New App "Color" Sees The Future In Your iPhone

In Color, photos taken through the app are shared through proximity, something which amasses a list of your contacts through machine learning; in effect, you'll be able to see all photos around you that were taken with Color. You'll be able to see the Color photos of the guy sitting two tables away from you at Starbucks, but when he finishes his caramel macchiato and leaves the coffee shop, you can't see them anymore. But if you spend a lot of time in proximity to someone--an office-mate, for example--that person's photos will gradually begin to stay in your contacts list for longer. It's an "elastic network," Nguyen calls it. "The whole goal is to say hello."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20046044-36.html#ixzz1HzBeEhYj

Wizard of the Rock 'n' Roll Mix by Jim Fusilli

Bob Clearmountain in his Los Angeles recording studio.

David Bowie, Nile Rodgers and Bob Clearmountain were working in 1982 on Mr. Bowie's album "Let's Dance." Stevie Ray Vaughan dropped by to play guitar solos on a few songs, including "China Girl," a tune he'd only heard once before. The amount of time for the first solo was shorter than the guitarist had anticipated, and he blasted through where it was supposed to end, finishing on a note that didn't quite fit.

"I could see the wince on his face," Mr. Clearmountain recalled. "I said, 'I'll fix it,' but David jumped in and said, 'Don't touch it. It's perfect.' We looked at each other, but David insisted. He loved the spontaneity." Mr. Clearmountain toyed with the mix to minimize the misstep, though it can still be detected.

For many of the great rock and pop albums of the past three decades, Bob Clearmountain has been the last man standing between the music and the listener. He is a master music mixer. Producers send recordings to his Mix This! studio in Pacific Palisades, Calif., so that he can bring together and highlight the most alluring elements of each song. He's worked with John Legend, has just completed mixing Ziggy Marley's forthcoming album and is working on tracks for garage band Spanking Charlene as well as Michael Grimm, a winner of NBC's "America's Got Talent."

Setting up in a soft chair on casters behind his huge, old-school SSL4000G+ mixing console, with its array of faders, knobs and cables, the thin, youthful 58-year-old takes digital files recorded elsewhere and gets to work altering the sound of instruments, including voice, across an entire performance or only for a beat or a bar. Soon a final product emerges, the result, he said, more of taste and transparent communication than technical wizardry. "If it's a great record, it's already great before I get to it," he said. "I'm just revealing what's there. I shine it up a bit."

When you listen to a Clearmountain mix what's most striking is the absence of conflict: Every tone seems to have its place, and there's a warmth that doesn't sacrifice crispness. The lead vocalist's voice is the focal point. "This is something I learned from Bruce Springsteen," said Mr. Clearmountain. "There can never be anything between the narrative and the listener."

But Mr. Clearmountain doesn't aim for sterility. When he produced Paul McCartney's 1990 live album "Tripping the Light Fantastic," he left the ragged edge to the vocal harmonies because they captured the frenetic nature of a live performance. Mr. McCartney gave him free rein, checking in no more than once a week.

Seemingly minor tweaks can make a huge difference. In his entrance on the Rolling Stones' single "Start Me Up," Charlie Watts whacks the snare not on the downbeat but on the one. To emphasize the choice, Mr. Clearmountain removed all echo from the sound, a subtle touch that registers as a curiosity to the listener. On the live Paul McCartney disk, Mr. Clearmountain pushed support player Robbie McIntosh's guitar solos to the forefront, preventing the listeners' attention from flagging when the singers go silent.

Once he finishes what he hopes will be his final mix, Bob Clearmountain listens to it in his car, a BMW M3 with a Harmon Kardon CD player. One problem: The left front speaker buzzes, so he set the stereo to play music only in the rear.

He consults with artists and producers throughout the mixing process. Some musicians come to his studio, like Mick Jagger, who worked with Mr. Clearmountain at Mix This! when they put together the new "Exile on Main Street" package released in 2010. When Bruce Springsteen is at his home in New Jersey, Mr. Clearmountain communicates with him via an ISDN video link and iChat.
 
On occasion, a part will have to be redone. Rather than return to the original recording studio, musicians will recut their part at Mix This! For the Stones' live "Shine a Light" film soundtrack and album, guitarist Ronnie Wood redid four seconds of one of his solos. When a bass part is off, Mr. Clearmountain may repair it by playing the right part himself.

Modern recording studios can look like high-tech bunkers, but Mix This! is awash in natural light. Old, cushy sofas line the back row of the studio and an adjacent area that's as comfortable as a living room. The studio is his home, which is a short drive from the Pacific Ocean. Outside, a pool, bar and kitchen are ready to welcome musicians.

Unlike most producers and mixers, Mr. Clearmountain prefers equipment that might be considered antiquated. "I don't like to sit in front of a computer," he said, gesturing to the console he acquired in 1994. Bookcase speakers, the kind that came with good stereo systems in the '70s, sit atop the console, but even those are too high-end for his final mixes. Most listeners have modest audio equipment at home, hear music in the car or use MP3 earbuds, so Mr. Clearmountain wants to know what their experience will be like. He signs off on his mixes only after tweaking them while he listens to two Apple computer speakers, a kind the company discontinued years ago.

But Mr. Clearmountain enjoys the flexibility of digital recording, with its almost endless supply of space for artists to fill with sounds he can manipulate. "Bon Jovi is a great example," he said. "They'll send me hundreds of tracks of stuff—guitar parts, synth parts. You've got a lot to work with."

"I was never that happy with analog recording," he added. "On tape, it sounded distant. Digital sounds live."

Fatigue can set in while he works, he said. "Quite often, I'll start a mix and I'll play something over and over again. Then I'm over my head." A nap or a walk with his dogs Sherman and Hayley will usually clear his mind.

Most casual fans are unaware of Mr. Clearmountain's contribution to popular music. Even he struggles to find an easy explanation for what he does. He compares himself to a lighting designer for a theatrical play. "It's about emphasis and creating an environment."

Clips of songs mixed by Bob Clearmountain include:

    * "China Girl" by David Bowie
    * "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones
    * "Convince Me" by Lucinda Williams

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703858404576214632271389862.html?KEYWORDS=Fusilli#printMode

Once Every 823 Years

Once Every 823 Years

This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens
once every 823 years.

July

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Thanks to Dave for this !

Internet "Help" Desk

So sad, so true, anyone who deals with Comcast can relate !



Thanks to Linda S. for this gem.

Stay Safe On Facebook - Facebook Settings

http://www.self.com/health/2011/04/stay-safe-on-facebook



http://www.self.com/health/2011/04/customize-privacy-settings-slideshow#slide=1


On Facebook, your health info might be turned against you.

When you log on to Facebook, what do you post? Pics of you laughing with friends or frolicking on vacay? That's what Nathalie Blanchard, a 30-year-old IBM technician from Granby, Quebec, did—and soon after, her disability insurance cut her off.

Diagnosed with depression, Blanchard had gone on disability leave. Her doctor, she says, had actually recommended trips and nights out to help overcome her crisis. But her insurer, Manulife, saw it differently after checking her Facebook page—they used what they found as justification to hire a private investigator to follow and film her, says Blanchard's lawyer, Tom Lavin. He says Manulife gave the materials to a psychiatrist who decided Blanchard was healthy enough to work and should no longer receive benefits. Blanchard is back on the job and has filed suit against Manulife and IBM; her trial is pending.

It's a shocking practice and not necessarily rare. "I expect that insurance companies comb social sites all the time," says Phil Malone, director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School. "It's easy for them to misinterpret what's there, but they could use it to deny claims anyway."

The lesson: Be careful about revealing health woes online. "People think companies can't use Facebook this way. But courts have said they can, as long as you shared the information with others online," Malone says. In a 2008 case involving two teens with eating disorders, a judge said the girls' families had to turn over online posts they'd shared with others as evidence in a dispute with their insurer over whether their issues were "biological" (and thus covered) or emotional (not covered). And it's not only your insurance that's at risk: Half of employers admit to screening job candidates via social networking sites, a CareerBuilder survey reveals. Because many of us are "at-will" employees, we can be fired without legal recourse for almost any reason, including posting about drinking or missing too much work for migraines or in vitro fertilization.

The hard truth is that employers and insurers feel it's irresponsible not to check you out, says David Harlow, a health care lawyer in Newton, Massachusetts. "They're focused on protecting themselves financially, so using social media to do research is doing their due diligence," he says. Ideally, insurance companies would consider all aspects of a patient's health situation before denying claims, Harlow says: "After all, depressed people smile." (A Manulife spokeswoman says the company "wouldn't terminate coverage solely based on information found on Facebook.")

A spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a national health insurance association, said the group wasn't aware of companies in the United States that investigate using social media. There's no way to be sure, though—you can't tell who's been looking at your profile.

Still think you're secure? Remember, ever-changing Facebook privacy defaults have made profiles more Internet-searchable and previously hidden photos suddenly visible. And Facebook reports that only half of its more than 500 million users employ tools designed to safeguard their info. "Depending on your privacy settings," Malone notes, "maybe a handful of people, maybe 1,000 people, or maybe 100,000, can see what you post. Privacy protection works only if you use it and use it carefully." Have fun with your friends, but choose wisely what you share with them.

By Jessica Girdwain

Priceline Bidding Tricks

Learning a few Priceline bidding tricks will help you get the best deal.

Getting the best deal when you bid on hotel rooms on Priceline can be tricky.

Once you've done your homework, decided how much to bid on the hotel rooms, and placed your bid, your offer may still be rejected. When that happens, you must wait several days for another chance to place a free bid again for the same trip.
Or do you?

Many Priceline customers are taking advantage of a loophole in the system, casually known as "using non 4 star zones," to turn in a free re-bid immediately. It sounds complicated, but it's fairly simple -- and effective -- to re-bid on hotel rooms once you get the hang of it.
To understand free re-bidding, you have to first know a little about how bidding on Priceline works. After a bid you've placed has been rejected, Priceline allows you to bid on hotel rooms again, but only if you significantly change your bid. To qualify, you would have to add another zone (area of town), lower your quality requirements, or change the dates of your stay. Simply raising the amount of your bid doesn't qualify you for a free re-bid. Hotels on Priceline are rated by quality using a star system. Lowest quality hotels are 1 star, and highest quality (resorts) are 5 stars.

Herein lies the key to free re-bidding: not all zones have hotels in every quality category. What does that mean? Simple. Imagine you are looking for a 4-star hotel in the zone closest to the airport. Your bid on hotel rooms is rejected. You'd like to bid again with a slightly higher price for the same hotels, but Priceline won't allow that. So you locate a zone in the same city (perhaps across town) that does not have any 4-star hotels in it, raise your bid price, and try again. Adding a new zone to your bid qualifies you for the free re-bid Priceline offers. And, since the new zone you've chosen doesn't contain any 4-star hotels, you will not be stuck with a hotel in that zone.

It's important to remember when using this system to raise your bid price with the free re-bid. Otherwise, adding the new zone will do you no good; your new offer will be an exact duplicate of your previous offer, and will be rejected again.

So, how do you find out which zones have which star quality levels? It's easy -- in fact, Priceline will tell you. Start over as if you were creating a new bid. Once you get to the screen which lists all the zones in a particular city, choose one and select "Next." On the next page, you will be allowed to choose a star level from the levels listed. If the zone you've selected has 4- or 3-star hotels listed as a choice, use your browser's "Back" button to try again and select another zone. (For this trick to work, make sure you only select one zone at a time.)

Once you find a zone that has no 3- or 4-star hotels listed, you've found the "dummy" zone you can use. Start your re-bid and add this dummy zone to your offer. When using the free re-bid system, always double-check to make sure the dummy zone you're using does not contain any hotels in your star quality range -- even if you've bid in this city before.

Zones -- and the hotels included in them -- are subject to change daily, so you will want to confirm that your dummy zone is still empty of the star quality hotels you are requesting.


Here's another helpful site to check Priceline price ranges and to pick up great bidding tips.

http://www.betterbidding.com/





Questions? Having success bidding? Can't get an offer accepted? Post a message in our "Bidding for Travel" forum¹!

Update: A reader adds, "There is one important caveat that you did not mention (probably because you didn't know). When you are checking for 'no 4 star zones' you have to make sure that the zone you are checking doesn't have a little palm tree next to it. The palm tree indicates that there are resorts in that area. You may check the spot and see there are no four star hotels, but when you go to bid and include that new location, they may end up sticking you at a resort. I just got caught by this while booking a place in Vegas. I wanted a four star on the strip. I went back and forth a few times, including other locations. I ended up including 'Henderson' which showed no four stars, but my bid was accepted by a resort in the area, certainly not my intention. Not that it's a big deal in this case, it is a nice place and it's only 17 miles from the strip. But I could see some of your readers ending up getting stuck in a bad situation because of this little detail." Thanks for the tip!

By Charlyn Keating Chisholm, About.com Guide

http://hotels.about.com/cs/travelerstools/a/pricelinebid.htm?p=1

The Magic Behind 1960's Hit Music - The Wrecking Crew Studio Musicians

from:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703858404576214574291829718.html?KEYWORDS=Hal+Blaine


Hal Blaine put his hand on my shoulder. "This is going to break your heart, but much of the music you heard in the '60s and early '70s wasn't recorded by the people you saw on the album covers," he said. "It was done by me and the musicians you see on these walls."

Talk about a "Wizard of Oz" moment. Last week I traveled to Mr. Blaine's home here to talk about his prolific career as the Buddy Rich of rock and pop recordings. I also wanted to know more about his role as the ringleader of the Wrecking Crew—an ad hoc group of about 30 highly skilled Hollywood studio musicians who played the instruments on thousands of hit records released between 1961 and 1976.

Many baby boomers still remember the outrage that followed a magazine's revelation in 1967 that the Monkees didn't play on all of their recordings. It turns out that neither did the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, the Association, Jan & Dean and dozens of other rock groups of the era. That honor belongs to Mr. Blaine and the Wrecking Crew, whose members included Glen Campbell and Leon Russell.  

If rock is about a beat, and a beat is about the drums, then the 82-year-old Mr. Blaine is arguably one of America's greatest living rock musicians. Wednesday marks 50 years since he recorded his first No. 1 hit—Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." Mr. Blaine went on to appear on 38 additional chart-toppers, including the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," the Mamas & the Papas' "Monday, Monday," Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and the Carpenters' "(They Long to Be) Close to You."

Those represent just a fraction of his output. Mr. Blaine's beats set hips twisting on upward of 5,000 songs—many of them also hits. He even was the drummer on the Grammys' "Song of the Year" for six years in a row from 1966 to 1971. In this regard, Mr. Blaine has no living peer. On Billboard's Hot 100 chart, Mr. Blaine's nearest rival is the Beatles with a measly 20 No. 1 hits.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, Mr. Blaine remains largely unknown today. Which raises two questions: Why were studio musicians even needed back then, and why weren't teens aware of their contribution at the time?

"When the demand for rock exploded at the very start of the '60s, record companies had to churn out tons of music with a big beat and a tight sound," Mr. Blaine said. "To hold down studio costs, producers had no choice but to bring in musicians who could nail songs the first time through. That meant us."

An unspoken pact kept Mr. Blaine and the Wrecking Crew a secret hit-making machine. "Teens wanted to believe that their idols on the TV and stage were the ones playing on the records, record companies didn't want to spoil the party, and we wanted to keep earning," Mr. Blaine said. "No one said a word."

At his busiest, Mr. Blaine played on as many as seven studio sessions a day, moving effortlessly from the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" to Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night." The story of the '60s-rock studio scene has been documented in "The Wrecking Crew," a newly completed film that is awaiting funding for song licensing. Its director is Denny Tedesco, son of Tommy Tedesco, the group's late guitarist. "All that music was just notes on a page until these musicians gave them punch and excitement," Denny Tedesco said.

While all of the major pop-rock acts could sing and in some cases write music, record producers weren't satisfied with their abilities as instrumentalists. In other cases, songs were recorded and groups were assembled to front them. "Many of these kids didn't have the chops and were little more than garage bands," said Mr. Blaine. 

The Wrecking Crew name originated in 1961 when an older Hollywood studio musician quipped: "These young studio guys are going to wreck the music business." When word of the crack got back to Mr. Blaine and recording jobs poured in, Mr. Blaine simply told his paging service to "round up the Wrecking Crew." "The name stuck," he said.
Mr. Blaine was over the age of 30 when his rock-recording career began. Born Harold Belsky in Holyoke, Mass., in 1929, Mr. Blaine moved to Hartford, Conn., with his family when he was 7 years old and took up the drums as a teen. When his father came down with asthma, the family moved in with relatives in San Bernardino, Calif.

After his discharge from the Army in 1948, Mr. Blaine enrolled under the G.I. Bill at the Roy C. Knapp School of Percussion in Chicago, where he studied for two years by day and played strip clubs at night. In the '50s, he toured with several lounge combos and changed his last name to give it a show-biz ring. 

In 1957, Mr. Blaine joined the Raiders, a country group that backed teen idol Tommy Sands. In 1961, he was recommended for Presley's album "Blue Hawaii." Among the songs recorded was "Can't Help Falling in Love." "I used brushes on the snare drum with my right hand and a soft mallet on the tom-tom with my left," he said. "The result was a hint of surf and Hawaii that Elvis liked," Mr. Blaine said.

Work with producer Phil Spector followed. Mr. Blaine's urgent beat on songs by the Ronettes, the Crystals and other groups helped drive and sell Mr. Spector's "wall of sound." "The beat I used on the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby' was actually a mistake," Mr. Blaine said. "I was supposed to play more of a boom-chicky-boom beat, but my stick got stuck and it came out boom, boom-boom chick. I just made sure to make the same mistake every few bars."

To come up with the right hit-making drum beat for each recording, Mr. Blaine insisted on hearing a group sing through a song first, often backed by just a piano. "A song is a story, and I wanted to hear how the lyrics were phrased and where the drama was," he said. "Then I'd add a beat and sound that snapped."

Mr. Blaine's famed beats also helped make hits of the Beach Boys' records. To Brian Wilson's credit, he was the one who replaced his brother Dennis with Mr. Blaine, starting with "Little Deuce Coupe" in 1963. "I tightened my snare drum for the Beach Boys so it had a higher, speaking-voice sound," said Mr. Blaine. "Then I'd hit the floor tom-tom on the same beat as the snare. Both added tension to the group's soft, harmonic sound."

Was drummer Dennis Wilson miffed? "Physically, he seemed to be on a 45-degree angle—living for speed, the surf and the beach," Mr. Blaine said. "My playing took the pressure off of him. Besides, while I made $65 for an afternoon in the studio, he'd make $65,000 that night in concert."
Is this why so many groups back then didn't sound as good in concert as they did on their records? "You tell me," Mr. Blaine said, laughing. "At concerts, people hear with their eyes. Teens cut groups slack in concert, but not when they bought their records."

Another one of Mr. Blaine's No. 1 pop hits was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass's "A Taste of Honey." "The first time we ran down the intro, it was a train wreck," he said. "The horns didn't come in together on the same beat after the pause. So I counted off the beat by thumping the bass drum, which gave the horns a cue."

What does Mr. Blaine listen to today? "Mostly an oldies station on XM radio," he said, pouring himself a teenage-size Cherry Dr Pepper. "It's an amazing ego trip since I'm on so many of the songs. But it has its drawbacks. You hear your youth. I hear a day at the office or a divorce."

Mr. Myers writes daily about jazz, rock and R&B at JazzWax.com.

Steve Jobs - From His Garage Days with Steve Wozniak circa 1975

more here:

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/steve-jobs-then-and-now/6201580?tag=mantle_skin;content
The many faces of Steve Jobs, from his garage days with Steve Wozniak to introducing the Apple iPad. Above, Jobs and Wozniak, working in the garage, circa 1975.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early Apple I hand-built by Jobs and Wozniak, sold at auction for over $200,000 in November, 2010.

Men Can Fix Anything (White Trash Repairs)

Pls. click on the image to expand.

More are here also...

There, I Fixed It. Part 1 (41 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 2 (51 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 3 (69 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 4 (78 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 5 (67 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 6 (63 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 7 (48 pics)
There, I Fixed It. Part 8 (55 pics)

BN's Nook -- The $200 Name-Brand Android Tablet

from: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/09/the-200-name-brand-android-tablet/

March 9, 2011

For the WSJ's Brett Arends, the Android-powered Nook Color with its sub-$200 price tag is the perfect tablet.
 

Who says you can't get a quality tablet for under $500?


It is certainly no iPad 2 or XOOM, but for a certain segment of the population, the Nook Color might be all the tablet they need.  

Apple's (AAPL) iPad clocks in at $499 (old models can be had for $100 less) and the XOOM currently clocks in at $800, with a lower-priced Wifi version looming.  

Arends writes that a simple hack enables a full Google (GOOG) Android capability by stripping away Barnes and Noble's (BKS) overlay.

...the tablet is perfect for what I want. I'm not talking about one of those junk tablets from a Chinese website, either.

I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook Color tablet (for $190 plus tax from a temporary online promotion, down from the usual $250).

And then I downloaded a very simple, perfectly legal software fix from the Internet that turned it into a fully functioning tablet running on Google's Android platform.

The fix, known as a "rooting," unlocks Barnes & Noble's proprietary overlay.

The instructions came via Ars Technica, a reputable site devoted to technology, and were pretty easy to follow.

Before we get all high and mighty on what constitutes the perfect tablet experience, it is probably important to remember that not everyone has $500-$829  in their pocket for a new Galaxy Tab, Xoom or iPad purchase and a $200 option might be just fine for what many are after.  

For people who want to browse the web, go onto Facebook, watch YouTube videos, Email, use maps and other mediocre tablet type-things, this might be the sweet spot.

Arends even noted some advantages over the bigger tablets. "It actually slips into my overcoat pocket."

I expect many other name brand tablets that don't shoot for the high end to hit the market this year.  But at the moment, this and some resistive (yuk) screen tablets from Archos are about all you'll find in the $200 range from the name brands.

The big question: If a bookstore like Barnes and Noble can build it and bring it to market for $200, why can't HTC, LG, Samsung or Motorola (MMI), or any of the other big device manufacturers?  

Some point to it being a loss leader.  

At under $200, perhaps.  

But at its $250 retail price there is some room for profit.

Arends concludes with another interesting question:

Why doesn't Barnes and Noble get out of the way and ship this open?

The first is that Barnes & Noble needs to get the lead out and let people run these applications on the Nook Color without having to jail-break it. 

Obviously they want to block Amazon's Kindle app, because they want customers to buy books from BarnesandNoble.com. 

But why block everything else? Why should I have to invalidate the warranty in order to make their product more attractive?

They'd sell a lot more of these babies if customers could run email and Facebook and so on out of the box. (The minute I catch myself playing games on this thing, it goes on eBay. But most people want to.) 

And once they get these Nook Colors into people's hands as an Android tablet, they would work pretty well as a Trojan horse to sell Barnes & Noble books and magazines as well. 

In other words, it would help the company's business model, not hinder it.

I suspect that the Kindle factor is first and foremost, but if WSJ reporters are hacking their products, B&N has already lost that battle.  

In fact, real hackers have managed to get Google's latest Tablet OS, Honeycomb, on the Nook Color.

Barnes and Noble has previously promised to unveil its own app store where users can download apps like those which are in the Android market.  

But details on that release have been slow to materialize and time, in this fast-paced world of tablets, is money.

Reader opinion:

The Xoom may have a leg up on iPad in some ways, but there’s just no stopping the powerhouse that is Apple’s tablet.

But XOOM has atleast 6 compelling features than ipad 2
      1. USB port
      2. HDMI port
      3. 4G
      4. Higher screen resolution
      5. Better cameras
      6. Flash

There are other advantages like Honeycomb experience and early adapters of XOOM will benefit soon with these features and iPad 2 folks will start envying

Xoom Specs:

      Nvidia Tegra 2 – best dual-core mobile processor
      1G RAM
      Expanded/removeable 32GB SD storage
      Stereo speakers
      High resolution display
      High resolution camera
      HDMI 1.4 for high resolution digitla theater + 100Mb/s Ethernet + return audio.

Xoom’s Nvidia Tegra 2 is based on ARM Cortex A9 + Nvidia GeForce GPU.
     
Ipad2 has lower performance ARM Corxtex A5 - the manufacturer is unknown, rumors either Samsung or Taiwan’s TSMC – no specs available.

Why get a Xoom? All the Android drones are claiming that the rooted Nook with Android is as good as a iPad. Forget this $800 toy and get the $200 Nook and root it.

More on Fortune.com:

• Why there aren't cheaper tablets
• Nook Color gets rooted, is now a full Android device
• If the iPad is the new iPod, is the new Nook an Atari Lynx?

Senior Texting Code !

Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting there appears to be a need for a STC (Senior Texting Code).

If you qualify for Senior Discounts, this may be the code for you...

ATD: At The Doctor's

BFF: Best Friend Fell

BTW: Bring The Wheelchair

BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth

CBM: Covered By Medicare

CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center

DWI: Driving While Incontinent

FWB: Friend With Beta Blockers

FWIW: Forgot Where I Was

FYI: Found Your Insulin

GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!

GHA: Got Heartburn Again

HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement

IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?

LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out

LOL: Living On Lipitor

LWO: Lawrence Welk's On

OMMR: On My Massage Recliner

OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.

ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up

SGGP: Sorry, Gotta Go Poop

TTYL: Talk To You Louder

WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?

WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again

WTP: Where's The Prunes?

WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil

LMGA: Lost My Glasses Again

GLKI (Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In)

IBM Launches First Portable Hard Drive

Back in 1956, Pan Am's crew is loading a hard disk drive... with 5 MB of storage.
In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first 'super' computer with a hard disk drive and a ton of storage.  
How much?
The hard drive weighed over a ton and stored a 'whopping' 5 MB of data.
Your 8 GB USB memory stick holds 1,600 times more memory.


thanks Babs!

Instead of Rushing Out to Buy iPad 2

Here are some alternatives:

    * MacBook Air with Intel Sandy Bridge: Sure the iPad 2 is nice, but a lot of Apple lovers have their eyes on the MacBook Air.  The latest-generation Air gets high marks, saying that despite its limited connectivity options.  It's now "powerful enough to use as a mainstream laptop." But there are plenty of folks who think the Air's still a little underpowered and are waiting for it to get a processor upgrade to the Intel Sandy Bridge chips that are now in the new MacBook Pro notebooks.

      * Sure, some people can afford an iPad 2 and a next-generation Air, but many can't. And given the choice, if I had an original iPad, buy a next-generation Air, which after all, is a full-fledged machine that supports Flash.  Yes, it is irritating that you cannot access Flash content from your iPad.

      Of course, the big question is when will Apple upgrade the Air line? It took its time going from Gen-1 to Gen-2.  It may be a few more months before Air gets the performance bump. It's worth the wait, however.

    * iPhone 5: In June, Apple is due to roll out its fifth-generation iPhone. Rumors have been all over the map, with some suggesting that multiple models will be available and that we might even see Apple go with a larger 4-inch screen and a design more reminiscent of the iPad 2. It may have true 4G support.  It will have the new dual-core A5 processor in it.

     * Wouldn't it be better to wait for the next iPhone before you buy the iPad 2?

    * iPad Mini: You can call it what you want: A jumbo iPod Touch, an iPad Nano, an iPad Mini, whatever. It's basically Apple's version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab or Barnes & Noble Nook Color.

     * Steve Jobs says going smaller with the iPad has big drawbacks and Apple won't do it, but the fact is, it makes a lot of sense. Critics of tablets with a 7-inch screens describe them as "tweener" devices, but the 7-inch tablet has a role in the market with many 7" Android tablets in such sizes. It wouldn't be surprising if Apple heads them off at the pass--despite Jobs' head fakes to the contrary.

      * Ideally, of course, such a device, if it were to come into being, would start at $300 for a 16GB version--and that's probably doable for Apple. As for possible launch dates, this one may coincide with Apple's launch of its new iPods in September, probably an iPod Touch 2 has a higher resolution camera and faster processor.  So, it might be a good idea to extend that line to include a larger Touch.

    * iPad 3: I always argue that when it comes to Apple's mobile products, it's good idea to skip a generation.  You know the next 9.7-inch iPad, wich will most likely be released in March 2012, will be thinner, lighter, have a faster process, and a better screen. And you only have to wait 365 days to get it.

      * Go used.  Apple will eventually add the iPad 2 to its list of refurbished products. In October of last year, Apple started offering refurbished iPads for $50 off, then dropped the price a bit more in December. Now it's offering the original 16GB base model for $350 or $150 off its initial price.

Read more:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20040793-82.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20040793-82.html#ixzz1G94A9n5I

Police Helicopter Above Twin Towers

Here's the collapse of the twin towers on September 11, 2001 from a NYPD helicopter.  NYPD officers can be heard crying out in shock at the violent demise of the towers and their occupants.



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