Phil Corbett, and editor at the New York Times has sent a memo telling his writers they cant use the word "tweet" as he feels its being overused. He has said nothing of the word idiotechnicate though which is a clear indication to me that the term is catching on.
Microsoft's dominance as the tech industry's most valuable player has ended.
On Wednesday, Apple's market capitalization edged past its longtime rival's as investors made official what consumers have long suggested: Microsoft is no longer the industry's alpha dog.
Just last month, Microsoft's market cap exceeded Apple's by about $25 billion, but now Apple is in the lead by nearly $3 billion.
Apple Macintosh computers will not be represented in the Sex and the CIty movie sequel as Hewlett-Packard struck a deal to get their computers in the movie instead.
That one annoying chick played by that ugly girl will be using an hp notebook instead of a macbook and that slutty chick played by that whorish old lady will be using an hp desktop.
This article discusses the fact that typical computers are incapable of producing true random numbers while suggesting that recent quantum computers have done just that.
Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if these or other scientists find out that its not so much random as just a pattern they don't have enough information about to currently comprehend. The fact that the randomness they have created doesn't match the pseudo randomness computers tend to generate doesn't mean it can never be predicted.
It's not the most interesting read in the world but Virginia and I were discussing this over beers the other day and I couldn't pass up the chance to note the ironic coincidence.
Mike Davey constructs a replication of Alan Turing’s concept of the Turing Machine first presented as a thought experiment in 1936 on computable numbers.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have admitted to having set up undercover accounts on social networking sites like facebook. myspace and twitter, designed to gather evidence and whatnot on potential suspects. So if you aren't sure who a friend request is coming from, it could be some form of police agent investigating you, a family member or a friend.
This may come as a surprise to most people, but i've had my doubts about francisco's authenticity for years.
This article breaks down what you can expect HTML 5 to do and not do. The primary changes look to be native support for rich media like audio and video and some logical division of document sections negating the need for extremely common div classes - ie footers.
It also looks like some style stuff like underlining will become the sole responsibility of CSS.
Publishers, guided by the attributor.com enforcement company will be starting some level of legal campaign against sites that pirate their media and violate their copyright. Essentially they don't want people taking the contents of entire news articles and putting them on other sites.
They are not seeking past damages. they just want infringing sites to either stop using the material, or pay licensing fees for it.
I'm curious if any of the publishers in the attributor coalition don't offer licensing fees, or if this is just a strong arm advertising campaign for publishers that do.
Either way, remember to be vigilant when writing article summaries to links that you don't accidentally copy it verbatim.
Neat little article taken from Slashdot on the environmental impact of facebook's servers. According to the author (a blogger named koen) approximately 22,500 out of 30,000 servers could be shut down if facebook had used C++ instead of PHP as a programming language.
Reading through the comments, it seems most people in the know are scoffing at the idea, suggesting that it's impossible to compare the efficiency of each language without knowing how facebook has implemented it, as well as some fundamental reasons why a compiler language shouldn't be used for a site like facebook in the first place.
Is there any validity at all to the idea of certain programming languages being more environmentally friendly than others? And will this be cause for concern in the future when everything becomes web based?
Sapna Cheryan of the University of Washington conducted a study where she basically created 2 computer classrooms. One decorated in geek stuff like Star Trek Posters and one decorated neutrally (plants and stuff).
Different people were shown one classroom or the other and then had to fill out a questionnaire regarding how they felt about the Computer Science field.
The results?
Girls were less enthusiastic about computer science if they had seen the Star Trek room as opposed to the neutral one.
Men didn't give a crap one way or the other.
The research suggests that girls might steer away from geek career paths if they are subjected to this kind of environment because they don't feel like they would fit in.
Makes you wonder how many problems we could solve if we just decorated all workplaces with Star Trek posters.
A study released Wednesday from the University of California, San Diego, reports that the average American consumes a whopping 34GB of data and 100,000 words of information per day.
Over the course of 2008, Americans as a group gobbled up 3.6 zettabytes of data. (In case you missed the definition of "zettabyte" in your daily data binging, that's a million million gigabytes.) For all you visual learners out there, the researchers helpfully point out that 3.6 zettabytes is equal to the "information in thick paperback novels stacked seven feet high over the entire United States, including Alaska."
Between 1980 and 2008, the number of bytes consumed by Americans increased 350 percent. The average annual growth rate was calculated at 5.4 percent.
Although i would imagine some of you idio folk might you use a lot more than that a day.
Kraft developed an improved way to align a target using a more intuitively designed aliment system rather then the classical 2 notch lineup.
In a regular gun, the sight is composed of a metal, square-shaped post at the front of the barrel, and a metal notch at the end. The shooter needs to learn how to align the two in such a manner that the gun barrel is oriented straight at the target. While this method has been in used since the earliest days, it can be imprecise, and takes a lot of time to get accustomed to. According to experts, the latter happens because the human brain needs to take into account a lot of different things when using the system.
“The way a traditional gunsight works is all very disconnected. In order to get a good shot off you have to visually scan the gap between the front post and rear sight on the left and equalize that to the gap on the right, then align all that with the center of the target. It is too much for the eye and brain to process,” Kraft says. He adds that his team's innovation, called opti-sight, is a lot more intuitive and readily-usable than its predecessor. It also features a post on the rear end of the barrel, but it is shaped like an incomplete triangle, with a missing tip. This means that it relies on the brain's innate ability to fill in the missing pieces by itself.
“Opti-sight makes shooting very intuitive by allowing gunsight alignment to become subconscious. This triangular shape that I've created allows the brain to visualize concentric triangles whose imaginary apexes focus the shooter's attention on the exact target bullseye,” the expert adds. Kraft himself is involved in national competitions against the best pistol shooters in the United States, and has worked close with the US Olympic pistol team on testing the opti-sight system.
I didn't get this, but apparently a lot of people are experiencing a black screen when restarting windows after a recent security update from microsoft. Here is how to fix it.
quoted from a prevx blog by David Kennerley:
1) Restart your PC
2) Logon and wait for the black screen to appear
3) Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black screen does not appear to affect this)
4) Press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys simultaneously
Note this command assumes that you are using internet explorer as your browser, if not substitute your browser path and file details for those of iexplore.exe or use the Browser option of Task manager to locate it.
9) Click OK and your browser should start up and begin the download process
10) When prompted for the download Click run, the black screen fix program will download and run to automatically fix the issue.
11) Now restart your PC and the black screen problem will hopefully be gone.
Webby's list of the 10 most influential Internet moments of the decade: *Craigslist: the free classifieds site, expands
outside San Francisco in 2000, impacting newspaper
publishers everywhere
*Google AdWords: launched in 2000 allowing
advertisers to target their customers with laser-sharp
precision
*Wikipedia: the free open-source encyclopedia,
launches in 2001 and today boasts more than
14 million articles in 271 different languages
and bringing strangers together on projects
*Napster shutdown in 2001: opening the file-
sharing floodgates
*Google's IPO in 2004: put the search engine on the
path to powering countless aspects of our everyday lives
*Online video revolution in 2006: that led to a
boom in homemade and professional content on
the Internet and helped reshape everything from
pop culture to politics
*Facebook: opens to non-college
students and Twitter takes off in 2006
*The iPhone debuts in 2007: and smartphones
go from a luxury item to a necessity with an app for
just about every aspect of modern life
*U.S. presidential campaign in 2008: in which the
Internet changed every facet of the way campaigns are run
*Iranian election protests in 2009: when Twitter proved
vital in organizing demonstrations and as a protest too
Design firm Cambridge Consultants displays futuristic gadgets at an event in Cambridge, MA that will be in stores soon. The gadget that interested me most was the Bluetooth Health Device Profile and the IEEE Personal Health Data specification. With the major focus on personal health - it's even trendy as of late - I believe a wide variety of consumers will find it most useful. A good example would be my mother who regularly checks her blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. .
Twitter is selling the rights to mine its communications hotbed to both Internet search leader Google and Microsoft in dueling deals that underscore the growing importance of being able to show what's on people's minds at any given moment.
Amazon.com anounced that in November you can download a free version of the Kindle software to your PC. You will be able to use the software to buy and read e-books. The standalone hardware that lets you wirelessly download books is $249.
If consumers like the new Windows 7 operating system, they'll have the much-maligned Windows Vista to thank.
Windows 7, on sale Thursday, October 22, has already received early positive reviews.
In part, that's because Windows 7 actually builds on the under-the-hood changes that came with Vista. But, it also turns out that the vast headaches created by Vista were just what the PC industry needed to improve their cooperation.
With consumers lukewarm to Vista and many businesses shunning it entirely, both Microsoft and the computer makers realized that the standard way of business just wasn't cutting it, particularly with Apple coming on strong.
Redmond, in particular, was humbled by the response to Vista. When it came time to planning the next version, newly installed Windows development chief Steven Sinofsky took the company's earliest ideas and met with PC makers.
That marked a huge change from past releases, where, as some PC makers described it, Microsoft would just develop windows in secret and then "throw it over the wall."
"Until Vista, Microsoft was fully thinking on their own and implementing their own ideas and then releasing it," said Gianpiero Morbello, a vice president for Taiwanese PC maker Acer.
This time around, though, Microsoft shared its earliest plans, sought input, and held regular meetings with the PC makers. In addition, it dedicated engineering teams to work with each of the biggest computer makers to help them work through any issues specific to their designs.
The result, which goes on sale Thursday, is Windows 7. Although its changes are more modest than those made in Windows Vista, the product has been both on time and well received by testers and reviewers alike.
Close cooperation with the PC makers has resulted in a product that adds few blockbuster features but is roundly praised for making everyday computing tasks simpler and more elegant.
Many of the new features, such as support for iPhone-style touch interfaces, have been heavily influenced by the work with PC manufacturers. Among the first things Sinofsky did upon taking the reins of Windows development in 2006 was to study what happened to Windows when the bits left Redmond and made their way onto new PCs.
When finally asked for their early input, computer makers were not shy with their ideas for how Microsoft could do better. Indeed, the computer makers' fingerprints can be found all over the product from the way it supports touch input to which features are included in which versions of the product.
"I think I was hated in Redmond," said Sony senior manager Xavier Lauwaert. "I just spoke out every time."
Among the changes that came directly from the computer makers was the about-face that Microsoft did with regards to Windows 7 Starter--the entry-level version of the product aimed primarily at Netbooks. Initially, Microsoft wanted to impose a limit of three open applications at a time, in part to distinguish the version from higher-end editions.
PC makers complained loudly that the restriction was too onerous--and might tempt consumers to stick with the older and less secure Windows XP. Microsoft eventually relented and, though it has maintained other limitations, Netbooks with Windows 7 Starter can run as many applications as their limited memory will allow.
Another feature that grew out of discussions with computer makers and business customers is the addition of an "XP Mode"--an option that allows Windows 7 users to run a free, virtualized copy of Windows XP to run older applications that aren't compatible with newer operating systems. In some cases, one incompatible program was keeping businesses from even considering a move off Windows XP.
Phil Osako, director of product marketing for Toshiba's PC unit, said there may be some businesses that never even use the virtualization option, but will be more comfortable moving by knowing that they have the virtualization option to fall back to should they encounter problems.
Tami Reller, the VP in charge of the business side of Windows, said that Microsoft's now-bendable ear really is a different way of doing business. "We have become very good listeners over the past several years," Reller said. "We are imperfect human beings, but we have become very good listeners."
Phil McKinney, CTO of Hewlett-Packard's PC unit, filled in for his boss at one of Microsoft's regular meetings with computer makers in 2007.
"I walked out of there going 'This is a different Microsoft. This is a different relationship," he said.
McKinney noted that Microsoft's initial overtures to the computer makers were met with a fair bit of skepticism. "Is this legit or is this just trying to appease frustration," McKinney recalls thinking. "It quickly proved out that Microsoft was serious."
That said, McKinney noted that neither HP nor the other PC makers got exactly what they wanted. "It wasn't like Microsoft just sat there and took up every piece of feedback," he said. "There was give and take." iReport.com: Early review of Windows 7
Microsoft also had harsh messages for the PC companies. The vast amounts of preinstalled software that they were shipping on consumer machines, so-called "crapware" were slowing down systems and hurting the PC's image.
The computer makers and Microsoft began looking at each piece of software, whether it came from the PC manufacturers or a third party, and measuring its impact on the system. Those that were bogging things down were told to fix their software or else got pulled from new PCs.
The result is that Windows 7, in many cases, can boot up more quickly and go in and out of sleep in a matter of seconds. Consumers will also notice they get systems that are a lot less cluttered, in some cases with nothing more than a recycle bin on their desktop when they first boot their PC.
Another big influence was Apple's recent success and, in particular, the benefits it was getting by linking its software and hardware.
"I think there was a recognition by PC (makers) and Microsoft that, for the best experience, the software and the hardware really need to work hand and hand," Osako said.
At its best, McKinney said that things felt more like a hardware and software division working together than it did a collaboration between different companies.
There are still examples of Microsoft and PC makers each deciding they can do things better. Even though Microsoft has a new taskbar, for example, Dell is carrying over the dock it built to help launch Vista applications. The result is that some PCs still feature multiple interfaces, each trying to accomplish a similar tasik.
Microsoft, too, still has room for improvement, PC makers said. Acer's Morbello noted that Microsoft is trying to transform itself from a nearly "obsolete" engineering-driven approach that adds features simply because they are possible to one that focuses on what customers actually want.
"These changes are a transformation of the company," Morbello said.
The task is critical for Microsoft, which depends on Windows for a huge chunk of both sales and profits. At the high end, it faces never-ending challenges from Apple, which now has significantly more resources to invest in the Mac. At the low-end, meanwhile, Google is preparing its Chrome OS, which makes the case that people really just need a fast and efficient browsing experience to handle most computing tasks.
For her part, Reller promised that Microsoft plans to continue seeking PC makers' input as it builds the successor to Windows 7.
The harder they fall....
Apple Macintosh computers will not be represented in the Sex and the CIty movie sequel as Hewlett-Packard struck a deal to get their computers in the movie instead. 
This article discusses the fact that typical computers are incapable of producing true random numbers while suggesting that recent quantum computers have done just that. 
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have admitted to having set up undercover accounts on social networking sites like facebook. myspace and twitter, designed to gather evidence and whatnot on potential suspects. So if you aren't sure who a friend request is coming from, it could be some form of police agent investigating you, a family member or a friend. 
This article breaks down what you can expect HTML 5 to do and not do. The primary changes look to be native support for rich media like audio and video and some logical division of document sections negating the need for extremely common div classes - ie footers. 
Publishers, guided by the attributor.com enforcement company will be starting some level of legal campaign against sites that pirate their media and violate their copyright. Essentially they don't want people taking the contents of entire news articles and putting them on other sites. 
Neat little article taken from Slashdot on the environmental impact of facebook's servers. According to the author (a blogger named 
Sapna Cheryan of the University of Washington conducted a study where she basically created 2 computer classrooms. One decorated in geek stuff like Star Trek Posters and one decorated neutrally (plants and stuff). 
A study released Wednesday from the University of California, San Diego, reports that the average American consumes a whopping 34GB of data and 100,000 words of information per day.
Kraft developed an improved way to align a target using a more intuitively designed aliment system rather then the classical 2 notch lineup. 
I didn't get this, but apparently a lot of people are experiencing a black screen when restarting windows after a recent security update from microsoft. Here is how to fix it.
*Craigslist: the free classifieds site, expands
*Wikipedia: the free open-source encyclopedia,
*Google's IPO in 2004: put the search engine on the
*U.S. presidential campaign in 2008: in which the 
