Archive for December, 2004

Press

Wednesday, December 29th, 2004

In Phase 1, EMI consolidated roughly 100 EMI sites hosted at the two largest providers by moving those Web environments to the new Web infrastructure at Rackspace. The project team built out two fully redundant IIS Web farms, a high-availability SQL 2000 database cluster, load-balanced .Net application servers and one-plus terabytes of online storage for […]

All About BitTorrent

Wednesday, December 29th, 2004

Movie studios hate it. File-swappers love it. Bram Cohen’s blazing-fast P2P software has turned the Internet into a universal TiVo. For free video-on-demand, just click here. The BitTorrent Effect

New Camera

Wednesday, December 29th, 2004

Got a new camera yesterday… Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital ELPH… retiring my S400, the new one is much smaller… much faster… and does a really good job with video. Here’s a review: Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital ELPH

Pill and Obesity

Wednesday, December 29th, 2004

Overweight and obese women who take oral contraceptives are 60 percent to 70 percent more likely to get pregnant while on the birth-control pill, respectively, than women of lower weight, according to new findings from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that will be published in the January issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Getting pregnant while […]

Automobile “Black Boxes”

Tuesday, December 28th, 2004

It was only a matter of time. For several years, electronic devices in cars have monitored acceleration and braking to save fuel and improve safety. Now, they’re saving some of that data to give automakers and police a better idea of how you drive. 30 million cars now record drivers’ behavior

Cell phone parking lots

Tuesday, December 28th, 2004

At least 13 airports are sending motorists to “cell phone lots” to wait until the arriving travelers call for a ride, a new attempt to unplug road-clogging bottlenecks at passenger pickup spots. Cell phone parking lots simplify pickups at airports

Google

Monday, December 27th, 2004

For a few years now, search engine darling Google has worn the tiara as the tech world’s “it” company. Will Google stay as hot as its lava lamps?

The Canceled Project

Saturday, December 25th, 2004

If you haven’t read this, you MUST… its crazy what these two guys pulled off: The Graphing Calculator Story

State of HDTV

Saturday, December 25th, 2004

HDTVs aren’t cheap…yet. But 2004 may be remembered as the year when they got a whole lot more affordable. During the 2003 holiday buying season, HDTVs were the hot buy, and 2004 looks to be another big year for the growth of the HDTV installed base. State of the Industry: HDTV

Video Camera Tapes

Thursday, December 23rd, 2004

It’s the never-ending argument of “to mix tape brands, or not to mix tape brands.” There have been horror stories of people mixing tape brands in their camcorders, only to have the tape be mangled, eaten, no signal on the tape, or “head clog” messages coming up if you’re lucky enough to encounter one during […]

Real World – Austin

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

It will be the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house in Austin and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. Get real: Austin to be home to 16th season of ‘The Real World’

Weston

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

Multimillionaire Graham Weston has such a golden touch that he could be the next Donald Trump of San Antonio. Price isn’t the object to San Antonio’s modest multimillionaire

Infected Turkeys

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

An in-depth analysis of bacteria in US turkeys has revealed that high proportions of bacteria found in the birds are “superbugs”, resistant to many of the antibiotics used on farms and to treat people. Undercooked turkeys can harbour superbugs

New Instant Coffee

Sunday, December 19th, 2004

Beginning Jan. 2, consumers can buy a 10-ounce container of Wolfgang Puck gourmet latte at the store and heat it by pressing a button. No electricity. No batteries. No appliances. Single-serving coffee can heats itself

Treo 6×0 vs 6600

Thursday, December 16th, 2004

Ditch your Treo for a dirt-cheap Nokia. The Super Phone You Can Get for Free

SXSW

Thursday, December 16th, 2004

Early registration for the annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference suggests that 2005 likely will be the biggest year Austin has seen in the conference’s 19-year history. SXSW to attract record attendance

RoadRunner Speed Increase

Thursday, December 16th, 2004

Time Warner has unwrapped a holiday gift for its cable Internet subscribers: faster downloads. The company plans to roll out increased speeds of 5Mbits and 8Mbits per second, a 2Mbit boost for its standard and premium RoadRunner cable offerings. Customers in New York will see the improved download speeds starting next Tuesday, while the rest […]

Publicists

Monday, December 13th, 2004

“Publicity is becoming like politics,” Kaplan says. “The spinners and handlers are getting more attention as the backstage mechanics, and people are realizing that fame isn’t something that happens accidentally.” Power behind the Oscars

Stolen Metal

Friday, December 10th, 2004

Dozens of manhole covers were stolen in Milwaukee this summer. For thieves, metal transmutes to cash

Unlimited Inbound Faxing

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

This is a great deal… Unlimited inbound faxing to email with private number for only $4/month… much cheaper than eFax. This won’t solve your sending problems, but its easy to find a fax machine here or there to send the occasional fax. And fax machines are inexpensive at $30 or so these says. Packetel Fax […]

Team America: Deleted Sex Scene

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

The extended simulated sex scene between two non-anotomically correct dolls which was cut from the movie Team America. Team America: Deleted Sex Scene

ATT & MCI for sale

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

The two biggest names in long-distance — AT&T and MCI — are on the auction block. The question is: Does anyone want these two struggling carriers? Seismic shifts in telecom put 2 giants on the block

Road rage cards

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

Short, to-the-point messages for use on the freeway as needed Road rage cards

The Unpopular Nerd

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

Why? The answer, I think, is that most smart kids don’t really want to be popular. Why Nerds Are Unpopular

SMS Shorthand

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

Nearly half of mobile phone users want a guide on ‘text etiquette’, a study by research company YouGov has found. SMS shorthand is annoying: Official

Bored People

Wednesday, December 8th, 2004

There is a WHOLE blog dedicated to making fun of how people look… thats just awesome! There are people so bored with life this is all they are left with…. wow! http://fuggingitup.blogspot.com/

Going… Gone!

Wednesday, December 8th, 2004

Schlotzsky’s Inc., the Austin-based sandwhich maker, has been sold for $28.5 million to Bobby Cox Companies Inc. of Fort Worth. Schlotzsky’s purchased for $28.5M

SHHH!

Wednesday, December 8th, 2004

Design website Coudal.Com is offering a solution to obnoxious mobile phones users by way of a series of cards that you can fill out and hand out to people that just don’t realize (or care) that they are annoying everybody else around them. Dealing With Obnoxious Phone Users

Poo-Poo on Redhat

Tuesday, December 7th, 2004

Red Hat needs to lower its prices, or risk losing customers to free versions of the open-source operating system, the Dell executive who oversees the partnership with the Linux seller said Tuesday. Dell: Red Hat needs to lower prices

Flexible Hours

Monday, December 6th, 2004

The 5 a.m. commuter is no longer an oddity. The workday is starting at an increasingly early hour as more employees adopt non-traditional work schedules, a fast-growing trend that’s transforming the 9-to-5 workday. Working 9-to-5 no longer

Living Longer

Saturday, December 4th, 2004

Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. ‘We will be able to live to 1,000’

More Bearishness on Tivo

Friday, December 3rd, 2004

TiVo which makes digital video recording devices (DVRs) sold in retail stores and offered to DirecTV subscribers, has become the target of a lot of investor attention again after two very noneventful months. TiVo Can’t Shake Cable Colossus

Windows Password Reset

Friday, December 3rd, 2004

Tonight, I found out that my WinXP workstation’s password had been changed… I’m guessing its one of several trojans/viruses that are out there that does it… no big deal, just reset it with the NT Password Reset Boot Disk: Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, Bootdisk / CD

Networks Padding Shows

Thursday, December 2nd, 2004

Television networks are lending new meaning to time-shifting: TV shows don’t necessarily start or end right on the hour or half-hour anymore, screwing up some viewers’ video recordings. TV Networks Shift Times, Run Longer Shows

Mysteries of Science… EXPLAINED!

Thursday, December 2nd, 2004

Martin Sargent’s show UNSCREWED is no longer, but these clips are pretty funny… Mysteries of Science… EXPLAINED!

What Makes Google Tick?

Thursday, December 2nd, 2004

It is one of the largest computing projects on the planet, arguably employing more computers than any other single, fully managed system (we’re not counting distributed computing projects here), some 200 computer science PhDs, and 600 other computer scientists. The magic that makes Google tick

Free Annual Credit Report

Thursday, December 2nd, 2004

A new federal law allows you to request a free credit report each year. Click the url below to get your free credit report from Equifax, TransUnion, and experian. Western US valid now, others valid later. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/

Vote for Rackspace

Wednesday, December 1st, 2004

Vote for Rackspace in Fast Company’s 2005 fast 50! Go down to the bottom — you rate us from 1 to 10 and then type a NICE comment! http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_05/profile/index.html?weston450 Send it to your friends!

Spamming Spammers

Wednesday, December 1st, 2004

This is aweseome! A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by users of Lycos Europe’s MakeLoveNotSpam.com screensaver has succeeded in crippling several spammer sites Spam Sites Crippled by Lycos Screensaver DDoS Performance