Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

Awesome news. It’s pretty obvious that someone who follows more than a few hundred people has absolutely no interest in what you have to say anyway.

You may have run across certain Twitter users who follow you back right away, as if they have some sort of autofollow feature turned on. They do, actually, but not for much longer. Autofollowing has never been available to everyone, it was only turned on for users who sent a special request to Twitter’s support team. Now, Twitter’s getting rid of it entirely.

Did you hear the news? Google is going to start offering their own web browser. Wow. Just what we need. Another browser. I can hear the web developers whining already. This doesn’t work, that doesn’t work. Browsers always have their own quirks.

Google Inc is set to introduce on Tuesday a new Web browser designed to more quickly handle video-rich or other complex Web programs, posing a challenge to browsers designed originally to handle text and graphics.

Google officials confirmed news of long-rumored plans to offer its own Web browsing software, entitled Google Chrome, in a company blog post after it mistakenly mailed details of the plan to a Google-watching blog, called Blogoscoped.com.

Of course, since it’s Google, everyone will bow down at their feet and accept their ‘Chrome’ browser, with no questions asked. Well, there might be one question.

Couldn’t they come up with a better name than ‘Chrome’? When I hear the name chrome, I think of old cars or online auto insurance quotes. And it isn’t chrome anyway. What gives?

I never leave my cellphone laying around. If I had an iPhone, you bet your ass I wouldn’t leave it laying around.

The latest iPhone embarrassment is a security hole that makes it simple to access stored data on supposedly locked iPhones. Apple said Thursday that a software patch to solve the problem is in the works.

They’re fixing the problem already? Wow, you mean iPhone users won’t have to wait for the first Tuesday in the month for a fix? Oh wait.

Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock said, “The minor iPhone security issue which surfaced this week is fixed in a software update which will be released in September.”

That makes sense. Maybe this will teach people not to leave their phones laying around. Heck, if they can’t remember to keep their phones in their hands, imagine how many promotional pens get lost everyday!

When you read this quote, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

A malicious computer virus that steals passwords has been brought on board the International Space Station, Nasa has confirmed.

The virus, known as W32.Gammima.AG, was carried into orbit on laptops brought up by astronauts in July.

The space station’s core operations have not been affected – Nasa described the infection as nothing more than a “nuisance” – but an investigation has been launched into how security systems were breached.

Yeah. If laptops on the ISS actually had an internet connection I would be questioning who was surfing for pr0n. Maybe they should just stick to books while they’re up there.

If AT&T’s new technical support program is anything like their current customer service program, we’re all in trouble.

AT&T is taking on Best Buy’s Geek Squad through the launch of a new 50-state technical-support program that promises to provide the services that consumers need when it comes to installing and troubleshooting a variety of computing equipment, software and home-entertainment gear.

I foresee people speaking very little English showing up at our doors asking what the problem is with our microwaves as they take a sledgehammer to our can openers. Either that or they will show up with steam cleaners wanting to know where the home theater is. I don’t see this turning out good for customers, or AT&T.

In typical Microsoft fashion, the debut of their new digital photo sharing site sank like a stone in Lake Lanier.

Microsoft Corp.’s new digital photo sharing site spent most of its first day offline as its servers strained to handle a flood of traffic.

The site, called Photosynth, stitches together a set of related digital photos into a presentation that allows viewers to zoom and pan across the scene.

I think the next time I think about purchasing a Microsoft product, I will just buy a bus instead. Heck, I might as well drive myself to the funny farm.

People should be happy the site was just unreachable and wasn’t causing their computers to reboot, although I think it would be funny if Microsoft made their error pages look like the blue screen of death.

It’s a shame that a service like Pandora is facing closure because of stupidity. Traditional radio stations pay no royalty fees. Satellite radio pays 1.6 cents per listener, per hour. Internet radio pays $500 per channel of content plus 60 cents per user per month plus 1.4 cents (this year) per song.

A report has surfaced that Pandora — the popular music-mix service for computers and mobile devices such as the iPhone — may have to stop music streaming as royalty fees drain its cash.

In an interview published Saturday by The Washington Post, Pandora founder Tim Westergren said, “We’re reaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for Webcasting.”

The Copyright Royalty Board is driving Internet radio out of business. The record companies are really going to feel the pinch when Internet radio goes silent. Silence sucks, especially when you are sitting in your basement in your home theater seating.

The American Energy Act will increase our supply of American made energy.

It will improve conservation and efficiency as well as promote new and expanding energy technologies.

All of this will help lower the price at the pump and reduce our costly dependence on foreign oil.

But Nancy Pelosi wants you to think it’s all about offshore drilling.

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I was sitting here working earlier when you would have thought the world dropped out for hundreds of people. All of sudden people all over Twitter were upset because Gmail was down.

Google Inc said on Monday it has resolved an issue with its contacts system that caused many users of its Gmail service to have trouble accessing their online e-mail.

…

Google said an outage in the contacts system used by Gmail prevented the e-mail system from loading properly. The company also said that there may be minor delays in deliveries even though all mail is safe.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Oh sure, I use Gmail. In fact, I have two Gmail accounts. The thing is, I knew they would get things resolved and all would be well again. No need to run around like a chicken with my head cut off, or boo-hoo and belly ache because they were down. I just had to wait an hour before I could pull up an email from a company about car covers. It wasn’t going to rain, I was in no rush.

Heck. It was an historic event. Gmail was down and people talked about it on Twitter, which was up. Who would have thought that could have ever happened?

On the surface this sounds like an excellent idea.

In fact, if they offered this at my local library, my iPod would be full right now.

It may be about time to dig out that old library card. Hoping to draw back readers, libraries have vastly expanded their lists of digital books, music, and movies that can be downloaded by their patrons to a computer or MP3 player — and it doesn’t cost a cent, unlike, say, media from Apple Inc’siTunes or Amazon.com Inc.

In Phoenix, for instance, branches have banded together to create a digital library that currently has about 50,000 titles of e-books, audiobooks, music and videos that can be “checked out” from anywhere. How awesome is that? You can be sitting at your Washington DC dentist waiting for your appointment, and checking out books at the same time.

Once discovered, says Tom Gemberling, the electronic resources librarian for the Phoenix Public Library, the program often proves wildly popular.

Awesome schtuff if you ask me.