Floating in a sea of serendipity…
David Pelfrey gives his take on the assumption that you’re a criminal while exiting a store with goods that you’ve already paid for. Apparently, the modus operandi is to pay for items, then while leaving another person apparently checks your receipt for errors and scribbles on it to prevent you shoplifting later on (presumably, the same items). David decides to make a stand against the assumption that he’s a criminal at Wal-Mart or CostCo.
Get the article here.
Jackie Danicki got more than she bargained for when while minding her own business she got verbally abused by some other passenger for wearing a pair of Levi’s and a winter coat. Now, the sad thing is - how is it possible in today’s society that someone can be screaming abuse at another passenger on a crowded platform for 15 minutes and nobody does anything to help?
Get the full article here.
Noam Eppel made a long impassioned plea to point out that security by and large on computers is failing miserably. That is, the average person now has to deal with spyware, phishing, trojans, viruses, worms, spam, botnets, DDoS attacks and a stack more nasties. I’ll write something up in a few days to cover what’s been going on and some of my thoughts.
The original article is here and Noam’s comments from feedback are here.
Scott Sharkey from 1UP decides to go down memory lane and remember all the atrociously bad ads for games.
Part 1, Late 1980’s
Part 2, Early 1990’s
Part 3, Late 1990’s
Looking at some, it’s clear there’s a high level of making sure sex sells. The whole homosexuality thing didn’t pan out well for Ion Storm, though.
“John Romero’s about to make you his bitch. Suck it down.”
John Gruber from Daring Fireball has come up with a good reason to believe that Palm CEO Ed Colligan is not in touch with reality all that much these days when it comes to the mobile phone market. I remember discussing this with my brother that Palm basically has got themselves in a corner nowadays. Where’s my Palm OS powered smart phone? Oh yeah, they all run Windows Mobile 5 for some reason, even the Treo 700w. All Ed has to do is talk to HTC and Asustek to get them to make the phones (HTC alone makes a good chunk of the smart phones for the entire world) and focus on making Palm as good as, if not better than Windows Mobile 5. I’d buy one, as I don’t like Windows Mobile 5. If I could. Which I can’t. Nobody can say the Treo is better than what Asustek or HTC are putting out, not by a long shot.
Ed claims that “those PC guys” known as Apple will fail miserably in the smart phone market as Palm is. Is he just conceding defeat to Microsoft and Windows Mobile 5? Why not close the company down and quit while you’re ahead? That sort of defeatist attitude isn’t instilling confidence in your shareholders. Naysayers like Rob Malda who dissed the iPod “No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.” just don’t get that features aren’t what people want. They want stuff that works, and works well.
Get the full details here.
A quick post from Seed Magazine shows a few things we probably knew already:
Many executed prisoners in China are being organ harvested without consent, apparently 90% of transplanted organs came from executed prisoners, with 99% being shipped overseas to foreigners and 1% being kept inside China for transplants. Sounds like their racket is up, with an investigation pending into the handling of prisoners to begin, preventing more suspicious deaths (and subsequent organ harvesting).
Also: for every inch taller you are over your rivals, the number of women who want to go out with you rises 5%. Basically, women dig tall guys. Guys dig smart women. Nothing really new, there.
Get more here.
Universal seeks yet another means of siphoning money off everyone by claiming music devices (in particular, the iPod) is host to a bucketload of illegally downloaded or copied music. Not happy leeching money off blank CD and DVD media and burners, they also want to hit players as well given that Microsoft gives $1 per Zune to Universal now and has set an unhealthy precedent. (Thanks for nothing, Microsoft!)
Get the news from Ars Technica here.
Engadget gets the lowdown on the new super low cost 6DOF controller from 3DConnexion called the SpaceNavigator. Basically, it’s a device that sits on your desk and you can pull, push, twist and tilt to get all 6 dimensions of freedom. I’ve used the SpaceOrb 360 before, so it’s probably similar with about half a centimeter of play. The good news is that it’s cheap at $59 US compared to the astronomical $199 for the earlier version (the SpaceTraveller) or $399 or $299 for the SpacePilot or SpaceExplorer respectively.
Get more pictures from Engadget here.
Some people might have seen this one already, but I’m putting it up for some friends who wanted to see it.
Well known Mac user Andy Ihnatko gives his take on the Zune after trying to use it over a week. Some of the highlights include: “… the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face. “Avoid,” is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that’s so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.”, “It’s incompatible with Microsoft’s own PlaysForSure standard, too.” and “No, the Zune’s sole wireless feature is “squirting” — I know, I know, it’s Microsoft’s term, not mine — music and pictures to any other Zune device within direct Wi-Fi range.”
Get the whole review here. There’s probably a whole bunch of other Zune reviews (most not quite as vitriolic) but we’ll have to wait and see what the market decides. Maybe it’ll go down like the Nokia NGage… except people can hunt you down with WiFi instead.
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