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Passengers get $85 dollar voucher after man chokes to death on plane

slacker — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:55:47 +0000

Ok, so many of you have probably heard the news about the New Zealander traveling home from Singapore who choked and died mid-flight. This is a crazy story to begin with but the airlines response to the tragic event is even more interesting. They have given a Voucher woth the equivalent of $85USD to surrounding passengers on the flight.

No offense but man if I had to sit next to a guy who just died for 10 hours I would expect a bit more compensation on the airlines part. The surrounding rows probably should have gotten upgraded to first class or a 50% discount on their flight. You can’t even get to the airport for $85.

Bad enough everyone is scared shitless on the plane already, now you got passengers dropping dead 10 minutes in. Was this guy in an exit row? A doctors and 2 nurses couldn’t revive him? How will this affect airline policy going forward?

My condolences to the family.

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Amanda Knox Guilty?

slacker — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:48:51 +0000

So they are now appealing the verdict and 26 year sentence of Amanda Knox. This has been due to the standards of testing they used to gather their evidence against her. DNA doesn’t lie but I guess testing can have it’s faults. Certainly seems like she is guilty and this is a last resort for her. Raffaele Sollecito a one time boyfriend of Amanda Knox is also appealing the sentence. The two have been in jail for 4 years.

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Supernova on 9/7 and 9/8

slacker — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:59:21 +0000

Astronomers and stargazers should be excited to hear of the Supernova that will be visible this week. Most people will be able to see something even with a pair of binoculars. This is a truly epic event as the last one to create such a stir in the field was back in 1972. Studies of the Supernova will help scientists look at the universe’s acceleration. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me. I own two telescopes and will be sure to take a peak. It should be visible near the Big Dipper, most likely right below it.

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US Postal Service Broke?

slacker — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:24:49 +0000

USPS has been struck with a decade of declining volume. In the last few years announcements that the USPS can go broke has been a regular discussion. They have been weighing in on many options such as eliminating Saturday delivery. The financial woes of the USPS have been directly affecting retirees of the post office. The USPS states that by the end of this month they could default on a 5.5 billion payment for these retirees.

The USPS has claimed that the rising health care costs have been a contributing candidate to the rise in labor costs and supporting retired postal workers. Additionally such technology innovations such as email and online bililng has diminished the use of the USPS for many of its past functions.

So what have they put on the table as far as reform? How about cutting another 100k jobs from the American economy. After that how about another 120k jobs over time?

We can’t even save the jobs of our postal workers in this country, some of the bread and butter foundation of what we were built on. It’s sad to even hear that more people will likely lose their jobs and on top of that the numbers are astonishing. I equate the numbers to my town. Imagine if everyone in your town was jobless. Who can we blame? Unions, Gov’t, bloated spending, you name it…

Is it truly time to go private? UPS and Fedex are looking better everyday.

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Beyonce Pregnant? Who’s the daddy?

slacker — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:39:34 +0000

So recent news has announced that Beyonce is pregnant! Wasn’t it just a few weeks / months ago that we heard she and Jay-Z might be breaking it off. Maybe this was one of the highlights of their dissagreements. Putting your career on hold for a child is a big step for just about anyone, let alone someone in the constant celebrity spotlight.

This news is so big it actually broke a record for the “most tweets per second for a single event”. Crazy what we as people find important. One would never see this happening with something like the USPS going broke or soldiers overseas dying.

In a world with so many major issues I guess it is nice to hear some good news. On another note, why do we really even care?

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Happy Feet Penguin swimming home!

slacker — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:21:28 +0000

We are always entertained by anything animal especially when it touches the hearts of millions. An Emperor penguin dubbed Happy Feet was found in June off the coast of New Zealand, nearly 3k miles away from his home.

Doctors performed surgery on the penguin to save his life and now he has been released back in the ocean for the first time in months. They built a special slide for him to make his grand exit off the Tangaroa reseach vesel in the Southern Ocean.

We will miss him, good luck Happy Feet!

video platform video management video solutions video playered by anything animal especially when it touches the hearts of millions. An Emperor penguin dubbed Happy Feet was found in June off the coast of New Zealand, nearly 3k miles away from his home.

We will miss him, good luck Happy Feet!

video platform video management video solutions video player

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Jullian Assange to be Extradited?

slacker — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:43:29 +0000

In a recent ruling founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange is allowed to be extradited to Sweden. I guess freedom of speach has its penalties.

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Microsoft to launch smaller Xbox 360 game console | VentureBeat

slacker — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 19:00:11 +0000

Microsoft said it will launch a smaller Xbox 360 video game console today in a move to lower its costs and compete head to head against smaller machines from Nintendo and Sony.

That move was expected. But the surprise is that it will be available in stores right away, as early as tomorrow, for $299. it comes with a 250-gigabyte hard disk and 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking. that price is the same price as the current Xbox 360 with a 160-gigabyte hard drive.

Sony launched its revamped PlayStation 3 Slim last fall to great success. Previously, Sony had a big and costly box that it started selling in 2006. But it streamlined the electronics inside the box and learned how to make the same components smaller without sacrificing any of their performance. that helped lower the cost, power consumption, and physical size of the components. This is one of the critical moves that we anticipated in our story on the state of the video game console war.

Microsoft wasn’t nearly as aggressive as Sony in making a smaller console. it has been using the same size box since it launched the Xbox 360 in 2005, even though it has redesigned the motherboard (the main circuit board) and its chips several times. By keeping the console size the same, Microsoft was able to benefit from economies of scale in making the same device over and over again in the tens of millions. it also avoided retooling costs. But it didn’t capitalize on the savings that could result with a smaller box.

Apparently the time has come to make that smaller box. We noted earlier that the company was working on a chip code-named Valhalla, which would combine the graphics chip and microprocessor inside the same chip, lowering costs.

Nintendo, meanwhile, already has the smallest box, since its console is relatively simple and doesn’t support high-definition graphics. Try as they might, neither Sony nor Microsoft will ever be able to match the lowest production costs of the Wii. still, this is a necessary step for Microsoft to make.

It also has benefits for consumers, whose living rooms are getting overloaded with set-top boxes of various kinds. and in Japanese homes, where physical space is at a premium, it makes sense to have products be as small as possible. the new box will likely position Microsoft to make further price cuts. in August and September of last year, Sony and Microsoft shaved $100 off the price of their mainstay units, while Nintendo cut its price by $50. to date, the consoles in this generation of hardware have been priced higher at this point of the sales cycle than they’ve ever been in previous generations.

Next Story: Best buy, Radio Shack to sell iPhone 4 at launch, allow pre-orders (Updated)
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Companies: Microsoft, nintendo, Sony

Microsoft to launch smaller Xbox 360 game console | VentureBeat

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Former light-welterweight world champion Ricky Hatton has revealed he is …

slacker — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:00:47 +0000

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a busy day at the YBCA Theater in San Francisco today as Apple unveiled a slew of new products and services to its crowd, and to those watching live on the Web. We saw upgrades to the iOS software for all iOS devices (even the iPad), a new line-up of iPods for the holiday season, iTunes 10 with its social network Ping and of course, the new $99 Apple TV. Here’s a run down of everything that happened in one handy-dandy list in case you missed it!

Retail Store Update

Apple has opened three new stores internationally in Paris, London and Shangai. They now have 300 stores in 10 countries, with their 11th, Spain, coming soon.
Apple has single days where over 1 million people visit their stores, and more than 50% of their customers are buying their first Mac.

iOS 4.1 and 4.2

120 million iOS devices have been sold since the first iPhone launched. 230,000 new activations occur each day.
6.5 billions apps have been downloaded from the AppStore, which now hosts 250,000 apps. 10% of those apps are iPad apps. 200 apps are added tot he store each second.

iOS 4.1 – the next iOS iteration will be available next week for iPhones and iPod touches and features bug fixes for issues associated with the proximity sensor, Bluetooth and iPhone 3G.
iOS 4.1 also features high dynamic range (HDR) photographs within the camera app, which takes three photos at varying exposures and blends them together to make rich photographs.
Game Center will finally be lauching with the 4.1 release. it allows game enthusiasts to network with friends, get matched up for multiplayer games, see leaderboards and get push invitations to play online. Mike Capps from Epic Games (makers of Gears of War) demoed a new game, “Project Sword,” which features Game Center functionality.
iOS 4.2 Sneek Peak – Apple also provided a first-look at iOS 4.2, which will bring all the functionality of iOS 4.1 to the iPad. Folders, multitasking, and other familiar features will hit the bigger screen in November. also, 4.2 will allow for wireless printing to networked printers on the iPad.

New iPods

Apple has sold 275 million iPods to date.
A new iPod Shuffle is a “best of both worlds” approach, which combines buttons and voice controls in a new small design. it will be in 5 colors, will get 15 hours of battery life and will hold 2GB of music for just $49.
New iPod Nanos have eliminated to the click-wheel and gone touch screen with a square-shaped miniature iOS device. it also features a clip on the back like the shuffle, and the screen can be rotated with a pinch-and-twist motion. it has the same colors as the shuffle, plus granite and red versions. $149 for 8GB, and $179 for 16GB.
The iPod Touch, the #1 portable game player, is now thinner and gets all the hardware upgrades from the iPhone 4, including the Retina display, the A4 chip, the gyroscope. also, it features forward and front-facing cameras, and can now run FaceTime for chatting with iPod and iPhone owners. $229, $299 and $399 are the prices for 8, 32 and 64 GB models.
All of the new iPods are available next week, and can be reordered starting today.

iTunes 10 and Ping

A new iTunes is available today and features a new logo (finally) and Apple’s foray into social networking with Ping, a place to discover music and follow friends and artists.
A new Hybrid View lets you view album artwork when browsing your library in list view. it only activates when you have more than 5 songs in an album as to not waste space.
Ping, the iTunes social network, will feature a stream of activity and customized top 10 lists based on your friends’ music tastes. it can be accessed on-the-go from iPhones and iPod Touches.

One more Thing Hobby: New Apple TV – $99

Apple unveiled a $99 Apple TV that is a fourth the size of the original and features a dark black design. it has no local storage and streams all of it’s content from the Internet and your local machines.
It has HDMI, ethernet, 802.11n WiFi and a remote.
Users can stream music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, radio stations, photos and more with the device.
Users can now rent first-run HD movies for $4.99, and HD TV shows for $.99 from FOX and ABC. Jobs thinks more networks will “see the light” soon.
It also supports Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and Apple’s MobileMe.
It will retail for just $99, and is available in roughly 4 weeks.

Wow! That sure was a lot from Apple. Those new iPods look pretty slick, especially the new square Nanos that look like a watch-face (some one please make a watch strap accessory!). Ping and iTunes 10 should be fun to play around with, and I don’t know about the rest of you but that $99 Apple TV looks very enticing. oh yeah, and iOS 4.1 looks cool too – the HDR photos is sure to excite the photo bugs out there.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

iOS 4.1, New iPods, iTunes 10, Ping and Apple TV | IT News Wire