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CES Tidbits
Various newsbits from the Consumer Electronics Show: Verizon promises cell phone TV; USB flash drives get more useful; Transmeta promises a fanless media center device, sometime; things you can stick on your iPod; and a tech site offers a photographic overview of day 0 of the convention.
Oh, now I get it. Nerds.
In case you missed Microsoft's less than successfull opening event on Wednesday, hosted by Conan O'Brien and including two full system crashes and other glitches, the torrent is still available on my blog.
:)
Some good laughs in there (not only Conan's perfomance).
Flash storage manufacturers SanDisk and M-Systems are slated to announce Friday at CES a new USB standard called U3, which enables users to carry, store and launch applications directly from a USB flash drive without installation.
Do we really need "a new USB standard" to allow apps to run without installation? I've been doing this on my Mac forever. I know that this can work on Windows if you write the program correctly. Why the need for a giant consortium?
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Great, now people can not only talk on the phone, but also watch tv on their cell phone while they drive.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Digital cameras that act as cell phones?
Handheld gameboy clones that play MP3s?
Mp3 players that play videogames?
Cell phones that play MP3's?
Cell phones that play videogames?
Mp3 players that take digital pictures?
Gameboys that make phone calls?
If I left off any of the the ridiculous convergence that makes up so much of tech buzz these days, let me know.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
All: Day-0, day-ay-ay-0
All: Bill Gates come and he wanna go home
All: Day, he say day, he say day, he say day,
All: He say day, he say day-ay-ay-o
All: Microsoft come and he wanna go home
Boys: Hack all night on a drink a'rum
Girls: Daylight come and he wanna go home
Boys: Hack manana till thee morning come
Girls: Bill gates come and he wanna go home
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
In the /. world, Microsoft's media center is already fanless.
I used to work for a company that made memory upgrades. One of the key purchasing agents was a smoking hot little petite blonde who, at the time of this story, was not even old enough to drink.
One year at CES some would-be vendor made a remark about the company having a piece of "fluff" at the booth. She wheeled on him and let fly with a diatribe that showcased her comprehensive knowledge of RAM chips, PCB issues, and our company's component needs and then she let him know, in no uncertain terms, that whether or not we ever purchased a single capacitor from his company would be a decision made by the petite piece of fluff with bubble gum-pink fingernails that he was speaking with at that very moment.
He walked away dazed. I don't think we ever did business with him.
The Dalai LLama
My sig could be your sig!
Let me tell you about a guy with an MBA from Harvard I know who grew up in Midland, Texas -- aka the Ass End of Nowhere. He was absolutely brilliant, particularly with human relationships.
Now if you spoke to this guy, you'd never believe he graduated from college, much less got through grad school at the finest institution of higher education in the USA. He actually used that to his advantage. I saw him do this time and time again... he'd slip into the backwards Texas drawl, mess up some word or speech on purpose, and then people would think, "Oh, what a stupid hick." Of course, at this point, they were at his mercy, just like the lady and the vendor in the tale you describe.
Only this guy one-upped your gal and then some. He became President of the United States this way.
Twice.