From the article:“”He’ll battle cancer and win,” Bush said, “and he’ll be a solid contributor to society.” Turning to Snow, the president then said: “I love you, and I wish you all the best.” Snow, speaking after Bush at the start of the daily White House news conference, said he was leaving to earn more money. He took a big pay cut, he said, when he left his previous jobs as anchor and political analyst for Fox News. The Washington Post pegged his salary at $168,000.”

You’ve got to feel for the guy… he took a big pay cut when he left Fox and then had to deal with cancer. However, I believe that the real reason why he’s leaving the White house is that the cancer has made him question his own mortality and he’s just plain tired of being caught in a lie for Bush and Co. — I don’t have any evidence to support this belief, but hey…. when has the Bush White House worried about evidence?

From the article:” NBC Universal has decided against renewing its contract to sell digital downloads of television shows on Apple Inc’s iTunes after failing to come to an agreement on pricing, the New York Times reported in its online edition on Friday.”

Do you remember when Microsoft decided to pay $1 to music publishers for every Zune that they sold? I personally believe that the saber rattling by the RIAA and MPAA is a direct consequence of that payment. Good marketing move by Microsoft?

Jan Mazoch

From the article:“Comcast has warned broadband Internet customers across the country to curb their downloading or wind up on the curb. The company has a bandwidth limitation that, if broken, can result in a 12-month suspension of service. The problem, according to customer complaints, is that the telecom giant refuses to reveal how much downloading is too much.”

Shouldn’t something like this be against the law? After all, their customers have signed a contract for service. Giving Comcast the power to terminate that contract for arbitrarily passing a secret limit seems downright wrong, even if it isn’t illegal. I understand Comcast’s desire not to publish the conditions under which they would disconnect a user in fear that the information could then be used to “game” their system… but seriously… When I buy “unlimited” bandwidth, should I have to worry about a limit?

From the article:” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin isn’t usually associated with groups like Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports), Free Press, and the Consumer Federation of America, but he’s with them on the issue of à la carte cable. The groups—and Martin—are in favor of à la carte cable, and all coincidentally believe that much of the “grassroots” opposition to the idea is actually cable-funded astroturf (that is, fake grassroots movements) meant to sway public opinion. “

From the article:“AMD made a net loss of $600 millon in its latest Q2 financial quarter. It also dumped $30 mills worth of old chips it couldn’t sell, in the quarter, confirming what Intel CEO Paul Otellini said two days ago about stuff swilling about in the channel.”

Ouch… unfortunately this isn’t really that surprising. Intel has been eating AMD’s lunch of late and it was inevitable that the financial axe would fall. It’s strange when you consider that it was Intel that was scrambling to answer a resurgent AMD just two years ago. While it’s normal to have a back-and-forth battle for dominance, the problem is that AMD doesn’t have anything on the horizon that can match Intel’s Core2Duo/Quad chips and, unlike Intel, they don’t have infinitely deep pockets to fund the research needed to compete.

From the article:“Bush said it’s “sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person” is impeded “from doing important work.”

You know what’s sad… when a “leader” hides behind talented and honorable people who take the heat for his bad decisions.

From the article:” The former secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) spoke with UCA News as Asian bishops prepared for an Aug. 27-Sept. 1 seminar in Thailand on “Caring for Priests – Especially Those in Difficult Situations,” sponsored by the FABC Office of Clergy. “Caring for priests, for me, is seeing to it that my priests live their priestly commitment,” he said. Priests who are “fooling around” should “just leave.”

I understand this stance… after all, it’s the “sweep it under the carpet” mentality that has put the church crisis. However, “zero tolerance” doesn’t mean “zero compassion.” Instead of immediately dismissing any priest or religious who has “fallen” we should address the circumstances that place those priests and religious in the “near occasion of sin.” Bad communities, failing congregations, top-heavy bureaucracies, unsatisfying pastoral work — unless we realize that priests and religious ARE humans who need support and meaning just like any other person, we will see more and more “fooling around.”

From the article:“A web connection via the toilet bowl may sound like Google’s most recent April Fool, but the University of Aberdeen plans to welcome students back with a high bandwidth internet network connected via the sewers. The university tapped H2O Networks to provide a high capacity link for the next 10 years, enabling students to access the internet from their halls of residence.”

This is an interesting use of existing conduits to build out bandwidth capacity, but somehow the idea of somebody having to troubleshoot a fiber problem while standing in several feet of human waste isn’t all that conducive to my Internet mojo.

Gross sign… but it would be even more disgusting if the sign WASN’T there to warn visitors!

A few weeks ago I had the occasion to cancel my AT&T phone and Internet service. I had been using a basic DSL package combined with basic phone service as the backup to my much-faster, but too-often-unavailable Comcast service. I had added the DSL service to my existing line a year prior, when AT&T had a $12.95/month promotion. With the $6 I was paying for the land line, my monthly AT&T service was about $20/month — A fair price to pay for the extra bandwidth and guaranteed uptime along with a land line for emergencies.

On the 19th of June I called AT&T and told them that I needed to cancel my service because I had been reassigned to Hawaii and would be moving out of AT&T’s coverage area. The representative was courteous and professional, and I asked her when my account would be “clean and clear” of any obligations. A quick check of my info and she let me know that I would have 12 months of DSL service at the end of my next billing cycle in completion of my 1-year contract. She then suggested July 13th as a separation date — I agreed, she punched it in, and I thought nothing more of it.

My next credit card statement confirmed the final auto-payment in the amount of $20.92 on the 16 on July. End of story… no drama… no fuss… and a satisfied AT&T subscriber who had avoided the oft-mentioned horror stories of Telcos screwing their customers.

Or so I thought….

More after the Jump »

From the Spec Sheet:“In addition to drawing less than 24 Watts when in Idle, a system based around the VIA pc3500 Mainboard draws only 1.09 watts when in Sleep Mode, and 0.68 Watts in Standby (Off Mode), The system even draws less than 35 watts when playing back a DVD, one of the most power-intensive computing applications.”It should be noted that computers built on this platform will NOT be screaming performance monsters. However, for most people that doesn’t really matter. This machine WILL play all your multimedia files, run Vista (or XP) with the full compliment of software AND do it quietly while drawing a fraction of the amount of electricity required by a standard rig.

From the article:“Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.
“

This stuff is just too cool. I’ve been fascinated by Aerogel since I heard that it was going to be used the stardust collector. Unfortunately it is insanely expensive, worth more per ounce than gold, but the proise of this material is incredible.

From the article:” Japanese communications minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday that Japan will start research and development on technology for a new generation of network that would replace the Internet, eyeing bringing the technology into commercial use in 2020. ”

Will it still have porn?

From the article:“TeliaSonera, which lost the northern leg of its U.S. network to the cut, said that the outage began around 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night. When technicians pulled up the affected cable, it appeared to have been shot. “Somebody had been shooting with a gun or a shotgun into the cable,” said Anders Olausson, a TeliaSonera spokesman.”

From the article:“23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival. The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.”

Sheesh… Who would have thought that drinking beer might impair your judgment?

From the article:” Sali responded days later, sending Ellison an e-mail explaining he meant no offense.”He said that he wanted to make sure that Congressman Ellison understood that he meant no harm or disrespect,” Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman said.”

Hmmm… I’m not exactly how Senator Sali’s original remark, ” We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes — and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers” could really be construed as anything OTHER than disrespect. — It seems that he’s gone from insulting non-Christian religions, to insulting EVERYBODY’S intelligence.