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The US department of justice is making preliminary inquiries about Apple’s practices in the music industry. The inquiries are digging into Apple’s alleged anti-trust practices related to their flagship digital music store iTunes.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that investigators were probing whether Apple has tried to persuade music labels to not give rival Amazon.com Inc. exclusive access to soon-to-be released music, an issue that surfaced in March in an article in music-trade magazine Billboard.
It looks like things are starting to catch up to Apple. Hopefully this brings the beginning of the end and little Mom and Pop companies, like Microsoft, can get back to running world.
Tough break for the Trendy Apple “Genius” out there.
Throw out your shorts and go buy a fur.
As everyone is aware, Anthropogenic Global Warming has become the laughing stock of the decade. It is pretty well common knowledge that AGW does NOT exist and has never existed. We can all agree that Al Gore needs to be put in jail for his part in the Global Warming Hoax and moreover his gross profiteering.
It looks like the scientific community is at it again. They have realized that people are tired of listening to Global Warming Propaganda and the truth is finally starting to come out (with the help of some Russian Hackers). The new trend emerging is that the world is about to embark on a period of Global Cooling!!
Contrary to the commonly held scientific conclusion that the Earth is getting warmer, Dr. Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University and author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, has unveiled evidence for his prediction that global cooling is coming soon.
I love a joke as much as the next guy, but this is going too far. When are these people going to wake up and realize they have zero credibility. Everyday they come out with some new trend in an effort to spark a new global hysteria phenomenon.
Personally, I am still trying to prepare for the coming doom of Y2K. I haven’t even caught up to Global Warming and now I have to fear Global Cooling.
I am sticking with Y2K.
I have yet to write a piece on the brutal job President Obama is doing running the free world but i have had enough. Not only does he take a shot at mentally challenged athletes saying that his bowling score was something resembling the special olympics, but it has been nothing but hypocracy coming out of that guys mouth since day 1!.
Beef 1) The Detroit school district reported that in 2008 only 18% of its highschool graduates continued on to post secondary education and less than 30% of highschool kids actually graduated. There is a serious problem with Detroit school board and something needs to be done about it. There are several solutions including federal regulatio. But, what would Obama have us do? Fork over $500+ million and hope for the best. The Detroit school district is missing $56 million from its 2008 budget and has reported to be $200 millions dollars in debt! Once again, Obama looks to his money tree to solve another one of America’s regularoty problems.
Beef 2) Before appearing on Jay Leno’s late night talk show, the President met with research groups who are looking in to the development of electric cars. Hey Hussein! Been there! Done that! The electric car is not viable in today’s market. Maybe when the price of oil was well over $100 a barrel but spending millions of dollars into R&D for something that is out of your hands is BS! Not only is it hypocritical that he was preaching about electric cars in Californa, state that has to IMPORT its electricity from Beautiful British Columbia, Canada, but number of people who can barely afford electricity as it is would see a drastic increse in utilities! Once again, Obama spening money not to enhance the economy, but to promote his partisan agenda! what an OBAMAnation!
Beef 3) Again, a comment made on Jay Leno’s talk show was about how his plan for massive investment into healthcare and clean energy will improve the ecnomy. BOGUS! It is proven that things like healthcare, minimum wage and “equalization”, in some bilingual countries north of the 49th parallel, actually slow economic growth! Do you think that China would be where it’s at if it was sending equalization to Tibet?! HELL NO! Obama’s socialist agenda is pushing this government stiumlous plan way overboard. This recession has been for the democrats what 9/11 was for the neo-conservatives: A God send! I can’t wait to get this left leaning HACK out of the whitehouse!
It seems that Social Media giant Facebook is going to weigh in on this whole Twitter thing in the next few weeks. Facebook has announced that it will be launching a new home page that will allow the users much more flexibility and customization. Facebook is making the changes in an effort to allow aspects of the Twitter concept in the mainstream. Facebook friends will now be able to follow other friends and update their status frequently, similar to Twitter.
Beginning next Wednesday, Facebook will also launch a redesigned home page that lets users receive continuous updates from their friends instead of every 10 or 15 minutes.
It is also adding filters so people can choose which of their friends to keep up with and which to silence, limiting news from tiresome or annoying acquaintances you don’t necessarily want to “de-friend.” Currently, people can choose to receive less information about certain friends but can’t silence them completely. With the changes, users will even be able to filter updates so they only see photos or videos, for example.
Facebook will also tweak its central feature, the status update, which now invites people to broadcast to their friends a response to “What are you doing right now?” Responses can now range from mundane to poetic to uncomfortably personal.
A few months ago, I did some research on Twitter and determined it was one of the most useless applications out there these days. However, it has stirred up enough attention to have the CEOs of both Google and Facebook trash talking it. That said, it is important to note that I am not a person who lives and dies by facebook either. I have had to delete a few “Frieds” because they were getting a little over zealous with their facebook use. However, I think with Facebook making these changes it will lead to the downfall and eventual collapse of Twitter. At the end of the day, if you are using Twitter, why would you continue if Facebook is offering the same service to an audience of millions more users.
Tweet Off Twitter!!
Here are a few dissenting opinions.
Random to Reason.
Helloxiaxia
Lately there has been a lot of media attention around the online site, Twitter.com. This new form of narcissistic pleasure allows people to constantly inform their circle of friends where they are and what they are doing with up to the minute “tweets”. People have made a fortune trying to extol to virtues of this new technology – claiming that it is the new marketing revolution. What I postulate to these people is – who cares? In a breath of fresh air, someone finally calls it for what is is – the CEO of Google sees Twitter as a fly by night fad:
Google CEO: Twitter A ‘Poor Man’s Email System’
“Speaking as a computer scientist, I view all of these as sort of poor man’s email systems,” he said this afternoon at Morgan Stanley’s technology conference. (Live notes here.) What’s he talking about?
“In other words, they have aspects of an email system, but they don’t have a full offering. To me, the question about companies like Twitter is: Do they fundamentally evolve as sort of a note phenomenon, or do they fundamentally evolve to have storage, revocation, identity, and all the other aspects that traditional email systems have? Or do email systems themselves broaden what they do to take on some of that characteristic?
So it seems that having an iPhone these days is the latest fashion accessory. Not to be confused with Obamania, iPhone-mania has been sweeping the planet. Just like large diamond earrings, people seem to flaunt their iPhones every chance they get. At the dinner table, walking down the street, sitting at the library – these are the opportune moments to show it off. The iPhone is the new cigarette – the ultimate symbol of “cool” for our generation. Make no mistake, “cool” cannot be confused with “smart” – Apple’s recent marketing campaign gives us some insight into this as their recent tag line for their new iPod reads:
the funnest iPod ever.
(for more on this, please see my recent post “The Collapse of the English Language“)
The Japanese, however, are the one saving grace in this iPhone-mania gripping the world:
Apple’s iPhone Flops in Japan, Now Sold for Free
Apple’s iPhone is a hit everywhere in the world — except for Japan.
It turns out that Apple’s video-playing, music-downloading, motion-sensing handset is just too, well, backward for the Japanese market.
In fact, the iPhone is such a flop in the Land of the Rising Sun that it’s being given away free with a 2-year contract, Wired News reports.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that carrier charges are a lot cheaper in Japan than they are in the U.S., and Apple hasn’t learned to compete.
Maybe this jealousy is because I’m not “cool” enough…
Just last week there was a discovery by way of Google Earth for what was speculatively called “Atlantis” – the ancient lost city in the sea. Using the technology of Google Earth, many such ancient mysteries and undiscovered lands have been tracked down. In this particular discovery, Google was quick to dismiss the discovery as “data artifacting” which is the result of data overlay from sonar boats mapping the ocean. However, previous Google Earth discoveries have been substantiated. There was the lost world discovered in Mozambique. A fringing coral reef discovered off a remote coast of Western Australia. And also an ancient Roman villa in a previously thought greenspace.
Technology has certainly shrunk the world, but will also continue to open up the doors and keys to our universe. Who would have guessed that the next Vasco De Gama or Christopher Columbus would be someone staring at a computer screen from the comfort of their home?
Google Sinks Atlantis Discovery Buzz
Last week, a British man announced he’d found the lost city of Atlantis using Google Ocean — the latest add-on to Google Earth that features 3D bathymetry, which lets you explore the ocean floor. The supposed ‘Atlantis’ image is about 620 miles off the northwestern coast of Africa and south of Portugal. It shows a rectangular grid with what looks like roadways leading away from it at the coordinates 31 15’15.53N 24 15’30.53W. According to The Telegraph, the newspaper that first reported the “discovery,” the pattern is roughly the size of Wales (around 8,000 sq. mi.).
At the recent TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference, MIT researcher, Pattie Maes presented a new technology interface that gets me pretty fired up. Pattie demonstrated a $350 piece of technology that has been named ‘The Sixth Sense.’ The technology allows it users to control electronic devices with simple hand gestures. For example, making a phone call by holding out your left hand to project the number key pad, then using your right hand to touch the buttons. Can you believe this!!!
Here is how it works.
What the researchers have done is combine a number of standard gadgets including a webcam, projector, and mobile phone, to form a brand new interaction experience. In its current form the battery-powered projector is attached to a hat, the webcam is hung around the neck (or also positioned on a hat), and the mobile phone provides the connection to the Internet.
The wearer uses hand gestures combined with the gadgets to perform actions. So, for example, they could make a circle over their wrist with the fingers of one hand. WUW would recognize this action and project a clock face on to their wrist. Make a picture frame with both your hands and WUW will take a picture as if it was a camera. Stand near a wall and you can get a projected desktop allowing you to open applications, view the pictures you’ve taken, or surf the ‘Net.
At the moment it is just a prototype system, but because it uses off-the-shelf components the cost of creating one is just $300 for the hardware involved.
I am glad to see that research is going in the right direction. I cannot wait until I can just walk around with nothing and have electronic gadgets do everything and provide me with whatever info I need, in real time. Look back a few decades and imagine having to find a phone number for a local service, say an autobody shop. A phone book or something? Imagine if you were to attempt this feat today. A cell phone and Google Maps. Imagine with this new technology. It seems that it will be able to find it, give you reviews and information, and make the call. I love it.
Watch this video and get fired up.
Take note at the very end when he needs to check the time. Awesome!
Fresh on the heels of the story of the two satellites colliding in outer space, there was another collision last week. What I find facinating about the two stories is the amount of random chance that went into the collisions occuring. Recently, two nuclear submarines from France and Britain collided in the Atlantic Ocean. While both ships only sustained minor damage, the potential for a much larger catastrophic event was certainly possible. One would hope that the sophisticated technology on-board these subs would alert their respective captains of the other subs around them on radar. Maybe it will be our own stupidity that will bring about the end of the world.
French, British Nuclear Submarines Collide in Atlantic
LONDON — Nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France collided in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, authorities acknowledged Monday — touching off new concerns about the safety of the world’s deep sea missile fleets.
The HMS Vanguard, the oldest of Britain’s current nuclear-armed submarine fleet, and the French Le Triomphant submarine, which was also carrying nuclear missiles, both suffered minor damage in the collision. No crew members were reported injured.
Last weekend a Polish man was out driving a mini-bus, enjoying a nice afternoon. He was using a turn by turn GPS unit to navigate through the Polish countryside (Perogies to the left and right of him). I am sure the sun was beating down on him and his stress level was rising. Perhaps he was a little lost. Thank God he had his GPS to guide him.
He focused all of his attention on the little GPS unit which he trusted with all his heart. The GPS had never failed him before, it was able to help him navigate his way to his latest bank heist. However, this time he followed the instructions a little too closely… right into a lake.
A driver too clueless to use common sense in the face of clearly wrong directions comes from the town of Glubczyce, in southwest Poland, where a mini-bus driver happily followed instructions to drive straight into a lake.
The driver had such faith in his sat-nav that he didn’t even notice all the traffic signs saying the road had been closed.
Is there really anything else to say. I love technology, but if you are a moron there is not enough technology in the world to help you.
As many of you are aware, an important interest of mine is anything relating to Big Bang Theory Experiments Gone Wrong, Ironically Resulting in the End of the World. Well it seems there are some new developments on said experiment.
According to CTV.ca the world’s largest atom smasher, $10 Billion machine, encountered problems 9 days after it was started back in September. As I am sure many of you were upset when this experiment was put on hold, you will be delighted to know that it is back on track. New safety precautions are being taken to ensure the machine will not encounter further problems or delays.
The massive machine was built to smash protons from hydrogen atoms into each other at high energy and record what particles are produced by the collisions, giving scientists a better idea of the makeup of the universe and everything in it.
They hope the collisions will show on a tiny scale what happened one-trillionth of a second after the so-called Big Bang, which many scientists theorize was the massive explosion that formed the universe. The theory holds that the universe was rapidly cooling at that stage and matter was changing quickly.
It is great to see the project is back on track. The Machine is scheduled to start again in September 2009. Hopefully the scientists will be able to make atoms collide at such an incredible rate that they will not only re-create the Big Bang, but in doing so, ironically bring the end of the world.
The world started by a Big Bang and Ended by a Big Bang. I don’t think it could get better than that.
