DTV Transition Moved Back To June
February 4th, 2009
The switch to digital-only broadcast television has been moved from February 17th to June 12th, 2009.
Link: http://lifehacker.com/…
Class Action Settlements
February 3rd, 2009
January was a good month for class action lawsuit settlements. Some of them have very broad participation requirements.
2009 Superbowl Commercials
February 2nd, 2009
The linked site has videos of all the Superbowl commercials. My favorite is the Doritos snow globe.
American Cheese: Do You Know?
January 31st, 2009
Turns out that American cheese is the sausage of cheese making—you don’t want to know how it’s made. And there’s the fact that it’s legally named “a homogeneous plastic mass.” Despite this, American cheese is still my favorite.
Delete Browser Cookies to Save Money
January 30th, 2009
It doesn’t pay to be a repeat customer at certain online stores. Some internet shopping sites charge different amounts for the same product, based on whether you’ve previously done business with them. It’s possible to get significant discounts simply by deleting your browser’s cookies.
Link: http://consumerist.com/…
Cell Phone Via Broadband
January 29th, 2009
Cell phone companies are testing a new system whereby the user connects to the phone network via his/her internet connection. It costs less and gives better reception in the home. This seems like it could backfire, however, because the cost is really being transferred to the company providing the internet service.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
USB 3.0: Not So Fast
January 28th, 2009
Looks like the first round of products for the new USB 3.0 standard won’t come close to the interface’s maximum speed. According to the linked article, first-generation devices will run at about 150MB/s versus the 625MB/s allowed by the standard. Note, however, that this is still twice as fast as USB 2.0.
Link: http://www.tgdaily.com/…
(via digg)
New Zealand: Guilt Upon Accusation
January 28th, 2009
New Zealand will be implementing a new section of its copyright law, aimed at file sharers. Guilt will be assumed upon accusation. The penalty will be to disconnect the user’s internet service. This reminds me to be thankful for the Bill of Rights.
Link: http://torrentfreak.com/…
(via Slashdot)
Update: New Zealand has changed its mind.
Two-thirds of U.S. Population in a Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone
January 27th, 2009Because the borders of a country are special cases, the U.S. Government is allowed more flexibility in border zone searches and seizures than is normally permitted by the 4th Amendment of the Constitution. For this purpose, the border zone of the U.S. is defined as anything within 100 miles of its external boundary. This doesn’t sound that bad, until one realizes that it encompasses two-thirds of the U.S. population.
Link: http://www.aclu.org/…
(via digg)
500 Worst Passwords
January 27th, 2009
The linked article has a list of the 500 most common passwords. If any of your passwords are on the list, it may be time for change. The site doesn’t explain how the list was compiled, but the original source is Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication by Mark Burnett and Dave Kleiman.
Link: http://www.whatsmypass.com/…
(via Consumerist)
A Bad Backup Strategy
January 25th, 2009
“Mirroring” (aka RAID level 1) is where a computer has two or more identical drives, and anything that gets written to one is also written to the other(s). This provides a basic level of protection should one of the drives fail. But there are many, many reasons why it’s not a viable backup method, especially for a commercial website. At a minimum, any backup should be physically separated from the computer itself, preferably at a significant distance in case of fire, flood, or similar disaster. I’ve been hearing a lot of radio advertisements for a remote backup system called Carbonite. Also, PC World has a list of 17 online backup sites. If you’ve tried one of these I’d like to hear your opinion on how well it works.
iPhone App Store is Wildly Successful
January 23rd, 2009
Apple’s iPhone App Store recently served up its 500 millionth download, nearly double the amount from just one month previously. Looks like Apple has another winner on its hands.
On a related note, here’s an article on how the iPhone’s touch screen works. Turns out it isn’t like the others.
Thanks to Josh for this topic.
