Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
DC Auto Show 2009
I had the chance to attend the Sneak Peak Party at the DC Auto Show Tonight. Really no big surprises - all of the focus was on hybrids and electric cars. One stand out was the Dodge Challenger - What a car that was!
Also interesting was the new Chrysler concept car, it is completely touch screen and also feature an interface for your iPhone. You can unlock the car with your iPhone, roll down the windows, even view who is driving your car through the webcam mounted in the rear view mirror. The car is not in production yet - but Chrysler says it probably will be in 2-3 years.
For Photos Click Here
Monday, February 2, 2009
Judd Gregg to Comerce ?
CNN is reporting that this is a done deal.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire has accepted President Barack Obama's offer to be commerce secretary, two administration officials said Monday.
The officials said the official announcement is expected Tuesday morning.
Comcast Apologizes for Porn during Superbowl
By Vishesh Kumar
Comcast is examining whether a malicious attack is behind the interruption of the company’s Super Bowl coverage Sunday by a pornographic film in some areas of Tucson. The interruption, which lasted less than 30 seconds, affected customers watching the company’s standard definition coverage but not high-definition customers, a Comcast spokeswoman said.
Comcast has contacted the Federal Communications Commission as well as local authorities to investigate the matter. But an initial review showed that the company’s technical systems functioned properly at the time of the incident, suggesting someone deliberately seeking to interrupt the broadcast rather than a technical glitch.
“We are mortified by the incident and we apologize to our customers,” the Comcast spokeswoman said. The company will likely issue credits to customers who were affected, though the amount remains to be determined.
The station from which Comcast picked up its feed was NBC affiliate KVOA, which said it provided Cox Communications with a feed of the broadcast via fiber line, which Cox subsequently sent to Comcast, also via a fiber line. KVOA said on its Web site that only Comcast customers saw the pornographic images and that customers of other operators, like DirecTV Group and Cox Communications, as well as over-the-air viewers, received “clean feeds.” The incident “sparked a flurry of angry phone calls and emails to our newsroom,” the company wrote on its Web site.
The Comcast spokeswoman said it was not immediately apparent how or where the breach occurred. Cable signals pass through several pieces of transmission facilities, including out to an operator’s local offices and to customers ‘ homes.
This is the first time the company is aware of its signal being tampered with in this way, the Comcast spokeswoman said.
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Next Up On Reality TV: Arranged Marriages
CBS is treading into potentially controversial reality TV territory again.
The network has ordered a new series from the producers of "Top Chef" that puts lovelorn singles into arranged marriages.
The show introduces four adults age approximately 25-45 who are anxious to get married but have been unsuccessful in their search for a mate. Their friends and family select a spouse for them, and the newly paired couple exchange marital vows. The series follows their marriages.
The rest of the details for the project, whose early working title is "Arranged Marriage," are being kept under wraps.
Complete Story
India to unveil 10 Dollar Laptop
India is poised to unveil the ultimate in credit-crunch computing: a 500 rupee (£7) laptop.
A government-developed prototype, due to be shown for the first time tomorrow, will mark the most ambitious attempt yet to bring computers to the developing world and to bridge the "digital divide" between rich and poor.
It is also the latest example of ultra-cheap engineering to emerge from the sub-continent. India has already given the world a 100,000 rupee (£1,420) car, the Tata Nano, and a super-basic £10 phone — goods that are now expected to find favour among relatively affluent Westerners as the global economic downturn bites.
However, the launch of a viable computer that costs less than most paperback books would herald a startling new era in thrifty manufacturing. The Indian laptop, which has been on the drawing board for at least three years, will be the centre of attention at the launch of India's new National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, a scheme to boost learning in rural areas through the internet.
-Update from BBC
Early reports of the cheap laptop suggested that it would cost only 500 rupees (£7). However, this could be a mistranslation, because transcripts of the speech, in which it was unveiled, mentioned it costing $10 (£7) but this was later corrected to $100 (£70).
Work on the device has been carried out at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.
Even if the finished device costs $100, it will significantly undercut other low cost laptops aimed at the developing world, such as the One Laptop Per Child's XO machine and the Intel Classmate.
Originally, the XO was intended to cost $100 but the finished version ended up costing about $188 (£131).
The development of the cheap laptop is the latest in a series of initiatives to create low cost computing devices for Indians. In late 1999, the Simputer hand-held computer debuted and has been used in a variety of projects, including digitising land records.
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