March 2010
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Reminder: Tech Blog video game magazine giveaway ends at 3 p.m. today Apple iPad now available for preorder ...but pre-ordering an iPad is stupid Art director for Star Wars and Alien knows something about almost every sci-fi movie ever Sony Style store at Galleria in Dallas offering 3DTV demos, other 3D sets now on shelves Tech blog giveaway: four video game magazines [UPDATE: We have a winner!] Popular Science magazine posts 137-year-old print archive online for free City of McKinney applies for Google's 1-gigabit fiber Internet service Categories
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March 12, 2010
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The entry "Reminder: Tech Blog video game magazine giveaway ends at 3 p.m. today" is tagged: giveaway , magazines , video game
Are you ready to take the plunge?
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The entry "Apple iPad now available for preorder" is tagged: Apple , iPad , preorder
This is not another anti-iPad rant. It's a call for sanity. It is stupid -- genuinely stupid -- to get any new gizmo the day it comes out. Putting your money down a month ahead of time, buying something that you've never even touched, borders on insane. Wait till the damned thing has been out a few weeks. Make sure there isn't some sort of glitch with software or hardware. (If you think serious problems don't happen anymore, ask someone who ordered a 27-inch iMac.) Heck, go crazy and play with one in the store for a few minutes to make sure you actually, you know, like it. Check out the prices for content and make sure you'll be able to afford what you want. If, after reading this, you still want to pre-order this thing, you need to find a sane family member to take charge of your money. If that seems impossible, I will take charge of your money. p.s. If you're looking for analysis of the iPad itself, look here. Apple may have just jumped the shark
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The entry "...but pre-ordering an iPad is stupid" is tagged: apple , ipad March 11, 2010
Do you want to provide practical benefits to your survivors while forcing them to remember you? Nadine Jarvis has designed a system for turning people into pencils. Pencils made from the carbon of human cremains. 240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash - a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind. Via Marginal Revolution, which linked to seven other unconventional things to do with your body.
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The entry "Recycling people into pencils" is tagged: cadavers , cremation , pencils , recycling , urns
Shadowlocked has a fascinating interview with Roger Christian, a guy most people have never heard of but who was responsible for some of the most iconic science fiction images of all time. He even made a highly-regarded but now almost-lost short film called Black Angel that apparently ran before The Empire Strikes Back in some theaters around the world back in 1980. I'd never heard of Christian, but his connections to and influence on the science fiction and fantasy movie business is astounding. Here's an excerpt: On Star Wars, I went off on my own to the gun-hire place and got a Sterling sub-machine gun and adapted it with super-glue and other bits, Babty's gave me the permission to do it because they knew me well, and I created the first storm-troopers' weapon out of those and showed them to George and said 'Look, they can fire on the stage so you get smoke and fire, and backfiring...I hated in previous films that they just gave you a little 'beep'; it didn't look menacing. And George just loved it. Awesome. Christian is now a director, and helmed the much-reviled Battlefield Earth movie, which Quentin Tarantino apparently believes is some sort of misunderstood masterpiece. Just a really fun, quirky interview. Go check it out.
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The entry "Art director for Star Wars and Alien knows something about almost every sci-fi movie ever" is tagged: Alien , art director , Black Angel , movie , Roger Christian , science fiction , Star Wars March 10, 2010
3D televisions are starting to hit stores, but this is definitely a try-before-you-buy technology. To that end, Sony is now offering demos of its 3D tech at its Sony Style store in the Galleria mall in Dallas. The televisions are set up in the stores to allow consumers to experience them as they would in their own homes. 3D content being shown during the store demonstrations includes Sony Pictures Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sony PlayStation games and a clip from a FIFA soccer match in 3D. I'll actually be going out to the Galleria store tomorrow with Jim Rossman to check out the demo for an article running Friday looking at which 3D televisions are going on sale now and how much they cost. For example, the Sony XBR-52LX900 mentioned above isn't available for sale yet, but will be out sometime this summer. However, starting today, you can actually buy a Panasonic 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray player at Best Buy stores with Magnolia home theater departments: Beginning today, Panasonic's Full HD 3D Home Theater System will be exclusively available at select Best Buy Stores via Magnolia Home Theater. The total combined SRP of the Panasonic Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System components is $2899.99. The system consists of a 50-inch class (49.9" measured diagonally) Panasonic VIERA VT20 Plasma 3D HDTV (TCP50VT20- SRP $2,499.95) which includes one pair of Panasonic 3D Active Shutter Lens Eyewear (TY-EW3D10U), and the Panasonic BDT300 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (DMP-BDT300 - SRP 399.95). Additional pairs of 3D eyewear will be available with an SRP of $149.95. The individual components of the system will also be sold separately. Here's a link to Best Buy's Magnolia department. Finally, just yesterday, Samsung launched its first 3D LED LCD televisions. The lowest-priced is the 46-inch C7000 for $2,599.99. However, if you also buy either the BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player ($399) or the HT-C6930W 3D home theater system ($899), you'll get a free (ahem) "3D starter kit" that includes a 3D version of "Monsters vs. Aliens" and two pairs of Samsung 3D glasses. Yeah. Spendy.
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The entry "Sony Style store at Galleria in Dallas offering 3DTV demos, other 3D sets now on shelves" is tagged: 3D , Best Buy , Dallas , Galleria , glasses , HDTV , Magnolia , Panasonic , Samsung , Sony , store , television
I just received the latest issues of Nintendo Power, PlayStation Official Magazine, Official Xbox Magazine and Game Informer. Who wants 'em? All are mint condition, although I'll admit I did read through the Portal 2 cover story in GI. Looks good! So, if you would like to enter the giveaway, just post a comment down below. This Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. central, I'll close this post to new comments and use a random number generator to pick the winner. Just make sure to use a valid e-mail address so I can contact you if you win to get your mailing address (continental U.S. only, please). UPDATE: don, come on down! Given that don had entered twice (our commenting system has always been glitchy, so I'm not holding it against him), I didn't count his second comment. But the random number generator I used to pick a digit between 1 and 7 came back with number 6. So there you go. We'll do this again before long. And Jerry, I think I am going to do a mini-review of God of War III next week. In fact, I'll give away my copy of the game here on the blog after I've played with it. How 'bout that?
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The entry "Tech blog giveaway: four video game magazines [UPDATE: We have a winner!]" is tagged: Game Informer , giveaway , magazine , Nintendo Power , Official Xbox Magazine , PlayStation: The Official Magazine
Popular Science and Google have teamed up to make the venerable magazine's entire print archives available for free. Each issue is scanned exactly as it first appeared. The articles are moderately interesting, but the ads are fascinating. For example, it'll be a cold day in Hades before DeVry ever runs this campaign again from page 13 of the February,1958 issue:
Not sure how comfortable I am with hillbilly farmers designing the electrical components in guided missiles, but hey, what's the worst that could happen? And ladies? No free facts for you! The PopSci archives are chock full of fun stuff like this. Unfortunately, the only way right now to peruse the back issues is by keyword search. You can't browse chronologically yet, which is a shame. Just putting together a time line of cover art would be a hoot.
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The entry "Popular Science magazine posts 137-year-old print archive online for free" is tagged: archive , Google , magazine , Popular Science , print , search March 9, 2010
The city of McKinney, Texas is applying to participate in the trial program, which will make one-gigabit-per-second fiber optic Internet service available to as many as 500,000 people nationwide. The deadline for applications is March 26, so if you want to throw your city's or neighborhood's hat in the ring, you still have time to you get your paperwork in order. For all the hype, though, building out gigabit access is fantastically expensive and, so far, kind of pointless. The Wall Street Journal notes in an article today that making one-gigabit connections available to 500,000 people could cost more than $1 billion. That's real money even for Google. And that's just the first problem: But even if Google builds such a network, leaders of ultrahigh-speed Internet projects in other cities say they have found there often isn't a market demand for it. In Amsterdam, private sector companies are allowed to sell service on the 1-gigabit network but so far no one is offering speeds faster than 200 megabits per second because there isn't yet a demand for it, says Mr. Wagter. Over time, of course, applications will emerge that take advantage of those speeds. But this will be a huge upfront investment for Google with no near-term payoff. It will be interesting to see if Google actually follows through.
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The entry "City of McKinney applies for Google's 1-gigabit fiber Internet service" is tagged: fiber optic , gigabit , Google , McKinney , Texas
These "You won't believe the crummy hardware we had to work with!" stories never get old: Oh, did I mention that Ballmer had set Windows' system requirements as a standard IBM PC with a minimum of 256 kilobytes (not megabytes) of RAM, two 5 1/4″ floppy drives (no hard disk), and a CGA display? That last element was interesting since CGA graphics cards offered only 320-by-200 resolution and the pixels were rectangular (about 2x as high as they were wide), making a challenge for display of appealing graphics. The product also had to support the newer, more expensive IBM EGA display (with higher resolution and almost-square pixels) and the next most popular graphics card, the Hercules graphics adapter, which only displayed in black and white. There's also some background on the feud between Apple and Microsoft over whether Microsoft copied some of Apple's design elements. Some things never change. UPDATE: Oh. My. A commenter on Slashdot links to this masterpiece of marketing where Steve Ballmer channels Billy Mays in a vintage commercial extolling the virtues of Windows 1.0.
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The entry "Longtime Microsoft executive recounts the birth of Windows 1.0 [UPDATE: Video of Steve Ballmer ad for original Windows]" is tagged: history , Microsoft , Tandy Trower , Windows 1.0
AT&T chief executive officer Randall Stephenson made an interesting point a few days ago when asked about the impact the 3G-capable versions of the iPad will have on AT&T, which will be handling the 3G connectivity: While AT&T has agreed to provide wireless connections to the iPad tablet computer, Randall Stephenson said he does not expect the device to result in many new service subscriptions for AT&T as consumers will instead use Wi-Fi or prepaid services, where they do not subscribe to a service contract. Forget for a second that a long-term subscription option isn't even available for the iPad (3G connectivity will only be sold month-to-month on the device). What's interesting is Stephenson's assertion that customers are reaching the point of subscription fatigue. It's possible that many customers are already paying for wired Internet access to their home, a smart phone data plan and a broadband wireless card or 3G integrated netbook data plan. That silly situation is about to get even more absurd, as gadget manufacturers expect 4G to usher in a mammoth wave of wirelessly networked devices, everything from your air conditioning system to your front door lock to your car. One executive from telecom equipment maker Ericsson speculated last fall at a conference I attended that there could be as many as 50 billion wireless devices in use by 2020. Will we really be expected to sign individual data subscriptions for each of those applications, as well? I hope not. Instead, what seems to make more sense is to sell people an overall wireless data plan that covers, say, any five devices or 10 devices you choose. So AT&T or Verizon or whomever could sell you a $100 per month data plan that lets you connect your home, phone, laptop, car and tablet. If you want to add, for example, your home air conditioning system to your account to let you manage your AC while you're on vacation, you'd have to deactivate access to your car or upgrade to a more expensive plan that allows additional devices. I think that would alleviate a lot of the anti-subscription sentiment that Stephenson correctly diagnoses.
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The entry "Rethinking data plans: Should we pay per user, rather than per device?" is tagged: 3G , 4G , AT&T , data plan , Randall Stephenson , subscription March 8, 2010
Blogger Wayne Sutton snapped a pic of the elusive Steve Jobs hobnobbing on the red carpet at the Academy Awards last night. I didn't see him in the audience during the last 20 minutes of the show that I watched, but it definitely was Jobs.
However, I did see this new ad for the iPad. As did my wife. And when the segment demonstrating how the iPad can be used as an e-reader popped up, it definitely got her attention. Click on the pic to go to Apple.com to see the ad.
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The entry "Steve Jobs at the Oscars, and the first iPad ad runs during the broadcast" is tagged: Academy Awards , ad , Apple , iPad , Oscars , Steve Jobs March 5, 2010
I've been reading a lot about Apple's newly-launched patent war against HTC (and, really, against Google), and it's reminded me just how bad Apple's resident patent artist truly is. Let's scroll through the abominations, shall we? First, we've got Mr. Blob Fingers, with some added M. C. Escher zaniness going on with the left index finger: Here, a zombified, androgynous lounge singer croons for the Apple TV. "♪♫ I want to eat your braiiiiiiiinnnss...♪♫" From that same filing, here are Apple TV users who have been turned undead by our zombie Robert Goulet. Behind these damned souls, the fabric of reality has begun to crack as demon hordes claw their way across the divide:
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The entry "A gallery of terrible Apple patent art" is tagged: Apple , art , patent , terrible
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The entry "Poll: Which one technology could you not live without?" is tagged: desert island , gadget , poll , technology
The Wi-Fi version comes first, Apple said Friday, with the 3G version later in the month. Preorders for both versions are available starting March 12. You in? (Incidentally, I'm already sick of the "magical and revolutionary" tagline. It's on Apple's homepage now, and it's used twice in the first three paragraphs of today's press release. Unless Merlin and George Washington co-invented this thing, the iPad is neither magical nor revolutionary, Mr. Jobs.)
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The entry "iPad being released April 3" is tagged: Apple , iPad March 4, 2010
There's killing the goose that laid the golden egg, and then there's hacking the goose's head off with a rusty chainsaw, running the carcass over with a steamroller and then tossing the mangled remains into an industrial blender and hitting "puree." Activision seems to be a fan of the latter strategy. Apparently, the top two managers at Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward (which Activision owns) were sniffing out possible jobs at competing publisher Electronic Arts. Or maybe not. It's not really clear what precipitated this crisis. So anyway, Activsion canned the IW guys, escorted them out of the building via hired goons, and now everyone is suing. (Kudos, by the way, to the gang at G4 for gnawing at this story like rabid dogs.) Activision has also reorganized how the Call of Duty franchise will be handled, including creating a new development studio to work on CoD games. This will be the third group of developers to dip their hands into the series, including Infinity Ward and the B-team at Treyarch (although Treyarch's last CoD game was actually pretty good). The new Sledgehammer Games will be tasked with "extend[ing] the franchise into the action-adventure genre." Whatever that means. What a mess. You'd think that with Modern Warfare 2 generating more than $1 billion in sales (including $550 million in its first five days) since its launch last November, there'd be plenty of loot to go around and keep everybody happy. Of course, what gamers really want to know is what this means for Infinity Ward's unannounced-but-guaranteed sequel Modern Warfare 3. Unfortunately, despite Activision's hasty assurances, I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question yet.
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The entry "Activision fires top developers of Modern Warfare 2 video game and chaos ensues" is tagged: Activision , Electronic Arts , Infinity Ward , Modern Warfare 2 , video game
Sure, the new crop of TiVo machines coming in April look nice, but I just don't see that there's enough new gimmickry in the boxes to persuade anyone who already has a DVR from their cable company to switch. Mainly that' s because while your cable operator generally just rents you the box for a monthly fee, with TiVo, you have to buy the box and pay a monthly fee. Sure, the Flash interface seems neat, and the sold-separately remote with slide-out QWERTY keyboard is interesting (although not as interesting as some other remote control technology coming down the pike), and it's cool that you can access Netflix, YouTube and other online video sources through a Premiere machine. But the cost just seems like a perpetual hangup to me when cable and satellite DVRs are good enough that most people will be happy to do without the fringe benefits that TiVo offers. I've always thought TiVo's only road to profitability is in licensing its software to other DVR makers. Hardware is a commodity, and TiVo will never able to compete with the subsidized machines offered by your cable provider. But the software and user interface is TiVo's secret sauce. I don't know why the company remains determined to be the Apple of the DVR world when being the Microsoft would clearly be a better way to go.
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The entry "The new TiVo Premiere series: I don't get it" is tagged: DVR , Premiere , remote control , TiVo
I think we can file this under the "wishful thinking" category: "In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs," [Google Europe boss John] Herlihy told a baffled audience, echoing comments by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the recent GSM Association Mobile World Congress 2010 that everything the company will do going forward will be via a mobile lens, centring on the cloud, computing and connectivity. It sounds like Herlihy is including laptops as well as old-school, tower-and-monitor desktops in his eulogy for traditional computers. All hail the smart phone!! I doubt it. Smart phones are great, but I don't know anyone who works with computers for a living who wishes they could just spend all day typing on their iPhone or Droid instead. Smart phones are substitutes for standard PCs when we're away from our desks and on the go. But spend five or 10 minutes tapping away at an e-mail on your phone and you can't wait to get back to your crusty old keyboard on your desk. Unless mind-controlled smart phones are on the verge of being released, I don't think that will change in three years.
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The entry "Google executive says PCs will be "irrelevant" in three years" is tagged: computer , desktop , Google , irrelevant , laptop , PC , smart phone , three years March 3, 2010
Want to learn how to make video games for a living? Texas is a good place to start. The Princeton Review recently listed the top 50 undergraduate game design programs in the country, and several Texas schools made the list:
Keep in mind that these are the best undergraduate programs. So the reason Southern Methodist University's Guildhall program doesn't show up is because the Guildhall is a graduate program.
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The entry "Dallas-area schools among best undergraduate programs for video game design" is tagged: college , Texas , The Princeton Review , undegraduate , university , video game
In conjunction with a new report on attitudes among millenials (ages 18 to 29), the Pew Research Center has posted a short online quiz where you can see how your personal attitudes and behaviors compare to the average spoiled millenial puke. It turns out I'm not very millenial at all, with a score of 24, where a score of 100 is an ultra-millenial, and the average millenial is a 73. If I didn't have a Facebook page (which I haven't updated in months) my score would have been 6. In other words, this is my hero:
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The entry "Take the quiz: How Millenial are you?" is tagged: attitude , millenial , Pew Research Center , quiz , score
I've got an article in today's paper looking at the growing number of options for consumers to dump traditional voice plans on their smart phones and make calls over VoIP. Basically, all you'd pay for is a data plan, which would make smart phones cheaper for everyone. But the carriers don't want those data plans to become too cheap. AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said yesterday that he expects heavy wireless data users will eventually pay more for their service than lighter users. Stephenson was simply confirming what another AT&T executive said a few months ago, although at the time those comments elicited much more controversy and "That's not what he meant" denials and clarifications from AT&T's public relations squad. Stephenson expects changes in how the wireless industry prices its mobile data services going forward, with heavy data users being charged more. Smartphone users currently pay a monthly fee of about $30 for unlimited data. I don't know that this will be as matter-of-fact as Stephenson hopes, though. The FCC has been very curious recently about pricing practices in the wireless industry, and I expect any attempt to institute progressive pricing will be met with some pushback from the feds. On the other hand, if AT&T is even semi-reasonable about raising rates, most people will never see an increase in their bills. For example, I'm a moderately heavy user of my Pre for e-mail and Web stuff, but I basically average between 150 megs to 200 megs per month in data downloads. If AT&T and others keep the rates in place for anyone downloading 5 gigs a month or less, I'd guess that will exempt 95 percent or more of wireless users from the higher rates.
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The entry "VoIP could end expensive wireless voice plans, but AT&T still wants to raise data rates" is tagged: AT&T , data , Randall Stephenson , rates , smart phone , voice over internet protocol , voice plan , VoIP March 2, 2010
Oh, Blockbuster. Fiscally challenged Blockbuster has quietly re-instituted late fees on store-based movie rentals -- with a capped rate. A little further down, Blockbuster spokeswoman Michelle Metzger took on the thankless, Obi Wan Kenobian task of trying to argue that this late fee is not the late fee you're looking for: "This is not a late fee. This is an additional daily rate and if the customer is choosing to keep out a movie past the due date, then they are going to charged [accordingly]," Metzger said. "If you keep a rental car out an extra day, the rental car company has to charge you." Uh, what? But here's the worst part: "If a customer is keeping a release out past the initial rental agreement, they are keeping that title away from somebody else," Metzger said. What makes that statement so painful is not that it's not true, but that it is true. Now that streaming and downloadable HD video is so practical and inexpensive, traditional physical media is all but dead. In a few years, the notion of your movie rental "keeping that title away from somebody else" won't just be comical. It will be incomprehensible.
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The entry "Blockbuster reinstates late fees on DVDs, inadvertently makes case for death of DVDs" is tagged: Blockbuster , DVD , late fee , streaming , video March 1, 2010
The psychology of the bezel. If ever I were to teach a class to cellphone designers, it would be about the psychology of the bezel. When I first pulled the Backflip (AT&T's first Android phone) out of the box, my initial thought was, "Gee, that screen is tiny. Unusable, really." But then I held the Backflip up next to my Pre and realized that the screens are exactly the same size: 3.1 inches. However, the Backflip is 108 millimeters tall, compared to 100.5mm on my Pre. Those eight extra millimeters of bezel are just enough to make the Backflip's screen seem a bit smaller. With that out of the way, the phone is solid otherwise. The backflipping keyboard mechanism (the keys are exposed, but nonfunctional, when the keyboard is flipped shut) feels solid, and hopefully the 1.5 version of Android will (as promised by Motorola) be upgraded to 2.1 before long. If you've got any questions about the phone, fire away.
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The entry "I've got a Motorola Backflip from AT&T. You got any questions?" is tagged: Android , AT&T , Backflip , Google , Motorola , smart phone
If you're still using the older, bulkier PS3 to get your game on, chances are you basically have a non-functioning hunk of metal and plastic right now. Don't worry, Sony's aware: We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system. That last bullet point needs additional emphasis: if you have an older, fatter PS3 and have not recently turned your console on and experienced this problem, LEAVE YOUR CONSOLE OFF UNTIL THE FIX IS READY!! The tricky part for Sony is going to be that if users can't connect to the PlayStation network, how is it going to distribute a patch or update to fix the bug? I think I know the answer. Free slim PS3s for everyone!! UPDATE: Apparently the bug was due to the fact that the fatty PS3s thought 2010 was a leap year. So they rolled from Feb. 28 to Feb. 29, and everything went haywire. Now that all the systems have advanced another day to March 1, everything should be copacetic. And no patch was required. If your PS3 is still showing the incorrect date, you should be able to update it manually. Either way, all functionality has been restored.
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The entry "Older PlayStation3 consoles crashing; Sony blames bug in internal clock [UPDATE: Fixed!]" is tagged: bug , clock , crash , fat , network , phat , PlayStation 3 , PS3 , slim , Sony
Passers-by observe the remains of a destroyed building in Concepcion on February 28, 2010, a day after a huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile early morning, killing at least 700 people. Click for larger version. (photo: MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images) The big wireless carriers launched major relief efforts for Haiti just a few days after the island was hit with a massive earthquake, but the help is coming even faster for victims of the earthquake that hit Chile this past weekend. On Saturday, the day the quake hit the South American nation, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless all announced programs to help. Both AT&T and Sprint wireless users can send donations to the following groups: -Text the word "CHILE" to 25383 to donate $10 on behalf of the Habitat for Humanity. Verizon Wireless seems to be partnering with just two of those groups: Habitat for Humanity ("CHILE" to 25383) and World Vision ("CHILE" to 20222). However, Verizon also said its wireless customers in the U.S. can make free voice calls to and from Chile for at least a week. Finally, T-Mobile is also supporting $10 donations to Habitat for Humanity (text "CHILE" to 25383), World Vision ("CHILE" to 20222) and the Salvation Army ("CHILE" to 52000). All the carriers are waiving standard text messaging fees, as they did with Haiti donations. Good stuff. And it's been fascinating to see the text messaging system instantaneously become the most efficient and effective crisis relief system in history. As the Christian Science Monitor reports, text donations have topped $41 million for Haiti since the earthquake hit in January. By comparison, in 2008, total mobile donations for all causes were about $500,000. I suspect the donations for Chile will be much smaller than for Haiti, since Chile seems to have been far more prepared and is obviously much wealthier. But texting is now clearly the standard method of donation for severe crises. It's simple, painless and requires less than 10 seconds of effort. And it doesn't require coordinating dozens of aging music superstars for a bloated telethon no one wants to watch.
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The entry "Wireless industry helping out in Chile after earthquake" is tagged: AT&T , Chile , donation , earthquake , Haiti , Sprint Nextel , T-Mobile , text message , Verizon Wireless |
count me in.
going to wait and actually hold it in m
Soylent Green!
And it's March 11th and I'm still getti
Always in for Freebies, tell me your go
Count me in!
Count me in!
This is the most bizarre piece of news
Cool, hope I win!
I'm a big gamer fan.