December 2007
51 posts
Finally lit the wood stove last night and today its sunny and warm. I’ve apparently single-handedly accomplished global warming
Stevie Ray Vaughan special on PBS reminds me of the injustice that are the breathing former members of Menudo
My wife, the vegetarian animal-shelter volunteer just presented me with an entire case of TJ’s frozen mini chicken tacos. Kiss my ass, world
Finally got to play the Wii Zapper. It’s just like shooting a real gun- a gun with 12 buttons that you had to use while wearing an oven …
Just another quiet xmas in our little forest town… a little rain, a little snow, family of 6 found brutally murdered…
Study: Ads in online shows work better than ads on... →
New research finds that viewers pay more attention to ads embedded in online video than they do to ads on traditional TV shows. Combine that with solid growth in the Internet advertising market, and you have a TV executive’s fantasy-in-the-making.
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The 23 Best iTunes Add-ons [Feature] →
iTunes may not be the best media player on the market, but let’s face facts: with its tight integration with our iPods and its excellent playlisting tools, it’s very likely the digital jukebox you’re using every day to manage your music. With that in mind, it’s time you take iTunes to the next level. We’ve already tackled the 20 Best iPod Utilities, so today...
HOW TO - Make and use conductive glue and thread →
Instructable on how to make your own conductive fabrics, thread, glue, and tape, and then use them to make potentiometers, resistors, switches, LED displays and circuits. Conductive Glue And Conductive Thread: Make an LED Display and Fabric Circuit That Rolls Up. - Link
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Parallels vs. VMWare: Benchmark results →
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Switchers
Like it or not, lots of us who own Intel-based Macs have to run Windows from time to time. Although Boot Camp is pretty fantastic if you need to run a processor intensive application (or you want to play games), virtualization is the more attractive solution for users who need to access productivity applications, like Microsoft Office 2007, but...
Parallels vs. VMWare: Benchmark results →
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Switchers
Like it or not, lots of us who own Intel-based Macs have to run Windows from time to time. Although Boot Camp is pretty fantastic if you need to run a processor intensive application (or you want to play games), virtualization is the more attractive solution for users who need to access productivity applications, like Microsoft Office 2007, but...
Digging Deeper::When Will Google's 'Big Project'... →
In its brief 22-month history, video-sharing site YouTube has become a cultural phenomenon. The Iraq War has been called the “YouTube War” because of the videos that are regularly uploaded by soldiers and insurgents. The upcoming U.S. presidential race has been called the “YouTube Election” with its own “YouTube Debates” thanks to the questions for candidates uploaded by the YouTube community of...
Finally determined that the vast majority of my time spent using my vista box is actually spent updating vista.
Web Video Ad Rates Surveyed →
Striking writers with dreams of launching their own web studios should check out Web Video Report’s survey of web video ad rates. It sheds some light on how much money existing players are pulling in for advertising, and how much work it’ll take for newcomers to get there. According to the survey, MySpace charges $25 CPM for a 15-second pre-roll ad, while MetaCafe charges $35 CPMs for a...
Web Video Ad Rates Surveyed →
Striking writers with dreams of launching their own web studios should check out Web Video Report’s survey of web video ad rates. It sheds some light on how much money existing players are pulling in for advertising, and how much work it’ll take for newcomers to get there. According to the survey, MySpace charges $25 CPM for a 15-second pre-roll ad, while MetaCafe charges $35 CPMs for a...
How much online video advertising costs [Online... →
Almost as bad as the user-generated video flooding the Web is the professionally generated stuff. Newspapers are thrusting nebbishy, ill-spoken print journalists in front of the camera. And why? Not because readers are eager to watch this stuff. It’s because advertisers are falling over themselves to pay for it. According to numbers gathered by WebVideoReport, the Wall Street Journal charges...
Yahoo suggests NSFW video [Nsfw] →
A tipster sent us this interesting screenshot. When you search for the word “link” on Yahoo, the search engine helpfully suggests a few “related” links. For those who don’t know, “2 girls 1 cup” is an outrageous, disgusting, horrendous Not Safe For Work TM video that has been making its way around the Internet the past few months. It is so bad, we...
Introducing Video Sitemaps (Official Google... →
Introducing Video Sitemaps — In our effort to help users search all the world’s public videos, the Google Video team joined the Sitemaps folks to introduce Video Sitemaps—an extension of the Sitemap Protocol that helps make your videos more searchable via Google Video Search.
Source: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
Link: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12…
...
General Motors to increase Web ad budget [Online... →
U.S. automakers will shift a larger percentage of its multibillion-dollar advertising budget from television to online. GM is allowing regional dealers to choose how their ad dollars are being spent, but the company is encouraging them to spend it on the Internet. GM’s data indicates that the Net is the first place potential shoppers go when looking for a car. Too bad the Internet...
Fenix Store Fenix Digital P3D Natural Finish →
Rushing to have all of my obsessions reclassified as “healthy” by the FDA while Bush is still in power.
Using nothing but my freakishly well tuned sense of the natural world, determined it’s time to sweep the deck.
Create Custom iPhone Ringtones the Free and Apple... →
Apple has introduced a simple and free way to create and sync your own custom ringtones to the iPhone using GarageBand (i.e., Mac only). The first thing you’ll need to do, if you haven’t already, is download and install the latest update of GarageBand from Software Update (at the time of this writing, that’s version 4.1.1). Once you’ve installed and restarted your computer,...
Ike can now busy himself with tidying the “Talented Sicko” section of Hell for Michael Vick’s eventual arrival
About to get an overview of PSD’s SSG procurement solutions for OSG. So excited I’m gonna piss my pants.
An update that improves the performance,... →
An update that improves the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista is available — View products that this article applies to. … INTRODUCTION — This article contains an update that resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista-based computers.
Source: Microsoft Help and Support
Link: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=943899
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Windows Vista SP1 (release candidate) publicly... →
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
You’ve heard about it, you know what it’s got, you want it like crazy — and about 11 months after launch Microsoft delivers on Vista’s first service pack (in release candidate form, anyway). Go crazy! P.S. -How big is this download really? The installer’s under 400k, but we’re still trying to find the big kahuna offline...
Skipping the 3rd party hooks and using the ornaments’ built it-in loops to dress the tree, cause livin’ fast and dyin’ young is how I roll.
Industry Moves: Neil Budde Leaving Yahoo; Khemlani... →
Last week, when I checked with Neil Budde and inside Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) after Valleywag floated the idea that he was leaving, I was told that wasn’t the case. But the situation changed following internal discussions about the Yahoo News vet’s position on Scott Moore’s new org chart—turns out there really wasn’t one for his most recent role of editor-in-chief across news,...
Industry Moves: Neil Budde Leaving Yahoo; Khemlani... →
Last week, when I checked with Neil Budde and inside Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) after Valleywag floated the idea that he was leaving, I was told that wasn’t the case. But the situation changed following internal discussions about the Yahoo News vet’s position on Scott Moore’s new org chart???turns out there really wasn’t one for his most recent role of editor-in-chief across news,...
CBSNews.com latest to launch iPhone site →
CBSNews added a special iPhone version of its site. It is just the latest site to add a specially designed version for the trendy gadget of the year. Facebook, Google & others have already fired up customized versions. In some ways, the “iPhone” versions are better than the regular versions - if for no other reason than they aren’t cluttered and hard to navigate. Any locals doing it yet?
Microsoft to sell ads for CNBC.com →
Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party ad seller for CNBC.com, and the company said it would offer advertisers the ability to buy packages that span both CNBC.com and MSN Money. CNBC will maintain its own ad sales team, which will focus on selling video ads online and on CNBC TV.
Wiimote repurposed for multi-point interactive... →
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
While certainly there’s been no shortage of Wiimote hacks, the number of genuinely useful ones has been considerably more limited. It looks like you can now add one more to that list, however, as Johnny Chung Lee (he of the Wiimote finger-tracking hack) has now upped the usefulness even further with a makeshift multi-point interactive whiteboard. There’s a...
NBC rings up holiday refunds →
Unable to give make-goods due to tight commercial inventory, NBC is reimbursing advertisers for fourth quarter ratings shortfalls largely due to the writers strike. MediaWeek reports its “the first time in years a network has taken such a step.” The average refund is $500,000 per advertiser. The other networks, in the meantime, are offering make-goods into next year.
LeadCheck - lead check for toys kit →
If you’re giving toys to kids over the holidays you might want to consider getting this LeadCheck kit, one quick swap and you’ll know if you’ll see that toy on the recall list later - Link.
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Kid carries food around in her cheek for hours. Gonna pick up some Skoal tomorrow to either break her of it or seal the deal permanently.
Reprap supplies →
Looking to make your own 3D printer? There are now two stores selling parts for RepRaps. The RRRF in the US and BitsFromBytes in the UK. BitsFromBytes just started selling plastic parts kits… Link.
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Google Mac Developer Playground →
Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
Google has announced the opening of their new Google Mac Developer Playground. This is basically just a Google Code site that collects together a variety of the Mac related projects that Google’s Mac team works on during their so-called 20% time, the time that Google gives their engineers to play around with the things they really want to work on. The...
Interview: Tom Curley, CEO, Associated Press;... →
In a speech last month, AP CEO Tom Curley declared that news is a growth industry and that it was high time to kick ‘despair’ to the curb. At the same time, he seemingly despaired about the balance of power that exists online, between the portals and the creators of original content. The solution: fairer deals to ensure that creators aren’t giving away the house, along with a...
Interview: Tom Curley, CEO, Associated Press;... →
In a speech last month, AP CEO Tom Curley declared that news is a growth industry and that it was high time to kick ‘despair’ to the curb. At the same time, he seemingly despaired about the balance of power that exists online, between the portals and the creators of original content. The solution: fairer deals to ensure that creators aren’t giving away the house, along with a...
Electronic Great Highland bagpipe and smallpipe →
Gorgeous electronic bagpipe! -
Anders Fagerstrom, the brilliant Swedish musical electronics engineer, has outdone himself! Long famed for his outstanding electronic Great Highland Bagpipe (GHB) practice chanter, the “Technochanter” (see detailed description here), his firm has just released a spectacular full-blown electronic bagpipe, the Technopipes, that emulates a Scottish Great...
Minimize Your Inboxes [How To] →
In his productivity bible Getting Things Done, David Allen says that you should minimize the number of collection buckets for all the stuff in your life. (Collection buckets include a paper in-basket, email inbox, voicemail box, feed reader—anywhere new “stuff” channels into your life.)
You should have as many in-baskets as you need and as few as you can get by with… If you...
Nokia And Universal Up Music Download Ante; Will... →
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Universal are upping the stakes in the music download market, teaming together to offer free 12-month access to music from Universal’s artists to buyer’s of Nokia’s music phones. The kicker: people will be able to keep the songs once the free-offer period expires. Consumers will have to buy a Nokia handset that supports the service, which isn’t...
Nokia World 2007: Nokia outlines its vision of... →
Nokia World 2007: Nokia outlines its vision of Internet evolution and commitment to environmental sustainability — Amsterdam, The Netherlands - At the annual Nokia World conference today, Nokia outlined its vision for the mobile industry, predicting rapid change driven by the convergence …
Source: Nokia
Link: http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1172937
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“China is the market to lead and learn in Gasification, no doubt.” The zen of mistakenly-addressed internal GE science mail.
ABC O&O’s relaunch sites →
WABC, KABC, WLS and the other ABC O&O sites relaunched today with a new look, and a huge Flash media window on their homepage. “We felt that the [old] Web sites looked more like newspaper Web sites,” said Bill Burton, executive vice president of digital media for the ABC-owned television stations said in an interview with Broadcasting & Cable. “We tried to make them more like television.”...
ACAP: Don't Look Here! Please Don't Look... →
Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com> Date: December 2, 2007 11:59:51 PM EST To: dave@farber.net Cc: lauren@vortex.com Subject: ACAP: Don’t Look Here! Please Don’t Look Here! Or Else? ACAP: Don’t Look Here! Please Don’t Look Here! Or Else? http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000333.html Greetings. If the publishing industry’s...
HOW TO - Buy items confiscated at airports →
You can get scissors and knives BY THE POUND for as low as $10 or even 25 cents! What a great gift this holiday season! Here’s a list of all the surplus property sales and auctions from state and local governments - this is where all the confiscated items from the airport end up - [via] Link.
Pictured here, fantastic spider sculptures made from TSA confiscated scissors!
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AP to reorganize work and accent multimedia →
The Associated Press is creating four regional hubs that will change the way it files, edits and distributes stories. The hubs will handle editing duties and free up the bureaus to focus more on newsgathering, reports the NY Times. The most intriguing part of the reorganization, named AP 2.0, is a move toward an all-digital platform it calls the “Digital Cooperative.” But the NYT story is short on...
Wife taught my daughter the word ‘booby’. Gonna be a fun xmas at Grandma’s
Switching to stoli screwdrivers for the weekend. For the vitamin c.