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By Dave, July 12, 2005 9:23 pm

WeatherTalk :: General Thoughts :: Times Are A Changin’
Looking back at Dennis one more time…

I am beginning to realize that we broke lots of new ground in relaying weather information to the masses. We had not one, but two meteorologists “blogging” from the Alabama Gulf coast with laptops and wireless Internet access.

My associates Brian Peters and Bill Murray posted to this blog before, during, and after the arrival of Hurricane Dennis. And, the blog reached more people than some TV stations during the event! The number of people reading the ABC 33/40 weather blog here peaked at 71,342 last Friday, followed by 67,394 Saturday and 55,333 on Sunday. Just a year or so ago most people around here never heard of a blog (short for web log). Astounding.

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Astounding, yes, and I for one am grateful that they are moving in this direction. We don’t have cable tv (internet yes. You have to decide on your priorities…) and haven’t for years. The only news or weather information we get is over the internet and during Dennis we were able to keep track of things a whole lot better than ever before. I have hits counted there on all three days. As well as most other days. Tis always an interesting and informative read.

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By Steve, July 12, 2005 9:23 pm

This one is interesting. I am posting the Slashdot listing because the comments give a better understanding of what is going on here than anything else I have found on this issue. Apparently several of the slashdotters have known about this for quite a while, and have been in communication with either Intel, or AMD, or both, about this. IANAL, but AMD’s case is looking better all the time. Sabotaging your compiler to make your competitor’s processor run slower than yours may not be against the law, but when you deny it in the face of what the code says, it sure ain’t going to help your monopoly court case.Slashdot | AMD Alleges Intel Compilers Create Slower AMD Code

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By Steve, July 12, 2005 9:17 pm

Hewlett-Packard reinvents the inkjet, and lowers the cost of ink refills. Sounds good, but didn’t other manufacturers have printers that didn’t incorporate the printhead in the ink cartridge? Or is the fact that they can us photolithography to make the entire printhead assembly the breakthrough? IANAE (I Am Not An Engineer), so I can’t really say. Paying less for cartridges sounds good, though, but the printer is more. (Of course)HP Finally Delivers On ‘Invent’ – Forbes.com

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By Dave, July 12, 2005 7:35 pm

The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Anals of Customer Service, Part 235, 673,458,319

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Gotta love the unbending mind…

My favorite from the tech support end: This woman comes in. She’s from Piedmont. (This tells folks around here a lot about what comes next)

Anyway, she starts off by spending about 5 minutes telling me how much she knows about computers and how she has been using AO-HELL for over 2 years now and knows everything about a computer.

So I stand and listen and then she finely gets to the point. Her problem is that the computer was acting slow and taking a long time to connect.

2 year old machine with her and 3 others on AO-HELL. Running win 95 with 16 meg of ram and a 200 meg hd. Out of space. She can look at this and bring it in if she can’t clear some stuff herself… Yea right…

So I start with telling her to go to the My Computer icon on the desktop.

Now we are face to face. I wish it wasn’t so as this is a 250+ pound 5 foot 4 inch female in a dirty torn tee shirt and stretch pants (also dirty also torn). Bathing didn’t seem to have taught in the school, where I suspect she spent most of her learning years playing hooky, either. She also smoked. And drank. But back to the moment.

So we are standing there and she gets a funny expression on her face and is silent for just a minute so I repeat myself and tell her to go to the My Computer icon on the desktop. More silence and then she goes:

What’s an icon?

I had to turn and walk away for a minute to prepare for this one. And to snicker and chortle. Then turn and spent 30 minutes talking her through everything only to have to do it over the phone again later. And then to have her take the equipment somewhere else to be fixed…

Some days I think about getting back into the biz. Then I think of this and a few other similar episodes and suddenly feel much better about being gainfully unemployed…

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By Dave, July 12, 2005 5:48 pm

UF Researchers Take Pulse Of Hurricane Dennis

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Cool!

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By Dave, July 12, 2005 5:28 pm

LinuxWorld | Linux thin clients get a Trim

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Am I missing the link to the product under discussion in this article or do they just leave the reader hanging. Me thinks that we have a print only mentality here…

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By Dave, July 12, 2005 5:24 pm

Sony, Riken Develop High-Resolution, Rollable Display Panel @ Industry News (AdvancedImagingPro.com / Advanced Imaging Magazine)

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Color or Monochrome? Either is impressive at this resolution.

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By Dave, July 12, 2005 7:11 am

GROKLAW
The Stupidest Lawsuit Since the World Began Tuesday, July 12 2005 @ 07:14 AM EDT

I know. You think you already know the stupidest lawsuit since the world began, and indeed I once described it that way to a journalist myself. Then recently, we saw litigation efforts that knocked it down as king of that mountain. But now I have the winner, for sure.

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This is truly stupid. Even for the french. I mean it’s even worse than the english food thing…

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 11:02 pm

Scripting News: 7/11/2005
I’d like Apple to implement an element that says right up front, this feed does not work with iTunes. I’d be the first to put that element in my feed, so that anyone who wants to know why my feed doesn’t work with iTunes need look no further. It doesn’t work with iTunes by design. Please consider that a feature request, Steve.

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AMEN, Brother Dave!

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 10:28 pm

Techdirt:Spammers Continue To Be The Biggest (By Far) Supporters Of Email Authentication

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And in the normal turn of events your inbox will be full of spam and your spam filter will be full of real email… Thank you, Micro$loth, one more time.

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 10:25 pm

Techdirt:How Dare The BBC Introduce New Listeners To Beethoven
Never underestimate the short-sightedness of record execs — even at classical music labels, who you’d think would be a bit more understanding about these things.

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Nuff said. Click the link…

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 8:56 pm

Hacker magazine shuts up shop | The Register

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The end of an era… Or is it?

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 8:05 pm

Administration unveils new energy program
Bush administration officials Monday announced a new program to reduce household energy costs by 10 percent during the next decade.

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Okay. If Alfred says so…

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:15 pm

Surveying The Future

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Now this looks cool! Wish the price tag was a bit lower but I suspect the tech will develop and price will fall fairly quickly.

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:14 pm

Wired News: Making a Plug for Hybrids

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I wish them luck. The battery situation is still just not there for full sized autos. The hybrid seems to be the best compromise so far.

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:12 pm

freshmeat.net: Project details for Ampache

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New Ampache is out.

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:11 pm

Treehugger: Cold-Water Coffee by Toddy

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Makes me wonder if just letting the coffee grounds soak over night and then straining them out wouldn’t do the same thing? I love the odor and taste of coffee but the old gut don’t like it one little bit.

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:09 pm

Treehugger: ‘Ciudad Saludable’ Garbage Managing Projects

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:08 pm

Treehugger: Geegoot – Solar power to the ice cream people

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This looks really cool. Wish the site had more information.

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By Dave, July 11, 2005 6:07 pm

Newsday.com: Sen. Clinton attacks Bush, comparing him to Alfred E. Newman

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Never thought about it before but there IS a resemblance. Though I personally think Alfred is smarter AND better looking…