February 2004

Broadband

A good article on broadband from businessweek.

In fact, the U.S. lags far behind global leaders such as Korea and Japan, where broadband is far faster and cheaper, thanks to more focused national policy, less cumbersome regulation, and more densely populated regions. For a little more than $50 a month, consumers in Korea can purchase a 20-megabit-per-second Internet connection. That's 10 to 40 times faster than a typical U.S. connection. In Korea, people use the service to watch TV in a window of their Web browser while they work on a memo in their word processor. Their access to movies and games on demand grows by the day. Such online services are available to few consumers in the U.S., where a 3-megabit connection costs about $45.

Hollywood

DatelineHollywood is an entertainment news satire website, updated every monday.

Today, Dateline Hollywood uses the reach, speed, and cheapness of the Internet to bring a worldwide audience the freshest news from the current capital of world culture: Hollywood, USA. Whether you're an industry professional or Hollywood outsider, you'll find everything you need to know about the world of film, TV, music, and more right here from the publication that continues to live up to its founding motto to "cover with unerring integrity that which matters least".

Phishing

Find out about spoofing (definition and tips for avoiding).

Phishing attacks involve the mass distribution of 'spoofed' e-mail messages with return addresses, links, and branding which appear to come from banks, insurance agencies, retailers or credit card companies. These fraudulent messages are designed to fool the recipients into divulging personal authentication data such as account usernames and passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc. Because these emails look "official", up to 20% of recipients may respond to them, resulting in financial losses, identity theft, and other fraudulent activity.

Ring Tones

Forbes has an article on cell phone ring tones and hip hop popularity. A page on cellular phone coverage in the USA and a forum thread on t-mobile vs sprint pcs vs verizon.

Phone users are rushing to download tiny music files that blare when a phone rings or when the user has voicemail. And what they want on their phones is hip-hop music. The most popular ring tone downloaded onto cell phones last year was taken from the song "In Da Club," by rapper 50 Cent, and the current front-runner is Grammy winner OutKast. Seven of the ten most-downloaded ring tones in 2003 on the Cingular Wireless network were hip-hop songs.

Ring tones were once a simple series of beeps, known as monophonic tones. In the last year, polyphonic ring tones have become available, with several beeps at once creating a more musical sound. Only recently have ring tones begun to incorporate actual snippets of songs, like the first few seconds of a Jay Z-Beyonce duet, or a celebrity's voice talking or telling a joke. These advanced tones, known variously as super tones, TruTones, Real Tones and by other brand names, are MP3-like files that require newer-model phones to play. Most of the major carriers either sell them or will be selling them this year. In total, about 40 million phones in the U.S. can accept ring tones.

Rafting Folklore

On Georgia Encyclopedia you will find articles and images on nearly every aspect of Georgia as well as convenient links to other Web sites related to the history, culture, and life of the state. Start off with a page on rafting folklore. Maybe you would rather read about storytelling traditions.

A raft that began its journey at Lumber City on the Ocmulgee River floated for twelve days before arriving in Darien. Along the way the pilot would "call the shots" for each turn. He barked instructions for oarsmen: "bow white" and "bow Injun," meaning they must push or pull the raft to the north or south side of the river respectively. The terms originated in the early nineteenth century when Native Americans lived in the lands south of the Altamaha, having ceded the northern side to the state of Georgia.

History Makers

The HistoryMakers represents the single largest archival project of its kind in the world, primarily stories that focus on slavery, the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, music, sports and entertainment. A HistoryMaker, African American by descent, is a person: 1) who by his/her own accomplishments has made significant strides; and/or 2) who is associated with a particular movement, organization or association and event or time that is important to the African American community. You can also nominate a History Maker.

Fiscal Budget

An article from the Brookings Institute, on how to balance the federal budget over the next ten years.

This report provides a clear-eyed assessment of the federal budget outlook over the coming decade. It projects large and persistent deficits and discusses why they matter. The report suggests three ways to balance the budget while simultaneously making room for new priorities. One approach primarily involves spending cuts and smaller government, another relies more heavily on tax increases to support an activist government, and the third suggests a balanced mix of spending cuts and tax increases along with a reallocation of government priorities. All three are designed to restore fiscal sanity over the coming decade and help prepare for the baby boom's retirement.

Music

Downhillbattle.org is a web site started by supporters of smaller independent record labels, an advocacy group based in Worchester Massachussetts battling the Recording Industry Association of America. A page to introduce you to their endeavors. Keeping with the subject, nthoctave is a recently launched blog covering the realm of digital music.

Thomas Edison

Robert Paterson composed a sonata for bassoon and piano. He has a dialogue on how Edison's life and inventions ended up providing a Romantic and technical inspiration for the piece.

“Their courtship ended when Edison tapped out a proposal for marriage on Mina’s hand. In their many years together the pair communicated via Morse code. When attending meetings or at gatherings with friends, Mina would tap out the discussions in Morse code on her deaf husband’s hand. Despite his long hours away from home, Thomas and Mina were totally devoted to each other and profoundly in love.”

Polar Bears

WWF is an organization of 5 million to save endangered species and natural environments. One project is polar bears, whereby two they have tagged with radio collars. Site also has a piece about polar bears.

Polar bears are found throughout the circumpolar Arctic on pack ice, along or near coasts, and on islands. They share this habitat with indigenous peoples, and animals such as ringed seals, arctic foxes, narwhal, beluga whales, and millions of migratory birds. There are believed to be at least 22,000 polar bears worldwide, and about 60 per cent of these are in Canada. Tracks have been reported as far north as the pole, but scientists believe few bears travel beyond 82° north latitude. The northern Arctic Ocean has little food for them.

Sciam

Scientific American launched its website in 1996. The site has grown into a dynamic resource that includes articles from current and past issues, online-only features, daily news, trivia and weekly polls. An area I find cool is Ask the Experts. You can click the science category in bold type and it will bring up the questions in the category. I clicked physics and the question of What causes a mirage. Somewhat more technical than I bargained for, but thats science.

Mirages are a direct result of photons taking the path of minimum time in vertical temperature gradients. Ideal conditions for a mirage are still air on a hot, sunny day over a flat surface that will absorb the sun's energy and become quite hot. When these conditions exist, the air closest to the surface is hottest and least dense and the air density gradually increases with height. Incoming photons take a curved path from the sky to the viewer's eye. The illusion comes from the fact that quantum electrodynamics is not intuitive and the human brain assumes that light travels in a straight line. A viewer looking at, say, the road ahead on a hot, still, day will see the sky because photons from the sky are taking the curved path that minimizes the time taken. The brain interprets this as water on the road because water would reflect light from the sky in much the same way that a vertical temperature gradient does.

Serenity Prayer

I saw on a quotes page the serenity prayer and author Rheinhold Niebuhr. I then searched for the origin of the prayer. On the "about us" page, I mention that I am an ex-drunk, so I believe in the prayer. For me, the most important part is knowing what I can and can not change in my life. Change is an action verb and "talking" about what I should change is not action! Found two pages that say about the same thing. First is from open-mind.org, which has hyperlinks to pages on other sites. Second is from the West Baltimore Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, included on page is the long version. Lastly, an article on Niebuhr from the Boston Globe.

But despite years of research by numerous individuals, the exact origin of the prayer is shrouded in overlays of history, even mystery. Moreover, every time a researcher appears to uncover the definitive source, another one crops up to refute the forcer's claim, at the same time that it raises new, intriguing facts. What is undisputed is the claim of authorship by the theologian Dr. Rheinhold Niebuhr, who recounted to interviewers on several occasions that he had written the prayer as a "tag line" to a sermon he had delivered on Practical Christianity. Yet even Dr. Niebuhr added at least a touch of doubt to his claim, when he told one interviewer, "Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself."

Taxslayer

I file my taxes online and use taxslayer. Only $9.95 to e-file short form for both federal and state returns. Tax information links to visit may be taxtopics and taxsites. A page about e-filing from the IRS website.

Sports & Tech

Sportandtechnology is a monthly e-newsletter covering the impact of technology on the business of sports. Do you agree with this ranking of sports team websites? Speaking of sports, here is an article from OJR about sports and broadband; "Sports sites have relied on fantasy games for the bulk of their subscription income in the past few years, but with broadband proliferating, the time could be right for sports audio and video to explode."

New rankings for US sports websites
A new study designed by the graduate sports communications class at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the US has announced rankings of 131 professional US sports team websites (MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL and NHL). The top 10 teams are as follows: 1. Washington Capitals (NHL); 2. Cleveland Browns (NFL); 3. Phoenix Suns (NBA); 4. Buffalo Bills (NFL); 5. Indianapolis Colts (NFL); 6. OTTAWA SENATORS (NHL); 7. Atlanta Thrashers (NHL); 8. Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL); 9. Houston Texans (NFL); 10. Memphis Grizzlies (NBA).