Microsoft Will Open Retail Stores Near Apple Stores in the Fall On Monday I quoted Robert X. Cingely’s skeptical take in a NYTimes OpEd on the Microsoft/Bing Google/Chrome corporate competition: This is all heady stuff and good for lots of press, but in the end none of this is likely to make a real difference for either company or, indeed, for consumers. It’s just noise — a form of mutually...

Swiss neutrality is an article of faith among the people of that country, which is why something of a civil war has erupted between Switzerland’s collective head of state and its judiciary over whether documents, which are rumored to show CIA meddling in Swiss national affairs, should be destroyed. In a nutshell, the documents involve Swiss nationals who helped Pakistan nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan develop...

Flooding, lake rising every day… my heart shakes, water breaks over its banks… My lifetime of books, my art, my everything is stored on ground lower than the lake. It has slash-rained here in the Rockies every day for last thirty… another 11 we’ll outdo Noah… Rains in the mountains afternoons- usual. But not like this, thunder, sheet lightning, fork lightning, lamp glowing yellow...

It’s become an accepted piece of conventional wisdom. The United States, it’s said, is at risk of falling behind the rest of the world because of continuing shortage of scientists and engineers. Maybe not. [This has also been posted on my personal blog.]

If only pipsqueak dust was as magical as fairy dust. Two pipsqueaks sitting around talking Hattip to Jay Rosen and Chris Geidner for the heads up about this video, posted this morning and featuring Plain Dealer news impact editor, John Kroll. Kroll responds to reactions to Reader Representative Ted Diadiun’s video from last week, which was about reaction to Connie Schultz’s column from...

Robert X. Cingely says in the NYTimes today that the Microsoft/Google competition will come to naught: Yes, Google would love to get a toehold in the netbook and smart-phone markets, especially at Microsoft’s expense. The Chrome OS and Android are both ideal for pushing Google’s net-centric view of computing. But the company worries far more about protecting its current cash cow — search — and says as...

#6 – Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin. What’s that? A 24-year-old Brooklyn musician named Michael Gregory has combined a number of evening news broadcast clips and turned them into a vaguely acceptable faux R&B series called Auto-Tune the News…. For those unaware, Auto-Tune is a software program that alters singers’ voices to achieve perfect pitch. Used too much — or when they’re...

I suppose I really have become a bit of a cold-hearted old curmudgeon in my golden years, because I know I should have a lot more sympathy for this poor girl. And yet, I still laughed. Teen Girl Falls In Open Manhole While Texting NEW YORK (CBS) ?It was an accident waiting to happen — an open sewer and a 15-year-old girl who was texting while she walked. Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking...

In recent times, there have been clear indications that male of the human species is on a suicidal path. Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the macho rule of men? Here I am not talking about the mess created by myopic/desperate men (and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan), but the British scientists’ recent claim that they have created human sperm in the lab. If there’s no need for sperm,...

The latest in Facebook fun: [T]he rules of this wonderfully batty pursuit are very simple. You have to find the weirdest place possible for anyone to lie down in. And that’s where you lie down, face down, and have someone take a picture of you.

If you missed my post last night, today Pogue posted the video version of his NYTimes rave review of Microsoft’s Bing search engine. While not as complete as the print version, it has the advantage of show and tell…

Layar: Layar is a mobile augmented reality browser, developed by the Amsterdam-based company SPRXmobile. It displays real time digital information on top of reality in the camera screen of your the mobile phone. Layar was first released on June 17th 2009 in the Netherlands for Android phones. A version for the iPhone 3GS will be released end of summer; any other mobile phone with a GPS and compass will be considered. Via...

I’m sick of all the attention the media is giving Michael Jackson, too, but I promise you this is absolutely brilliant: Studio Brussel, a publicly funded radio station in Belgium also known at StuBru, has created a very unique website as a tribute to Michael Jackson. The site is called Eternal Moonwalk and is a video slideshow of people, animals and inanimate objects doing Michael Jackson’s signature...

Larry J. Sabato: Tweets of the Week A new Crystal Ball feature, Tweets of the Week, will showcase some highlights from the past week in politics. This commentary is just a sampling of the analysis (and, yes, sometimes humor) of University of Virginia Center for Politics Director, and Crystal Ball founder, Larry Sabato who can be found on Twitter by clicking here. July 8: With Madigan gone, Gov. Pat Quinn (D)...

Sri Lankan journalist Nalaka Gunawardene notes in his blog how the twin technologies of satellite television and the Internet transformed far-away Michael Jackson into a local icon across Asia. He also mentions about a 2001 documentary named Michael Jackson Comes to Manikganj that probed how far and wide satellite television was influencing and impacting culture, society and even politics of South Asia. See...

It’s a few days late, but I don’t recall seeing much comment on this milestone: CompuServe has been shut down by AOL, the current owner of the name and whatever was left of the company. To enlighten those younger than their forties, CompuServe was one of the first online services, back in the dark ages before the Internet (which was indeed capitalized in the early days…) and the World Wide...

So much is being written about Bing I can hardly keep up. Virtually all of it grudgingly good. Take, for example, David Pogue’s rave in the NYTimes today. He kicks it off with this: For the last 15 years, Microsoft’s master business plan seems to have been, “Wait until somebody else has a hit. Then copy it.” I know that sounds mean, but come on — the list of commercial hits/Microsoft knockoffs...

After President Obama’s visit to Russia, it would appear that East Europeans are resting just a little bit easier. For Poland’s Rceczpospolita, columnist Jerzy Haszczynski writes in part: “We still don’t know whether plans to build components of an anti-missile shield in our country will remain plans and nothing more. But we know, pressure from Russia notwithstanding, that the project is...

While Michael Arrington revels in I told you so, deservedly, his colleague, MG Siegler, rockets to the top of the techmeme heights with his post, Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome: Wow. So you know all those whispers about a Google desktop operating system that never seem to go away? You thought they might with the launch of Android, Google’s mobile OS. But they persisted....

For those of us who love our Blackberry devices (my Blackberry Storm has made me too organized) and love blogging, Wordpress has given us another reason to love our Blackberries even more: WORDPRESS FOR BLACKBERRY! Yes it is public beta mode right now, still in development, and has some bugs but I have to say one word: COOL! Yeah yeah… I’m displaying my inner geek (well protected in the body of...

Just imagine. Even more omnipresent than the camera phone. Underexposed: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a fabric made of a mesh of light-sensitive fibers that collectively act like a rudimentary camera. The fibers, which each can detect two frequencies of light, produced signals that when amplified and processed by a computer reproduced an image of a smiley face near...

It’s an American product that most people consider as pure as rain and as wholesome as apple pie. Is it possible to criticize Disneyland as a ‘gigantic world encompassing brain-washing facility’? After attacking the insidious way that Disney stories have soft-peddled destructive Western man to the globe’s children, this article from Mexico’s La Jornada criticizes a new Mexican...

With time to prepare, video sites and social networks appear to have kept running smoothly during the Michael Jackson memorial service and tribute: “Overall, the Internet is holding up great,” said Jennifer Donovan, a spokeswoman for Akamai, a company that handles Internet traffic for a variety of large clients. “We have not heard of any sites being down during this event.” Traffic to news sites supported...

One may hate Michael Jackson, or love him madly, or remain totally indifferent to him, but one just can’t ignore this musical phenomenon and his mass appeal. Jackson’s memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles is expected to be an even bigger global internet video-viewing event than the inauguration of US President Barack Obama, reports ANI. A Michael Jackson page at Facebook has already...

In Renaissance Europe, and in the ancient and medieval Hindu and Mughal societies, the young courtesans were much in news and played a vital role. Even in this computer age the tradition continues as exemplified by a Romanian teenager who auctioned off her virginity for $20,000. Alina Percea, 18, has spoken for the first time about her night with the highest bidder, reports LiveNews. Percea (photo above) auctioned...