You really have to be fucking dumb. That’s the only words for someone who survives a wreck caused by speeding, distracted driving, and exacerbated by lack of a seatbelt, only to leave the hospital after his recuperation and then again be riding well above the speed limit…

Today, after his brief comments, Mr. Corzine got into a dark GMC Savana van that he purchased in the last few days and had specially modified for his wheelchair. He left the hospital in a six-car caravan that included a black state police Crown Victoria, a Chevrolet Suburban like the one he had been riding in on April 12, a Mercedes station wagon and two other cars.

No one in the motorcade used emergency lights, as his driver had been doing at the time of the accident. They kept to a pace of about 70 miles per hour, even though the posted limit is 55 on the stretch of Interstate 295 that leads to Drumthwacket, the governor’s official mansion in Princeton, where Mr. Corzine will spend the next stage of his recovery

WTF Corzine? Are you fucking retarded? Or are your “men” retarded?

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, New Jerseyites. This is your Governor. You might want to rethink whether or not he has the brains to run the state or if he should just apply to be a permanent crash test dummy.

Apparently Ballmer isn’t a sports fan because if he was, he’d know how unabashedly stupid it is to give your opponents bulletin board material…

There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

Sorry stupid, but first of all your software isn’t in even half of the phones being sold. More than 70% of smartphones? Sure, if you want to really break down numbers to the most granular way they look good for you.

I love Windows Mobile, but let’s not kid ourselves here. Apple is cruising for major market share here. Apple getting 2% or 3% is a silly number based on absolutely nothing. Of course, like I said, Ballmer is proving not to be so bright and loves making quotable statements that mean nothing, so this is nothing new.

Bill, fire the village idiot and bring respectability back to Microsoft. PLEASE.

(PS: Even in smartphones, ole MS is only at around 5%. Now, I readily admit that most people who buy Symbian aren’t doing so to get Symbian, they just happen to have it, but that being said, 5% isn’t exactly gigantic considering your criticism of Apple for 3%.)

Ya know, I missed a lot of cool shit that went on this weekend with this stupid cold. I mean, I had to go shopping and all, but if you listened to Friday’s podcast, you can hear me coughing up a lung and losing my voice as the show went on…

I know this probably means nothing to any of you, but I felt the need to bitch.

• Lumen
  Fun addictive PC and Mac game
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• Make your own theme with the Wordpress theme generator - Lifehacker
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We were very honored last night that Tim Westergren took time out of his unbelievably busy schedule to talk to us about the Copyright Review Board and their process, what Pandora is, and all the recent issues surrounding internet radio.

When we were done, Tim even helped us to understand something that we tried to but couldn’t: the lack of common sense with regards to penalizing internet radio in a way that traditional and satellite radio isn’t.

Anyway, thanks go out to Tim Westergren, and as we said on the show, hopefully we’ll have him on in a few weeks to talk about the colossal success of HR 2060 and that the future of net radio is secure.

You can listen to the show here or download it via iTunes.

Technorati Tags: information salad, ispn media, tim westergren, pandora

The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Hussein’s army, was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the “high-value detainee programme” at Guantanamo Bay.

Abd al-Hadi was taken into CIA custody last year, it emerged from US intelligence sources yesterday, in a move which suggests that he was interrogated for months in a “ghost prison” before being transferred to the internment camp in Cuba.

Abd al-Hadi, 45, was regarded as one of al-Qaeda’s most experienced, most intelligent and most ruthless commanders. Senior counter-terrorism sources told The Times that he was the man who, in 2003, identified Britain as the key battleground for exporting al-Qaeda’s holy war to Europe.

Source

Technorati Tags: london, bombing, metro, tube, 7/7

Okay, this one is a damn classic. Paul Kapustka from GigaOM seems to have caught the WSJ red-handed in a bit of shadiness. On Friday, Vonage ran an ad slamming Verizon in its patent case. The ad, according to Kapustka, had what looked like a sharpie line through it. Closer examination of the ad in question revealed that the ad did have a marker line through it, but it was in the ad, not done by his delivery person. Here’s a shot he had of the ad in question (click to embiggen ever so slightly).

Kapustka contacted Vonage for a copy of the ad, and they sent him the unredacted ad that ran in the New York Times, also on Friday. The edited line reads ““Now, Verizon has chosen to attack Vonage in the courts. Why? Could it be all about the money?” Vonage was told by the Wall Street Journal that the ad would not be accepted at all in its original format (ie: with that line in tact).

So now you have to wonder… What in that ad was so egregious that it required it to be censored or scrapped? Or was it just the fact that Vonage called Verizon on the carpet for its predatory use of a patent it probably shouldn’t have had in the first place?

Technorati Tags: verizon, vonage, wall street journal, wsj, censorship

• InterfaceLIFT: Widescreen Wallpaper
  Best. Wallpaper. Evar.
  (tags: wallpaper windows mac osx)
• Add favicons to the Firefox bookmark toolbar - Lifehacker
  Quick way to fix a bad design decision by the Mozilla folks.
  (tags: firefox mac theme favicon links)
• Uncensor the Internet Firefox extension - Lifehacker
  Time to put the stones back in the motherf***ing internet.
  (tags: firefox addons censorship computers extensions technology tools)
• Ukelele: visual keyboard layout editor - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Easy way to change your Mac keyboard layout.
  (tags: hack keyboard macosx mac apple osx)
• plasq.com - Comic Life 1.3.3 unleashed!
  Yep, and still no Windows version.
  (tags: comiclife 1.3.3 update upgrade macosx osx)
• 10 Reasons to Use an Exercise Ball as Your Chair - lifehack.org
  (tags: furniture health office)
• Changes Meter :: Another Mac freeware application at Freemacware.com
  (tags: changesmeter software mac osx utility)
• Stageleft:. Life on the left side » Blog Archive » Who Didn’t Know This Already?
  George Tenet, who had no credibility when he liked Bush, now has tons of it since he’s criticizing him. Isn’t that the way it works, anyway?
  (tags: george tenet cia faillure loser)
• Sparkling Wiggles - CollegeHumor video
  What? She said sparkling wiggles. What did you think she said?
  (tags: funny video)

Ken Kutaragi is leaving Sony after flopping flat on his face with the PS3:

The architect of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, will step down on June 19, at a time when the Japanese company is fighting to reassert its lead in the video game market.
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Known as the “Father of PlayStation,” Kutaragi, 56, took a lead role in the invention of the Sony game console in 1994 and the PlayStation 2 in 2000. Known as a company black sheep, he bucked consensus to turn video games into a cash cow, but lately has seen his status diminish.

Sony has sold more than 200 million units of these consoles globally, though the PlayStation 3 has made a weaker-than-expected showing against Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s Wii console since its launch last year in the $30 billion video game market.

Distant third sounds more accurate. Truth is at the holidays, people were still buying XBox 360’s and you couldn’t get a Wii anywhere because people were buying them to give them as gifts or to play / own them. The PS3 seemed to be more of a scalper’s investment than anything else. As of right now, you still cannot go into a store and buy a Wii. The XBox 360 is still the best console on the market. The PS3? Well, look around you. Do you know anyone that owns one?

I don’t.

And I know lots of people who have Wiis and 360s.

Ken had a good run. The PS and PS2 were revolutionary. The PS3 tried to be too many things to too many people, just like his other flop… The PSP…

via Yahoo News

Technorati Tags: video games, ken kutaragi, nintendo, microsoft, sony

Chicken shit punk…

In a statement, Cam’ron tried to explain what he said, “Where I come from, once word gets out that you’ve cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence. That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s reality.”

Cam’ron went on — “Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime,” the rap star said in a statement issued today. “Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment.”

So let’s get this straight. Punk-ass Cam’ron is so tough that he doesn’t need to cooperate with no pigs, but he’s such a chicken shit that he’s afraid to cooperate with the pigs.

You keeping score out there?

Technorati Tags: cam’ron, chicken shit, punk, pussy

As if you needed one…

I’ve always said that very few politicians hold any value strongly enough to allow it to stand in the face of not getting a party nomination or winning an election. Rudy Giuliani, the principled superhero of 9/11 fame is no exception. Apparently, his former socially liberal position on gay marriage wasn’t flying with the right wing of the Republican Party….

In a startling departure from his previously stated position on civil unions, Mayor Giuliani came out to The New York Sun yesterday evening in opposition to the civil union law just passed by the New Hampshire state Senate.

“Mayor Giuliani believes marriage is between one man and one woman. Domestic partnerships are the appropriate way to ensure that people are treated fairly,” the Giuliani campaign said in a written response to a question from the Sun. “In this specific case the law states same sex civil unions are the equivalent of marriage and recognizes same sex unions from outside states. This goes too far and Mayor Giuliani does not support it.”

Too far!? That certainly doesn’t fly with me, nor with Ryan Sager at the New York Sun (note to self: start buying the New York Sun):

In 1998, as mayor of New York City, Mr. Giuliani signed into law a domestic partnership bill that a gay rights group, the Empire State Pride Agenda, hailed as setting “a new national benchmark for domestic partner recognition.”

Despite Mr. Giuliani’s long history of supporting gay rights — or rather, because of it — yesterday’s statement is likely to lead many observers to question whether the former mayor is concerned that his socially liberal record and positions aren’t flying in the Republican primary. While he still holds a commanding lead in the national polls, he has taken a hit over the last month or so after reiterating his support for the public funding of abortion.

I really don’t get it. Is he that worried about his image with the right wing that he’ll go back on what was a cornerstone of his time as Mayor of New York City? And does he really think that the red-staters who didn’t support his social liberalism before will suddenly be swayed by his last-minute change of heart?

One more pull quote:

“Why would you want to take a position where you are splitting hairs, when you have been so consistently on the record as for civil unions?” a Republican pollster reached for comment yesterday evening by the Sun, Tony Fabrizio, asked. “You can’t turn around at the eleventh hour and say this comes a little too close to marriage and then not support it.”

When you combine this with his absolutely asinine comments he made last week about a Democrat President immediately putting America on the defense, you have to wonder if he really wants to be President or if his advisors have any damn clue what they’re doing.

Not that I was voting for him anyway.

NY Sun via HotAir

Technorati Tags: rudy giuliani, gay marriage, civil unions

Entrapment, anyone?

NY1 has learned that charges have been dropped against a man arrested for picking up a bag police planted on the subway, but the NYPD says it will not suspend its controversial Lucky Bag sting operation.

The sting operation is set to arrest people who take property that seems to have been abandoned or forgotten.

Aquarius Cheers was arrested in February after he picked up a bag of electronics police had planted on the subway. Police said he was trying to steal the bag, but on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped the case, saying there was insufficient evidence.

“What’s important today is the district attorney recognized and stated in court that the type of circumstances that have led to these ‘lucky bag’ arrests are not circumstances that constitute a crime,” said Chris Dunn of the Civil Liberties Union.

I have no use for them sometimes. There are occasions where they do a good job, but this kind of stuff really is a black eye on the NYPD. In fact, it’s downright maddening.

via NY1 and Gothamist

Technorati Tags: nypd, subway, lucky bag, bullshit, entrapment

AOL must’ve gone to the Microsoft School of Innovation (click to embiggen)…

It amazes me that they continue to do this with a straight face.

Image via TechCrunch

Technorati Tags: aol, yahoo, copycat

Tonight on Information Salad, we’re going to have Tim Westergren from Pandora on to talk about the recent Copyright Royalty Board decision that, if left as is, would ultimately spell the end for internet radio as we know it.

You won’t want to miss this one tomorrow when we post it.

Also, if you have any questions you’d like me to ask Tim, put them in the comments and I’ll be sure to bring them up during the show.

Thanks!

via HotAir

• Free to Compete
  Can you patent an orange? Find out what happens if the answer is yes…
  (tags: voip vonage law phone money verizon articles communication legal marketing patent strategy)
• Tom’s a Tool
  Nicholas shreds Myspace’s latest “security” measure
  (tags: myspace bullshit security web2.0 web)

There’s a reason that Mayor Bloomberg is the best Mayor this city has ever had. Here’s another one for you…

While there’s a projected surplus for this year, Bloomberg is going to use the extra money to pay down expected future debt. $1.3 billion is going towards the projected $1.6 billion deficit in 2009 and $1 billion toward 2010’s $3.3 billion deficit. Where’s all the money coming from? City agency cutbacks and surprise revenue from all the large real estate sales (hello, Stuy Town). Further details of the mayor’s 2008 Budget and Financial Plan are being presented at City Hall today.

Notice he isn’t building a park, giving out raises, or doing whatever. He’s taking the money and putting it toward the debt he knows we’re going to have in 3 years and in two years.

The man runs the city like a business and that’s why he’s so damn successful.

It’s also why he won the last election by the largest margin in New York City history.

Technorati Tags: bloomberg, michael bloomberg, mayor, new york city, nyc

More congratulations are in order. Melissa Plaut aka New York Hack, finally has a release date for her new book!

I already ordered mine. No brainer.

You should order yours, too. She’s a great writer, a great photographer, and I can hardly wait to crack into it!

(Who knows… Maybe she’ll let me interview her to pimp her new book!)

Technorati Tags: new york hack, melissa plaut

To a regular reader who I piss off quite regularly, CONGRATULATIONS!

Nick popped the question! The big one!

Oh, yeah, and she said yes
(Think she was surprised?)

Technorati Tags: nicholas, pdsys, engagement, announcement, cool

Consumerist had a call that a customer made to HP. It was one in a series of calls.

Take a listen and tell me if, in your mind, this call doesn’t exemplify everything that’s wrong with customer service at every PC manufacturer, I don’t know what does.

Oh, and you’ll notice I said PC manufacturers. Apple doesn’t farm out it’s tech support to some backward-ass third world country.

Just sayin.

Technorati Tags: hp, tech support