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Hotel helps with BlackBerry addiction

If you've got a BlackBerry - and a problem - a Chicago hotel is offering help.

Check into the Sheraton Chicago and general manager Rick Ueno will keep your CrackBerry in the hotel safe to help you beat your addiction. And Ueno knows of which he speaks:

"I was really addicted to my BlackBerry. I had an obsession with e-mail," he told Reuters. "Morning and night. There came a time when I didn't think it was healthy ... I quit cold turkey."

His "one-step recovery" was switching to a plain 'ol cell phone. Is that like switching from high-tar to low-tar cigarettes?

Via Yahoo News

iPod: More popular than beer

Just how popular is the iPod? It's surpassed beer as most popular item on campus, according to college students.

According to a biannual market research study, 73% of students surveyed declared the iPod "in" - more than any other item in a list that also included text messaging, bar hopping and downloading music.

"In the year-ago study, only 59% of students named the iPod as "in," putting the gadget well below alcohol-related activities," writes the AP.

"Alcohol-related activities"? That's a long list.

Via My Way News

MLB says new technology is theft

Major League Baseball's hurling a fastball at the head of Sling Media, saying its ultracool Slingbox is stealing TV. Or to put a fine point on it, stealing money out of the pockets of the poor, underfunded, unpopular MLB.

Slingbox hooks up to your cable set-top box and lets you, through a client on your PC, watch TV just as if you were home. It's a concept called "place shifting," as opposed to the "time shifting" theory behind Tivo and other PVRs. While they let you watch your TV any time you want, Slingbox lets you watch it any place you want. (Cool Tools guru Keith Shaw's reviewed the device last summer and loved it.)

MLB is defending its position with the argument that it only sells transmission rights for "a specific geographic region." The league wants users to pay for the rights to place shift, even though users are watching the feed for their region, just somewhere else.

Considering the league's inability to properly address the steroid issue in a timely manner *cough*bonds*cough*, this is extra bogus.

Via Boing Boing

Worst new buzzword

This week a vendor tried to sneak the word "Weblications" past one of our colleagues in a meeting.

Web + applications = horrible new term.

When our colleague protested, as in "Eww, you gotta be kidding me!", the vendor said he heard it somewhere else. Oh, sure, if we thought it was brilliant we're sure it was all his doing. C'mon, if you're gonna try to float something bad, at least own it.

Just say no.

Google: We were wrong about China

In a stand-up-guy move, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told reporters it was wrong for the company to bend to China's censorship demands.

But in a sit-down-guy move, he engages in a bit of revisionist history and also says they're not going to stop complying with the communist government's demands.

"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin said.

Well, we know you'll make more money, that's one thing.

"It's perfectly reasonable to do something different, to say, 'Look, we're going to stand by the principle against censorship and we won't actually operate there.' That's an alternate path," he said.

What ever happened to "Don't be evil"?

Via Drudge Report

What would you do for an iPod?

We don't like to generalize (Ed. - Pffft), but we think the statement "Beware any social network site" is valid.

Latest case in point: Spymac.com, where people state what they'll do if someone buys them an iPod:

• "I can do networking consulting for an iPod Shuffle 512MB for basic advice 1GB for Advance advice like Servers, What network switch to get etc.
• "I would sponsor two children in two different countries like that Sally Struthers thing, the 30ish dollars a month each for two."

• "I will write you a fanfiction piece to your specifications --- you choose which characters, which fandom."
• "This is my serious offer. I am willing to send, anywhere in the world a care package once a month for a year.
• "Everyone has moments when they need a friend, or someone to discuss their problems and successes with. I can be that person, and I would keep up my services for two months and even more if u really needed a friend."
• "For any iPod, in any condition, you receive a steamy hot serving of my World Famous Chicken and Biscuits."

Much more here.

Are digi cams' days numbered?

Digital cameras are affordable, easy to use and nearly ubiquitous - but are their days numbered?

A study finds that 44% of people already use their cell phone as their main camera and "67% of those questioned said they expected their phone to replace their portable music player," reports The BBC.

Oh, wait, the study was funded by Nokia. (Ed. - Well, duh. Way to go, Sherlock.)

Seriously, though, has anyone seen a camera phone with a camera that doesn't stink? Every picture we've seen looks either blurry or dark.

Anyone got a good camera phone?

Via BBC News

Why more want to telecommute

USA Today reports that skyrocketing gas prices is driving an increased interest in telecommuting. For us it was the ability to work in our pajamas, but tomayto, tomahto...

A study by the Society for Human Resource Management, reports that "offering telecommuting options is among the top five approaches being used by companies to help employees deal with gas prices."

And in other interesting telecommuting news, HP has made the curious move of reducing the number of IT staffers who telecommute.

"The IT organization has made a specific business decision to provide guidelines that locate more team members together in several core sites to facilitate face-to-face interaction and increase team effectiveness," HP spokeswoman Emma Wischhusen said. The company says it's a "a small fraction" of HP's 150,000-employee workforce, she said.

"Increase team effectiveness" - don't like the sound of that at all.

Via USA Today

Will the World Cup take down the 'Net?

What's the biggest network threat these days:

Virus?

DoS attack?

Hackers?

The biggest threat to your network - everywhere but America - could be the World Cup, which starts this week.

Footie fans around the world will be using their work computers (if they even go to work) to check scores and watch the games live from Germany. The Register reports that the BBC is threatening to ankle the Mother Country as it will offer a live feed, which Packeteer thinks will be very, very bad:

"These warnings rarely materalise into real problems. Though, in fairness, Packeteer does have a point when it says streaming video of World Cup matches has never been widely available before. It reckons widespread use of the technology could cause network congestion and slow down the performance of business critical applications."

More here.

Via The Register

Apple offers summer camps for kids

Hello Muddah,

Gimme $1,997 for a MacBook

In an attempt to create new Mac addicts early, Apple stores will be offering 2.5-hour day camps for children ages 8 to 17.

Four free sessions will be offered: Podcast workshop, iWeb workshop, Music Workshop and Movie Workshop. Campers who participate get a CD or DVD with their projects burned onto it, a t-shirt, patch, field journal, field guide, bumper sticker, name tag and a certificate of achievement. OK, we need to forge a birth certificate so we can sneak in.

And while the sessions are technically free, in the end, Apple Camp may end up being more expensive for parents than sleep-away camp.

Office app takes down serial killer

A neat story from Wired takes you inside the Department of Defense's Cyber Crime Conference, where experts make fun of Hollywood's take on the Internet, hacking, et. al.

It details why Hugh Jackman is the most amazing hacker alive and notes that the feds used Word to take down serial killer BTK. So take heart, Microsoft, Word is good for something after all.

Via Wired

Lost lunatics unite

Think you love the show "Lost"? Have you analyzed the fonts used on the show? If not, you don't love it as much as these people.

These nuts - and we mean that lovingly - dissect everything from the show logo (Kabel uppercase) to the countdown timer (Arial) to the Apple II (Palatino).

We never thought we'd find people nerdier than D&D folk (again, we kid with love), but:

"Oh man, the two versions of the logo and the Impact/Helvetica Bold Condensed (or whatever) in the ads. It all annoys me. Stick with the Futura! It's great!"

Via Waxy

AppleBerry! AppleBerry! AppleBerry!

Get ready for the big new buzz word: AppleBerry.

And while it sounds like something delicious to put on your English muffin it, in fact, is the name already given to a product not announced by Apple and RIM. But boy, would it be fun.

Last Friday some Canadian analyst doused the 'Net with gas and flicked a match on it when he noted "Apple could build a mobile phone combining iPod with RIM technologies, or RIM might embed Apple's iTunes music into a future BlackBerry," writes Macworld UK. And we love it even more because our UK friends spell rumor as "rumour."

Well, you know, Apple and RIM could also try to invade New Jersey and overthrow the government, but that doesn't mean there'll be a new Steve Jobs Rest Area on the Turnpike any time soon.

So while it's just speculation, imagine combining those two cults. Wow. Imagining an AppleBerry is about as useful as imagining hitting the lottery, but it is fun.

TV turnoff group eyeing technology

You know the people who sport those "Kill Your Television" bumper stickers on their Volvos? They're coming after your video games, Tivo and iPod.

You can have them when you can pry them out of our cold, dead, Cheeto-covered hands.

The TV-Turnoff Network, which encourages families to kick the habit for a week or more once a year, is now eyeing everything else and says we should unplug them, too. What's next, we have to give up our dog for 7 days as well?

"We certainly don't look at it [technology] as evil, and when used properly it adds value to our lives. But when it's used to excess, that is the problem that we have," says Robert Kesten, executive director of the TV-Turnoff Network.

Bobby, baby, where you been man? That's what America is all about - excess. Well that and celebrity gossip.

Via tvtattle

Fixing Dell problems

So Dell trots out this press release with the headline:

"Dell's New Remote-Assistance Tool Helps Resolve Most Common Computer Issues; With 95 Percent Customer Satisfaction Rate DellConnect Expands to Support U.S. Consumers, Small Businesses"

You know what the most common computer issue is with a Dell? IT'S A DELL.

According to the release, "DellConnect - allows some guy in Bangalore a technician to troubleshoot and help solve a customer's computer problem over a high-speed broadband connection."

But to be fair, we owe Dell props for expanding employment from 1,000 to 4,500 at the company's production, sales and call-center facilities in Tennessee. Brava. Although personally - and this is just us - if we're working in Tennessee, we'd rather be working at Graceland.

Your computer could help cure cancer

Here's the feel-good story of the day: Fire up those old PCs and help find a cure for cancer and Alzheimer's.

Modeled after the famous SETI@home project, Rosetta@home wants to borrow your idle computers to unlock the clue to protein structures within DNA. Organizers hope the answer will help find the cure or vaccines for diseases such as AIDS.

Currently more than 60,000 people donating are computer power, which is equivalent to one supercomputer, something that researcher and project founder David Banker doesn't have the time to buy. Banker's looking for more and his story is touching those affected by serious illness and prompting them to fire up their desktops.

Via USA Today

New contest starts today

We like computers. We like dogs. We like men. So why is this photo not as endearing as it should be for us?

We'll ponder that while you come up with the caption. Send your witty words to layer8@nww.com by end of day Friday for your chance to win Layer 8 stuff.

As usual, click the thumbail to see the doggie better.

Latest contest winner

It was bad enough having to remove my shoes to get thru airport security…

Robert Phillips predicts what hopefully won't be next for us airplane travelers and also wins our latest Weekly Caption Contest. Check in with the great runners-up, and head back later today for the start of a new tilt and your chance to win.

Go on, read the whole thing ...

Posted: June 05, 2006 Permanent link

The cult of the famous calculator

HP is celebrating a big event - the 25th Anniversary Edition of the HP 12c Platinum Financial Calculator.

First, we totally forgot HP made calculators.

Second, we can't remember a time when we actually used a real one.

However, the HP12c is apparently very popular with business school people, CFOs and others in occupations prohibited to us by our inability to do simple math. However, give us the 12c and we can spell SHELL OIL and HELL with the best of them. Anyone remember what else you could spell? Those two were our personal faves, but we swear there was more.

Anyway. the 12c is so iconic, HP solicited user comments in its "Tales of the Amazing HP 12c Calculator Contest". We love the fact the device hasn't changed its look since…OK, we're drawing a blank on 2006 minus 25 years (Ed. - 1981). This is one time we could use the 12c.

And we adore the fact that HP offers wallpaper and screensavers of this old-tyme device. Is this some sort of cult?

The calculator also features something called "Reverse Polish Notation", which we're pretty sure is the punchline to a joke.

If Microsoft made the iPod...

Here's a good way to start your week: a 2:55 video that answers the question:

"If the iPod was made by Microsoft, what would its packaging look like?"

Bonus props for using the theme music from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."

Thanks to Linda for the head's-up!

ABC kills eBay TV show

Did you know ABC was prepping an eBay reality TV show?

Neither did we, but it's kinda moot now that the network has decided not to air the show. Called "Buy It Now", the show "revolved around families looking to fulfill their dreams by placing their prized belongings up for sale on eBay - with friends and neighbors also chipping in to raise funds," according to Variety.

Good move, ABC, that sounds incredibly boring. The network passed after eBay decided it didn't want to be involved with the show. There is something ironic about a show about the world's biggest auction site being unable to be sold.

Amazingly, "Buy It Now" was the second eBay-related TV show pitched to Hollywood. Variety reports Sony spent several years trying to develop an eBay show, but wasn't able to get anyone to buy it.

Via tvtattle

Contact NetworkWorld.com Managing Editor Melissa Shaw

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