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holdenkarau writes "The North American OpenMoko FreeRunners are starting to arrive. It would appear that the OpenMoko still has problems with some 3G networks, including AT&T. Although, in my own personal completely unscientific test, 2 out of 3 AT&T SIM cards worked. Check out the unboxing of a complete FreeRunner (along with debug board) and my experience getting the FreeRunner up and running. Or a direct link to the pictures for those of you bored with text. If you feel brave enough to take the plunge, you can buy your own FreeRunner from the OpenMoko store."

Stopping into an AT&T store early in order to inquire about the quantity that my local store will have for launch day, I decided to check my eligibility for a subsidized upgrade because I just upgraded 5 months ago under the assumption that the 3G iPhone would not be subsidized like the original version. Upon looking up my account information, the sales person stated that I would be unable simply skip the subsidy and buy a full price iPhone 3G July 11th. I asked if he could verify this and he talked to his manager and got the same answer immediately. "Only new contracts, existing iPhone owners and over 2 year contract renewals" will be able to get the much lusted after new 3G iPhone on launch day. A few more calls verified this for the other stores in my area. So it looks like myself and many others looking to get the shiny new iPhone 3G may be out of luck until the 12th...

So in my despair about the FISA "compromise" I switched over to MSNBC after the Newshour to see how Olbermann feels about the FISA bill. I consider him to be quite the partisan hack and little better than a left-wing version of Bill O'Reilly but he can be amusing at times and I'm sufficiently annoyed right now to consider listening to him.

That lasted about for just two segments of Countdown. Apparently Rachael Maddow was hosting Countdown tonight. She isn't as humorous as Olbermann is but she usually does a decent job of sticking to his script. The first piece I saw was lambasting Fox News for the Jesse Jackson comments that they caught on a hot mike. Apparently Fox News is a tabloid "gotcha" network. Why Ms. Maddow thinks this is news is beyond me. Any halfway neutral observer can see that.

So after criticizing Fox News for going after someone with "gotcha" material, what do you think the next piece on Countdown is entitled? "Angelina Poor Me", a segment about Angelina Jolie's antics in a French hospital while waiting for the birth of her twins. Apparently hospital gossip is that she is less than happy with the level of service that she's receiving and she has become quite "pushy" towards the nursing staff if they don't answer her call button right away.

Someone please explain to me how a segment like this is any less tabloid'ish than something I'd see on "The Factor"? What's scary and depressing is that millions of people are turning to Olbermann and O'Reilly to get their news. Why bother challenging yourself to listen to and understand the other side of the debate when you can get all of your news from someone who agrees with your perception of the World?

I have one of those mind-numbingly easy jobs that requires nearly no mental effort at all to do. To keep myself sane, I have to keep my mind busy on things other than what I'm actually doing. After perusing the many Chuck Norris Facts online one night, I was annoyed that most of them weren't funny and many of them didn't respect Chuck Norris the Man. I thought the idea of these "facts" was to mock the Chuck Norris Legend, which, apparently, a lot of people are unable to separate from the man himself. I have a pretty deep respect for Chuck, he's a great guy, and has had a pretty damn cool career. I don't really care for any of his movies or his TV show, but that doesn't really matter to me much--It's obvious he had a great time doing it, and he knows how cheesy it is, and that's part of the fun. (Same reason to love Troma.) Anyway, over the course of about a week at work I devised my own list of

Chuck Norris Facts

1. The ongoing pirates vs. ninjas debate is moot because if a pirate and a ninja were to ever actually collide they would fuse into a Chuck Norris that would immediately annihilate all the remaining ninjas and pirates on the planet.

2. Chuck Norris can deliver a kick so fast that the pain will actually travel back in time and make your grandfather say "What the hell hit me?" forty years ago.

3. Scientists have calculated that there should be about 80% more mass in the universe than they're able to account for and have proposed a number of radical theories to resolve the discrepancy such as the existence of dark matter or the influence of parallel universes. The problem was finally solved when Chuck Norris admitted he kicked a hole in the universe and that's where all the missing matter went.

4. The butterfly effect is named after the oft-misquoted observation that Chuck Norris kicking a single butterfly in Asia could cause a whirlwind of pain in North America.

5. NASA's JPL has announced that they've synthesized a Liquefied Chuck Norris Round-House Kick (LCNRHK). While they admit it's not quite as powerful as the real thing, three gallons of LCNRHK would be sufficient to launch the Space Shuttle into orbit.

6. A Chuck Norris kick isn't always fatal. In fact, the Chuck Norris roundhouse kick is the world's leading cause of acute amnesia, which is why you don't remember the time he kicked you in the head.

7. Vultures were once on the verge of extinction and then Chuck Norris was born.

8. Chuck Norris rides a pale horse. But Hell doesn't follow with him; he keeps it in his fist.

9. It was recently discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls that the real reason Pharoah let the Israelites go was that Moses threatened to unleash the wrath of Chuck Norris.

10. Mysterious cattle mutilations are not caused by aliens, but by Chuck Norris having a midnight snack.

11. Sunspots are formed when Chuck Norris uses the Sun as a punching bag.

12. Galactus doesn't eat planets, Chuck Norris does. Just be glad he's still full from the one that used to be between Jupiter and Mars.

13. In 1987 Mr. T got tired of shaving his head to maintain his mohawk, so he asked Chuck Norris to kick the sides of his head. The hair has never grown back since.

14. Q- How many Chuck Norrises does it take to change a lightbulb? A- Just the threat of one is enough to make it change itself out of fear.

15. Chuck Norris doesn't need to have sex to reproduce. He can simply break himself in half to form two new Chuck Norrises.
This process is known as Chucklear Fission.

16. The Tungusta blast of 1908 happened when a Russian dared Chuck Norris to light one of his farts.

17. Chuck Norris once called Cthulu but Cthulu was too scared to show up.

18. In the movie Alien, no special effects were used to depict the xenomorph. Instead, Ridley Scott just borrowed Chuck Norris' lap dog.
Chuck Norris' other pets include the hellhound that devoured Robert Johnson's soul, two chupacabras, and a yeti.

19. God originally wanted to send the sinners to Chuck Norris, but Jesus told Him that was too cruel, so God created Hell instead.

20. The world really was scheduled to end in the year 2000 as many people believed, but the four horses of the Apocolypse are on Chuck Norris' ranch and the four horsemen are too scared to go get them.

21. Once upon a time there were three bears. Chuck Norris. The End.

22. Chuck Norris was originally cast in the title role in Rocky, but the producers were afraid someone who actually knew how to fight might injure the other actors, so they trained a shaved ape for the part instead.

23. Every cell in Chuck Norris' body is shaped like a fist.

24. Chuck Norris once accidentally frowned at a baby and it cried itself to death, almost making Chuck cry. Ever since then Chuck Norris always smiles at babies.

25. Chuck Norris keeps a black hole in his pocket as a handy place to store all the bodies of his victims.

26. The 1972 Miami Dolphins had a perfect season because someone started a rumor that Chuck Norris was on the team.

27. Chuck Norris once got beat up in a Bruce Lee movie, which just proves how good an actor Chuck is.

28. Chuck Norris dug up the Oak Island treasure with a runcible spoon.

29. Chuck Norris once kicked his own ass just to prove nothing is impossible.

30. To prevent heart disease, Chuck Norris ripped his own heart out of his chest and replaced it with a fist.

31. Chuck Norris donated his still-beating heart to the Make a Wish Foundation. To date, it has saved the lives of seventeen children.

32. Chuck Norris proved transubstantiation is real when he ate a communion wafer and crapped out baby Jesus in a manger, three wise men, Mary, and an angel.

33. In Soviet Russia ass kicks Chuck Norris.

Some of these might be similar to or inspired by other Chuck Norris Facts elsewhere on the web. If there happen to be any that are obvious copies that someone else invented first, go ahead and point it out to me.

Now this is just too amusing. One of Time Magazine's blogs has boiled John McCain's budget plan down to this time honored /. theme:

1) Cut taxes and spend more on the military
2) ???
3) Balanced budget!!

I just about spit coffee on my monitor after reading that. Figured it needed to be shared ;)

Corrupt writes "The 4.2-billion-year-old diamonds found trapped inside the Jack Hills zircon crystals are the oldest-known samples of Earths carbon. The Curtin led teams discovery of very high concentrations of carbon 12, or light carbon within these crystals is remarkable as it is a feature usually associated with organic life."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080707134402.htm

True crypt is fabulous. But is it good enough to hide a body?

Hans

whittier writes "On July 10, 2008, at 10:00 AM PST, Microsoft will begin to "push" distribution of Windows XP Service Pack 3 via "Automatic Updates". For computer users who follow Microsoft's advice, Automatic Updates is set to download and install recommended updates as they become available. However, if there is a glitch in the installation process, users could wake up to an unusable computer. Complete story Microsoft information source"
http://www.iaps.com/blog/2008/07/sp3-to-automatic-updates-on-july-10.html

Tim MacDonald writes "Not all copyright infringers are small time crooks — sometimes they make it to the big time.

Mike Nichols lifted 34 seconds of journalist Arthur Kent's video footage from the archives and ran it — complete with Kent's original voice over — in his film Charlie Wilson's War, without asking permission.

Kent is taking Universal to court for this brazen display of plagiarism. Why should the MPAA go to town against the average public who download a cam while waiting for the DVD to come out when they can't keep their own filmmakers and studios in check for plagiarism?"
http://skyreporter.com/blog/page/1/20080326_01/

This doesn't prove he's guilty. He may have had knowledge of the murder, and use that to reduce the sentence. I still have faith that the real story will come out.

I did give an example of why I disagree with municipal Internet access. Apparently you're attention spam is three seconds and you couldn't finish reading my post.

I feel bad for the kids - that is such a messed up situation.

OH SHUT UP.

Sanitation is not "necessary infrastructure". Electricity is not "necessary infrastructure". Telephone lines are not "necessary infrastructure". The Amish show all this quite well.

But any modern city requires these things and also requires data transfer. Now, if no company will spend the money, clearly the citizens have the option of doing so themselves. I'd rather see them form a co-op, but whatever, it's their city.

Now, the private sector may not be able to compete with tax subsidized services, but the fact that the private sector does not want to get involved is a pretty clear indication that they can't compete, period. If they're not going to compete, then they need to stay the hell out of the way.

Vonage? Are you serious? Yeah, let's consider Vonage, one of the most unreliable VoIP providers on the planet, to be a necessary service.

No thanks. I'd rather stick with my switched circuits for reliable service.

Last night Hillary asked her supporters to go to her website and send her their thoughts on whether or not she should continue. I'm obviously not a supporter of hers but as a New Yorker I am a constituent of hers (whom actually voted for her both times she ran for US Senate) so here is my letter to her:

Hillary,

I write to you not as a supporter of your campaign or as a supporter of Senator Obama's campaign. I write to you as a New Yorker, a constituent and a fellow Democrat. I will confess that I wound up supporting Senator Obama in the Primary process but I hope that you will still listen to my words as one of your constituents.

This has been a long and hard fought process. Once it appeared that Senator Obama had an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates I was one of those calling for an early end to this process so that we could unite our efforts against John McCain. I would have made that same call if it had been Senator Edwards, Governor Richardson or yourself in the position of having an apparently insurmountable lead.

I now feel like it was a mistake on my part to call for an end to this process. This extended primary campaign has encouraged millions of voters to get involved in the political process. The two respective campaigns have registered countless voters for the first time and laid the groundwork for us to compete across this nation come November. As Democrats we were fortunate enough to have an embarrassment of riches -- yourself, Senators Obama, Edwards, Dodd, Biden, Governor Richardson, Congressman's Gravel and Kucinich -- all of whom were qualified to lead this country and whom would have great standard-bearers for our party. We are uniquely positioned to win in November and your campaign deserves a lot of the credit for that.

Last night you asked your supporters to go to your website and offer their suggestions for how to proceed. I humbly make the following two suggestions:

1) Support Senator Obama! Even if you don't concede (which you should not until you ensure that the 18,000,000 people who voted for you continue to be represented in this campaign) you need to start working with him. You gave a great speech last night -- but I had hoped that you would use some of your speech to respond to Senator McCain. Senator McCain gave his own speech last night -- during which he attempted to define Senator Obama as they defined Senator Kerry -- too liberal, bad judgment, etc, etc, etc. Where was your response to this? All Democrats should be condemning those remarks and responding to them. We need to get behind our nominee because none of us can afford four more years of George W. Bush.

2) Come back to New York. Don't try to be Senator Obama's Vice Presidential pick. We need you back here. Our economy (particularly upstate) continues to suffer. We continue to pay out far more in Federal tax dollars than we receive back from the Federal Government. Our largest city remains a target for terrorism while states like Idaho and Montana receive more per-capita Homeland Security funds than we do. Our energy costs are way above the national average. Our farmers and winemakers receive little credit on the national scene -- overshadowed by the breadbasket states and California, respectively. Our State Government faces a budget deficit in the billions and has received little to no help from the Federal Government for the last seven years.

We need a fighter. We need someone who will argue in our favor and stand up for us. This is the State that gave the country Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. One of whom made the United States into a World power and the other whom saved Democracy during WW2. This is the state where the turning point of our revolution was fought and won at Saratoga. This is the State that hosts the Statue of Liberty -- a beacon of freedom and the first thing that many people have seen when they came to our shores for the first time.

You hold the Senate seat of giants: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Bobby Kennedy and Aaron Burr. Come back to your home and build on that history. Fight for your constituents. Tackle the issues that are most important to you and those that are most important to New Yorkers. Travel our state and reintroduce yourself to us. Visit upstate cities like Syracuse, Utica, Rochester and my own hometown of Binghamton that feel underrepresented and neglected. Represent us in Washington and make our voices heard again.

Those are my humble suggestions. I wish you the best of luck in whatever endeavor you choose to pursue and hope that I will have the honor of calling you my Senator for many years to come.