http://randalflagg.net Your Source for Social News and Networking Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:56:57 CST en http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/five-things-ie9-is-actually-doing-right/ http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/five-things-ie9-is-actually-doing-right/ Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:56:57 CST http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/five-things-ie9-is-actually-doing-right/ Microsoft - the company we all love to hate - is turning over a new leaf. This is true, at least, with its latest iteration of Internet Explorer, the company's web browser.

At the risk of being completely alienated by my fellow developers, who - like me - have fostered a gut instinct reaction to stand on guard and be ready to attack whenever we hear the words "Microsoft" or "Internet Explorer", I'd like to highlight a handful of things that the company is finally doing right with their browser.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/facebook%E2%80%99s-gone-rogue-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-an-open-alternative/ http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/facebook%E2%80%99s-gone-rogue-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-an-open-alternative/ Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:45:57 CST http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/facebook%E2%80%99s-gone-rogue-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-an-open-alternative/ Facebook has gone rogue, drunk on founder Mark Zuckerberg's dreams of world domination. It's time the rest of the web ecosystem recognizes this and works to replace it with something open and distributed.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/health-environment/girl-frozen-in-time-may-hold-key-to-ageing/ http://randalflagg.net/health-environment/girl-frozen-in-time-may-hold-key-to-ageing/ Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:54:12 CST http://randalflagg.net/health-environment/girl-frozen-in-time-may-hold-key-to-ageing/ Brooke Greenberg is old enough to drive a car and next year will be old enough to vote - but at 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, she is still the size of a one-year-old.

Scientists are hoping to gain new insights into the mysteries of ageing by sequencing the genome of a 17-year-old girl who has the body and behaviour of a tiny toddler.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/sharon-osbourne-attacks-smug-australians/ http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/sharon-osbourne-attacks-smug-australians/ Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:13:44 CST http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/sharon-osbourne-attacks-smug-australians/ TV celebrity Sharon Osbourne hates singer Dannii Minogue, thinks TV chef Curtis Stone is smug, and has criticised all Australians, The Daily Telegraph reports.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/religion/church-to-offer-worship-services-for-dogs/ http://randalflagg.net/religion/church-to-offer-worship-services-for-dogs/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:32:17 CST http://randalflagg.net/religion/church-to-offer-worship-services-for-dogs/ A Massachusetts church is scheduled to launch a new monthly worship service - for dogs.

Calvary Episcopal Church will offer later this month its first "Perfect Paws Pet Ministry" aimed at giving area pooches and their owners improved odds at getting canines into heaven.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/news/british-sniper-nails-two-taliban-from-world-record-8120-feet/ http://randalflagg.net/news/british-sniper-nails-two-taliban-from-world-record-8120-feet/ Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:14:11 CST http://randalflagg.net/news/british-sniper-nails-two-taliban-from-world-record-8120-feet/ A British sniper set a world sharpshooting record by taking out two Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan from more than a mile and a half away -- a distance so great, experts say the terrorists wouldn't have even heard the shots.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/science-technology/scientist-gets-a-billion-pages-on-one-chip/ http://randalflagg.net/science-technology/scientist-gets-a-billion-pages-on-one-chip/ Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:08:21 CST http://randalflagg.net/science-technology/scientist-gets-a-billion-pages-on-one-chip/ Dr Jay Narayan has developed a silicon storage chip that stores data in magnetic nanodots, or quantum dots; tiny structures that can measure just 6nm in diameter. Each nanoscale dot stores a single bit of data, but you can squeeze so many dots onto a small area of silicon that the university says that a single chip can "store an unprecedented amount of data."

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/ie9-html5-video-will-be-h264-only/ http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/ie9-html5-video-will-be-h264-only/ Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:13:47 CST http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/ie9-html5-video-will-be-h264-only/ I am almost flabbergasted by the spin and blunt-face upon which this news is delivered. We were just discussing the pot calling the kettle black with Apple / Adobe and now Microsoft have also come out in favour of a closed video format for an open web--IE9's HTML5 video support will allow H264 only.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/science-technology/nasa-james-cameron-to-develop-3d-camera-for-mars-rover/ http://randalflagg.net/science-technology/nasa-james-cameron-to-develop-3d-camera-for-mars-rover/ Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:44:06 CST http://randalflagg.net/science-technology/nasa-james-cameron-to-develop-3d-camera-for-mars-rover/ NASA announced this month that Cameron is working with Malin Space Science Systems Inc. of San Diego to build an updated camera that, if completed in time, will be installed on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, which has been dubbed Curiosity. The rover's cameras will be the machine's "science-imaging workhorse," according to the space agency.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/movie-talk-some-avatar-fans-struggle-with-blu-ray/ http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/movie-talk-some-avatar-fans-struggle-with-blu-ray/ Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:03:54 CST http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/movie-talk-some-avatar-fans-struggle-with-blu-ray/ An unusual glitch has angered some "Avatar" Blu-ray owners. For these unlucky people, since the disc won't play on their Blu-ray players, their new "Avatar" Blu-ray serves no real purpose other than to sit idly on the coffee table.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/rudd-retreats-on-web-filter-legislation/ http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/rudd-retreats-on-web-filter-legislation/ Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:01:11 CST http://randalflagg.net/internet-blogs/rudd-retreats-on-web-filter-legislation/ KEVIN Rudd has put another election promise on the backburner with his controversial internet filtering legislation set to be shelved until after the next election.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said yesterday the legislation would not be introduced next month's or the June sittings of parliament.

With parliament not sitting again until the last week of August, the laws are unlikely to be passed before the election.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/religion/steven-hassan-its-time-to-end-the-church-of-scientologys-tax-exempt-status/ http://randalflagg.net/religion/steven-hassan-its-time-to-end-the-church-of-scientologys-tax-exempt-status/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:09:30 CST http://randalflagg.net/religion/steven-hassan-its-time-to-end-the-church-of-scientologys-tax-exempt-status/ For more than 25 years, the IRS denied tax-exemption to the Church of Scientology. The long-running policy flowed from an IRS determination in 1967 that Scientology was in fact a commercial entity operated solely for the benefit of founder L. Ron Hubbard.
In 1993, seven years after Hubbard's death, the IRS made a puzzling and highly suspicious reversal. It settled its tax bill with Scientology for just $12.5 million and conferred on it the title of tax-exempt "religion."

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/why-apple-needs-to-loosen-up/ http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/why-apple-needs-to-loosen-up/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:34:57 CST http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/why-apple-needs-to-loosen-up/ Along comes Apple with a walled garden. Not only does it produce the iPad's processor, its operating system, and the device itself, but Apple sells its content, via iTunes, and keeps 30 percent of the money. It also operates the App Store, the only place selling applications to run on the iPad, and it keeps a 30 percent slice there, too. This summer it will start selling ads that run inside the apps and will keep a 40 percent slice of that revenue.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/programming-development/nokia-releases-qt-sdk-beta-for-maemosymbianmeego-development/ http://randalflagg.net/programming-development/nokia-releases-qt-sdk-beta-for-maemosymbianmeego-development/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:43:26 CST http://randalflagg.net/programming-development/nokia-releases-qt-sdk-beta-for-maemosymbianmeego-development/ The Nokia Qt SDK Beta is a new Qt development tool that will provide a comprehensive yet lightweight toolchain for development of Qt cross-platform applications for Symbian and the Maemo platform. You can start to explore coding and testing a Qt application without the need for additional Symbian or Maemo SDKs with this early access release of the Nokia Qt SDK.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/hp-buys-palm-precentral-net/ http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/hp-buys-palm-precentral-net/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:39:03 CST http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/hp-buys-palm-precentral-net/ HP is buying Palm for $5.70 a share, or around $1.2 billion. More to come - conference call at 5pm EST - we'll be liveblogging it for sure. We have HP's Press Release after the break. The whole thing should be done by July 31st.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/hot-out-of-china%E2%80%99s-knock-off-oven-ipad-clone/ http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/hot-out-of-china%E2%80%99s-knock-off-oven-ipad-clone/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:00:15 CST http://randalflagg.net/computers-consoles/hot-out-of-china%E2%80%99s-knock-off-oven-ipad-clone/ Apple has stalled the international launch of the iPad due to high demand in the United States, and Chinese bootleggers are rushing to fill in the gap.
They actually sound better than the original iPad.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/religion/virginia-stamps-out-license-to-hate-dmv-recalls-plate-with-coded-racist-message/ http://randalflagg.net/religion/virginia-stamps-out-license-to-hate-dmv-recalls-plate-with-coded-racist-message/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:34:02 CST http://randalflagg.net/religion/virginia-stamps-out-license-to-hate-dmv-recalls-plate-with-coded-racist-message/ A photo of the truck hit the Web a few days ago, went viral on car and other blogs and finally came to the attention of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group for American Muslims. On Wednesday morning, the group complained to the DMV that the plate contained a white supremacist and neo-Nazi statement.A few hours later, the DMV agreed that the plate contains a coded message: The number 88 stands for the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, doubled to signify "Heil Hitler," said CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper. "CV" stands for "Confederate veteran" -- the plate was a special model embossed with a Confederate flag, which Virginia makes available for a $10 fee to card-carrying members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And 14 is code for imprisoned white supremacist David Lane's 14-word motto: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/simpsons-show-support-for-south-park-pic/ http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/simpsons-show-support-for-south-park-pic/ Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:11:56 CST http://randalflagg.net/entertainment/simpsons-show-support-for-south-park-pic/ Sunday night's opening credits on Fox's "The Simpsons" sent a message of support to Comedy Central's "South Park," which was censored by the network last week for attempting to depict the Prophet Muhammad.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/civics/police-seize-jason-chens-computers/ http://randalflagg.net/civics/police-seize-jason-chens-computers/ Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:39:16 CST http://randalflagg.net/civics/police-seize-jason-chens-computers/ Last Friday night, California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team entered editor Jason Chen's home without him present, seizing four computers and two servers. They did so using a warrant by Judge of Superior Court of San Mateo. According to Gaby Darbyshire, COO of Gawker Media LLC, the search warrant to remove these computers was invalid under section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code.

1 Flagg(s) ]]> http://randalflagg.net/miscellaneous/huge-lightning-bolt-strikes-plane/ http://randalflagg.net/miscellaneous/huge-lightning-bolt-strikes-plane/ Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:28:37 CST http://randalflagg.net/miscellaneous/huge-lightning-bolt-strikes-plane/ ih_3qnMOMt8

1 Flagg(s) ]]>