Paragraph Archive

  • Is Wikileaks trying to destroy America? (No.)

    Is Wikileaks trying to destroy America? (No.)

    Posted on March 16, 2010 | No Comments
    Just hilarious. Apparently the U.S. intelligence community thought Wikileaks so odious that it labeled it a "potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC) threat to the US Army." Good ol' Wikileaks, bringing down the U.S. government.

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  • What’s up with Australia’s planned Internet filter?

    What’s up with Australia’s planned Internet filter?

    Posted on February 16, 2010 | No Comments
    Man, what's up with Australia? I think we've touched on the country's plan to block all sorts of unwanted content from reaching the country's computers, but now Google and Yahoo have officially come out against it. Surely Google knows a thing or two about battling state-sponsored Internet censorship.

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  • Purported Google Chrome OS netbook specs don’t quite add up

    Purported Google Chrome OS netbook specs don’t quite add up

    Posted on December 28, 2009 | No Comments
    A handful of sites are linking to a post on NetbookNews.de, which links to a post on a UK-based site called IBTimes titled Google Chrome OS-based netbook tech specs are out. It seems fishy and the site doesn’t get a lot of traffic in the first place but if the post ends up being credible, I apologize.

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  • FCC gives Verizon the third degree over $350 ‘advanced device’ ETF

    FCC gives Verizon the third degree over $350 ‘advanced device’ ETF

    Posted on December 4, 2009 | No Comments
    Early termination fees have always represented the flipside of subsidized pricing -- the necessary evil that keeps free phones free. Thing is, they were tough enough to swallow at $175 or $200, but Verizon's recently gone for the jugular in a hell-bent effort to keep subscribers locked in by upping the fee on vaguely-defined "advanced devices" (read: any phone a power user would ever want) all the way up to a mind-bending $350. Turns out the FCC is as confused and worked up as everyone else, though, having fired off a 4-page communique to Verizon's veep of legal and external affairs today asking how customers are notified of the new ETF, how the prorating formula is calculated (hint: they don't like that you still pay $120 after 23 months of a 24-month contract), and how an "advanced device" comes to be, among other things. Riding on the letter are a few extra questions about inadvertent mobile web charges for customers that aren't signed up for a data plan, totaling nine paragraph-long queries that the feds want answered by December 17. Your move, Verizon.

    [Thanks, Daniel P.]

    FCC gives Verizon the third degree over $350 'advanced device' ETF originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • SundaySky automates the multimedia e-commerce experience

    SundaySky automates the multimedia e-commerce experience

    Posted on September 23, 2009 | No Comments
    When I was in Israel two weeks ago I sat down with the guys at SundaySky. I need you to bear with me here because the service doesn't sound cool outright but once you realize the power for commerce sites it becomes amazing. Here's how it works: e-commerce sites have lots of products. Take cameras, for example. You have a few set attributes - zoom, megapixels, etc. - and the rest of the incidental information could fit in a paragraph. So SundaySky creates a video using a product image and audio from a pre-recorded pool of preset phrases ("This W camera has X and Y built-in and includes a Zx zoom lens", where all the variables are pre-recorded as well). The rest of the info appears as text in the video. That way you could talk fairly convincingly about an Olympus camera with a set of data from a pre-recorded pool and then add the small stuff as a visual. In this way you can make video out of every single item in your store.

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  • Logitech Lapdesk N315 features slide-out mouse pad

    Logitech Lapdesk N315 features slide-out mouse pad

    Posted on September 15, 2009 | No Comments
    Logitech's got a new lap board doodad on the market called the Portable Lapdesk N315. It’s a $30 accessory with a non-slip grip and slide-out mouse pad.

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