Saturday, January 6, 2007
Xbox 360 v2 rumours surface
HDMI dev kits appear
By Dean Pullen:
VARIOUS SITES on the Interweb have revealed the possile presence of an Xbox 360 version 2.
Engadget have a report, with photos, of an Xbox 360 v2 dubbed 'Zephyr' which appears to have a newly added HDMI output on the rear of the console.
As if this wasn't proof enough of a possible HDMI-equipped 360 appearing, the report is backed up by Xbox-Scene who have further photographs of the exterior and interior of the HDMI-equipped console.
Below you can see the what appears to be a HDMI-out on the back of the Xbox 360, below the standard A/V output. Picture courtesy of our friends at Xbox-Scene.
Compare this with the existing version, below.
Even more interestingly, and adding some credence to the reports, Xbox-Scene have also allowed us to reproduce the pictures of the Xbox 360 motherboard, with the HDMI connector on board.
There's even a video of what appears to be a HDMI-equipped dev-kit working on a DVI equipped LCD monitor using a HDMI-DVI converter. Check it out on the ubiquitous Youtube here.
Note the long boot time, which is said to be typical of Xbox 360 dev-kits, and is not a sign of a faked video.
Within the report, sources state that the current scaler within the 360, named 'Ana' and pictured here, has also been replaced in the new iteration of the console.
Allegedly the new chip which enables the digital output is called 'Hana' (people have speculated that the H stands for HDMI) and is photographed here in all it's glory. The photo makes the text on the chip look a little odd, but you can clearly see it in the interior/motherboard picture above.
As well as the new chip, various motherboard layout changes have also been noted, the majority of which appear to be insignificant.
Speculation is rife that this new Xbox 360 will also incorporate a 120GB hard-drive and the much-awaited 65nm CPU - meaning a launch date in the first half of 2007 would be unlikely considering the delay to the 65nm process shrink that Microsoft have had to endure.
It seems unlikely a more expensive 120GB HDD would accompany the lower price expected by the inclusion of the 65nm CPU (and Microsoft's recent successful round of cost-cutting ), seeing as MS will likely wish to push the console to the lowest price possible to compete with the PS3. But stranger things have happened.
Many have clamoured for the inclusion of the HD-DVD drive into the console itself as part of a console revision, but Microsoft continues to state that this will never happen.
We find it quite unbelievable that Microsoft couldn't foresee the need for some kind of digital connection for a console equipped with high-definition output, and could lose considerable face by launching a revised console.
The prospect of another, third, and different, SKU, may anger current Xbox 360 owners and confuse potential consumers even further.
It could be that this is simply a custom built dev-unit, or a revised console prototype, desgined to allow for an easily usable HDMI connection, and that the current scalers and image processing circuitry are more than capable of digital output using an adapter (or just a bog-standard cable) connected to the standard Xbox 360 A/V out. It's not entirely impossible that Microsoft could launch a revised 360, and an adapter for the existing box.
For now we can only speculate until Microsoft either confirm or deny the rumours. Interesting times for 360 users ahead
By Dean Pullen:
VARIOUS SITES on the Interweb have revealed the possile presence of an Xbox 360 version 2.
Engadget have a report, with photos, of an Xbox 360 v2 dubbed 'Zephyr' which appears to have a newly added HDMI output on the rear of the console.
As if this wasn't proof enough of a possible HDMI-equipped 360 appearing, the report is backed up by Xbox-Scene who have further photographs of the exterior and interior of the HDMI-equipped console.
Below you can see the what appears to be a HDMI-out on the back of the Xbox 360, below the standard A/V output. Picture courtesy of our friends at Xbox-Scene.
Compare this with the existing version, below.Even more interestingly, and adding some credence to the reports, Xbox-Scene have also allowed us to reproduce the pictures of the Xbox 360 motherboard, with the HDMI connector on board.There's even a video of what appears to be a HDMI-equipped dev-kit working on a DVI equipped LCD monitor using a HDMI-DVI converter. Check it out on the ubiquitous Youtube here.Note the long boot time, which is said to be typical of Xbox 360 dev-kits, and is not a sign of a faked video.
Within the report, sources state that the current scaler within the 360, named 'Ana' and pictured here, has also been replaced in the new iteration of the console.
Allegedly the new chip which enables the digital output is called 'Hana' (people have speculated that the H stands for HDMI) and is photographed here in all it's glory. The photo makes the text on the chip look a little odd, but you can clearly see it in the interior/motherboard picture above.
As well as the new chip, various motherboard layout changes have also been noted, the majority of which appear to be insignificant.
Speculation is rife that this new Xbox 360 will also incorporate a 120GB hard-drive and the much-awaited 65nm CPU - meaning a launch date in the first half of 2007 would be unlikely considering the delay to the 65nm process shrink that Microsoft have had to endure.
It seems unlikely a more expensive 120GB HDD would accompany the lower price expected by the inclusion of the 65nm CPU (and Microsoft's recent successful round of cost-cutting ), seeing as MS will likely wish to push the console to the lowest price possible to compete with the PS3. But stranger things have happened.
Many have clamoured for the inclusion of the HD-DVD drive into the console itself as part of a console revision, but Microsoft continues to state that this will never happen.
We find it quite unbelievable that Microsoft couldn't foresee the need for some kind of digital connection for a console equipped with high-definition output, and could lose considerable face by launching a revised console.
The prospect of another, third, and different, SKU, may anger current Xbox 360 owners and confuse potential consumers even further.
It could be that this is simply a custom built dev-unit, or a revised console prototype, desgined to allow for an easily usable HDMI connection, and that the current scalers and image processing circuitry are more than capable of digital output using an adapter (or just a bog-standard cable) connected to the standard Xbox 360 A/V out. It's not entirely impossible that Microsoft could launch a revised 360, and an adapter for the existing box.
For now we can only speculate until Microsoft either confirm or deny the rumours. Interesting times for 360 users ahead
Aircraft Carrier Landing Pilots View
Here's a pretty cool video of a plane landing on an aircraft carrier from the pilot's perspective. Man they get really close the edge on the other side!
Redneck Airways
Not only is it the pilot that notices a problem with this planes wing but he takes it upon himself to repair it. If that isnt enough look close, the dude uses duct tape. I think I would rather drive.
Meth Effect
This woman goes absolutely nuts while on meth. I believe this is the same lady form the earlier post (with the new red car)....
Age: 13+
Get the fuk out of here ....
If I was the father I would of slapped the shhh out of her & would of never gave her shhh for actting like that ... lmao. What you think of the spoiled brat????
My Birthday Disaster - video powered by Metacafe
My Birthday Disaster - video powered by Metacafe
Dear Yahoo!:
Dear Yahoo!:
How did the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia get its crack?
Benjamin
Dear Benjamin:
The Liberty Bell boasts quite a storied past. According to ushistory.org, the original bell was hung in the Statehouse steeple in 1753. It acquired a break on its very first ring.
Though the bell appears mighty, it was thought to be either too brittle or have flaws in its casting. The bell was recast twice in order to strengthen it and enhance the tone. But on George Washington's birthday in 1846, the crack expanded, causing the bell to become unringable. The final zigzag crack measures approximately 1/2 inch wide and 24 1/2 inches long.
But hold the phone -- what fun is history without some controversy? The Liberty Bell Museum throws a bucket of cold water on the 1846 crack story, arguing there are records of the bell being tolled in November of that year. If the bell was unringable in February, exactly how could someone ring it in November? The Museum highlights a total of nine legends of the crack. Read 'em all, pick your favorite, and there's your answer.
How did the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia get its crack?
Benjamin
Dear Benjamin:
The Liberty Bell boasts quite a storied past. According to ushistory.org, the original bell was hung in the Statehouse steeple in 1753. It acquired a break on its very first ring.
Though the bell appears mighty, it was thought to be either too brittle or have flaws in its casting. The bell was recast twice in order to strengthen it and enhance the tone. But on George Washington's birthday in 1846, the crack expanded, causing the bell to become unringable. The final zigzag crack measures approximately 1/2 inch wide and 24 1/2 inches long.
But hold the phone -- what fun is history without some controversy? The Liberty Bell Museum throws a bucket of cold water on the 1846 crack story, arguing there are records of the bell being tolled in November of that year. If the bell was unringable in February, exactly how could someone ring it in November? The Museum highlights a total of nine legends of the crack. Read 'em all, pick your favorite, and there's your answer.
50 Cent Slings Rubbers, Disses Ludacris
Story by Jolene "foxxylady" Petipas over @ SOHH.com
50 Cent recently revealed to the New York Post that he has plans to release his own brand of condoms.
The Queens, NY rapper, who launched his G-Unit Book imprint via a book signing yesterday (January 4), hopes his condom venture will promote safe sex effectively and plans to donate a part of the proceeds to HIV awareness.
During Thursday's signing, 50 introduced a series of books which included The Ski Mask Way, Death Before Dishonor and Baby Brother.
The G-Unit honcho also has plans to make all the books into films. A screenplay for The Ski Mask Way has already been written and the movie will be shot in the summer.
"The novels are the harsh realities in certain situations," 50 explained toThe Post. "And the actual honest content in the music and the books are a spin-off of that reality. That's what hip-hop about them is. In The Ski Mask Way particularly, there's a character named Seven that's based on me. And there's a portion where he's incarcerated and has to make decisions about his life and how things spin out of control. I've been in a similar space, but I was able to hold on and not spin out of control."
50 also divulged that he is writing a book titled 50 Laws of Power with author Robert Greene. The book will be an urban take of Greene's 48 Laws of Power.
In related news, 50 recently appeared on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio Show and blasted Ludacris for not defending himself when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey's talk show... (continue :: full story)
50 Cent recently revealed to the New York Post that he has plans to release his own brand of condoms.
The Queens, NY rapper, who launched his G-Unit Book imprint via a book signing yesterday (January 4), hopes his condom venture will promote safe sex effectively and plans to donate a part of the proceeds to HIV awareness.
During Thursday's signing, 50 introduced a series of books which included The Ski Mask Way, Death Before Dishonor and Baby Brother.
The G-Unit honcho also has plans to make all the books into films. A screenplay for The Ski Mask Way has already been written and the movie will be shot in the summer.
"The novels are the harsh realities in certain situations," 50 explained toThe Post. "And the actual honest content in the music and the books are a spin-off of that reality. That's what hip-hop about them is. In The Ski Mask Way particularly, there's a character named Seven that's based on me. And there's a portion where he's incarcerated and has to make decisions about his life and how things spin out of control. I've been in a similar space, but I was able to hold on and not spin out of control."
50 also divulged that he is writing a book titled 50 Laws of Power with author Robert Greene. The book will be an urban take of Greene's 48 Laws of Power.
In related news, 50 recently appeared on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio Show and blasted Ludacris for not defending himself when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey's talk show... (continue :: full story)
Friday, January 5, 2007
Toilet Head Prank
After i run out i will go back in & pee on him for doing that to me, lmao ...
Toilet Head Prank - video powered by Metacafe
Toilet Head Prank - video powered by Metacafe
The PlayStation Toaster
We've all seen the PS3 Grill. Sure, it was cool in its day and all, and we all had a good laugh at the PS3's expense, but that's old news now. It's time for something new. Er, old. Because, umm ... old is ... gold?
Ahh whatever! Presenting *drum roll* the PlayStation toaster!
Hit the jump for a story about a very talented girl, her equally talented friend and her enterprising father, all of whom were bored and decided to stuff an entire PlayStation 2 in a toaster!
Upon checking out Ryou-chan's DeviantART page (thanks, yet again, to Hannah), I stumbled across the PlayStation toaster, a most ingenius device that I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams .... (Continue)
Saigon - Pain In My Life (Feat. Trey Songz) (Explicit)
Need to listen & pay attention to this track!!! Serious!!!
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Joe vs. Heckler
Joe Rogan reacts to a heckler without screaming racial obscenities.
After the video frame is all white just click on it & the movie will begining to play.
After the video frame is all white just click on it & the movie will begining to play.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Liquid Armor
Scientist have developed a bulletproof liquid armor that weighs and wears like regular clothing!! Simply Amazing!
Convert any video to any format
It's an amazing conversion program that lets you convert all kinds of media...
Mario Grand Theft Auto
Mario and Luigi find themselves lost in the world of Grand Theft Auto Vice City.
Dear Yahoo!:
Dear Yahoo!:
Do mosquitoes play a single positive role in the world?
James
Union, South Carolina
Dear James:
More annoying than younger siblings, mosquitoes have been pestering the animal kingdom for over 30 million years according to HowStuffWorks. During that time, you'd think the bloodsuckers would have figured out how to do at least one good thing in this crazy world of ours. Not surprisingly, it turns out they do play a role in the circle of life.
Mosquitoes feast on the blood of mammals, and they, in turn, are feasted upon by other animals. The University of Arizona Insect Science Education Outreach presents a short summary of the positive effects mosquitoes have on the ecosystem. Turns out the larvae and pupae of mosquitoes are attractive food for fish and other aquatic insects, while the adults provide a tasty meal for birds, bats, spiders, and dragonflies.
Besides providing snack food for larger predators, the pesky bugs also feed on bacteria and algae, removing them from rocks, plants, and water.
So do these benefits outweigh the fact that they transmit disease to more than 700 million people every year? We hate to question Mother Nature, but no matter how hard we try, we just can't bring ourselves to appreciate the critters.
Do mosquitoes play a single positive role in the world?
James
Union, South Carolina
Dear James:
More annoying than younger siblings, mosquitoes have been pestering the animal kingdom for over 30 million years according to HowStuffWorks. During that time, you'd think the bloodsuckers would have figured out how to do at least one good thing in this crazy world of ours. Not surprisingly, it turns out they do play a role in the circle of life.
Mosquitoes feast on the blood of mammals, and they, in turn, are feasted upon by other animals. The University of Arizona Insect Science Education Outreach presents a short summary of the positive effects mosquitoes have on the ecosystem. Turns out the larvae and pupae of mosquitoes are attractive food for fish and other aquatic insects, while the adults provide a tasty meal for birds, bats, spiders, and dragonflies.
Besides providing snack food for larger predators, the pesky bugs also feed on bacteria and algae, removing them from rocks, plants, and water.
So do these benefits outweigh the fact that they transmit disease to more than 700 million people every year? We hate to question Mother Nature, but no matter how hard we try, we just can't bring ourselves to appreciate the critters.
Monkey Kissing Prank
A group of girls are told that they are going to participate in a blind test of some new brands of lip balm. They think they will be testing the balm by kissing two male models, but at the last second the models are switched with monkeys.
Effects Of Drugs And Alcohol On Spider Webs
In the 1960s, Dr. Peter Witt gave spiders various kinds of drugs and alcohol to observe the effects on their webs. The results were pretty interesting.
VERY FUNNY
VERY FUNNY
Keystone Beer Commercial
Dont you love it when you're buying beer and a hot chick just walks right up to you and wants to party? That happens to me all the time.
Air Cannon Shoots Through Quarter
These guys take the hole potato gun thing up a notch and build an air cannon that is powerful enough to send a large needle over half way through a quarter.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
The Top 21 Tech Screwups of 2006
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Taken from PCWorld.com
Link to Story on Title to post
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From exploding laptops to corporate spying to Rocketboom's bust, a review of the year's gaffes and blunders.
Dan Tynan
It was a year where the world's biggest software company had to admit its flagship operating system was going to be delayed--yet again. And the number one PC manufacturer was caught spying on reporters and board members.
In 2006, turning on your laptop was an adventure in flammability. Of course, lots of government and corporate officials didn't have to worry about their notebook bursting into flames--they'd already lost theirs--along with the personal records of millions of Americans.
Surfing the Net you stood a good chance of being hoaxed by an actress pretending to be a lonely teenager or a blogger in the employ of the planet's largest retailer. If you subscribed to AOL, your searches might have been shared with the rest of the Web. And if you did anything stupid, somebody with a video camera and a YouTube account was probably there to broadcast it to the world.
Here, then, on the following pages we humbly offer our nominations for the biggest tech mistakes of the year. (And if you notice any errors in this article, please--keep them to yourself.)
1. Assault With Batteries
When 62-year old Thomas Forqueran and a buddy were packing up from a Nevada fishing trip last July, he left his Dell Inspiron 1300 notebook in the cab of his 1966 Ford pickup. Soon Forqueran smelled smoke, then saw flames shooting out of the passenger window. Within moments the fire hit three boxes of ammunition stored in the glove box. Forqueran and his buddy ducked for cover as bullets whizzed by and the gas tank exploded .
Several flaming laptops made headlines in 2006, but it was Forqueran's story that pushed Dell to recall 4.1 million laptops containing Sony lithium ion batteries. Apple, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba, and others soon followed, and laptop makers vowed to build a safer lithium ion battery battery by July 2007.
Big Mistake: Buying anything powered by a Sony lithium ion battery.
Bigger Mistake: Packing your laptop next to the ammo.
2. Spying the HP Way
Hiring private eyes to illegally obtain phone records, putting reporters under surveillance, digging through their trash, planting tracking bugs in their e-mail, and mulling plans to place informants inside newsrooms--the HP corporate spying scandal had a Watergate-style stink on it that an ocean of perfume couldn't wash away.
But deposed HP chair Patricia Dunn's Congressional testimony on the matter, which ranged from pleas of ignorance to haughty self-righteousness, had its own lingering aroma.
Dunn and other HP executives were ultimately forced to resign; the California State Attorney General's office has charged her and four others with fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy.
Big Mistake: Spying on reporters, board members, and their families.
Bigger Mistake: Not renting the DVD of "All the President's Men."
3. Hacking the Vote
Are electronic voting machines insecure? In May, security researchers discovered a previously unknown backdoor in Diebold's AccuVote-TS touch-screen voting machines that could allow an attacker to manipulate votes, cause malfunctions, or create a 'voting virus' that spreads from machine to machine--all in under a minute and with little fear of detection. Meanwhile, Princeton researchers also found Diebold's touch-screen machines could be opened with the same kind of key used for hotel mini-bars, offering easy access to the machine's memory card. Diebold promised to fix the vulnerability eventually, but also said they weren't too worried. Why? Because such hacks would require "evil and nefarious election officials"--who don't exist.
We feel much better now.
Big Mistake: Allowing insecure voting machines anywhere near this country's electoral process.
Bigger Mistake: Electing Homer Simpson president--which might happen if we keep using these machines.
4. AOL: You've Got Manslaughter!
Last July, researchers at AOL thought it would be really cool to release search data for 650,000 or so of its members. By replacing customer names with numbers, they thought nobody would mind. They thought wrong. Among the search terms were names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and other personally identifiable information. Brave bloggers digging through the data came up with even more fascinating search strings, such as "is cocaine good for you?" (user #1766737), "finance me some gold teeth" (user #519928), and "how to kill your wife" (user #17556639). After howls of protest, AOL apologized and pulled the data, but not before some enterprising Netizens downloaded a copy and grafted a search interface onto it. The employees responsible for the gaffe and CTO Maureen Govern are now researching new employment opportunities.
Big Mistake: Blindly releasing customers' personal data.
Bigger Mistake: Confirming our worst suspicions about who's really using AOL.
5. Vista: Missing in Action
Microsoft put a moon-sized lump of coal in PC makers' stockings when it announced that consumer versions of Windows Vista would ship on January 30, 2007. While business customers can now download the oft-delayed OS, PCs with Vista preinstalled won't appear until after the 2006 holiday shopping season.
To appease angry hardware makers, Microsoft announced a voucher program that may or may not provide free upgrades to buyers of new PCs, depending on (a) who sold the system, (b) when it was purchased, (c) what version of XP came with it, and (d) which of the four different flavors of Vista they choose. (Got all that?) Then, of course, you'll have to upgrade the OS yourself. Hey, if it were easy, it wouldn't be Microsoft.
Big Mistake: Microsoft making a major OS upgrade as painful as humanly possible.
Bigger Mistake: Users not switching to Linux or the Mac when they had the chance.
6. Laptop Losers
When privacy guru Robert Ellis Smith called 2006 "the year of the stolen laptop," he wasn't exaggerating. The list of organizations that misplaced computers containing people's personal information is a Who's Who of bungling bureaucracies: Aetna, EDS, Equifax, Ernst & Young, Fidelity Investments, the FTC, ING, the IRS, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Toyota, Union Pacific, the U.S. Department of Transportation (three times), and Verizon, to name but a few.
The big kahuna of laptop losses occurred last May, when a machine containing the personal data of 28 million U.S. military veterans was stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst. (The vets dodged a bullet when the missing laptop was recovered a month later with the database unbreached.) In most cases the data was neither encrypted nor password-protected, allowing easy access for identity thieves.
Big Mistake: Organizations' failing to safeguard customer's names, addresses, and Social Security numbers.
Bigger Mistake: The public's trusting these clowns with our information in the first place.
7. YouTube Boobs
The year 2006 may be remembered as the year Internet video started kicking butt and taking names. The list of ordinary citizens undone by YouTube is long, but the highlights include: the Comcast repairman who fell asleep on the wrong person's couch (and woke up to a termination notice); the CNN anchor who left her microphone on during a presidential address and broadcast a rather personal conversation from the loo; the LAPD beating yet another restrained suspect; and, of course, the now ex-senator from Virginia who got bitten by a "macaca."
We have met Big Brother, and He is Us.
Big Mistake: Forgetting how a digital video camera and the Internet can create instant celebrities, willing or otherwise.
Bigger Mistake: Calling your constituent a monkey.
8. PlayStation 3: Late, Expensive, and Incompatible
When it was announced in spring 2005, the Sony PlayStation 3 was going to be the greatest thing to hit home gaming since a hedgehog named Sonic. Then came the delays. By the time the PS3 arrived, it was six months late, and Nintendo's cheaper and more innovative Wii had stolen much of its thunder. At $599 for the 60GB model, the PS3 is twice the price of the original PlayStation 2, yet research firm iSupply--which describes the PS3 as having supercomputer qualities--estimates that Sony still loses more than $200 per unit.
Thanks to manufacturing delays, Sony shipped an estimated 150,000 units for the North American launch, or less than half the number it had originally planned. And the PS3 was incompatible with more than 200 PlayStation and PS2 games, though Sony is addressing that problem through online updates.
The good news? Game-crazed youth are buying up PS3s and reselling them on eBay for double the asking price. And unlike, say, Sony batteries, they don't catch fire--at least, not yet.
Big Mistake: Trying to turn a supercomputer into a gaming device.
Bigger Mistake: Failing to drive a stake through the heart of Nintendo when the opportunity offered.
9. Delusions of Podhood
Last September Apple shipped at least two dozen iPods containing the RavMonE Trojan, a nasty bit of Windows malware. That's bad enough, but the company's less-than-contrite response was even worse. ("As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.") Given those glass palaces Apple likes to erect as stores, you'd think they'd be more careful about throwing stones.
Big Mistake: Shipping iPods containing malware.
Bigger Mistake: Using your "apology" to take a swipe at your competitor.
10. Google: Blogging for Dummies
You'd assume the company that owns Blogger.com might know a little something about, well, blogging. You'd be wrong. Not once, not twice, but three times Google bungled its own blogs in 2006. After a butter-fingered employee accidentally deleted the company's official blog last March, 19-year-old college student Trey Philips immediately laid claim to googleblog.blogspot.com (but quickly gave it back). In October, an attacker exploited a bug inside Blogger to post a bogus message claiming Google had discontinued a joint advertising project with eBay.
That same month, a Google employee posted two messages to its Blogger Buzz site that were meant for her personal blog (nothing naughty, thank Google).
Big Mistake: Allowing the Google-teers to blog without adult supervision.
Bigger Mistake: Believing any big corporation walks on water, even if it's trading at more than $500 a share.
11. RIAA: Scouts Dishonor
The good news: Both the RIAA and MPAA made it through the entire year without suing a single dead person for illegally downloading files.
Their big blunder (and the bad news): Enlisting the Boy Scouts of America in their hunt for file-sharing scofflaws. Scouts in the Los Angeles area can now earn an activity patch for learning about peer-to-peer networks, touring a Hollywood studio, or recording a public service announcement about the evils of file swapping.
Big Mistake: Using a revered institution to serve a narrow industry agenda.
Bigger Mistake: Teaching young boys how to rat out their parents for downloading "Hips Don't Lie."
12. Windows: Genuinely Disadvantaged
If a piece of software quietly installed itself, couldn't be removed, and phoned home with information about your system, you'd probably call it spyware. Microsoft has another name for it: Windows Genuine Advantage. Last April, Microsoft began distributing WGA as a "critical" Windows update that transmitted data back to Redmond after every reboot and nagged owners of counterfeit copies of XP (and some legit ones) to pony up for the genuine article.
WGA's installation and disclosure process caused angry users to sue the software giant. Microsoft backed off, slightly, by letting people shut off the nagging and reducing how often the software phoned home. But it still maintains that WGA exists to protect us from the evils of Windows piracy.
Big Mistake: Microsoft thinking nobody would notice.
Bigger Mistake: Users believing Vista's validation process will be any better.
13: RadioShack's Virtual Axe
When RadioShack downsized last August, it did some of the dirty work via e-mail--sending out electronic 'clean out your desk' notices to roughly 400 employees at its Fort Worth headquarters. In so doing, the troubled electronics retailer earned itself even more ill will than it did with those cloying TV commercials starring Howie Long and Terri Hatcher.
Big Mistake: Firing people by e-mail.
Bigger Mistake: Hiring Howie and Terri in the first place.
14. Wal-Mart Gets Flogged
After LonelyGirl15 was revealed as a hoax, the filmmakers behind the popular YouTube vixen became Hollywood darlings. When Walmarting Across America was discovered to be sponsored indirectly by the retailer itself, its creators were raked over the burning hot coals of the blogosphere.
Jim Thresher and Laura St. Claire's blog concept was appealingly simple: They'd drive their RV 2843 miles from Las Vegas to Atlanta, stopping each night at a different Wal-Mart and reporting on the "great people" they met there. The problem? The trip was paid for by Working Families for Wal-Mart, which is in turn largely funded by the retail juggernaut, and stage-managed by Edelman Public Relations--facts that were suspiciously absent from the blog's folksy entries.
Edelman made a pubic mea culpa and then revealed it managed two other flogs for the Godzilla of superstores: Working Families for Wal-Mart and Paid Critics.
Big Mistake: Confusing blogging with PR.
Bigger Mistake: Not hiring LonelyGirl15 actress Jennifer Rose to go along for the ride.
15. The New Newer Newest AOL
Maybe it was AOL's rapidly evaporating user base. Maybe it was the blogger whose taped phone conversation proved it's easier to quit the Mafia than to cancel your AOL account.
Or maybe they finally realized there was no one left on the planet who hadn't received (and thrown away) a free AOL disc. Whatever the inspiration, last August Time Warner announced that it was turning its pricey paid-access network into a free, ad-sponsored content service--the fourth "plan to save AOL" since the two companies merged five years ago. At the same time, AOL's Netscape subsidiary said it was reinventing itself as a Digg.com-style news site.
Four months later, the architects of these changes--CEO Jonathan Miller and Netscape honcho Jason Calacanis--are gone. Meet the new AOL, same as the old AOL.
Big Mistake: Changing direction so often even your own employees have vertigo.
Bigger Mistake: Anyone else caring.
16. Bloggers 1, Apple 0
In December 2004 Apple filed suit against Apple rumor blogs O'Grady's PowerPage and AppleInsider to find out who inside the company was leaking information to these blogs about an upcoming Apple product. (Apple had filed a similar suit against Think Secret in January 2006.)
Last May, the California Court of Appeal dismissed Apple's claims against PowerPage and AppleInsider, ruling that bloggers were protected under the state laws protecting journalists. The fate of the Think Secret suit is still to be determined.
Score one for the little guys. Then again, in light of HP's pretexting scandal, using legal means to uncover confidential sources seems almost quaint.
Big Mistake: Trying to bully bloggers into turning over their sources.
Bigger Mistake: Not hiring Patricia Dunn to plug the leaks.
17. Too Much, Too Zune
The latest attempt at an iPod Killer, Microsoft's Zune, debuted to mixed reviews.
The Zune combines a nice screen and sound with yet another complicated proprietary Digital Rights Management scheme. For example, you can share tunes with other Zune users in the same room using Wi-Fi, but each song is only good for three days or three plays before it's deleted. Meanwhile, you can't download tracks via Wi-Fi or share songs across the Internet a la MusicGremlin
What Zune will likely end up killing is any significant further development of Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM system, used by partners like Napster and Rhapsody, whose content won't play on the Zune. If you're a user who has filled your music library with PlaysForSure tunes, welcome to the social!
Big Mistake: Introducing yet another DRM system to a market that doesn't want them.
Bigger Mistake: Calling any audio player, particularly one from Microsoft, an iPod Killer.
18. DHS: The Phantom Menace
The good news: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security finally tested our nation's digital defenses last February during a simulated five-day cyber attack.
The bad news: We lost. Seven months after completing Operation Cyber Storm, the DHS revealed the results of the exercise--major communications breakdowns across the board and an embarrassing lack of preparedness.
Essentially, our country's digital infrastructure could get owned by a clever 14-year-old running an Amiga. For an agency that's received a cybersecurity grade of F from the House Government Reform Committee for three straight years, we'd expect no less.
Big Mistake: Not studying hard enough for the test.
Bigger Mistake: Not hiring the 14-year-old as the DHS's new Cybersecurity Czar.
19. Hacker Hoaxer
Browser geeks got some troubling news last October when security researchers claimed they'd identified a serious security breach in the way Firefox handles JavaScript. Mozilla.org coders then scrambled to isolate and patch the hole before it was exploited. Trouble was, the breach was entirely bogus--"a joke," said Andrew Wbeelsoi, the young hacker who'd presented the fake flaw at the Toorcon conference, stretching the definition of humor to the breaking point.
That's one way to get your 15 minutes of fame, just not the right way.
Big Mistake: Presenting a "humorous" slide show at a meeting of serious security geeks.
Bigger Mistake: Not changing your name before submitting your resume to Mozilla.org.
20. Amanda Goes Boom
She was the first star of the video blogging revolution. But last July, Rocketboom.com's quirky-yet-perky Amanda Congdon parted ways with co-boomer Andrew Baron.
The reasons behind the breakup were never really made clear. Congdon has since landed gigs with ABC and HBO.
And after a huge spike in traffic when new hostess Joanne Colan came aboard, Rocketboom's daily draw has sunk to its lowest level in a year, according to Alexa, which tracks site traffic.
No question who won this battle of the egos.
Big Mistake: Taking away the daily Amanda fix for thousands of geeks.
Bigger Mistake: Not begging her to come back.
21. No Accounting for Taste
It was the most ambitious calendar alteration since Pope Gregory XIII. In 2000, Computer Associates CEO Sanjay Kumar and seven associates invented the "35-day month," quietly moving several days' worth of revenue from one fiscal period to another in an effort to boost CA's stock price. Unfortunately, the Kumarian calendar, while ingenious, was also illegal. Last April, Kumar pleaded guilty to his part in the $2.2 billion accounting scandal and will soon be a guest of the federal government for the next 12 years. Meanwhile, CA is trying to get back some of the $14.9 million it spent defending Kumar by repo'ing his $9 million house, yacht, and a fleet of cars including two Ferraris.
Big Mistake: Kumar proclaiming his innocence after most of his co-conspirators had rolled over.
Bigger Mistake: CA standing by its man to the bitter end.
PC World Contributing Editor Dan Tynan rarely makes mistakes... while he sleeps. When awake, he writes PC World's Gadget Freak column. He's also author of the soon-to-be-remaindered Computer Privacy Annoyances (O'Reilly Media, 2005).
Taken from PCWorld.com
Link to Story on Title to post
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From exploding laptops to corporate spying to Rocketboom's bust, a review of the year's gaffes and blunders.
Dan Tynan
It was a year where the world's biggest software company had to admit its flagship operating system was going to be delayed--yet again. And the number one PC manufacturer was caught spying on reporters and board members.
In 2006, turning on your laptop was an adventure in flammability. Of course, lots of government and corporate officials didn't have to worry about their notebook bursting into flames--they'd already lost theirs--along with the personal records of millions of Americans.
Surfing the Net you stood a good chance of being hoaxed by an actress pretending to be a lonely teenager or a blogger in the employ of the planet's largest retailer. If you subscribed to AOL, your searches might have been shared with the rest of the Web. And if you did anything stupid, somebody with a video camera and a YouTube account was probably there to broadcast it to the world.
Here, then, on the following pages we humbly offer our nominations for the biggest tech mistakes of the year. (And if you notice any errors in this article, please--keep them to yourself.)
1. Assault With Batteries
When 62-year old Thomas Forqueran and a buddy were packing up from a Nevada fishing trip last July, he left his Dell Inspiron 1300 notebook in the cab of his 1966 Ford pickup. Soon Forqueran smelled smoke, then saw flames shooting out of the passenger window. Within moments the fire hit three boxes of ammunition stored in the glove box. Forqueran and his buddy ducked for cover as bullets whizzed by and the gas tank exploded .
Several flaming laptops made headlines in 2006, but it was Forqueran's story that pushed Dell to recall 4.1 million laptops containing Sony lithium ion batteries. Apple, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba, and others soon followed, and laptop makers vowed to build a safer lithium ion battery battery by July 2007.
Big Mistake: Buying anything powered by a Sony lithium ion battery.
Bigger Mistake: Packing your laptop next to the ammo.
2. Spying the HP Way
Hiring private eyes to illegally obtain phone records, putting reporters under surveillance, digging through their trash, planting tracking bugs in their e-mail, and mulling plans to place informants inside newsrooms--the HP corporate spying scandal had a Watergate-style stink on it that an ocean of perfume couldn't wash away.
But deposed HP chair Patricia Dunn's Congressional testimony on the matter, which ranged from pleas of ignorance to haughty self-righteousness, had its own lingering aroma.
Dunn and other HP executives were ultimately forced to resign; the California State Attorney General's office has charged her and four others with fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy.
Big Mistake: Spying on reporters, board members, and their families.
Bigger Mistake: Not renting the DVD of "All the President's Men."
3. Hacking the Vote
Are electronic voting machines insecure? In May, security researchers discovered a previously unknown backdoor in Diebold's AccuVote-TS touch-screen voting machines that could allow an attacker to manipulate votes, cause malfunctions, or create a 'voting virus' that spreads from machine to machine--all in under a minute and with little fear of detection. Meanwhile, Princeton researchers also found Diebold's touch-screen machines could be opened with the same kind of key used for hotel mini-bars, offering easy access to the machine's memory card. Diebold promised to fix the vulnerability eventually, but also said they weren't too worried. Why? Because such hacks would require "evil and nefarious election officials"--who don't exist.
We feel much better now.
Big Mistake: Allowing insecure voting machines anywhere near this country's electoral process.
Bigger Mistake: Electing Homer Simpson president--which might happen if we keep using these machines.
4. AOL: You've Got Manslaughter!
Last July, researchers at AOL thought it would be really cool to release search data for 650,000 or so of its members. By replacing customer names with numbers, they thought nobody would mind. They thought wrong. Among the search terms were names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and other personally identifiable information. Brave bloggers digging through the data came up with even more fascinating search strings, such as "is cocaine good for you?" (user #1766737), "finance me some gold teeth" (user #519928), and "how to kill your wife" (user #17556639). After howls of protest, AOL apologized and pulled the data, but not before some enterprising Netizens downloaded a copy and grafted a search interface onto it. The employees responsible for the gaffe and CTO Maureen Govern are now researching new employment opportunities.
Big Mistake: Blindly releasing customers' personal data.
Bigger Mistake: Confirming our worst suspicions about who's really using AOL.
5. Vista: Missing in Action
Microsoft put a moon-sized lump of coal in PC makers' stockings when it announced that consumer versions of Windows Vista would ship on January 30, 2007. While business customers can now download the oft-delayed OS, PCs with Vista preinstalled won't appear until after the 2006 holiday shopping season.
To appease angry hardware makers, Microsoft announced a voucher program that may or may not provide free upgrades to buyers of new PCs, depending on (a) who sold the system, (b) when it was purchased, (c) what version of XP came with it, and (d) which of the four different flavors of Vista they choose. (Got all that?) Then, of course, you'll have to upgrade the OS yourself. Hey, if it were easy, it wouldn't be Microsoft.
Big Mistake: Microsoft making a major OS upgrade as painful as humanly possible.
Bigger Mistake: Users not switching to Linux or the Mac when they had the chance.
6. Laptop Losers
When privacy guru Robert Ellis Smith called 2006 "the year of the stolen laptop," he wasn't exaggerating. The list of organizations that misplaced computers containing people's personal information is a Who's Who of bungling bureaucracies: Aetna, EDS, Equifax, Ernst & Young, Fidelity Investments, the FTC, ING, the IRS, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Toyota, Union Pacific, the U.S. Department of Transportation (three times), and Verizon, to name but a few.
The big kahuna of laptop losses occurred last May, when a machine containing the personal data of 28 million U.S. military veterans was stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst. (The vets dodged a bullet when the missing laptop was recovered a month later with the database unbreached.) In most cases the data was neither encrypted nor password-protected, allowing easy access for identity thieves.
Big Mistake: Organizations' failing to safeguard customer's names, addresses, and Social Security numbers.
Bigger Mistake: The public's trusting these clowns with our information in the first place.
7. YouTube Boobs
The year 2006 may be remembered as the year Internet video started kicking butt and taking names. The list of ordinary citizens undone by YouTube is long, but the highlights include: the Comcast repairman who fell asleep on the wrong person's couch (and woke up to a termination notice); the CNN anchor who left her microphone on during a presidential address and broadcast a rather personal conversation from the loo; the LAPD beating yet another restrained suspect; and, of course, the now ex-senator from Virginia who got bitten by a "macaca."
We have met Big Brother, and He is Us.
Big Mistake: Forgetting how a digital video camera and the Internet can create instant celebrities, willing or otherwise.
Bigger Mistake: Calling your constituent a monkey.
8. PlayStation 3: Late, Expensive, and Incompatible
When it was announced in spring 2005, the Sony PlayStation 3 was going to be the greatest thing to hit home gaming since a hedgehog named Sonic. Then came the delays. By the time the PS3 arrived, it was six months late, and Nintendo's cheaper and more innovative Wii had stolen much of its thunder. At $599 for the 60GB model, the PS3 is twice the price of the original PlayStation 2, yet research firm iSupply--which describes the PS3 as having supercomputer qualities--estimates that Sony still loses more than $200 per unit.
Thanks to manufacturing delays, Sony shipped an estimated 150,000 units for the North American launch, or less than half the number it had originally planned. And the PS3 was incompatible with more than 200 PlayStation and PS2 games, though Sony is addressing that problem through online updates.
The good news? Game-crazed youth are buying up PS3s and reselling them on eBay for double the asking price. And unlike, say, Sony batteries, they don't catch fire--at least, not yet.
Big Mistake: Trying to turn a supercomputer into a gaming device.
Bigger Mistake: Failing to drive a stake through the heart of Nintendo when the opportunity offered.
9. Delusions of Podhood
Last September Apple shipped at least two dozen iPods containing the RavMonE Trojan, a nasty bit of Windows malware. That's bad enough, but the company's less-than-contrite response was even worse. ("As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.") Given those glass palaces Apple likes to erect as stores, you'd think they'd be more careful about throwing stones.
Big Mistake: Shipping iPods containing malware.
Bigger Mistake: Using your "apology" to take a swipe at your competitor.
10. Google: Blogging for Dummies
You'd assume the company that owns Blogger.com might know a little something about, well, blogging. You'd be wrong. Not once, not twice, but three times Google bungled its own blogs in 2006. After a butter-fingered employee accidentally deleted the company's official blog last March, 19-year-old college student Trey Philips immediately laid claim to googleblog.blogspot.com (but quickly gave it back). In October, an attacker exploited a bug inside Blogger to post a bogus message claiming Google had discontinued a joint advertising project with eBay.
That same month, a Google employee posted two messages to its Blogger Buzz site that were meant for her personal blog (nothing naughty, thank Google).
Big Mistake: Allowing the Google-teers to blog without adult supervision.
Bigger Mistake: Believing any big corporation walks on water, even if it's trading at more than $500 a share.
11. RIAA: Scouts Dishonor
The good news: Both the RIAA and MPAA made it through the entire year without suing a single dead person for illegally downloading files.
Their big blunder (and the bad news): Enlisting the Boy Scouts of America in their hunt for file-sharing scofflaws. Scouts in the Los Angeles area can now earn an activity patch for learning about peer-to-peer networks, touring a Hollywood studio, or recording a public service announcement about the evils of file swapping.
Big Mistake: Using a revered institution to serve a narrow industry agenda.
Bigger Mistake: Teaching young boys how to rat out their parents for downloading "Hips Don't Lie."
12. Windows: Genuinely Disadvantaged
If a piece of software quietly installed itself, couldn't be removed, and phoned home with information about your system, you'd probably call it spyware. Microsoft has another name for it: Windows Genuine Advantage. Last April, Microsoft began distributing WGA as a "critical" Windows update that transmitted data back to Redmond after every reboot and nagged owners of counterfeit copies of XP (and some legit ones) to pony up for the genuine article.
WGA's installation and disclosure process caused angry users to sue the software giant. Microsoft backed off, slightly, by letting people shut off the nagging and reducing how often the software phoned home. But it still maintains that WGA exists to protect us from the evils of Windows piracy.
Big Mistake: Microsoft thinking nobody would notice.
Bigger Mistake: Users believing Vista's validation process will be any better.
13: RadioShack's Virtual Axe
When RadioShack downsized last August, it did some of the dirty work via e-mail--sending out electronic 'clean out your desk' notices to roughly 400 employees at its Fort Worth headquarters. In so doing, the troubled electronics retailer earned itself even more ill will than it did with those cloying TV commercials starring Howie Long and Terri Hatcher.
Big Mistake: Firing people by e-mail.
Bigger Mistake: Hiring Howie and Terri in the first place.
14. Wal-Mart Gets Flogged
After LonelyGirl15 was revealed as a hoax, the filmmakers behind the popular YouTube vixen became Hollywood darlings. When Walmarting Across America was discovered to be sponsored indirectly by the retailer itself, its creators were raked over the burning hot coals of the blogosphere.
Jim Thresher and Laura St. Claire's blog concept was appealingly simple: They'd drive their RV 2843 miles from Las Vegas to Atlanta, stopping each night at a different Wal-Mart and reporting on the "great people" they met there. The problem? The trip was paid for by Working Families for Wal-Mart, which is in turn largely funded by the retail juggernaut, and stage-managed by Edelman Public Relations--facts that were suspiciously absent from the blog's folksy entries.
Edelman made a pubic mea culpa and then revealed it managed two other flogs for the Godzilla of superstores: Working Families for Wal-Mart and Paid Critics.
Big Mistake: Confusing blogging with PR.
Bigger Mistake: Not hiring LonelyGirl15 actress Jennifer Rose to go along for the ride.
15. The New Newer Newest AOL
Maybe it was AOL's rapidly evaporating user base. Maybe it was the blogger whose taped phone conversation proved it's easier to quit the Mafia than to cancel your AOL account.
Or maybe they finally realized there was no one left on the planet who hadn't received (and thrown away) a free AOL disc. Whatever the inspiration, last August Time Warner announced that it was turning its pricey paid-access network into a free, ad-sponsored content service--the fourth "plan to save AOL" since the two companies merged five years ago. At the same time, AOL's Netscape subsidiary said it was reinventing itself as a Digg.com-style news site.
Four months later, the architects of these changes--CEO Jonathan Miller and Netscape honcho Jason Calacanis--are gone. Meet the new AOL, same as the old AOL.
Big Mistake: Changing direction so often even your own employees have vertigo.
Bigger Mistake: Anyone else caring.
16. Bloggers 1, Apple 0
In December 2004 Apple filed suit against Apple rumor blogs O'Grady's PowerPage and AppleInsider to find out who inside the company was leaking information to these blogs about an upcoming Apple product. (Apple had filed a similar suit against Think Secret in January 2006.)
Last May, the California Court of Appeal dismissed Apple's claims against PowerPage and AppleInsider, ruling that bloggers were protected under the state laws protecting journalists. The fate of the Think Secret suit is still to be determined.
Score one for the little guys. Then again, in light of HP's pretexting scandal, using legal means to uncover confidential sources seems almost quaint.
Big Mistake: Trying to bully bloggers into turning over their sources.
Bigger Mistake: Not hiring Patricia Dunn to plug the leaks.
17. Too Much, Too Zune
The latest attempt at an iPod Killer, Microsoft's Zune, debuted to mixed reviews.
The Zune combines a nice screen and sound with yet another complicated proprietary Digital Rights Management scheme. For example, you can share tunes with other Zune users in the same room using Wi-Fi, but each song is only good for three days or three plays before it's deleted. Meanwhile, you can't download tracks via Wi-Fi or share songs across the Internet a la MusicGremlin
What Zune will likely end up killing is any significant further development of Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM system, used by partners like Napster and Rhapsody, whose content won't play on the Zune. If you're a user who has filled your music library with PlaysForSure tunes, welcome to the social!
Big Mistake: Introducing yet another DRM system to a market that doesn't want them.
Bigger Mistake: Calling any audio player, particularly one from Microsoft, an iPod Killer.
18. DHS: The Phantom Menace
The good news: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security finally tested our nation's digital defenses last February during a simulated five-day cyber attack.
The bad news: We lost. Seven months after completing Operation Cyber Storm, the DHS revealed the results of the exercise--major communications breakdowns across the board and an embarrassing lack of preparedness.
Essentially, our country's digital infrastructure could get owned by a clever 14-year-old running an Amiga. For an agency that's received a cybersecurity grade of F from the House Government Reform Committee for three straight years, we'd expect no less.
Big Mistake: Not studying hard enough for the test.
Bigger Mistake: Not hiring the 14-year-old as the DHS's new Cybersecurity Czar.
19. Hacker Hoaxer
Browser geeks got some troubling news last October when security researchers claimed they'd identified a serious security breach in the way Firefox handles JavaScript. Mozilla.org coders then scrambled to isolate and patch the hole before it was exploited. Trouble was, the breach was entirely bogus--"a joke," said Andrew Wbeelsoi, the young hacker who'd presented the fake flaw at the Toorcon conference, stretching the definition of humor to the breaking point.
That's one way to get your 15 minutes of fame, just not the right way.
Big Mistake: Presenting a "humorous" slide show at a meeting of serious security geeks.
Bigger Mistake: Not changing your name before submitting your resume to Mozilla.org.
20. Amanda Goes Boom
She was the first star of the video blogging revolution. But last July, Rocketboom.com's quirky-yet-perky Amanda Congdon parted ways with co-boomer Andrew Baron.
The reasons behind the breakup were never really made clear. Congdon has since landed gigs with ABC and HBO.
And after a huge spike in traffic when new hostess Joanne Colan came aboard, Rocketboom's daily draw has sunk to its lowest level in a year, according to Alexa, which tracks site traffic.
No question who won this battle of the egos.
Big Mistake: Taking away the daily Amanda fix for thousands of geeks.
Bigger Mistake: Not begging her to come back.
21. No Accounting for Taste
It was the most ambitious calendar alteration since Pope Gregory XIII. In 2000, Computer Associates CEO Sanjay Kumar and seven associates invented the "35-day month," quietly moving several days' worth of revenue from one fiscal period to another in an effort to boost CA's stock price. Unfortunately, the Kumarian calendar, while ingenious, was also illegal. Last April, Kumar pleaded guilty to his part in the $2.2 billion accounting scandal and will soon be a guest of the federal government for the next 12 years. Meanwhile, CA is trying to get back some of the $14.9 million it spent defending Kumar by repo'ing his $9 million house, yacht, and a fleet of cars including two Ferraris.
Big Mistake: Kumar proclaiming his innocence after most of his co-conspirators had rolled over.
Bigger Mistake: CA standing by its man to the bitter end.
PC World Contributing Editor Dan Tynan rarely makes mistakes... while he sleeps. When awake, he writes PC World's Gadget Freak column. He's also author of the soon-to-be-remaindered Computer Privacy Annoyances (O'Reilly Media, 2005).
Good 'Old Comcast
A Comcast technician came to replace a faulty modem. After spending an hour on hold with Comcast's central office, he fell asleep on my couch. I've been in my apartment for three weeks and my internet connection is still non-functional. This is my tribute to Comcast, their low quality technology and their poor customer service.
UPDATE: My service has been restored. A Comcast team spent five hours to get everything up and running. Thanks for all your advice.
Please click the title of this blog post for the news story about this video.
UPDATE: My service has been restored. A Comcast team spent five hours to get everything up and running. Thanks for all your advice.
Please click the title of this blog post for the news story about this video.
Bring your Photos Alive
Now you can bring any digital photo alive. Make your photos speak & talk U really wont believe your eyes.
Randy calls QVC
QVC asks callers who just brought their Dells what they think about it. Randy calls in and says his option.
Runners Prank Starters
A group of runners claim there starter is running late and talk people into helping them begin their race. Watch what happens when each person shoots the starting pistol. The reactions are hilarious.
Worlds Worst Criminal
Some dude tries to hold up a store but nobody cares to pay attention to him. In the end he walks away with just a couple of bucks.
Flash comes to life
Please click the link to view this. We are working hard to post Flash files directly to this blog. However, at the current time, we cannot. If you know of any embeding software or any idea on how to do this please Comment below or contact us on our profiles.
Drag Racing Filmed at 1000 fps
Most films (cameras) use 30 fps (frames per second)
A high quality slow motion camera films drag races at 1000 frames per second. Its pretty cool to see the tires spin off the starting lines as well as the individual cylinders flying.
A high quality slow motion camera films drag races at 1000 frames per second. Its pretty cool to see the tires spin off the starting lines as well as the individual cylinders flying.
Welcome Back Ma Bell!
The biggest telecommunications merger in U.S. history just received federal approval.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved AT&T Inc.’s $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corporation, making it the largest telecoms merger in U.S. history.
The completion of the BellSouth acquisition comes after an extensive review process which included approval by or filings with 36 states, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC as well as with three foreign countries. In order to receive bipartisan FCC approval, AT&T volunteered a number of commitments, including making broadband access increasingly affordable and available to consumers and supporting public safety.
AT&T has committed to making broadband services available through a combination of technologies to 100 percent of residential living units in its 22-state local-phone-service territory by the end of 2007. Additionally, AT&T will offer a stand-alone broadband service for $19.95 as well as other offers to encourage broadband adoption by those who do not currently subscribe.
The transaction also consolidates ownership and management of Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com. AT&T will immediately integrate and converge AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular wireless and wire line Internet Protocol networks, combine product portfolios and integrate customer care capabilities. The new company also plans to expand the reach of broadband access in remote and rural locations in the traditional BellSouth region.
"AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular have led in developing and deploying many of the communications services that customers depend on today, including broadband DSL and wireless technologies," said AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. "Moving forward, AT&T will work to integrate these services for customers in the Southeast, across the country and around the world."
AT&T will launch new advertising which will begin the transition of the BellSouth brand name to AT&T in the coming days. AT&T will re-brand Cingular through a co-branded transition which is scheduled to start in 2007. Details regarding the Cingular branding will be announced at a later date. Yellowpages.com will not undergo a name or Web site address change.
AT&T's corporate headquarters will remain in San Antonio. The new AT&T Southeast (formerly BellSouth Corporation) and Cingular will continue to be based in Atlanta.
Stockholders of the former BellSouth received 1.325 shares of AT&T common stock for each common share of BellSouth. Based on AT&T's closing stock price on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006 this exchange ratio equaled $47.04 per BellSouth common share. Since the merger was announced, the market price of AT&T shares has risen 26.83 percent and BellSouth shares have increased 48.76 percent. BellSouth's common stock and debt securities will be immediately delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in connection with the completion of the acquisition
AT&T plans to repatriate 3,000 jobs currently outsourced by BellSouth outside the United States as well as to make its disaster-recovery capabilities available in order to facilitate the restoration of services in the former BellSouth region in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster.
"These commitments reflect our long history of providing consumers and businesses with the most advanced and affordable communications services," said Whitacre. "We can't wait to show people what the new AT&T can do."
The Communications Workers of America believes the merger of AT&T and BellSouth will promote increased investment and build-out of high-speed networks that are critical to the region's economic growth and the nation's position in the global economy. CWA President Larry Cohen said the merger agreement included real commitments by AT&T-BellSouth for an expanded build-out of both higher speed Internet services and DSL, an important step forward in bringing the full promise of the Internet to areas that have been passed by.
"Workers at BellSouth know that the future of communications and their own future is in the build-out of high-speed telecommunications services. This merger will help provide the resources to make this possible, and at the same time, should help create quality jobs," said Noah Savant, CWA's vice president for the Southeast and BellSouth territory. "Of course we remain concerned about the net effect on jobs within the region for frontline employees and the services we provide. We are pleased to see AT&T commitment to bringing thousands of support jobs back to the United States," Savant added.
The U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in terms of availability and access to high-speed Internet services. The availability and benefits of the Internet should be universal, but residents in rural communities, low-income urban areas and other communities don't have high-speed access and are at a growing disadvantage.
High-tech innovation and job growth, advances in telemedicine, distance learning, improving public safety and e-government all are possible and in fact routine in much of the world. In the United States, however, current speed standards are not sufficient to support these kinds of services, Larry Cohen said. "The build-out of true high-speed networks requires a huge investment of tens of billions of dollars and the AT&T-BellSouth merger will begin to provide the resources to do this," he added. Cohen also stressed that CWA strongly supports an open Internet "where consumers can go where they want, when they want. Nothing should be done to degrade or block access to websites," he said.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved AT&T Inc.’s $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corporation, making it the largest telecoms merger in U.S. history.
The completion of the BellSouth acquisition comes after an extensive review process which included approval by or filings with 36 states, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC as well as with three foreign countries. In order to receive bipartisan FCC approval, AT&T volunteered a number of commitments, including making broadband access increasingly affordable and available to consumers and supporting public safety.
AT&T has committed to making broadband services available through a combination of technologies to 100 percent of residential living units in its 22-state local-phone-service territory by the end of 2007. Additionally, AT&T will offer a stand-alone broadband service for $19.95 as well as other offers to encourage broadband adoption by those who do not currently subscribe.
The transaction also consolidates ownership and management of Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com. AT&T will immediately integrate and converge AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular wireless and wire line Internet Protocol networks, combine product portfolios and integrate customer care capabilities. The new company also plans to expand the reach of broadband access in remote and rural locations in the traditional BellSouth region.
"AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular have led in developing and deploying many of the communications services that customers depend on today, including broadband DSL and wireless technologies," said AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. "Moving forward, AT&T will work to integrate these services for customers in the Southeast, across the country and around the world."
AT&T will launch new advertising which will begin the transition of the BellSouth brand name to AT&T in the coming days. AT&T will re-brand Cingular through a co-branded transition which is scheduled to start in 2007. Details regarding the Cingular branding will be announced at a later date. Yellowpages.com will not undergo a name or Web site address change.
AT&T's corporate headquarters will remain in San Antonio. The new AT&T Southeast (formerly BellSouth Corporation) and Cingular will continue to be based in Atlanta.
Stockholders of the former BellSouth received 1.325 shares of AT&T common stock for each common share of BellSouth. Based on AT&T's closing stock price on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006 this exchange ratio equaled $47.04 per BellSouth common share. Since the merger was announced, the market price of AT&T shares has risen 26.83 percent and BellSouth shares have increased 48.76 percent. BellSouth's common stock and debt securities will be immediately delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in connection with the completion of the acquisition
AT&T plans to repatriate 3,000 jobs currently outsourced by BellSouth outside the United States as well as to make its disaster-recovery capabilities available in order to facilitate the restoration of services in the former BellSouth region in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster.
"These commitments reflect our long history of providing consumers and businesses with the most advanced and affordable communications services," said Whitacre. "We can't wait to show people what the new AT&T can do."
The Communications Workers of America believes the merger of AT&T and BellSouth will promote increased investment and build-out of high-speed networks that are critical to the region's economic growth and the nation's position in the global economy. CWA President Larry Cohen said the merger agreement included real commitments by AT&T-BellSouth for an expanded build-out of both higher speed Internet services and DSL, an important step forward in bringing the full promise of the Internet to areas that have been passed by.
"Workers at BellSouth know that the future of communications and their own future is in the build-out of high-speed telecommunications services. This merger will help provide the resources to make this possible, and at the same time, should help create quality jobs," said Noah Savant, CWA's vice president for the Southeast and BellSouth territory. "Of course we remain concerned about the net effect on jobs within the region for frontline employees and the services we provide. We are pleased to see AT&T commitment to bringing thousands of support jobs back to the United States," Savant added.
The U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in terms of availability and access to high-speed Internet services. The availability and benefits of the Internet should be universal, but residents in rural communities, low-income urban areas and other communities don't have high-speed access and are at a growing disadvantage.
High-tech innovation and job growth, advances in telemedicine, distance learning, improving public safety and e-government all are possible and in fact routine in much of the world. In the United States, however, current speed standards are not sufficient to support these kinds of services, Larry Cohen said. "The build-out of true high-speed networks requires a huge investment of tens of billions of dollars and the AT&T-BellSouth merger will begin to provide the resources to do this," he added. Cohen also stressed that CWA strongly supports an open Internet "where consumers can go where they want, when they want. Nothing should be done to degrade or block access to websites," he said.
3-year-old boy found running on I-465
Motorists stop to help child who escaped his apartment; mother charged with neglect.
By Rob Schneider
Troy Crady figures guardian angels must have had something to do with sparing Damon Dyer. The 3-year-old, wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, was found running in the middle of the slow lane of northbound I-465 Saturday morning -- and an unaware Crady, speeding by in his 1-ton flatbed, easily could have run into him. If that had happened, the consequences would have been horrific.
"It would have been like taking a Chihuahua out with this big truck," the Indianapolis man said.
The boy survived unscathed, but for a few tense moments, at least a half-dozen cars and a big rig swerved into other lanes to avoid the barefoot child. Miles away, Senior State Trooper Cedric Merritt gunned his cruiser toward the scene on the city's Northwestside after calls came in on the State Police emergency line just before 9 a.m., reporting a baby on the interstate. When Merritt heard the first reports, the 12-year veteran could only think, "Wow."
The incident led to the arrest of the boy's mother on two charges of child neglect after Merritt found she wasn't aware that her son had slipped out of her apartment. The second charge related to the discovery of a second child eating spaghetti off the floor, police said. Officers said they also found trash in the apartment and feces on the walls. Before Merritt reached the scene, several startled motorists had stopped to help the boy. Crady, who drives the truck for his job at Garage Doors of Indianapolis, was running late for an appointment when he spotted cars and the semi ahead of him suddenly pulling out of the slow lane about a half-mile south of 56th Street.
"(The) semi was right behind him," Crady said.
The truck's driver had braked, and other cars moved into the left lanes to pass the semi. When Crady flew past, he looked to the right, and "there was this little boy just a-hoofing it down the slow lane barefooted." Like several other motorists, Crady stopped and ran toward the child. A woman wrapped him in a sweater because he was shivering, but otherwise "he was just happy-go-lucky," looking like "the world is a great place," Crady said. "He had no clue he came within a hair of losing his life this morning," said Crady, 41. "He had somebody looking out for him."
Hoping to find where the boy lived, Merritt, joined by Child Protective Services workers, went to the nearby Scarborough Lake Apartments. An assistant apartment manager directed them to the Dyer family's unit. Their arrival woke Nancy Dyer up. "Oh, he got out again," Merritt said she told him after hearing about her son's escape. Dyer, who moved here from Florida about six months ago, told police she doesn't hear the children after she falls asleep on their one bed and had last seen Damon and her daughter, Gabriel, 2, just after midnight. Dyer told police she often used boxes to secure the apartment's door because Damon is able to unlock it, Merritt said. Whether she did so Friday night was unclear.
Merritt said Indianapolis police earlier last week were summoned to the area after the boy was seen running around a parking lot near his home unattended. Police weren't sure how the boy got onto the interstate, but one of the motorists who stopped told Crady he had seen Damon climbing over a fence. Crady wondered how anyone could pay so little attention to a child. "He could have very easily just ended up as a bloodstain on I-465."
Hitting him "would have destroyed my life. I would never have been the same person again."
By Rob Schneider
Troy Crady figures guardian angels must have had something to do with sparing Damon Dyer. The 3-year-old, wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, was found running in the middle of the slow lane of northbound I-465 Saturday morning -- and an unaware Crady, speeding by in his 1-ton flatbed, easily could have run into him. If that had happened, the consequences would have been horrific.
"It would have been like taking a Chihuahua out with this big truck," the Indianapolis man said.
The boy survived unscathed, but for a few tense moments, at least a half-dozen cars and a big rig swerved into other lanes to avoid the barefoot child. Miles away, Senior State Trooper Cedric Merritt gunned his cruiser toward the scene on the city's Northwestside after calls came in on the State Police emergency line just before 9 a.m., reporting a baby on the interstate. When Merritt heard the first reports, the 12-year veteran could only think, "Wow."
The incident led to the arrest of the boy's mother on two charges of child neglect after Merritt found she wasn't aware that her son had slipped out of her apartment. The second charge related to the discovery of a second child eating spaghetti off the floor, police said. Officers said they also found trash in the apartment and feces on the walls. Before Merritt reached the scene, several startled motorists had stopped to help the boy. Crady, who drives the truck for his job at Garage Doors of Indianapolis, was running late for an appointment when he spotted cars and the semi ahead of him suddenly pulling out of the slow lane about a half-mile south of 56th Street.
"(The) semi was right behind him," Crady said.
The truck's driver had braked, and other cars moved into the left lanes to pass the semi. When Crady flew past, he looked to the right, and "there was this little boy just a-hoofing it down the slow lane barefooted." Like several other motorists, Crady stopped and ran toward the child. A woman wrapped him in a sweater because he was shivering, but otherwise "he was just happy-go-lucky," looking like "the world is a great place," Crady said. "He had no clue he came within a hair of losing his life this morning," said Crady, 41. "He had somebody looking out for him."
Hoping to find where the boy lived, Merritt, joined by Child Protective Services workers, went to the nearby Scarborough Lake Apartments. An assistant apartment manager directed them to the Dyer family's unit. Their arrival woke Nancy Dyer up. "Oh, he got out again," Merritt said she told him after hearing about her son's escape. Dyer, who moved here from Florida about six months ago, told police she doesn't hear the children after she falls asleep on their one bed and had last seen Damon and her daughter, Gabriel, 2, just after midnight. Dyer told police she often used boxes to secure the apartment's door because Damon is able to unlock it, Merritt said. Whether she did so Friday night was unclear.
Merritt said Indianapolis police earlier last week were summoned to the area after the boy was seen running around a parking lot near his home unattended. Police weren't sure how the boy got onto the interstate, but one of the motorists who stopped told Crady he had seen Damon climbing over a fence. Crady wondered how anyone could pay so little attention to a child. "He could have very easily just ended up as a bloodstain on I-465."
Hitting him "would have destroyed my life. I would never have been the same person again."
Corvette Crashes During Race
This dude completely totals his souped up Corvette in a drag race. Watch him hit the concrete wall and send his vette about 15 feet in the air.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Little Las Vegas slot club in big trouble
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (UPI) -- A small Las Vegas slot machine club has gotten itself into a large heap of trouble over a $5 pay-out.
A complaint has been filed by the state Gaming Control Board against City Limits slot club for allegedly hindering the state agents' investigation of the unpaid $5, the Las Vegas Sun reported. The complaint, prepared by the Nevada attorney general's office, was filed against the club and its licensees, Sherril, Damian and Stasia Doom. The complaint asks the Gaming Control Board to take action against the owners of the club.
The whole issue began when Sheila Mathews said she was cheated out of a $5 payout while playing at City Limits. The bartender refused to pay Mathews and told her that she was not playing the machines and ordered her to leave the club. She called the Gaming Control Board, and agent Victor Ingram responded, but the club would not believe that he was a legitimate agent and would not talk to him.
The official complaint says the refusal to cooperate with the agents constitutes an unsuitable method of operation, asking that the club owners be fined.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
A complaint has been filed by the state Gaming Control Board against City Limits slot club for allegedly hindering the state agents' investigation of the unpaid $5, the Las Vegas Sun reported. The complaint, prepared by the Nevada attorney general's office, was filed against the club and its licensees, Sherril, Damian and Stasia Doom. The complaint asks the Gaming Control Board to take action against the owners of the club.
The whole issue began when Sheila Mathews said she was cheated out of a $5 payout while playing at City Limits. The bartender refused to pay Mathews and told her that she was not playing the machines and ordered her to leave the club. She called the Gaming Control Board, and agent Victor Ingram responded, but the club would not believe that he was a legitimate agent and would not talk to him.
The official complaint says the refusal to cooperate with the agents constitutes an unsuitable method of operation, asking that the club owners be fined.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Dear Yahoo!:
Dear Yahoo!:
What does "auld lang syne" really mean?
An Old Acquaintance
Dear Acquaintance:
The words "auld lang syne" mean "old long since" or "times long past." They show up in a song traditionally sung in many English-speaking countries on New Year's Eve (or Hogmanay, in Scotland) .
The lyrics as we know them were written as a poem in 1788 by Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns. However Burns noted it was an old ballad, and he "took it down" from a man who was singing it.
The earliest reference to the well-known lines comes from the 15th century. However the best-known written connection to Burns' work was a poem published in 1711 called "Old Longsyne" and attributed to either Sir Robert Aytoun or Francis Sempill.
The old Scots dialect can make the lyrics difficult to understand and remember. Even in Scotland, many people don't get the words right. It's the thought behind the song that really matters -- remembering old friendships in the new year.
What does "auld lang syne" really mean?
An Old Acquaintance
Dear Acquaintance:
The words "auld lang syne" mean "old long since" or "times long past." They show up in a song traditionally sung in many English-speaking countries on New Year's Eve (or Hogmanay, in Scotland) .
The lyrics as we know them were written as a poem in 1788 by Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns. However Burns noted it was an old ballad, and he "took it down" from a man who was singing it.
The earliest reference to the well-known lines comes from the 15th century. However the best-known written connection to Burns' work was a poem published in 1711 called "Old Longsyne" and attributed to either Sir Robert Aytoun or Francis Sempill.
The old Scots dialect can make the lyrics difficult to understand and remember. Even in Scotland, many people don't get the words right. It's the thought behind the song that really matters -- remembering old friendships in the new year.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Gopher Broke
Another fantastic video from those up-and-coming animators at Blur Studios. I don't know of any better studio outside of Pixar or Dreamworks.
Boost Your Car Remote Range!
Easy hack to increase the range of your car remote control! Mine increased 50' with this simple trick! Try it!
Dear Yahoo!:
Dear Yahoo!:
Why do dogs love to stick their heads out of car windows?
Tammy
Bergholz, Ohio
Dear Tammy:
Everyone has witnessed the rapturous joy dogs experience while sticking their heads out of car windows. Amazingly, we couldn't find any scholarly research to explain the behavior. Here are three theories we came up with...
1. The sensation of a brisk wind against your face carrying with it scents and fast-moving sights is appealing to many humans. So imagine speeding against the wind with the ability to sniff up to a million times better and to perceive movement at a much quicker pace. For a dog, sticking its head out a moving car must be an all-around sense-sensation the magnitude of which we olfactory-challenged humans can only imagine!
2. Everyone wants a better view. Dogs are no different.
3. Dogs sense what every teen instinctively knows: it's inherently cooler to travel on wheels than by foot.
While dogs may love the easy rider sensation, some pup-lovers believe the practice isn't safe. They recommend doggie seat belts or crates be used. This may sound extreme, but some dogs have actually mastered the use of automatic windows. In fact, lawmakers in Pennsylvania may pass a law requiring dogs to be constrained while traveling in cars. Freedom-loving dogs had better watch out -- the K-9 unit may soon be on their tails.
Why do dogs love to stick their heads out of car windows?
Tammy
Bergholz, Ohio
Dear Tammy:
Everyone has witnessed the rapturous joy dogs experience while sticking their heads out of car windows. Amazingly, we couldn't find any scholarly research to explain the behavior. Here are three theories we came up with...
1. The sensation of a brisk wind against your face carrying with it scents and fast-moving sights is appealing to many humans. So imagine speeding against the wind with the ability to sniff up to a million times better and to perceive movement at a much quicker pace. For a dog, sticking its head out a moving car must be an all-around sense-sensation the magnitude of which we olfactory-challenged humans can only imagine!
2. Everyone wants a better view. Dogs are no different.
3. Dogs sense what every teen instinctively knows: it's inherently cooler to travel on wheels than by foot.
While dogs may love the easy rider sensation, some pup-lovers believe the practice isn't safe. They recommend doggie seat belts or crates be used. This may sound extreme, but some dogs have actually mastered the use of automatic windows. In fact, lawmakers in Pennsylvania may pass a law requiring dogs to be constrained while traveling in cars. Freedom-loving dogs had better watch out -- the K-9 unit may soon be on their tails.
This Guy Thinks Outside The Box
Magic disappearing box trick. I've watched this like 10 times and I still can't figure out how it works. Is it a camera trick? Is there a mirror...?
Angry British Telecom Customer
A British Telcom customer goes absolutely insane on a telemarketer. Wow I know getting calls in the middle of dinner is annoying but I don't think I've ever gotten this mad.
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE!
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE!
Guy Gets Owned By Treadmill
This guy is having some issues with his treadmill. If this happened to me I would quit working out and spring for the stomach stapling surgery. I wish the camera had stayed on for two more seconds.
Saran Wrap Toilet Prank
This is a classic prank, a guy covers the toilet with Saran wrap and sets up a camera in the bathroom to record his brother. Look at the stain he left!
West Virginia Saran Wrap
This is such a great prank. I love the fact that he has to eat his way out hilarious!
HD-DVD DRM copy protection broken
Its official, the hacker known only as Muslix64 has successfully cracked the copy protection on HD-DVD called AACS. Muslix64 released the source code, as well as a video that he shot proving the concept of the decryption. Designed as a program to make back-up copies of HD-DVD movies already owned, the software is quickly picking up buzz in chat rooms, and forums across the web.
The video and link to download are currently listed at the forum where the announcement was made. The forum, Doom9 located at http://forum.doom9.org, is a known DVD hangout for those who like to discuss DVD movies, and technology. When this announcement was made originally, the first response made by user linx05 was “Is this for real?” Quickly other users downloaded the software and checked out the source code released with it. It is real. Watching the video, you see the software in action, and there is a promise of more code and maybe keys coming to the public in January.
According to the author, Muslix64, the process after some trial and error was easy, “It took me around a week to do. But I [had] wasted few days trying to work on too complicated [of an] approach. In fact, it is very simple.” According to him, the process and idea came to him after reading an online document about AACS.
“The program itself has nothing special. It simply implements the AACS decryption protocol. I have followed the freely available documents about AACS. Have a look at www.aacsla.com the trick is to find what they call the "Title keys.” So I figured out how to extract them.” However when asked about those title keys, or rather how to extract them, “I won't explain it in detail. Read the AACS doc first. You will understand.
The title keys are located on the disk in encrypted form, but for a content to be played, it has to be decrypted! So where is the decrypted version of the title key? Think about it...”
It is expected that the source code will be further developed, and that a user interface will soon be released. In addition, there are talks about ports to Linux, and OS X. One user, hechacker1, asked the most important question for those who are waiting, “So who is going to take this program to the next step?” The answer may be everyone or no one.
The download and source code are legal, regardless of what other stories about this say. This is because no decryption keys are released with it and the keys in the cfg file are all null. However, with the promise of more information coming in 2007, the growth of HD-DVD decryption source code may run away as DeCSS source did after it was released.
Analysts look at this topic two ways. Some say it was bound to happen because they warned Intel, Disney and others who had a hand in developing AACS, that it was doomed from the start because it shared similar encryption to other methods already public knowledge. Others say this might give the slow growth in the HD-DVD market its much needed push to make this a popular brand.
One doom9 forum member zilexa agrees, “Now that you made the playback of HD-DVD almost as easy as a normal DVD movie, this could very well be THE reason for people to upgrade to a HD-DVD player! (And since Bluray uses AACS as well this could mean the same thing for Bluray). Since there has not been a bump for HD-DVD and Bluray like there was when DVD was released, it didn't seem very realistic these new HD players would break through. But now with your work, this could lead to a breakthrough in the near future!”
This story will continue long into the coming year. As other coders use the source further develop the concept, and the Hollywood studios, and technology experts look to place a new method of encryption in players or HD-DVD movies to block this.
One thing is certain doom9 just got a whole slew of new readers, and members and the world will wait to see what comes next on January 2nd.
The video and link to download are currently listed at the forum where the announcement was made. The forum, Doom9 located at http://forum.doom9.org, is a known DVD hangout for those who like to discuss DVD movies, and technology. When this announcement was made originally, the first response made by user linx05 was “Is this for real?” Quickly other users downloaded the software and checked out the source code released with it. It is real. Watching the video, you see the software in action, and there is a promise of more code and maybe keys coming to the public in January.
According to the author, Muslix64, the process after some trial and error was easy, “It took me around a week to do. But I [had] wasted few days trying to work on too complicated [of an] approach. In fact, it is very simple.” According to him, the process and idea came to him after reading an online document about AACS.
“The program itself has nothing special. It simply implements the AACS decryption protocol. I have followed the freely available documents about AACS. Have a look at www.aacsla.com the trick is to find what they call the "Title keys.” So I figured out how to extract them.” However when asked about those title keys, or rather how to extract them, “I won't explain it in detail. Read the AACS doc first. You will understand.
The title keys are located on the disk in encrypted form, but for a content to be played, it has to be decrypted! So where is the decrypted version of the title key? Think about it...”
It is expected that the source code will be further developed, and that a user interface will soon be released. In addition, there are talks about ports to Linux, and OS X. One user, hechacker1, asked the most important question for those who are waiting, “So who is going to take this program to the next step?” The answer may be everyone or no one.
The download and source code are legal, regardless of what other stories about this say. This is because no decryption keys are released with it and the keys in the cfg file are all null. However, with the promise of more information coming in 2007, the growth of HD-DVD decryption source code may run away as DeCSS source did after it was released.
Analysts look at this topic two ways. Some say it was bound to happen because they warned Intel, Disney and others who had a hand in developing AACS, that it was doomed from the start because it shared similar encryption to other methods already public knowledge. Others say this might give the slow growth in the HD-DVD market its much needed push to make this a popular brand.
One doom9 forum member zilexa agrees, “Now that you made the playback of HD-DVD almost as easy as a normal DVD movie, this could very well be THE reason for people to upgrade to a HD-DVD player! (And since Bluray uses AACS as well this could mean the same thing for Bluray). Since there has not been a bump for HD-DVD and Bluray like there was when DVD was released, it didn't seem very realistic these new HD players would break through. But now with your work, this could lead to a breakthrough in the near future!”
This story will continue long into the coming year. As other coders use the source further develop the concept, and the Hollywood studios, and technology experts look to place a new method of encryption in players or HD-DVD movies to block this.
One thing is certain doom9 just got a whole slew of new readers, and members and the world will wait to see what comes next on January 2nd.
Next Ford Option: Microsoft Software?
Rumor has it that one of the many things that'll be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January will be a partnership between the Ford Motor Company and Microsoft to put a Microsoft operating system, known as Sync, into new Fords an option. The software will supposedly provide for hands-free phone calls as well as enable e-mail, music downloads, and other data-related activities.
As I read about this, two things popped into my head:
Point one. Back in the late 1990s, Microsoft launched a car electronics platform called AutoPC, based on Windows CE, with much fanfare; it did turn into a commercial product from Clarion, but seemingly went absolutely nowhere. (At the time, I attended a demo at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond--the main thing I remember is the synthesized voice it used, which sounded like an angry porpoise.)
Which is not to say that Sync is doomed to join AutoPC in the dustbin of Microsoft-product history. For one thing, between stuff like GPS and wireless broadband and Bluetooth, the technologies and applications available for car electronics have come a heck of a long way since 1998. Whether Sync will do interesting things and do them well I don't know, but there's no lack of interesting things that could be done.
Point two. One of the most oft-repeated, entertaining technology-related urban legends involves a long series of jokes relating to comparing Microsoft products with cars. (The legend involves GM, not Ford, but hey, it's close enough.)
As often is the case with urban legends, there's a real point hidden somewhere in the fantasy. And that point is that we expect Microsoft products to misbehave and annoy us and generally do things which, if they happened with cars, would be alarming or downright dangerous.
I haven't seen Sync yet, assuming that it exists and will indeed be called Sync. But I'll be intrigued to see if it's simple, reliable, and useful. And if Sync is indeed the name, it's kinda interesting that it's a name that doesn't bring up Windows and all the baggage that brand carries.
Anyhow, I'm going to CES in less than two weeks, and if Sync is indeed unveiled there, I'll be happy. The show has a gigantic hall devoted to car-related products, and as a technology guy, I'm always disappointed by it, since the products that fill it almost always seem to lag far behind the interesting things that could be done with data, networking, and entertainment in an automobile. (We're talking about an industry which hasn't even made an AUX-IN port standard equipment yet.)
I'll be glad when that hall is full of stuff worth writing about in PC World--and Sync would be, if nothing else, a step in the right direction...
As I read about this, two things popped into my head:
Point one. Back in the late 1990s, Microsoft launched a car electronics platform called AutoPC, based on Windows CE, with much fanfare; it did turn into a commercial product from Clarion, but seemingly went absolutely nowhere. (At the time, I attended a demo at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond--the main thing I remember is the synthesized voice it used, which sounded like an angry porpoise.)
Which is not to say that Sync is doomed to join AutoPC in the dustbin of Microsoft-product history. For one thing, between stuff like GPS and wireless broadband and Bluetooth, the technologies and applications available for car electronics have come a heck of a long way since 1998. Whether Sync will do interesting things and do them well I don't know, but there's no lack of interesting things that could be done.
Point two. One of the most oft-repeated, entertaining technology-related urban legends involves a long series of jokes relating to comparing Microsoft products with cars. (The legend involves GM, not Ford, but hey, it's close enough.)
As often is the case with urban legends, there's a real point hidden somewhere in the fantasy. And that point is that we expect Microsoft products to misbehave and annoy us and generally do things which, if they happened with cars, would be alarming or downright dangerous.
I haven't seen Sync yet, assuming that it exists and will indeed be called Sync. But I'll be intrigued to see if it's simple, reliable, and useful. And if Sync is indeed the name, it's kinda interesting that it's a name that doesn't bring up Windows and all the baggage that brand carries.
Anyhow, I'm going to CES in less than two weeks, and if Sync is indeed unveiled there, I'll be happy. The show has a gigantic hall devoted to car-related products, and as a technology guy, I'm always disappointed by it, since the products that fill it almost always seem to lag far behind the interesting things that could be done with data, networking, and entertainment in an automobile. (We're talking about an industry which hasn't even made an AUX-IN port standard equipment yet.)
I'll be glad when that hall is full of stuff worth writing about in PC World--and Sync would be, if nothing else, a step in the right direction...
Stephanie's Drinks From Zeke Quezada
A wild woman and her Drinks ... Here is a list of the drinks that My wife's good looking friend recommended I include in my regular rotation of gambling beverages. My personal favorite title, "Grandma's Ass Sweat". Don't taste it, let me just say a main ingredient is Old English 800 malt liquor. I had not had that since high school.
Jack & Coke
- 1 part(s) Jack Daniels
- 1 part(s) Coke or Other Soft Drink
Sex on the Beach (NYC Style) - 3/4 oz Vodka
- 3/4 oz Peach Schnapps
- Half glass(es) Cranberry Juice
- Half glass(es) Orange Juice
Sex on the Beach 1
- 1 oz Vodka
- 1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
- 1 dash(es) Grenadine
- Fill glass(es) Orange Juice
Slow Comfortable Screw Against A Wall
- 1 part(s) Orange Juice
- 1-1/2 oz Vodka
- 1-2 splash(es) Sloe Gin
- 1-2 splash(es) Southern Comfort
- 1-2 splash(es) Galliano
Directions/Comments: A variation on a classic, mix all over ice and enjoy!
Fuzzy Navel
- 1 1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
- Fill part(s) Orange Juice
Rag Pussy
- 3/4 oz Malibu Rum
- 3/4 oz Razzmatazz or Chambord
- 1 dash(es) Goldschlager or Peppermint Schnapps
- 1 dash(es) 7-Up
- 1 dash(es) Cranberry Juice
Directions/Comments: Shaken and poured into shooter glass
Chicken Piss
- 2 shot(s) Tequila
- Fill glass(es) Apple Juice
Wrinkled Pecker
- 1/2 shot(s) Rumplemintz
- 1/2 shot(s) Apple Pucker
Hooker with a Penis
- 4 oz Jack Daniels
- 2 oz Apple Pucker
- 6 oz Coke
Blue Balls
- 2 shot(s) Vodka
- 1 part(s) Blue Razzberry Kool-Aid
XXX
- 1 part(s) Blue Curacao
- 1 part(s) Bailey's Irish Cream
- 1 part(s) Amaretto
Grandma's Ass Sweat
- 3/4 pint(s) Old English Malt Liquor
- 1 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
- 1 oz Bacardi Rum 151
- 1-2 splash(es) Dr. Pepper
Directions/Comments: Mix the Old English, gin, and rum in the glass (chilled). Splash the Dr. Pepper and lick Grandma's ass!
White Silk Panties
- 1 part(s) Vodka
- 1 part(s) Peach Schnapps
- 1 part(s) 7-Up
Directions/Comments: In a shaker mix equal parts of each and shake with ice, pour into shot glass.
Brazen Hussy
-1 part vodka
-1 part triple sec
1 ½ part lemon juice
Shake into a glass
Manhattan
- 2 oz Rye Whiskey
- 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
- 1 dash(es) Angostura Bitters (optional)
Directions/Comments: Shake with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Can substitute bourbon instead of rye.
Jack & Coke
- 1 part(s) Jack Daniels
- 1 part(s) Coke or Other Soft Drink
Sex on the Beach (NYC Style) - 3/4 oz Vodka
- 3/4 oz Peach Schnapps
- Half glass(es) Cranberry Juice
- Half glass(es) Orange Juice
Sex on the Beach 1
- 1 oz Vodka
- 1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
- 1 dash(es) Grenadine
- Fill glass(es) Orange Juice
Slow Comfortable Screw Against A Wall
- 1 part(s) Orange Juice
- 1-1/2 oz Vodka
- 1-2 splash(es) Sloe Gin
- 1-2 splash(es) Southern Comfort
- 1-2 splash(es) Galliano
Directions/Comments: A variation on a classic, mix all over ice and enjoy!
Fuzzy Navel
- 1 1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
- Fill part(s) Orange Juice
Rag Pussy
- 3/4 oz Malibu Rum
- 3/4 oz Razzmatazz or Chambord
- 1 dash(es) Goldschlager or Peppermint Schnapps
- 1 dash(es) 7-Up
- 1 dash(es) Cranberry Juice
Directions/Comments: Shaken and poured into shooter glass
Chicken Piss
- 2 shot(s) Tequila
- Fill glass(es) Apple Juice
Wrinkled Pecker
- 1/2 shot(s) Rumplemintz
- 1/2 shot(s) Apple Pucker
Hooker with a Penis
- 4 oz Jack Daniels
- 2 oz Apple Pucker
- 6 oz Coke
Blue Balls
- 2 shot(s) Vodka
- 1 part(s) Blue Razzberry Kool-Aid
XXX
- 1 part(s) Blue Curacao
- 1 part(s) Bailey's Irish Cream
- 1 part(s) Amaretto
Grandma's Ass Sweat
- 3/4 pint(s) Old English Malt Liquor
- 1 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
- 1 oz Bacardi Rum 151
- 1-2 splash(es) Dr. Pepper
Directions/Comments: Mix the Old English, gin, and rum in the glass (chilled). Splash the Dr. Pepper and lick Grandma's ass!
White Silk Panties
- 1 part(s) Vodka
- 1 part(s) Peach Schnapps
- 1 part(s) 7-Up
Directions/Comments: In a shaker mix equal parts of each and shake with ice, pour into shot glass.
Brazen Hussy
-1 part vodka
-1 part triple sec
1 ½ part lemon juice
Shake into a glass
Manhattan
- 2 oz Rye Whiskey
- 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
- 1 dash(es) Angostura Bitters (optional)
Directions/Comments: Shake with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Can substitute bourbon instead of rye.
Food Network's favorite cocktails to kick off your new year
"While there are plenty of drinks to be imbibed on New Year’s Eve, nothing is better than Champagne. Here are some of our favorite cocktails to kick off your new year in bubbly style. Cheers!"
Drink Recipes
Classic Champagne Cocktail
The Classic Gin Martini
Cuba Libre
Kir Royale
Cosmopolitan
Slippery Fish
Absinthe Suisse Cocktail
Frozen Peach Champagne Cocktails
The Trifecta Cocktail
Mario's 1000 Proof Negroni Cocktail - My favorite
Pear Brandy Champagne Cocktail
Emeril's Ruby Red Rocket Cocktail
Click here to take you to the Recipes on foodnetwork.com
Drink Recipes
Classic Champagne Cocktail
The Classic Gin Martini
Cuba Libre
Kir Royale
Cosmopolitan
Slippery Fish
Absinthe Suisse Cocktail
Frozen Peach Champagne Cocktails
The Trifecta Cocktail
Mario's 1000 Proof Negroni Cocktail - My favorite
Pear Brandy Champagne Cocktail
Emeril's Ruby Red Rocket Cocktail
Click here to take you to the Recipes on foodnetwork.com
What is a Hangover?
The formal name for a hangover is veisalgia, from the Norwegian word for "uneasiness following debauchery" (kveis) and the Greek word for "pain" (algia) -- an appropriate title considering the uncomfortable symptoms experienced by the average drinker. The common hangover includes some or all of the following:
The most common symptoms are headache, fatigue and dehydration, and the least common is trembling. The severity and number of symptoms varies from person to person; however, it is generally true that the more alcohol a drinker consumes, the worse the hangover will be.
It usually takes five to seven cocktails over the course of four to six hours to cause a hangover for a light-to-moderate drinker (a man who drinks up to three alcoholic beverages a day or a woman who drinks up to one). It may take more alcohol for heavier drinkers because of increased tolerance. Other than the number of drinks consumed, hangovers can be made worse by:
The reason for some symptoms isn't fully understood, but research has led scientists to have a pretty good understanding of the primary causes of a hangover.
(Link)
- Headache
- Poor sense of overall well-being
- Sensitivity to light and sound
- Diarrhea
- Loss of appetite
- Trembling
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Dehydration(dry mouth, extreme thirst, dry eyes)
- Trouble concentrating
- Anxiety
- Difficulty sleeping
- Weakness
The most common symptoms are headache, fatigue and dehydration, and the least common is trembling. The severity and number of symptoms varies from person to person; however, it is generally true that the more alcohol a drinker consumes, the worse the hangover will be.
It usually takes five to seven cocktails over the course of four to six hours to cause a hangover for a light-to-moderate drinker (a man who drinks up to three alcoholic beverages a day or a woman who drinks up to one). It may take more alcohol for heavier drinkers because of increased tolerance. Other than the number of drinks consumed, hangovers can be made worse by:
- drinking on an empty stomach
- lack of sleep
- increased physical activity while drinking (dancing, for example)
- dehydration before drinking
- poor health
The reason for some symptoms isn't fully understood, but research has led scientists to have a pretty good understanding of the primary causes of a hangover.
(Link)
Ask Yahoo!:
Dear Yahoo!:
How can I name a star?
Marie
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Dear Marie:
You can name any star you like, but it's virtually impossible to get anyone else, much the less international authorities, to recognize your star name. Many companies will gladly take your money so they can "register" your choice of name for a particular star. This star naming is promoted as a great gift for all occasions. But none of these companies have any authority over official star names.
To shine some light on this issue, we consulted that master of exposing chicanery, Cecil Adams at the Straight Dope. He points out that the only body with the authority to name stars is the International Astronomical Union (IAU). This organization doesn't sell names for stars or any other celestial object, and doesn't recognize the names sold by any purported star-registry companies.
Stars are named according to internationally accepted rules. A few bright stars have widely known names that were given centuries years ago, such as Betelgeuse and Polaris (also called the North Star). But most stars have no proper name and never will. Instead, stars are assigned catalog numbers and are identified by their position in the sky.
Since the 1970s, various businesses have claimed to sell star names. But what these companies actually do is write your star name down in a book and randomly assign you a star. Some businesses suggest that your star name is official because the book that lists your star name is then registered with the copyright office of the U.S. Library of Congress. In reality, this doesn't confer legitimacy on your star name -- any book can be copyrighted and registered with the Library of Congress. Other companies say their list of registered star names will be kept for eternity in a secure vault or perpetual database for future generations. That may be true, but none of this means that any government, astronomical group, or space agency on Earth will refer to "your" star by "your" name.
The IAU disassociates itself from the practice of selling star names and says, "like true love and many other of the best things in human life, the beauty of the night sky is not for sale, but is free for all to enjoy."
How can I name a star?
Marie
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Dear Marie:
You can name any star you like, but it's virtually impossible to get anyone else, much the less international authorities, to recognize your star name. Many companies will gladly take your money so they can "register" your choice of name for a particular star. This star naming is promoted as a great gift for all occasions. But none of these companies have any authority over official star names.
To shine some light on this issue, we consulted that master of exposing chicanery, Cecil Adams at the Straight Dope. He points out that the only body with the authority to name stars is the International Astronomical Union (IAU). This organization doesn't sell names for stars or any other celestial object, and doesn't recognize the names sold by any purported star-registry companies.
Stars are named according to internationally accepted rules. A few bright stars have widely known names that were given centuries years ago, such as Betelgeuse and Polaris (also called the North Star). But most stars have no proper name and never will. Instead, stars are assigned catalog numbers and are identified by their position in the sky.
Since the 1970s, various businesses have claimed to sell star names. But what these companies actually do is write your star name down in a book and randomly assign you a star. Some businesses suggest that your star name is official because the book that lists your star name is then registered with the copyright office of the U.S. Library of Congress. In reality, this doesn't confer legitimacy on your star name -- any book can be copyrighted and registered with the Library of Congress. Other companies say their list of registered star names will be kept for eternity in a secure vault or perpetual database for future generations. That may be true, but none of this means that any government, astronomical group, or space agency on Earth will refer to "your" star by "your" name.
The IAU disassociates itself from the practice of selling star names and says, "like true love and many other of the best things in human life, the beauty of the night sky is not for sale, but is free for all to enjoy."
Some funny pics i found on Break.com
Flippin Granny
Heavyweight Splits
DoucheStache
Hands To Face
True American Art
Face To Tire
Happy New Year Bitch
How To Wash Clothes
Heavyweight Splits
DoucheStache
Hands To Face
True American Art
Face To Tire
Happy New Year Bitch
How To Wash Clothes
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