Summing up the Fourth…
By Brian | July 5, 2009
I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July. My family and I spent a wonderful day out & about with friends, and then came home and watched three great fireworks shows in High Definition & Surround Sound. A quick review:
- Washington, DC: Best pre-fireworks show by far – Aretha Franklin (who looked like she was battling a cold), Barry Manilow (who looks more like 46 than his actual 66 years of age), the Sesame Street Muppets (the gang is 40 this year – just like me! Their premiered on November 10, 1969 – exactly eight days before I, er…premiered), Natasha Bedingfield, the cast of The Jersey Boys, Michael Feinstein & Andrew von Oeyen doing Rhapsody in Blue, and of course, the National Symphony Orchestra. Top it all off with the President of the United States wishing his daughter a happy birthday and then introducing Elmo. Top notch. The fireworks, though? Meh…
- New York: Best fireworks show. Macy’s is always the biggest in the country and despite the recession and talk of cancelled fireworks shows, this year’s edition was the biggest Macy’s has ever done. The pre-fireworks show? Meh. Jewel did a stirring rendition of America the Beautiful and Rob Thomas sounded OK, but the cast of West Side Story looked foolish. “America” is not a patriotic song – it’s a song that makes (somewhat racist) fun of Puerto Ricans. If they had to have a Broadway Cast perform, they should have picked someone else…
- Boston, MA: Most hip fireworks show. “Fireworks on the Clamshell” combined the standard Sousa and patriotic fare with some Kenny Chesney, some Rodney Atkins and even some John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. It’s not often your toe starts tapping while watching fireworks. The pre-fireworks show? Meh. Neil Diamond looks every bit of his 68 years old, and talked through his two songs as much as he sang. And I swear he injured his back attempting to point to the sky for that classic pose at the end of “They’re Coming to America.”
Anyway, I hope your Fourth was a much fun as mine. I leave you with a video from the JibJab boys, in which various Presidents of the United States come together to sing(?) our National Anthem. Enjoy…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 3 Comments »
Apple: We didn’t know there would be sun…
By Brian | July 3, 2009
It seems the new iPhone 3GS is not a big fan of direct, prolonged sunlight:
Apple says in a support article that “if the interior temperature of the device exceeds normal operating temperatures, you may experience the following as it attempts to regulate its temperature: the device stops charging, display dims, and/or weak cellular signal”.
In its message, Apple says that the iPhone has a safety feature which warns users that the device is becoming too hot. As well as leaving the handset in a car, it says that the phone may overheat when left in direct sunlight for prolonged periods, when GPS tracking is used in a car on a hot day or when its iPod function is used in direct sunlight.
If the warning appears, Apple says that users of the iPhone should turn the device off and allow it to cool before using it.
Oops.
It’s one thing for a phone to have trouble in a car on a summer day, but if you’re going to tout your device as a GPS replacement, then it better be able to sit on the dashboard for hours at a time.
Users on forums are also claiming problems outside of cars – phones too hot to put to their ears, phones that get hot when they use the video capture feature, etc., etc.
This reminds me of the first round of iPods, who’s screen would scratch if you looked at it funny. Apple spent the first few months claiming it was a “user issue,” but was eventually pressured into replacing damaged iPods and, ultimately, fixed the problem in a future version of the product. Look for iPhones with cooling technology in the near future…
Categories: Tech Talk | 7 Comments »
America to Americans: You are not as confident as you think you are
By Brian | June 30, 2009
From the top story on today’s Yahoo Finance page:
Investors are adding consumer confidence to their growing list of things to worry about.
Stocks reversed early gains Tuesday and moved lower after a private research group said consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in June. The Dow Jones industrials fell 105 points in late morning trading.
After months of economic data showing that the recession was not getting worse, investors are hungry for signs that the economy is actually growing. Investors have grown nervous that the economy’s rebound won’t be as robust as hoped.
So, basically, here’s the conversation we’ve been having with ourselves:
Investors (last few months): We’re finally starting to feel better about the economy. We’re going to buy some stocks.
Investors (day before yesterday): Still feeling better. Keep buying stocks…
Private Research Group (yesterday): We know you thought you were feeling better, but you’re not. You’re feeling worse.
Investors (this morning): Holy crap! This news has made me feel worse. Sell the stocks! Sell!! Sell!!!
Perhaps what we have here is an over abundance of information, which has crossed the “cause & effect” transom to become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Categories: Money Talk | 3 Comments »
Good news abounds…
By Brian | June 29, 2009
While the global media obsesses over a rash of celebrity deaths, I was pleased to find some good news in my newsfeed this morning.
1) U.S. Seeks New Roles as Troops Prepare Exit From Iraqi Cities
June 29 (Bloomberg) — Iraqi government officials will mark tomorrow’s long-planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from their cities by taking the day off, decorating cars with flowers and broadcasting patriotic music.
U.S. officers say that the Iraqis will be in exclusive control of major combat in urban areas, including the flashpoints of Baghdad, Mosul and Baquba, for the first time since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. U.S. forces will ring volatile cities to prevent rebel infiltration, provide intelligence and fight if Iraqis request.
The urban pullout is part of an accord signed by the Bush administration and the Iraqi government in November, which called for a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2011. President Barack Obama wants to pull out all but 35,000 to 50,000 soldiers by August 2010. About 131,000 American troops are now in Iraq, according to Pentagon figures.
2) Scientists kill cancer cells with “trojan horse”
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian scientists have developed a “trojan horse” therapy to combat cancer, using a bacterially-derived nano cell to penetrate and disarm the cancer cell before a second nano cell kills it with chemotherapy drugs.
Sydney scientists Dr Jennifer MacDiarmid and Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt, who formed EnGenelC Pty Ltd in 2001, said they had achieved 100 percent survival in mice with human cancer cells by using the “trojan horse” therapy in the past two years.
The first wave of mini-cells release ribonucleic acid molecules, called siRNA, which switch off the production of proteins that make the cancer cell resistant to chemotherapy. A second wave of EDV cells is then accepted by the cancer cell and releases chemotherapy drugs, killing the cancer cell.
“The beauty is that our EDVs operate like ‘Trojan Horses’ They arrive at the gates of the affected cells and are always allowed in,” said MacDiarmid. “We are playing the rogue cells at their own game. They switch-on the gene to produce the protein to resist drugs, and we are switching-off the gene which, in turn, enables the drugs to enter.”
So, major steps forward toward world peace and a cure for cancer? Not a bad day…
Categories: The Future is Now | No Comments »
New York City Sights – The Financial Buildings
By Brian | June 28, 2009
Back in the day, if you wanted to see the buildings that made up Wall Street’s titans, you had to go to, well. . . Wall Street. Not so much anymore. The recession of 2000 started the move away from that expensive, if not historical, real estate, and the attacks of 9/11/01 accelerated it. Today, you can find Wall Street firms all over New York (and sometimes in New Jersey!). Here are some examples (all pictures taken from “The Top of the Rock,” located at the top of the famous 30 Rockefeller Plaza – an attraction I highly recommend).
Categories: New York, New York | No Comments »
What do you think of when you see this bird?
By Brian | June 28, 2009
When you see the picture on the right, what do you think of? Recent polling suggests that if you were born in:
…the 1940’s or 1950’s, you think: Woodstock – 3 Days of Peace & Music
…the 1960’s or 1970’s, you think: The Partridge Family – Come on, Get Happy!
…the 1980’s or 1990’s, you think: Twitter for Guitar?
(NOTE: This post inspired by a certain cousin of mine, who shall, at least for now, remain nameless…)
Categories: Primetime TV, Random Acts of Blogging, Words about Music | 2 Comments »
Scaling the Internet for really big news
By Brian | June 26, 2009
According to CNN, when Michael Jackson died, he almost took significant parts of the Internet with him. Sites that experienced slowness or outright downtime included Google News, TMZ, Perez Hilton’s blog, CNN, Twitter, Wikipedia, the LA Times’ site, AOL Instant Messenger, and MJFanClub.net (a Michael Jackson fan site).
The article calls it the biggest mobile event in history:
AOL consumer adviser Regina Lewis . . .told CNN that, although the numbers weren’t in yet, the day should prove an historic milestone for mobile internet traffic. “It could go down as the biggest mobile event in history,” Lewis said. She felt that was down in part to people checking news headlines from work. “People wanted to keep tabs on this story, but if you’re an accountant you’re supposed to be working on your spreadsheet. So they were using their personal cellphones to do so,” she explained.
While the scale of response to Jackson’s death might be unprecedented, the pattern of it was not, Lewis added. “With the advent of social networking, we saw a sequence that we traditionally see around the death of celebrities,” she said. “One, people clamour for the latest news; two, they share it; three, they react; and then the next stage, which we’re seeing alive and well on video sites … are tributes. In the case of Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett, (people have) a lot to work with in terms of images and video,” she said.
A similar event that comes to mind (purely from an infromation technology point of view) is September 11, 2001. On that day, cell phones and web sites had huge outages as well, with some web sites reverting to plain text feeds in order to maximize their use of bandwidth to get information disseminated.
What’s different here, is that almost eight years later, the number of mobile devices in the world has dramatically increased, as has the breadth and depth of bandwidth-hogging rich media, like video clips. So, while scaling to handle another 9/11 involved adding more web servers and IP bandwidth, solving this problem is going to be a bit more complex. Network infrastructure folks, responding to Michael Jackson’s death, will have to respond to a wider variety of devices, protocols, and data objects moving around concurrently.
Yet another way Michael Jackson inadvertently changed the world…
Categories: Tech Talk, Words about Music | 1 Comment »
Going…Going…Gone.
By Brian | June 25, 2009
How different the world is today than it was just a couple of days ago…
R.I.P.: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson
Categories: Primetime TV, Words about Music | No Comments »
Celebrity Sighting – Chris Matthews
By Brian | June 23, 2009
I don’t often spot celebrities on the streets of Manhattan, usually because I’m too oblivious to notice them as I walk right past them. But today, on my way to New York’s Penn Station, I looked to my left and there was Chris Matthews talking on his cellphone. This is why I finally threw a digital camera in my laptop bag (hat tip: Ilya Burlak).
Anyway, I moved to a respectful difference and then snapped a picture:
Figures he was to my left… (bad political humor)
Categories: New York, New York, News and/or Media | No Comments »
New York City Sights – Wimbledon in New York
By Brian | June 23, 2009
The plaza in front of 50 Rockefeller Plaza is one of New York’s best kept secrets. The folks at Rockefeller Center transform it every few weeks into something completely new & different, often drawing big crowds. This week, as the Wimbledon tennis tournament starts up in London, they’ve created a grandstand in front of a large screen TV, and a scaled down tennis court. I’m told that during the lunch hour, Jennifer Capriati and Jim Courier were on that court hitting tennis balls with some of the tourists (sorry – I didn’t go outside during lunch today, so they’re not in the pictures. You can all have your money back if you want it…)
Anyway, some pics:
Categories: New York, New York | No Comments »