Reuters AlertNet - US and Iraq: Post-Pottery Barn Rules

Reuters AlertNet - US and Iraq: Post-Pottery Barn Rules: "The public may feel they are 'done with Iraq', but the US cannot simply walk away from the mess it has made and pretend things will somehow sort them themselves out. A different way to address the spiraling sectarianism would be to try to forge a national compact among Iraqis, with Washington pressuring all sides across the political spectrum to reach the kind of broad compromise that the Constitution failed to deliver."

Ben Heckendorn's 7-year anniversary VCSp portAtari - Engadget

Ben Heckendorn's 7-year anniversary VCSp portAtari - Engadget

It is things like this that remind you what a fan is...

a FANATIC. Yep, this one sure is.

What's the quickest route from California to Stockholm? | The Register

What's the quickest route from California to Stockholm? | The Register

Be a darn fast swimmer!

Verte Life

Verte Life

Ultimate geek shirts

AlterNet: WorkPlace: America, Maxed Out

AlterNet: WorkPlace: America, Maxed Out: "The simple answer is that while the banking industry has gone through its most profound change since the Venetians invented modern finance hundreds of years ago, Americans have clung to old assumptions. In particular, we've continued to believe that banks wouldn't extend us credit unless we could handle it, and that banks want us to save. Yet, the big banks realized more than a generation ago that they make far more money teaching us to spend than to save. They've also learned that making money upfront, mostly in the form of fees, is a lot more fun than waiting for a revenue stream to trickle in."

IBM demonstrates 160Gbps optical transceiver chipset - Engadget

IBM demonstrates 160Gbps optical transceiver chipset - Engadget

Ethernet on steriods compared to current tech. Now THIS is a bit of bandwidth.

Sure, sure, in the future this will seem like dial-up, still...

IBM boffins claim cooling breakthrough

IBM boffins claim cooling breakthrough: "IBM RESEARCHERS say they have developed a new technique to improve the cooling efficiency of chips. IBM's Zurich Research Lab has come up with an improved method of attaching chips to their heatsinks that can significantly enhance thermal efficiency"

cbs13.com - Scientists: Massive Meteorite Found Near Stockton

cbs13.com - Scientists: Massive Meteorite Found Near Stockton: "
The impact would have been as powerful as 100,000 atomic bomb blasts and would have been seen and heard for hundreds of miles."

Now that is a big boom...

Residential Wi-Fi Mapping Database Revealed

Residential Wi-Fi Mapping Database Revealed

phear the geeks!

AMD next-gen chipset roadmap leaked | Reg Hardware

AMD next-gen chipset roadmap leaked | Reg Hardware

Ben Bova: The ‘Marching Morons’ show prescience of science fiction | BonitaNews.com

Ben Bova: The ‘Marching Morons’ show prescience of science fiction | BonitaNews.com: "The most prescient — and chilling — of all the science fiction stories ever written, though, is “The Marching Morons,” by Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1951. It should be required reading in every school on Earth.

The point that Kornbluth makes is simple, and scary: dumbbells have more children than geniuses. In “The Marching Morons” he carries that idea to its extreme, but logical, conclusion."

New four-core Core 2 Extreme tips up

New four-core Core 2 Extreme tips up: "Chinese site HKEPC reports that the successor to the quad-core 2.66GHz QX6700 will be branded the QX6800 and will run at a speedy 2.93GHz. Obviously, it too is a four core processor."

Survey: Nearly half of U.S. lives paycheck to paycheck - CNN.com

Survey: Nearly half of U.S. lives paycheck to paycheck - CNN.com

When 'retirement' comes there will be a lot of sad singin' and slow walkin'

Having (finally) broken the cycle ourselves a while back, I can only say that it is NOT really hard to do. Ultimately, you end up spending more on luxuries too, once you get to the point that you are not soaked in debt. They point to eating out as a large contributor and undoubtedly it is, but another big one is sitting in a lot of driveways. We have two vehicles and both are seriously needed and get lots of mileage, but we don't have two I bought last year--or the year before. We expect to put 10 years on a vehicle and treat them accordingly. Is that cool? Probably not, but I'll take affordable un-cool, anyday.

VMware adds to desktop assault with ACE 2 | The Register

VMware adds to desktop assault with ACE 2 | The Register: "The ACE software allows customers to create a type of desktop in-a-can. Administrators can craft a package with their desired operating system, applications and settings. They can then pop that package onto PCs and laptops with relative ease, making use of VMware's virtual machine distribution technology. The idea is that ACE gives administrators an easy way of installing lots of desktop images at a company or school and tapping plenty of controls for those images."

GDC 07: Project Epoc brings mind control to games - News at GameSpot

GDC 07: Project Epoc brings mind control to games - News at GameSpot: "Emotiv Systems today unveiled a brain/computer interface system with a helmet and software applications at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The Project Epoc system can move objects based on a gamer's thoughts, reflect facial expressions, and respond to the excitement or calm the gamer mentally exerts, the company said."

Saving Even More Daylight -- TIME

Saving Even More Daylight -- TIME: "Even the Department of Energy (DOE) isn't convinced changing the clocks will make a dent in energy consumption. 'The jury on the potential national energy-savings of extending daylight saving time is still out,' Craig Stevens, press secretary for the Department of Energy, wrote to TIME in e-mail. 'Our preliminary report, based on decades-old information, indicates a very small amount of energy savings.' "

and to think that they might even just change teh whole mess back? Ugh. Having been bitten by it more than once, I can assure you that accounting for time-zones is not something that come naturally to a programmer. Whenever and whereever possible they hand this off to the OS or database.

Billionaires 'paid $1 a year'

Billionaires 'paid $1 a year': "And operating what could best be described as a low-cost model lifestyle myself, I am constantly reminded that while money can't buy you happiness, it can at least buy you beer."

The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter - related to subprime lending, subprime mortgages, lending fraud, predatory lending, housing bubble, mortgage bank

The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter - related to subprime lending, subprime mortgages, lending fraud, predatory lending, housing bubble, mortgage banking, foreclosures, debt, consolidation, lawyers, class-action lawsuits

Chocablog » Dalek Chocolate Cake

Chocablog » Dalek Chocolate Cake

Wow. Really, all I can saw is wow.

Orlando Beyond Disney World

Orlando Beyond Disney World

"Everything happening to America today is happening here, and it's far removed from the cookie-cutter suburbanization of life a generation ago. The Orlando region has become Exhibit A for the ascendant power of our cities' exurbs: blobby coalescences of look-alike, overnight, amoeba-like concentrations of population far from city centers. These huge, sprawling communities are where more and more Americans choose to be, the place where job growth is fastest, home building is briskest, and malls and megachurches are multiplying as newcomers keep on coming. Who are all these people? They're you, they're me, and increasingly, they are nothing like the blue-eyed "Dick and Jane" of mythical suburban America. "

This article is a superbly done synopsis of how things have changed for Central Florida over the past 4 decades. Brilliantly done.