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

Lets face it, the jellybean IS overpriced...

[nweaver]

The Imac looks really cool, but damn it is overpriced. With PC prices dropping like a stone, and even clever integrated PCs starting at $1000 (eg, Gateway's) and barebone PC chassis like the shuttle Cubes & motherboard for $300, the Jellybean is just not cost-effective unless you Gotta Have A Mac.

Health benefits of alcohol

[corebreech]

The really sobering news in that article was that they knew in 1972 that alcohol could help people at risk for cardiovascular disease but the government forbid publication of the study.

In other words, they suppressed information that would have reduced the number of people who died from this disease.

Nearly one million people died in 1999 from cardiovascular disease.

That's one in every 2.5 deaths.

Fucking unbelievable.

This goes well with the news that the government suppressed research into the marijuana's effectiveness in treating cancer. Since the 1973 study talked about in the linked story, there have been three separate studies demonstrating that THC holds promise in reducing or eradicating tumors, but still the government virtually prohibits the research.

The total number of dead worldwide may be in the hundreds of millions.

I'm glad to see the slashdot editors consider this news, even if they didn't bother giving it its own berth. Good thing nobody introduced a new MP3 player today.

Just be careful to maintain. . .

[kfg]

a clear distinction between the reality and the *model.* A clock may be analog or digital. A clock, or a time zone, is just a model of time. In fact, analog *means* model. *Time* is neither analog nor digital. It's reality. Time existed long before clocks. Plants can tell time. There is no such thing as a time "zone." x,y,z,t is literally true. Take one step to the left in space and you also "travel" in time.

For that matter, clocks don't even really measure what time it *is,* they really just measure the passage of time as a dynamic entity.

If you *really* want to know what "time" it *is* the best you can do is look up.

KFG