Dams and Pinkies

Dams and Pinkies

Dived into Ender's Game, a book I've been meaning to read for ages.

Not much else done during the day besides reading and getting thoroughly annoyed at Weblogs, Inc. sites for constantly changing their postings (and re-posting stuff across their many sites). The end result is that newspipe floods my inbox with duplicate messages, because:

1. The initial post was updated for some reason.
2. The post doesn't seem to be updated, but either some markup was fixed or some other (invisible) change was made (which changes the md5 hash of the item and makes newspipe think it was updated).
3. They changed their ads yet again (which makes newspipe think all the items were updated and triggers a complete feed refresh). This last one seems to be a newspipe bug, since Bruno complains of the same and believes that newspipe checks the md5 before stripping ads (which seems likely to me, although I haven't checked that yet).
4. The same content was re-posted (with very minor changes) to another of their sub-sites.
5. All the above.
6. All the above, in spades.

I've started trimming the number of feeds I subscribe to again and disabling update detection in newspipe, but that won't eliminate all of the nuisances.

Meanwhile, thanks to Delfim, I hit upon a very quick way of clearing my news inbox from stuff I've already read and have no interest on. A quick twist of my PowerMate lets me gloss over my messages, a long click flags them, and I trigger this AppleScript via Mail Act-On every now and then:

tell application "Mail"
        set theMessages to (every message in mailbox "INBOX" of account "News"
            whose read status = true and flagged status = false)
        repeat with eachMessage in theMessages
                try
                        tell application "Mail"
                                delete eachMessage
                        end tell
                end try
        end repeat
end tell

- RuiCarmo
5:05:34 PM    

Free Online Courses at The HP Learning Center. Free online courses on Microsoft Word, Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, wireless security, etc.
5:05:32 PM    

Microsoft Employees Rage As Internet Explorer Ship Sinks. Internet Explorer 7 is the ultimate "me too" knock off. And nobody's madder than Microsoft employees and fans.
5:05:32 PM    

Landslide in Yemen kills at least 30 people
5:05:30 PM    

The CES unconference.

CES is coming up next week. Believe it or not, it’s big. How do I know that? Cause finding hotel rooms is tough (we found some, thank you to our readers!)

I’ve been thinking about how to do some sort of event there. I have Thursday night open and was just about to announce something, but then I saw Doc Searls linking to a CES Unconference idea. Ahh, a CES 2006 Wiki! Ahh, a CESCamp! How fun!

So, I’ll bring my Tablet PCs to some sort of event on Thursday evening. I hear the Tablet PC MVPs are looking to get into trouble with me that evening. I’m off to the Wiki to see which event we’ll crash. How about you, what are you going to during CES week?  I’m stuck in Vegas from January 3 through January 7.

4:06:04 PM    

PivotTables 9: Great support for SQL Server Analysis Services.

Today, I[approx equal]¥úll start a series of articles on the improvements we[approx equal]¥úve made to PivotTables connected to OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) data sources, specifically Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services models (in addition to its relational database product, SQL Server includes a feature named Analysis Services which provides business intelligence and data mining capabilities).  Excel has worked with SQL Server Analysis Services for several versions now, but we have put a lot of time and effort into Excel 12 in order to make it a great front end to SQL Server Analysis Services, especially Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services was recently released as part of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and introduced many new, powerful features for analyzing data [approx equal]¥Ï for more information on Analysis Services, please take a look here and here).

Before I launch into discussing how Excel 12 works with SQL Server Analysis Services, I wanted to summarize what I see as several key benefits to using Analysis Services as a tool for working with business data.

• Friendliness. Business data is typically stored in relational databases optimized for data input or storage and not analysis of that data.  Names of columns etc. are typically not intuitive to end users, there are no clear relationships between fields, etc.  Analysis Services provides a user-friendly model where you can provide understandable business names, specify relationships between fields (Product Category [approx equal]¥ã Product Subcategory [approx equal]¥ã Product) so that it is possible for business users to design their own reports without help from IT.
• Personalization.  Analysis Services offers tools for personalizing individual users[approx equal]¥ú reporting experience by only showing them the data that they care about and have permissions to see; in addition, Analysis Services can translate data into users[approx equal]¥ú preferred languages.
• Analytical capabilities.  Key Performance Indicators, calculations, conditional formatting, and actions are just a few examples of business logic that you can define once in Analysis Services and then expose automatically in Excel PivotTables.  Part of the beauty of this is that all users see the same thing in their PivotTables because the formatting, for example, is calculated in one place [approx equal]¥ã on the server.
• Fast analysis.  Analysis Services aggregates data so that analytical queries that might take minutes when executed against a relational database are typically executed in less than a second with Analysis Services.
• One consolidated analytical model.  Analysis Services allows you to consolidate data from different business systems into a single analytical model.  For example, you might have some sales data in an Oracle database and some customer data in a SQL Server database but for analysis that you would like to see in the same report. With an Analysis Services model, you can do just that without needing to change the source system at all.
• One version of the truth.  When analyzing data in Analysis Services, all the business logic is centrally managed in one analytical model so that every user will see the same numbers, calculated using the same business logic.  Any changes made to the model will immediately be available to all Excel PivotTable users when they update their report.  No more worrying that different users with different copies of the spreadsheet have different financial results.

All that said, let[approx equal]¥ús return to Excel 12, and take a look at what the PivotTable Field List looks like when connected to an Analysis Services 2005 model.

Measure groups
When connected to Analysis Services, a PivotTable exposes three types of fields [approx equal]¥ã [approx equal]¥[fl]measures[approx equal]¥ÿ, or the numbers (like [approx equal]¥[fl]sales[approx equal]¥ÿ and [approx equal]¥[fl]profit[approx equal]¥ÿ) that appear on your PivotTables, as well as [approx equal]¥[fl]KPIs[approx equal]¥ÿ and [approx equal]¥[fl]dimensions[approx equal]¥ÿ (both discussed below).  Measures can be grouped together in Analysis Services (by the person that designs the model) into something called [approx equal]¥[fl]measure groups[approx equal]¥ÿ.  In the Excel 12 field list, each measure group has a [approx equal]¥[fl]sigma[approx equal]¥ÿ icon to communicate to the user that the fields in the group are numerical and that they belong in the Values area of the PivotTable.  Measure groups essentially represent different sets of business metrics available for analysis; typically a measure group contains related measures from the same business application.  In the image below, the Exchange Rates measure group folder is open and there are two measures listed which can be added to the PivotTable [approx equal]¥ã Average Rate and End of Day Rate.

(Click to enlarge)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Below the measure group folders are is a KPI folder (assuming KPIs have been defined in an Analysis Services model).  This folder contains Key Performance Indicators defined on the Analysis Services server.  (Key Performance Indicators are a big subject unto themselves [approx equal]¥ã for the sake of this article, suffice to say that they track key business metrics and that they are defined in Analysis Services).  The different components of a KPI (Value, Goal, Status and Trend) can be added to the Values area of the PivotTable so you can track the latest values of your key business metrics.  Here is a screenshot of the KPIs folder ... in the image, the Product Gross Margins KPI is open and all you have to do to add the Value, Goal, Status or Trend of the KPI to the PivotTable is to check the checkbox next to it.

(Click to enlarge)

KPIs in PivotTables are quite interesting - I[approx equal]¥úll cover PivotTable KPI support in more detail in an upcoming post.

Dimensions
Finally, the dimensions of the Analysis Services model are listed in the PivotTable field list.  (Dimensions are the different attributes that you can use to slice and dice your data, like time, geography, customer, product, etc.)  In the screenshot below, the Customer dimension folder is open and you can see the customer-related fields available in the Analysis Services model.

(Click to enlarge)

Organizing the field list
Within the measure group folders, the KPIs folder and the dimension folders, the person that authors the Analysis Services model can set up subfolders to organize the data in an intuitive way, making it much easier for business users to navigate the field list.  In the screen shot above, an example would be the Contacts and Location folders. These folders are defined on the Analysis Services; Excel picks them up when initializing the PivotTable Field List.

For those of you that are familiar with SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, the field list will show both user hierarchies (like Customer Geography in the example) and attribute hierarchies (like Email Address in the example). If you do not specify any folder for an attribute hierarchy on the server, we will display it in a special [approx equal]¥[fl]More Fields[approx equal]¥ÿ folder under the dimension where it belongs.  We do this since there are typically many attribute hierarchies (often one per column of each table in the source database), and listing them at the top level makes it hard to navigate the field list.

Focusing the information in the field list
When a PivotTable is connected to SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, at the top of the PivotTable Field List, there is a drop down where the user can select which measure group you want to work with.  In many cases, you only need the measures from one measure group for a report, and this drop down allows you to filter out all the other measure groups as well as KPIs and dimensions that are not related to the measure group you select.  This can have the effect of reducing the number of fields visible in the field list making it much easier to build your analysis.

To illustrate this with an example, I[approx equal]¥úll pick the Financial Reporting measure group.

(Click to enlarge)

And here is the resultant field list, filtered to only show information related to Financial Reporting.  Now there is only one measure group folder visible and significantly fewer dimensions, it is much simpler for me to find the fields I need.

(Click to enlarge)

Perspectives in PivotTables
One feature available in SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services is the idea of a [approx equal]¥[fl]perspective[approx equal]¥ÿ.  To crib from the Analysis Services website, a large Analysis Services model can present to the user a large number of dimensions, measure groups, measures, and KPIs and may be challenging to navigate, even with the ability to filter the field list based on a measure group discussed previously. A perspective, which is defined in the Analysis Services model, creates a subset "view" of a cube [approx equal]¥ã essentially, model designers can create perspectives that only contain the information needed for a given purpose.  To provide a degree of personalization, a security role can be associated with the set of perspectives applicable to that role.

Excel 12 supports perspectives; once a user has connected to a perspective (which to Excel 12 looks just like any other data source), the PivotTable Field List will only show the measure groups included in the perspective inside the [approx equal]¥[fl]Show fields related to:[approx equal]¥ÿ drop down, and selecting (All) in the drop-down will only show the user the fields included in the perspective.

Hierarchies make exploration easy
The last Analysis Services feature I will cover today are hierarchies.  One of the advantages of PivotTables based on Analysis Services models is that you can set up hierarchies within each dimension.  Hierarchies help users navigate the data intuitively and correctly.  A hierarchy defines relations between fields [approx equal]¥Ï let[approx equal]¥ús look at an example.  In the screenshot below, I[approx equal]¥úve expanded the Customer Geography hierarchy to show the individual fields (or levels) it contains.

(Click to enlarge)

In this example there are five levels, so when I add Customer Geography to the PivotTable by clicking the checkbox for it, I[approx equal]¥úm actually adding five fields at once (for non-Analysis Services data sources, you have to add multiple fields in the right order to get the same report, and it might not always be obvious which fields to pick.).  This gives me the opportunity to expand countries to see states etc. without having to also add the four other fields to the PivotTable.  After I[approx equal]¥úve added Customer Geography to the PivotTable, I can explore the hierarchy by clicking the expand indicator ([approx equal]¥[fl]+[approx equal]¥ÿ) for Australia in the PivotTable, which shows me the next level of detail ([approx equal]¥[fl]State-Province[approx equal]¥ÿ).

(Click to enlarge)

The new Excel 12 expand/collapse indicators (discussed in a previous post) appear automatically for hierarchies to make it very easy to determine when there are details to expand or collapse.  For example, I could use the expand indicators to further expand to see [approx equal]¥[fl]City[approx equal]¥ÿ, [approx equal]¥[fl]Postal Code[approx equal]¥ÿ, etc.

4:06:01 PM    

Al-Qaida in Iraq threatens Sudan Embassy workers
4:05:56 PM    

Alaska Airlines spam-comments on emergency landing passenger?. Passenger was on board of an emergency landing Alaska Airlines plane and blogged about it. Now he gets insulting comment spam from IPs that track back to Alaska Airlines.
4:05:56 PM    

Researchers discover how a high-fat diet causes type 2 diabetes. Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered a molecular link between a high-fat, Western-style diet, and the onset of type 2 diabetes. In studies in mice, the scientists showed that a high-fat diet disrupts insulin production, resulting in the classic signs of type 2 diabetes.
4:05:55 PM    

Ten Failed Tech Trends for 2005. At year's end, newspapers, websites, and tech publications are full of predictions of future trends. ExtremeTech decided to take a look backwards at 2005, and figure out which hyped trends failed to materialize.
4:05:55 PM    

FBI looking to hire IT workers. Annual pay for the positions ranges from $35,452 to $135,136
3:05:11 PM    

The Simple Pill That Prevents Cancer. A daily dose of vitamin D could cut the risk of cancers of the breast, colon and ovary by up to a half, a 40-year review of research has found.
3:05:11 PM    

How to implant an RFID tag into your own hand. This guy shows how you can implant an RFID tag into your hand.
3:05:11 PM    

Half-Life 2: 32-bit vs. 64-bit. Techgage takes both versions through a few quick tests to see if the 64-Bit has what it takes to be the preferred version.
3:05:11 PM    

US to leave Iraq where local forces can take over
3:05:10 PM    

Two interesting and related developments today in OPML-land. First, Kosso has an OPML browser, but don't be fooled, it's actually a nice Flash-based feed reader, and a good complement to the River of News aggregator I'm working on. Then quite coincidentally, Dan MacTough just released an OPML renderer for WordPress. It allows you to create expand-collapse blogrolls. Also very nice! We're really starting to cook some tasty meals in this department.
3:05:09 PM    

Kosso has a Flashy blogroll.

Hey, Kosso, I want the blogroll you have built for your blog. Damn, that thing is cool! It’s Flash. Click on a node (er, folder) and watch the animation. It is a little OPML and RSS aggregator, I think. Am I right? Do I win a prize? I want it!

3:05:09 PM    

Joel says teaching Java is bad for CS students.

Joel Spolsky writes a very interesting essay about why teaching Java in colleges is actually bad for the computer industry (and for the students themselves). I’ve heard the same kind of thing repeated around halls at Microsoft. Almost every team I interview with my camcorder says they can’t find enough C or C++ programmers to get their stuff done. Some on very exciting teams with hundreds of millions of users. Some that, gasp, actually have budget to hire real programmers. And, this isn’t just a US problem. The problem exists at our offices around the world. Every team I talk with says they wish they could hire more hard-core programmers.

3:05:09 PM    

Death threats cut Iraq oil flow. Iraq's largest oil refinery is shut down at a cost of $20m a day after death threats to tanker drivers.
3:05:05 PM    

Arab League meet to discuss League reforms
2:05:28 PM    

Amazon is hosting author blogs. This is a very good idea. A few years ago I urged Martin Nisenholtz at the NY Times to offer Times-hosted blogs to people who are quoted in Times articles. It's still a good idea and still not too late. Eventually everyone who's quotable will have a blog, and then they'll be kicking themselves that they didn't get in there early. Amazon is doing the right thing. Barnes and Noble should have done it first. Postscript: Maybe Amazon isn't actually hosting blogs.
2:05:26 PM    

Attensa DOES have RSS synchro API.

Sometimes I post things without having all the data (although I didn’t know it at the time of posting). What’s interesting about shooting off your mouth in public is that your readers can say “hey, you forgot about this.”

Today is one of those times.

Last night the CEO of Attensa, Craig Barnes wrote me and asked me to give Attensa a fair shot in the RSS world. Today he wrote the same thing on his blog.

I owe him an apology and a correction. Here it is: I’m sorry Craig for not knowing what Attensa had announced. I’m downloading Attensa now to see how it compares to other RSS aggregators. One thing I noticed is that he doesn’t have as many clients out there as NewsGator does. Craig says they are working feverishly on that.

Craig says that their backend is more reliable than NewsGator’s. I’m looking forward to testing that. I’ve had problems using NewsGator on my cell phone, for instance (sometimes it’s hard to mark a feed as read) and sometimes feeds I’ve marked as read come back down as unread. Other people have been reporting other problems with NewsGator’s feeds (Shel Israel told me yesterday that it once resubscribed to feeds he had unsubscribed from).

Let the best API win! Thanks to Craig for correcting my ignorance.

2:05:26 PM    

How the RIAA gets its victims. A detailed explanation on how exactly one gets sued by the RIAA. Lawyer Ray Beckerman, who's been working with Patti Santangelo in her defense, explains how "justice" is served, RIAA style...
2:05:22 PM    

DivX release browser plug-in for IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape. DivX have released a new browser plug-in supporting all of the major browsers for Windows. The plug-in enables you to play high-quality DivX content live in your web browser and does not require a special streaming server or any files to be installed on the server to work. Sample content and an SDK for web developers are available.
2:05:21 PM    

Is Microsoft's XML Format About Openness or Control?. Linux News says Microsoft's fight over XML document formats is about control. Microsoft already paved the path for us to follow, and that path won't lead to true interoperability, and maintain the vendor lock-in. But Microsoft forgot one thing: The power is in the hands of the customers. How will you deal with it?
2:05:21 PM    

Arab League anger over cartoons. Arab foreign ministers condemn the Danish government over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
1:05:49 PM    

Concern for Gaza Britons. The family of a British human rights worker kidnapped with her parents in Gaza express their deep concern.
1:05:48 PM    

Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick. A cross between EP2 and EP3 if they happened in the Lego world!

Check out the picture that Chewie takes at the end.
1:05:43 PM    

No iPod for Christmas, just mystery meat. All I want for Christmas is a piece of meat...in an 5G iPod box!!
1:05:43 PM    

Blogging’s ROI? Doubled wine sales.

Blogging doubled Stormhoek’s wine sales in less than a year, says Hugh Macleod.

Thanks for the compliments Hugh! Actually, it’s not my blog that’s been changing Microsoft. It’s all the more than 2,000 Microsoft bloggers that are changing Microsoft. If I were the intermediary here between you and the folks who build the products it wouldn’t be that big a deal.

It’s the fact that you can tell a Flight Simulator developer what you’d like to see in the next version. Anyone who wears a goofy hat like that is easy to talk to!

Oh, and I found blogging does something else. It lets readers correct my mistakes. More on that in the next post…

1:05:41 PM    

Want an invite to Naked Conversations’ launch parties.

By the way, we’re planning on having launch parties in both Medina, WA (right next door to Jeff Bezos’ house and on the same street as Bill Gates’ house) and in Silicon Valley at TechCrunch’s headquarters (aka Mike Arrington’s house) for our book. If you’d like an invite to one of those, please do contact me. No promises (we have VERY limited space) but we will try to get you in. Those launch parties will probably not be publicized publicly due to the limited space, but they will be pretty nice events. Just email me at rscoble@microsoft.com.

1:05:41 PM    

Dave Winer working on new RSS aggregator?.

Looks like Dave Winer is working on a new aggregator. This is cool because his style of “river of news” aggregators is far more appropriate than the “folder by folder” or “3-pane” approach that I’m using currently. Why? The folder-by-folder approach requires you to be pretty anal about reading all your feeds and makes you mentally tired if you fall behind. Sorta like email. It’s to the point sometimes that I dread opening up Outlook.

But a river of news approach is more discardable, sorta like a daily newspaper. Does anyone get itchy if they don’t read every last story in a newspaper? No! You read what you have time for, which is why there’s an editor who decides what the most important story of the day is, and why journalists are trained to write in reverse-pyramid style (the important facts of the story are always at the beginning).

Dave should be at the geek dinner tomorrow night so maybe we’ll learn more there.

1:05:40 PM    

Amazon hooks in Naked Conversations?.

When we started our Naked Conversations book blog (the book starts shipping next week, by the way) I never imagined that booksellers would change their practices to include book blogs. Amazon just announced its Connect program that does just that. Here’s the details on Memeorandum and on ClickZ.

This is going to kick off a trend, by the way, of combining walled garden approaches like the one Amazon has with the wide-open hinterlands of the blogs. I’m getting demos of other companies who are similarly looking to make the blog the center of the world. Even at Microsoft we’re starting to think this way. The CES crew asked me yesterday whether I could blog from CES with a special CES tag that they’d use to suck my content in and redistribute it.

Update: TDavid says that Amazon’s new program isn’t a true blog pointing program, but rather something else. He gives details on his blog (no comments and no RSS feeds are allowed, for instance, sigh).

1:05:40 PM    

Mofaz sets up team to probe olive tree damage
1:05:33 PM    

Lt. Binamo to be buried 11 a.m. Friday in Haifa
1:05:33 PM    

Iraqi parties discuss coalition. Iraq's leading parties are discussing the formation of a coalition government, the vice-president tells the BBC.
12:05:52 PM    

At the end of 2005, why am I working on an aggregator?
12:05:51 PM    

Georgeo off to Afghanistan.

Hey, Georgeo, it’s quiet here in Microsoft’s Silicon Valley cafeteria too (he wrote it’s quiet at headquarters), but people are working and the Starbucks is open. I’ll be here all day trying to catch up on Channel 9 tasks and email. 131 waiting, better get to it.

Anyway, Georgeo Pulikkathara is the guy who runs MSDN Webcasts (he’s the one who hires my wife’s firm, if I remember right). On his blog he wrote that he’s about to ship off to Afghanistan. It’s yet a reminder of the price we all are paying due to military actions overseas. I can’t imagine being forced to move overseas and leave my job and my family. Our wishes are with you Georgeo, come back safely!

12:05:51 PM    

Silicon Valley geek dinner tomorrow night.

Shel Israel says he never comes to my dinners cause he doesn’t think he’s a geek. Let’s see, he helped launch companies from Creative Labs to Riya and he’s not a geek? Yeah, right. Anyway, here’s a dirty little secret. Our dinners are always open to everyone. Even PR people!

While I was in Europe I learned that people around the world are jealous of Silicon Valley and Seattle cause we have so many geeks in those two places. Hey, I’m jealous of Europe. You have Anina the geek model! And decent beer!

But, please feel free to tell us about your geek meetups here too!

Anyway, here’s the details (Maryam and Patrick are coming too, so the whole family is welcome). Meet at Palo Alto’s Cheesecake Factory (on University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto) at 6 p.m. Bring cash so you can pay for your part. Feel free to show off your geek toys that you got for Christmas!

12:05:51 PM    

Juniper suing trolls.

Jeremiah Owyang, the blogger who works at Hitachi Datasystems, told me about this yesterday during lunch. Juniper Networks is suing anonymous users who allegedly defamed Juniper in a Web forum. He points to the relevant sources.

This just seems a really great way to draw more attention to the trolls. I would never have paid attention to them, but now I’m reading all about them and the Juniper lawsuit.

12:05:49 PM    

Site Helps You Track Your Amazon Purchases For Price Drop Credits. Amazon.com has a price guarantee policy to credit buyers back cash. If the product you purchased within the last 30 days has dropped in price they will credit you back the difference.

This Site will check everyday and send you an email if the price has dropped. In the email will be a link right to the place where you claim your credit.
12:05:46 PM    

Ways to Get Around the Zero Day WMF Exploit. 1337tech has blogged about how to get round the exploit (temporarily), PLUS, links to a video to what happens if you are affected by the exploit
12:05:45 PM    

Hacking AIM. Some minor playing with sand-box hacking with AIM.
12:05:45 PM    

Engineer Proves Speed Camera Error In Court. Engineer Bryn Carlyon was issued a ticket by a traffic speed camera in Cardiff, UK. But he used multiple timed snaps by the camera, plus a little basic math, to prove that he could not have been traveling at the speed on his citation.
12:05:45 PM    

Man hit by train; Witnesses say he didn't run away
12:05:44 PM    

Interview with Kevin Rose - What should we ask him?. Gadgetell has arranged an interview with Kevin. Do you have anything you've been dying to ask him? If so, post it down in the comments and we'll get you some answers!
11:05:59 AM    

Build Your Own Game Console. S'all in the title. Found via Joystiq.
11:05:59 AM    

5 Best Freeware Games of 2005. Lists the five best freeware games of the year that include a battlefield 2 like shooter, zak mckracken 2 the successor of zak mckracken and other great games.
11:05:59 AM    

700 free icons for your web site or app. Ever need a particular icon for a button or link but just can't find it? There's a good chance you'll find it in Mark James' Silk icon pack. He's put together more than 700 16x16 icons for common and not-so-common actions, apps, and more, all of them free, all of them in PNG format, and he keeps adding more.
11:05:59 AM    

FireFox logo in ASCII. Nice representation of the Mozilla FireFox logo in ASCII code. Check it out.
11:05:59 AM    

The Truth Behind Bananas. After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.
11:05:59 AM    

Police to launch campaign against drunk driving
11:05:55 AM    

Seven Israelis injured in bus accident in Thailand
11:05:55 AM    

Man buys his own stolen camera on eBay.. A German businessman whose camera was stolen was relieved to find the same model for sale on eBay. When it arrived after he bought it however, he discovered it was his OWN, stolen camera!
10:05:11 AM    

Overstock shares fade as CEO warns of 'drugs or dead body' caper. In a single TV interview last week, he shocked investors by revealing that holiday sales were far below expectations, perplexed the financial crowd by talking about drugs and dead bodies being found in his trunk and initiated a verbal war with billionaire blogger Mark Cuban.
10:05:11 AM    

A pox on the RIAA! Why won't they let you see WKRP DVDs?. This is an old soapbox issue for me; but Ars Tech has brought it up once again. What would be the greatest ever DVD video collection ever; has been stopped RIAA fatback greedheads.
10:05:11 AM    

Fantasy vs. Reality - The truth about internet users. It's easy to be anything you want on the Internet -- this article takes away the disguises and helps get to the real person underneath.
10:05:11 AM    

Add Windows media support to your Linux box. Having trouble getting .WMV, .WMA, and .ASF files to open on your Linux box? Being forced to dual-boot or switch workstations just to listen to or watch audio and video clips is usually more effort than it's worth. But fortunately, if you are using Xine and one of its frontends like Totem, you can add support for these file formats within Linux.
10:05:10 AM    

Revolution definitely less then $299 says Iwata. In an interview, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata gives the first concrete price information regarding the Nintendo Revolution.
10:05:10 AM    

Al-Qaida in Iraq took credit for Katyusha attack
10:05:09 AM    

Iran committed to India gas deal. Iran says it is committed to a gas pipeline project with India and Pakistan, despite US disapproval.
10:05:08 AM    

Candid account of where New Orleans is at from an anonymous correspondent.
10:05:06 AM    

Underworld bomb builder sentenced to 12 years
9:05:39 AM    

How To Enhance Performance of OSX. There are certain things that would help Mac OS X perform well and be more responsive (you could say 'snappy'). Here is a general guide to help you get that snap back in your Mac
9:05:38 AM    

Study finds plastic in 95% of dead birds. THOUSANDS of seabirds are being killed each year after a massive rise in plastics pollution in the North Sea, according to a new report.
9:05:38 AM    

Improve your memory. Pretty basic info, but it's got some good ideas if you (like me) have a horrible memory.
9:05:38 AM    

Barcode Hacking 101 - step by step in a real life exploit!. This is a great story; I like the bit where he gets the cashier to swipe his 'experimental' Price Chopper card.
9:05:38 AM    

2005: Stormy Year for Desktop CPUs. Extremetech makes the case that the CPU business isn't all rosy. AMD was unable to lock down Dell, Intel couldn't reach 5GHz, let alone 4GHz, and now they're toting performance per watt versus performance per clock! Oh, how it all changes...
9:05:37 AM    

Why DVDs are starting to suck. Bad enough that every movie now plays ten to fifteen minutes of ads before we get to see the film we paid to see. Now they are invading our home purchased movies as well.
9:05:37 AM    

Mike is right, I like everything about Magnatune.
9:05:34 AM