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Just sleep in: Swedish researchers find Daylight saving time, erratic sleep schedules could affect your health

Happy November.


As I tweeted this week, daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of North America.  And leave it to Dr. Nancy Snyderman to tell us that the time changes brought on by daylight saving time may not be good for your health. 


For devs staying up late to code, consider that you should likely sleep in if you stay up late for a night of coding.  😉


Dr. Nancy referred in her spot on the Today show to a study published on Wednesday suggests that the risk of heart attack my be linked to disturbances in sleep patterns and the time changes that come with daylight saving time.  Salynn Boyles of WebMD Health News reports in an article that daylight saving time may affect your heart, according to the research on heart attack sufferers in Sweden. 


j0438743[1] The research found that the risk of a heart attack rises in the first few days after the “Spring Forward” associated with daylight saving time, likely due to a loss of sleep.  And inversely, the risk goes down in the fall after the end of DST and people select to get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning.


As noted in the article, co-author of the study Dr. Rickard Ljung said that the report results “suggest that even small disturbances in sleep patterns may affect the heart.”



“We know that Monday is the most dangerous day for heart attacks,” he tells WebMD. “It has been thought that this is due to the stress associated with returning to work after the weekend, but our study suggests that disturbed sleep rhythms may be involved, and that the extra hour of sleep we get in the fall [after daylight saving time ends] may be protective.”


So next spring, when you have to set your clocks forward, choose to sleep in and then delay your start on Monday as well.  As I recall from my past international travels, it takes a day for every time zone you cross for your body to adjust to the local time. 


Whatever you do, remember that “time is a precious thing. Never waste it.“


I wonder if similarly, heart attack rates remain the same in the areas not affected by these DST changes, places such as Arizona and Hawaii, or Saskatchewan and parts of northern British Columbia.  Or perhaps if they’re following the gyrations of the stock market or doing business with folks in affected time zones, they have to get up an hour earlier and face the same risk.


As always, to ensure that your computers are up to date, visit http://www.microsoft.com/time for more details.


Tags: Microsoft, health, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)


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Halloween, Daylight Saving Time, Bill Gates’ new company and other mysterious things I’ve read this week

Halloween clip art from Office Online Here’s a blast from the past (December 2006): What do candy, Microsoft products and Congress have in common?  You can read more about this in the latest news on the subject.  If you thought tracking the machinations of various daylight saving time and time zone changes around the world was tough, Paul Tennant of the Eagle-Tribune reports that in Haverhill (MA), trick-or-treating is Saturday night this (and every) year rather than on Friday, October 31.



“While Halloween is always Oct. 31, in Haverhill trick-or-treating is always the fourth Saturday of October. This year it will be Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.  City Human Services Director Vincent Ouellette said that the earlier time for trick-or-treating was established several years ago by the mayor and City Council for safety reasons.



“There is a lot less traffic on a Saturday night,” said Ouellette, who supervises the Recreation Department. Also because it is still daylight saving time, having trick-or-treating between 5 and 7 Saturday gives people an extra hour of daylight, he said.”


I revisited another previous post on Halloween activities and found a post just in time for Halloween: how the Anatomy of a Lego Minifig is quite spooky




“After killing and dissecting an endless amount of Lego minifigs, artist/designer/mad doctor Jason Freeny has created the definitive anatomy map of the iconic figure, showing all the details and naughty bigs that we weren’t able to catch in our exclusive tour to Lego Minifig factory in Denmark. Jason has plenty of experience on cutting apart other species too, like gummy bears and balloon animals
”


And a bit of Halloween-inspired humour from YouTube – The Dark Knight Trailer Recut – Toy Story 2.  It really must be seen to be fully appreciated.

 

And last for this scary holiday, a real fear fest with a humourous bite: The Financial Crisis, as Explained to My Fourteen-Year-Old Sister — The Bygone Bureau.  “You’re 14 and have no source of income. What would convince me to lend you money if I’m not sure you can pay it back?”

Surely my boys have read this post and are preparing to leverage their extensive collection of PokĂ©mon and other “valuable” trading cards to help finance their next major investment, likely a heavily leveraged credit default swap fund or collateralized debt obligations.


Enjoy the rest of your weekend.


CNET reported how Mac buyers may face an “Apple tax” (October 13, 2008).  Ina Fried posted that “Apple may offer lower-priced machines on Tuesday, but one top Microsoft official said Monday that Mac buyers will still be paying an “Apple tax” following her interview with Brad Brooks, the vice president of the Windows Consumer Product Marketing team.

TechBlog: Updated: Want proof that Microsoft is feeling threatened by Apple?:  October 13, 2008 — “Updated: Want proof that Microsoft is feeling threatened by Apple? “In the past, when Apple has been on the eve of releasing new notebooks or desktops, Microsoft has let that event pass. Maybe the company would make a spokesperson available to react to the announcement, but that’s about it.”


Bill Gates’ mysterious new company – TechFlash: Seattle’s Technology News Source — Bill Gates’ mysterious new company By Todd Bishop and Eric Engleman on Oct 22, 2008 at 11:38 AM – “The bgC3 logo.Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company — complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark. Public documents describe the new Gates entity — bgC3 LLC — as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer.” Also see BGC3.com, not to be confused with “m3”


Windows 7: A Turning Point for Microsoft? – PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff posts that “Microsoft reverses the years-long practice of building everything under the sun into its popular personal computer platform. The now officially named Windows 7 carries the heavy burden of Vista’s disappointments. Consumers, business users, and pundits have foisted such high expectations on the currently in development OS’s back, that it will be a miracle if the final result satisfies anyone. However, lost amid all the hand-wringing is Microsoft’s startling decision to lighten Windows 7’s load. “In a stunning reversal, Microsoft announced that future versions of Windows would no longer feature e-mail, contact management, calendar, photo management, and moviemaking in the initial install. Instead, Microsoft customers will be encouraged to download these apps from Windows Live online services.”


Want to go back to school?  Then you’ll take interest in in how Yale’s MBA dean will found Apple University – (October 22, 2008 1:50 PM as posted by Tom Krazit) “Joel Podolny will leave his position as dean of Yale’s business school to join Apple in early 2009. Apple has hired the dean of Yale’s School of Management to head up a new program called Apple University. It’s not clear exactly what Joel Podolny will be working on at Apple…”

Selling Computers Without Performance Anxiety? – Rob Pegoraro posted (October 20, 2008) that “Something odd is happening in the personal-computer business: While a lot of manufacturers still lead off their ads with the usual blizzard of numbers — processor speed, installed RAM, hard-drive capacity — some new models come with sales pitches that largely ignore those traditional performance metrics.”



“Apple’s new MacBook and MacBook Pro may be the most public example of this — the company’s presentations for each model lead off with a loving description of the new manufacturing process used for each. “But Apple has prominent company in this marketing approach. Dell touts the compact size and environmental appeal of its Studio Hybrid desktop, not how fast it can crunch through an Excel spreadsheet. And this morning, HP announced two new desktops and a monitor, all designed to have a “reduced impact on the environment”; the clock speeds of these PCs’ processors was saved for a footnote in the press release.”


How Microsoft will compete with ‘free’ | Outside the Lines – CNET News‘ has a guest post from Jean-Louis GassĂ©e, who I first met at Apple and nearly worked for at Be a few years later (I didn’t pursue the job opening).  GassĂ©e cover how “Microsoft’s future business model will borrow from both Apple and Google to compete with the free world of software.”  GassĂ©e is a smart man, and this is a good read.

I also saw this past week how some new Apple ads tweaked Microsoft marketers (October 20, 2008 11:09 AM PDT, posted by Tom Krazit).



“Still, negative advertising, while effective in an election year, grows old. And it plays into the sorely outdated fanboy us vs. them mentality that the vast majority of consumers couldn’t care less about; most people in America do not define themselves by the computer that they use, as hard as Apple and Microsoft are trying to make that happen.”



“The new ads will get a chuckle out of most viewers, as the polished comedy team of Hodgman and Justin Long could teach Seinfeld and Gates a thing or two. But God forbid that Apple should ever stumble with the rollout of a new operating system; they’ve taught Microsoft just how to respond.”


Annals of Culture: Late Bloomers: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker — Malcolm Gladwell has an article in the New Yorker (October 20, 2008) and asks “Why do we equate genius with precocity?”



“Thanks to Sabrina for this link. “Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with precocity—doing something truly creative, we’re inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth. Orson Welles made his masterpiece, “Citizen Kane,” at twenty-five. Herman Melville wrote a book a year through his late twenties, culminating, at age thirty-two, with “Moby-Dick.” Mozart wrote his breakthrough Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat-Major at the age of twenty-one. In some creative forms, like lyric poetry, the importance of precocity has hardened into an iron law.”


If you are into the audio, Gladwell also offer Better Late: Online Only: The New Yorker Podcast – “This week in the magazine, Malcolm Gladwell asks why we equate genius with precocity. Here Gladwell talks about how artistic prodigies differ from late bloomers and the kinds of support over decades that some artists need to realize their gifts.”

Home Server Hacks – always a great resource for Windows Home Server, along with WebGuide: Windows Home Server.


Microsoft fights legal ‘hijack’ of Windows Update – On October 15th, I read how “Microsoft Lawyers representing consumers in a suit over Microsoft’s “Windows Vista Capable” marketing program recently proposed distributing the class-action notice via Windows Update — the same mechanism that the company ordinarily uses to automatically send out its security patches. In a new filing in U.S. District Court in Seattle (PDF, 15 pages) the company reacts strongly to the idea.”  No kidding.

Read Kara Swisher’s article on how “Yahoo Shares Dropped on AOL Non-Deal: Here’s Why and What That Means” from AllThingsD


A must download: the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool – The Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT) is a free tool designed to help organizations like yours assess weaknesses in your current IT security environment, reveal a prioritized list of issues, and help provide specific guidance to minimize those risks. MSAT is an easy, cost-effective way to begin strengthening the security of your computing environment and your business. Begin the process by taking a snapshot of your current security state, and then use MSAT to continuously monitor your infrastructure’s ability to respond to security threats.

Vista Wow Starts Now 
 at Apple – John Paczkowski of AllThingsD reports that “Apple COO Tim Cook demonstrated a new MacBook running Windows and said this of the “dramatic increase in the Mac’s market share… was driven partially by “something we didn’t do: Vista.” “I think it’s fair to say that Vista hasn’t lived up to everything that Microsoft hoped it would,” Cook said. “And consequently, it’s opened doors for a lot of people to consider switching to the Mac. And Apple has been the beneficiary of this.”


Photoshop Contest: John McCain Gets Absolutely Humiliated by Technology, Photoshop

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What $700 billion buys, Ina on something called Windows Strata, and the Giving Campaign (plus my reading list)

OK, deep breath for those of you watching the market today.  The weekend is here.  Markets are closed.  Keep in mind that as Cable Digital News reported last week, the financial bailout plan is enough capital to install fiber to every single home (FTTH) in the States with a few dollars left over for alternative energy…

“You know you’ve been covering the cable industry too long when you start employing a “cost per home passed” metric to economic issues far outside the broadband domain. In this case, it’s the $700 billion financial bailout plan that just crashed and burned in Congress. If passed, that plan would cost $6,250 per home passed. It’s a number that makes any cable or telecom industry watcher’s head spin. The figure is enough to cover the cost of installing fiber to every single home in the U.S. with enough left over to outfit half of all homes for solar electricity. (The assumptions for these zany scenarios are a cost-reduced $600 per home passed for fiber-to-the-home and $11,000 per home for solar as part of a massive national deployment.)”

But on to more fun, corporate items.  I’ve just returned from a fun Windows COSD information sharing event with lots of food, folks and more.  The company’s Giving Campaign (as I’ve mentioned previously) has kicked off this week, and I have a wonderful item available for Kathy Griffin fans: tickets to one of her sold out Seattle shows.  Local FTEs, check it out and bid high.  I’m not sure if Max will be offering another one of his Another Thousand Paintings, a series of companion paintings to Sala’s one thousand paintings of numbers.  His site was created using Office Live.  Last year, he once again provided a great painting (‘though it did take quite a while…).

So, here’s a few items from the reading pile, including this one from Ina Fried.  She posted on how Windows Cloud might in fact equal Windows Strata… (October 8, 2008 10:26 AM PDT)  “A screenshot of Microsoft’s PDC Web site, which appears to confirm the Windows Strata name.” “Last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about “Windows Cloud”–the company’s long-rumored cloud operating system. At the time, though, he noted that the Windows Cloud name was not necessarily the final name.”

Good thing PDC is just around the corner – we’ll find out soon enough.

A few more items that made the reading and resource list in my not-too-many spare moments this week.  Enjoy your weekend.  (I hope to as well: happy anniversary, Lisa 😉
When you try to install updates from the Windows Update Web site or from the Microsoft Update Web site, you may receive a “0x80246007” error code

FORTUNE: Trapped in cubicles – Mar. 22, 2006  — “Even the designer of the cubicle thinks they were maybe a bad idea, as millions of ‘Dilberts’ would agree. By Julie Schlosser, FORTUNE Magazine March 22, 2006: 2:03 PM EST NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) – Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called “monolithic insanity.” Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign.”

Instant Eyedropper: Identify HTML-color code from any pixel of the screen with single-click and auto paste it to the clipboard – Instant Eyedropper is a free software tool for webmasters that will identify and automatically paste to the clipboard the HTML color code of any pixel on the screen with just a single mouse click. Thanks to Lifehacker for noting this Windows utility for the system tray utility.

How can I be less cynical? (Ask Metafilter) – “With each year that I get older, I get a little more cynical. I can’t even watch TV without spitting nails with all the product placement, I hate most movies, I lost faith in the God I was raised to believe in as a child and I find very little joy in most things now a days. My wife is pissed because I’m so negative and doubtful of everything. She’d like to see me a happier. I’ve been the counselor route before but most don’t understand me so I want to explore other ways to be less cynical (I’m open to books – I love to read) “So does anyone have a way I can start to change my attitude…?”

Inside G’s Infinity Penthouse | SFluxe – Thanks to Paula for this link on SiValley living.

Workspace: Clean Your Workspace—and Keep it That Way — “ether your workspace is miles from your home or right there amongst your books and Battlestar Galactica figurines, it probably has something in common with at least a few other Lifehackers’ (and mine)—the ability to attract clutter, make important documents and objects hard to find, and, over time, become an actual impediment to getting things done. Some of us are able to work in a way that doesn’t leave things a mess and clean as you go, but for those of us who can’t trust our instincts, a system that corrects itself is needed. Today I’ve rounded up a few of our best tips for getting your workspace in order and keeping it that way without a cerebral transplant.”

DIY: Make Your Own R-Strap for Camera-Slinging Convenience – “The R-Strap, a $44 sling for DSLR cameras that hooks into the tripod socket, makes it easy to keep a camera slung low during idle moments, then quickly bring it up for shooting without scraping your neck or twisting the strap. The Photojojo site points out two DIY R-Strap how-tos that require just a few dollars of gear and not too much hardware work to get the same effect. Best of all, you can use nearly any strap you like, so if you’ve always felt comfortable with your laptop tote or guitar strap, you can get the same effect while shooting.”

The New Xbox Experience is coming November 19th – Xbox Lives Major Nelson – “John Schappert, Corporate Vice President of Xbox LIVE, Services and Software, announced today during his Tokyo Game Show keynote that the New Xbox Experience will ship to Xbox 360’s around the world (in 26 countries, localized in 11 languages) on November 19th 2008.”

HearVox News » A CDO Sub-Primer — From May, 2008: LM 2008.05.11 HV/Webwork/Writs/Econ 101 tags: business, media, npr [Mr. Massett explains why the media explanations of the mortgage crisis explain nothing.] When the US credit markets began to blow up last year, every newspaper in the country served up two explanations for the mess: “sub-prime mortgage” and “collaterized debt obligation,” or “CDO.”

HP Mediasmart Connect HD Video Streamer Lightning Review — Gizmodo offers a review of the new HP Mediasmart Connect, “a networked receiver that plays back H.264, DivX, XviD, MPEG-2, WMV video, photos, and even connects to your Media Center to act like an extender. It’s also expandable space-wise with HP’s Pocket Media Drives, and supports 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g/n. It comes in a glossy piano black finish which attracts dust and fingerprints as easily as an actual piano. The Price: $299 The Verdict: The Mediasmart Connect is a decent video player, Media Extender and photo viewer, but it doesn’t shine in any area other than video quality. “At $299, it’s hard to recommend the Mediasmart Connect over something like an Xbox 360 because of everything else the 360 can do.”

Personally, I see value in this box over an Xbox 360 in the wireless streaming and web-based video playback from the likes of Live Video, YouTube and other services. I also like the on-board storage option as I have other HP PCs with USB drive bays.

gOS – a Google good OS for your Mum ‱ The Register — “Mac-like Linux serves the Windows crowd By Scott Gilbertson ‱ Get more from this author Posted in Operating Systems, 25th August 2008 19:06 GMT Review What’s free, looks like Mac OS X, just works and is actually Linux? The answer is gOS, which recently launched a new beta that builds on the distro’s initial success and adds new tools like integrated Google Gadgets for Linux. When it launched onto the scene late last year, gOS (which stands for good OS) made quite a splash for getting Linux into the U.S. retail giant WalMart. Through a partnership with PC manufacturer Everex, gOS brought Linux to your parents’ generation via WalMart. But chances are, if they picked up a gOS equipped machine, Mom and Dad would have no idea the

‘Windows Cloud’ to descend this month, says Ballmer ‱ The Register

By Kelly Fiveash Posted in Operating Systems, 1st October 2008 13:53 GMT “Microsoft will let loose a new operating system, Windows Cloud, at the company’s annual developer conference later this month. “Boss Steve Ballmer announced Redmond’s plans at a Software plus Services partner event in London this lunchtime. He playfully gave the OS the temporary name of Windows Cloud. Apparently, we’ll learn more from Microsoft about the platform at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, which takes place at the end of October. “We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it for the purposes of today ‘Windows Cloud’,” said Ballmer.”

Toshiba Media Server Concept Looks Awesome — Of interest from CEATEC 2008, Sep 30, 08 03:03 AM PDT “First of all, this media server is a concept – not a commercial product (how unfortunate!). It was part of a Toshiba demo about how the telephone, the media server and a TV (with wireless HD) could interact. The media server automatically downloads media files form the cellphone as soon as the user drops it nearby (using near field communication or NFC). The media files can then be displayed from the media server to a wireless HD 1080p TV (I’m sure that in their concept, it works better if everything comes from Toshiba
).”

Netflix API – Welcome to the Netflix Developer Network — Engadget reported today that “the Netflix API will be open to all starting tomorrow. As of October 1st, absolutely anyone can self-signup by visiting the read link, and while details are a tad sketchy at the moment, it sounds like this could hold some serious promise. The API itself allows access to data for 100,000 movie and TV episode titles, is completely free and (most importantly) allows commercial use. In other words, it’s kosher if a bright developer out there somewhere feels like “creating an iPhone app to sell for $0.99 (Netflix’s words, not ours).” On the technical side, the API includes a REST API, Javascript API and ATOM feeds, and it also uses OAuth standard security “to allow the subscriber to control which applications can access the service on his or her behalf.” It’s time to get creative, folks.”

Net neutrality: An American problem? — This story was written by Brett Winterford and Julian Hill. The leaders of three of Australia’s largest ISP’s have declared the Net neutrality debate as solely a U.S. problem–and further, that the nation that pioneered the Internet might want to study the Australian market for clues as to how to solve the dilemma. Net neutrality is a term coined by Internet users who oppose the increasing tendency among network owners (telecommunications companies) to tier or prioritize certain content on the network.

Can I Recover from Recovering My PC? – washingtonpost.com — “Lincoln Spector, PC World PC World Tuesday, September 30, 2008; 12:19 AM “When his PC wouldn’t boot, Stargazer ran its recovery tool and thus lost all of his files. Then he asked the Answer Line forum how he could get back his pictures, video, and music.”

Adobe Talks Open Source, Innovation and the Future of Flash — By Darryl K. Taft 2008-09-25 “Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe talks with eWEEK about open-sourcing Flash, the new Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4), mobile technology and more. Lynch also talks of competing with Microsoft Silverlight and Expression and possibly with Google Chrome.”

Security Hole in Adobe Flash Allows Free Amazon Movie Downloads — A security hole in Adobe Flash video server software, used to distribute movies and TV shows over the Internet, is giving users free access to record and copy from Amazon.com’s video streaming service. The Adobe Flash video server software doesn’t encrypt online content, but only orders sent to a video player such as start and stop play. To boost download speeds, Adobe dropped a stringent security feature that protects the connection between the Adobe software and its players. The Adobe Flash video servers are connected to Adobe’s Flash video players installed in nearly all of the world’s Web-connected PC computers.

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‘Glitch’ is now a formal, technical term, and other things I’ve read this week

It’s been and will continue to be a busy week filled with reviews, planning and report, not to mention some real work with some of our best folks on product quality, customer service and satisfaction. So here’s a quick post of what I’ve read over the last week.

I love it when words that don’t somehow seem quite, well, technical enough surface in official, technical documents.

Case in point: DirecTV confirmation of an HD DVR receiver ‘glitch’ as noted here: ‘glitch’ is now a defined technical term.

As reported by engadget, "DirecTV has sent out e-mails to loads of affected users which were unexpectedly forced to mash the red "Reset" button located within a door on the front panel of their HD DVR / receiver in order to get things going again. Of course, even the mighty satcaster can’t replace any missed recordings that were scheduled, but it is "sincerely" sorry for the inconvenience. You’ll still be paying your full bill, though, so it’s not that sorry…"

Interesting election news (no, not that election).  It looks like one incumbent’s re-election chances turn on daylight saving time changes (or so reports The Indianapolis Star, by Mary Beth Schneider, October 5, 2008). "Two days before voters go to the polls to pick Indiana’s next governor, they’ll have to turn back their clocks an hour as daylight saving time comes to an end for the year. For Gov. Mitch Daniels, who pushed the controversial time change through the legislature during his first year in office, the timing couldn’t be worse."

More than 100 people have commented on this story, so you know it’s a major issue in the state.

Now, on to the reading list.

HP Mediasmart Connect HD Video Streamer Lightning Review – Gizmodo offers a review of the new HP Mediasmart Connect, "a networked receiver that plays back H.264, DivX, XviD, MPEG-2, WMV video, photos, and even connects to your Media Center to act like an extender. It’s also expandable space-wise with HP’s Pocket Media Drives, and supports 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g/n. It comes in a glossy piano black finish which attracts dust and fingerprints as easily as an actual piano. The Price: $299 The Verdict: The Mediasmart Connect is a decent video player, Media Extender and photo viewer, but it doesn’t shine in any area other than video quality. "At $299, it’s hard to recommend the Mediasmart Connect over something like an Xbox 360 because of everything else the 360 can do." Personally, I see value in this box over an Xbox 360 in the wireless streaming and web-based video playback from the likes of Live Video, YouTube and other services. I also like the on-board storage option as I have other HP PCs with USB drive bays.

New Best Buy stores being designed with women in mind – BloggingStocks – Posted Oct 6th 2008 2:43PM by Brian White "Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is ditching the warehouse-blue store format that it’s grown famous for. Well, not really — but in some newer stores in Denver, that cheery blue is being supplemented by earth tones and skylights as the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S. sets its sights on the female demographic. That’s right — the anti-gadget crowd who rolls both eyes when guys start salivating over that 50-inch flat screen television."

Ick: World’s Deepest Fish Filmed For the First Time – gizmodo has alink to video of "a group of snailfish—the deepest living fish in existence—filmed alive for the first time in history in the name science and nausea. They live at depths of 4.6 miles (7,500 meters) or more, so scientists had to develop new camera technology capable of supporting a pressure of 8,000 tonnes per square metre—"the equivalent to that of 1600 elephants standing on the roof of a Mini car"—for a period of days."

Powerwise desk recharging station (lifeiscarbon) – I see a new Ikea hack coming… engadget reported on this new Powerwise desk recharging station. I particularly like the individual on/off switches for each of the storage compartments. "In a fruitful new collaboration, the Swedish based designers Johanna Strand and Åsa Elmstam have developed a highly functional and stylishly minimalist new piece of furniture. Powerwise is designed to help people handle their everyday electronic devices in a smarter way. As we all know, cell phones, Mp3-players, cameras and handheld computers are forever in need of recharging and rather annoyingly they all come with their own adaptors. By now, most of us also happen to know that a charger that’s constantly plugged in to the wall is not only an environmental burden and an unnecessary electricity cost but also a potential fire hazard. Sadly, if chargers aren’t plugged into sockets they seem to have a tendency to go missing just when they’re needed most."

Toshiba Qosmio G55-Q802 (PC Magazine review) By Cisco Cheng, 9/24/08 The $1,500 SRP Toshiba Qosmio G55-Q802 is an attractive and affordable media center laptop that PC Magazine says was "made for video editors who aren’t performance seekers or feature hounds." Pros: Secondary cell processor for quicker video editing. Good graphics card. Half a terabyte of storage. Affordable. Excellent speaker system. Upconvert feature lets you watch enhanced standard-definition content. Cons: Would like to see a higher resolution. Cell processor effective only for certain tasks. Gesture Controller is hard to master. Heavier than its rivals.

Sony VAIO VGC-RT150Y – At A Glance – Reviews by PC Magazine – From my PC Magazine email update today, a review of the new Sony VAIO VGC-RT150Y, noted as "even more expensive and powerful and has a bigger screen than previous all-in-one PCs. It will compete with the iMac for digital-content-creation artists. Pros: Quad core in an all-in-one PC. Huge 25.5-inch LCD screen. Wireless networking and connectivity (Wi-Fi, BT, keyboard/mouse). HDMI input and output. Lots of I/O ports. ATSC/HDTV TV tuner. eSATA. Easy access to hard drives. Looks like a monitor. Blu-ray burner. Cons: Crazy pricey. Runs a little hot under load. Still some crapware (but much less this time). Tray-loading Blu-ray drive. Only 90 days Windows Live OneCare (antivirus, backup, and firewall)." But it looks soooo nice. This 25.5-inch media center with HDTV and Blu-ray support would be a killer. But I’m afraid in this environment a $4K SRP is a little steep.

Exclusive HP / Toshiba laptops first in Best Buy’s Blue Label lineup – Engadget’s Darren Murph posted Oct 8th 2008 at 9:37AM that "Best Buy is practically admitting that it is just now starting to "gather insights from customers and work with manufacturers to design products that address [consumers’] needs." In a rather odd release, the big box retailer is announcing two new laptops that’ll be exclusive to its store: the 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 (we which already knew of) and the 13.3-inch HP Pavilion dv3510nr. As for the former, expect a 1.2-inch thin frame, WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, 5.5-hours of battery life and an $1,199 price tag…"

Starbucks wiped from Apple’s site, but what does it mean? – Chris Ziegler of Engadget reports (posted Oct 8th 2008 at 11:10AM) that "We just happened to notice that the Starbucks page on Apple’s site is now stone-cold gone, redirecting to the standard iTunes 8 stuff. You might say "no big deal, Apple’s just playing down an agreement that’s now been in place for a full year," but there’s some other weirdness, too…"

‘CDO Squared Senior Tranche’ Prompts Bank Woes : NPR – Back in April (April 17, 2008), Michele Norris and Adam Davidson on All Things Considered covered how "For the third time in just a few months, Merrill Lynch has taken a huge, multi-billion-dollar "writedown" on its investments in mortgage-backed securities. Banks are suffering big losses because of one particular financial instrument: the CDO-squared senior tranche. What is it?

Linux Netbooks Are Returned 4X More Than Win XP Versions, Says MSI – "Netbooks were supposed to be this great inroad for Linux development, but it turns out that the XP side of the netbook business is doing a lot better in the area of customer satisfaction: MSI today told Laptop that, according to internal studies, "The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks." "Lest you think I’ve somehow chopped this figure and embedded it out of context, here’s what MSI’s US sales director Andy Tung told our friend Joanna at Laptop when she asked about high return rates…"

Nicholas Ciarelli: Apple no longer sues leakers, says Think Secret blogger– Nick dePlume, as the 13-year-old Nicholas Ciarelli dubbed himself in 1998, became more than Internet-famous as the target of an Apple lawsuit. Why have Apple’s lawyers gone silent? Ciarelli essay boils down to four reasons, bullet-listed here: Apple leaks have shifted from scrappy fan sites into the mainstream. Apple’s legal efforts to identify leakers have been entirely fruitless. Strong-arming fan sites into removing their reports only serves to confirm those reports. Negative PR ultimately tarnishes Apple’s brand when it threatens, subpoenas, and sues sites run by some of its biggest fans.

ROBOTS DREAMS: ROVIO Rolls Out: First Impressions of WowWee’s Surprising Robot – "We’ve always been enamoured with ‘remote presence’ as a future concept, but our experience this week with the new ROVIO robot quickly converted us from skeptics into true believers. This extremely well thought-out robot has been designed with the user’s needs in mind from the start. The ROVIO is intuitive and is a pleasure to use from the moment you first open the box."

Toshiba’s MacBook Pro-esque Satellite E105 arrives at Best Buy – Engadget – The Toshiba E105 has been sneaking around the fringes for a few days now, but apparently it’s not just announced — it’s available for purchase. That’s right, the oddly familiar looking 14.1-incher can be had at Best Buy for the totally reasonable price of $1,199.99, packing a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, a 1280 x 800 TruBrite LCD display, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and an Intel 4500MHD integrated GPU. The Satellite also sports 802.11a/b/g/n, an HDMI out, Vista Home Premium, and that all-important fingerprint reader (just remember, this increases the odds of someone cutting off your finger). The laptop is available right now online, no word if it’s on store

HTC’s Touch HD gets very early review, called an iPhone killer in German – Engadget – "Not even a fortnight after HTC’s Touch HD went official in Germany, out pops a review from Deutschland calling it the best thing since sliced bread. Okay, so maybe our translation skills are a bit off, but one thing’s for sure — it was hailed as the first "iPhone killer to deserve that name." Right off the bat, reviewers praised the TouchFLO 3D interface for masking Windows Mobile, and of course, the expansive display was drooled upon numerous times. Additionally, critics praised the Opera browser while scolding Internet Explorer, and while it’s hard to say for certain whether the battery life was remarkable, it definitely seemed to get their vote of approval."

eBay’s first PR person, unveiled startup: Tokoni – "Mary Lou Song, eBay’s first PR person, has formally unveiled her own startup. Tokoni, which has come out of beta to let people tell their stories online, is unremarkable, considering the number of self-indulgent self-publishing websites already out there. Except for this: Song, at eBay, is best known for inventing the company’s fictitious origin myth. That old canard about Pierre Omidyar starting the site to sell his girlfriend’s Pez dispensers? Years later, Song confessed she made it up. But the invention paid off: Omidyar is investing in Song’s effort to collect other people’s imaginings.

Exclusive Lifehacker Interview: How Dave Brown Hacked His Way into the Green Room – A few career highlights cited by Brown: 1. Death Cab For Cutie playing acoustic in my living room 2. Backstage with Ron Jeremy during Sigur Ros at Hollywood Bowl 3. Meeting Bob Moog (the guy had a great sense of humor) and then getting him a feature in Entertainment Weekly 4. Traveling the film festival circuit for Boxers and Ballerinas 5. Making a documentary on my friend Kumar 6. Touring Europe, Iceland, Taiwan and Japan with The Album Leaf 7. Bright Eyes playing acoustic in my living room 8. Booking Superdrag on Conan 9. Licensing indie music to Grey’s Anatomy, The OC, CSI, MTV, Jeep and Hummer ads… 10. Steve Poltz taking me into the Padres clubhouse last w

Hidden USB Storage (from instructables) – Oct 6"If you’re like me, you may or may not have secret files plotting world domination and other devious deeds. These files obviously need to be hidden from the prying eyes of sisters, FBI agents, grandparents, etc. We are going to convert a phone jack in the wall into a secret USB memory device. Note: I am not responsible for any illegal files or folders hidden on this device. Use your discretion before downloading any content you may believe to be illegal

Hive Five: Five Best Media Converters – On Lifehacker: "We’ve all been there: you’ve downloaded an episode of your favorite TV show to watch on your commute or stream to your living room, but the file you downloaded isn’t supported on the device you want to use it with. Once a significant obstacle to enjoying your media anywhere, this problem is easily solved by any number of free media converters. On Wednesday we asked you to share your favorite media converters, and today we’re back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a closer look at the most powerful and easiest to use media converters, then cast a vote for the one you like best."

Livestation streaming television player for Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms) – Thanks to LifeHacker for this heads up on Livestation, "the previously invite-only streaming television player, has released its free desktop client for all platforms. The app cites an available 1,275 channels, but the majority are—how should we say—not essential viewing. Still, there’s live CNN, BBC, NBC News, Bloomberg, and a smattering of local stations. The full-screen "carousel" view is pretty slick, as is reducing the player to a corner and having it always stay on top. After creating your account, you can also watch live streams from Livestation’s web site, and send twitters marking what you’re watching. All in all, a pretty decent solution to quickly pulling up news and information while you’re at your desktop. Livestation is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems; requires a free sign-up to use."

AdelaideNow… Daylight saving starts earlier but Rann rules out moving to eastern states time zone – GREG KELTON, STATE EDITOR October 01, 2008 11:50am "DAYLIGHT saving starts this weekend but any further attempts to have South Australia move to eastern standard time will be rejected by the Rann Government. "Premier Mike Rann said today that with the onset of daylight saving at the weekend, earlier than normal, there had been suggestions of shifting permanently to EST. "This would put SA on the same time zone as NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. "On Sunday, SA moves to daylight saving four weeks earlier than in the past prompting protests from communities on the state’s West Coast."

Daylight savings starts in Australia | The Courier-Mail – October 03, 2008 04:36pm .DAYLIGHT saving time is upon us again, with the southern states winding their clocks forward on Sunday morning. Debate still rages in Queensland. From two o’clock this Sunday morning, clocks will go forward an hour in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia. Western Australia will also observe daylight saving this year, starting on the last Sunday in October but Queensland and the Northern Territory won’t be putting their clocks forward.

Etsy :: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade

Dear New Circuit City CEO: Here’s How To Fix Your Stores – Since CEOs are super busy, the Consumerist summarized their recommendations: "Hire people who know what they’re doing. Offer a better selection of products that will interest high-end cash-heavy consumers, and staff your store with people who know at least as much as they do. Clean your stores. Hire enough people so that you can have a register open at all times. Concentrate on the products that people actually want to buy, like handheld devices, cameras, consoles, and other gadgets. Mop the floor and tidy up. Don’t let your employees huddle in the back of the store. Make shopping through the website easy. Lower the prices on your accessories to compete with Best Buy. Find friendly people and put them to work behind the customer service desk."

Songwriters Get No Pay Raise – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com – October 2, 2008, 8:55 pm By Saul Hansell "It turns out that Apple is not going to close its iTunes store over six cents. "The company had threatened to do just that if the royalty it pays songwriters for every 99 cent track its sells was raised from to 15 cents from 9 cents, as the music publishers (who represent the composers) had requested. At least that’s according to an article in Fortune. (This seems a bit farfetched. In the worst case, wouldn’t Apple have been better off raising the price of a song to say, $1.09?) "In any case, the Copyright Royalty Board, a panel of three judges that sets the royalty rates for various classes of works, decided Thursday to keep the royalties for music sold as downloads at 9.1 cents per track."

Google Boasts of Its Energy-Efficient Data Centers – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com – October 1, 2008, 7:41 pm By Miguel Helft "Google is many things: the most used Internet search engine, the largest seller of online advertising, the busiest online video site (YouTube), a maker of maps, e-mail and scores of other applications delivered over the Web. And all these things are possible because, first and foremost, Google is an immense collection of electricity-hungry data centers, packed with hundreds of thousands of computers that deliver all these digital services almost instantly to virtually any computer around the globe. "Google has always considered these data centers among its most prized crown jewels and has gone to great lengths to protect information about them — their design, operation, energy use and even their location — as a corporate secret. So it came a bit as a surprise to industry watchers when on Wednesday Google boasted that its data centers were perhaps the most efficient in the industry."

Daylight savings shift to cause phone havoc Down Under | Register Hardware – By James Sherwood [More by this author] 2nd October 2008 13:33 GMT "Unsuspecting Aussies could be in for a spot of time travel this weekend, because Australian network operator Telstra has warned that some Down Under phones won’t support the country’s upcoming daylight savings time adjustment."

Netflix! | MediaMall Technologies – Posted on October 1st, 2008 by dkarlton All right, the moment is upon us! We have just released the latest version of PlayOn with Netflix to our subscribed beta testers. We’ve been kicking its tires for the past week or so, and it’s looking pretty slick. There are still a few glitches here and there, but overall, it should deliver for the vast majority. Give it a spin! Also, Netflix has made some really cool announcements recently, adding content from Disney and CBS, as well as Starz. We’ll be taking a look as this content becomes available, and expect the vast majority of these videos to be available through PlayOn.

Starz Gives Netflix Fans a Reason to Stream – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com – October 1, 2008, 12:01 am By Brad Stone "Netflix and Starz, the premium cable television service, plan to announce a deal on Wednesday that will make films aired on Starz available to Netflix subscribers for online viewing at no additional charge. Since it was introduced last year, Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature has had more potential than watchable movies. The service lets subscribers stream any of 12,000 movies and TV shows on their Windows computers, instead of waiting for the DVD to arrive in the mail in the familiar red envelope."

How To Be Productive Working From Home – "In my last post I asked my readers for tips to help me be more productive as an at home worker. They responded with a boatload of tips—thanks all! I also did quite a bit of online surfing and reading to see what I could turn up. I found some great stuff."

steve clayton: geek in disguise : PDC2008: Dear Boss… – Steve offers "A handy template to ensure you get your PDC ticket :)"

Economy: Batten Down Your Hatches for the Financiapocalypse – The economic meltdown on Wall Street during the past few weeks is going to trickle down to your street, whether or not you’re a big investor in the stock market. Not to sound all doomsday—because goodness knows we’re all stressed enough watching the news these days—but chances are things are gonna get ugly this coming winter and continue into an even worse-looking 2009. While foot rubs, yoga, and deep breathing will certainly help, getting your financial and career ducks in a row can also help you feel prepared, capable, and confident for whatever comes your way. Let’s take a look at a few smart financial and career moves you can make in the coming months to prep yourself for these tough times. Photo by wallyg. Note:

gOS – a Google good OS for your Mum ‱ The Register – Mac-like Linux serves the Windows crowd By Scott Gilbertson ‱ Get more from this author Posted in Operating Systems, 25th August 2008 19:06 GMT Review What’s free, looks like Mac OS X, just works and is actually Linux? The answer is gOS, which recently launched a new beta that builds on the distro’s initial success and adds new tools like integrated Google Gadgets for Linux. When it launched onto the scene late last year, gOS (which stands for good OS) made quite a splash for getting Linux into the U.S. retail giant WalMart. Through a partnership with PC manufacturer Everex, gOS brought Linux to your parents’ generation via WalMart. But chances are, if they picked up a gOS equipped machine, Mom and Dad would have no idea the

‘Windows Cloud’ to descend this month, says Ballmer ‱ The Register reports (Kelly Fiveash, Posted in Operating Systems, 1st October 2008 13:53 GMT) that "Microsoft will let loose a new operating system, Windows Cloud, at the company’s annual developer conference later this month. "Boss Steve Ballmer announced Redmond’s plans at a Software plus Services partner event in London this lunchtime. He playfully gave the OS the temporary name of Windows Cloud. Apparently, we’ll learn more from Microsoft about the platform at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, which takes place at the end of October. "We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it for the purposes of today ‘Windows Cloud’," said Ballmer."

Toshiba Media Server Concept Looks Awesome – Of interest from CEATEC 2008, Sep 30, 08 03:03 AM PDT "First of all, this media server is a concept – not a commercial product (how unfortunate!). It was part of a Toshiba demo about how the telephone, the media server and a TV (with wireless HD) could interact. The media server automatically downloads media files form the cellphone as soon as the user drops it nearby (using near field communication or NFC). The media files can then be displayed from the media server to a wireless HD 1080p TV (I’m sure that in their concept, it works better if everything comes from Toshiba
)."

Netflix API – Welcome to the Netflix Developer Network – Engadget reported today that "the Netflix API will be open to all starting tomorrow. As of October 1st, absolutely anyone can self-signup by visiting the read link, and while details are a tad sketchy at the moment, it sounds like this could hold some serious promise. The API itself allows access to data for 100,000 movie and TV episode titles, is completely free and (most importantly) allows commercial use. In other words, it’s kosher if a bright developer out there somewhere feels like "creating an iPhone app to sell for $0.99 (Netflix’s words, not ours)." On the technical side, the API includes a REST API, Javascript API and ATOM feeds, and it also uses OAuth standard security "to allow the subscriber to control which applications can access the service on his or her behalf." It’s time to get creative, folks."

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A few thoughts on a very busy week and what I’ve read

As noted on twitter, how frustrating and exciting a week can be, all at once.

New marketing (and here), rumours of “hitting M3”, more Microsoft updates to daylight saving time and time zones, and watching the water level drop, ending yesterday with the Company Meeting at Safeco field and working on our efforts to improve product quality and customer satisfaction, and finally cleaning up email today.

I’m glad the weekend is here, and to celebrate, here’s a brief list of items I completed reading on the bus.  On Monday, I will provide an update on favourite MSDN and TechNet blog posts, but for now, enjoy you’re weekend.

Patient Power – Forbes.com — Matthew Herper 08.21.08, 6:00 PM ET Forbes Magazine dated September 15, 2008 Emily Schaller “If you are told you have an incurable disease, you might be motivated to help find a cure. “Inspired by the CFF’s success, patient groups with an entrepreneurial bent have become the drug industry’s new power brokers. Medicines for blood and bone cancers have reached the market faster because of their efforts. A hundred more patient-group-backed drugs, one-twentieth of all the medicines in development, are in human clinical trials for Parkinson’s, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and a litany of cancers. These patient power brokers will give drug companies $90 million this year, 13 times as much as in 2000, according to Thomson CenterWatch, a research firm that analyzes clinical trials. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has 50 drugs in development, including 11 in clinical trials. The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation is working with 30 drugs, up from none in 2000,…”

WowWee’s $300 Rovio robotic sentry ships this month – Engadget — The Rovio — one of WowWee’s finest if we should say so ourselves — is finally ready to roam around domiciles and keep baddies at bay. First announced (and spotted) at CES 2008, this long-awaited robotic sentry is up for pre-order right now, and it comes packing a 640 x 480 webcam to stream back live video in MPEG4 format. Furthermore, it can snap stills, head out on a customized patrol route and avoid obstacles with its infrared sensor. Get ready — this sheriff’s rolling into your town next Friday for $299.95.

Green, You Say?: Majority of US E-Waste Gets ‘Recycled’ in Asia, Where Recycling Is Often Non-Existent — A new report by the US Government Accountability Office is claiming that the majority of US E-Waste recycling services should reconsider dumping our 20 million plus pounds of waste on Asia, where it’s cheaper but also less effective. Many of the major electronics manufacturers (Samsung, Sony, Best Buy, more) have been proudly rolling out recycling services in greater numbers over the last year or so, but the new information confirms that tons of recycled e-waste never makes it to the actual “recycling” part, at least as far as US standards go

Microsoft: Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Ad Beats Seinfeld (But Not Hodgman)— 5:14 PM Fri Sep 19 Phase 2 of Microsoft’s Windows ad campaign debuted tonight during The Office, and the latest work by ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky definitely beats the crap out of those (ill-fated?) Gates/Seinfeld ads when it comes to making a point. The point is simple: Not all PC users look like John Hodgman. Some are even sexy beasts. It’s easy to spot Deepak Chopra and Bill Gates affirming their PC-ness, but I think I also saw A-Rod Tony Parker and Eva Longoria too. You guys have a look and fill in the gaps, because there are a lot of celebs and specialists showing PC pride here. I only wish it didn’t open with that poor bastard Hodgman lookalike—the message is damn loud and clear anyhow. Update: Windows’ 15-second “I Wear a Suit” video below…

Apple security not ready for enterprise prime-time | Zero Day | ZDNet.com — Guest editorial by Andrew Storms Last week Apple proved that they are not ready for prime time enterprise relationships. Apple has tried to position the iPhone as enterprise-ready, but this last round of software updates demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt how far they have to go to understand the enterprise mentality. On September 9th, Apple released updates to some 20 security vulnerabilities that included updates to QuickTime, iTunes and other software. On September 12th, Apple released iPhone version 2.1, which was intended to fix 8 security holes and repair 3G connections problems. On September 15th, Apple released updates to OSX that includes fixes to nearly 70 security problems. On September 16th, Apple released updates to Remote Desktop, again fixing more security problems.

Ballmer sets a new (and potentially much later) retirement date | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com — Last time CEO Steve Ballmer offered a tentative timeframe as to when he might retire from Microsoft, he put the date at ten years or so from now (around the time his youngest goes to college). But now there’s a new date. And Ballmer may be sticking around a lot longer than many are thinking, or, in some cases, hoping. According to scuttelbutt from Microsoft’s annual employee meeting, which was held in Seattle on September 18, Ballmer told attendees that he is going to stay on at Microsoft until Microsoft’s search share exceeds Google’s. Ballmer’s retirement reference is in the comments section of a new blog post on the company meeting by Mini-Microsoft.

Microsoft’s pulls its new community manager from the press corps | The Open Road – The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay – CNET News — This past week Peter Galli accepted a job as the newest member of Microsoft’s open-source team, focused on community relations. According to an internal email sent out by Robert Duffner, Microsoft’s senior director of Platform Strategy.

Talking Business – Stuck in Google’s Doghouse – NYTimes.com, By JOE NOCERA Published: September 12, 2008 A few days ago, Dan Savage had his lawyer send a nine-page, 4,000-word letter to the antitrust division of the Justice Department. Mr. Savage, 59, runs Sourcetool.com, a business-to-business Web site that acts as a directory, listing — and ranking — hundreds of thousands of companies that sell industrial products. According to the letter Mr. Savage submitted to the Justice Department, Google at first gave him nothing but encouragement, even naming Sourcetool its AdSense site of the week at one point. By May 2006 — with the company barely six months old — it was making around $115,000 a month on $653,000 in revenue. According to Mr. Savage, his biggest expense was paying Google to advertise against search terms, which was costing around $500,000 a month.

Best of the Web 2008 on businessweek — Cough ’em up. Which Web sites are saved in your Favorites? Once again, BusinessWeek wants to know the sites you consider most valuable when it comes to getting informed, making money, having fun, and building your own online tools. We’ve also brought back a hit from last year, The Most Influential People on the Web, and added a new category: Best Newcomer. To vote for a favorite site, click on a category at right. Choose from last year’s top five, or write in one of your own. As ever, many sites fit in more than one category, so vote in all that apply. We’ll share results in a late-September special report. Polls closed Sept. 12.

When System Restore Doesn’t Restore — What do you do when your backup harddrive fails, then System Restore doesn’t restore your system as expected? This week has been yet another reminder to me that I have not thought through or planned out a back-up strategy that really works for me. What’s your back-up strategy?

Microsoft Education: Download free posters for your class — They say a picture is worth a thousand words. We think they can inspire even more. You can download and print this poster, or if you send us your name, education institution address, and e-mail address we’ll send you a full-size poster—no charge—for your classroom.

gapingvoid: “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards”: “good ideas have lonely childhoods” – The first chapter of Hugh’s upcoming book is called “Ignore Everybody”.

The Hidden Costs of Cheap PCs, by Dan Costa, 10.31.07 “Sure, $500 will get you a decent system, and another $100 will get you a cheap LCD display. But don’t put that credit card away just yet. If you want to do something with that PC, you will need to keep on paying. If you want Word and Excel, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 will run you $149. Photo editing with Photoshop Elements costs another $99. Protecting your system from viruses with a suite like Norton 360 will set you back you another $50. And keep in mind that after a year your virus definitions will expire, and you will need to pay another $40 every year afterward to keep the definitions up to date.”

PC World – Don’t Send That E-Mail (Read This First) — Keep your messages out of the trash with these do’s and (especially) don’ts that will get them read. Steve Bass Jul 18, 2007 1:00 am Email Print RSS 1 CommentBuzz up! 13 Yes 7 No Recommends Are you guilty of sending annoying e-mail? Of course you are. That’s because what you think is cool can drive someone else (probably me) up the wall. I have a handful of examples in my recent “Hassle-Free PC,” “E-Mail That Gets Your Message Across.” I sometimes seem to write more than I should [no fooling.–Editor], so here are a few ideas I had to leave out of the print column.

Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls — Excellent decisions don’t often happen by accident. In this excerpt, the authors highlight the elements—and the masters—of effective action Throughout our lives, each of us makes thousands of judgment calls. And, as we rise to positions of leadership, the importance of our judgment calls is magnified by their increasing impact on the lives of others. Despite the implications of the word “call,” the judgment calls that leaders make cannot be viewed as single, point-in-time events. Like umpires and referees, leaders do, at some moment, make a call. But unlike umpires and referees, they cannot—without risking total failure—quickly forget them and move ahead to the next play. Rather, for a leader, the moment of making the call comes in the middle of a process.

Kill Commercials From Recorded TV – Solutions by PC Magazine, 09.12.07 Total posts: 5 by Rick Broida SLIDESHOW (4) Slideshow | All Shots Half the joy of owning a DVR is quickly skipping past the commercials in recorded TV programs. But it’s an imprecise, manual process: You have to reach for the remote, press the fast-forward or skip button, and try to land at the exact moment your show resumes. If you miss, mad bursts of fast-forwarding and rewinding often ensue. A smart DVR would skip the commercials automatically, whizzing you from fade-out to fade-in in the blink of an eye. Alas, TiVo’s not that smart. Neither is your cable company DVR. But if you use a Windows Media Center PC to record your shows, you can turn it into the smartest DVR on the planet.

Environmental Monitoring – Solutions by PC Magazine, by Matthew D. Sarrel, 9/12/2007 AIM Health Size: 1,800 full-time employees Challenge: Automate environmental monitoring of data centers and wiring closets >Solution: APC NetBotz Results: No hard ROI numbers, but company has averted temperature- and power-related outages Erick Murphy, business continuity administrator Tennessee’s AIM Health provides business solutions to health-care organizations (both care providers and insurance companies). The company simplifies information management and analyzes claim data to prevent overpayment. AIM occupies two buildings in Tennessee and one in Wisconsin, and it collocates a server cluster at an off-site facility. Tracking ingress and egress—plus temperature, humidity, and airflow—in the company’s data centers and wiring closets was a time-consuming task.

Beyond WEP: Beef Up Your Wi-Fi Security – Solutions by PC Magazine, 9.12.2007 – “Wireless security is not just for experts anymore. Sure, there are still a few Wi-Fi newbies around who leave their networks wide open, but it seems more and more have finally decided to enable WEP (wired equivalent privacy) or WPA (Wi-Fi protected access). Good for them! Unfortunately, hackers use simple tools to break WEP encryption. Even WPA passphrases, which are much stronger than WEP passwords, can be foiled. The following security measures go beyond the basics, placing moats and drawbridges around your network instead of a Sphinx that will let through any old visitor who answers a riddle correctly.”

Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter (businessweek) — November 8, 2007, 12:01AM EST His wireless-phone manifesto was the inspiration for Google’s new mobile-software strategy, which includes the Open Handset Alliance by Spencer E. Ante

Web Smackdown – Alexaholic – Google | Fast Company — By: Alyssa Danigelis An addictive tool reveals who’s watching what. The hottest little site on the Web right now may be Alexaholic.com. “Wonderfully simple,” raves one blogger. “A nifty tool,” says another. That’s ironic, since all Alexaholic does is show which other sites are hot. It happens to do that very well.

Numbers: You’re swimming in them (Fast Company) — Swivel, a new startup, lets users upload, compare, and contrast data–from iPod sales to wine consumption–to make sense of the world. A Web 2.0 story in charts. By Michael A. Prospero, December 2007 Issue 113

Owning a remote-controlled home, just like Bill Gates – December 1, 2006 — Bill Gates’s smart home cost $113 million. Now you can have the same kind of remote control over your dwelling for as little as $10 a month. By Michal Lev-Ram, Business 2.0 Magazine writer-reporter March 15 2007: 12:23 PM EDT (Business 2.0 Magazine) — Bill and Melinda Gates’s “smart home” in Medina, Wash., cost an estimated $113 million to build – but that’s pennies compared with what consumers are starting to spend every year on making their homes smarter. Thanks to a host of new, lower-cost home automation technologies, cable operators and telecoms are targeting the average homeowner with cheap bundled subscription services, often controlled from their cell phones.

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