The "FITS" of Telling the NEWS

Remember when the News was about the News?

Now the News (broadcast) is about possibilities.
Now the news is about asking inane questions from unqualified but Slanted "pundits".
Today, you can go to the News for questions but why bother?

They Don't have the answers. Probably a never had it, never will, kind of thing.
- - -
What about the WEB?
There's a lot of "Stuff" out there.

Some of it Might be News

The 100 top newspaper sites are here:
http://refdesk.com/top100pap.html

You know, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal.
Some are still viable despite their owner's "news pedigree".

And what about RSS feeds?

That's how I get the BBC Podcasts (for a different perspective about what's happening in the states).

I listen on my PSP, I don't use an iPod, but it works too. Pretty much any portable MP3 player will work, and there you have it, the BBC telling you the News of the Day.

The BBC has a whole slew of BBC RSS FEEDS you can subscribe to with just a click of a button.
Click here for FEEDS to choose from:


If you look hard enough, beyond the broadcast "Sound and Fury", you can find "some" viable news sources.

***
A cliche phrase from my Philosophy Logic Days was: "Consider the Source."

Good Idea, that.
=====================================================================
Here's a snippet of current news posted at refdesk.com: (My Fav Kid Safe reference web site!)
((webpage Slices is coming...))
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN THE NEWS:
• Favre Could Be Scarce in Retirement - Mar 09 12:41 PM US/Eastern
• Tar Heels Hold Off Duke to Win ACC Crown - Mar 09 12:38 PM US/Eastern
• AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water - Mar 09 12:33 PM US/Eastern
• Obama's Black Support Shows Its Limits - Mar 09 11:47 AM US/Eastern
• AP: Water Makes US Troops in Iraq Sick - Mar 09 11:38 AM US/Eastern
• Democrats Criticize Bush's CIA-Bill Veto - Mar 09 11:31 AM US/Eastern
• Obama Wins in Wyoming, Adds 7 Delegates - Mar 09 11:07 AM US/Eastern
• Woman Earns Silver Star in Afghan War - Mar 09 10:32 AM US/Eastern
• Iran Ready to Talk Nuclear With Europe - Mar 09 10:14 AM US/Eastern
• China: Terrorists Targeted Olympics - Mar 09 8:38 AM US/Eastern
(from the REFDESK.COM page.)
================================================================
Some Blogs and Stuff LINKS
================================================================
A Youtube Video Worth Watching...
========================================================
How Much Does the War in Iraq Cost?:
http://www.afsc.org/cost/?gclid=CMOLqd-xgJICFSEaawodhjHI9w
========================================================
Barack OBAMA Blog:
========================================================
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog/
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John McCAIN Blog:
========================================================
http://www.johnmccain.com/Blog/Read.aspx?guid=ace5005c-939b-4282-b19d-f95396ecbcd6
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Hillary CLINTON Blog:
=================================================================================
http://blog.hillaryclinton.com/
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Check Out DIGG for NEWS
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http://digg.com/news
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Found this on DIGG News.
The Check's Are Coming
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/08/tax.letter.ap/index.html?iref=24hours
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One Last BLOG to lighten the Load.
One of the 100 Newspapers posted above contains the Chicago Sun-Times which is the home of Ebert's "At The Movies" column. Here's the LINK:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

Yeah, he thinks "No Country For Old Men" was Pefect too...
Wingman, out.
============================================================================

For The Loss of A Buckley...

The Theater loss the reason seasoned thoughts of intellectuals many years ago with the loss of the Great Actor/Orators like Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Peter O'Toole, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn.

Some might say, me included, that the loss of persistent intellectuals may have faded from the American conscience with the loss of William F. Buckley Jr.

For 50 plus years he prodded and probed the political systems with glib and evanescent inquiry. His aloof delivery and slow meanderings, sprinkled with ten dollar words made you strain for understanding. What is He talking about? What does he mean?

I took from him: Question everything, and Question Everyone. Particularly politicians, whose words are too often filtered by think tanks and spin doctors. Too often they try to tell us what "they" think we want to hear.

One of my frequently quoted phrases from Marshall McLuan is "The Message is the Massage", which to me means: the means of the transmission is equally as important as what is being transmitted.

That was what Buckley was, an intelligent transmission.

That Voice and Transmission is what we lost last week.

The world has become a darker, quieter place because of it.

CNN and the Cool "Minority Report Effect"

Always on the cutting edge tech wise if not news reporting, CNN showed off it's neato Minority Report Like Effect last night.

Like Tom Cruise did in the Steven Spielberg movie "Minority Report"' minus the headset.
IMDB Link Here:

I guess that would have been "Too Techy".

Link to my report of the Windows Table Top system that MS sells for 10,000 a pop.

Link to a way to "duplicate" the effect for home movies using Blender 3D software.

RSS, Podcasts and New Media

Dave Winer on Leo's TWiT podcast argued that the RSS enclosure was not being use fully. That it was capable of doing "so much more...", but no one was taking advantage of its potential.

I iclude a link to the Podcast Here

TWIT episode 134

March 3rd, 2008

TWiT 134: Pave the Cow Paths

RSS evolves, Twitter vs. Pownce, Wikileaks, powdered hard disks, and more...

Just a simple cut and paste here to include Leo's Link.

80th Academy Awards

The Book

The Motion Picture.

The Movie of The YEAR
2007

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Directors

Best Supporting Actor

Best Movie of The Year.

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.

This Link is to Amazon.com and their review of NCFOM.

BLOG: A Pocket Full of Miracles-MP3 Players

I purchased for My Wife for Valentine's Day an MP3 player.

The Creative 2GB Zen Stone Plus pictured here. About the size of a fat thumb. I installed 150 of her favorite songs and the audiobook "Pillars of the Earth". (40 plus hours of listening for the book).

Long time readers of my posts, on my many Blogs, have often heard me criticize the Apple iPod.

I have repeated said: "No One needs to carry around with him 15, 000 of his or her 'favorite' songs."

Okay, the Great Composers maybe, but for us ordinary music lovers that ability is simply overkill.

Especially at .99 cents each that would cost "roughly" 15,000 dollars! (The sound you hear is Apple smiling with lots of coin jingling in their pockets, all the way to the Bank).

On that pointy point of accounting I remain steadfast.

But recently a deluge of moderately priced mp3 players have hit the market that Apple created.

An iPod is really just an MP3 Player, that Apple has cleverly marketed as "A Simply Delicious Fanboy must have". But now low-price changes the "playing field" (pun intended).

And Add to this must-take-along mix, audio books by audible.com and a new form MEDIA player takes shape.

Remember the often forgotten tenet of the WWW is "Content is King".

And yes, the latest iPods are still doing nicely, an advertised Sale on Frys Friday AD boast a mind-boggling 160 GB (hard drive) of storage, enough to hold 40,000 songs. I dare say some of your least favorite songs might be able to sneak in there. It sells for $349.00 on sale!

The lower priced mp3 players, (read: Non-Apple and well under $100), of 1 to 8 GB of flash memory storage work quite nicely than you.

The 2 GB Creative Zen Stone player pictured above, holds over 200 mp3 songs and two audio books, with room for a third to be added shortly, (most likely the recent Best Seller: Einstein).

That really IS a pocketful of miracles.

Bush says: Shoot Down The Bird

Filed Under: Let's give it a Shot!

The Spy Satellite crashing back to Earth, that I mentioned here a while back has become More of An Issue. It seems the Electronics-On-Board are just too Top Secret to get into the Wrong Hands (China, Russia).

So we, being a gun-ho society of late, are going to shoot it down. Never mind that we haven't ever Done-That-Before. We don't want the pieces to be put on Ebay and start a Bidding War.

This Idea has raised eyebrows.

2 1/2 back in 4 1/2

Well the 100 day War is over and things are getting back to "normal" in tinsel town.
The Writers get a piece of the internet too, like they deserve, which should have been a no-brainer. But Hollywood loves to shoot itself in the foot, and hobble around, bleeding.

I don't have the numbers on hand, but rentals of videos went through the roof December and January.

And Online Fare (are you listening Hollywood?), is getting easier and better all the time.

Here are the returning shows posted on E! online. Link Here:

It's Showtime for Heroes, Office, CSI
=============================================================================
NBC Out First with a new Saturday Night Live slated to air Feb. 23.
6 to 8 new episodes between now and MAY.
=============================================================================
The Office will squeeze in 6 new episodes--first show on April 10.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 new shows for 30 Rock also returns April 10 and same for Scrubs and ER.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Name is Earl is shooting for April 3 return.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit returns April 15.
Original Law and Order will return April 23.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
But Heroes, Chuck and Life will not return UNTIL THE FALL.
=============================================================================
CBS Return Line-up for 14 prime time shows, including Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory should return March 17, each with 9 new episodes to end the season.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CSI:Miami is set for March 24 return with 8 new episodes and Cold Case on March 30 with maybe 5 episodes.
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April brings a few more, with Criminal Minds and CSI:NY back on April 2, with 7 new shows, and CSI and Without a Trace due back April 3, with 6 new episodes each. Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs returns April 4 with 6 episodes each.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NCIS, back on April 8 with 7 new episodes, and Moonlight, back on April 11 with 4 new episodes. Rules of Engagement returns on April 14, with 6 episodes.
=============================================================================
FOX has not announce it's schedule, except for lots and lots of American Idol.

And it did confirm that 24, originally set to count-down its seventh season last month, won't be back on the air until January 2009.
=============================================================================

Music's Biggest Night

50th Grammy's

======================
http://www.grammy.com/
======================
some of the night's winners:

Alycia Keyes Best R&B Artist

Foo Fighter win Grammy for Best Rock Album

"Echoes. Silence, Patience and Grace"
OS ANGELES (Reuters) - British soul singer Amy Winehouse and hip-hop star Kanye West, both recovering from personal tragedies in the past year, won four Grammy Awards each on Sunday and remain in contention for more of the music industry's top honors.

Winehouse, 24, won two key Grammys -- song of the year for her signature hit, "Rehab," and best new artist -- as well as awards for female pop vocal solo performance for "Rehab," and pop vocal album for "Back to Black," her breakthrough release.

Winehouse, who received six nominations, was unable to bask in the public acclaim. She is in London, being treated at a rehab clinic for a drug problem that kept her in the headlines for much of last year.

She was scheduled to perform both "Rehab" and another tune, "You Know I'm No Good," via satellite from a recording studio later during the Grammy telecast. She will compete for record of the year and album of the year at the end of the ceremony.

West, 30, who led all Grammy contenders with eight nominations, won his awards in the rap field.
He will also compete for album of the year and best rap/song collaboration.

=======================================================================================
Herbie Hancock wins album of the year Grammy
11:32pm EST

Grammys pays tribute again to Beatles
9:39pm EST

Comics win New Zealand's first Grammy in 24 years
9:01pm EST

Amy Winehouse wins Grammy for best new artist
8:58pm EST

Amy Winehouse wins song of the year Grammy
9:52pm EST

Bluesmen finally get their due at the Grammys
9:24pm EST

Amy Winehouse to perform at Grammys via satellite
9:01pm EST

Amy Winehouse wins record of the year Grammy

======================================

Monday Morning:

Amy Winehouse wins 5 Grammy's.

ABC7.COM
All of Last Night's WINNERS

=========================

TWeTW The WeekEnd That WAS

==========================
http://kluvsthisgame.blogspot.com/2008/02/lakers-sign-pau-gasol.html

The Lakers stumbling into the L-o-n-g-e-s-t road trip of season, picked up a little good luck by signing 7 footer Pau Gasol
===========================

http://www.giants.com/
It was an unbelievable finish to a Super Bowl Game, with less than a blink or two on the clock, but Eli Manning and the Giants Beat Tom Brady and the Patriots. Period.

The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling

Okay, maybe just a U.S. Spy Satellite (USA-193 is the number) that has lost Power.

Don't worry, It won't come down until Feb. 2008???

The Times had this to say about it:

Duck and Cover???

Later, I hope.....

MacWorld 2008 - No Drive To Power ???

=========================================

The REAL Story?

=========================================

Analysis of the announcements at MacWorld,
and My Take, on What, if anything, it really means:

===========================

Some of the Tidbits were triggered by reviews given
by MacBreak Weekly with Leo Laporte at
MacWorld MacBreak Weekly Panel
Podcast #72
Keynote anaylsis
Panel:Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, Chris Breen, Merlin Mann, Scott Bourne, Justine Ezarik, and Jason O'Grady MP3 Podcast available at:
http://thisweekintech.com/mbw

===============================================================
First Big Slide to NetFlix to Oblivion?

The Really Big News was Apple's move into the TV and Movie Delivery system via iPod Store. What Apple Did for Music and Cell Phones They Think They can Do for TV and Movie Rental and Purchase content.
Can They? You bet!

Who can stop them? Right Now, nobody....

What about the Cable Guys and Amazon and the Movie Stuios?

Well, they better wake up because Apple isn't there to be second.

The subtle Linux Killer??
No Optical Drive or Ethernet connector on the MacBook Air is one way to stop Live installs of Linux Distros. Remember they dumped Motorola for Intel and effectively killed Yellow Dog Linux on the Mac at the same time.

Yeah, things are heating up...
===============================================================

MacWorld 2008--To Air Is Human?

The New Apple Air unveiled at MacWorld >>->
===================
Link to Picture:

======================================
Even with Bill Gates Last Keynote Address
at CES 2008, most pundits saw the Annual
At-A-Boys in Las Vegas was D-U-L-L even by
CES Standards.

Even TWiT standard Bearer, Leo Laporte didn't
attend, saying he could Glean more info about
what really-mattered at CES 2008 from Engadget
and Gizmodo and other On-Line Reporters.
Leo Was at MacWorld in San Francisco the whole
week, and was delivering Podcasts daily!

I foolishly tried to grab Steve Jobs Keynote
Address (never available Live) with Linux, but
the proprietary Quicktime Player is still
crappy on Linux, and much too Big to snag
on my Sony PSP.
=============================
MacBreak Weekly has Coverage:
=============================

MacWorld 2008

Both Engadget and Gizmodo will carry
--Steve Jobs Keynote Today--
===========================================
LIVE!
Engadget
Gizmodo
===========================================
And a recap of CES 2008 for each is HERE:
Engadget
Gizmodo
===========================================
Remote prank at CES by Gizmodo
a very dumb idea:
A Gizmodo Blogger used a remote device, called TV-B Gone, as seen on THINKGEEK, to turn off a number of CES Demos.
The Affected Vendors were NOT amused...
===========================================
Filed Under-Here We Go Again:
The Death of HD-DVD???
Warner Bros. and now sister company New Line's announcements
this weekend that they will go Blu-ray only???
---------
Warner Bros To Exclusively Release Hi-Def DVDs In Blue-Ray Format
Sunday, January 06, 2008; Posted: 10:23 PM
---------
Google News Search on HD-DVD abandonment:
---------
Filed Under: But WAIT!
Paramount (part of Warner Bros.) denies Blu-Ray defection.
---------
More is Sure To Come.
Stay Tuned.

Kool Hunter Picks At CES 2008

Gleaned from DL.TV CES 2008 video podcasts (1,2,and 3) on my Sony PSP:
-----------------------------
DL.TV Link: http://dl.tv/
-----------------------------
Skype on the PSP
-----------------------------
Skype internet phone comes to the PSP with next
Firmware update was announced by Skype at CES 2008.

Well, don't you need a keyboard (for text messaging) and mike for that?
(Skype also showed a slide down keyboard, camera with mike and a headset w/ mike).
Hmmm...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Curve Computer Monitor for Gaming by AlienWare
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Big One: 150" Screen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hitachi's 1.5's
Monitors 1 1/2 inches thick from Hitachi
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Links to the 3 Video Podcasts from DL.TV are Here:
Day One:
http://dl.tv/2008/01/dltv_ep_212_we_have_products_g.php
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Day Two:
http://dl.tv/2008/01/dltv_day_two_of_ces_2008_cover.php
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Day Three:
http://dl.tv/2008/01/dltv_episode_214_wrapping_up_a.php
-----------------------------------------------------------------

How to "Get Things Done" (GTD).

The GTD explained in Wikipedia STYLE
http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Monkey_GTD

There is the story of a very famous todo list "IDEA" sold for 1 million dollars.

Here's a set of Current TO-DO List type Programs:

IKOG.py a python script to list and edit to-do lists. Works in Firefox for Windows, the Mac and Linux.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/ikog/

MonkeyGTD a TddlyWiki based todo list that is easy to learn and keep online. Keeps everything in One HTML File.
http://monkeygtd.tiddlyspot.com/

ThinkingRock
http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/

A Cluster in Your Pocket

That's the unbelievable claim from the team from the University of Northern Iowa, that is maintaining BCCD, A "Live" Bootable Cluster CD.
(donwloadable here).

HPC or High Performance Computing is based on one thing, working with "Clusters".

This program opens a "FastTrack" for schools interested in teaching the cutting edge in their computer lab work. Working with Clusters with minimal cost makes this technology available to ALL school districts.

This Blog will follow the work of this very important program.

Stay tuned.

Koolhunter is Born! At the Inkscape Board...

Created with Inkscape and converted to BMP by the GIMP program.

Adding a MIRO to the Video World

My son introduced me to a new program that he downloaded while testing Fedora 8. Since I'm still in ol' FC6, I thought there should be a repository for me too, Right?

Well, yes there was, in a manner of speaking, the REPO was for FC4 but I added it to my repository list and did the Yum dance. I typed yum install miro, and like a good little yellow dog puppy, yum went out there snapped up the miro RPM file and asked if I wanted to install it? I said yeah and quicker than you can say sweet yummy repositories the program was installed to my Distro.

So What the Heck Is Miro?

Miro is an open source video search engine and downloader and player.

As I type this The African Queen Trailer (1951) from the Charlie Rose Show, Explorer 1 -- JPL and the Beginnings, What's Inside from WIRED Video Podcast and Perfect Water, also from WIRED Video Podcast and Living Tomorrow: TV (What will your television look like in the future?) are all being downloaded for playback on my computer.

It's like Internet's version of Netflix, without the mailbox.

I'll do an update on the video quality and download speeds later.

Staying Tuned couldn't be Easier....

Wingman Out.

GMA's Best Books for Giving:

Best Books This Holiday Season

Mellody Hobson Tells You

Which Books Would Make the Perfect Gift

(From ABCTV GMA)

'Leadership Is an Art'

Max Dupree was the visionary CEO of Herman Miller, one of the largest office furniture manufacturers in the world. I say that and you say to me, "That does not sound interesting."

But this is a phenomenal book about timeless values. What he talks about is how Herman Miller became a really great company by emphasizing strong character, conviction and high ethics. It's a book about respect and how to treat people.

For example, when he talks about diversity, he talks about how you can use differences to strengthen a company and give people in the organization a voice, which ultimately makes the company better. So this is a great book.

'The Tipping Point'

There's humor in the book, but the thing about this book is it talks about social epidemics. This book is actually terrific perhaps for a teen, believe it or not. It will help them understand why they want the things that they want.

'Poor Charlie's Almanac'

I am fascinated by Warren Buffett. I read anything he writes, anything that's written about him. And this is by his best friend who's worked alongside him as his sidekick, for 46 years.

It's like a catalog of their lives. It's a coffee table book, and it has pictures. It has quotes. He has great stories to tell.

If I had to characterize this book, it's a book about smart decisions. And that could make it a great book for perhaps a grandparent, a parent, an aunt or uncle.

'The Black Swan'

Everyone on Wall Street is reading "The Black Swan" right now. So I have caveat here. This is for the hardcore thinker in your family. This is for the know-it-all in the family. This book is about probability.

That in and of itself may sound very intimidating, but it's not because it's beautifully written.

But the idea is that there is no way to predict random events in life. So it's not worth trying.

The other idea in the book that's so important is not following trends, and not getting sucked up into the idea that you can predict what's going to happen because you can't.

'The Giving Tree'

This is one of my favorite books of all time. What better thing to give during Christmas, when kids especially are thinking about what they will receive?

This is a book about selflessness, and it's a book about compassion. For that reason, I think it's one of the best books that was ever written.

============================================

What about Books for Sophia and Aiden???

Oh, didn't you know?

Those are the Top Girl and Boy's Names for the Year 2007.

The rest of the LIST is HERE:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071213/aqth048.html

Wingman out...

What Do You Think About CLEAVAGE?

Well according to Global Language Monitor, it's the eighth most popular word in the English Language in 2007.

Here's the rest of the List:

The Top Ten Words of 2007
===========================

1. Hybrid – Actually Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV). Chosen to represent all things green from biodiesel to wearing clothes made of soy, to global warming to living with a zero-carbon footprint. (From the Latin hybrida, a variation of ibrida for "mongrel," specifically "offspring of a sow and a wild boar,")

2. Surge - The controversial political and military strategy of winning the war in Iraq.

3. Bubble – As in housing bubble, bursting. Also, Credit crunch.

4. Smirting – The new-found art of flirting while being banished outside a building for smoking.

5. Pb – The symbol lead, Atomic No. 82. The culprit in innumerable toy recalls this year.

6. Ideating – Latest in a long line of verbalisms: the descendent of concepting and efforting.

7. Ω-3 (Greek letter omega-3) -- Also written as Omega 3; the healthy fatty acid.

8. Cleavage – As in ‘woman of cleavage,’ a touchy campaign subject.

9. Amigoization -- Increasing Hispanic influence in California, the Southwest and into the Heartland.

10. Bluetooth – A technology to connect electronic devices by radio waves.
================================================================================
According to the Global Language Monitor we are just 4,884 words away from 1,000,000 from the estimated number of words in the English Language.

The GLM was one of the items on REFDESK Site of the Day which was YEAR IN REVIEW. Link here: http://www.refdesk.com/2007best.html

Also on the list of Year In Review are the following LISTS:

1. Amazon: Best Books of 2007
2. Consumer Reports: The Best Cars of 2007
3. Google: Year-end Zeitgeist for 2007
4. Merriam Webster: Words of the Year 2007
5. Nielsen Ratings: Most popular trends among Americans during 2007
6. PC World: The 100 Best Products of 2007
7. PC World: Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007
8. Popular Science: Best of What's New 2007
9. State of the States 2007
10. Time Magazine: 50 Top 10 Lists of 2007 - The powerful, the profound, the painful and the peculiar: These are the most noteworthy news events of the year.
11. Time Magazine: Best Inventions of 2007
12. Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007
13. Top 10 Baby Names of 2007
14. Global Language Monitor: Top Ten Words of 2007
15. USNews: Best Hospitals 2007
16. World's Worst Polluted Places 2007
17. Yahoo: Top Searches Trends in 2007
18. More >>

Have Fun!

This is why Refdesk.com is One of My Favorite Websites...

Wingman out.

Happy Birthday Transistor!

You are 60 years Old Today, Dec.16, 2007.

A tip of the Media Circus Hat to the three physicists (William Shockley, John Bardeen and William Brattain in picture above) who at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J. built the first transistor. The story bounce comes originally from Forbes.com link here:
(I snagged it from Slashdot.org News)
===============================================================
Filed under: Online Video.
-------------------------------
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has created a new YouTube channel for videos of their lecture series. Newest is the Dec 10 panel on the 25th Anniversary of the Commodore 64.
Currently there are 23 lectures available and the 7-minute Museum overview.
===============================================================
Filed under InSecurity Report:
--------------------------------
from slashdot.org:
"The feed brings us this NYTimes story giving new details on the telecom carriers' cooperation with secret NSA (and other) domestic spying programs. One revelation is that the Drug Enforcement Agency has been running a program since the 1990s to collect the phone records of calls from US citizens to Latin America in order to catch narcotics traffickers. Another revelation is what exactly the NSA asked for in 2001 that Qwest balked at supplying. According to the article, it was access to the company's most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls."
====================================================================
Filed under: Advertising.
-----------------------------
"What's that? Who's There?" The female voice whispering in your ear is coming from a speaker system Seven Stories above the street, advertising (Billboard included) the A&E televison series "Paranormal State". The technology comes from Audio Spotlight by Holosonics. Kinda Phillip K. Dick-ish (remember "Minorty Report"?).
==========================================================================

This is The News Filter
by ELO

====================================================================

MySpace Central Plumbing

Made the Hyper-Jump to the Myspace Community Today. A Day that will go down in Infamy. You can reach me there with this link >>--->
Find me on MySpace and be my friend!

Pretty sweet, Huh?

There's something to be said about being a Joiner. Too bad I can't think of it right now.

Later.

The Good, The Better and the SCARY

Early in the year, Motley Fool said: Google was the Worst Stock to own in 2007.


What Fools!!!

In March, Google was selling for $440.00 a share, the lowest for the year, but still GOOD.

It's IPO, quite a few years ago, was around $80+ a share.

That might have been the report that Motley saw that precipitated that faulty advice.

However.....Just a few months later, the tide turned. And everyone was feeling peachy when it saw the good numbers for Apple and even Microsoft, last week.

Then the other Google Giant SHOE hit the Fan...

Today 10/31/2007, in after hours trading, Google hit 707.48 a share as of 6:48 PM ET.

During the day, most analysts were slack-jawed at the year-end closing performance of Google stock. But some hinted that it could cross the $900.00 mark before the end of the year.

How about that as being pretty Scary?

Why Does SuSE 10.2 Look as Lame as Windows Vista?

Because It's Not Ubuntu.

Being use to using MC (midnight commander) from the console for most of my filing chores, I typed mc in the console and SuSE "burped": What the heck is That?

After a couple of minutes of looking for the Softaware Updater in the morass of window-like boxes for program selection, I FOUND IT!.

Of course I tried YUM and Apt-Get and Synaptic first, but got the same lame response as I got looking for the very-basic utility MC.

openSuSE 10.2 "burped:" again, "Don't know about those tools, Dude..Remember, I'm pretty much lame out of the Box."

How do you stand it Miguel?

Anyway to make a short story LONG, I found the Software Installer and typed in MC in the search for software box. It found it in the time most other Distros would have installed it.

I clicked OK to install. It needed root authorization, so I had to ask to give it to me. It churned for a few more minutes and then "burped": It needed the installation DVD in the drive, before it could proceed.

Why?

I put in the DVD with openSuSE 10.2 on it, in the drive and the installer smiled a smug smile of dubious control.

Anyway, after more than 10 minutes, the "Installer" said the softeware (MC) was installed. What a pain in the TOOKus!

I wrote this Blog entry in the time openSuSE 10.2 took to install One Application: MC that should have been available at the start.

No wonder Ubuntu is winning the Distro Game.

Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be MORE openSuSE 10.2 pratfalls.

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I-15/215 at Devore
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The Digital Age

Did you hear the Death-Nell for analog last week?

I didn't either, since the Televised News Orgs prefer to ignore News with a capital N. Business Week had a story about it, but that nearly passed my attention span as well, being conditioned to take bite-sized snacks of news-fodder.

Anyway. here's the story: Best Buy stopped selling analog TV's on Wednesday, by making sure ALL Analog TV sets were Out of their Stores.

Haven't you been paying attention to Apple lately? We're in the Age of Digital. iPod this and iPod that.

Listen up, Digital is IN, Analog is OUT.

Okay, what does this mean? Are we not going to be able to see Desperate Housewives Tonight, or Heroes Tomorrow?

Settle down, commercial television won't let that happen Just Yet.

But on February 18, 2009, broadcasters will stop transmitting ANALOG Signals. Non-digital television sets that are not attached to a cable or satellite service and not equipped with special converter boxes will no longer work.

More than 60 million U.S. households fall into this category.

Since the government mandated this change, they have a deal or no deal for the 60 million desperate households.

After the first of the year, the government will be making available to each household two coupons worth $40 each that can be used to buy two converter boxes. Best Buy will sell coupon-eligible converter boxes starting in early 2008.

Aside from that, go get a Digital TV.

The Age of Digital is Here.

From Ubuntu to Fedora- A tip of the Red Hat

I did a silly thing the other day by trying to reset my screen resolution from 1024x720 in Ubuntu. It was because I was

following a website that told me how to
GET-MORE-OUT-OF-UBUNTU.

Long story short: I screwed up my Ubuntu settings and had to reinstall Ubuntu. But I forgot that a new setup of Ubuntu only gives you User Access to the OS, not a place to login as ROOT.

Crap! Or as Peter Parker's Editor would say: Major Crap!

After trying Ubuntu in different distros (I have plenty) and since my son has been happy with Fedora Core 6 for a while, I said: "What the Hey..."

Well for the time being I'll be living in FC-6 land.

I'll probably go back to Ubuntu on my Notebook computer (the Acer with the 64bit AMD).


But for now, I'm Happy!

How to Find Me

MY BLOGGER BLOGS:

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http://koolhunter2.blogspot.com/ aka koolhunter2 "A View of the latest KOOL stuff"
http://mediacircus2.blogspot.com/ aka Media Circus 2 "What the Tech Media is Doing?"
http://tvjeebees.blogspot.com/ aka TVjeebees "TV or Not TV, that IS the Question..."
http://theletterselo.blogspot.com/ aka Written by ELO "Bonafide writings by ELO"
http://psphardwired.blogspot.com/ aka PSP On Steroids "Hacking (homebrewing) the PSP"
http://vistavectors.blogspot.com/ aka Vista Vectors "Windows Be Wares"
http://mycordiunnot.blogspot.com/ aka mass media course correction "WWW Course Correction"
http://thursdaysave.blogspot.com/ aka thursday we save the world "The famous Tech Chat"
http://elosblog.blogspot.com/ aka dospossos "About Writers and Books of Note..."

http://paintbucketontario.blogspot.com/ aka paint bucket blog "A PB corporate Blog."
http://elosopensources.blogspot.com/ aka Elo's Open Sources "A Open Sources Credo site/"

The Blogs are out and Running....
=======================================================
I'm also at Twitter and Jaiku. Two simple "where are you at" Apps.
=============================================================
I wrote about twitter at my blog on www.koolhunter2.blogspot.com, and mentioned the app called: Twittervision for a look see.


My Pics are at Photobucket (not related to Paint Bucket) and the old Web 2.0 app Flickr.

9 million Wii's is heard around the world

Financial Times reports that 9 million Nintendo Wii's have sold as of July 31, surpassing the Microsoft XBOX 360, which was released over a year earlier than the Wii.

This puts the XBOX 360 in second place and the Sony Playstation 3 a distant third in the game console market.

This First Place, is a position it last held 17 years ago with the Nintendo and Super Nintendo consoles.

* * * *

<--- desklet clock. I've discovered a new scripting tool in Linux (Ubuntu). aDesklets is a simple Desklet creation scripting tool that has minimal overhead. The Web site is Here. I installed it in Ubuntu with Synaptic Package Manager.

What's pictured to the left is gDesklets, which has a more robust toolbox.
<--- desklet cpu monitor. What is a Desklet? adesklets is basically an interactive Imlib2 console, with one or two aditionnal features:

• When an X display is present, automated management of a single window
• Automated support for pseudo-transparency
• Management of long-running applets
• ( Taken from Documentation section of site listed above.)

It can be programmed with Python or Perl.

The NEW iPod Flavors

Among a "ton" of announcements by Apple on Wednesday September 5th was 4 New or Updated iPods.

First is the 1 gig Shuffle at $79 bucks.

Next comes the Nano, or what some reviewers are calling "The FAT Nano". 8 gig at $199.00 with dual screens and the ability to play videos.

Third is the Video iPod, renamed "The Classic iPod" (the one with a hard drive). For $349.00 you can get the 160 gig version. Yes, you can take all your stuff/crap with you.

The three above come in a new assortment of colors too!

And the Expected iPod Touch (or the phoneless iPhone) $400.00 for the 16 gig flash memory version. It has WiFi capabilities and internet browser and the famous iPhone touch flip-screen.

Along witha bevy of announcements was hidden that the iPhone would be availablee for $400.00, and ringtone snippets of songs you already own can be had for .99 cents. Nice.

Linux OS, in your Pocket?

My First Flash Drive was 128 Meg for $35.00.

Today's Fry's AD has a 2 Gig Flash Drive for $22.00 minus a $10.00 mail-in Rebate, making it $12.00.

Since today's modern computers can be told to Boot from a Flash Drive, a pretty sophisticated Linux Distro can be installed on that Flash Drive.

Meaning, Yeah, you CAN take it with you.

Years ago Klaus Knopper invented Knoppix as a rescue disk for problem-booting operating systems, like windows. From that the Live Distro was born. Live Distro CD's could boot a new OS without having to write the data to the hard drive. In the early days of Live Distros on CD, only so much real estate was available and only a limited number of programs could fit on roughly 640 meg of storage.

Then DVD's entered the picture, and even Klaus himself said: "You could put in everything AND the kitchen sink...on a DVD Live Distro."

The main Linux players saw the advantage of putting out a Live Distro DVD of their latest offerings.

You see what worked for AOL Online on CD's worked for Linux Live Distros on DVD.

You could buy a $15.00 magazine fron England called LINUX FORMAT and you get a free DVD.

One such DVD is TRIPLE BOOTING with SimplyMepis 3.4, Gentoo 2006.0 and even OpenSolaris BELENIX, another had FreeBSD 6.0, NETBSD 3.0 and OpenBSD 3.8. (Pictured above)

So what needed a DVD for storage, can now go on a $12.00 Flash Drive.

Yep, you can take your FAV Distro with you, on a Flash Drive.