Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips

So Apple has final decided to get rid of IBM, They have been saying they are going to do this for years, the question is will that announcement on Monday every come?

McDonald's beefs up menu for tech-savvy

CHICAGO — Burning CDs, downloading mobile-phone ringtones, even printing digital-quality photos could soon be the newest things on the McDonald's menu.

In a bid to draw the young and tech-savvy into its restaurants, McDonald's has begun pilot testing a new ATM-style device called the Blaze Net, which allows customers to buy music, ringtones, print photos and surf the Web at the restaurant.

Nice idea it's just a shame it wont apear over here in the UK for years. Why don't they ever try out new stuff here 1st, O yearI remember some 5 year old kid would destroy it and the staff would not give a dam.

Intel's New Pentium D Equipped with DRM Capability

SYDNEY -- Microsoft and the entertainment industry's holy grail of controlling copyright through the motherboard now comes closer as Intel said it is embedding digital rights management within in its latest dual-core processor Pentium D and accompanying 945 chip set.

Now you know you can avoid this chip at all cost's.

Rio Cidade Maravilhosa

Rio Cidade Maravilhosa
Originally uploaded by Abhorsen The Final Death.

After going thought my old family albums, I found this book from my parents 1980 trip to Rio.

It was falling apart so I decided to scan the pages.

You can see the whole thing here

A Gamers Manifesto

All I have to say is that I agree with every word.

Next for BitTorrent: Search

Following on from TV it Turns out that Bit Torrent creator Bram Cohen, is to relase his own torrent search engine.

"The new search engine takes that dynamic into account. It resembles Google in operation, with a simple interface and results ranked by an automated process. But unlike a general web search, the BitTorrent web crawler interacts with each torrent behind the scenes to determine the number of nodes downloading and uploading through it. That lets the search engine order its results by the throughput of each torrent."

The Future of Television

There's a great tong in check look at the future of TV By Conan O'Brien, of Newsweek,

"To begin, the trend toward larger and larger televisions will continue as screens double in size every 18 months. Televisions will eventually grow so large that families will be forced to watch TV from outside their homes, peering in through the window. Random wolf attacks will make viewing more dangerous.

And, just as televisions grow larger and more complicated, so will remote controls. In fact, changing channels will soon require people to literally jump from button to button. Trying to change the channel while simultaneously lowering the volume will require two people and will frequently lead to kinky sex."

For a more serious look at the future of TV there is 4 page article by By Steven Levy also of Newsweek. Which takes a more practical look at TV.

"Start with the hardware. Ever notice that no one uses the term "TV set" anymore? That's because people can watch on anything from a traditional box in the den to their computer, to a screen on the seat back of a JetBlue plane."

Both have something to ad in their own way, I have one thought thou, more and more people are point to TV on demand as the next big thing in TV. But what if the next big thing in TV was the off Switch?

I my self since getting a Meg pipe, watch TV less and less, I can not even say I watch the programs I actual want to see. They are ether on in the middle of the day or late at night when I am thinking about going to bed, but end up blogging instead.

I know I could get TIVO, but in the UK the only way to do that is to get sky, I don't need 800+ channels of TV. I also don't agree with paying over £480 ($920 USD) a year for TV full of adds.

Ok so we all have to pay for the BBC, but there are no adds on the BBC it's the only money they get, that and selling stuff to the USA, Well selling Idea's to the USA as Americans will not watch British TV so it all has to be remade in America, by people who have no idea what made the UK one such a hit in the 1st place.

We all know hover that SKY makes millions every year from other add related source's and football income. So the only reason to charge for watching is greed.

When you think about it, which most people don't £480 a year is 50% of a months wages for your average man and woman. 50%! Just to watch TV that's 1/24th of you salary to watch TV. With lots and lots of adverts and sponsorship of program's.

before we get back to the point, just one more side point. Something I was thinking about the other day and if I don't say now never will.

When this great new future comes and all TV is on line and no one buys TV's because we all use are Meg computers or mobile phones or watch on the side of the toaster.

How is the TV licenses going to work?

If I don't own an out and out TV but watch TV on my PC thought a tuner or just dll it in a torrent, or watch in on my phone. Technical I don't have a TV, so don't need a TV license, ok so I may still need one for the tuner in my PC, but what happens in 20 or 15 years times where you don't need a tuner.

what happens when we Finley get rid of BT and every one can get cheap fast BB, and we stream are TV over the net?

Is every one in the UK going to have sign up for a BBC account, and be given their own user name and password?

How are they going to deal with multiple computers in the same home?

More importantly will the BBC survive, Some people may not like being forced to pay the BBC, but think about this.

We all now the big companies keep prices high by agreeing not to sell their products cheap, at the moment in the UK if your selling news you have to compete with the best news service in the world and its 100% free.

The New York times may have decided that the US market may bare the weight of a subscription service, but I doubt the UK one will. Why would you pay to get access to the times archive, when you can not link to it you can not share it with your friends. When you can just link to the BBC web site for free, any one can see it any where in the world.

We are constantly talking about the renewal off the BBC's charter for the TV license and the will they wont they get it.

Let's face they are going to get it the BBC is the thing in Britain we can be proud of the trains are crap the NHS is crap, and a 12 year old could knife you in the street and be sent on a two week holiday to Africa for punishment.

The BBC is safe for now, the real question is, in are ever Americanized UK with Tony Blair at the helm. Can the BBC survive the internet?

Big business is slowly becoming more and more powerfully in the EU, you only have to look at the length Microsoft went too to get the EU to take up the European patent directive, they bought Ireland.

How long can the BBC stand against it's rivals, such as sky? How long can it justify it's existence in a ratings driven world?, where the views are so frangmented?

coming back to the point of the off switch in a round about way, when we do all turn off are TV's are we going to be turning on are Phone/TV or are we going to be doing something else?

Has the internet brought about a shift from passive viewing to active participation?

After all you only have too look at the popularity of programs such as big brother and survivor to see how popular interaction is.

For I do not believe it is the fact that reality TV is popular for it's reality persay more, for it's interactivity. Where we the audience get to fee like we have some control over the program that it belongs to us.

And with this new understanding, that what we actual want is to be more active how long before we all realize that TV is not the answer and turn off TV's and start interacting with real people in the real world over bits of plastic?

Take a look at the internet, especially in the USA, what's the one thing that all big community's eventually end up doing?

They make the move from the net to the real world, and have a con (conference) even minor web sites seem to have con's these day's.

Are we really satisfied with interacting with a computer? Or is it human interaction that we are all after in the end?

Battle of Trafalgar

I don't mind upsetting the French, We Won you lost, tuff!

B3ta

When I have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon, I like nothing better than looking at obscene logo's.

Learn to Dance with Napoleon Dynomite

This little Flash offering on Albino Blacksheep. Lets you dance along with Napoleon, with a choice from nine different tracks, including Harder Better Fast - Daft punk and the Star Wars theme. With helpful arrows showing you how to move your body, you too will be able to dance.

Halo Art

Just found this on flickr and thoguht I would share it with you.

sickboy says:

From what I remember reading in the local paper the guys who painted this mural were unfamiliar with the game and composed the piece from stills in game mags or something like that. Its been awhile and my memory is hazy.

Das Keyboard

Das Keyboard is an enhanced 104-key USB PC keyboard equiped with 100% blank keys mounted on precision and individually weighted key switches.

I have to say i love the idea of the Das Keyboard, but at $79.95 USD I dont think I will be getting one any time soon.

Icon War

Icon war is fun, if some what limited imagination of what would happens when you turn off your monitor and leave your PC on.

HYPERDISTRIBUTION

Is the 1st part of a series on piracy and the way in which bit torrent (or what ever the tool of the day is) and the internet, are effecting not only the way in which we watch television but are attitudes towards television.

"October 18th, 2004 is the day TV died. That evening, British satellite broadcaster SkyOne — part of NEWS Corp's BSkyB satellite broadcasting service — ran the premiere episode of the re-visioned 70s camp classic Battlestar Galactica. (That episode, "33," is one of the best hours of drama ever written for television.) The production costs for Battlestar Galactica were underwritten by two broadcast partners: SkyOne in the UK, and the SciFi Channel in the USA. SciFi Channel programers had decided to wait until January 2005 (a slow month for American television) to begin airing the series, so three months would elapse between the airing of "33" in the UK, and its airing in the US. Or so it was thought."

Relaying heavily on the example of BattleStar Galactica, the 1st well none reverse of the piracy stream from the USA to the UK. That I have every know off in my 15 years on the net. If you are interested in this sort of thing its well worth the read

The Long Tail

"The Long Tail" is a blog about, well the long tail. Written by Chris Anderson who can also claim to have invented the term "Long Tail".

UFO?

Is it UFO? I don't know but that's the question being asked you can see the original google image here. The debate still wages on, But some how I think it's question we will never no the actual answer to.

REJECTED 'LOVE IS..' COMICS

The good people syndicating 'Love Is..' comics recently ran a contest where fans of the long-running strip could submit their own takes on this time-honored classic. This was taken by some to mean that there was an interest in changing or at least shifting the sensibility of the comic, one of the great one-panel strips in cartooning history.

This notion was mistaken. In fact, contained herein are some stabs that very narrowly skirted legal action.

LOL, I don't think there was ever a competition but if there was we should have them more often.

Sprol

Sprol is a planetary sightseeing blog. Visit some of the worst places in the world via satellite imagery. Our mission is to use space imaging to show people the visual macroscopic effects of our decisions and behavior. Since previous generations have not had the advantage of this viewpoint it is our responsibility to use it wisely.

I have to say I like the idea behind sprol, let's face it most of these "Eye saw's" are hidden out of site, and no one ever gets to find out what goes on there. Never mind see the consequence's of the choice of location or the environmental implications.

Extinct "Tasmanian Tiger", Thylacine

I have just been reading over on BoingBoing about the video over on 1 + 1 = 3, of the last known Thylacine.

The Thylacine a marsupial, not a Tiger could open its jaw up to 120 degrees. The 1933 video shows the last Thylacine, which died due to exposure from being left out over night in the Hobart Zoo two years before it's death.

According to the Australian Museum on line there is one Thylacine preserved in alcohol, which could one day be cloned when the technology is ready.

"The Australian Museum has a small Thylacine pup preserved in alcohol in 1866. Its cells could be used for cloning. By chance this Thylacine was stored in a jar of alcohol rather than formalin, which would have destroyed the DNA."

Who knows maybe one day they can bring this creature back?

Google For MP3

I had tried playing round with this my self, after reading breakingwindows how too.

The only problem being it is slow and complicated, and involved lots of copy and past.

Well now there is a much, much easier way, smacki.com has a page up where you can just type, your artist or track in a box and it will do everything for you, how good is that!