February 2006 Archives
It's the end of February of 2006. Bruce Davis, the ex-Chairman of the Guilford County Commissioners and one that I dislike due to these acts that we the taxpayers are paying for, still doesn't have time to blog even though he's being paid an outrageous amount of money to represent Guilford County. Heck, I as a taxpayer, am paying for his "roaming" cellular bills.
Apparently there just isn't enough time to blog with his first, and last post dated Oct. 21st of 2005. There were many follow-ups, such as this one in November and this one in December.
This is exactly why I dislike politicians. Everything is a farce when it comes to reaching out and communicating to the people. I'm also fairly amused that back during that time with the whole cellular fiasco, there were three people with County paid cell phones. Mr. Davis, Mr. Alston, and Ms. Coleman. Currently, Mr. Alston doesn't have his cellular phone posted on the County Commissioners website (2/28/06). Did he turn it in? Anyone?
This is also the reason I love my city Councilwoman, Sandy Carmany. Communication galore! Talk about not shirking responsibilities. Bravo Sandy!
So when are we as a community going to get down to business and oust these people that supposedly represent "us" but voted to give RFMicro $800k+ as the fourth incentives package without paying any attention to what we have to say? I'm not one to get corrupted by the political realm, but there are others that are strong enough to withstand the pressure. Hoggard? Wanna give it a shot? It pays well.
A very simple solder hack to implement local dimming with an X10 wall switch. The basic concept is that the X10 dimmers can dim the lights via software, but not via the actual switch itself. It takes one single solder short to implement this. Talk about easy if you've done any easy soldering before.
X10 is a technology that allows you to control your appliances and devices from the network/Internet.
Strangely enough, Deutche Telekom has joined the "not too bright" crowd against Google and the other major Internet firms. As quoted:
According to an interview in WirtschaftsWoche, Deutsche Telekom director assured that not only should users pay telecommunications companies for the access to the Internet, but also Web firms (he mentioned Google, Yahoo!, Amazon o eBay), since they use the infrastructures for their businesses.
Hello? They have to pay for their bandwidth somehow, and it does go through a telecommunications service at some point. Every corporation on the planet that does Internet business doesn't own their own infrastructure. They have to connect their fiber into the tier-one pipes and that's where they get charged. And as far as I know, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and every other Internet firm doesn't own any of the tier-one infrastructure. Who does? Telecommunication giants such as the Bells and Deutche Telekom. The same that are complaining that these firms are "freeloading".
WHY DOESN'T ANYONE UNDERSTAND THIS. Oh wait, we forgot. Dealing with management types again that know nothing about the technology they manage.
Via Dirson
Google is readying its micropayment site, Google Purchases. This will be used in conjuction with Google Base, Google Video, and other Google products. The big question? Will this actually become usable?
PayPal has only succeeded due to the adoption by eBay. Will Google Purchases have the same effect? Will eBay be willing to let its micropayment contender on for more flexibility? I would have to venture "no".
This is definitely another useful product of Google's, but whether or not it will succeed remains to be seen.
This is amusing since I've brought this up before and I agree wholeheartedly. The digg site shows what the public is gauging and what type of news interests the audience. The only reason this wouldn't work? If you're a news buff for a certain niche market, this type of technology would fail miserably.
Jake showed them how the members can label a story “lame†and off it goes. He made it clear that Digg is owned by its public and that’s why it works. Shouldn’t all news organisations wish the public owned the news?
Digg only works when it is not part of the Long Tail. Period. And being such, if you're interested in a particular subject that the usual masses does not (say, the genetic research of green peas) then blogs and other Long Tail news sources would be much better suited.
ATI has always been fairly poor with their linux drivers, especially 3D support due to binary constraints and proprietary driver information. Nvidia on the other hand has been very quick in releasing drivers for Linux for new product releases. ATI has recently been slammed in Driver Heaven, after a product that's been out for five months doesn't have any linux support whatsoever.
ATI would do well to just release certain hooks in an API to open-source developers and allow development to be done by the community. This would relieve them of driver support, and also open a new line of communication with the open-source community. Just a thought, although I doubt it will happen.
Use these tips and apps to reclaim GBs of hard drive space to make room for new stuff. Some really nice free apps as well as some shareware and relatively low cost programs. There is a quasi-NSWF image at the top of the page, but the content is clean.
Via digg.
Seattle, as progressive as it is, has moved in on another front. Municpality backed podcasting. Seattle's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs has started the OnHold service that provides a podcast featuring a local musician every week. This is then archived and creating a "local music scene" database online. Not only is there the podcast, but there are links to the artists' CDs and websites for purchasing.
Now if there's ANYTHING Greensboro should be doing, it's this. Follow the big dog of change.
WinDirStat is a Windows cleanup tool and usage viewer. It is also released under GPL so it is open-source.
It is one of the most unique and disk usage viewers since it shows the tree map along with file sizes and is able to graphically represent the disk right away. This is useful in seeing what is on the disk and how it is layed out.
Sometimes, it's nice to know how to use a drive effectively when installing a program or removing one.
Via WinDirStat
Scary. If you watch the video of some South Florida police officers, apparently they are very aggressive to a very straight-forward question. "How do I fill out a complaint against a police officer?"
While this is not a national requirement, police chiefs nationally recommend to have a generic form to begin a paper trail in case there is any question to unauthorized authoritative behavior. This is proven by the investigative reporting on Police Station Intimidation by CBS News 4 in South Florida along with a police watchdog group, Police Complaint Center.
Watch the video. Be awed. The watch the follow-up. Would anyone in GPD be belligerent as this guy? I hope not, and from knowing some officers, GPD seems to have very-well behaved and trained. But the real question is....
"Do we have police complaint forms?" Or are we like the SFPD.
Via CBSNews4
AIDA32 has shut down the development, but it is still one of the best system information tools.
AIDA32 is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC. It can display information on the screen, print it, or save it to file in various formats like HTML, CSV or XML. For corporate users, AIDA32 offers command-line switches, network audit and audit statistics, remote system information and network management.
For Windows.
Via MajorGeeks
Dead Pixel Tester does exactly what the name says.... it tests dead pixels. It's actually written for the Windows OS and is performed on TFT panels. These are basically for any LCD monitors or laptop screens. Definitely worth a look to see if you can't fix a few of those dead pixels.
Via DPS
You got to love weird things that happen in politics. Here is PROOF that voting machines were tampered with before the November 2nd election date for at least 40 Sequoia machines. Apparently of these 40 machines, there were votes on dates prior to the November 2nd date, but after the L&A (Logic & Accuracy) tests to show that the machines were okay.
Gee. Foul play afoot? Sounds like it.
Via BlackBoxVoting
Newer video cards have all sorts of variables to tweak. PowerStrip does just that by setting and configuring the hardware support for a multitude of graphics cards. While this was written for newer cards, it seems to also work on a number of older manufacturers also.
If you're a tweaker and you want the most out of your video card, this is the tool to do it with. For Windows.
Via EntechTaiwan
NTT DoCoMo has just finished some 4G testing at a resounding 2.5Gbps. Unfortunately, you need no less than six MIMO antennas but this is a great improvement on the last test that resulted in 1Gbp throughput. It was a moving vehicle test, but at a whopping fast 12.5 mph, they might as well have been in a fixed location.
Sprint Nextel Corporation has served PCSIntel with a DMCA violation notice. What's most amusing is that by doing so, they have pretty much hurt their own business. Why is this?
PCSIntel served as an information source about news, new phones, and technology updates about Sprint Nextel, Verizon, and many other carriers. This served as as great consumer site to know about what is good, bad, and the ugly about the site.
While we are unsure about the whole fiasco about alleged proprietary information being divulged off of PCSIntel, we do know that if you chase after the logo use by PCSIntel, then you better chase down EngadgetMobile, Engadget, and the rest of the world that uses that logo to depict Sprint. DMCA. Bah. It serves its purpose, and unless there was proprietary information here, this was definitely doing the consumer base a great disservice.
UPDATE (11:29PM): This was resolved and the DMCA notice was withdrawn.
Via PCSIntel
What is this? origamiproject.com has been registered to Microsoft and they have a launch date of March 2nd, 2006. If you click the simple flash, it's just a familiar spoked design that many have seen before.
What exactly is this? Could it be some new project that we haven't heard about? Wait... could it be this?
The best example of this is easily the Origami Personal Communicator from chipmaker National Semiconductor. So named for the multitude of ways it can be folded, Origami is many products in one: a personal digital assistant (PDA) running Microsoft's Windows XP, digital camera, portable Internet access device, smart mobile phone and an MP3 digital music player that supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless networking all crammed into a single package. Or rather it would be if it actually existed.
Hmm.
Via origamiproject
Steve Wozniak is one of the founders of the famous corporation, Apple. Yet he's had little say in what goes on in the corporation currently and is off doing his own things like any other engineer. He doesn't like how Microsoft has been tryin to shed the "Darth Vader" image but has nothing to show for it either. Microsoft has been bickering that they will be releasing product lines to rival the current digital music player holder, the iPod, but the Woz is concerned that Microsoft will create a weak product and try to use market dominance to force it upon consumers. What's most amusing is this quote of his:
“I hope Microsoft improves and becomes more like Apple.â€
Us too, Steve. Us too.
Via GlobeandMail
Googlebot 2.0 is smarter than the average bear. In fact, instead of surfing the website completely like every other crawler currently, this one is now requesting css and js files just as a human being surfing the site would. This could inherently change the way things are looked at and which pages get priority depending on how deep a usual human being surfs.
Evolution of SEO and on the forefront is the giant Google. Ahh. Makes us weep in envy.
Via Adsensebits
Yes, the rumors were true. Google has an Ajax page creator. It's interesting, but not LUX's cup of tea. Take a look if you have a gmail account. If you don't, get one. No announcement yet on Google, but it'll be coming.
UPDATE (12:40PM): Google experienced so much traffic, that they've locked down until they can increase capacity for this. Here's the official message.
CPU RightMark is a Russian open source project for performance testing and metrics. Written for Windows, there is a whole suite of tools that are included in finetuning your equipment. The majority of these tools are not for the common user, but more settled for overclockers and those that are constantly tweaking their voltages and other such variables.
But.... if you're just curious about performance of your system, this is the suite to have.
Via RightMark
Amusing story by Mozilla Foundation's Gervase Markham, the person in charge of licensing. Basically, an officer of the UK's Trading Standards office could not get around the fact that it was okay for companies to sell versions of Mozilla as long as they abided by GPL, even though Mozilla gives it away for free.
I wrote back, politely explaining the principles of copyleft – that the software was free, both as in speech and as in price, and that people copying and redistributing it was a feature, not a bug. I said that selling verbatim copies of Firefox on physical media was absolutely fine with us, and we would like her to return any confiscated CDs and allow us to continue with our plan for world domination (or words to that effect).Haha. The loveliness of GPL. World domination by open-source! Sounds good to us.
Via Times.UK
It figures that some press would get its hands on some PR and spin it way out of proportion. It's even more disappointing when it comes from well known MIT publication, Technology Review.
The article by Kate Greene, headlines with "Faster than Fiber". Talk about peaking my attention when it's my professional realm. So I take a look at Gigabeam's technology. Not something that is new, but Gigabeam basically uses tight beams of light (instead of radio waves) to run data over point-to-point networks. This basically creates a optical transmission similar to infrared, but on a different frequency. Here's thePR spin that is so unbecoming of Technology Review. Nothing there says that this optical technology transmits faster than the speed of light (which is what fiber optics does - transfer at the speed of light). Here's the catch of it all. Gigabeam uses more spectrum than most to transfer its data. What does this mean in regular speak?
If I take a pipe and force water through it, there is only so much water I can force through at a constant pressure. But if I increase the pipe's diameter, then it accomodates more capacity at the same pressure.
Similarly, this concept is applied to spectrum, as well as fiber optics and every network in existence. Bigger pipe means more data. Well of course it transfers more! I can increase my fiber bundle also! Sheesh. And to top it off, wireless technologies have to deal with external interference such as buildings, trees, rain, etc. The point is: the author of the article spoke to the VP of Marketing who sold a good line. But there wasn't enough technological background into how the optical technology works. Everyone who has ever taken college physics knows that nothing travels faster than the speed of light (currently). Gigabeam has a great technology, but the headline makes it seem that it's faster than a wireline technology which is ridiculous. Compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges.
Another case of an uninformed person making idiotic decisions for the rest of humanity. The president of Lakehead University, Fred Gilbert has said:
"All I'm saying is while the jury's out on this one, I'm not going to put in place what is potential chronic exposure for our students," he said. "Admittedly that's highest around the locations of the antenna sites and the wireless hotspots, but those are the places people tend to gravitate to because they get the best reception."
Gee. While you're at it, why don't you ban any part 15 device? That would include televisions, microwaves, cordless phones, 2-way radios, wireless keyboards, wireless mice,... I mean if you're really concerned about "health concerns" every single one of those items, along with a few not so obvious ones should also be banned. Truthfully, if you really want get down to health concerns, a cell phone tower alone pumps way more "radio waves" into you than any of those combined. I don't see Mr. Gilbert giving up his cell phone just yet, do you?
You know you've been missing out in the technology realm when you see this... in MORRISVILLE, NC? WHAT THE.... (yes, that's over by Raleigh-Durham International Airport).
Yeah, the KFC/Taco Bell doesn't have human beings taking orders. Instead, you punch it in, and pay with cash or credit. When they implement this in a drive-thru, and I get my food the way I want it... then we might have something interesting. Of course, that screen will have to come with insta-Purell.
If you have a Centrino based notebook, this is a must-have utility. Notebook Hardware Control can adjust and monitor the voltage and processor as well as take control of the notebook fan (and we all know those Dells, Compaqs, and HPs have some raging fans going on).
This is for Windows, and fair warning... if you mess with your hardware's settings from default, you could seriously damage your hardware. So don't be playing with these unless you really know what you're doing.. and even then you might have a burnt out notebook!
Via pbus-167
Windows largest Window's error. Where else? In the heart of NYC.
Via NetworkWorld
Sometimes, you wonder about all the things you try to do to make this world a better place, just to have people like this screw it up for the rest of us. Somehow, ethics and morals are the last thing on their minds. In any case, a woman loses her expensive camera on a vacation in Hawaii. A Canadian couple with child finds it, but will not return the camera because the child likes the camera too much. They won't even return her memory cards.
"Well," she said, "we have a bit of a situation. You see, my nine year old son found your camera, and we wanted to show him to do the right thing, so we called, but now he's been using it for a week and he really loves it and we can't bear to take it from him."I listened, not sure where she was going with this.
"And he was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and he's now convinced he has bad luck, and finding the camera was good luck, and so we can't tell him that he has to give it up. Also we had to spend a lot of money to get a charger and a memory card..."
I was incredulous. "This is an expensive camera, you know."
"Oh, we know, we looked it up."
Judith, the owner of the camera, has now lost some faith in humanity. If I ran into the same situation, I would be too. Fortunately, not all Canadians are screwed up like this family just as not all Americans are on the up-and-up. It's strange that we all feel this way from time to time. Perhaps God created immoral and stupid people to test us in some fashion. And boy does it test us.
This is where I find reporters don't do their jobs. They already have a "story headline" and no matter what you tell them, they try to fit it into that headline. What the hell.
An ABC affiliate contacted GamerDad's Alan Long on a piece about Nintendo DS's Pictochat. Apparently they got wind that pedophiles could be contacting your child through their DS. While Mr. Long spent a good fifteen minutes explaining how this was a long shot in the dark due to certain constraints placed on the system, not to mention the DS doesn't have ISP capabilities, the ABC affiliate still ran the story.
What's the most amusing is that Gamerdad.com is a site for parents that want to share the gaming age with their children, but all the while being safe and knowledgeable about the games their children can play. Now why can't they run a story on the moronic parents that buy Grand Theft Auto for their 12 year olds when the rating obviously states "Mature"? I suppose sex and violence sells, but paranoia about sex and violence sells even more.
Via GamerDad
A quick side by side comparison of current PDA browsers for Windows Mobile:
Test environment
software: PocketPC 2003
hardware: Toshiba e355, iPaq 5455
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer is past its time here. No way to download a new version, and the PDAs that I tested on could not load any flash websites or would bomb out with usual sites. Microsoft.com looked just didn't look the same. Load time: 1-2 seconds.
Mozilla Minimo 0.13
Mozilla has never disappointed with their Firefox product for the desktop. But for the PDA? Tabs are one of the big "selling" keys. The one disappointment is that the load time is extremely long and the browser lags under pressure. Not exactly something I want to hear from the dainty little PDA processor versus your desktop. Mozilla must be rolling in the bank if they can provide the Minimo team with faster processors than the tiny ones in my arsenal. Load time: 15-25 seconds
Opera 8.50 Mobile Beta (1616)
Opera has never really keyed in with me on the desktop end. But from a mobile perspective, I have all the respect for this corporation. The load time is very minimal and it has by far the most features of a portable browser. Loading of pages were about as quick as IE, but the browser succeeded in wowing in every feature, from new windows, to the ability to resize images. Load time: 1-2 seconds
Overall: I find that while Opera is definitely the shootout winner, Mozilla still comes in second due to the inability for IE to be upgraded. If Microsoft had a way to upgrade the same way you could with desktops, IE would probably win out over Mozilla based on load time. Opera has all the requirements for a portable browser to be used functionally like a desktop browser, but still function under the stress of the tiny PDA processor. If you're going to be using your PDA/phone for any type of surfing, lay down some of the money for Opera after you've test-driven the browser. You won't regret it.
For Windows NT, 2000, and XP. Everyone knows that you're supposed to defrag your harddrive so that it doesn't slow to a snail's crawl. Most Windows administrators also know that Windows defrag is like a ghost from hell, when it comes to efficient defragging.
Well, O&O Defrag 2000 takes care of all of that. It's one of the best freeware defraggers out there and can handle the data without corruption and will make your harddrive happy. And you want a happy harddrive right?
Skype automatically encrypts every phone call with AES encryption. Being such, the US government is going nuts because Skype isn't based in the US and thereby not subject to the wiretapping laws that the FCC ruled on last year.
Amusingly enough, AES is also used by US government organizations to encrypt sensitive data. Since the EU's Data Retention Directive doesn't include real-time logging, that still goes against what the US government would want to do.
So it falls into a gray area of how to look at encryption. A lot of corporations use encryption to protect trade secrets as well as communication. When is encrypting a criminal activity and when is it national security?
Via ArsTechnica
Google is now fighting the subpoena formally with the ACLU citing privacy rights of its users and trade secrets. Truthfully, they seem to be in the right on this one. Why? Their arguments are very sound. They are claiming that while the government wants to use the information (which consists of IPs and URL information) to fight child pornography, there is no way to prove the content of websites with that information. The government will not let Google know how that information is being used either to get to the conclusion that they wish. Thus, Google responds with:
"The very fact that the Government is so uninformed about the value of search and URL information and so dismissive of Google's interest in protecting it speaks volumes about why the Court should protect Google from this compelled disclosure," the company wrote.
My question here: Where's the Global Internet Freedom Task Force in all of this? In everything I've pointed out before, they're supposedly fighting for fundamental human rights, but one other of their decrees is to not let corporations act on such ridiculous demands from foreign governments. What about our own? Yahoo! and MSN have already bowed to the demands of the government, but Google makes very solid points that the government has not supported their fact finding.
Via MercuryNews
MacOS X has a neat notification system called Growl. This thing will basically notify you about all sorts of things, from who's accessing your network to the next song that iTunes is going to pick in the "random" line up slot. You can have it email you, or speak to you instead of displayed on the screen. The system is very flexible and definitely worth a look at.
There's really not much to it on upgrading RAM in a Mac but in case you need why, and how much RAM do I really need type of scenario, here it is. Usually, it's a safe bet that more is better always with RAM. Enjoy.
With an engineer and a police officer to back the findings from this independent study, here is a little ten minute report from Infowars to show that the shots fired from the shotgun of the Vice President was a lot closer than 30 yards based on spread pattern and penetration analysis.
Smoking gun evidence? In all senses of the term.
Via InfoWars
I won't hold my breath here, but my cable bill is definitely expensive. For analog cable, I pay a lousy $54 a month to Time Warner and that's up three dollars and change due to some "fees". This has been going on every year for the last four years I've lived here.
Strangely enough, in other parts of the nation where there is fierce competition between FiOS TV and cable television. This forced Charter Communications to offer Internet and cable for $50 a month. Yes, that's BOTH.
"There is only head-to-head competition in less than two percent of America," said Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). He's right, and one of the biggest barriers to competition in the cable market is franchising rules -- the regulatory system that allows local governments to set the terms and conditions for businesses to enter the video market.
I won't hold my breath since in the South, things hardly ever go against big businesses due to the good ole boy networks, but the fact that consumers are paying on average, $8.4 billion a year due to franchise regulations and $1.7 billiion in "dead-weight loss" is ridiculous. What's most amusing is that the high prices we pay, don't create more jobs. They actually just line executive bonuses year after year. Good thing that I'm looking into dropping my cable service for something better.
Via TechNewsWorld
The only difference between SignalWide and current manufacturers is that there is a wireless base that is offered for about $100 more. The basic concept is that you're amplifying the signal of your phone with another device that is plugged into something that has a bit more power (ie. outlet). This will amplify the signal and take the strain off of your phone's transmitter.
New technology? Most definitely not. But SignalWide is one of the few, if not the only vendor that provides a wireless base. Retailing for $499 per 8 simultaneous users.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will appear state side on April 25th in a 2 DVD special edition set.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is bringing the highly-anticipated CG-animated film FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children to DVD and for PSP on April 25th. Through 100 minutes of beautifully crafted visual content, FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children revisits the rich universe and memorable characters of FINAL FANTASY VII, one of the best selling video games of all time. Boasting the voice talent of Steve Burton (The Last Castle, Taken) as Cloud, Rachael Leigh Cook (She's All That, Josie and the Pussycats) as Tifa, Mena Suvari (American Beauty, Rumor Has It) as Aerith and from the adventurous mind of Director and Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura (FINAL FANTASY VII, VIII, X and the KINGDOM HEARTS® video game series), the film features a strong blend of action, sci-fi and anime in the most stylish CG animation that fans of the video game have come to expect.
What else can you say, but w00t! Both DVD and UMD versions will be available, and prices will be close to the $27 to $30 range depending on the medium.
DNA proof has shaken the Mormon world. Mormons have converted millions of Native Americans to the religion by saying that they were descendants of the lost tribe of Jews that sailed for the New World in 600 BC.
The God-fearing Nephites were "pure" (the word was officially changed from "white" in 1981) and "delightsome." The idol-worshiping Lamanites received the "curse of blackness," turning their skin dark.According to the Book of Mormon, by 385 AD the dark-skinned Lamanites had wiped out other Hebrews. The Mormon church called the victors "the principal ancestors of the American Indians." If the Lamanites returned to the church, their skin could once again become white.
Current DNA proof show that Native Americans descended not from the Middle East, but from Asia.
Via LATimes
The 2257 laws concern the possession, acting in, production, selling or publishing of pornography between consenting adults. The original law was written to protect children after the ilmelight was on Traci Lords, a well-known pornstar turned actress that started in the business at age fifteen after borrowing her friend's sister's birth certificate and using a fake license.
This is probably tied to the war against porn by Attorney General Gonzalez. As the adult industry gears up to provide records and comply or move overseas to make prosecution even more difficult, one has to wonder where the priorities have gone.
First and foremost, mainstream pornography should stay behind closed doors. If you don't like it, don't watch it, buy it, etc. There is the choice to not do it. Second, I find it absolutely amusing that the same conservatives behind the push to ban pornography altogether are the ones coming from states where there are a huge number of strip clubs. Just an observation, but isn't that slight hypocrisy? In any case, pornography is protected by First Amendment just as much as the KKK's publications. In either case, they offend some, not so much to others, but in this country, it's a shame to lose the freedom to express yourself in whatever way.
This administration is trodding down another slippery slope. Wait. Where's the Global Internet Freedom Task Force on all of this?
UPDATE (3:28PM): More on policing porn. DHS officers reassigned to different duties after a botched attempt to ban pornography from a library. Training in First Amendment rights is planned for all homeland security officers in Montgomery County. Don't bother asking what defending one's homeland has to do with pornography. Nobody knows.
Revealed in the Katrina hearings, apparently the Homeland Security Secretary and the Defense Secretary don't use email. According to the offices, all senior officials of both offices are supposed to know that if there is something important, they pick up the phone or go to the office. But wait... there's more!
But Dr. Irwin Redlener, a disaster-preparedness expert at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, expressed surprise that two officials in such critical positions would not be adept at routine methods of modern communication. “This can’t be true,†he said, only half-jokingly. “It’s almost inconceivable in 2006 for officials at that level of government not to be directly connected to systems of communications.â€
Figures.
Via Newsweek
Check washing is the process where someone uses chemicals or dissolvants to "erase" your signature or amounts to defraud you the consumer. A couple of quick tips to avoid this really bad bad thing that could happen:
- Use black ink
- Don't use ballpoint or marker based inks
- Use gels
With those three tips, you should be a little safer from those unscrupulous individuals out to steal your checks.
Not really, but it's amusing that at 3GSM, the GSM conference being held in Barcelona, that Motorola advertisement is even in the restrooms. Scary isn't it. At least they didn't go to the extent of modifying the urinals and toilets so that when you crossed the IR path, it would say... "HELLOMOTO".
If the rumors are true, this could definitely put Apple in the big time for the mobile music arena. Rumor has it that the latest version of iTunes has an upgrade your ROKR feature that pulls off the cap. This bodes as good news for both Motorola and Apple whom both have taken a beating from the gadget world for the 100 song cap on the ROKR phone.
UPDATE (12:11PM): The screenshot was for non-US customers. Apparently ROKR's outside the US had less than 100 song cap. This brings them up to the 100 song cap. Bleh. Looks like Apple is still trying to stifle the mobile music market then.