Chad Weirick
Chad Weirick
Recent posts
Earlier this year Microsoft launched Vista and the reviews it received at the time weren't all that great. A common theme amongst reviews was that there was a lot of potential and interesting technology, but it was being held back. Not everyone agreed what was holding it back or why, but who wants to play the blame game? The question of...
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Just about everyone throughout history has made at least a couple of bad choices when they were growing up. There might have been a period of shame (especially if friends and family knew) but eventually the shame and the event were behind them.The major difference for people growing up in the digital age is that they have to contend with...
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The term shill bidding, sometimes with only one l, is defined as somebody who bids on their own goods and/or services being auctioned in an attempt to drive up the price. It's forbidden on eBay, and is even illegal in many areas. That doesn't always deter people and/or organizations from doing it, but when they get caught here's a good example...
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The Department of Justice has been hounding Microsoft for years over anti-trust issues of one sort or another, not to mention the major case in the late '90s that had people wondering if MS was going to be broken into several smaller operating units. Apparently that's all changed: "Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark...
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For years people have used the internet to pirate all kinds of things, and until fairly recently the pirates rarely got in any serious trouble despite all the new anti-piracy laws passed in dozens of countries. It seems like all of that is starting to change and it's hard to go a week without hearing about some new high profile case against...
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It seems a given that the upcoming Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will place a heavy emphasis on the next iteration of OS X, "Leopard", and of course we can expect to hear a lot about the iPhone as well. What many people might not have been expecting is that Apple plans on hosting a lot more workshop sessions, many of which...
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There's an old expression that suggests one use the right tool for the right job. If you want fish, hire fishermen. If you hire those same fisherman to remove submerged wiring, what do you get? Well the Ba Ria-Vung Tau province of Vietnam decided to find out by hiring some local fishermen to help haul some 30+ year old copper cable from...
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If you're somebody who really likes their storage then this press release from Seagate ought to make your day: Building on its storage technology leadership, Seagate (NYSE:STX) today announced that it has begun worldwide volume shipments of the industry's first 250GB-per-disc, 3.5-inch disc drive on the strength of second-generation perpendicular...
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If you ever wondered if the Soviet Union allowed and/or had their own video game hardware and developers, apparently the answer is yes. Most of it looks to be quite similar to what the US had except that a lot of the Soviet games seemed to have less joysticks/pedals and/or buttons.So if you were a teen in the 70's or 80's USSR, what kind...
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If you've ever wondered about the whys and wherefores behind all the security changes that Microsoft made in Vista (vs. XP), then Ars Technica has a story for you: "Over the years, much has been made of Windows' security or (perceived) lack thereof. Though Microsoft's record has certainly improved in recent years, many industry observers...
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Until you see an official press release on the subject consider this nothing more than a very likely rumor backed up by a picture, but it looks like Intel might be adopting NVIDIA's SLI technology after all. "And the biggest story of the show so far is: Intel has landed an SLI licence for desktop, not just mobile.You don't believe us? Look...
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Whether AMD or Intel is on top of the CPU world, there's one CPU related area in which Intel has historically been very successful: Compilers. With today's press release, it seems that Intel is taking their current focus on multi-threading even further: "Intel Corporation today announced the availability of two software products that help...
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If you have an e-mail box you know what spam is by now. With the recent arrest of Robert "Spam King" Soloway, there's been no lack of information and/or opinions on the web about spam in general. Most of it, like this Wired story, covers why the legal system isn't really making a big dent.It's certainly a good read if you have the time,...
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One of the most influential music groups of all time has had what might be the single longest journey from wax to iTunes. Thankfully there is light at the end of the tunnel but the journey is not quite finished yet: "Olivia Harrison told Reuters on Friday that the work of her late husband and his bandmates was finally on a fast track to...
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These numbers speak for themselves: "Over a period of two years, the hackers, still unknown, were able to download 45.7 million credit card numbers, with estimates in the Wall Street Journal article suggesting it might reach 200 million, spanning a period of more than four years. Clearly this is a big deal. Whether we shopped at these stores...
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Think Secret, past victim of Apple legal harassment for releasing info on unannounced products, has just posted some interesting information on the upcoming iPhone: "Think Secret sources have also been dropping additional iPhone-related details over the past weeks. Among the more notable pieces of information: there will be no insurance...
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Shuttle, purveyor of excellent miniscule systems in a box, seems to be planning to re-enter the motherboard market soon: "During a recent interview with Digitimes to be published during Computex 2007 (June 5-9), a Shuttle representative revealed that the company is planning to start shipping stand-alone motherboards for its XPC line of small...
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Now that Apple is offering some of its content DRM free users are finding that their names and email addresses are being added to the file details! Here's a snippet from Wired: "Earlier this week, Apple iTunes 7.2 brought the new ability to download tracks from EMI Records without copy protection. But the unprotected files are labeled with...
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The concept of using a small, quick-access NAND flash device to offset the latency of larger mechanical hard drives is nothing new. In fact there are already numerous players in the storage market that are planning to ship hard drives integrate both technologies in one package. There is a second concept that some companies have taken to...
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It shouldn't come as any big surprise that catching Robert "Spam King" Soloway hasn't had any major impact on the volume of spam going around. Of course he was just arrested, but the impact of his actual removal from day to day spamming operations might never be felt by end users according to InformationWeek: "Even if a judge and jury lock...
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YouTube and EMI have apparently reached an agreement that will allow users to watch and/or listen to music from the EMI label on YouTube. The story says that EMI could be getting some revenue every time their content appears in user-generated videos. It's hard to guess what this might mean to EMI bottom line, but it could very well end up...
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Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Those two names are icons in our industry and have been referred to as anything from nearly symbiotic to oil and water. So what happens when the two of them sit down in the same room for a conference? A mutual admiration society is formed: "Both opened their portion of the event by praising each other's work....
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