Gadgets Technology & Video Game News

I like to build my own game boxes. Unfortunately I can’t do that effectively with a laptop. I ran across a good power laptop at Dell this morning for a price that made me drool just a bit. Oh, and I’m not a Dell Affiliate, there will be no code on my link. I just like the idea of a laptop with Dual SLI video cards for 1 GB of video power. It also has a 17 inch screen. For some reason they only put 2 Gigs of regular Ram though which I though was a little odd. You’re also not going to run this off battery for very long if you’re playing something that video power I would expect. They also scrimp on HD space a bit with 250 Gigs. Still, it would serve my gamer needs for some time with just a few extra dollars in upgrades. If my current laptop wasn’t just a bit over a year old I would probably get this – Sob
Oh, I found a coupon for $15 off on Spoofee (not much but everything counts right)
I like Spoofee so I’ll just use their link
http://www.spoofee.com/index.php?section=deal&did=585959

When I previously wrote about Amazon’s agreement with the Author’s Guild that they would allow text to speech to be disabled in Kindle 2 books I didn’t know how they would be doing it. Would this just be for new purchases or would they disable it remotely on something already purchased? Guess what, books you previously purchased that worked perfectly have now been crippled. Turns out Amazon built DRM flags into the Kindle and just left them turned off. Now the flag blocking text to speech has been remotely turned on. Wondering what other DRM flags might be hidden on your Kindle and just turned off? Me too. Unfortunately Amazon is ignoring all requests for this info. You can learn a little more about this on BoingBoing.

In what they’re are calling their “Career Stimulus Package”, an expression I am so sick of hearing, Staples is currently offering customers 20 free copies of their resume and 40 business cards. The deal is available until June 13, 2009.

See details here

I think this was a good idea, should build some goodwill with people that may not have used their printing services in the past. They may also purchase other job hunting supplies while there.

Zdnet has reported on a Symantec discovery that a Mac OS X populated botnet is on the loose and being used for DOS attacks (denial-of-service). It was just a matter of time before somebody took advantage of the general feeling of immunity from security issues in the Mac community. Given the specifics of the trojan and the fact that it came packaged in pirated software I don’t know what kind of reaction this is going to get in the Mac community. I gotta think it is going to be a boon for the few anti-virus companies that still have software available for the Mac.

Newegg has AVG Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware version 8 suite on sale for $20 today. Plus they have a $20 rebate. So, if you don’t mind filling out rebates and waiting a bit this is free (one of my favorite words). Personally I’m not a big fan of purchasing things based on rebates, but I have found Newegg’s rebates to be pretty reliable. So, if you need a boxed anti-virus/anti-spyware solution this might be your lucky day.

Earlier today I wrote about the National Federation of the Blind marching in front of the NY city office of the Author’s Guild of America. They are protesting the Author’s Guild convincing Amazon to remove text to speech features from the Kindle 2. Gizmodo has some good pictures and coverage of the protest.

One of the wonderful things about advances in technology is the benefit it can bring to the disabled. I have written in previous posts about how disappointed I am in both the Authors Guild and in Amazon for allowing authors to remove the text to speech feature in the Kindle 2 which allowed the blind to listen to the text of the e-books they purchase. Well, now the National Federation of the Blind and Reading Rights Coalition are letting the Authors Guild know what they think in person.

The president of the NFB says the Authors Guild is guilty of promoting discrimination:

“The blind and print-disabled have for years utilized text-to-speech technology to read and access information. As technology advances and more books move from hard-copy print to electronic formats, people with print disabilities have for the first time in history the opportunity to enjoy access to books on an equal basis with those who can read print. Authors and publishers who elect to disable text-to-speech for their e-books on the Kindle 2 prevent people who are blind or have other print disabilities from reading these e-books. This is blatant discrimination and we will not tolerate it.

I’m not near NYC today or I’d stop by and check out the turnout. Locking out potential customers is a lousy business policy and this policy is just unethical in general.

Now that Apple has surrendered to the music industry and there is no longer a flat rate for music purchases there you are going to need to shop around when you fill up on MP3s. There variable pricing can get you some good deals for now though on some songs. Apple claims the majority of their music can now be purchased for just 69 cents and that they will be charging on a three tier system based on what they are charged by music publishers. Songs will now cost 69, 99 or 1.29. Looks like someone needs to develop a good music pricing site that automatically checks the price around the net and provides links to download. Actually it probably already exists but I haven’t checked. Wonder if this is going to hurt or help Apple’s bottom line. In other Apple news, looks like they released a new and improved Xserve today. Reported by Engadget

A warning that this is one of those sometimes I’m going to write about politics kind of posts.

Did you know that 92.7654% of statistics are made up on the spot, I just read it in that little thumbnail on the left – and everything I read must be true, otherwise why would anyone bother to write it.  That is certainly what it seems like when you listen to the news and politicians sometimes.

Fox news has an article today breaking down how the government has been twisting statistics about the guns going to Mexico from the US. It has been commonly quoted lately that 90% of the guns being used in Mexican crimes lately have come from the US. This is a huge number and is most likely wrong. Fox claims that the number being used is grossly overestimated and is actually 17%. But, how could the number be so far off. Truth is, the actual numbers are unclear and both sides are pulling only the numbers that best reflect their own agenda. Lets take a look at the actual numbers and see the flaws in both arguments.

(The numbers used for the analysis are from the Fox news article, and not independently verified but they are most likely accurate)

Between 2007-2008 around 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes of the 29,000 –
6,000 were traceable (meaning they could be tracked back to their origin, most likely with a serial number). Of the 6,000 – 90% were found to be from the US.  This is where the US got its 90% statistic. Fox argues that 5,114 guns traced back to the US of the 6,000 is actually only 17% of the total guns found so only 17% of the guns are from the US. However, many more of those 24,000 guns left may very well come from the US as well, they are just not traceable. In theory, 90% of the remaining guns could also be from the US or none of them could be from the US which would make Fox’s 17% accurate. Truth is though that it is almost a certain reality that both are wrong and are badly twisting the numbers they have available.

What bothers me most, however, is that this purposeful misuse of the numbers is so obvious but it is not being called out by the media at all. News outlets all over the world are busy quoting the numbers from both sides, without any relevant facts. Every time it is repeated more people are duped by the agendas of one side or the other.