Orthogonal stance

OVI, the new Nokia Music Store

2007-08-30T01:21:00.001-07:00

OVI, the Nokia Music Store will go live in Europe before the end of the year. Songs will be €1, albums €10 and up, and a monthly sub for PC streaming for €10 a month. And make sure to check out the new logo, which is ... fantastic (hem hem...).

read more | digg story

[fun] Gardener offers mouthwatering 'mow and blow' deal

2007-07-11T02:43:00.001-07:00

A recommendation by one satisfied customer has not gone un-noticed... Jose Barajas and his gang of six cabaleros! give you the full service ;)

read more | digg story

Buttocks, thongs, and bullsh*t: Street Viewers cop an eyeful

2007-06-06T05:39:00.001-07:00

The first compilation of "surprises" seen on Google's new Street View.

read more | digg story

iPhone and Europe

2007-05-31T00:08:00.001-07:00

Macbidouille.com received some news on the topic from insiders: Orange and Vodaphone still in the race, 2 majors problems in the negotiations and battery consumption problems, linked to the inclusion of 3G for the european version of the iPhone. (article in french)

read more | digg story

Apple LED backlight order points to MacBook Pro make-over?

2007-05-08T08:06:00.001-07:00

Apple's anticipated line of displays fitted with LED backlights could be turned on sooner than expected: next month, if testimony from industry insiders is to be believed, and quite possibly for an update to the 15in MacBook Pro laptop, we'd add.

read more | digg story

Cloud Jesus floats over Mount Sinai

2007-04-25T07:06:00.001-07:00

But Peruvian sand dune Messiah is still the best.

read more | digg story

French TGV train reaches 574.8km/h : World Record

2007-04-03T08:51:00.001-07:00

The French today claimed the world's fastest "train on rails" title by accelerating a modified TGV to a white-knuckle 574.8km/h (356mph). Make sure you watch the youtube link in the footnote, cause the pictures are impressive.

read more | digg story

Mac OS X 10.5 delayed to ensure Vista compatibility?

2007-03-26T01:38:00.001-07:00

An interesting analysis from The Register on why the claim that "Apple is delaying OS X 10.5 for Vista compatibility" is a bogus claim.

read more | digg story

CeBIT 2007: first selection of new cool things

2007-03-16T09:16:00.001-07:00

The Register's selection of favorite discoveries at the CeBIT 07. From mini PCs and new Commodore gaming machines, to dino robots and roaming, it's all right here. Unwrap and enjoy.

read more | digg story

Zimbabwean opposition leader M. Tsvangirai in intensive care

2007-03-14T04:53:00.001-07:00

Once again, Robert Mugabe's ruthless and repressive regime continues to violate the rights of citizens. The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was assaulted with baton sticks whilst in police custody, after being arrested at a rally on Sunday.

read more | digg story

W3C seeks your help, a chance to rewrite XHTML

2007-03-12T05:46:00.001-07:00

If you work as a web designer, then you know that HTML is a pile of garbage when it comes to it's guidelines. So here is your chance to make the next iteration more like the scripting language you'd like to use. W3C is re-chartering the XHTML 2 Working Group and is seeking the help of the world wide web's dev community. Let's get going...

read more | digg story

Scientists shun Web 2.0

2007-03-12T02:34:00.001-07:00

Science publishers' efforts to have the research community sup the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid have failed, and scientists have given a resounding thumbs down to a gamut of crowd-tapping initiatives, showgoers at SXSW heard on Saturday.A panel of science web publishers said scientists had consistently shunned wikis, tagging, and social networks, and have even proven reticent to leave comments on web pages.

read more | digg story

Friendly fire mixup: MS identifies Windows as Mac

2007-03-09T05:16:00.001-08:00

In what might be described as a "Friendly Fire" incident, Microsoft software has identified a copy of Windows as a hostile operating system - belonging to enemy Apple forces.

read more | digg story

What 'VISTA' really stands for...

2007-03-08T05:44:00.000-08:00

VISTA - Virus inside, switch to apple

That's it - have a nice day!

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Sorry, the post is short and to the point. If you want more reading, try one of the following links:
- The register : a non partial but good source of information
- SCALA programming language : a good upcoming programming language

Media blasts Cambridge undergrads' drinking habits

2007-03-07T08:55:00.001-08:00

Boozy students hurl so much vomit about at Cambridge University that cleaners are now being immunised against Hepatitis, it has been revealed. Contract cleaners at Gonville & Caius college get the jabs routinely, and staff there were said to be "furious" over a recent puking surge.

read more | digg story

Reuters to start MySpace copy for City traders

2007-03-07T03:02:00.001-08:00

Reuters is to dip another finger in Web 2.0 waters by setting up its own version of MySpace. But the Reuters site will be targeted at City traders rather than US teenagers.

read more | digg story

The next best thing to paying for digg votes: invent your own award...

2007-03-01T10:08:00.001-08:00

... and win your own award. This is what the 2006 Milbloggy Award is about (and something about military-blogs for desert).

read more | digg story

Man staples himself to a table

2007-01-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

The first serious contestant to the 2007 Darwin Awards may already have been found...

In south Wales, a man stapled his hand to a coffee table and ... well couldn't remove it anymore. Ambulance crews were called at 3:30am but were unable to remove the table from the hand (or vice-versa). The "drunk" man was laughing so much that he pretendedly didn't even feel the pain. He did however admit he was imitating Jackass, the "television program" where Johnny Knoxville & friends attempt boring (but dangerous and above all stupid) stunts ...

The Guardian covers the topic best: read the details here.

Bill Gates for president???

2007-01-03T01:56:00.000-08:00

I just came accross this astonishing, staggering and breathtaking website: billgatesforpresident.net ! This can't be serious... can it?

What Bill has done recently through the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is a step forward. And ok, he's well known, and he's got lot's of money, but let's face it : is he really that good at managing? speaking? presenting?

I'll skip the obvious jokes that you could make about how a country would be run if it were like Windows XP (or even Vista). But if you just look at how Microsoft is managed, how they are (no) concerned about their clients, then he would probably be a very well known president, but a very useless one, right?

Bill has somewhat smartened his image in the last six months, but before that he regularly appeared in an old sweater, with dirty uncomed hair, with dandruff on his shoulders .... is that really the image that you want from a potential future president?

Many more things could be said, but these are just the obvious ones that cross my mind initially. Still, the people behind the website sure preted they are serious about all this.

Happy New Year

2007-01-03T01:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all of you.

2007 looks to be an interesting year in the techy-web business. With new operating systems from Microsoft and Apple, with the growing of the second internet bubble (web2.0) and continuation of the global shift towards web-services & solutions, this should really be an stimulating year for geeks, nerds & co.

But for right now, I just wanted to wish you all the best, and show you something a little "lighter"... Parodyville published a list of the Worst Ever LP Covers, but it seems they forgot a few as demonstrated here bellow by Millie Jackson with Feeling Bitchy, and Back to the s__t! (clearly merits to be mentioned several times)! Enjoy...

A new boost for the Mars rovers

2006-12-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

As the new year starts, Mars will still be pretty much the same, but the two four-year-old rovers currently exploring the red-faced planet, are getting a software update.

This software update will increase the rovers' artificial intelligence such that the rovers will be able to "recognize dust devils or clouds and select only the relevant parts of those images to send back to Earth", as RedOrbit explains.

The main new features could be summarized as:
- dust devil recognition
- visual target tracking
- go and touch

All these new elements are designed to help the rovers to gain autonomy. You have to remember that when you tell a rover to move forward, the call takes ~eight minutes to reach the robot, and a picture of it's new position takes another eight minutes to come back to the NASA center... Can't really do things very hastily in such conditions.

Curious about all these features? Check out the official press release of NASA.

Protecting the iconic polar bear

2006-12-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

I found this good news entry: it seems that finally the Bush government has moved to protect the polar bear. Conditions for them have been drastically changing through global warming, and an ever increasing number of tourists visiting northern countries in search of these bears.

Beyond that, and as clorenz1's story highlights, it is an indirect acceptance of Global Warming by the United States government. Will things finally start moving on other aspects of this phenomena?

If you want to find out more on the topic of global warming, I suggest you start reading here.

Apple iPhone: why not?

2006-12-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

I've read many posts recently on Apple eventually forthcoming iPhone (or whatever they'll call it). What seems striking to me is first of all, the number of people who feel the need to trash this (not yet even announced) device by Apple. They all give numerous reasons, most of them summing up to "all the other manufacturers already do it better and cheaper". By better they often mean "with more functionalities" and by cheaper ... (you get the point). Personally, I don't agree with such an analysis, at least not in the details. My current phone (a perfectly fine Sony Ericsson K750i) gives me the possibility to do loads of things ... but I only use 10% of them. The main reason is that the integration is so poor that I can't be asked to play around with it (and I'm a computer s guy, so what about the "normal" people?). It sure plays music ... but I need 5 minutes to transfer one song from my laptop, if everything goes well !
Just for this, I would be curious to see what Apple has got to propose. Remember, Apple has always first thought about what the user really needed/wanted, and then sought to build a system to provide such functionalities, whereas the rest of the world does it the other way round. So let's wait and see... (we won't have too long to wait, Macworld is coming ).
Want more? watch the already "famous" vid from Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, at Digg.

A small step for ships?

2006-12-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

I initially heard about this story in a local Swiss newspaper, and now it's starting to get some coverage: Skysails. The idea is that boats (cargo boats) could use wind power to reduce their fuel cunsumption trough long cruises accross oceans. The idea is actually excellent and the company is starting to be at an interesting point in their life: the first real "big" cargo will start using this system at the beginning of 2007.

Chek it out for yourself: skysails.com.

About this blog

2006-12-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

This is just a short message to explain that this blog is above all a test and that it's aim will be to collect some nice information, which is not yet found on other blogs. Don't know if I will succeed, in being regular or finding enough content, but as I said: it's a test. I guess the main topics will be focused on technology and computers ...

Hope you enjoy.

Svenjick

PS
I'll be expressing my opinion and it's your choice to adhere or not. I do by no means want to hurt anybody with my opinion.