:CSIS1180-006 Spring 2008

Miss One Tree Hill last night? Don’t worry. WB is now online and better than ever.  You can now watch any WB show or movie right online.  Brian Stetler of New York Times states, “The Web site, to start in a test form next month, will focus on those consumers — 16- to 34-year-olds, particularly women — with free ad-supported episodes of “Gilmore Girls,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Smallville” and other series once on WB. “    In 1995, The WB was a network website but closed down in 2006.  Lucky for us, they’re back in action.  Read on!

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Microsoft Windows XP, the Operating System used by Windows since 2000, has recently been replaced with Vista.  Many claim that Vista is insuperior to XP and have lobbied to Microsoft to extend the lifespan of the OS.  While at first things seemed promising, CEO Steve Ballmer has gone on record stating that Microsoft will not keep XP around just to satisfy some disgruntled users.  Although Microsoft has sent out CDs allowing users to downgrade from Vista to XP, people are still paying for the higher-priced Vista when they purchase their machine.  This fact also is causing the sales figures for Vista to be highly exxagerated, which is what Microsoft said it based its decision on regarding the situation.  I luckily dont have to worry about it becuase my machine runs XP, but I also never though the day would come when a technological advance has backfired to this extent and the majority of users are actually downgrading.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/microsoft-wont.html

Keith Meyer

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Paddy Donelly and Lee Monroe, graduate students at the University of Ulster-Belfast, have created the Big Word Project, a site that sells words at $1 a letter and then allows the owner to create a link to another page using that word.  For example, after buying “IDIOT” for 5 dollars, the buyer made it a link to the Wikipedia page of George W. Bush, and “STERIOD” redirects to the page of Roger Clemens.  Besides this, it allows for someone to place a relatively cheap ad online and gives people a new way to express themselves using modern technology.  So far, over 2000 of the 291,500 Oxford words have been sold by the duo, with hopes of many more to come.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-05/st_alpha

Keith Meyer

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Ebay, intially a 25% minority owner in Craigslist, has now filed a lawsuit against the company alledging it has diluted its stake by 10%.  Craiglist is staunchly deneing the claim, saying they have done nothing to dilute Ebay’s equity.  Also, there are mad at Ebay for not approaching them first before going ahead with the lawsuit.  Craigslist saw this as an unethical move and maybe signs of ulterior motives from Ebay.  No one is sure what measures Craigslist could have taken to purposely reduced Ebay’s equity in their own company, but there is sure to be a hot topic among the industry for some time to come.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/04/craigslists-fee.html

Keith Meyer

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Now that Blu-Ray has become the new industry standard, HD DVD and any related technology is basically forgotten news.  Toshiba, the company behind HD DVDs, reported a profit drop of a whopping 95 %, since the decision was made in February to cease the HD DVD business and exclusively use Blu-Ray technology and discs.  Most of the decline came from shutting down assembly lines and and dealing with now useless inventory.  This will now effect all other aspects of Toshibas products for years to come.  This should be a message to Toshiba to not invest everything into new but competing technologies, because in this situation there is no need for anything but the industry standard. 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EARNS_ASIA_ELECTRONICS?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Keith Meyer

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The M70 by ASUS will be the first notebook PC released with a 1 TB hard drive.  A terabyte is 1000 GB, which is an insane amount of space that can fit almost any video or song you currently own.  The need for such a huge hard drive came from complaints from notebook owners that they had to buy an external hard drive to fit all of their data, which requires a wall socket connection and essentailly turns your notebook into a desktop.  The utter loss of mobility caused by this spurred computer developers to make bigger hard drives standard on notebooks, but ASUS has now officially upped the ante for the industry.  Along with the 1 TB hard drive, the computer will run specs better than competition, along with a Blu-Ray drive and a 1080p High-Def LCD screen.  A terabyte can fit 1000 copies of the Encloypedia Britanica, and the prefix “tera” originated in ancient Greece as a word for “monster”. 

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/16/index.html#entry-48557814

Keith Meyer

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They have developed a radio that doesn’t get much advertisement or talk here in the United States, however, in Europe it is a very popular item.  The radio has a wireless connection which you can receive internet radio stations off of.  There are many stations out there on the internet for the hard rocker, to the bible lover, to house music.  It’s a good product for those who are bored for AM/FM but don’t have the money to paying a monthly fee on Satellite providers such as XM radio.  To see more about this product check it out here! -Enjoy

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By June, your Ipod touch or Ipod phone could double as a universal remote for your Itunes library.  Dubbed Icontrol, this new app being developed will allow the user to connect wirelessly to local Itunes libraries and control videos, music, podcasts, and even support shuffle playback.  Already available through 3rd party developers, the officially licensed app from Apple will allow for the most amount of features and will run smoother and more effieciently than the competition.  This new app will allow for unparalled access and control over Itunes never thought of being possible.

 http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/27/index.html#entry-49088648

Keith Meyer

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Federal researchers say they have developed a new technology which is faster than DNA testing.  This new technology has to do with examining antibodies in the blood.  Each person has a unique “antibody bar code”.  This new technology isn’t meant to take out DNA testing, however, to use it in conjunction with DNA testing to make sure they caught the right crook in record speeds.  Check it out, Enjoy!

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Todd Rosengart, head of cardiothracic surgery at Stony Brook University, claims that technophiles may be suffering allergies from their most loved technological devices.  Rossengart claims that certian metals and alloys used in cellphones and Ipods may irate those who are sensitive, especially nickel which has been shown to cause skin allergies and “contact dermatitis”.  Prolonged use can also can cause skin rashes/bumps.  Older studies have shown a link between cell phone use and brain tumors, and now with this new study is seems that we are even more susceptible to damage from our beloved gadgets we rely on everyday.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/your-allergy-in.html

Keith Meyer

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