This year, it's all about faux-broken LCDs.

Got a laptop? An LCD monitor? Hell, try it on a CRT. Have fun.

If they make magnet bullet hole stickers for cars, they may as well have busted LCD backgrounds.

News today was pretty slow, from what I actually got to read.

I spent most of the day in the dark, because the remaining bits of Rita decided to rip the grid up here a new one in some areas.

Better to take a day off of blogging than to blow up some equipment because of faulty power.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

This punch comes from the music labels, Warner to be specific.

Check it out, because it's merely a precursor of things to come.

Leave it to people at MIT to make a really creative laptop for 100 dollars.

Images are up.

The design is very clever. If tablet PCs were designed this intelligently they might be more popular. So far, for 100 dollars, this laptop looks surprisingly versitile.

Sorry for the lack of posts, but it was time to reformat my PC, so I've spent much of today getting it back up to spec. I was having some driver issues after my last purchase (Audigy 2 ZX), so I blew it away.

In my absence, it looks like Call of Duty 2 came out in a demo. I just downloaded and played it. I am most impressed with the character modeling, but I disliked a few aspects of the gameplay. Some of it was more realistic, like slower gun use. I'm not sure I like the new crosshairs, they're a little chunky and obtrusive. Since the characters blend better with the environment, sleeker crosshairs are mandated.

One of the most interesting tweaks I found was a setting in the game's control panel for optimization for two graphics cards. Clearly, they have SLI in mind for this title. I'd like to see how SLI would benefit the gameplay and the framerate. I know my 6800 had a pretty hard time running it on higher settings.

Also, Valve released Day of Defeat: Source, so that looks like another interesting title. I haven't got Steam reinstalled yet, but I'm working on it. I'm looking forward to giving that a go and seeing how I like it.

Raise your hand if you hate PayPal.

Seems everyone from the Something Awful Forums to Mike Rundle had trouble with the Internet's biggest fake money exchange. I only wish I did, so I could say "I hated PayPal before it was cool."(BTW: I think that would make a kickass bumper sticker.)

Rumors were abuzz a few months ago that Google had a PayPal-like system on the way, which was shot down by Google's reps. However, there's new fuel on the fire, suggesting that maybe Google has got something in their coffers moneybags sleeves.

Windows Vista is supposed to boot in 2-3 seconds, like a television. For some reason I'm skeptical of how that's going to work.

I like this part though. The site is titled "Confidence."

You'll also shut down and restart your computer less often by using the New Sleep state, a simple one-click on and off experience which not only reduces power consumption, but also delivers and protects user dat.

They should put a little less confidence in their spellcheck, I guess. "User dat?" Hopefully it wasn't FrontPage 12 that let this go.

When you've got income like Microsoft, typos on promotional pages are a bad thing.

Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. just recently responded to Steve Jobs assertion that wanting more than 99 cents per song is "greedy" with the following:

"To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers. The market should decide, not a single retailer. Some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more. I don't want to give anyone the impression that $0.99 is a thing of the past."

Bronfman's problem with .99 cent singles is that if you buy the only two good songs on an album, then naturally you should pay more. Naturally!

Wrong.

I'm not sure exactly how much he thinks some of these songs are worth, but if you can go to Best Buy or Circuit City and pick up a CD for 9.99, then it doesn't make economic sense from a consumer standpoint to pay more than 99 cents per song. Example: Say our consumer pays 2 dollars per single and purchases 4 singles (not unheard of to like 4 songs on an album) that's 8 dollars. 8 ~ 10.

You shouldn't be penalized for being selective toward the music you buy, and that's what he's looking to do.

I also like this quote, for its delicious ambiguity:

"We are selling our songs through iPod, but we don't have a share of iPod's revenue. We want to share in those revenue streams. We have to get out of the mindset that our content has promotional value only."

I'm not sure if he's confusing the iPod with iTunes here, or actually suggesting that he somehow deserves revenue from the iPod itself. The iPod, sold by Apple, which functions as a portable hard drive, picture data bank, and for some, a gaming device. It plays music yes, but it's not limited to music. Those who choose to use it for other reasons don't deserve a surcharge, and the music companies don't deserve any of the revenue from a player that was developed, marketed and sold by Apple Computer.My computer plays music too. Do I need to pay record labels for it?

So Steve says, "No."

After all, Jobs has downplayed the potential of such a device for years, arguing that the iPod's small screen would make it a lousy machine on which to watch a movie.

Of course, I'm fairly certain he started saying this before Podcasting became popular, so much so that it would integrate into iTunes.

Now, icons show up buried in iTunes for video. And the new versions of Podzilla (Linux) for iPods have video support. We know they're capable of it. At some point iTunes opened up for video podcasts, vodcasts, whatever. Turns out they're so new we don't even have a decent name for them.

Is Jobs' denial of video enabled iPods all Vaudeville and handwaving? At this point, I'm going to put my chip in the "yes" pile.

Not but a few days ago, Jobs said that Microsoft and Dell were obviously copying Apple, and that he did not feel compelled to give a roadmap.

All of these pieces suggest to me that there will be video enabled iPods. Maybe it'll be the next gen, maybe they'll include it in the next firmware update, but I'm expecting it.

nVidia's SLi drivers moving to Linux is in the works.

Here you go nVidia/Linux fanboys. Now you get all the benefits of Windows gaming, without all of the games.

TUAW has a writeup about a free antispyware utility available for the mac. If you have a mac, it's worth looking into, based on the adage "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." If you think you're protected just because you're on an Apple computer, you're only half right.

Just like TUAW suggests, MacScan is aimed at a big hole in the market.

I'd been wondering how much longer it would be before we could manufacture genes. Between "Folding at Home" and the pace of regular biological research, our knowledge of protein folding and behavior has been improving. And we've known how to edit genes for a while, so it was only a matter of time until we'd come up with something totally manufactured.

Alas, the time has come.

We don't quite know enough about protein folding and interactions to make clinically useful proteins, but at this rate it is only a matter of time until we can synthesize a protein for a specific purpose, and potentially implant such a gene into the human genome, rendering some drugs obsolete. At least, this is the goal.

When the landing gear goes awry, you would think you're in trouble. Not if you're flying JetBlue apparently.

Check this out.

Definitely earns bonus points for landing dead center on the strip. These pilots are top notch.

NEC's new L1 phone looks amazing. I like it better than the Razr.

Of course, good luck ever getting your hands on it state-side. We're just prone to getting garbage-y looking cell phones. The Rokr? Garbage.

Here's a picture of the L1. Enjoy.

So this guy, heretofore known as the "freeipodguy" really actually wants to give away free iPods. All you have to do is provide him with an email address and a name. He's making the money through AdSense and a few other ads, which he will take to buy iPods and offer more contests.

Since it's AdSense, don't go haphazardly clicking the links thinking you'll earn him money. If you do that, you'll just get him cancelled.

Anyway, more traffic should equal more money and since the guy seems to have his head in the right place, it might be worth checking out.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 has been released for your updating pleasure.

Keep yourself up-to-date.

You wouldn't want any of those security holes that may or may not exist to eventually bite you.

Part of me questions the timing of this of course. Firefox releases an update the day after Opera tells the world their browser will now be free. Is this Firefox's way of saying, "Hey look! We're still here!" Lord knows, after you update it, you'll use it. Are they trying to reclaim anyone that may have jumped on the Opera bandwagon?

After there were rumors that the music labels wanted iTunes songs to cost more, Jobs issued these retorts:

"If they want to raise the prices, it means that they are getting greedy"

"If the price goes up, they (consumers) will go back to piracy and everybody loses."

Just when you thought the fun was over, Jobs provides another gem. This time, regarding those pirating the developer editions of OS 10.4, Tiger:

"Theft is bad. You don't want to burn in Hell."

I love this guy.

For a while my biggest complaint against the Opera browser was its disturbing banner ads. A static ad is one thing that you can tune out, but flashing/alternating/blinking ads are too distracting for my taste, especially in a web browser. There are enough blinking/alternating/flashing ads on webpages so the last place I wanted to see one was in the browser itself.

Well, no more banner ad. Opera is now free, sans ads. Impressive.

It's a little too late for them though. Firefox came through for me in a time when Opera failed. I was getting sick and tired of IE so I tried Opera but never got the knack of mouse gestures. And the ad killed me. Then I used the then beta .7 Firefox release, and loved it.

Opera is a little too late on the bandwagon. Now not only do they need to fight IE, but they need to fight Firefox. We all know what happens when you're attacked on two fronts... Germany anyone? At the very least Opera will have a difficult time finding converts. The perfect time for them to have grabbed the browser market would've been before Firefox got so popular.

Nintendo's New Controller Demo

I guess Nintendo thought that it would be a good time to show how versatile their new controller could be, and in doing so put out the preceding demo.

To me this looks amazing. I agree with the opinion presented here. The Xbox360 (which is a dumb name) and the PS3 (which is only a slightly less dumb name) name do very little to advance the gaming industry. They truly are merely upgrades to existing hardware, and seek only to change the industry by making games prettier.

We gamers must be a shallow bunch. Jaws dropped at the showing of the new Metal Gear Solid game for the PS3. Mine didn't. Maybe I was unconvinced at the value of a game trailer.

In order to see why Nintendo has the best offering so far, we have to look at the current lineup and a little bit of history.

The PS2 is pretty much an upgraded PS1. This is pretty obvious in that everything down to the controllers was as identical as it could be to the PS1. They added in some new functionality, but in all honestly, the PS2 is more of a PS1.5 than anything else. Slapping on a DVD player and upgrading to prettier graphics engines doesn't do much for the industry. The advantage to the PS2 of course, was all the franchises Sony secured by offering the PS1, which was the winner of the previous round of consoles.

The GameCube was honestly one of the worst looking consoles I've ever seen. If it wasn't directly marketed toward children, I don't know what it is. It came in that hideous purple color. It had a few decent games but was quickly overshadowed by the PS2 and the Xbox for being less cool than the PS2 and less useful than the Xbox.

The Xbox was the clear winner in the innovation category last round of consoles. It provided online play related to a central system. "Xbox Live" changed the way multiplayer games were played. Not only could you play with someone across the country, but you could also talk trash while you whomped him. Giving better or comparable graphics as the PS2, the only drawback to the Xbox was the smaller selection of games, which is one of the penalties of being a newcomer.

A few posts back I talked about how Microsoft in Vista wanted to change the way humans interface with their computers. Clearly, Nintendo is the only company willing to change the way humans interface with their game consoles in this generation. I think that will make them a winner. Their controller looks amazingly versitile (moreso after watching the video than I originally thought), and despite the potential of making a user look like a moron, could really open up gameplay in incredibly fun ways. And besides, making the user look like an idot never really seemed to stop people from playing DDR.

(Case-in-point)

A new worm strikes via Peer to Peer networks and spoofs a Google page to make its authors some money.

Things like this shouldn't spread, but will.

Source

In the meantime, avoid trying to steal "Knights of the Old Republic."

Last night I charged my iPod through my computer which was apparently a mistake. Once I plugged it in, iTunes 5 popped up, telling me it was syncing my music, so I exited the program and it told me nothing was synced.

This morning I noticed that a bunch of albums I ripped no longer showed up on my iPod. 784 songs worth to be entirely accurate. I guess "not synced" means "erased."

Apparently iTunes doesn't like it if you rip music elsewhere and don't have the albums in your iTunes library. Thanks but no thanks iTunes, I'm well aware of which CDs I own, and I'll manage them for me. You don't have to bother anymore.

A while back I gained some respect for the Dave Matthews Band for explaining to his fans how to circumvent the DRM on his CD, which was blocking users from putting his music on their iPods.

It seems Switchfoot is none too happy about the predicament as well, and go just as far to tell users how to bypass it.

SonyMusic Forums

So Switchfoot actually went and put instructions on circumventing the copy protection onto a site run by Sony. Well done. I like the pinache.

A few technologies which were supposed to have revolutionized the way humans interact with computers have really had very little impact. The first was speech-to-text software, like Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. It gained in popularity but ultimately fizzled, as I don't hear anyone singing its praises anymore.

The second was the tablet PC. A few factors are to blame for the fizzle, but one of the biggest sticking points was the crappy handwriting recognition software. Unlike Palm's Graffiti, Windows XP's tablet edition didn't force you to adopt a specific writing style. Instead Windows was supposed to figure out your handwriting, and it did so with less than compelling results. Apparently, Microsoft wants to fix this for the future.

Improved handwriting recognition in Vista

The way I see it, improvements in the handwriting recognition software will help sell tablet PCs, but it will not push that many. If Microsoft wants the tablet PC segment to take off, they have to bring the price down to match or be within a narrow margin of regular laptops. Which would you take, a regular laptop or a one you could write on, if it only cost you 50-100 dollars more for the tablet?

The Nintendo Revolution controller will look like a glorified remote control.

Source

I have to use one before I can even form an opinion on it. I've grown very accustomed to the "regular" layout and this represents a huge shift in the paradigm. For that I give Nintendo a lot of credit. Nintendo doesn't seem to be fighting Sony and Microsoft using head on tactics, and are instead looking at keeping their current audience of die-hards and expanding on it. If the controllers prove versitile and useful, Nintendo may well have a sleeper hit on their hands, without the huge financial investments made by their competitors.

Some of the controllers I've seen make me nostolgic for the D-pad A & B button days. Nintendo's new controller harkens back to that in a way. I'd definitely like to give one a shot.

Remember when Google requested the 4 billion in shares? Everyone pondered how they were going to use it. There were rumors that the Google "Summer of Code" was coming to an end.

It's not over yet.

They're still coding:
Google's University Portal

The interesting thing to note here: You provide a valid .edu email address, they provide you with your very own Gmail login. It'd been opened to people via SMS before, but America's most least exclusive email just got less exclusive.

They're still buying:
Broadband over Powerline

Now Google wants to make sure that everyone, even people in the booneys can get broadband web access. I'm actually pleased at the investment, as BPL offers some promise for wiring homes cheaply and effectively.

Turns out the kid who hacked Paris Hilton's Sidekick is going to juvie for 11 months.

MSNBC Article

Oh heavens no... how am I going to get my nakie Paris fix from now on? (I suppose the rest of the Internet will have to pick up the slack)

All in all the kid needs help. He's also suspected in conspiring a bomb threat. But a part of me wishes this kid hadn't been cought though, considering how light his crime was. So a bunch of celebs had to change their numbers, big deal. No one lost sleep or hours at work.

I'd like to see some virus writers get caught. Those guys cause massive mind-bending headaches for the average IT guy, and get off scot-free. Apparently by hacking a celebrity phone you become a priority.