Book Of Norm

Do not buy into Best Buy's Buy Back program. And no, not just because they had Justin Bieber in the commercial. Basically, what they offer is that you pay them a fee when you buy the product, just like you would to buy an extended warranty (which are also generally worthless). Then, a couple years later, when you don't want the item anymore, remember that you had bought it with the Buy Back, you take it in to Best Buy. And here is where you get screwed. Best Buy has taken a very aggressive depreciation ax to the value of your item, and offers you a small handful of copper for it. Instead, the old options are best: sell it on eBay, or give it to someone who does not have one.

Ok, what the hell was that commercial with fingers being sewn onto some giant Android mascot? And more importantly, why the hell is it call the Sony Experia Play and says nothing, nothing at all, about PlayStation. Fergawdssake it's a PlayStation phone. The Phone: The PSP Go: My Answer

NASA now has satellites across from each other on both sides of the sun, at the same time. Called STEREO, these twins are helping with a major problem for modern society: the Sun. You see, the Sun has been really really quiet for the past 40 years or so. In those past 40 years... we have become a space-faring society. I mean, humans don't actually get to go up there very often, but modern society relies on space to gather and transmit enormous amounts of information. And, turns out that we have just gotten lucky. In 2012 (yes, 2012) the sun is expected to enter a new phase, where solar activity returns to historically more normal levels, and many of our satellites are likely to get fried like the ketchup on the leftover burger you tried to heat in a microwave. The two satellites will gradually move towards the side of the sun away from earth, to look back and us and see the solar winds and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) headed our way. Read more from the BBC

After a half century of civil war between the muslim and arab north and black and christian/tribal south (including the genocide in Darfur), southern Sudan will finally have independence it seems. 99% of the population voted for independence, and President Bashir said that he would support the vote. It is estimated that 2 million people have died in the civil wars, and I think that is probably a conservative estimates considering what I have seen out of Darfur alone. Click through for the BBC article and graphics. Sudan: A country divided Geography Ethnic groups Infant mortality Water & sanitation Education Food insecurity Oil fields Show regions The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

After a half century of civil war between the muslim and arab north and black and christian/tribal south (including the genocide in Darfur), southern Sudan will finally have independence it seems. 99% of the population voted for independence, and President Bashir said that he would support the vote. It is estimated that 2 million people have died in the civil wars, and I think that is probably a conservative estimates considering what I have seen out of Darfur alone. Sudan: A country divided Geography Ethnic groups Infant mortality Water & sanitation Education Food insecurity Oil fields Show regions The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

This was one of the better commercials put together for the Superbowl. Its 2 minutes long, features Eminem, and is probably the first time that advertising something has come from Detroit has been tried in 30 years. But I have one, major, issue with it. The car is a piece of crap. A total, utter, piece of crap. It is the new Chrysler 200C. Which is not new at all. It is a warmed-over Chrysler Sebring, which was notable only for being worst-in-class at just about everything. It was the car which was sold with "buy one, get one free!" discounts. With the 200C, Chrysler decided that they did not have the money to really redo the Sebring. So they changed most body panels, upgraded the interior, and dropped in their new v6 as an option. The greenhouse (top 1/2 of the car), chassis, and most other major components remained the same. If you notice in the commercial they barely ever show the car in direct light. And for good reason. In comparison, the Kia Optima against it which comp...

I won't take a stab at explaining this, because both PopSCI and CNET did it so well before me. But long story short, IPv4 only allows about 4 billion addresses for the internet (you know like 192.168.1.3 on your home network) and... we just ran out. But don't worry, IPv6 has gajillions of addresses. The only issue being that IPv6 devices can't see IPv4 - in other words, the internet as we currently know it. Have no fear though, the only effect you will probably feel is that you might eventually have to buy a new router. Read on... IPv4 vs. IPv6 Number Resource Association