News
Super Ubuntu Rolls Multimedia and Helpful Extras into Ubuntu [Featured Download]
Most anyone using Ubuntu Linux has to install Adobe Flash, Java, DVD playback, and other plug-ins to actually enjoy it. Super Ubuntu packs all that essential in from the get-go. It's basically just a re-compiled version of the official Ubuntu distribution, but with a whole bunch of features included that save you the time of grabbing them yourself. File-sharing apps, … [Link]
Meg Whitman Resigns from eBay Board, May Run for Governor
Meg Whitman fueled speculation that she was readying a run for office of California governor when it became public today that she stepped down last week from several corporate boards she was serving … [Link]
Norwegian podcast puts entire Beatles catalog online—legally
This may be a case of unintended consequences. The NRK, Norway's national broadcasting service has scored permission from the country's music rights holders to release podcasts of any programs that it's done that are less than 70 percent music. A notable component of the NRK's collection is a series of broadcasts that includes the entire Beatles catalog. Read More… [Link]
Milky Way Heavier Than Thought, and Spinning Faster
An anonymous reader writes "The Milky Way is spinning much faster and has 50 per cent more mass than previously believed. This means the Milky Way is equivalent in size to our neighbor Andromeda — instead of being the little sister in the local galaxy group, as had been believed. One implication of this new finding is that we may … [Link]
Bill O'Reilly Declares A Winner: Norm Coleman
Oops: h/t: Media Matters [Link]
Android netbook port leaves some pondering Google OS
Will Google aim its OS sights at the PC market? A recent port of Android to a common netbook suggests that Google Linux could become a reality.Read More… [Link]
Florida coin auction could net $50 million
5 (UPI) — An auction in Orlando, Fla., that will include the sale of five US coins minted in 1915 should result in at least $50 million in sales, … See all stories on this topic [Link]
China gives jail time to Windows counterfeiters
China has cracked down on a global software-counterfeiting syndicate, with 11 'ringleaders' each facing up to six-and-a-half years in jail. Eleven counterfeiters have been given jail sentences of between one-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years by a Chinese court after being found guilty of producing fake Microsoft software. … [Link]
Carefully Timed Jerks Could Power Space Elevator
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC has an interesting article on the long-standing issue of how to power the 'climber' that would ascend a space elevator into space. Previous ideas have included delivering microwave or laser power to the climber beamed from the Earth's surface, but now European Space Agency ground station engineer Age-Raymond Riise has demonstrated a device that could provide … [Link]
Review of 'MacHeads' Documentary
An anonymous reader writes "Just prior to its premiere at MacWorld later this week, CNet has a review of MacHeads, the new documentary film covering the obsessive world of Apple fanboyism. MacHeads features commentary from original Apple employees, the self-confessed Apple-obsessed and girls who claim they'll never sleep with Windows users. Summed up by CNet: 'MacHeads is a superb film … [Link]
Super Ubuntu Rolls Multimedia and Helpful Extras into Ubuntu [Featured Download]
Most anyone using Ubuntu Linux has to install Adobe Flash, Java, DVD playback, and other plug-ins to actually enjoy it. Super Ubuntu packs all that essential in from the get-go. It's basically just a re-compiled version of the official Ubuntu distribution, but with a whole bunch of features included that save you the time of grabbing them yourself. File-sharing apps, … [Link]
Steve Jobs Issues Update On His Health
i4u writes "Rumors about Steve Jobs' health have been flying high again after Apple announced that he will not be holding the keynote at the Macworld 2009. Today Steve Jobs issued a letter with a rather personal update on why he was losing weight in 2008. The reason for losing weight in 2008 is a hormone imbalance that has been … [Link]
Obama Moves To Link Pentagon With NASA
Amiga Trombone sends this quote from the beginning of a story at Bloomberg: "President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the US's civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China. Obama's transition team is considering a collaboration between the Defense Department and … [Link]
Comment on Foxit Reader gets new version, typewriter tool by Paul Yoder
I downloaded the software including the toolbar. I like the reader better than the Adobe reader, however my Gmail didn’t work properly, it would take forever to load going in to the inbox or opening a message, at times it didn’t open at all. I uninstalled the the tool bar and the problem is solved. The typewriter function no longer … [Link]
IE Market Share Drops Below 70%
Mike writes "Microsoft's market share in the browser dropped below 70% for the first time in eight years, while Mozilla broke the 20% barrier for the first time in its history. It's too early to tell for sure, but if Net Applications' numbers are correct, then Microsoft's Internet Explorer will end 2008 with a historic market share loss in a … [Link]
American Public Media promotes astrology
Well, nuts. The new year is barely unwrapped and I already have to knock some heads together. [Oops! I somehow got it in my head that it was NPR promoting this, but it’s not. I’ve corrected my mistake below, and apologies to NPR.] Now, usually I like National Public Radio. It has intelligent, thoughtful programming, unlike pretty much every other … [Link]
Why Mirroring Is Not a Backup Solution
Craig writes "Journalspace.com has fallen and can't get up. The post on their site describes how their entire database was overwritten through either some inconceivable OS or application bug, or more likely a malicious act. Regardless of how the data was lost, their undoing appears to have been that they treated drive mirroring as a backup and have now paid … [Link]
If Someone Wanted To Publish My Blog Entries For Money, I Wouldn't Say No
Let me make one thing clear right off the bat: I started my blog because I needed an outlet for my thoughts and feelings during the 2004… [Link]
Area Man Looking For Whatever The Hell Is Beeping
DELMAR, NY???Craig Mitich, 27, has spent 20 minutes searching his apartment for whatever the hell is emitting a high-pitched beep every few minutes. "Okay, it's not my cell phone… it's not my microwave… or my car-alarm remote," said Mitich, standing motionless with an ear cocked toward his entertainment center. "God, what is it? Can a power strip beep?" At press … [Link]
Bristol Palin's Baby Daddy's Mom Arrested on Drug Charges
The mom of Levi Johnston—first daughter candidate Bristol Palin's uncomfortable jock boyfriend—has been arrested on drug charges. Law and order Republicans now support Obama! Because this sounds vaguely like a meth lab: "Troopers served the warrant at Johnston's home at the 'conclusion of an undercover narcotics investigation,' said a statement issued Thursday by the troopers as part of the normal … [Link]
CNN First to Kill News 'Crawl'
Like Rudolph Giuliani, the news crawl was great on 9/11 but was soon useless and despised. Now CNN is killing it, and hopefully Fox News will too, if the Simpsons mock them again. Supposedly the cable news network threatened to sue (UPDATE: not really) its News Corporation siblings at the Simpsons in 2003 over the clip above, in which Fox … [Link]
Most glad Bush is leaving, poll shows
A new national poll suggests that three out of four Americans feel President Bush's departure from office is coming not a moment too soon. Seventy-five percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey said they're glad Bush is going; 23 percent indicated they'll miss him. [Link]
DMFail: Another Reason To Just Not Send Private Messages On Twitter
If you are the kind of person who can’t help but look when you drive by an accident scene, DMFail is for you. The site, which has been all the rage on Twitter for the last few days, shows direct (private) messages that were sent improperly on Twitter and are therefore public. If you want to send another Twitter user … [Link]
Leap Second To Be Added Dec 31, 2008
ammorris writes "Don't be the laughingstock of your friends when you shout 'Happy New Years' a second too early … The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service has announced that a leap second will be added on December 31, 2008 at 23h 59m 60s, meaning that this year will be exactly one second longer. The last leap second occurred … [Link]
Evolution of Intelligence More Complex Than Once Thought
palegray.net writes "According to a new article published in Scientific American, the nature of and evolutionary development of animal intelligence is significantly more complicated than many have assumed. In opposition to the widely held view that intelligence is largely linear in nature, in many cases intelligent traits have developed along independent paths. From the article: 'Over the past 30 years, … [Link]
Area Man Looking For Whatever The Hell Is Beeping
DELMAR, NY—Craig Mitich, 27, has spent 20 minutes searching his apartment for whatever the hell is emitting a high-pitched beep every few minutes. "Okay, it's not my cell phone… it's not my microwave… or my car-alarm remote," said Mitich, standing motionless with an ear cocked toward his entertainment center. "God, what is it? Can a power strip beep?" At press … [Link]
pandagon.net
Are the anti-vaccination wack-jobs anti-feminist? - Aaron pandagon.net 12/29/08 | 6 views | Shared by: Aaron, [Link]
Comment on Purple Wave unveils grouped extension system for equipment auction by Darron Meares
Fine…. I’ll stop using the word ’static’ when I refer to these auctions! You have convinced me otherwise! LOL Reply - Quote [Link]
iPhone now running Windows apps, too
To some extend, I think it's a cool idea. Thanks to Citrix Receiver, Windows users can use Windows apps in their iPhone 3G. Citrix allows iPhone users to access Microsoft's operating systems from their PCs remotely. Citrix Community wrote last month: Our goal in delivering a Citrix Receiver to an iPhone is to ensure a completely seamless transition from personal … [Link]
Managing Last.FM's "Mountain of Data"
Rob Spengler writes "Last.FM co-founder Richard Jones says the biggest asset the company owns is 'hundreds of terabytes of user data.' Jones adds, '… playing with that data is one of the most fun things about working at the company.' Last.FM, for those who have been living on Mars for the last two years, is the largest online radio outlet, … [Link]
Auction Podcast milestone - 1000 listens
Auction Podcast The Auction Podcast has reached its first milestone. We’ve recently rocketed past 1000 listens to the series. Indeed, according to Wordpress plugin Podpress, each of the first five episodes has over 100 listens. When we first started the podcast, the goal was a weekly release. We have some exciting plans for the podcast series in 2009, but in … [Link]
CastleCops Anti-Malware Site Closes Down
Fortran IV writes "Volunteer-powered anti-malware site CastleCops appears to have closed shop. As of Tuesday, December 23, the CastleCops home page notes: 'You have arrived at the CastleCops website, which is currently offline. . . . Unfortunately, all things come to an end.' It was reported back in June that Paul Laudanski, founder of CastleCops and its parent Computer Cops … [Link]
Actual Conversations On Twitter Not Possible Until Twitter Lets Us
One of the big complaints about Twitter is that conversations are hard to follow. Users can write a response to a Twitter message (or anything else), but the easy way to do this is to add an @[username] tag to the Twitter, which refers back to the original Twitter user. But by then that original user has often moved on … [Link]
Ask And Ye Shall Receive: Twitority Launches Authority-Based Twitter Search
Yesterday Loic Le Meur wrote a blog post asking for an authority-based Twitter search that would allow users to restrict their searches to Twitter users with a large number of followers. A number of bloggers were upset over this seemingly innocuous feature request, citing the difference between authority and popularity and how easy it is to game popularity counts on … [Link]
Foxit Reader gets new version, typewriter tool
Image by PiPiWa via Flickr Now that PDF is an ISO standard and no longer an Adobe product, it has value for some types of content distribution. We’ve mentioned the benefits of using Foxit Reader for all your PDF viewing needs in two articles and a podcast. Foxit is faster than Adobe Reader and takes up much less disk space. … [Link]
Teens' abstinence pledges found not to work
Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study being… [Link]
Microsoft Invents $1.15/Hour Homework Fee For Kids
theodp writes "Microsoft's vision of your computing future is on display in its just-published patent application for the Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience. The plan, as Microsoft explains it, involves charging students $1.15 an hour to do their homework, making an Office bundle available for $1/hour, and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun. In addition to your PC, Microsoft … [Link]
Microsoft Offers Windows Vista Answers Tech Help Forum [Beta Beat]
Just in time for all the new holiday computers running Windows Vista, Microsoft launches to their new Vista Answers community, a tech help forum where users ask questions and Vista experts offer answers. The site's already been seeded with common Vista questions and answers from team members. Here's a sample of some of the Q and A that's already available. … [Link]
Lifehacker's Most Popular Repurposing Posts of 2008 [Best Of 2008]
From empty CD spindles to canvas tote bags to popped-off keyboard keys, do-it-yourselfers find clever ways to modify and reuse common household items. Check out the most popular repurposing posts we published in 2008. CD/DVD Spindle Cable Organizer A cable organizer isn't the only clever reuse for this handy plastic container, see also a video clip that runs down several … [Link]
Zune Phone Being Announced at CES?
Once upon a time, Zune phone rumors were as thick on the ground as Autumn leaves. But as the inevitable nothing happened, they died down and were replaced by the more interesting Windows 7 rumblings. But now Microsoft is in pole position to announce something like a Zune phone, having pretty much let the whole 7 cat out of the … [Link]
