It’s that time of year again. Happy New Year to everyone and here’s to hoping that 2007 is even better than 2006!

See you all next year!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

• Going Postal
  Holy crap! People are e-mailing the staff at attrition.org to have them cancel their AOL account !?!? WTF? Anyway, some really funny e-mails in there.
  (tags: aol email customerservice funny)

• Cops Caught Stealing Protestors’ Cameras
  Police steal a camera, then claim it was abandoned on the street, then refuse to return it. What country are we living in, anyway?
  (tags: police nypd bastards crime hypocrites scumbags shownotes24)
• Boing Boing: Google “disappears” sex blogs? UPDATED
  Google bounces some “sexy” blogs out of its index, then returns them. At least they fixed the problem, but let’s do better, Google, mmmkay?
  (tags: blog boingboing google search pr sex web2.0 blogs seo)
• PC World names Parallels Desktop for Mac “Most Innovative Product of 2006″
  Of course it is. Anyone who dares say otherwise is probably so blinded by their hatred for the Apple platform that they wouldn’t understand anyway.
  (tags: parallels pcmagazine lists list shownotes24)
• Download of the Day: Dexpot (Windows) - Lifehacker
  Very cool software that gives you virtual desktops and mimics the Expose function of Mac OS (for all you winders heads that won’t go Mac)
  (tags: windows software desktop virtual freeware toread daily desktops download howto lifehacker organization productivity)
• FreeMacWare.com : Free Software For Macs » Blog Archive » iPhotoToGallery
  Upload from your Mac to a gallery set up on your webserver. Tres Cool!
  (tags: gallery iphoto)
• Word Shoot: Spell Fast or Die!
  Fun typing tutor game found in Ben’s del.icio.us feed.
  (tags: flash free online Fun education cool game typing games keyboard)

It’s our New Year’s special! On the cusp of the New Year, I was feeling like crap and chatty at the same time. You won’t want to miss me struggling through a practically lost voice on this one.

[audio:http://www.ispnmedia.com/podcasts/20061229.InformationSalad.0024.mp3]

You can subscribe to Information Salad at ISPNmedia.com or on the iTunes store.

from Consumerist

Technorati Tags: consumerist, infomercials, fraud

via HotAir

Technorati Tags: tickle me emo, madtv

I love stories like this. You would think they were written by some 1950’s doctor who was trying to recapture his paternally dominant household:

Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests.

The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport.

Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.

The women in the Cancer Research UK-funded study spent an average of 16 to 17 hours a week cooking, cleaning and doing the washing.

That rocks… Seriously… Belf!!!, I know you’re reading this. Take note, will ya?

Technorati Tags: funny, silly, medicine, breast cancer

Wow… Are we finally going to see a true move toward net neutrality? Could it be that we’re finally going to have telecoms committing to not selling bandwidth to the highest bidder?

Could it be?

AT&T has apparently offered an olive branch to the Net Neutrality crowd in its quest to merge with BellSouth. According to the Save the Internet Blog, AT&T has committed to not using the power of the merged company to stifle internet connectivity and give consumers true choice in services…

“… commits that it will maintain a neutral network and neutral routing in its wireline broadband Internet access service. This commitment shall be satisfied by AT&T/BellSouth’s agreement not to provide or to sell to Internet content, application, or service providers, including those affiliated with AT&T/BellSouth, any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth’s wireline broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination.”

Brilliant. Once one goes, they all go. If this merger happens, you can bet that this agreement will place an enormous amount of pressure on other telecoms (Verizon? I’m looking at you!) to do the same.

This just got really interesting.

Technorati Tags: net neutrality

Jeff over at Boonville Blog is a common-sense kinda guy. Check out this from his blog:

Last Friday, after a string of emails, a coworker indicated that they would be out until well after the new year. They signed off with “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”. Seeing this, I responded with a “Happy Holidays” since HH is shorter than MCaHNY and conveys the same point. A couple of minutes later my coworker responded that they hoped they hadn’t offended anyone by saying “Merry Christmas”. As I said assuringly to my coworker, please, anyone, feel free to wish me “Happy Whatever Religious Holiday Comes Next”. I won’t take offense. If someone wished me happiness on an important day in their religion I would sooner be honored than take offense.

God help us all… Uncommon common sense in a world gone nuts. Well said, Jeff.

Technorati Tags: common sense, cool

Hope you aren’t relying on Gmail for too much… Apparently a few users lost all e-mails prior to December 18th. Lest you think I’m kidding, read the letter Google sent to GigaOm:

Regretfully, a small number of our users — around 60 — lost some or all of their email received prior to December 18th. Once we found out about this issue, we worked day and night to confirm that only a few accounts were affected and to do whatever we could to restore as much of the users’ accounts as we could. We’ve also reached out to the people who were affected to apologize and to work with them to restore the email from any personal backup they might have. We know how important Gmail is to our users – we use it ourselves for our corporate email. We have extensive safeguards in place to protect email stored with Gmail and we are confident that this is a small and isolated incident.

If the safeguards are so extensive, why did they lose anything?

I love corporate doublespeak.

Technorati Tags: gmail, google

• macosxhints.com - Be aware of speed limits on some older routers
  Wow… It makes perfect sense and yet it’s something I never thought of…
  (tags: router network internet tip trick troubleshooting speed bandwidth)
• Download MoonCal 1.0 for Mac - MoonCal
  Program to tell you what the moon will be and when.
  (tags: Moon phase calculator calendar astronomy)
• How to Disable RFID in New Passports
  Since passports don’t require a working RFID chip, this hack oughta work nicely… Just smash the crap out of it! How very finessed, huh?
  (tags: hack how-to howto lifehack news privacy security passport rfid travel hacks)

Frigging Dave Whiner is at it again…

Disclosure: I was not offered and have not received a Ferrari laptop with Vista installed. How does it feel? Shitty. I wonder if Microsoft has considered the cost of ill-will they create among people whose opinions they don’t consider important. I know, damned if you do if, damned if you don’t. But it does feel bad, I thought that was worth saying. Everyone who got one thought it was a good idea, apparently. (Same with the Edwards announce, btw.).

Jesus Christ, Dave… SHUT UP already. No one offered you a laptop because no one thought you were important enough to do so. I know that’s a blow to your ego which is already extremely over-inflated, but for God’s sake, make at least a token attempt to calm it down if only for a few minutes.

Humility never hurt anyone, Dave.

Technorati Tags: dave winer, dave whiner, winer, whiner

No warrant? No problem. Not that this surprises me anymore, but that doesn’t make it right.

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Technorati Tags: funny, video, youtube

In the news today, the FDA is poised to approve food from cloned animals. Apparently eating clones makes some people uncomfortable. Their thinking goes like this:

“I sure enjoy eating Bob the cow, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable eating Bob the other cow.”

Scott Adams

Technorati Tags: scott adams, funny, quote of the day

The headline reads “Child’s New Computer Full of Porn.” It wasn’t full of porn, it just happened to open up to a porn website. Farbeit from the news to not be dramatic.

“On Christmas Day we set it up, hit Internet Explorer and the first thing to pop up was a porn site,” Rick Donaldson said. “That was a shocker.”

Joy Donaldson said what appeared was child pornography. The Donaldsons said they had to yell for their son to stay out of the room.

Rick Donaldson said he purchased the computer from a Comp USA store in Skokie, Ill. It was a floor model Donaldson bought at a discount, but the father never imagined that such content would be on the computer. He said the URL that appeared wasn’t just pornographic, but racist, too.

“It was very frustrating,” Joy Donaldson said.

As the Donaldsons tried to close the window, another popped open, inviting them to e-mail the site to a friend.

You set it up and then hit Internet Explorer? Tsk tsk tsk… (I know, smartasses… You have to do something to get online while you grab Firefox).

It cracks me up how suddenly everyone is buying floor models, everyone’s floor models are coming with stuff on them already, and everyone is so beyond outraged about it. Please. It was 3 seconds of porn. Go to a new URL and start over. Why does every person who manages to see some pr0n have to suddenly become uber-avengers and start crying to the media?

Anyway, CompUSA is feeling guilty so they offered up a $100 gift card for their troubles. The parents have now become causeheads…

“Our message to parents is that something like this can happen and make sure you’re the fist one to look at it,” he said.

Ya think? I’ve gotten exactly 1 computer from my parents in my life, and I know for a fact that they looked at it long before I ever saw it. You would think that a parent who bought a floor model from a major retail would’ve had the common sense to do the same, huh?

I don’t buy this story at all. I have a feeling the computer was set up and left alone, and the kid got into some pr0n, then mom and dad freaked because there’s no way their little boy would ever look at that sort of thing. Of course that’s just speculation, but that’s what I do.

Anyone else not buying this?

Technorati Tags: pr0n, porn, computer, computers, parenting, christmas

So Microsoft has been giving out high-end Acer Ferrari laptops to prominent bloggers and loading them up with Vista in the hopes that they’ll blog about their experiences. Mike Arrington thinks that the negative press that the viral marketing scheme has received is a bit overblown, and I tend to agree with him.

The only scandal would be in a blogger who received a computer decides to keep it and then writes about Vista in a positive way and doesn’t disclose the situation. Otherwise, there isn’t much of an issue.

I’m not sure what we are going to do with the computer yet. We may give it away on CrunchGear, although our analyst, Nick, has his eye on it as well.

But whatever we do with it, it’s clear that Vista has come a long way since the pre-release betas. It’s a kick ass operating system.

If you happen to be running it on a $4,000 computer, at least.

Funny how MS has decided that they have to give out computers to get some pats on the back. I don’t remember Apple doing anything similar (you know, begging for reviews) when they dropped the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros on the market, but hey… Some companies get buzz and others need to manufacture it.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, acer, marketing

AllofMP3 is very nonplussed by the RIAA threats its facing and has informed the RIAA that they can file suits until they’re blue in the face, but since they’re in Russia they’re all meaningless. Good. It’s about time someone stood up to those scumbags at the RIAA and the hypocrites at the record labels.

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• Boing Boing: Treasure Chests book from 1967
  I wouldn’t normally post something that’s NSFW, but it does have some serious artistic merit. When you consider this was done in 1967, pre-Photoshop, it’s all the more amazing.
  (tags: boobs boobies art interesting weird strange bizarre)
• instructables : Kat Litter Cake — Gifts Impossible to Re-Gift
  Hehehehe… Funny… Just imagine if you left it within the sight of your cat!
  (tags: cat cats food recipe litter joke gag funny)
• Boing Boing: Chocolate-obsessed blogger’s exposé on costly candy, Noka
  High-priced chocolate isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Don’t be fooled though. Just like wine, and coffee, there is a quality difference from Duane Reade chocolate to the good stuff.
  (tags: chocolate food snacks scam)

If you own a Mac, I promise you’ll be cringing the entire time you read this. Lesson learned: MacBooks are user-upgradeable. MacBook Pros SO aren’t.

Technorati Tags: apple, sad, scary, disaster, mess, self-repair, diy, do it yourself

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