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Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360) for $39.99 at Amazon (JP)
• St. Paddy’s Day Merch, Geek Style (iKDR)
• Amazing SteamPunk Keyboards… While not cheap… they are extremely Geekeriffic!! (JP)
  • 

    Aviator Keyboard

    Custom built to order!

Product Review:

• PasteBot – iPhone and Mac app that sync’s your clipboard
  • At first I was skeptical…. I do find myself constantly emailing links to things from my iPhone to myself to get access at my actual PC
  • Things that are too big, long, or flash related stories, etc… there’s a million different reasons
  • This neat little product uses WiFi to send everything from one to the other… stores it, pictures, links, text, etc…
  • Very cool. Very Useful. Well worth the $2.99 for the iPhone app and the sync client for Mac is free

Geek Speak

The New Tron Trailer
(JP) I know where I’ll be on Dec 21st… Where will you be?

• -mmm. motorcycles in the real world to match the cycles in the cyber world
• -Flynn’s arcade is BACK!
• -onboard keyboard reminiscent of the famous monolithic desk w/ built in keyboard interface
• -DISCS!!!
• -Despite subtle updates to pallette… THE TRAILER SO MATCHES WHAT I FELT the old TRON looked like

(iKDR) –  filmographies of some of the actors

• A poll of 27,000 adults in 26 countries for the BBC World Service showed 78 percent of Internet users believed the Web gave them greater freedom, while nine in 10 said it was a good place to learn.
• Leaders of thought process? (south korea and china) – Although China’s citizens were pretty strong in believing in regulation of the Internet
• FCC Details Plans To Provide BB to 90% households by 2020
  • I think there was this same initiative in late 1998… and then the .com bubble burst
  • Only 65% of americans have BB at their houses currently
  • Guess the avg speed? (3.9 MB/s) – their goal 100 MB/s
  • Still no hard plans

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Survey Says!!! Macs cost less to support than PC’s (SM)
  • OK, full disclosure, this was a survey done by an alliance looking to promote Macs, and the software needed to integrate macs, in the workplace
  • With that said, a majority found that TCO was lower on a mac in the enterprise, mostly on hardware repairs and lower numbers of helpdesk tickets
  • 2/3 of the companies surveyed (over 100 macs in the enterprise) said they planned to deploy more in 2010
  • Funny thing? Apple traditionally hasn’t focused on the enterprise in the least

• MyOuterSpace.com Launches, Sci-Fi social media site (iKDR)
  • obviously not a SN for everyone, upon sign up when you choose your planet, you have to be in the entertainment business in order to have an account (ie writer, director, video game developer, etc)
  • once you pick a “planet” that matches your profession, then you enroll and the set up in kinda like a glorified chat room
  • Mission videos, planet and starship information, applications, member groups and more are all part of this well put-together site.
  • logged on last night and only 35 members were online, so i’m not sure how many actual members there are altogether
  • (SM) I thought anybody can sign up, but they just have to participate in their “chosen” profession
    • “Whether you are a fan of Sci Fi, Horror or Fantasy or seeking a career in the Science fiction industry MyOuterSpace.com has much to offer” Upon registration, the required field include your profession, there’s no “other” or “fan” options
  • your “home page” is set up like FB, status updates, people can post messages to your wall, etc.
  • you can add apps like twitter updates, photos, and even blogging features
  • seems very cumbersome, no real direct use i can see at this point other than the forums, keep getting logged out as i navagate through the site
  • and as a web designer, urks me when there’s errors on every single page after loading
  • aside from planets, there’s also ships, but you have to be invited to be part of a crew to see what the ship is all about…weird
  • there’s also a prominent career section to enter your info so they can set you up with the appropriate training to further your career in the arts

• Google denied Trademark on Nexus One (JP)
  • The application was rejected as too similar to a “Nexus” integrated voice and Internet T1 product owned by Integra Telecom, which registered its trademark in December 2008.
  • not to mention the lawsuit by the Phillip K Dick estate since he actually coined the Term in his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which was the basis for the AWESOME flick Bladerunner!
  • (SM) The actual OS and device march on though, picked up by both Sprint and AT&T (huh? wha? If you have access to Iphone… why would you get the nexus)
  • What does this mean for Google? Could either change the name of the Nexus One, contest the trademark application, or license the brand name from Integra, which sells $60 million worth of products per year under the Integra brand, according to a report.

• Obama Sides with RIAA, ACTA (SM)
  • No copyright reform for you
  • A lot of techies were hoping that him being young and tech-savvy would result in some help on the erosion of fair-use
  • Obama – “We’re going to aggressively protect our intellectual property,” Obama said. “Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people…It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it’s only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can’t just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.”
  • Industry sources are claiming that piracy is costing US jobs, others outside the industry claim that piracy is being abetted by an antiquated business model
  • ACTA – a proposed trade agreement for establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement throughout the participating countries.
    • Most opponents say its a thinly veiled attempt to get something like DMCA tied to trade agreements (you don’t police what we say, no trade with you)
    • So basically it would bypass the national assemblies for passing these laws
    • The topper? All the talks are hush hush secret, so nobody except the ppl negotiating will know what comes out of this until its already been agreed upon
  • Positive note? EU shot down ACTA 633-13

• Alex E-Reader, a Tempting Alternative to IPad? (iKDR)
  • Not so fast my friends, This is being released about a month after the IPad
  • Only $100 less than the IPad, a little bit larger android screen underneath but not even guaranteed to run all android apps
  • $399 Android-powered device, which features both a 6-inch e-ink display and a 3.5-inch, 16-bit color touch-screen LCD
  • 11-ounce Alex has an interesting shape, measuring 4.7 inches wide, 8.9 inches high, and less than a half inch thick
  • can download Google Books and it’s compatible with other bookstores that support Adobe DRM (you can read e-books in EPUB, PDF, HTML, and TXT formats), the Alex has no tie-in with Barnes & Noble
  • key selling points are its built-in Wi-Fi, the ability to stream video and surf the Web (on its smaller color screen), and use certain Android applications
  • 2GB removable memory card and the microSD expansion slot supports cards up to 32GB. Earphones, an AC/USB power connector, and a padded cover ship with the unit
  • (JP) I would not even consider it in the same league as the iPad, the Nook and the Kindle, yes… but the eink display (IE B&W) and surfing the web do not coincide…
  • E-Ink is trying to go color by the end of this year.. but too little too late?
    • (how will it affect their claims on the eye strain, etc… I wonder – JP)
• Xbox 360 Slim sightings? (JP)
  • Pics appear to show the console’s CPU and GPU combined in a single, small chip for the first time
  • If real this would be a complete re-design of the console… we’ll have to wait and see as I am chalking these up to rumor for now…

• Bing! Search Uses Blue to the Tune of $80 million (SM)
  • for those savvy it’s #0044CC – the old Live Search used a lighter blue
  • They did many focus group studies and found that the color of the search link was the most important factor on ppl wanting to use the page
  • How much of an impact? Microsoft cited at least $80 million in generated revenue alone (how they figured this out? who knows)
  • Type-Face not as important. They experimented with Verdana before going back to the tried and true Arial

• Katrina Victims Sue Oil Companies for Causing Hurricanes (SM)
  • Here’s logic. Oil companies produce oil, which then gets burned and releases carbon, which some have said relates to global warming and also upticks in Hurricanes
  • Filed by lawyers right after the disaster, class action lawsuit
  • Almost as ludicrous as the burglar in california who fell through the ceiling, broke is leg, turned around and sued the owner of the house, and won

• Guy Trains Alpaca to Buddy Surf (ty @PhysicistLisa)
  • Domingo Pianezzi, 44, has slowly introduced his alpaca Pisco, to surfing!
  • The guy has been training dogs all his life to buddy surf
  • Only thing? Alpacas aren’t natural swimmers, the animal gets skittish even with a lifevest on.
  • Way too much time on this guys hands
    • (I wonder if Peru is a place where men are men and Llamas are nervous??)
• Love in a cold climate lethal for Russian couple (JP)
  • A Russian couple having sex in a car parked in a tiny garage have died from carbon monoxide poisoning
  • It is believed they turned the car on to get warm while having sex…
  • Can you say Darwin Awards?
• Online Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely (iKDR)
  • More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments
  • 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership
    • WOW… I’ve heard of stupid things when you get fired… but I bet he will be staying in jail for a while for this one…
    • Talk about misdirected anger… who did he punish? The dealership? Not in this lifetime… that only hurt consumers who did nothing to him! IDIOT!

• Jennifer Aniston Stars Alongside Boba Fett
• Apple Delaying Certain IPad Launch Accessories

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