Embrace the Dull

This blows, but not for the reasons you think

Time Warner Cable starts customer trial with metered Internet access in Texas

On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated Press.

People will howl that this is the end of unlimited Internet, or worse, a return to the pay-as-you-go bullshit from the late-90s.

I'd like to think that this is the end of me subsidizing people who download 4 movies a day and play World of Warcraft for 85-hour stretches.

Alas, while heavy online gamers and downloaders will be forced to pay more, I guarantee they don't pass the saving onto those of us (read 97% of the population) who use the net for email and webrowsing.

As their health deteriorates, kids can log-into WebMD.com and see what additional maladies they can expect

"Fighting AIDS and malaria is all well and good, but what is the point of curing diseases if children can't learn about the world and explore the Internet? A lot of people just have their priorities backwards. If the children had laptops they could do the research and cure AIDS and malaria by themselves. People are just stuck in the same old way of thinking. Which is a pity, honestly."

Nick Negroponte in PC World

David Lynch on the iPhone

Google's Aquisition of DoubleClick

Like many of you, I am confused by the potentially negative impact from Google's acquisition of DoubleClick.

Fortunately I found these coherent PowerPoint slides that articulate Microsoft's position.

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What...the....fuck...?

CompUSA goes OoB

CompUSA to close all of its 103 stores

It makes sense that they couldn't hold it together, what with the shrinking tech market and all...sheesh.

Well played, CompUSA.

Japanese robot for, um, dentists. Yeah, dentists...that's the ticket

The segment that begins at the 2:20-mark is handy for rendering flaccid a particularly tenacious and unwanted erection.

No more net neutrality, boo!

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries

from ARS Technica

Diluted cocaine and Julian Casablancas-sightings still in beta

Wired This year, [Mtv's] Leapfrog team will roll out a “music world,” a new 3-D social space that replicates hip clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “Your social status in this world might be based on how early you discover new bands and share them with others,” Yapp says. Do well enough and you can become a virtual promoter, programming music at in-world clubs."

Do poorly enough and you could end up as a disillusioned, balding paralegal with no friends and acute alcoholism!

Yes!!!

"California-based Restoration Robotics is hoping to help doctors do quite the opposite. Reportedly, the company has just garnered some $25 million in funding, and is hoping to release its robotic hair transplanter to aid docs in the actual planting process."[Engadget]

Bionic hair! Awesome!

Did they mean to hyphenate "robotic hair transplanter" as "robotic hair-transplanter"? Probably, but until I hear otherwise I will fantasize about a thick lawn of hair to match my Tron suit (pictured).

But didn't you say a couple of days ago that you love Google??

Google Health, codename “Weaver”, is Google’s planned health information storage program. Google’s Vice President of Engineering Adam Bosworth lobbies for the program for quite a while now.

So with the Google suite, Google has a database of your consumer patterns (gmail/gcal/froogle), where you live (gmail/gcal/gmaps), your interests (all), profession (all), friends (gmail/gcal/orkut), what's on your computer (Google desktop), what you look like (Picasa), what you read (Google Reader), your political inclinations (all) and now, with the new one, Weaver, your health and life expectancy

When does this start to get creepy? Has this started to get creepy?