How Charlie Sheen remains a TV superstar: The scariest image on network TV is Charlie Sheen's smile. It's the smile of a bland American vampire -- an indestructible creature the locals have mistaken for a rakish new neighbor who's presumed to have a night job because he's never seen during daylight. Sheen's smile is chilling because there seems to be almost no real pleasure behind it. It's just a particular formation of muscle groups, a default position for the face, a counterweight to those dark, narrow, strangely dead eyes -- the eyes of an ancient, decadent aristocrat. I can picture lovely young neighbor girls talking about the new fellow's dark good looks while waiting for the school bus, agreeing he's charming but that there's something a bit off about him, something they can never quite figure out -- until that afternoon when they decide to sneak into his hilltop estate in search of answers and ultimately wind their way down into the cellar, where they find a gilded coffin, and Charlie asleep in it, smiling.
Monday, January 31, 2011
How Charlie Sheen remains a TV superstar
Mastering iMovie trailers
Mastering iMovie trailers: iMovie trailers offer more than what appears on the surface, including a way to use the trailer as a starting point for a larger project. Jeff Carlson takes you through the steps.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Robert Leahy, Ph.D.: Why Men Don't Listen to Women
Robert Leahy, Ph.D.: Why Men Don't Listen to Women: Before I get into this, I'd like you to think about the research by psychologist John Gottman. Gottman has been able to predict with 91 percent accuracy which couples will end up getting divorced. He calls these "The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse" -- along with other problematic styles of communication. The Four Horsemen are Criticism ("You are always whining"), Contempt ("You're a basket case"), Defensiveness ("I'm not the problem, you are!") and Stonewalling (withdrawing or becoming silent). Other problematic styles include starting the conversation in a hostile or intense style, giving off body-language that is defensive or cold, flooding your partner with negativity, and bringing up past memories, complaints and injuries. When you can predict divorce with 91 percent accuracy you know you are on to something.
Henry Cavill Cast As Superman « Spinoff Online – Covering TV, Film and Entertainment News Daily
Henry Cavill Cast As Superman « Spinoff Online – Covering TV, Film and Entertainment News Daily: Snyder’s Superman reboot, thought to be called Man of Steel, is written by David S. Goyer from a story by Goyer and producer Christopher Nolan. Charles Rovan, Emma Thomas and Deborah Snyder also are producing. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are executive producers. Filming is expected to begin in June for a December 2012 release.
Give me a nail and a hammer...
Give me a nail and a hammer...: After a day like today when I work myself to exhaustion I always come back in the house and fix myself a rumedy. "Rumedy?" my wife asks. Yes, rumedy, and after a few long sips, especially if I'm alone at the table, I'm liable to take up a song: "I don't work for a living. I get along alright without. I don't toil all day. I suppose it's because I'm not built that way. Some people work for love And say it's all sunshine again. If I can't have sunshine without any work I'd rather be out in...
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Antidepressants and sex: A doomed romance?
Antidepressants and sex: A doomed romance?:
It sounds like an absurd deal with the devil, the sort fairy tales are built around: You can get back your zest for life -- all you have to do is surrender your desire for sex. Feeling depressed, isolated and lonely? Just take these pills that will make you lose interest in one of the most powerful ways that humans achieve connection and intimacy!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tracy Morgan: Loose cannon hero
Tracy Morgan: Loose cannon hero: Unlike far too many celebrities today, Tracy Morgan doesn't need to Twitter to blurt something inappropriate -- although he'll gladly explain the similarities between his private parts and "Star Wars" characters there. No, he's an entertainer in the classic sense, one who still reliably drops bleep-worthy torrents of unfathomable commentary on national television.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
"The Rite": Anthony Hopkins brings the evil!
"The Rite": Anthony Hopkins brings the evil!:
More schizophrenic than its diabolically infested characters, "The Rite" is partly a slow-burning horror flick and partly a Vatican recruitment video. God knows the Roman Catholic Church needs a new P.R. initiative, with the priesthood advancing in age, declining in numbers and, shall we say, a bit shorn of its traditional prestige. So why not cast studly young Irishman Colin O'Donoghue as a doubt-plagued Yank seminarian who finds the divine strength to tangle with the Father of Lies and the brooding charisma that makes the chicks swoon? I mean, they swoon chastely, and at a distance, and with their pants on, because he's a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven and all. Or he's about to become one, or something; "The Rite" kind of wants to have it both ways on the sex stuff, which may also be how Michael Kovak, O'Donoghue's character, feels about it. Ambiguity can be hot too!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
BATMAN to JEAN GREY: 11 Comic Book Deaths That Didn't Stick
BATMAN to JEAN GREY: 11 Comic Book Deaths That Didn't Stick: So, kill any comic book characters lately? Well, some have tried before, and it just didn't last; here are a few of the big ones.
RUMOR: Apple iMacs featuring Intel Sandy Bridge, higher res displays, standard SSDs coming in March
RUMOR: Apple iMacs featuring Intel Sandy Bridge, higher res displays, standard SSDs coming in March: According to Apple's track record, the iMac lineup is due for a refresh this spring...
What if a book is just a URL?
What if a book is just a URL?: The idea of access versus ownership is coming to the forefront quickly in the book publishing world. Inventive Labs recently launched the beta site for their HTML5 Book.ish ereader. All you need to use Book.ish is a web browser — you sign in and read your books. There's no software or files to download, just complete no-muss no-fuss access to your books. You don't own your books in the traditional sense — you own the rights to access them.
WordsFinest: Why Marvel and DC's Digital Comics Failed
WordsFinest: Why Marvel and DC's Digital Comics Failed: However, if they're not willing to accept sub-$1 dollar price points, then they need to seriously consider content subscriptions. If consumers can't justify the cost of owning a digital comic, then rent the comics to them in unlimited subscriptions, like Netflix does with our old TV shows. With an all-you-can-eat rental model, digital comics can be just as horrendously addictive as Netflix Instant Play.
Jan. 26, 1983: Spreadsheet as Easy as 1-2-3
Jan. 26, 1983: Spreadsheet as Easy as 1-2-3: Lotus begins selling its spreadsheet application for Microsoft DOS, called 1-2-3.
Five great Gmail timesavers
Five great Gmail timesavers: Here are five useful Gmail tips, including how to access multiple accounts in one browser, schedule time zone changes, and opt out of annoying e-mail conversation threads.
Monday, January 24, 2011
"Examined Lives": The secret lives of philosophers
"Examined Lives": The secret lives of philosophers:
Plato has Socrates say, in the "Apology," that the unexamined life is not worth living. Many of Socrates' successors took this saying to heart, regarding the examination of life as definitive of their calling. With "Examined Lives," a set of beautifully written and richly informative mini-biographies of a dozen philosophers, James Miller explores what this meant to each of them. His conclusion is a negative one: the combination of wisdom, self-understanding and self-possession that Socrates' successors took to be the gold standard for the philosophical life proved impossible for most of them to attain, and, in some cases, what they preached and what they practiced fell widely apart.
More details on HP's WebOS Topaz tablet | Circuit Breaker - CNET News
More details on HP's WebOS Topaz tablet | Circuit Breaker - CNET News: Today's document shows that the "wireless dock" is actually an updated version of the wireless charging device paired with the Palm Pre, called the Touchstone. The updated version of the Topaz tablet will allow wireless charging; photo, music, and contact sharing; audio streaming via Bluetooth; video streaming; and, naturally since this is HP we're talking about, wireless printing.
There's also a slew of cloud-integration services planned, including a "tap-to-send" feature for music and photo and possibly e-book sharing. There's also a new service called "HP Cloud canvas."
Other reported specs include 512MB of RAM, three options for storage (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB), a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, a Qualcomm MSM8660 1.2GHz processor, and a weight of 1.5 pounds.
HP is expected to unveil all of this on February 9 at an event in San Francisco. We'll be there live-blogging the proceedings, so be sure to come back here for the definitive details from HP.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Insight into Steve Jobs' Product-Centric Approach in 1985 Interview - Mac Rumors
Insight into Steve Jobs' Product-Centric Approach in 1985 Interview - Mac Rumors: Jobs has echoed this sentiment in recent years including citing a quote from Henry Ford which was "If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me 'A faster horse.'"
Quantum Entanglement Could Stretch Across Time | Wired Science | Wired.com
Quantum Entanglement Could Stretch Across Time | Wired Science | Wired.com: In the weird world of quantum physics, two linked particles can share a single fate, even when they’re miles apart.
Now, two physicists have mathematically described how this spooky effect, called entanglement, could also bind particles across time.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
How novels came to terms with the internet | Books | The Guardian
How novels came to terms with the internet | Books | The Guardian: If these two missions seem incompatible, that's because they are. To encompass both, as Wallace aimed to do, you must be able to derive the Timeless from a series of frivolous Nows, and then you have to persuade your readers that you have given them what they want by presenting them with what they were trying to get away from when they came to you in the first place. No wonder American literary novelists have found it easier just to bow out of the whole "Way We Live Now" rat race, especially when the designated enemy was television. Sure, people spend (or spent) six hours per day watching TV, but they aren't actually doing anything while they're at it. You can address the time your characters presumably squander in front of the tube the same way you treat the time they spend asleep: by passing over it in silence.
The "Death Race" prequel that's better than it should be - Film Salon - Salon.com
The "Death Race" prequel that's better than it should be - Film Salon - Salon.com: Meanwhile, Harlan Ellison's "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" and hundreds of other award-winning science fiction stories continue to go unused by Hollywood, kind of like solar panels on a Reagan White House.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
First, kill healthcare reform. Then, the New Deal?
First, kill healthcare reform. Then, the New Deal?:
Anyone who is concerned about whether opponents of healthcare reform will succeed in their multi-pronged legislative and judicial assault against the Affordable Care Act should head over to the New Republic and devour Jonathan Cohn's superb cover story, "The Worst Case: How Health Care Reform Really Could Get Repealed -- and Why the Repercussions Would Go Well Beyond Health Care." For years Cohn has been one of the most lucid and well-informed journalists covering the healthcare reform saga, and he proves it all over again with this amazing piece.
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords now standing up and using Apple iPad
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords now standing up and using Apple iPad: "Just 12 days after she was shot in the head, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords can...
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Google Voice ports your own number for $20
Google Voice ports your own number for $20: If the thought of getting a new cell phone number has deterred you from signing on to Google Voice, a new $20 porting fee may make you change your mind.
Report: HP WebOS tablets to boast cloud storage, 'premium audio'
Report: HP WebOS tablets to boast cloud storage, 'premium audio': Engadget says the WebOS-based tablets Hewlett-Packard is expected to unveil next month could offer cloud storage and "premium audio," likely powered by HP's Beats audio.
How to move your iTunes Media folder
How to move your iTunes Media folder: If you're serious about digital media, it's likely your iTunes library is bumping up against the limits of your hard drive's capacity. Here's how to move your iTunes content to another drive.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Apple posts record revenue, earnings for Q1 2011
Apple posts record revenue, earnings for Q1 2011: Apple follows news of Steve Jobs' medical leave with its best quarter in company history, with profits spiking 78 percent from a year ago.
"We're very heavy with product pipeline. The team here has an unparalleled depth and breadth with talent and a culture of innovation that Steve has driven in the company," said Cook. "Excellence has become a habit. We feel very confident in the future of the company."
FCC approves Comcast-NBC merger
FCC approves Comcast-NBC merger:
The Federal Communications Commission is giving Comcast, the country's largest cable company, the green light to take over NBC Universal, home of the NBC television network.
All-Seeing Blimp Could Be Afghanistan's Biggest Brain
All-Seeing Blimp Could Be Afghanistan's Biggest Brain: Come this fall, there will be a new and extremely powerful supercomputer in Afghanistan. But it won't be in Dave Petraeus' headquarters in Kabul. It'll be floating 20,000 feet above the warzone, aboard a giant spy blimp that watches and listens to everything for miles around.
Print PDFs directly to Dropbox
Print PDFs directly to Dropbox: Take advantage of Mac OS X's PDF features in the Print dialog box by virtually printing PDFs directly to your Dropbox folder.
Print-to-PDF mysteries revealed
Print-to-PDF mysteries revealed: Mac OS X can generate PDF files from practically any application that supports printing—a handy capability with many hidden features.
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Golden Globes of hatred - Golden Globes - Salon.com
The Golden Globes of hatred - Golden Globes - Salon.com: During last night's awards show, decades' worth of skepticism and resentment bubbled to the surface
Prime time's new age of crudeness - Community - Salon.com
Prime time's new age of crudeness - Community - Salon.com: From "Community" to "Mike & Molly," network TV is getting raunchier and raunchier -- and that's a good thing
Apple CEO Steve Jobs to take medical leave
Apple CEO Steve Jobs to take medical leave: Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, tells employees he plans to keep a hand in strategic decision-making. COO Tim Cook will handle day-to-day operations.
HP/Palm is About to Shake up the Tablet Space With webOS | ZDNet
HP/Palm is About to Shake up the Tablet Space With webOS | ZDNet: WebOS is tailor-made for the tablet, from the great multi-tasking to the innovative (and intuitive) touch control that is part and parcel of the platform. Palm incorporated intelligent gesture control into the OS, a natural for touch operation. The card metaphor employed for running apps, that are updated in real-time even when the app is not running in the foreground, will shake up the way the competition handles multi-tasking.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Tiny Silicon Chip Uses Quantum Physics to Slow Light Down
Tiny Silicon Chip Uses Quantum Physics to Slow Light Down: Scientists have built an optical device smaller than a dime that slows light down to 155 miles per second, the slowest ever managed on a chip. The tiny silicon chip works at room temperatures and can be mass-produced, with 32 chips on a 4-inch silicon wafer.
Arts & Letters Daily (14 Jan 2011)
Arts & Letters Daily (14 Jan 2011):
Why is Galileo portrayed as a stony rationalist when it was his engagement with the arts - The Divine Comedy in particular - that inspired him?... more
Dismissed as a clownish entertainer, Cab Calloway was in fact a creative genius. Terry Teachout sings the praises of “Minnie the Moocher”... more
Political violence today is undertaken without explanation: No appeal to conscience, law, or the opinion of mankind. Permission to kill anybody is now assumed... more... more
Thursday, January 13, 2011
What the science of human nature can teach us : The New Yorker
What the science of human nature can teach us : The New Yorker: During the question-and-answer period, though, a woman asked the neuroscientist how his studies had changed the way he lived. He paused for a second, and then starting talking about a group he had joined called the Russian-American Folk Dance Company. It was odd, given how hard and scientific he had sounded. “I guess I used to think of myself as a lone agent, who made certain choices and established certain alliances with colleagues and friends,” he said. “Now, though, I see things differently. I believe we inherit a great river of knowledge, a flow of patterns coming from many sources. The information that comes from deep in the evolutionary past we call genetics. The information passed along from hundreds of years ago we call culture. The information passed along from decades ago we call family, and the information offered months ago we call education. But it is all information that flows through us. The brain is adapted to the river of knowledge and exists only as a creature in that river. Our thoughts are profoundly molded by this long historic flow, and none of us exists, self-made, in isolation from it.
“And though history has made us self-conscious in order to enhance our survival prospects, we still have deep impulses to erase the skull lines in our head and become immersed directly in the river. I’ve come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other people, experiences, or tasks. It happens sometimes when you are lost in a hard challenge, or when an artist or a craftsman becomes one with the brush or the tool. It happens sometimes while you’re playing sports, or listening to music or lost in a story, or to some people when they feel enveloped by God’s love. And it happens most when we connect with other people. I’ve come to think that happiness isn’t really produced by conscious accomplishments. Happiness is a measure of how thickly the unconscious parts of our minds are intertwined with other people and with activities. Happiness is determined by how much information and affection flows through us covertly every day and year.”
Steven Levy on the Problems With Ping | Magazine
Steven Levy on the Problems With Ping | Magazine: No social network should have to stand alone. We provide the comments and details that bring those networks to life. Those companies owe it to us to implement protocols for sharing that data with other services.
Oh, they _owe_ it to you, do they?
Microsoft mocks Google's Web video decision
Microsoft mocks Google's Web video decision: A satirical Microsoft blog post asserts that H.264 is the lingua franca of digital video and that Google is foolish--at best--for trying to convince the world to move to WebM instead.
Arts & Letters Daily (13 Jan 2011)
Arts & Letters Daily (13 Jan 2011):
A nation unto themselves, today's super-rich display a geeky enthusiasm for innovation and ideas. They're changing the meaning of wealth... more
Jürgen Habermas has a two-fold persona: opaque philosopher and lucid polemicist. Peter Gordon says they stem from a single calling... more
We are living in the middle of a revolution in consciousness, writes David Brooks. Like theology and philosophy, brain science will change how we view ourselves and the world... more
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
CBR, Warner Home Video, Paley Center Present "All-Star Superman"
CBR, Warner Home Video, Paley Center Present "All-Star Superman": Comic Book Resources joins Warner Home Video and The Paley Center for Media in presenting the World Premiere of "All-Star Superman," the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie.
In "All-Star Superman," the Man of Steel rescues an ill-fated mission to the Sun (sabotaged by Lex Luthor) and, in the process, is oversaturated by radiation – which accelerates his cell degeneration. Sensing even he will be unable to cheat death, Superman ventures into new realms – finally revealing his secret to Lois, confronting Lex Luthor’s perspective of humanity, and attempting to ensure Earth’s safety before his own impending end with one final, selfless act.Based on the Eisner Award-winning DC Comics series/graphic novel of the same name by Grant Morrison with illustration by Frank Quitely, "All-Star Superman" is executive produced by animation guru Bruce Timm and directed by Sam Liu (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) from a script by acclaimed comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths).
Benchmark 2.0b10 - Model the performance of an engine, a propeller, and an airplane.. (Free)
Benchmark 2.0b10 - Model the performance of an engine, a propeller, and an airplane.. (Free): Benchmark makes it possible to model the performance of an engine, a propeller, and an airplane and then fly the plane in any flight conditions to assess performance and efficiency. It handles all of the standard calculations used in performance flight testing and analysis and, at the end, generates performance charts (including CAFE 400). A fully-modeled F.8L Falco airplane is available for use with the beta.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
My New Desk (I'm So Excited!)
My New Desk (I'm So Excited!): When you spend as much time as I do sitting at a desk, and always the same desk, forty hours a week paid and another twenty or so just trying to keep up with the damned news, then it really matters what kind of desk you have. This year's Christmas present to me from my lovely wife, although she hadn't planned on it being that, was this beautiful hundred-year-old "tiger oak" antique, found on craigslist and purchased for only fifty dollars. I put in about eight hours gluing the drawers back...
How "Battleship Potemkin" reshaped Hollywood
How "Battleship Potemkin" reshaped Hollywood:
Anybody who thinks that Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" is an "art film" either hasn't seen the movie at all or had it ruined for them by some combination of a butchered print and a tedious film-history professor. As a remarkable new restoration of the 1925 Soviet silent classic makes clear, "Battleship Potemkin" is first and foremost an action drama, a work of straightforward emotion and pulse-quickening tension. This taut, 71-minute picture is stitched together from more than 1,300 shots, very few of them lasting more than three or four seconds. For better or worse, this film's true revolutionary legacy is not art cinema but Hollywood; it's got a lot more in common with Tony Scott's "Unstoppable" than it does with Andrei Tarkovsky.
Rush Limbaugh says a dozen incredibly offensive things
Rush Limbaugh says a dozen incredibly offensive things:
Rush Limbaugh said many awful, offensive things today, because he was defending himself from people who say that hateful, ugly rhetoric leads to violence. Well, he wasn't really "defending himself" from anything, so much as just spewing his usual free-associative garbage.
Thunderstorms Shoot Beams of Antimatter Into Space
Thunderstorms Shoot Beams of Antimatter Into Space: Scientists now believe gamma rays, as well as beams of energetic particles of antimatter, are common components of lightning storms on Earth.
Verizon Wireless Finally Gets Apple's iPhone
Verizon Wireless Finally Gets Apple's iPhone: Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest wireless mobile provider, announced Tuesday that it will offer Apple’s wildly popular iPhone to its nearly 100 million customers, breaking 4 years of exclusivity by arch-rival AT&T.
At last, iPhone comes to Verizon
At last, iPhone comes to Verizon: Moments ago Verizon confirmed that it will indeed be selling Apple's iPhone 4 on its CDMA network. Apple COO Tim Cook makes an appearance at the event, says it's the 'beginning of a great relationship.'
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sarah Palin's Alaska finale: The campaign ad wraps up - Sarah Palin's Alaska - Salon.com
Sarah Palin's Alaska finale: The campaign ad wraps up - Sarah Palin's Alaska - Salon.com: This week's episode served as the final episode in the 8-part marketing presentation that brilliantly defined Sarah Palin as a political brand while simultaneously putting the nail in the coffin of her presidential ambitions. It seemed like a good idea I suppose -- using the ruse of an Alaskan documentary to produce a long-form political ad -- but even her most hardcore fans must have had a hard time buying the Mama Grizzly crap that she was selling. And she never stopped selling it to the bitter end.
Friday, January 7, 2011
How To: Get thousands of back issue comics on your iPad for pennies an issue : Macenstein
How To: Get thousands of back issue comics on your iPad for pennies an issue : Macenstein: The cool thing is, it isn’t just Archie you can do this with. Many comics are being sold this way, on Amazon from X-Men and Avengers to the entire 50 years of MAD Magazine (for only $18.60), all at ridiculous savings compared to per issue paper or regular digital downloading.
The Web Is a Customer Service Medium (Ftrain.com)
The Web Is a Customer Service Medium (Ftrain.com): The obvious example of WWIC at work is Wikipedia, created for free by unpaid labor. It tapped into the basic human need to be consulted and never looked back.
Then there's YouTube. It was created so that anyone could upload and distribute videos. So that's one level of WWIC—to hell with TV, people should look at me! The site has comments, so people can discuss the videos—a second level of WWIC. But there are now also thumbs-up/thumbs-down icons so that you can rank the comments and the video, a third level of WWIC.
Once you see that third level, a website is complete. You're down to the bedrock. A boolean or integer value is the digital equivalent of a grunt. You can't get any more basic than a like, or a thumbs-up, or a favorite.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Hands on with Apple's Mac App Store | Software | MacUser | Macworld
Hands on with Apple's Mac App Store | Software | MacUser | Macworld: The Mac App Store feels very much like a version 1.0 product—some might even say it feels like a beta. There are interface issues and some mixed results with the Store’s ability to recognize the version of software you currently have installed, so you need to proceed with a careful eye to avoid purchasing an app you already have.
Overall, the Mac App Store experience is much like the iTunes Store; it’s easy to navigate, find software, buy and install new apps—and that’s a good thing. Hopefully, the issues I encountered will be ironed out sooner rather than later.
"The Cape": Why can't TV do superheroes?
"The Cape": Why can't TV do superheroes?: There's something fundamentally unsatisfying about "The Cape," NBC's new superhero show about a former cop who becomes a costumed crime fighter in the mythical Palm City (Premiering Sunday, Jan. 9 at 9/8 Central; regular timeslot Mondays at 9/8 Central). The problem isn't lack of ambition. The series wants nothing less than to be the ultimate tribute to comic books -- an encyclopedia of modes that will satisfy everyone from young viewers weaned on graphic novels to grandparents that still pine for the days of black-and-white Saturday morning serials. No, the source of the show's downfall is more basic: It rushes through everything, pulverizing potentially engaging characters and story until the whole production starts to feel like a long trailer for itself.
Cisco unveils Internet TV and more at CES | Home Theater | Playlist | Macworld
Cisco unveils Internet TV and more at CES | Home Theater | Playlist | Macworld: “This is reinventing the television experience,” Chambers said.
Apple App Store 1.0 - Storefront for Mac apps (downloads in Mac OS X 10.6.6).. (Free)
Apple App Store 1.0 - Storefront for Mac apps (downloads in Mac OS X 10.6.6).. (Free): 
The Mac App Store is just like the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. So it’s as easy to find and download Mac apps as it is to add your favorite magazine to iPad or a new game to iPod touch. You can browse Mac apps by category, such as games, productivity, music, and more. Or do a quick search for something specific. Read developer descriptions and user reviews. Flip through screenshots. When you find an app you like, click to buy it.
Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later.
Download Now
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.6 and Launches Mac App Store
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.6 and Launches Mac App Store:
Apple today announced that the Mac App Store has opened for business with over 1,000 apps available at launch. The Mac App Store requires Mac OS X 10.6.6, which is now available for download via Software Update.
Apple today a...
AT&T announces Apple iPhone 3GS for $49
AT&T announces Apple iPhone 3GS for $49: AT&T today announced a new price for the popular iPhone 3GS – $49...
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Intel Beefs Up CPUs With Graphics Power — and Content Protection | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Intel Beefs Up CPUs With Graphics Power — and Content Protection | Gadget Lab | Wired.com: Intel says the chips can support playback of seven or eight HD video streams simultaneously, and can transcode and downsize a two-hour HD video to iPhone format in five or 10 minutes — without tying up the processor, so you can continue to use your computer during the operation.
Going On The Attack
Going On The Attack: "Q. Why did God give liberals annoying, whiny voices? A. So that even the blind could hate them. "That's just one of James Delingpole's favorite jokes from his new book 365 Ways To Drive A Liberal Crazy. Hat tip to Patrick the Born Again Redneck.
Contrari-wise: "Q. Why did God give conservatives annoying, whiny voices? A. So that even the blind could hate them, too."
Intel Beefs Up CPUs With Graphics Power, Content Protection
Intel Beefs Up CPUs With Graphics Power, Content Protection: Intel is preparing a new line of processing, graphics and wireless technologies aimed in part at bringing video to consumers — and preventing them from copying it.
Casino puts its chips on green, now winning big
Casino puts its chips on green, now winning big:
The Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville, Ore., didn't bet on black or red, it bet on green. Now, they are seeing the payoff, and it's a big one.
Developer Year in Review: Operating Systems
Developer Year in Review: Operating Systems: Vista never managed to crack the 20 percent adoption mark, even after four years on the market (it peaked just shy of 19 percent). By contrast, Windows 7 is already past the 20 percent mark, after only a little more than a year. XP, however, is still holding on to more than 50 percent of the Windows market. Not bad for a nine-year-old OS that isn't supported by Microsoft anymore.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
HP planning WebOS event for February 9
HP planning WebOS event for February 9: The company hasn't given any indication about what its announcement is about, other than saying it plans on making customers: "Think big. Think small. Think beyond."
Winston, Ore. woman killed in crash Monday
Winston, Ore. woman killed in crash Monday:
Montana Hope Edwards, 78, of Winston, Ore., was killed in a crash after her vehicle left the roadway on Old Hwy 99 in Dillard just before 5:00 p.m. on Monday.
My roommate Aaron's mee-maw.
BitNami Moodle Stack 2.0.1-0 - Easy deployment of Moodle.. (Free)
BitNami Moodle Stack 2.0.1-0 - Easy deployment of Moodle.. (Free): BitNami Moodle Stack makes it easy to deploy Moodle, a Course Management System that is designed using sound pedagogical principles to help educators create effective online learning communities. It can scale from one computer to a 50,000-student university and is used in 175 countries around the world. The BitNami Moodle Stack native installers were packaged using BitRock's cross platform installer tool.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Meteor Shower and Solar Eclipse to Ring in 2011
Meteor Shower and Solar Eclipse to Ring in 2011: The new year is opening up with the annual Quadrantid Meteor Shower, one of the most impressive but least observed meteor showers of the year. As a bonus, viewers in Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia will see a partial solar eclipse the morning of Jan. 4.
Apple Surpasses $300 Billion in Market Capitalization
Apple Surpasses $300 Billion in Market Capitalization: On the first trading day of 2011, Apple's stock has jumped to a new high and broken through yet another psychological milestone by pushing past $300 billion in market capitalization. AAPL stock currently sits at nearly $330 per share with a market c...
Hatching Monsters - Lapham’s Quarterly
Hatching Monsters - Lapham’s Quarterly: In a world in which every truth is fungible, advertising begins to substitute for the news. One of Barnum’s brilliant, almost genius-level aperçus, was that you could create news through advertising, and the advertising itself becomes newsworthy. If you advertise forcefully, the advertised object, even if perfectly vacant and without qualities (think: Paris Hilton), becomes a topic of conversation. Truth value is always trumped by hype, and hype in turn is fueled by controversy. Any news is good news. Barnum discovered that if your show generates angry letters to the editor, so much the better: people will be compelled to see the spectacle for themselves “to determine whether or not they had been deceived.”
Television, of course, is the playground of present-day Barnum freaks, where plain citizens can be snatched out of the crowd, put in the spotlight, and cued up to sing or dance, as in American Idol. Self-destructive “superstars” in the Andy Warhol sense litter the pages of our weekly magazines addicted to celebrity. But political advertisements, in particular, seem to be the new repository of magical thinking. Candidates with little or no administrative experience and no knowledge of facts on the ground (and who therefore avoid “mainstream” news conferences) are presented as brilliant problem solvers or as saviors. You have to have nerves of steel, along with steely Zen detachment, to avoid expectations aroused by contemporary omnipresent, hyperinflated rhetoric. What are our political figures if not openly show-business personalities? Who looks better on TV, Harry Reid or Sarah Palin?
Best of 2010: Physicist Discovers How to Teleport Energy - Technology Review
Best of 2010: Physicist Discovers How to Teleport Energy - Technology Review: In 1993, Charlie Bennett at IBM's Watson Research Center in New York State and a few pals showed how to transmit quantum information from one point in space to another without traversing the intervening space.
The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Isner wins yet another longest match in history
The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Isner wins yet another longest match in history: John Isner won on Monday a re-run of the longest tennis match ever played, defeating Frenchman Nicolas Mahut for a second time — but taking almost 10 hours less to get the job done at the Hopman Cup mixed teams event.
The first round Wimbledon encounter between the pair lasted an historic 11 hours, five minutes, played over three days and ending in Isner’s favour 70-68 in the fifth set. The pair put that red-letter meeting well into the past as they met in Group B at the eight-nation Hopman Cup.
More than 100,000 dead fish on Ark. River - U.S. news - Weird news - msnbc.com
More than 100,000 dead fish on Ark. River - U.S. news - Weird news - msnbc.com: The mass kill occurred just one day before thousands of blackbirds dropped dead from the sky in Beebe, Ark., which is 125 miles away.
The Associated Press: Arkansas bird carcasses being sent for testing
The Associated Press: Arkansas bird carcasses being sent for testing: Why did nearly 3,000 red-winged blackbirds tumble from the Arkansas sky on New Year's Eve?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
How to make your speakers sound better
How to make your speakers sound better: Exactly where you place speakers in a room can make a dramatic difference in their sound. That includes iPod, hi-fi, and home theater speakers.
Exclusive: Fantagraphics to publish the complete Carl Barks
Exclusive: Fantagraphics to publish the complete Carl Barks: In an exclusive interview with ROBOT 6, Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth reveals that the company has acquired the rights to reprint a definitive collection of Carl Barks’ Donald Duck comic stories.
The hidden philosophy of David Foster Wallace
The hidden philosophy of David Foster Wallace:
In 1962, a philosopher (and world-famous beekeeper) named Richard Taylor published a soon-to-be-notorious essay called "Fatalism" in the Philosophical Review. As the title indicates, it concerned a subject that, as a matter of human intellectual concern, surely dates back to the minute Homo became sapiens. That is the subject of the future and how it is determined: by the gods or God; solely by the past and the present; or (in circumstances that appear to be within our control), by our own agency — free will. Taylor's argument, which he himself found distasteful, was that certain logical and seemingly unarguable premises lead to the conclusion that even in matters of human choice, the future is as set in stone as the past. We may think we can affect it, but we can't. When we try to change it, we simply put ourselves deeper into its stony hands. To quote Doris Day, "Que sera, sera" and that's all there is to it.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Bad science fiction writing does not a theory of economics make - Blog For Arizona
Bad science fiction writing does not a theory of economics make - Blog For Arizona: Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
From Paul Krugman's blog post Rule by the Ridiculous - NYTimes.com, this tidbit:
Rep. Paul Ryan requires that his staffers read Atlas Shrugged. I mean, I was inspired by Isaac Asimov, but I don’t think I’m Hari Seldon — whereas Ryan, it seems, really does think he’s John Galt.Time to bring out the classic quote:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Future historians will giggle at our expense.