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The time in Pakistan may not be what you think, Yahoo! and other bits from my reading pile

Sure, you could spend your free time creating a robot rock group as noted on MAKE, or you could try to figure out the current time in parts of Asia…

S. Asia clocks seem to be set to Twilight Zone (Seattle Times Newspaper) — Today, Pakistan becomes the first nation in South Asia to adopt daylight-saving time, pushing clocks forward by one hour. The three-month experiment is designed, as elsewhere, to cut energy costs by taking advantage of long summer days.

Whatever the case, summer arrives in a few days here in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means (hopefully) more time to catch up on some more serious reading than online fare. To paraphrase the recent Leonard Pitts Jr. column, giving online reading the day off, I have a stack of books, including Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria, Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert (who died suddenly last week at the age of 58) and a host of classic titles we’ll read to the boys.

Have a good week ahead.

Vista’s big problem: 92 percent of developers ignoring it | The Open Road – The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay – CNET News.com — Matt Asay writes that “A recent report… shows fewer than 1 in 10 developers writing apps for Windows Vista this year… and 49% are writing apps for XP.”

Perks: Google daycare now a luxury for Larry and Sergey’s inner circle

Microsoft’s last offer to Yahoo | Beyond Binary – A blog by Ina Fried – CNET News.com — Ina’s take on the non Microsoft -Yahoo deal, “worth even more than its original $33 a share offer for the whole company.”

Why Yahoo Passed On Microsoft’s Search Deal (New Details!) – Silicon Alley Insider — Henry Blodget | June 13, 2008 — Blodget talks about the “two deals [Yahoo! had] on the table: A Microsoft (MSFT) search deal and a Google (GOOG) search deal. Yahoo chose the Google deal.”

Leah Culver » leahculver.com – Leah Culver’s blog – she’s a founder and the lead developer of a social network, Pownce, that lets you send stuff to your friends online.

Marketing: Pity the Microsoft marketers who made this video — Valleywag says that “anytime Microsoft puts out a video like the one embedded below — a bizarre commercial for Microsoft Touch, now installed at Las Vegas’s Rio — some snarky blogger will happily point out all its flaws.” Uh, yeah.

Microsoft: We only wanted to buy Yahoo if quickly | Beyond Binary – A blog by Ina Fried – CNET News.com — Ina writes that “in a memo to those in his unit, Windows and Windows Live boss Kevin Johnson said part of the reason Microsoft abandoned its offer to buy Yahoo was that it viewed speed as of the essence if it were to buy the company.”

Microsoft: Now Wall Street wants Microsoft to buy AOL — Valleywag says that “Microsoft’s money would be much better put toward making an offer for a company that at least kind of, sort of owns a platform that maybe somebody could be as powerful as Google…” But AOL? Really?

Talking Business – Oh Jerry, It’s No Longer Your Baby – NYTimes.com — New York Times columnist Joe Nocera’s open letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang over the weekend nicely captured Yahoo shareholders’ rage over the whole Microsoft mess. (June 14, 2008 via Valleywag)

Developers, Developers, Developers: Bill Gates last move at Microsoft is to replace Steve Ballmer with robot — Speaking at Microsoft’s TechEd, valleywag reports that “Bill Gates rolled out the latest version of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a Windows-powered machine that waves its arms and shouts “Developers, developers, developers!”

Gizmodo Design: When Companies Copy Gadgets, Is It Inspiration or Stealing? The Experts Speak — Gizmodo asked “at what point does drawing inspiration from a rival’s innovations become simple bootlegging?” They asked three experts: Yves Behar, Karen Marie Kitterman and Ravi Chhatpar

Updated: Reach Lowe’s Executive Customer Service (Consumerist.com) — Here is a phone number and email address for reaching Lowe’s executive customer service….

Lawyer: RIAA Gets Sleazy in Disputed Downloading Lawsuit | Threat Level from Wired.com — By David Kravets June 13, 2008 — Wired has a link to a file sharing suit: “Earlier this month the RIAA voluntarily dismissed a case—then refiled it last week but didn’t mention it was the same lawsuit, which means it was assigned to a different judge.”

ASUS Eee PC 901 priced, reviewed – Engadget now has “official US pricing for ASUS’ new Eee PC lineup: Eee PC 901 $599 MSRP for both Linux and Windows XP versions….”

RF4CE Consortium aims to develop RF standard for entertainment control – Engadget reports that the RF4CE Consortium is hoping to make things painfully simple. The group has been formed in order to “drive the adoption of an open radio frequency (RF) entertainment control specification based on IEEE 802.15.4.”

Making Every Day Earth Day, Reduce, Reuse & Recycle, Green Lifestyle — You can use the site: http://earth911.org/ to find out where to recycle items in your area. This is a great resource for recycling.

Microsoft: Replace Your XBOX 360? “Sorry, We Can’t Help You. Buy All Of Your Content A Second Time” — Reader Mac’s XBOX 360 was out of warranty when it broke, so he decided to buy a new one thinking he could just transfer his old hard drive to the new XBOX. Sadly, no matter what he tries he can’t get his content to work properly on the new machine.

UPDATE: Microsoft May Slowly Be Fixing Their Broken XBOX DRM — Consumerist says of reader James’ experience with Xbox CSS: “Microsoft was able to fix his broken XBOX Live account. Are they getting their act together? Maybe?”

Wireless: Verizon Offers Discount Bundle to Those Who Don’t Want a Landline — Verizon will offer an $8 to $12 discount per month to landline-free wireless customers who sign on for internet or TV service with their new Flex Double Play bundle.

Good Customer Service: Simplehuman’s Excellent Customer Service Makes Other Companies Look Like Garbage — “Pani just had an astoundingly good bit of customer service from aptly-named simplehuman—makers of those elegant-but-expensive trash cans—and wrote to let us know about it.”

The Consumerist: Shoppers Bite Back — While some people conflate “recession” with “depression,” the enterprising gents at Lumber Liquidators are using it as a cheery marketing hook. An ad on their website shouts, “Take advantage of the weak dollar! We ship anywhere in the world.”

Early Termination Fees: In Early Termination Fee Hearing, FCC Chief Regurgitates Wireless Industry Proposals — The Consumerist says that “FCC Chairman Kevin “Golden Child” Martin’s proposals largely mirrored those offered by the carriers themselves last month.”

Cable: 25 Reasons Why Cable Technicians Hate You — The consumerist thought it might be fair and equitable to learn what cable technicians hate about the customers. “We found out about this post written by a cable tech who isn’t afraid to let it fly…”

Korg nanoSeries puts laptop users in control | musicradar.com — By Ben Rogerson, 12 Jun, 2008 — “Korg’s new nanoSeries devices are designed to meet the needs of artists who like to make music on the go but don’t want to make any sacrifices in the control department. The range features three compact products…”

iPhone 3G details: firmware 2.0 on June 27th, no OTA music downloads, AT&T to fine non-activators, new spy-shots – Engadget uncovers that the next Apple iPhone firmware update (2.0) could be headed to devices as early as June 27th, and more.

Redmond | News: Microsoft Starts Global Rollout of Retail Consumer Web Sites — This week, the company launched the Microsoft Store — a Web site where consumers can purchase Vista, Office, Microsoft Works and the new Web design product Expression directly from Microsoft — in the U.K. and Germany. by Becky Nagel, 060408

Microsoft Considering Rebranding ‘Live’ Offerings (RedmondMag News) — According to the Associated Press, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, commented during a conference that the company needs to fix its online search branding. June 3, 2008 by Becky Nagel

Windows Home Server gets a big bug fix (and much more) | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com — Microsoft announced that it has released a public beta version of Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server. It’s more than a service pack, with at least two significant new features (client support for x64-based Windows machines and the ability to back up d

CTV purchases The Hockey Theme — June 9, 2008: CTV Inc. has acquired the rights to The Hockey Theme in perpetuity, the network announced Monday. The agreement was reached with Copyright Music & Visuals, which was unable to renew a deal with CBC Sports.

Tips for calling HP Support (MediaSmartServer.net) — Tips for calling HP Support for your Windows Home Server: “HP Support uses an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to direct your call.”

Turn your USB Flash Drive Into a Windows Install Disk – WGSWiki — More from the team on “how to turn your USB Flash Drive into a Windows Install Disk… works for the Home Server Installation disk, the WHS Recovery Disk, and the Vista Installation disk.”

The new Windows Client TechCenter (SYN; SYN-ACK; ACK blog) — New and improved: the team “just launched the new Windows Client TechCenter, replacing the Windows XP and the Windows Vista TechCenters.”

Twitter: FlixPulse Rates Movies by Twitter Consensus — An example of NSAT in the real world: Web-based movie review index FlixPulse shows “what the uber-connected Twitter community has to say… [with] scan through film mentions across the short-messaging community, then group them into good, bad, or indifferent…”

Announcements: Become a Lifehacker Tip Tester at Flickr Lifehacker “created the “Lifehacker Tip Testers” Flickr group, and we’re looking for bold readers armed with cameras and hacks in action to join the group, submit photos of the tricks they’ve installed in their lives, and tell us how they worked out.”

Featured Firefox Extension: FireNes Brings 2000 NES Games to Your Browser — If you use Firefox, the FireNes extension “integrates over 2000 old-school NES games with your favorite browser. With it, you can browse the enormous library of games in your Firefox sidebar and play any one of your 8-bit favorites at the click of your mouse…”

Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo (Scientific American) — June 2, 2008, by Hany Farid – LifeHacker has covered power photo retouching before, “but how can you tell when a photo’s been altered? Scientific American offers several tips on how to spot faked photographs.”

Apple’s “Just One More Thing…” Timeline (Cult of Mac) — Cult of Mac’er Leigh McMullen posted (060508) “With WWDC on the horizon, and keynote fever ramping up, we thought it might be nice to take a stroll down memory lane. The “One More Thing” timeline below covers every Stevenote we could find…”

Shuttle D10 Media Server With a 7-Inch Touchscreen — More from Gizmodo on Shuttle’s new 7-inch LCD touchscreen-laden mini Media Center PC. June 7, 2008.

The HTC Touch Pro – Engadget — More on HTC’s Touch Pro from Engadget: a QWERTY slider mobile phone “sibling of the recently-unveiled Touch Diamond” with WiFi, HSPA, Bluetooth, Windows Mobile 6.1 with HTC’s TouchFLO 3D interface, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a half gig of ROM, and 288MB of RAM…

Shuttle XP19 touchscreen display’s official images and specs unearthed – Engadget — Engadget has “an official picture of the new Shuttle XP19 widescreen touchscreen LCD display: 19-inch Wa-Si TFT active matrix screen, 1680 x 1050 resolution, 5ms response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio, and 170-degree viewing angles.” Ooh. 😉

Windows 7 Testing Must Start ASAP, Microsoft Warns Hardware Makers — Microsoft — InformationWeek — Hardware makers that don’t comply with the edict won’t qualify for Microsoft’s Windows Logo certified compatibility program for Windows 7 or Windows Vista. By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek

Best Buy offers up free electronics recycling in 117 stores – Engadget

Final specifications revealed for ASUS Eee Box B202? – Engadget

Robbie Bach on Microsoft Surface: “We don’t want to be in the furniture business” – Engadget

Putting Games on the ZUNE (n00b friendly version) – Zune Boards

Microsoft’s Ballmer on Yahoo and the Future By Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post, June 5, 2008 — In an animated discussion with Washington Post editors and reporters yesterday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer offered his far-ranging views of upcoming changes in technology and the media.

Gates-Ballmer Clash Shaped Microsoft’s Coming Handover – WSJ.com — By ROBERT A. GUTH, June 5, 2008 — One of the most successful business partnerships in history was coming unraveled. It was early 2000, and Bill Gates had relinquished the chief executive’s job at Microsoft Corp. to Steve Ballmer…

Microsoft plug-in lets users try group search | Tech news blog – CNET News.com  Posted by Stephen Shankland — Microsoft’s Research group announced an Internet Explorer 7 plug-in called SearchTogether on Wednesday that turns Web searches into a group activity.

Xbox Team : December 2007 Video Playback FAQ — Represents a new feature or change in functionality from the Spring 07 release… saved by 172 other people … on june 05

Keith Combs’ Blahg : Dell XPS 420 six month report — Keith says that “I’ve had my Dell XPS 420 six months now so I thought I’d give you an update on my impressions of the machine and changes I’m made to it since the initial purchase.”

Top 5 Cool Vista Tricks (Redmondmag.com) — “There are quite a few diamonds in the rough buried within Microsoft Vista. You just need to know where to look to bring them to the surface. Here are five of the brightest gems, five diverse cool tips that you may or may not use.”

The 100 Best Products of the Year – 2008 (PC World on MSN Tech & Gadgets) Edited by Mark Sullivan, PC World — This year’s tech gems — as picked by PC World editors and readers — will leave you more productive, connected and entertained.

Tags: misc, articles, what I read

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