Month: June 2007

ISPs Inserting Ads Into Your Pages – TheWoozle writes “Some ISPs are resorting to a new tactic to increase revenue: inserting advertisements into web pages requested by their end users. They use a transparent web proxy (such as this one) to insert javascript and/or HTML with the ads into pages returned to users. Neither the content provides nor the end-users have been notified that this is taking place, and I’m sure that they weren’t asked for permission either.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple passes Amazon to become the #3 US music retailer –

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Things must seem pretty rosy in Cupertino — just a week before the mega-hyped launch of you-know-what, market research group NPD’s quarterly survey shows Apple has passed Amazon to become the third biggest music retailer in the US. This isn’t the biggest of surprises, since Steve himself predicted that the iTunes Store would overtake Amazon at the Showtime event back in September, but the leap to #3 is a little unexpected, since Apple also outpaced Target last quarter. iTunes is now rocking a 10% market share, just behind Wal-Mart at 16% and Best Buy at 14%, and while we don’t expect to see it pass those two giants anytime soon, we’d bet that uptick in DRM-free sales has got the iTMS crew at Apple licking their chops.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Volvo treasure hunt delayed after locating $500 million instead –

Filed under: Transportation

In an interesting turn of events, it seems like the winner of Volvo’s lucrative treasure hunt won’t be unearthing the $50,000 treasure anytime soon, as the automaker’s hunt partner (Odyssey Marine Exploration) has happened upon an actual $500 million treasure instead. The reported fortune is located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean — in a secretive area known only as Black Swan — but reports are claiming that a court in the Spanish coastal town of La Linea has “issued an order for the Spanish Guardia Civil to detain any Odyssey vessel should it leave the port of Gibraltar,” which has brought about an abrupt halt to Volvo’s retrieval plans. Thankfully, it sounds like the Russian winner will still be awarded the dough and a new XC70 to boot, but there’s no telling how long it’ll be before Odyssey is able to put aside its bigger worries and dig up the (comparatively) paltry $50k.

[Via CarTechMag]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Pimp Your XP – An anonymous reader writes “Ezinearticles.com has up an interesting article on how you can improve Windows XP to mimic and even surpass Vista — at least some of its new features. Several of the suggestions cost money and others are free. From improving the user interface with Stardock to mimicking new security features with open source software such as Sudown, the article discusses many ways that die-hard XP users can enhance their environment without moving to Vista.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sweden is different: Guy is awarded unemployment benefits because he’s addicted to Rock Music! – “Gonna have to face it I live in my parents’ basement!”
Ananova:
A heavy metal fan has been awarded sickness handouts after doctors said his addiction to music was a disability.
The ruling means Roger Tullgren, 42, will pocket thousands of pounds in state benefits to help finance his 36-year obsession.
Roger will get a £65 a week top […] [Dvorak]

AMD CEO: Intel Is a Monopoly, Microsoft Isn't – [WArp2Search]

DIY "beatbox" drives old neighbors crazy –

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’re pretty sure that he meant “boombox”, but regardless, this funky little hack from music enthusiast Gregor Dauth will be making him a lot of new friends at the next break-dancing competition. For this feat of audiophile-DIY, Dauth gutted an old Grundig tape machine, added four 150-watt speakers, installed an amp he purchased on eBay, and flashed it all up with some blue fiber-optic lighting. The end-result? More ass-shaking low-end then you could possibly want.

[Via hackaday]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Jet packs for sale! Life insurance sold separately –

Filed under: Transportation, Wearables

It looks like those still bemoaning the lack of readily-available jet packs can now finally get a (brief) taste of the 21st century they once envisioned, as Popular Mechanics reports that two different wearable flying contraptions are now available for sale. Coming from Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana and Jetpack International, the jet packs will each give you about 30 seconds of flight time, with Jetpack International’s model boasting a slight advantage in speed, topping out at 70 mph. Somewhat reassuringly, each also come complete with the necessary flight training, although we wouldn’t expect any less given the $250,000 and $155,000 price tags. Those that take the plunge may be suffering from some buyer’s remorse before too long, however, as Jetpack International is reportedly working on a new model that’ll give you a full 19 minutes of flight time.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Microsoft Office Roundtable reviewed –

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The good people over at TMCnet want to keep you covered with their lengthy review of Redmond’s five-camera foray into the teleconferencing game, which, as part of Microsoft’s Unified Communications Platform, will probably be seeing a lot of action this year. And what are their feelings? Well, they get stoked on its resemblance to the ships in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds, dig the “head-size spatial equalization” (which makes everyone’s head the same size, seriously), and think that maybe $3000 is a fair price. The only thing they weren’t quite as excited about was the inability to use the panoramic features with non-Ballmerware, but even that appears to be a minor complaint. Still not sure you need one for your startup? Maybe you’d better read the whole thing.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Good Ways To Join an Open Source Project? – Tathagata asks: “I’m a student, on my final year in a college in India, and I have been using GNU/Linux for quite sometime now. Though I’m from a Computer Science background, getting into a project that involves serious programming was not possible, as people (read teachers) run away if you utter the word ‘Linux’. They are generally not bothered about mentoring someone on an exciting project, and they would suggest you to get settled with Visual Basic, .NET, — and would prefer a 24 hour solution when it comes to programming. So, my programming endeavors have remained limited to writing few lines of C/C++, or Java. For last few days, I’ve been googling, and trying to read how to join an existing Open Source project.” What suggestions would you pass along to someone who is willing to join his first Open Source effort?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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