atom ant

New side link -- Converge! Network Digest

Village Voice writer Wayne Barrett wrote a scathing biography of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani a few months before the 9/11 attacks. Giuliani became a hero after the attacks and has maintained that image ever since. But Barrett has just co-written a new book that questions his handling of the situation. In Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani, Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins argue that Giuliani's leadership may have exacerbated the crisis. Plus, the Fringe Festival turns 10.

There was a very odd moment in today's press conference. It was so odd that I checked two different video captures to make sure it wasn't an edit. About 1:55 into this clip, he stops mid-sentence, softly mumbles something with his eyes closed, and then resumes. Maybe he's whispering to someone off frame, but it looks like glossilalia or a fugue to me. Just strange.

Lance: Angelina' s a goddess.

Intelligent and discerning reader: Are you out of your mind! She looks like a Barbie doll with a face designed by a cross-eyed Cubist who's terrified of real women!

huffmoney

I'm sure everyone has heard the crap about tomorrow (8/22) being a possible "doomsday" date for the shiites. Here's an ABC news piece on this. Obviously this is a bullshit story, but what caught my eye was this passage:

August 22 was rumored by intelligence experts to be a possible date that the London plotters would blow-up passenger planes headed towards the United States, though it is not known if the suspects were Shiite extremists.

Could it really be the case that ABC doesn't know if they are Shiite or not? I know I saw interviews with friends of the alleged plotters. Didn't anybody ask about their religion? I find it hard to believe that this fact is not known. How can it be clear they are Islamic, but not be clear what kind? Doesn't seem right.

whats this about?

duh, every one is. why now?

bay ridge not just pizza

WOOOOOLLLLLLLFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Court blocks TiVo injunction
The injunction would have required EchoStar DVRs to be shut off in users' homes because of patent infringement. -- EchoStar sells satellite receivers and services under the name DISH Network.

rip rudi stern / the let there be neon dude

Some background reading from Intel on WiMax:

(large pdf files)
Mobile WiMAX – Part I: A Technical Overview and Performance Evaluation
Mobile WiMAX – Part II: A Comparative Analysis

spence vineyards


this small howell mountain vineyard is owned by my brother johns friend allen spence. they are starting to get some attention for the $65.00 cabernet sauvignon . johns working on some of the product and web design. they should have a new sight up in the fall. so i guess hes getting paid in grape. and hes been warned about flash.

Cable Industry May Need to Spend
Heavily on Broadband Upgrades

Cable-television operators may require another round of multibillion-dollar network upgrades to keep up with rivals in the fast-growing high-speed Internet hookup business, a report from the industry's research arm suggests.

OMFG, we have a Fucktard-in-Chief


Well, he's a history major, not a geography major.

Rockstar Supernova is a reality TV show where contestants battle it out to become the lead singer in Tommy Lee's new band Supernova. Somewhat interestingly, I went to high school with one of the contestants: Storm Large. That really is her name, and she is in fact quite large (well, tall at least.) I have to confess I haven't seen it yet though.

Jim, I got the first season of Lost on DVD. Watched the pilot last night. Pretty wild stuff! They're in an errant node in the space time continuum, right? Don't tell me!

USDTV: Low Cost, Little Interest

service: small set of cable channels for low price

technology: compressed digital video (h.264) transmitted over terrestrial TV channels using the spare capacity on local TV stations' digital carriers

similar predecessors: "wireless cable" (aka MMDS) offerings by telcos in the mid-90's, based on re-use of community/educational TV spectrum for MPEG-2 signals.

outcome: Chapter 7.

Very involved food blog via Atrios.

weve been getting a burnt rubber smell blowing through since yesterday.

Wireless Data, It Sells Well

Until Recently Full of Promise,
Satellite Radio Runs Into Static -- paid subscription required

When iconic morning host Howard Stern moved from regular radio to satellite earlier this year, it was supposed to be a coming of age. Instead, the industry's two rivals, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., are still reporting heavy losses, despite a few years ago telling investors they would need four million customers each to break even. XM crossed that mark more than a year ago; Sirius hit it earlier this year. Last year, XM lost $667 million, and Sirius lost $863 million. And Sirius is facing a potential exodus of subscribers as a clutch of promotional one-year trials soon comes to an end.

Death by podcast.

Google's gift
INFORMAL TEST RUN GOES SMOOTHLY FOR FREE WIFI SERVICE, BUT DON'T EXPECT LIVE HUMAN TECH SUPPORT

Verizon launches the three-channel DVR Verizon has a fiber-based IPTV system, which uses MPEG-2 video.

This description of an installation may give you an idea why the FIOS system will cost Verizon billions more than the SBC/AT&T approach: plain old twisted pair, plus advance modulation and advance video compression.