Archive for the ‘Current Events’ Category
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Blogger takes Honda’s $10m hydrogen fuel cell FCX Clarity for a test drive
What would you do if Honda handed you the keys to a $10 million car that emits only water vapor? Everything legal, that’s what. Read AutoblogGreen’s first in-depth review of a car some lucky people will be able to lease next summer. When will the rest of us get to drive a hydrogen car?
Broadband speeds days numbered?
Enjoy your speedy broadband Web access while you can. The Web will start to slow down as early as 2010, as use of interactive and video-intensive services overwhelms local cable, phone and wireless Internet providers
Think Recycling Computers Is A Good Thing? Think Again
Most people think they’re helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they’re contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas
Is AMD Doomed?
Can a $622M dollar cash infusion plus reasonably profitable GPUs give AMD enough breathing room to prove its gamble on true quad core was a good one? The jury is still out, but the portents are not very encouraging. The tech world really needs a scrappy, nimble CPU company like AMD, just like it needs a scrappy, cool computer company like Apple.
Why Car Salesmen Think its Okay to Screw you, And what you can do about it!
This is a good article on common arguments a car salesman may throw at you during the buying process. Very informative, kind of funny, but SO true!
Related posts
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Google offers API for Outlook migration to Gmail
Google took a giant step on Friday to make it easier for companies to migrate any e-mail system over to Google Apps Gmail by offering an E-mail Migration API targeted at corporate developers and e-mail administrators.
Become an Internet Legend in Your Free Time: Tips from Internet Celebrities
“The Internet moves very fast,” says Gary “Numa Numa” Brolsma. “Your video has to be funny, or get to the point, very quickly. People are clicking all the time. If you don’t hook people in the first 15 seconds, they’ll move on.”
Top 30 websites that still are using tables as layout structure
You won´t believed how many they are. Some of then are your daily web routine. Stop hunting those IE CSS tricks and bring back your Frontpage 98 my friend designer, we are still in web 0.8889
How Top Bloggers Really Promote their Websites
Simple question: “If you had 2-hours a day to devote to no-cost, off-blog (even off-line) marketing for your blog, what would you do?†I posed this very question to a collection of some of the world’s top bloggers and social network marketers…and here’s what they revealed.
15 Unreasonably Useful Websites
A list of 15 websites that are either useful or entertaining.
Related posts
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
I have had this post on my “todo” list for some time. I am not really sure how to write it without people getting mad at me. It seems like every time I write about something that threatens people’s ways of life, I hear about it. I can understand that, because I wouldn’t want someone telling me what to do, but perhaps a suggestion…I would listen to.
I guess we are all beginning to realize there is a problem out there. I just read an article on Yahoo!, titled, “UN panel: Climate change accelerating.” That’s not good. I mean, the article was well written, but what it was about isn’t good.
I think I have become an ever increasingly bitter person. It probably has something to do with me thinking an awful lot about stuff. I spend time thinking about consumption, power, working, relationships and life in general. It kills me to go out there in the world and see people who don’t seem to be doing much thinking at all.
One of the things that really gets to me is people buying too much stuff. I write a lot about things I have purchased and it may seem like I purchase a lot. Maybe I do. Let’s just say that half the stuff I write about, I never get. I usually spend a few months tossing it around in my head. I always think and think and think and that’s one annoying thing about me. Also, I usually buy stuff that has a purpose. I buy things I need for either survival or for business. I never buy things because they are on sale. The good thing is that Laura and I recycle more than we through away. There is rarely a full garbage can out at the end of the driveway on pickup day.
I saw this lady on Oprah the other day who had “hoarding disease.” The show was helping her overcome her problem and they were going through all the junk she had in her house. They would ask how she got some of the items and one time, she responded something like, “Oh, well that was on sale. They were almost asking me to buy it.” To me, that’s just crazy. Who buys something they don’t need because it’s on sale? Who does that?
I suffer from thinking about chains of events. Every purchase has polluted in its own way. Every little trinket has either cut down a tree, burned oil for shipping, used too much packaging, created sub-par working conditions…you get the idea. So how does one live a life being angry about their own purchases and even angrier about other people’s purchases? I don’t know. All I know is that every time I mention it, people get mad at me.
I like charities as much as the next guy, but I have begun thinking about them too. I am starting to think that I have some sort of problem. Now, people can’t just ask me to contribute without me thinking about whether the charity abused animals for research, caused the purchase of way too many toys or cut down a rain forest. The only thing I can think of to donate to is PETA because they don’t seem to be filling the world up with junk or polluting.
As you may know, I have been doing some research on the next car I am going to buy. This is especially important because cars create lots of pollution. There is a debate in my head whether to get one with not so good gas mileage or one with really good gas mileage. I know I am not going to drive nearly as much as I used to, so this issue is smaller than it should be. I think about it though and I guess that’s good.
We have been hearing about over-consumption for a long time now. Why is it that people still are shocked to hear someone talk about it? Can I say that I am not for buying kids so many toys without being branded as being against kids? Can I say that I think people should think more about efficiency when donating new houses to the less fortunate without being branded as being against the poor? Can I say that researchers should consider the rights of animals when doing medical research without being branded as being against the ill?
As you can see, there is a fine line to walk when talking about these issues. Unfortunately, if no one talks about them, we are going to be living on a very hot planet, among many many stinky landfills with no more animals. That is not good.
The good thing is that there are a few people out there who think along the same lines as I do. TreeHugger has a good article called, “Birthdays Without Pressure” which links to a related website that deals with the problems with birthday parties.
Read a little of the information on the websites I just linked to and please leave me a comment.
Related posts
Friday, November 16th, 2007
I heard there was going to be another Democratic debate last night in Las Vegas. I was pretty excited, because I like debates.
We sat down to start eating dinner when Laura got up to see if she could find which channel the debate was on. For some reason, we couldn’t seem to locate it. I hopped up and walked into the other room to do some research online. I discovered that the debate was going to be aired on CNN. I went back into the living room to find CNN on the TV. Again, I couldn’t find the debate, nor CNN for that matter. Hmmmm…
We finished up dinner and I visited CNN.com to get some more information. I discovered that I could watch the debate live online, right there at CNN.com. I was thinking to myself…”Yeah right, like it’s going to come in smoothly, without breaking up to buffer ever few seconds.” I clicked the player, downloaded the plugin for Firefox and off I went.
I couldn’t believe it. There I was, sitting at my computer two hours later watching them finish up the debate. About half way through, I noticed that I could enlarge the player window to fit the entire twenty two inches on my monitor. It was like watching a television. Everything was smooth and there were no commercials. During the times the commercials were airing on the television, they flipped over to live coverage of the debate on the CNN.com channel. It was so cool.
I guess things are changing quickly. By the way, Hillary did much better and was quite impressive.
Related posts
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
High-quality YouTube videos coming soon
YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, speaking at the NewTeeVee Live conference today, confirmed that high-quality YouTube video streams are coming soon.
Does Internet kill or promote culture?
This article by Jeffrey Barlow of Pacific University discusses the impact of the internet on modern cultures. Using 2 differing texts, he discusses how the internet positively and negatively effects the way we act in society.
Yahoo! Says the Future Will be Modeled on Facebook
The future of both email and start pages is in social networking, according to Yahoo, but what’s really at issue here are two concepts that Yahoo execs didn’t name explicitly, but which will be familiar to most of the readers here. RSS and Attention Data.
Once thought dead, ‘Net neutrality roars back to center stage
Network neutrality has lost some steam, but the boilers have returned to full pressure after two senators ask Congress for an investigation. AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast have only themselves to blame.
Hulu Launches! Should YouTube Be Worried?
While it may not live up to its billing as a “YouTube killer,†Hulu is as different as a web video service could possibly be from the market leader.
Related posts
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
Why English isn’t the only language you should know
Although English is spoken by almost 500 million people around the world, it is impossible to deny how countries such as China, Japan, Russia and India are becoming increasingly important, both in the world of politics and the world of business. Here are some reasons to expand your horizon and learn a new language.
Google: $500,000,000,000 company by 2010?
At the end of 2009, Microsoft would have a market value of about $405 billion and Google’s would be roughly $370 billion. So Google would surpass Microsoft sometime in 2010. If its stock kept appreciating at 34 percent clip annually compared to Microsoft’s 12.5 percent, Google would finish 2010 with a market value of nearly half a trillion dollars.
Top 50 Fastest Growing Women-Led Companies
With women starting businesses at a faster clip than men, here is a list of the top 50 fastest growing women-led companies. Meet the women behind these high-growth businesses.
The Top Entrepreneurs Under 25 Changing the Face of Business
The goal was to find businesses that demonstrate potential for growth and establish the talent of the savvy young people behind them, possibly identifying the next Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook fame).
How to save money for 18-25 yr. olds
This recent article ran in the October 29, 2007 version of Newsweek. The article gives easy common sense advice from spending, to building credit, and how to make bank on Roth IRA’s.
Related posts
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
Quitting the Day Job: Finding the Guts to Pursue Your Dream by Pro Blogging
For those of us who dream of being able to support ourselves by simply blogging each day. This story tells it’s possible, but not overnight.
Mozilla Still Flummoxed by Firefox’ Appetite for Memory
Anyone who uses Firefox on Windows knows the browser has an almost insatiable appetite for memory, and it’s not unheard of for PCs to allocate a half GB or more of memory just to the browser alone.
When Friendster could have bought Facebook
As a side note, a little known fact is that when I was at Friendster, I found a small company out of Harvard that we came very close to acquiring, a startup no one had heard of that time, a company named Thefacebook. I’ve been an admirer of Zuck and the facebook team for a long time now.
Flickr Hits Two Billion Photo Uploads
Two billion photo uploads on Flickr. That’s a lot of f****n’ photos. You’ll be glad to know that Flickr staffers have spent the past weeks placing bets on the exact date and time for passing the milestone, which went down sometime on Sunday.
Is Microsoft Building a Flickr Competitor?
You gotta love job postings. Depending on the description provided, you can often times determine some underlying plans for a company. And the only companies we care about in this regard would be the ones big enough to lend some interesting job postings and descriptions. In this case, WebProNews was tipped off to a posting from Microsoft, and …
Related posts
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
During war, I think many people focus on the count of the dead. What’s often forgotten is the count of the injured and how those people have to live the rest of their lives.
Visit this website to see a short slideshow of the President visiting injured vets. I think you’ll agree with many other people’s sentiments.
Related posts
Friday, November 9th, 2007
Do you remember my rant about web 2.0? Well, guess what…it’s here (Web 3.0). I knew it wouldn’t be far behind.
Related posts
Friday, November 9th, 2007
True Knowledge Launches Natural Language Search Engine
Cambridge, UK based True Knowledge released its natural language search engine into private beta yesterday. Like the much-anticipated Powerset, the company aims to give appropriate answers to natural language queries, even if key query terms are not included in the data being indexed. Current search engines are unable to return appropriate results
Is Facebook Eyeing an Acquisition in China?
A report in a Chinese newspaper today indicates that Facebook may be looking to acquire social networking site Zhanzuo.com. A very rough translation using Google Translate indicates that Zhanzuo has turned down an offer in the $85-100 million range.
Google Only Ahead Of Microsoft In Search: Ballmer
Whilst spruiking the release of Windows Live in Tokyo Thursday, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer told reporters that Google wasn’t ahead of Microsoft in any way online except with search.
YouTube Enhances Video Flagging System
YouTube has announced they have improved their video flagging system. If you ever watch a video that might raise a concern, you can click on a “Flag” link below the video (when on a video page) that will enable you to report the video to a human editor at YouTube.
Just Sell Digg Already, Jay :: Says TechCrunch
Michaeal Arrington gives Advice to Digg: One thing that has become a certainly in our little tech world – a few months can’t go by without rumors surfacing that a sale of Digg is imminent. CEO Jay Adelson and cofounder Kevin Rose are in a perpetual rumor cycle. The problem is, they seem to be the ones at fault for the rumors. The reason?
Related posts
TYSM I read this one and decided to try it out on my ACER (See, its not always HP with the problems)...