Archive for April, 2009

Wow. 1 million followers. Do you really think Ashton Kutcher even sees what you say on Twitter? If he does, do you really think he cares what you say on Twitter? If so, you need to get a life.

For now, Ashton Kutcher is the king of Twitter. But there is a new challenger — Oprah.

Kutcher triumphed over CNN in their much ballyhooed race to be the first to reach a million followers on the microblogging Web site. Kutcher surpassed that benchmark in the early morning hours Friday, narrowly edging out the breaking news feed from the Time Warner Inc.-owned network.

50% of the people are watching for great tv deals, and 26% of the people reading this said, “Huh? What’s Twitter?“

Will May 5th, 2009 be forever known as Blue Tuesday?

Ok gang, it looks like we may finally have an honest-to-goodness release date for the Windows 7 RC: May 5, 2009.

A page has been posted on Microsoft’s partner portal which tells MSDN and Technet subscribers that they can download the RC now, though that doesn’t appear to be true just yet. Clicking through to the downloads page still only displays the Windows 7 Beta downloads.

True or false? Will Microsoft make the deadline or should we just send all of their marketing people to drug rehab instead? Then again, if they release it, and it really works, maybe the President will invite them to a winner’s dinner at the White House…

And to think your parents thought being a “hacker” was a bad thing.

Federal authorities aren’t looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation’s networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could “think like the bad guy.” Applicants, it said, must understand hackers’ tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

This is a position just about anyone could qualify for. You can be a hacker whether your are male, female, skinny, or require diet-pills. No matter your shape or style, if you can hack it, they want you to try. Be all you can be!

I don’t think the whole “watching full length videos on the computer” thing is going to catch on, but I love watching movies on my ipod. If I could watch YouTube videos on my iPod, I would be set.

Google Inc.’s YouTube said Thursday it is vastly expanding its library of full-length movies and TV shows it offers online, while also launching a new advertising service and adding about a dozen new content partners.

The long-form videos will be housed on a unique page at http://www.youtube.com/shows and get a “Shows” tab on the main YouTube site.

I wonder what kind of advertising we are going to see? Will it be ads for the best diet pill, the latest clothing styles, or soda wars? If you had your choice for ads, what would they be?

I am looking forward to seeing the new Firefox. I’m a little worried about their “changes to the way tabs are handled” but we’ll see what they have planned.

Mozilla is inching closer to the release of Firefox 3.5, which includes a faster Javascript engine, a private browsing mode, faster page rendering, and changes to the way tabs are handled. Firefox 3.5 beta 4 is due to be released within the next week or so.

I’m not so sure I want any of this software on my MacBook. What about you?

Microsoft’s MacBU on Tuesday posted a trial version of its Office suite of applications for Mac users.

Office for Mac 2008 includes Entourage, Excel, Messenger, PowerPoint and Word, allowing users to everything from email to writing a document. The functionality of the trial edition is the same as the Standard Edition if you purchased that.

I’ve been using my MacBook to edit the movies I take with the Kodak Zi6, but now that I see this, I may have to play on the PC a bit to see how well it works.

VideoSpin is the free video editor that I kind of wish Windows Movie Maker was. It’s easy to use, and it doesn’t lock up on me the way Windows Movie Maker likes to after I’ve made a few splices. I first checked out VideoSpin back in early 2008, but today Pinnacle has released an updated version that adds a handful of new features and support for a bunch of new video formats.

Other than the occasional storm of visits, is there any value with StumpleUpon?

Two founders of Web content recommendation service StumbleUpon said Monday they bought the company back from online auction house eBay Inc., just two years after eBay purchased the startup for $75 million.

The founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, bought the company back with the help of investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital, they said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

Happy Easter!

Could this be the start of something big? Like the return of Steve Jobs?

More than three months into a medical leave from Apple Inc, Chief Executive Steve Jobs remains closely involved in key aspects of running the company, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook runs the day-to-day operations, but Jobs has continued to work on the company’s most important strategies and products from home, the newspaper said in a story on its website.