September 2009
Disney to Buy Marvel and Its 5,000 Characters for... →
Disney said on Monday that it would pay cash and stock to acquire Marvel, the comic book publisher and movie studio whose library of 5,000 characters includes some of the world’s best-known superheroes: Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four.
The deal was valued at about $50 a share, a 29 percent premium. On Monday, Marvel shares shot up 25 percent to $48.37.
Marvel has...
oledocweirdbeard:
peachcherub:
Dave Brubeck...
oneafter909:
lunchboxoddsox:
The Rolling...
Microsoft Exec Warns: TV Faces an “iTunes Moment”... →
If the TV industry doesn’t invent a digital business that customers want, it risks an “iTunes moment,” when Apple took hold of the online music business, a Microsoft exec said.
“Realistically. I think the industry has about two to three years to adapt or face its iTunes moment. And it will take at least that long for media brands to build credible, truly digital brands,” Ashley Highfield,...
peaceofmind:
blackbirdsinging:
Karma Police -...
August 2009
Chewbacca Defense
contrabajisimo:
Cochran: …ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense! Gerald Broflovski: Damn it!… He’s using the Chewbacca defense! Cochran: Why would a Wookiee, an...
With Fwix iPhone App, All a Cub Reporter Needs Is... →
A Web site for local news hopes to fill the growing void in professionally reported local news by recruiting citizens armed with iPhones as reporters.
The site, Fwix, will release an iPhone application this week that enables its users to file news updates, photos and videos, live from the field. The items will appear on Fwix’s year-old Web site, which also collects links to local news articles...
City Taking Lead on Downtown Rail - Austin... →
The future of downtown rail — for right or wrong, better or worse, for whatever it turns out to be — is now firmly in the City of Austin’s hands.
Capital Metro, carrier of the passenger rail flag around here for more than 20 years, will still open its MetroRail commuter line (sometime soon). And conceivably the agency could be hired to operate a rail line built by the city. But Capital...
“What we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more...”
– Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness (via skimmingthesurface)
As Biggest Banks Repay Bailout Money, the U.S.... →
Nearly a year after the federal rescue of the nation’s biggest banks, taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.
The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually,...
Japanese Opposition Wins Elections in Landslide -... →
In a rare display of democratic muscle in this traditionally apolitical nation, Japan’s voters cast out the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in postwar history, handing a landslide victory to the opposition in hard-fought elections on Sunday.
The victor, the main opposition Democratic Party, must now tackle Japan’s worsening economic problems. Almost as crucially, it faces...
OpenCL Benchmarks and Support for Both MacBook Pro... →
With the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, we’re getting our first look at the possibilities behind Snow Leopard’s OpenCL technology. OpenCL is a framework that allows applications to more easily harness the power of multiple GPUs and CPUs found in your computer. This would allow powerful graphics cards (GPUs) to do more general processing and could improve application performance...
Latest Ikea Design Has Critics Fuming : NPR →
Ikea, the Swedish furniture chain, said Sunday it never expected such a backlash after switching typeface in its latest catalog.
The company’s decision to make its first such font change in 50 years — from the iconic Futura typeface to the Verdana one — has caused a worldwide reaction on the Internet. The catalog, which the company advertises as the world’s most printed book, was...
“I’ve learned to give my neighbor a wide berth. Especially after that time he...”
– klodt
Making Way for Electric Cars - NYTimes.com →
WITH many car manufacturers preparing to hit the streets with fully electric cars in the next few years, some real estate developers are getting ahead of a possible trend by installing car-charging stations in their apartment buildings.
Glenwood Management, which has two dozen rental buildings in the city, will install four charging stations for electric cars in the 400-car parking garage of its...
Evernote, a Free Storage App, Seeks More Paying... →
Giving away a product has always been a great marketing concept. Even an unsavvy consumer can see a benefit in snatching free products. Free has also become a mantra for business gurus who advocate giving Web start-ups a shot at fast growth by bringing the price of most of their wares to zero.
But as a revenue generator, free can come up short. Sure, it attracts customers, but the challenge is to...
2009 Shatters Heat Record - Austin American... →
This is already the hottest summer in Austin’s history — shattering the previous record — but the sweltering city might not be done setting dubious milestones in 2009.
Two more days of triple digits will tie the record for the most 100-degree temperatures in a year: 69 days of lawn-killing, air conditioner-straining heat. A typical year has 12 triple-digit days. The 1925 record appears safe...
The Future of Reading - ‘Reading Workshop’... →
In New York City many public and private elementary schools and some middle schools already employ versions of reading workshop. Starting this fall, the school district in Chappaqua, N.Y., is setting aside 40 minutes every other day for all sixth, seventh and eighth graders to read books of their own choosing.
In September students in Seattle’s public middle schools will also begin choosing most...
meatsack:
opmuh:cruisectrl:
radiohead -...
Parallels Starts Its Own Apple Switch Campaign -... →
The switching package handles all the basics you would expect. You can run full-blown Windows on your Mac. And, in a nice touch, Parallels has placed the Windows Start Menu right in the Mac OS X dock. This means that you can start a Windows application like Internet Explorer or Word and work with that software within the standard Mac OS X user interface. So, you don’t have to flip back and forth...
Week in Apple: Snow Leopard discoveries, MacBook... →
Is Steve Jobs really staying on top of every detail of the iTablet? What will happen to the plastic MacBook? And Snow Leopard drama—users can’t get enough of it! These topics and more peppered this week’s top Apple news.
Snow Leopard's "Wake on Demand" could lead to... →
With the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple has introduced a new wake on network activity feature called “Wake on Demand” that uses Bonjour to to alert other machines on a network that their services are being requested. Perhaps most intriguing is the fact that the feature works over wireless networks as long as certain hardware requirements are met.
To use the technology...
“After enduring the CIA’s harshest interrogation methods and spending more...”
– How a Detainee Became An Asset - washingtonpost.com
