2007 December

Best Buy during the holidays is a special kind of hell. Swarms of soccer moms trailing toddlers, looking for the new game of the year. Overweight dads butt-glued into recliners in front of NASA-style walls of aggressive televisions, commenting on the silent football games arrayed before them. Hordes of middle aged couples making dreadfully misguided [...]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke listed three wishes on his 90th birthday: for the world to embrace cleaner energy resources, for a lasting peace in his adopted home, Sri Lanka, and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings.SPACE.com — Sci-Fi Author Sir Arthur C. Clarke Lists 90th Birthday Wishes

This is the Martha Stewart of travel – she can make you feel like a real lummox for arriving at your final destination with fold-marks in your clothes, for that last-minute shoe panic on the way out the door, for not having the sense to pack a toothbrush and underwear in your carry-on in spite [...]

John Murrell, of GMSV, introduces us to Ribbit:
What Ribbit has is a software switch that can take multiple types of communication — landline phone, cell, VoIP, WiFi and instant messages — and connect one with the other. The company also has a programming interface to let developers build all sorts of voice applications and embed [...]

To understand why Google is such a threat to Microsoft–and why Microsoft’s pooh-poohing of this threat is, at best, a smokescreen–you need to understand how technology disruption works.
Microsoft in Denial: Google Threat is Classic Disruption - Silicon Alley Insider

I have finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I upgraded my Vista desktop machine to Windows XP, and this afternoon I will be doing the same to my laptop. …
…Windows XP is both faster and far more responsive than Vista. I no longer have the obligatory 1-minute system lock that happens whenever I [...]

Google is rolling out a centralized profile system that will provide personalized information to each Google product you use. The unimaginatively named Google Profile will share information across all Google products, unifying often disparate Google systems that logins aside haven’t previously shared data with each other.
Google Starts Rolling Out Centralized Profiles
Logical step.  I’m sure the [...]

The growing confrontation between Google and Microsoft promises to be an epic business battle. It is likely to shape the prosperity and progress of both companies, and also inform how consumers and corporations work, shop, communicate and go about their digital lives. Google sees all of this happening on remote servers in faraway data centers, [...]

Stare at the center for 30 sec.  (Not a trick.  Nothing will jump out.  Just relaxing.)
http://www.psychedelic-art.net/psychedelic-picture/041_24_045.5.html
No.  I didn’t misspell it.

Kung fu master Shi Dechao can swing his 22-pound “monk’s spade,” an ancient Chinese shovel, like a majorette twirling a baton. His lightning punches, in a style the ancients called Iron Fist, generate a thunk! straight out of kung fu movie sound effects. A powerful grunt punctuates his routine.
But Dechao, and most of the other [...]

 OTTAWA, Dec. 13 — The Chalk River reactor, which has been off line for more than three weeks and left much of diagnostic nuclear medicine in the U.S. and Canada at a standstill, may be producing isotopes again before Christmas.
Canada’s government last night overruled its nuclear regulators and allowed the reactor to reopen for 120 [...]

Matt Williams, a well-known Amazon (UK) reviewer, takes on the Bic Crystal (medium point) ballpoint pen.  http://tinyurl.com/399ja3

4. Prospect Fundraising

3. Police and Firefighter Charities

2. The Email Charity Scam

1. The Donate A Car Deal

Four Charity Scams to Avoid

Amazon.com may not offer free delivery on books in France, the high court in Versailles has ruled.
The action, brought in January 2004 by the French Booksellers’ Union, accused Amazon of offering illegal discounts on books and even of selling some books below cost.
Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France - New York [...]

Weston, Conn. - Darkness clung to the
early morning sky on Dec. 14, 1807, as Judge Nathan Wheeler started out
on his morning constitutional along a country road near here. Suddenly
the heavens exploded as a fireball raced across the horizon – whizzing
sounds and three sonic booms cracked the quiet as rock rained down.
Judge Wheeler ran back [...]

With the end of the Cold War, and with telecommunications technology advancing rapidly, surplus stores and eBay have filled up with discarded precision time equipment once beyond the reach of all but governments. Cesium clocks, rubidium clocks and even the occasional hydrogen maser can be had for less than a decent laptop. A recent search [...]

While Trojan 2.0 may sound like the latest in a long line of terms that have attempted to piggyback on the market recognition of Web 2.0, Finjan’s decision to refer to the emerging generation of Trojans thus has some merit because Trojan 2.0 code exploits Web 2.0 systems and software.
As Finjan explains in its report, [...]

…and I’ll be taking the day off. But, in the spirit of the season, please accept this greeting.
Bill

Humans have been around for quite a while. Even if you accept Bishop Usher’s figure of 6010 years ago (as of October 22nd) for the date of Creation, there have been 300 generations of us. If you prefer evolution, the figure expands to at least 7,500 generations in the case of Homo sapiens, and much [...]