i still don't know when it's airing on tv... you'd think they'd have it splashed all over their website. damn.

update: looks like it's showing Dec. 1st on CBS

i'm not even sure how old Carmen Electra is nowadays, but she's been around for a long time it feels like... she's gotta be in her late 30's i'd imagine, and still looking pretty damn good — i certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed.

the "designer" in me thinks is pretty damn cool, and i love some of the sites out there that have been doing it... i mean, anybody that's been visiting jason santa maria has seen how he's been rolling out custom mini-designs with some of his posts for awhile now, and it's pretty slick -- but for most of us with jobs, families, friends, girlfriends and wives... there's just not enough time in the day to do it.

if i blogged like once a week, i'd be all over it though... heh.

p.s. content is king.

personally, if they really were having a kickass black friday sale and i could walk in and get a new 27" iMac for 25% off... yeah, i'd be sorely tempted that's for damn sure.

not gonna happen, though. damnit.

p.s. Apple's Mistake

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

something most of us guys have known deep in our hearts for a very long time now, i'm sure... but here's just further proof that drinking is not just socially fun, but also good for you. heh.

so the next time your girlfriend or wife gets on your case about having a beer, you can simply point out the research... i mean, we need to protect our hearts afterall, right?

p.s. A meteor briefly illuminated parts of the sky in Utah to daylight-level... which probably scared the hell out of some people out, i'm sure.

On his recent trip to Asia, President Obama found China, Japan, and South Korea — like many nations these days — in no mood to hear more American lectures.

Beijing is worried about owning so much American debt. Tokyo is tiring of an American military base in Okinawa, and wants to redefine its relationship with us. Seoul is starting to doubt American commitment to keep it safe from North Korea.

Why all the sudden pushback to our charismatic president?

Our dollar is crashing, while the price of gold is soaring. The budget deficit has never been worse — and the president wants to float even more debt for health-care and energy initiatives.

By the end of this presidential term, we may add another $9 trillion to our already astronomical $11 trillion debt. Unemployment has already topped 10 percent. This quarter’s trade deficit reached a near-historic high. Our debtors and oil exporters talk of scrapping the dollar as the common international currency.

American hesitation abroad reflects the shaky economic news. In Afghanistan, we can’t decide whether to seek victory or admit defeat — or simply vote present by keeping the status quo. President Obama reached out to enemies such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. But so far they remain unimpressed, despite his apologizing for an assortment of supposed past American sins.

The Chinese don’t listen all that much anymore to our sermons on their human-rights, coal-burning, and free-trade abuses — not when they hold $1.5 trillion in U.S. assets. The president took a lot of flak for bowing to Saudi royals and the Japanese emperor. But why wouldn’t he show deference — given America’s huge dependence on foreign oil and Japanese imports?

in keeping with my regular victor hanson posting every friday, so no surprises here... good article though, and one that's been resignating with most americans for awhile now -- i really don't know many people that are exactly happy about the turn of events this past year, and how it seems to just be getting worse and worse since Obama took office.

p.s. don't they have their annual show coming up soon?

here's some tech speek from the google guys about it:

"In Chrome OS every application is a web application. There are no native applications. That gives us simplicity. It's just a browser with a few modifications. And all data is Chrome OS is in the cloud."

so will google be paying for everybody to have internet access at all times?

p.s. Mozilla not interested in building a Firefox OS

here's to hoping they come out with another one that's just as badass.

interesting choice of fonts... other than my eyes kind of going all over the place at a glance, first thing i really noticed was the default font their using -- which is "Times"... wow, color me surprised.

also noticed that they rolled out their own customized version of AddThis for their sharing, which is pretty damn cool. heh.

sidenote: g'damn i hate that big effin Ad placed at the top of the page... c'mon, really?

p.s. AOL to cut a third of staff ....damn!

have to admit, that's pretty awesome... *chuckle*

actually, i typically can't fucking stand the smell of popcorn... some of the guys nuke a bag of it everyday like clockwork, and the smell drives me knucking futz.

only time i don't seem to mind is when i step into a movie theater... go figure.

p.s. Movie popcorn = 3 burgers + 12 pats of butter

(hat tip: adam)

We're just about a month after the Windows 7 launch, and wanted to show an early look at some of the work underway on Internet Explorer 9.

At the PDC today, in addition to demonstrating some of the progress on performance and interoperable standards, we showed how IE and Windows will make the power of PC hardware available to web developers in the browser. Specifically, we demonstrated hardware-accelerated rendering of all graphics and text in web pages, something that other browsers don’t do today. Web site developers will see performance gains and other benefits without having to re-write their sites.

Performance Progress. Browser performance involves many different sub-systems within the browser. Different sites – and different activities within the same site – place different loads and demands on the browser.

so it looks like IE9 has officially been announced – moves rendering to the GPU for huge speed boost.

still sucks at everything else.

Sixty per cent of Xbox 360s have kicked the red-ringed bucket, compared to 16 per cent of PS3s and just 6 per cent of Wiis, according to our survey on the reliability of games consoles in the UK.

CNET UK commissioned the survey last month -- and the results don't reflect well on the Microsoft console. Some 1,128 UK-based console owners responded, of whom 562 owned Xbox 360s, 473 owned PS3s and 591 had Wiis (some owned more than one).

Of those Xbox owners who have bought their Xbox since January 2008, 34 per cent report that their Xboxes have broken -- still double the lifetime failure rate of the PS3. Microsoft introduced new components in late 2007 and early 2008, when Bill Gates boasted of the Xbox's newfound "incredible reliability". Our survey shows that while the console has improved, it's still far from reaching Gates' goal of being the "most reliable video game box out there".

Only 25 per cent of disappointed 360 owners had owned the console for more than 18 months before it broke, with 47 per cent reporting a failure inside a year. Seventy two per cent returned their Xbox to Microsoft, who extended the 360's warranty to three years after the console's problems became widely known. Fifteen per cent sought their own solution, such as repairing it themselves or giving up and throwing it under a bed. One miserable gamer reported, "I can't afford to get (the Xbox 360) fixed as it is out of warranty, so it sits in the spare room all lonely."

Many 360 owners report the console breaking more than once. Of those whose console has broken at least once, 32 per cent say it has broken twice, and 19 per cent say it has broken three times or more. One person said their 360 "was repaired six times before (being) refunded by Microsoft".

Of those who have bought a 360 in the last two years, only for it to break, 29 per cent say it has broken more than once.

holy shit, batman!

i love my 360, and even though i've been on my second one for almost a year now, i have to say that the failure rate is beyond rediculous... 60%? seriously?! i'm not sure i even know anybody that hasn't had the dreaded "red ring of death" at least once.

whenever the next version of the Xbox comes out, i think i'll hold off for awhile and keep an eye on user reviews before buying one... i'll be damned if i'm going to be a guinea pig.

The great promise of HTML5 is that it will turn the web into a full-fledged computing platform awash with video, animation and real-time interactions, yet free of the hacks and plug-ins common today.

While the language itself is almost fully baked, HTML5 won’t fully arrive for at least another two years, according to one of the men charged with its design.
"I don't expect to see full implementation of HTML5 across all the major browsers until the end of 2011 at least," says Philippe Le Hegaret, interaction domain leader for the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), who oversees the development of HTML5.

He tells Webmonkey the specification outlining the long-promised rewrite of the web's underlying language will be ready towards the end of 2010, but because of varying levels of support across different browsers, especially in the areas of video and animation, we're in for a longer wait.

Most web pages are currently written in HTML version HTML 4.01, which has been around since the late 1990s. The web was mostly made up of static pages when HTML was born, and it has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Now, we favor complex web applications written in JavaScript like Gmail and Facebook, we stream videos in high-definition, we consume news in real-time feeds and generally push our browsers as far as they'll go. These developments have left HTML drastically outdated, and web authors have resorted to using a variety of hacks and plug-ins to make everything work properly.

HTML5 — which is actually a combination of languages, APIs and other technologies to make scripted applications more powerful — promises to solve many of the problems of its predecessor, and do so without the hacks and plug-ins.

We're already close. All the major browsers are providing some level of support for HTML5.

i haven't really gotten too much into HTML5, since there's almost no practical support for it among browsers......... yet....... but i'm sure over the next year or two we'll get some big(er) updates from IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari and then we'll be able to start safely playing around with it... should be fun.

i readily admit to watching some Dancing with the Stars this season, mostly because i'm a fan of Joanna Krupa (hottest polish ass in the world)... and man, i'm kind of bummed out that she was eliminated lastnight... *sigh*

on the flipside, for the first time in ages i'm actually stoked and looking forward to an issue of Playboy, since she'll be gracing it's cover in this december's issue. oh. yeah.

More than 2.2 million gamers logged more than 5.2 million multiplayer hours playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day alone, a new one-day Xbox Live record. Those gamers managed to unlock more than 11 million achievements in that day as well.

Pretty crazy.

If you missed Luke's excellent article comparing Modern Warfare 2 to other entertainment properties, you should go have a read. Today Activision says that their game pulled in an estimated $550 million in its first five days.

That's compared to:
The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)

The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)

The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)

The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)

The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)

The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

Pretty impressive.

wow, that's pretty damn impressive indeed... a video game pulling in those kinds of numbers, in the first week alone? holy shit.

You can't see me. I'm there in the shadows, crouched down on the roof above you, dangling on the ledge below you. Maybe you know I'm nearby. Maybe you're afraid for your life. You should be. Because by the time you realize where I am, you'll be dead.

That's the promise of Assassin's Creed, a promise the original 2007 game failed to keep in nearly every way.

Assassin's Creed II, released Tuesday for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (reviewed), totally fulfills that promise. The sequel is as vibrant as the first game was repetitive, as compelling as the original was boring. The gameplay is rich and varied, blending assassinations with puzzles, acrobatics and stealth. It has a fantastic original story and setting — a tale of family, conspiracy and betrayal in 15th-century Italy. Assassin's Creed II finally delivers everything the original promised and then some.

it's out in stores today, and definitely one of the games i'm looking forward to playing at some point... actually, i believe it's already on jayden's christmas list.

for today, i'm looking forward to picking up the God of War: Colletion for the PS3 -- updated with 720p graphics and a demo for God of War III..? oh hell yeah, count me in.

also might stop and grab a copy of the new Star Trek movie on blu-ray.

We talked about what is a real api, and I seconded our friend Joshua Schachter's assertion that a read-only api is not an api. I believe apis should allow full read/write access and the ideal api in my mind totally replicates the web app's functionality.

That led us to Twitter naturally and I stated that the thing I want most from the Twitter api is sign up via the api. I realize that there are reasons why that hasn't happened yet, but I feel that Twitter has led the web world in providing full access to its application and sign up is a key feature that third party developers could do great things with.

Quentin seized the opportunity to pounce on the monetization question and I stated my belief that the best way to monetize apis is to "send money with the api". I talked everyone through my Business Model Jujutsu post and ended with this line from Paul Forster, CEO of Indeed:

We tried charging for our API without much success. Then we paid developers to use it and it took off.

We also talked about "api failures". I said that there are two kinds of api failures that I've noticed. The first is when the web app itself is not very popular and therefore developers aren't compelled to build to its api. That is not an issue with the api itself. The second is when the web app itself is very popular but the api is not so much. Usually the issue in this situation is the api is too restrictive and doesn't allow developers to do enough with it. I mentioned the Etsy api, which is read only, as an example of this situation. Fortunately, Chad Dickerson of Etsy, had preceded me at the event by a few hours and talked about how Etsy is taking their api to the next level by offering both read and write.

i just thought it was an interesting read, being that you don't often see people writting or blogging about APIs.

Current TV is coming under some fire for using the term "Twilf" to describe former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in an episode of the cartoon Super News called "The Stupid Virus."

The episode features Palin writing tweets on her computer under the Twitterhandle "Gun-Ho," and Brian Williams of NBC reporting the story with the "Twilf" graphic (and also joking about how tweets are now news). Palin recently suggested on Facebook that she plans to return to Twitter to coincide with the launch of her new book.

please feel free to kill the person that came up with this...

p.s. what the hell is a "soft shoulder"?