New Year's Eve Wrap-Up of Wrap-Ups

spydink writes "The Radio Netherlands website http://www.rnw.nl has a good hour-by-hour listing of potential local time live webcasts from around the world. May be helpful for those who want to raise a glass to the New Year every hour on the hour." (And there's some good news about that, too.) Read on for a few more end-of-year items, which you'll no doubt be seeing more of besides.

SkeeterMac writes "CNN ran an article today listing the top dubious achievements in personal computing for the year... raising again the point that PC speed can not be measured only in megahertz! Too bad the author doesn't think so, because they slam Apple for pricing the iMac around $1,500 for "chugging along at 700 Mhz"..."

cwill1004 writes "Mary Jo Foley has written up a set of predictions for Microsoft in 2003. She suggests that the tablet PC will be a bust, MSN gaining on AOL, and Microsoft getting more flak for its DRM (digital rights management) offerings, much like it did for the Windows Product Activation. It's on Microsoft Watch."

angkor links to Shift's "stupid web moments of 2002."

And the good news -- sulli writes "Just in time for New Year's, the New York Times (register now, use a workaround, or forever hold your peace) discusses at length the health benefits of alcohol. Prevent heart attacks, not with drugs or diet, but with a good California Zinfandel! Avoid strokes with a Perfect Gin Martini! Just don't overdo it, and you'll be fine - too much alcohol, like too much caffeine, has well-known effects. But in moderation, bottoms up!"

Update: 01/01 01:07 GMT by T : Here's another. An anonymous reader submits: "The BBC News has an amusing article titled the 'E-cyclopedia's glossary of 2002'. One wonders what future generations will make of our 'Bollotics' and 'Euronating'... Even Slashdotting gets a mention."

Comments

Re:Actually, that's *exactly* how it works

[LostCluster]

More or less that's true.

It used to be that each town had their own "official clock" for the town, kept usually at Town Hall or the biggest employeer, and all other clocks in that town were synced to that master clock. At that point, as you moved east or west the times between the towns would change gradually based on how far apart they were. Basically, there were an infinite number of time zones.

It wasn't until trains came along that "railroad time" became an issue... and the rest is history. Instead of having analog accuracy in our time zones anymore, we've gone digital.

$1499 iMac?

[elemental23]

The DLAPAPA (Designed Like A Picasso And Priced Accordingly) award goes to Apple Computer for the design of its latest iMac, the one that looks like half a round melon impaled with a bent easel. You have to shell out $1,499 to get one with a CD-RW drive, chugging along on a 700-megahertz processor.

Oh yeah, this iMac is a total rip off at $1,499.00... Wait, you mean the 700 MHz model is actually only $1,199.00 including CD-RW? Way to go, CNN.

Re:It's NOT 2003, it's ....

[Arandir]

The article you link claims that "Many conservative Christians follow a dating system developed in the 1600s that places Earth's birthday at 9 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, 4004 B.C.".

As a Christian with numerous conservative fundamentalist friends and relatives, and who manages to keep straight the bizarre proclamations coming from the Big Hair Preacher Crowd, let me assure you that no conservative Christian believes this. You might find a few kneejerk populist readers of the National Enquirer that believe this, but they're a different kettle of fish.