Month: July 2006

Lost – Season Two

So, today, I finally caught up with the rest of the world and finished watching the second season of the hit TV show “Lost“.

I can’t wait for Season Three to begin and for me to get to see it. The second season just got us deeper into it all, multiplied the questions and confusion and left us wanting more and more.

This series is one of the best I’ve watched, and I really like the whole idea of it and how it’s made. And after two seasons it remains as intriguing and interesting as it started out to be if not more.

I got my hands on Season Two just a couple of days ago, and I’ve been watching episode after episode since then, pretty much non-stop. It’s so damn addictive and the suspense just eats at you.

Again, to whoever out there hasn’t watched this series, you don’t know what you’re missing, get started watching now and enjoy the thrill of every episode.

The US and the Israeli Attack on Lebanon

On July 20, the U.S. House of Representatives, by an overwhelming 410-8 margin, voted to unconditionally endorse Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Senate passed a similar resolution defending the Israeli attack earlier in the week by a voice vote, but included a clause that

Microsoft’s Zune Portable Media Player

Zune playerAfter many rumours and leaked information and photos, Microsoft has finally confirmed the existence of Zune, its planned media player and iPod killer.

Under the Zune brand, Microsoft will be delivering a family of hardware and software products, the first of which, the media player, will be available this year. Pyxis is the codename for their iPod nano competitor which would also include video capabilities; Alexandria is the codename for the software that powers the Zune experience.

The device will have hard drive-based storage and integrated WiFi. The WiFi will be used for community-based music sharing/streaming, as well as internet access, which will give Zune players the ability to access Microsoft’s online music store from anywhere.

Microsoft will also be allowing users to share their content with the XBOX 360, Windows Media Center based PCs and Windows Mobile-based mobile phones.

A Zune viral marketing site has been launched at: ComingZune.com, and a blog at: Zune Insider.

More: engadget.

Bush’s Solution To The Crisis

“What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over.”

George W. Bush
US “President”

What you need to do Mr. Bush, is shut the hell up with your dumb comments already and get Israel to stop doing the shit it’s doing, that’s when it’ll really be over!

Israel’s Real Aim In Lebanon

Lebanon destruction

The real aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government.

That was the aim of Ariel Sharon’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it…
As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the US.
As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite…

On the eve of the 1982 invasion, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told Ariel Sharon that, before starting it, it was necessary to have a “clear provocation”, which would be accepted by the world.
The necessary provocation has been provided by the capture of the two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah. Everyone knows that they cannot be freed except through an exchange of prisoners. But the huge military campaign that has been ready to go for months was sold to the Israeli and international public as a rescue operation…

— Uri Avnery
Israeli Journalist,
Writer and Peace Activist

[Via: Je Blog]

HP Unveils Memory Spot

Hewlett-Packard unveiled a memory chip the size of a tomato seed in its Palo Alto laboratories. The tiny chip, called the Memory Spot, can be attached unobtrusively to any object and carry media or data.

The Memory Spot will rival RFID tags in carrying information on movable physical objects. It has a 10 megabits-per-second data-transfer rate and can store up to 4 megabits of data.
The chip has an integrated antenna, which is why it is so much smaller than an RFID chip, which gets most of its size from the separately attached antennae. It receives power through inductive coupling from a special read-write device that extracts data from the memory on the chip.

The reading devices have yet to be developed, but HP thinks that mobile phone companies and PDA manufacturers will be interested in the technology.

HP demonstrated picture albums with the chip attached to the borders. When a reader touched the chip, audio from the picture was played. They also demonstrated waving a reader over the chip on a medicine bottle and getting the dosage, directions, and all other pertinent information from the prescription on the attached computer.

Other proposed applications include sending digital postcards with movies and sounds, attaching catalogs to merchandise, resumes to business cards, and digital information to a document in order to photocopy it without scanning.

Sounds really good, and a lot more cool and interesting things could come out of using technology like this, yet we must not forget all the privacy concerns that were raised because of RFID, and that would apply here as well if put in the wrong hands.

[Source: PCMag]

Write Your Name In Firefox Code

To commemorate the three-year anniversary of the creation of the Mozilla Foundation on July 15, the open-source group announced that if a Firefox user persuades a friend to download the browser, both the user and the friend’s names will be added to the source code of the next version of the browser, Firefox 2.0.

To nominate a friend, you have to go to the Firefox Day website and choose one friend who doesn’t have Firefox, and who you’ll be sure will go ahead and download it.

Firefox has a global usage share of 12.93 percent, and this could boost that percentage even more. I think it’s a really cool idea.

Personally, with or without this, I recommend Firefox as a browser.

CNN Bias In Coverage Of Crisis

CNN is at it again: choosing its words and images carefully to remain safely well within the officially accepted and sanctioned storyline: Israel is reacting to provocation — perhaps a bit heavy-handedly — but reacting all the same.
[PMWatch]

Has CNN gotten to the point where it won’t report pertinent facts that are essential to putting a story in context? Facts that certainly would have helped viewers understand some of the international criticism Israel was coming under for what the European Union called a “disproportionate” military response to the conflict at hand.
[The Huffington Post]

The CNN representatives expressed concern at the meeting about reports of American Jews selling off stock in the parent company, Time-Warner, in protest over the network’s coverage of the current crisis.
Jewish leaders in the US said they were having some success in convincing CNN to change its reportage on the conflict.
In an effort to mollify critics, CNN recently stopped airing reports from correspondent Rula Amin in Gaza and ceased referring to the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo as a “settlement.”
[acj.org]

[Via: Houssein, Sabbah]

Who Started?

“We could have withdrawn from Gaza through negotiations and coordination, while strengthening the existing Palestinian leadership, but we refused to do so. And now, we complain about ‘a lack of leadership?’ We did everything we could to undermine their society and leadership, making sure as much as possible that the disengagement would not be a new chapter in our relationship with the neighboring nation, and now we are amazed by the violence and hatred that we sowed with our own hands.”

Gideon Levy
Who Started? (Ha’aretz)
July 15, 2006

[Via: Billmon]