McCain Flip-Flops On Lobbying Reform, Caves To Pressure From Religious Right
The question is, why is the religious right against campaign finance disclosure? I understand why it would oppose finance caps, but disclosure? Aren't these people supposed to be pro-truth? Or has power become more important than principle?
The NY Times' take a look at the HP touch-screen computer I mentioned earlier.
No, not with me. But Engadget has an interesting inteview with Bill Gates about the future of the Xbox, which in case you haven't heard, will become a cable-like set-top box with Microsoft and its partners roll out IPTV services late this year. This is in addition to the high-def movies Microsoft already sells through the Xbox Line marketplace.
As Gates puts in in the interview: "The reason we got into Xbox at the beginning was not just gaming. It was very, very important."
Xbox designers explain the strange appeal of the system's Achievement Points system...
It's so clever," he says. "I mean, it's just a score. You may say it can't be used for anything, but gamers use them for pride. They're pride points! You can compare it to the feeling you get when you pull up to a restaurant in a Lamborghini. People go, 'Oooo, he must be somebody.' In the virtual world of gaming, points create that same sense of rank and envy, and that's why gamers have latched onto them. I read that people are picking up the Burger King Xbox games just so they can score additional points. If that doesn't prove how well this program is working, nothing does."
Not that I would ever resort to playing something as lame as, say Uno, for the easy gamer points..
I and hundreds of other Windows Vista beta testers awoke Jan. 1 to discover that the operating system's Media Center functionality stopped working with nary a warning, even though the Vista beta (release candidate 1) isn't set to expire until this summer.
That wouldn't be so bad if the final version of Vista were available to purchase. Looks like Andrea and I are set to miss a whole month of Heroes and Ugly Betty.
Everyone knows that first-person shooters were meant for the mouse and keyboard -- the mouse to aim and shoot and keyboard to run and perform complicated tasks. That's why I've never liked playing them on consoles. I even hated the much-vaunted Goldeneye.
With that in mind, you can imagine my excitement at the thought of hooking up this adapter to my Xbox 360 and dominating Gears of War.
Alas, it is not to be. As this review, explains, it's great in theory, but just doesn't work that well in real life. Sigh.
I have my heart set on the nice-but-pricey Lenovo X60 tablet, but this HP tx1000 looks interesting.
I was holding off on the big upgrade until I see what Apple announces in January, but now, I'll have to wait to see the exact price, weight and keyboard size of this HP model.
TabletPCReview has the scoop.
Google's research director, Peter Norvig, has an issue with journalists.
But my accomplishment is somewhat diluted by the fact that you also have been named Time Magazine's person of the year.
I had my debit card replaced and forgot to update my billing info with Tripod. It should be fixed by tomorrow.
A well-reasoned piece in Rolling Stone magazine -- yes, Rolling Stone -- about why Bush isn't getting credit for a recovering economy.
The economic pie is getting bigger -- how can it be true that most Americans are getting smaller slices? The answer, of course, is that a few people are getting much, much bigger slices. Although wages have stagnated since Bush took office, corporate profits have doubled. The gap between the nation's CEOs and average workers is now ten times greater than it was a generation ago. And while Bush's tax cuts shaved only a few hundred dollars off the tax bills of most Americans, they saved the richest one percent more than $44,000 on average. In fact, once all of Bush's tax cuts take effect, it is estimated that those with incomes of more than $200,000 a year -- the richest five percent of the population -- will pocket almost half of the money. Those who make less than $75,000 a year -- eighty percent of America -- will receive barely a quarter of the cuts. In the Bush era, economic inequality is on the rise.
Some would argue that economic inequality shouldn't be cause for alarm, so long as everyone's standard of living is improving. But money equals power, and most would agree that concentrated power -- whether from a communist government, fascist dictator or capitalist oligarchy -- is a bad thing.
She didn't get the dreaded call this morning, so it looks like she's safe, at least for another six months. But this business had better figure out how to make money online, and fast.
HP has been putting a a lot more emphasis on design lately, as evidenced by its soon-to-launch Vista showcase PC.
Among other features, it sports integrated FM and HDTV tuners, built-in camera and a touch-screen interface with this at-a-glance calendar and info center. It looks like it'll cost about $1,800.
Very cool. Expensive, but cool.
Engadget has the scoop.
From BusinessWeek. Interesting graphic, though a bit inaccurate in places -- "Microsoft's Xbox marked the software company's debut in producing hardware of any kind." Really, BusinessWeek? Are you sure about that?
I have a really cool book, Digital Retro, that talks about the history of personal computers and mentions several of the game consoles. Naturally, it goes into a bit more depth than BusinessWeek could with its graphic and features lots of nice, big pictures. I would love to see the author tackle the game console business in a follow-up volume.
1. I got married
Andrea and I finally tied the knot in a small family ceremony in San Francisco. With a little help from a college buddy who's now a minister, we commandeered the steps of the City Hall rotunda, so the photos make the event look much more formal and planned than it actually was. To the left is an artist's rendering of the ceremony.
About nine members from Andrea's family came to the U.S. to participate in our union, along with the Phoenix contingent of my family. Everything worked out perfectly. More wedding pictures here.
2. I got an XBox 360
You know the old saying that it takes Microsoft three tries to get something right? Well they nailed the game console the second time around. This is a really well-designed system, with lots of power and an easy-to-use interface. I've always been partial to PC gaming because of the ability to download demo games and the fact that the keyboard-and-mouse combo is the best way to play first-person shooters. The XBox's hard drive and Internet connection takes care of the first problem, and while I still long for the free-look option of the mouse, playing with a controller isn't so bad. The nice thing about consoles is the economics -- you pay $400 every few years or so for a really powerful system that guarantees games written for it will work properly. No more worrying about having to upgrade the graphics card or memory. Now, my desktop computer won't feel obsolete as quickly.
And Microsoft did a great job designing this system. Connecting and playing with friends is a snap. Now I can finally use the video-game option on my Blockbuster rental plan. And -- aside from the original Quake, which was a breakthrough is so many ways -- Gears of War is probably the best game I've ever played.
My XBox even has its own blog. No, really.
3. The job
As I mentioned here earlier, Investor's Business Daily promoted me to Assistant Technology Editor, which has handed me a ton of responsibilities. Favorite part of the job: writing headlines. Least favorite part: dealing with angry reporters who swear I've ruined their masterpiece.
4. The election
Now the the Democrats have retaken congress and restored some level of sanity back into Washington, I won't have as much to rant about. It won't be enough to undo six years' worth of damage, but at least we have some semblance of checks and balances in the federal government. Let's hope the Dems don't blow it.
