San Francisco has picked this partnership to blanket the city with affordable wireless Internet access, beating out five other bidders for a chance at the highly coveted contract. San Francisco will start negotiating a deal with the two companies, following a recommendation by a city panel evaluating the project.

Me: This is cool and all, but it really dosen't do anything for me. I'm on the East coast. San Fran certainly is the center of Internet activity and tech. I guess if I were a smart man -which is often questionable- I would relocate. But hey, I've already tryied Cali, it's just to damn bright for me. Even the sun is a different color. I'm more partial for the grey East coast. I like concrete and metal.

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IIPimage is a client-server system for the remote viewing of ultra-high resolution images over the internet. Their demo of NASA's incredible ultra high resolution Marble Earth image at 86400 x 43200 pixels is probably the biggest single image ever made available online!

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Last year Mozilla made $72 million from Firefox, The money comes from the Google Search box on the top right, when you search using that box and you click on Google ads on the results page Firefox gets about 80%.

Holy smokes!

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Today while completing my daily blog browsing, I came across this article posted on Wired News. RFID: Sign of the (End) Times? is a rather funny article proposing that the advancement of radio frequency identification is a sign of the Apocalypse. Katherine Albrecht is the author of a new book The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance. In this book Albrecht states that many of the signs in the book of revelations have an eery similarity to the future uses of RFID.

RFID chips, particularly the VeriChip subcutaneous implant designed for humans, bear an uncanny resemblance to "the mark" described in the Bible's Book of Revelation.

If the VeriChip becomes a common payment device similar to the "contactless" payment system in the Exxon Mobil Speedpass, all who wish to buy and sell goods will be compelled "to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads," as it says in Revelation, the Spychips Threat authors contend.

Another passage in Revelation describes a vision in which "a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image." Albrecht and McIntyre write, ""Interestingly, an implanted RFID device like the VeriChip could potentially cause such a tormenting sore if it is subjected to a strong source of electromagnetic radiation," such as a directed energy weapon.

Oh those wacky extremists and their interpretations of religious gospels. I for one am a big advocate of RFID. Firstly, I work in the field of manufacturing technology and RFID is something I am looking forward to working with. I also feel that it is the wave of the future. It is technology which has the potential to change the way we live and simplify every day transactions and management. We have heard of it's uses with supply chain management, passports and credit cards. Still there is so much more. It's uses are unlimited. For example, RFID -once standardized- will be able to help us with child safety, medicine, home automation, crime prevention, automotive, transportation and tap into all areas of the sciences.

Often when new technology arrives there are many who simply fear change and advancement. Why shouldn't we -the human race- work towards technological advancement? It is what has brought us to were we are today and we have not experienced any higher power repercussions since the invention of the wheel. Also mentioned in the article is a reference to Y2K and the religious "end of the World" mumbo jumbo which accompanied this time. If you follow the pattern of technology, religious extremists have always identified threats. Personally I see it as a sign of uneducated individuals who have been brain washed for generations. I'm not saying I do not believe in a higher power of sorts, but at least I don't let the bed time stories of my youth impact my logical thought.

Perhaps that may be a bit harsh, but I've seen some of the ridiculous rules and regulations of religion ruin family bonds and belittle the life's of others.

Any thoughts?

Courtesy of Media Bistro, it has been announced that Google is going to add roughly 4bn to its financial resources with a second stock offering. Google announced that this will provide the company the capital to acquire new business ventures and some development (VoIP rumors). Personally I think this is great. With the current cost of Google [GOOG] being so high, I can never afford a 100 shot lot. Perhaps this will drop the current value so more people like myself can buy a piece of the Google corporation. Experts are not forecasting this to be a negative loss for current stock holders, because the company is growing and they foresee the value to continue its escalating trend. He are some notes from the story:

According to the Wall Street Journal, possibilities include major acquisitions in Asia and 'secret plans' for VoIP Internet telephony. Other suggestions include expanding its nascent video search and developing an electronic payment system. VoIP rumours were given weight by the news that earlier this week the company acquired Android, a portable wireless handset maker founded by a former Apple engineer, Andy Rubin. For Asia, read China, where Yahoo recently took a 40 per cent stake in an e-commerce operation.

The extra cash will raise its reserves to about $7bn, more than Yahoo!'s $3.4bn, but far short of Microsoft's $37.7bn, a not-insubstantial part of which is being ploughed into MSN search.

The downside for existing stock owners is that their holding will be diluted, adding to concerns that the company may be overvalued by as much as 150 per cent. But it is no dot-com disaster; the company is profitable and expects to continue to grow its revenues from online advertising.

~Simon Aughton
PC PRO

So what are your thoughts?
Do you currently own Google stock?
Are you worried about taking a loss?
Are you not going to consider purchasing GooG?

Well it's official; Apple is now going to be doing business with Intel for all of the G5 -and others- processors. Personally I think it's great.

"Yes, it's true," Jobs said. "We are transitioning from PowerPC to Intel processors."

The transition to Intel will take two years. Jobs said Apple will be shipping Intel-powered Macs in mid-2006, with higher-end machines following a year later, Jobs said.

"This transition isn't going to happen overnight," Jobs said. "We're making awesome machines right now (and we've) got a lot of great PowerPC apps in the pipeline.... The transition is going to happen over the next two years."

Jobs Drops Da Intel Bomb
~Wired News

Thanks to the savvy Gina "Handy" Trapani over at LifeHacker, we are provided with a link to CNN's article from yesterday titled Computer degrees losing appeal. Now I don't know if I should dance or cry about this news. It's true that there was a major rush in the I.T. majors a handful of years back -when I was in college- students like myself thought they were going to own helicopters due to there techie tendencies -at last hope for the geeks-. Then after the declining slope in the I.T job market, programmers and such were not in very high demand -unless you had years of experience- so newbies like myself were having a very difficult time finding jobs that would justify their years of education ("I went to grad school and all I got was this lousy job"). Now with this news from CNN there is a possibility that the I.T field will be less saturated with hungry professionals fighting for jobs.

The number of undergraduates signing up for computer degrees continues to decline, fueling concerns among tech companies that there won't be enough skilled workers to meet demand...

I have mixed feelings about this. On one side, knowing that the "peopleware" will be more sparse, the professionals in the field will be worth more. On the other side, there will be fewer I.T gurus and the ones working will have less and less support/backups, which can make working in some shops overwhelming. What do you think?

No, wait! Doc. The... the... the bruise... the bruise on your head. I know how that happened! You told me the whole story. You were standing on your toilet, and you were hanging a clock, and you fell, and you hit your head on the sink. And that's when you came up with the idea for the Flux Capacitor... which... is what makes time travel possible.

-Back to the Future
1985

Now that I have your attention, I read something truly hysterical this morning. Thanks to Sploid who posted a headline addressing the upcoming Time Traveler convention, hosted by none other than the frick'n geniuses at MIT. I can't be 100% positive on the validity of the event, and if it is truly being hosted by MIT (check out the root URL [web] looks fishy), but I am much dumberer than the creative minds of MIT - so perhaps this event will truly bring out the travelers from tomorrow. In any event, I still thinks it's pretty damn funny.
-even funnier; I posted this a week from now-

According to Gizmodo our robotic pioneering Orient friends have taken things to a next level. Currently in a nursery/daycare in California there is a working prototype of a Sony Qrio, that dances and plays with the little childrens. Editor Joel Johnson obviously does not share my enthusiasm concerning the robotic revolution.

Just wait until these things aren’t so feeble anymore.

-Sony Qrio Attending Nursery School

I personally can't wait until there is a robot in every home. I would love to have a cool robot make my bed, cook me dinner, read me my email while I was on the shitter, and I would download a sexy British chick voice for it -yep that would be cool-. What about pleasure bots ... Nope thats no good, I would never make it to work on time.

Watching the business report this morning on channel 7 news -I think the chick is hot- I was shocked to hear that Adobe has acquired Macromedia. Not completely sure this was fact, I went to Macromedia's website to see if there was any sign of change. Already the title flash has Adobe incorporated into it. Is this a good merger? I would think so and it's moments like this where I wish I had more money to play with. I would love to get into some Adobe stock after this news.

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Adobe Systems Inc., maker of Acrobat and Photoshop software, agreed to buy Macromedia Inc. for about $3.4 billion, adding programs that display images and sounds on Web pages. Investors will receive 0.69 share, worth $41.86 at the close of trading April 15, for each Macromedia share, San Jose, California-based Adobe said in a statement today. That values San Francisco-based Macromedia at a 25 percent premium.

I am a hobby user of Fireworks and Photoshop CS, both must haves for web design enthusiasts. I can not even fathom how powerful these applications will become after joining forces.

I just heard back from my friend who I was computer shopping with yesterday, and she was telling me how excited she was about her new toy. That reminded me of the experience and seeing the Mac Mini, and thinking about it as a desktop machine. If you are mulling over the idea of picking up a new desktop machine, the Mac Mini could be allot of fun. Yes it's cute and would certainly be the center piece of many conversations when you have guests over, but also a major space saver. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who likes to experiment with allot of processor intensive software (photoshop CS) because I don't think it's built to handle that type of work load. But as a basic machine to write word docs, email, surf the net, watch/write/listen to DVD's and CD's and your every day computer chores, I think it's a great idea. I don't know to much about the OS (Safari) (Panther) but they all seem to act similar in the Mac world. After you get use to the differences from a Windows environment I think people tend to enjoy the Mac OS much better (once you go Mac you never go back). For $500 I may pick one up on general principal, this doesn't include a monitor but that's OK. The cost of laptops are reaching up to 3k; when searching for a desktop your choices are limited, all the machines seem to be offering the same old stuff and picking the best one is difficult, so be different and consider the Mini.

Update:I guess Safari is the browser. Thanks Paul [you dick].

Posted on Slashdot today is a post reiterating the rumor of Apple’s interest in acquiring TiVo. Since the rumor hit the streets yesterday TiVo’s stock rose more than 17%, which is a significant jump from the tech company who has been receiving strong competition from cable providers Time Warner and Adelphia – due to the similar DVR features -. Keep an eye on this one the match makes sense and Apple has been on a role as of the release of the IPod. Apple Computer Inc. is a low risk stock and TiVo – at the moment – is also low risk. So if you are someone - like my father - who is weary of tech stocks, this could be a good opportunity to do some experimenting. I would still wait a bit longer to see if any new news generates and the possibilities of other companies hunting after TiVo.

UPDATE: See I'm not the only one thinking about this Gizmodo's Connecting the Dots.

I spend lots of time on Google searching for random things. Bu tI also rely on the Groups section for many things. I feel that any developer is required to familurize themselves with this very useful tool. I See now that Google has launched a new Beta version of its group site. Which I feel is much smoother that its predicesor. It is much easier to read, and I can sift trough the replies much faster. There is a rating system, and it now tallies up the total numbers of members in the group. Some of the groups that I frequent are SharePoint Developers, SQL Server 2K, .NET Development and Movable Type -but mabey I got kicked out of that one-. Any how, a much better interface and functionality.