Archive for January, 2004

Open Source Awards

Okay, shameless self promotion but what else can you do with a Blog anyway? We published today a package of stories about the Open Source Awards which my employer is co-sponsoring.
These articles actually turned out better than I could have hoped for. Our biggest challenge was the timing–we were trying to interview folks over […]

Search War

Nice–Yahoo is going to drop Google this quarter as the Web search provider on their sites. Finally going to switch over to the Inktomi technology that they purchased over a year ago.
This is gonna be good, watching these two well-funded companies duke it out. It’s a battle of equals really, which is why […]

The Denon NS-S100 Home Media Server

Sigh, yet another hyper-expensive gizmo that I want but can’t afford. Saw it on Tech TV last night–the Denon NS-S100 media server.
The thing looks so cool–it can serve up different media to different monitors throughout your house, and the best part is that each monitor can behave differently. For example, on the kitchen monitor […]

Kodak to stop selling film-based cameras

Wow, it’s the end of an era–Kodak will soon stop selling film-based cameras here in the US and Canada. They’ll still do the disposables and of course their digital cameras, but they’re getting out of the film-based business at least in the developed world (there’s still good demand in the developing world for film-based cameras).
The […]

Underworld

Grade: C+Saw Underworld this past weekend at the Village Cinema 8. Thankfully, that is a $2 movie theatre or else I would have felt cheated.
The plot unfolds in a confusing jumble of scenes but best as I could figure out, there’s a centuries-old war between two species of immortals–the vampires and the lycans (werewolves). Kate […]

Bush bashing

Former Treasure Secretary Paul O’Neil is painting an unflattering portrait of his former boss, President George W. Bush. I doubt it changes anyone’s mind though–the Bush haters will only have their fears confirmed, the Bush supporters will point out that O’Neil is snapping back at Bush for pushing him out of the Cabinet.
The timing is […]

Earthsea coming to Sci-Fi

The Sci-Fi Channel is shooting a mini-series based on Ursula K. LeGuin’s Wizard of Earthsea trilogy. This is probably going to be a disappointment, though I’ll try to keep an open mind.
Don’t get me wrong, the Sci-Fi Channel’s version of Dune was better than the film version. But the thing is, with modern movie wizardry, […]

US deficit bad for the Aussies

Well, the Sydney Morning Herald thinks so, since they put up a story on their front page bemoaning the effects the US deficit will have on interest rates in Australia.
I got news for those people Down Under–it ain’t exactly going to be a picnic here either. Just a few years ago I figured the […]

Lusting for an iPod Mini

Damn that Steve Jobs. Yesterday he announced the lovely new iPod Mini. It’s basically a jogging-compatible version of the regular iPod.
And of course I’m lusting after one right now. Even though I already own a regular iPod, the Mini would be so much nicer when I’m exercising.
Sigh. I have to pay off the […]

A Tuna Christmas

Grade: ASaw this over the weekend, and it was just hilarious. These two guys play all the characters, the inhabitants of Tuna, Texas. Sure there’s some stereotypes–all the women have big Texas-sized hair, several of the guys are Bubba red-neck types. But it’s clearly done with real affection for these people–they’re weird but we end […]