After 38 years, a new type of memory to hit market

CNET News.com reports: "Why will the world want PCM? Performance, says Numonyx CTO Ed Doller. PCM chips can survive tens of millions of read-write cycles, he said, or far more than flash. Reading data to PCM chips takes 70 to 100 nanoseconds, or as fast as NOR flash. Data can be written to the chips at a rate of 1 megabyte a second, or equivalent of NAND flash. There is also no erase cycle, making it similar to DRAM."

Its amazing how long this technology has been in development, let hope it works out.

Design Coding Rap

The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper) is back with another marketing rap. This time he describes how web standards and proper design can affect the ranking and conversion of pages on your site.

Parody: MacBook Air

A parody of Apple's MacBook Air commercial. The song is "New Soul" by Yael Naim. The film was created by THE BUREAU (www.umdbureau.com)

Reasoning Behind Owning a PDA

Photos: Treasure trove for the pocket-protector set

CNET News.com reports: "Long before Craigslist, eBay, and niche online merchants made it easier to find out-of-the-way oddities, stores such as American Science & Surplus were sourcing and selling obscure, hard-to-find electronic and mechanical components to geeks and artists. Seventy-one years ago, the company's founder listed discarded optics and military equipment in the back pages of Popular Science magazine."

This looks like a very cool place to shop, I could spend hours here just roaming and looking around.

Images: 100 miles per gallon or bust!

CNET News.com reports: "Carmakers are already charging batteries, tuning engines, and inflating tires to get ready for DARPA's Progressive Automotive X Prize contest, which will deliver $10 million to the winner whose car can exceed 100 miles per gallon. At the New York auto show last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency unveiled Progressive Casualty Insurance as the sponsor of one of the most interesting auto contests to date."

I want these cars now, this would be 3 to 4 times better gas millage then I am currently getting.

Beethoven's 5th Argument

No cue cards, no teleprompters, and no second takes--legendary funnyman Sid Caesar pioneered live television sketch comedy with his 1950s sitcoms Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. This classic sketch is "Argument to Beethoven's 5th," Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray play a married couple in a argument with pantomimed action and the dialogue is classic music.

The Onion: Are We Giving Robots Too Much Power?

Panelists discuss whether controversial decisions by the Robot Congress and President Executron indicate robots have too much control over our lives. (More coverage at: http://onion.com)

Did You Know 2.0 (official update to "Shift Happens")

An official update to the original "Shift Happens" video from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, this June 2007 update includes new and updated statistics, thought-provoking questions and a fresh design. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com -- Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design and development by XPLANE.

"Battlestar Galactica" Top Ten List

Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of 'Battlestar Galactica'" from "The Late Show with David Letterman.

Images: Intel to build first six-core chip

CNET News.com: "Intel shows off its first six-core processor, called Dunnington, which will be available in the second half of 2008. Dunnington is based on the 45nm high-k process technology and is composed of 1.9 billion transistors. It contains a 16MB L3 cache, is socket compatible with the Caneland platform, and is made for virtualization."

See what 1.9 billion transistors looks like...

Photos: Flying car readies for takeoff in New York

CNET News.com reports: "Need to get to another city really fast? Just drive your car to the nearest airport, take off, land in your destination city, and drive to where you want to go. That's the scenario envisioned by Milner Motors as it unveils a prototype of its AirCar, coupled with its ElectriCar, at the 2008 New York auto show."

I would love to see one of these flying car concepts go into production. If they do, I wonder what the affect on air traffic if they became popular.

U.S. Postal Service goes green with free mail-in recycling service for electronics

TechRepublic.com reports: "In 10 metro areas across the country, the United States Postal Service has launched a new pilot program that allows people to submit old inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, and small electronics for proper disposal and recycling via free pre-paid mailers that customers can pick up at Post Office branches. If the program is successful, it could be expanded nationwide by this fall."

I think this is a great idea, I hope they expand it.

Last Message from Arthur C. Clarke- A Voice from Beyond

Visionary, Arthur C. Clarke's recording from December 2007.

New Math

For those of you who didn't know, they used to teach mathematics a little differently. Here's how they do it now.

How to Not Be Seen

Here are two modern parodies of a famous Monty Python's skit called 'How Not To Be Seen'

How to Not Be Seen (WoW)

WeGame.com - WoW Videos

How to Not Be Seen (Halo)

Is vinegar the secret ingredient for biofuels?

CNET News.com: "To make ethanol, you want to make vinegar first, according to ZeaChem.

The biofuel start-up, which has moved from Colorado to Silicon Valley, says it has come up with a method of making cellulosic ethanol that results in close to 40 percent more fuel per ton of wood chips than competing processes. By 2010 or so, the company hopes to be producing ethanol commercially for 80 cents a gallon at wholesale. That could translate to anywhere from $1.10 to $1.50 at the pump, depending on a host of factors."

I have a new fascination with green technologies in general. What's interesting about them is the different types of thinking required to develop it, and overcoming the many obstacles a start faces.

How To: Terminate a Terminator (Updated)

Wired.com reports: "With the arrival of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on British TV screens, it's clearly time to consider just how to deal with murderous and very determined androids from the future.

This might look easier than our previous movie-based challenge, 'How To Stop A 500-foot Monster' (and its sequel), but the rules are a bit different. With giant monsters, you can count on the authorities to wheel out the F-18s and Abrams tanks pronto. When a Terminator kicks down your door at 2 a.m., it's just you and whatever you have on hand. While a 120-mm M829A1 round might swiftly convert a Terminator into scrap metal, I don’t believe that even DR readers keep a suitable cannon in the house."

You can never too prepared, learn how to protect yourself from the terminators... ;-)

Simon's Cat 'Let Me In!'

A hungry cat resorts to increasingly desperate measures to get indoors.

Simon's Cat 'Cat Man Do'

A hungry cat resorts to increasingly desperate measures to wake its sleeping owner.

Food Fight

An abridged history of American-centric warfare, from WWII to present day, told through the use of foods from the countries in conflict. For a breakdown of the actual battles portrayed in the video, check out the official cheat sheet (breakdown of the foodstuffs)

How to Score Free Airline Vouchers by Reserving Overbooked Flights

Dumb Little Man reports: "Airlines like money and it turns out that the best way for airlines to make money is to ensure that there are as few empty seats on a plane as possible.

When a person doesn’t show up for a flight, the seat is left empty and an empty seat is a lost opportunity for revenue. As a result of this conundrum, airlines employ fancy statisticians to figure out how many seats the airline needs to overbook just to make up for the no-shows."

Interesting uses of a common airline practice of overbooking flights to get free travel and other perks. Although, you have to be careful using this advice because it can create other conflicts in your travel.

Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos

Wired.com reports: "Fiery explosions, beautiful reactions, and hilarious music videos are great reasons to be excited about chemistry. Here are some of our favorites."

Do not try these experiments at home...

How to Use Predictive Text Swearing

A genius bit on the history of predictive text swearign and why it's so hard to text pottymouth phrases.

The Waldo Ultimatum

His identity erased. His past stolen. His whereabouts unknown. Where the hell is Waldo?


The Waldo Ultimatum - Watch more free videos

Hollywood: Tron To Triumphantly Return To Theaters In 2011 (And In 3D!)

Kotaku reports: "It's been over twenty five years since the original Tron flick took drive-in theaters by storm, but it looks like Tron fever may be sweeping the nation again in the next decade. According to film site Dark Horizons, Disney has plans to release a 3D sequel to the video game film, using the same technology in previous 3D efforts such as Chicken Little and The Nightmare Before Christmas."

I watched the original movie in the theaters when it first came out in the 80's.

Photos: Peering into energy's future

CNET News.com reports: "Not your typical hybrid, this Mack dump truck was part of a huge display at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) 2008 in Washington, D.C. The battery is the blue box to the left of the exhaust pipe."

I have seen more innovation in energy based technologies in the last few years then I have seen in the last few decades.

Get Free Music!

PC Magazine reports: "To all the oldsters who say that kids these days are spoiled for refusing to pay for music, I say 'bah!' Free, legal music has existed forever—or at least since the invention of the radio—and you folks had good radio stations and programs to listen to, back in the pre-Clear Channel era."

If you're looking for free music, then check out this article.

Chevrolet Volt Concept

Cars.com talks with a GM representative about their all-electric concept car, the Volt. GM promises that the car, which is still years away from production, will plug right into an outlet in your house.

Microsoft Takes Office Live Workspace Worldwide, Adds New Features

PC Magazine reports: "A day after announcing that it is opening up its SharePoint online services to businesses of all sizes, Microsoft on Tuesday expanded its online service for sharing and viewing documents, Office Live Workspace. Stopping just short of removing the 'beta' tag from Workspace, Microsoft has expanded availability worldwide and added some new capabilities: an activity panel, notifications, direct links, and multi-file drag-and-drop uploads."

Its looks like Google and Microsoft are going head-to-head in the online collaborative tools market. Personally I think there still a lot of room for both of these tools to really grow, vs. products like email or instant messaging services. There as not been any innovation in those markets for years (IMHO).

MSI's Stirling Engine Cools Motherboard

PC Magazine reports: "The concept of a Stirling engine--a closed-cycle regenerative hot air engine, as Wikipedia succinctly puts it--was invented in 1816. MSI has slapped one on a motherboard in 2008, 192 years later."

This is a very cool idea...

Cracking Open the Apple MacBook Air

Check out TechRepublic's Photo Gallery, they rip apart a MacBook Air and show you the inside. Here is excerpt from the article: "The Apple MacBook Air is thin, light, and a testament to what good engineering and design can accomplish in a notebook personal computer. This latest TechRepublic Cracking Open Photo Gallery explores the technology of this ultra thin notebook."

Jack Nicholson Hillary Clinton Video (Parody)

This is a video response to Hillary Clinton Ad Featuring Jack Nicholson



Here is one more...

Ruby on Rails vs ColdFusion (Commercial #8)

A programmer friend sent this one to me...

David Blaine Street Magic (Part 4)

This is the forth installment of this parody in the 'David Blaine Street Magic' series.

David Blaine Street Magic (Part 3)

This is the third installment of this parody in the 'David Blaine Street Magic' series.

David Blaine Street Magic (Part 2)

This is the second installment of this parody in the 'David Blaine Street Magic' series.

Note: Tthe first one of these videos was too vulgar IMHO to post in my blog. It had too much cussing for my taste.

Images: First U.S. spy satellite photos--ever!

CNET News.com reports: "For all the Pentagon's crowing about its success in hitting a defunct spy satellite with a missile last week, it's had very little to say about the satellite itself. But then, those Defense Department types aren't in the habit of giving away details about classified projects."

It's interesting that we now have access to better satellite data then what was available only a few decades ago.

Electron filmed in motion for the first time - LiveScience- msnbc.com

msnbc.com reports: "Scientists have filmed an electron in motion for the first time, using a new technique that will allow researchers to study the tiny particle's movements directly."

It looks a lot different then what you might expect it to look like.

Researchers discover gene that blocks HIV

physorg.com reports: "Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the assembly of the virus.

'When we put this gene in cells, it prevents the assembly of the HIV virus,' said Barr, a postdoctoral fellow. 'This means the virus cannot get out of the cells to infect other cells, thereby blocking the spread of the virus.'"

This is great news, I hope its as good as it promises to be...