal that yielded blockbuster hits for both companies," Reuters reports. "Pixar shares rose 4 percent on the belief that it had the upper hand, as a list of suitors would likely line up to strike a deal. Disney shares fell 2 percent on concerns operating income at its filmed entertainment division could fall by 50... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:20 PM | Permalink

Om Malik speculates that the real reason TiVo just bought shadowy startup Strangeberry is because of plans to transform TiVo boxes into not just digital... [Gizmodo]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:50 AM | Permalink

"Now that the studio behind the blockbuster 'Finding Nemo' has cut bait with Walt DisneyCo., Pixar Animation Inc. can expect to find itself at the center of a feeding frenzy. 'There's nothing closer to a sure thing,' said one studio executive who expects to be lining up with other Hollywood rivals to court the remarkably successful Pixar," Sallie Hofmeister and Meg James write for The Los Angeles Times.

"Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:40 AM | Permalink

For the past two years, Microsoft has established a reputation as a follower in the video game war. When Sony acted, Microsoft reacted – especially when it came to price cuts. Things could be about to change.

Microsoft’s Xbox may be on the verge of a substantial price cut, falling from $179 to $99 by Labor Day, according to P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research.

“It is our belief that the price on the consoles in North America could see a stepped drop this year, with both the PS2 and Xbox being cut to $129 between now and the May E3 trade show, with [Microsoft] then cutting the Xbox further to $99 in the late summer,” he wrote in a research note released Wednesday.

Source: CNN Money

An XBOX as cheap as a Game Cube? I don’t know if I buy that one. Maybe $129, but not $99. We will just have to wait and see.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:33 AM | Permalink

"The cloud of uncertainty hovering over Disney thickened as Pixar closed the door on their distribution arrangement," George Mannes reports for TheStreet.com. "Pixar, the animated movie studio led by former [sic] Apple exec Steve Jobs, said Thursday it ended talks over extending its collaboration with Burbank, Calif.-based Disney. Pixar said it will instead retain full ownership of movies made after 2005."

[MDN Note: Relax, Steve's still Apple CEO, too. There's... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Someone please tell me how sending our jobs to India TODAY helps me and the other THOUSANDS of unemployed AMERICAN IT workers feed and provide shelter for our families NOW. I don't give a rats fat fucking ass about what problems India has, I care about providing for MY family first. Fuck India and every other 3rd world country that doesn't have the brains to get themselves out of a shithole situation without the help of an AMERICAN. If you are a CEO or executive reading this and you are outsourcing your workforce - FUCK YOU and the horse you rode in on. I hope you die a miserable slow death and your soul burns in eternal hell. How you like dem apples? Have I made my point? Take care of your people that took care of you! That's right...that means I am a veteran who fought for your scumbag pussy ass that was too scared to serve your country. Thanks for the payback. I hope we never meet in a dark alley....me and a few other bitter IT workers might just be around the corner waiting....

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thefinite writes "This article needs to be read by anyone interested in the outsourcing of IT jobs to India, no matter your opinion of it. It dispels some ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:36 AM | Permalink

Scoop: New SBC prices & tiers on deck. With our ear to the train tracks, unsubstantiated rumor indicates SBC should unveil a number of new promotions in February in the hopes of worrying cable executives. Among the changes, sources indicate, are a 3Mbps tier priced in cable's range, and .. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:08 PM | Permalink

and rightfully so.....

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orzetto writes "Jon Lech Johansen, known as DVD-Jon, and aquitted in a trial in Norway, after being accused of infringement for making a GUI for DeCSS, is now ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:10 PM | Permalink

EAT SHIT SCO! This is what happens when you piss off the world with your stupidity. Now everyone else has to deal with the nuisance YOU created.

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Novarg / MyDoom declared critical [The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:39 PM | Permalink

ProjectOmega has announce the availability of an electronic book titled "Mac OS X - Panther for deve... [MacNN]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 8:58 PM | Permalink

Geee- this doesn't seem to affect my Mac! Too bad PeeCee weenies...have fun!!!

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Antivirus firms warn PC users of a new mass-mailing computer virus that has lodged itself into a large number of PCs by masquerading as an e-mail error. [CNET News.com]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 6:22 PM | Permalink

They should have bought a Mac!

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"The teenage daughter of a top foreign affairs department official was being treated in a Pretoria hospital for second degree burns suffered when her laptop computer's battery pack exploded," iafrica.com reports. "Fifteen-year-old Nikita Sooklal is the youngest child of the department's deputy director-general responsible for the Middle East and Asia, Dr Anil Sooklal.""'My daughter had switched on the laptop and was looking for a website about Macbeth, her... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:20 AM | Permalink

Ohhh whaaaa! Blah Blah laddie fucking da. Can we say sore LOSER? Everyone is soooo concerned now that HP is teaming with Apple because they finally figured out that they are SCREWED. The WMA format sucks ass - period. It was MSFT in their master plan for world domination that conned the world into drinking the stinkin WMA kool-aid. Well guess what peeps? The gig is up. Apple wins. Personally, this is one more reason why I stick to non-proprietary formats like MP3. I can take my tunes anywhere and not worry about WMA vs. AAC debates. In the end, MusicMatch is just pissed off because they got a taste of the Apple gravy train, liked it and got SPANKED. Now they are all cozy with Winodwz again and talkig trash about Mac. Aint life grand? :-)

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"When purchasing a personal computer, buyers used to grapple with the decision: a Macintosh from Apple Computer or a Microsoft-based PC? Microsoft effectively won that operating system debate years ago and claims more than 90% of the PC operating system market," Jefferson Graham writes for USA Today. "But in the push to legally sell digital music, Apple and Microsoft, and their incompatible file formats, are at it again. Consumers are in the position of having to choose... [MacDailyNews]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:45 PM | Permalink

Everyone buying digital or disposables [The Register]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:21 PM | Permalink

Pixar, Steve Jobs' other company, has posted a sneak peek of "Boundin'", its latest short film... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:17 PM | Permalink

Space.com on how NASA's Spirit Rover has been able to take such excellent photographs from the surface of Mars with just a one megapixel digital... [Gizmodo]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:37 PM | Permalink

NASA's Mars24 displays a Mars "sunclock", a graphical representation of Mars showing the current sun... [MacNN]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:03 PM | Permalink

In a wide-ranging interview, FCC chief Michael Powell says broadband is key to the future of the U.S. economy. He also explains, cautiously, why he loves TiVo and the iPod. Katie Dean reports from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. [Wired News]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:54 PM | Permalink

Company strikes new deals. DSL provider Covad has had a busy week, announcing plans to expand their network to 50 million homes and businesses throughout 2004 with the addition of 200 additional central offices by mid-year. The company has also struck an enterprise deal with .. [Broadbandreports]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:42 PM | Permalink

Jeff The Riffer writes "At the Consumer Electronics Show today, Mike Ramsay of TiVo announced three major new product offerings to come in the next year. First ... [Slashdot]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:16 AM | Permalink

A Windows software developer has launched a new product that appears to be a blatant copy of Apple's ExposÉ, the new feature found in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther that allows you to instantly see all open windows at once with a single keystroke... [MacMinute]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:37 PM | Permalink

Verbatim announced it is on target to deliver the industry's first Double-Layer DVD+R (DVD+R DL) dis... [MacNN]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:33 PM | Permalink