Book Of Norm

I have a solution for all the hipsters who want to buy an iPad (I was going to try and screw with that name to make it sound bad.. but then Apple had already done my work for me). Buy a Nokia n800. On eBay. For about $100. Nokia n800 iPad Speed 400mhz processor, decent graphics 1ghz Tegra 2 from Nvidia. Good graphics and speed Storage 256mb, with 2 SD card slots up to a 64gb total 16gb up to 64gb Display resistive touch-screen LCD 4.1 inches 800×480 at 225 dpi capacitive touch-screen LCD 9.7 inches 1024 x 768 at 132 dpi Weight/size 0.5lbs in a form factor slightly larger than an iPhone etc. Also comes with large ugly bezel. 1.5 lbs, big square ugly thing with a huge bezel and no damn hope of going in any pocket OS Maemo 2008, which means you have complete Linux style control over the device, everything on...

The iPad was just released. Its costs a ton of money ($500-$830) and is just a big iPod Touch - or put another way, a big iPhone without the phone. It will be a complete failure, except for the apple faithful no one will bother with this. Reasons it pisses me off: It runs one app at a time. This is barely acceptable in the iPhone and a big reason I love my Pre so much. On a "laptop replacement" this is just idiotic. When Microsoft announced that Windows 7 Starter for Netbooks would only run three apps at a time, there was an uproar and the limit was removed. Now, Apple says one app at a time for a similar product, and everyone thinks it will be revolutionary. One analyst in the NYT article actually said: "Microsoft tried this and failed, it took Apple to get it right." Get it right? It has not even been launched to customers yet, and I see this thing as a big heap o fail. It is 4:3, not widescreen. It is ugly looking and awkward. It is called the iPad. Seriously, iP...

Hilarious...

A bit of a dubious listing... " There are some scratches and dings. Vehicle was purchased with no keys. It comes with new ignition switch with key, central bezel (the original is broken). It will need battery charged or jumped to be driven." ##1## Listed in category: eBay Motors > Cars & Trucks > Nissan > 300ZX Item number: 220543715426 1991 Nissan 300ZX 2+2 1991 Nissan 300zx N/A non turbo cheap t-top Research 1991 Nissan 300ZX Please wait Image not available Time left: 20 h 9 m 9 s (Jan 27, 2010 08:14:12 PST) Bid history: 3 bids [ Refresh ] Current bid: US $1,725.00 Now watching in My eBay (49 items) Get low monthly payments Payment: Deposit of US $250.00 within 24 hours of auction close. Full payment required within 7 days of auction close. Shipping: Buyer responsible for vehicle pick-up or shipping. Vehicle shipping quote is available. Item Location: BRYN MAWR, PA, United States For sale 1991 Nissan 300zx 2+2 non turbo N/A. It has 115999miles. ...

No idea if this was set up between the BBC and Google, but it is friggin hilarious. The Stig has been captured on street view standing next to Loch Ness. Rarer than Nessie? Quite possibly. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1245885/Never-mind-Nessie-Mysterious-Stig-captured-rare-sighting-banks-famous-loch.html Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1245885/Never-mind-Nessie-Mysterious-Stig-captured-rare-sighting-banks-famous-loch.html#ixzz0djZ0XD8y

A train can move a ton of freight 436 miles on a single gallon of fuel. For your average large car/small SUV that means about 218mpg. Yeah. And compared to trucks? Dont even want to go there. Want to save the environment (and costs, and lives), break the teamsters union and reorganize the way shipping is handled in this country.

Ed Whitacre has been named the new permanent CEO of GM, having served as temp CEO for a few months. I have it on good authority that he is a doofus. This is not good. A lot of GM top brass are heading for the exit signs. Heading for the exits is not a sign of success. The main theme of the press conference? Full steam ahead.

Want to really reduce carbon emissions and help the environment? Listen to BP: In what was billed by the company as an important speech in Brussels, Iain Conn, chief executive, Refining and Marketing, said that rather than focusing on the long-term objective of halving carbon usage by 2050--an effort he called "polishing the diamond"--the EU should take early material steps toward increasing energy efficiency and cutting carbon usage. In an interview beforehand, he said Europeans "should stop wringing our hands" over what many in Europe saw as a disappointing outcome from the Copenhagen talks in December. "We know so much about practical things we can do today but we are not doing them. All this talk about polishing the 2050 diamond is getting in the way of what we need to do today." These practical policies would include emphasizing the importance of natural gas in electricity generation, boosting nuclear-power generation and reconsidering policies in the...

Forwarded to the BoN from my little brother, this is fantastic:

Dogs are damn smart. This is the short version of the article, from Pop Sci. The long version, found here at the FT , is also worth the read. A conclusion of the scientist, and one that I agree with, is this: “I am not at all convinced that Moscow should be left without dogs. Given a correct relationship to dogs, they definitely do clean the city. They keep the population of rats down. Why should the city be a concrete desert? Why should we do away with strays who have always lived next to us?” Long live the strays. Perhaps we should import some. Moscow's Stray Dogs Evolving Greater Intelligence, Including a Mastery of the Subway Waiting for the 8:10 To Tverskaya Maxim Marmur, via The Financial Times For every 300 Muscovites, there's a stray dog wandering the streets of Russia's capital. And according to Andrei Poyarkov, a researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the fierce pressure of urban living has ...

What if companies could influence national policy? Wait a sec. They already do. What if said companies were big evil corporations set on bending the political system in order to achieve their own aims: in other words, in the eyes of many Americans, they are companies. We would have a disaster. US policy would be influenced by the largest, most effective, most efficient organizations in the world. Horror of horrors, this could lead to increased US productivity, decreased regulatory burden, and a more competitive US economy leading to much better lives for the people of the US. And yet, on its face so many American's on both sides are against the Supreme Court ruling which allows companies to speak publicly on in defense of their first amendment rights. Companies that create jobs and drive the economy. I read an article about how some people are getting by with new innovative ideas like funky ice cream trucks or 5cent architecture, and thats all well and good, but does not account fo...

Fuck you Lady Pelosi Macbeth: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the message from Massachusetts voters isn't to drop health care, but to move forward with their considerations in mind." Luckily, even her own party is realizing she is a twisted manipulating lying out-of-touch liberal elitist scheming crown-desiring flesh-eating staff infection. Well perhaps they dont see the full picture, but they are getting there. Even His Lord Highness Obama figured out that they might be on the wrong tack, and started to talk about a second option and a massively scaled back bill "focused on cost containment." Now, there is no such thing as a layer of regulation which reduces costs, but perhaps by "containment" he means it will all be billed to the government, which can then use Enron accounting to hide it? Not sure. Regardless, it is time for the Democrats, if they know what is best, to throw Pelosi and her lackey Reid to the wolves. Of course, this is would be too b...

AND PASSED WITH AN EXCELLENT SCORE! A

Obama's plan to deal with the utter failure of his socialist/populist agenda? More socialism, more populism. Due to the failure in Ma, the plan now is to go after Wall Street with socialist bazooka loaded up with bullshit. Yes, big banks had something to do with the recession - but where did it start? The government entitlement programs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Today, for the first time in a year in a half, I no longer feel like I screaming into a void. Dealing with certain individuals who are now coming to see the disaster that is the Obama administration I feel like Morpheus trying to show people the real world.

'It is to me a new and consolatory proof that wherever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights." —Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8, 1789.

I just wanted to write that headline. I want to write it over and over again. A few key observations: 1) Mass still loves Ted Kennedy, but they feel Obama is going the wrong direction - this much is obvious 2) Mass is the only state to have universal healthcare. And it just voted against a similar national bill. It has been a disaster here, it will be a disaster nationally. 3) It looks like cooler heads might prevail with Dem moderates calling this a referendum on the administration - which it was - rather than the party line that it has nothing to do with national politics (which is plain idiotic). 4) Dems will try and get Snowe from Maine to vote for healthcare - maybe another cornhusker buyout? 5) Today is the 1st anniversary of Obama's inauguration. HHAHAHHAHAH WOOOT WOOOT HELLLLL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some well written tidbits: "Mr. Obama won the White House in part on his personal style and cool confidence amid a recession and an unpopular war. Yet liberals in Congress int...

Worth a quick read, but this is the gist of it: "What is sort of funny for me is that I spent much of the last six years working on a book about exactly this, about how inside of all humans there is a deep desire and ability to really see life, to see order among living things, and about the joy that comes with it. So at the end of “Naming Nature” (W. W. Norton, 2009), I make a plea to readers to go out into the world and see the life and find the order in the living world around them. I may have to amend the paperback to suggest, or you may want to begin by, heading into a darkened room to see “Avatar” and have your mind blown." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/science/19essay.html?ref=science

Turns out to be 11 minutes or so. In other words, very little. This is one of my biggest problems with american football (and baseball) - there is not a lot of game going on. full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g4:r3:c0:b0 To me, the next step is simple: someone needs to record the broadcast, edit it down to the actual game, and put it up on bittorrent. How amazing would that be? An entire and completely badass football game that takes only 11 minutes. I could watch it in the morning, while I brushed my teeth and ate my honey nut cheerios. It would be the best thing for football since they decided to make the ball pointy.

OPINION JANUARY 13, 2010, 6:51 P.M. ET Don't Like the Numbers? Change 'Em If a CEO issued the kind of distorted figures put out by politicians and scientists, he'd wind up in prison. By MICHAEL J. BOSKIN Politicians and scientists who don't like what their data show lately have simply taken to changing the numbers. They believe that their end—socialism, global climate regulation, health-care legislation, repudiating debt commitments, la gloire française —justifies throwing out even minimum standards of accuracy. It appears that no numbers are immune: not GDP, not inflation, not budget, not job or cost estimates, and certainly not temperature. A CEO or CFO issuing such massaged numbers would land in jail. The late economist Paul Samuelson called the national income accounts that measure real GDP and inflation "one of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century." Yet politicians from Europe to South America are now clamori...

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This is something that has intrigued me for a while. The gradual acceleration of rockets is necessary so that soft bodied humans can make it into space - but why is it needed for hunks of metal and tanks of gas? Space elevators make some sense, but in terms of actually getting things up there on the cheap, I am a firm believer in the following or related projects: shoot them up there with a gun. Its basic technology scaled up to size James Cameron. And I think it has very strong potential to eventually offer cheap and reliable payload access to space. Think about it this way: in combat you use cruise missiles to take out the most critical, sensitive, and difficult targets. But for general fire suppression, weakening enemy positions and protracted engagements, you used dumb old artillery. Our approach to space right now is all cruise missiles, no arty. And its damned expensive and that is holding us back from taking over space. Bring on the big guns. A Cannon for Shooting...

Because their servers are getting attacked by the Chinese government - not exactly something I would be happy about either: VeriSign's iDefense security lab has published a report with technical details about the recent cyberattack that hit Google and over 30 other companies. The iDefense researchers traced the attack back to its origin and also identified the command-and-control servers that were used to manage the malware. The cyber-assault came to light on Tuesday when Google disclosed to the public that the GMail Web service was targeted in a highly-organized attack in late December. Google said that the intrusion attempt originated from China and was executed with the goal of obtaining information about political dissidents, but the company declined to speculate about the identity of the perpetrator. Citing sources in the defense contracting and intelligence consulting community, the iDefense report unambiguously declares that the Chinese government was, in fact, behind t...