BBC: FBI Fighting Zombie Hordes
Censored BBC Zombie Article - Public Release - FOIA June 2007
Uncensored Article: FBI tries to fight Zombie Horde
If you go to the BBC Technology section right now you can see an article with the headline, “FBI tries to fight zombie hordes”. Since every FBI document I ever see on the net (somewhere around the neighborhood of 3) has copious amounts of censoring with the good ole Sharpie, I decided to censor the original Zombie article for public desimation.
Read on for a Screen cap of the headline. Read more
Virtua Tennis…Now With Guns!
I used to be addicted to Virtua Tennis back on the Dreamcast, (Damn you minigames) so this arcade cabinet caught my eye in the mall today. Something seemed a bit off though…Guns make for interesting Tennis Controllers…
The game in the cabinet is actually Point Blank 2, a shoot’em up game which appeared to be chock full of mini games to test your lightgun skill. I can understand repurposing an arcade cabinet, MAME anyone, but if you are removing buttons and adding guns the least you could do is pop a generic top sign into the cabinet.
One more pic of the “Top Gunmen” after the jump
Wacky Wireless Carrier Father Day Surveys
With Father’s Day quick approaching both At&t and Verizon have released the results their interesting Father’s day surveys. I haven’t noticed this type of information put out by either of these companies in the past, though I haven’t dedicated this much time to reading wireless carrier press releases until recently. The backend to these releases serves to sell handhelds for Father’s Day and to build a positive brand by playing up the company’s social responsibility at least in the case of Verizon.
Verizon’s Father’s Day survey focused on domestic abuse, which Verizon currently fights with its Hopeline phone donation program. Unsurprisingly to me Verizon’s survey shows that *surprise* the majority of men care about domestic violence. The majority also would be willing to get involved in the prevention of domestic violence, including donating an old phone. I’ll bring this out to the front for you, if you buy a new phone from Verizon dad can show he cares about domestic violence and donate his old phone.
snippet:
* Two-thirds of men (67 percent) say domestic violence and sexual assault are very or fairly common in the United States. Just 15 percent of men (and just 12 percent of young men) say it is not likely that, at some point, a woman or girl they know will be a victim.
* Seven in ten men are willing to talk to children about healthy relationships (up from 55 percent in a poll conducted in 2000) and an equal proportion are willing to donate old wireless telephones to programs that help victims and prevent violence. Two-thirds say they would sign a pledge; an equal number would sign a petition or contact lawmakers about the issue.
* Men give no institutions high marks for doing enough to raise awareness and address domestic violence and sexual assault. More than 60 percent say the sports and entertainment industries, government, school and colleges, the news media and businesses should do more.
* 87 percent want employers to provide information for victims, 83 percent want employers to adopt policies to help victims, 77 percent want supervisors and managers to be trained to support victims, and 72 percent want employers to provide resources to employees on how to talk to children about healthy, violence-free relationships.
At&t’s Father’s Day survey focused on the differences in how the two sexes use phones. At&t has found that for the 6th straight year men talk more than women on cell phones, though they note that women are catching up. The survey also shows that women are more likely to use the game, texting and camera functions of their phones. This survey like Verizon’s hints at the fact you should buy dad a new phone, he talks the most anyway, until its Mother’s day and you should buy a phone for mom cause you love her!
snippet:
According to the survey of approximately 1,000 users, men average 458 minutes of monthly wireless phone usage, and women average 453 minutes. The largest historical gaps since the survey’s inception in 2001 were in 2002, when men averaged 589 minutes and women talked only 394 minutes, and in 2005, when men averaged 571 minutes and women talked only 424 minutes.
The survey results also indicate that 45 percent of wireless subscribers use the text- messaging features on their device and 44 percent use the camera feature; 17 percent of subscribers play games on their wireless device and 11 percent access wireless e-mail. Women use the gaming, camera and text-messaging features more frequently, and men use their device for wireless e-mail and accessing the Internet more frequently than women.
Overall, both men and women continue to use cell phones more than home phones on average (455 minutes compared with 394 minutes), a trend that began in 2005.
I don’t think many people will find the results of either survey mind blowing, but the At&t survey is somewhat of a surprise as far as who talks more on their phones based on my personal experience. I think the money behind these veiled marketing efforts could have been better spent on releasing and promoting the Samsung SCH-I760!
World War Z, Rocks Your Face Off
I just finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
If anyone knows of another book that follows a similar multi view format to tell a story like this please let me know as I think I have just become addicted.
Sprint PPC 6800 “Mogul” Gets Release Date…Again
The Mogul Sprint’s on again, off again version of the HTC PPC 6800 has been given a release date yet again. According to Engadgetmobile the Mogul will be available to corporate customers and vie the Sprint website on June 18th and at retail stores July 16th. The 6800 is the upgrade to the 6700 which has seen use on both Sprint and Verizon Networks. The 6800 boasts Windows Mobile 6 and a 2 MP camera, as well as 256 MB ROM increased battery life and a smaller form factor.
It is expected that a similar version of the 6800 will appear on Verizon’s network before the end of the year. I am currently looking forward to the Samsung i760 which is rumored to be released between June 28th and June 30th to corporate channels, but the speculation of full GPS on the Sprint Mogul is enough for me to take pause and rethink my pda phone purchase.
Via Engadget Mobile
HTC Announces “Touch” Coming to the US 2nd Half 07
Early this morning it was anounced that HTC’s Touch Windows Mobile Device was available for immediate sale in the UK with a worldwide release by the end of 2007. The big feature of this new device is the TouchFLO technology from HTC which can distinguish between a stylus and a fingertip to allow for gesture or sweeping motion to control the Windows Mobile 6 Operating system. While this seems similar to the iPhone it is important to note that it does not have the same multitouch environment that Apple’s iPhone uses. The Touch will also feature a new user interface for the Today screen to allow full utilization fo the TouchFLO technology as well as providing a cleaner simpler interface for users. For those who follow the Phone and PDA market you will likely recognize the phone as bearing a striking resemblance to the HTC Elf.
The Touch Specifications:
- Dimensions: 99.9mm (L) x 58mm (W) x 13.9mm (T)
- Weight: 112g with battery
- 1GB microSD storage card included / 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM
- 2.8″ LCD touch screen with backlight, 240 x 320 dots resolution with 65,536 colours
- Battery Life: Rechargeable Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 1100 mAh
- Standby time: Up to 200 / Talk time: Up to 5 hours
- Camera: 2.0 mega-pixel CMOS colour camera
- Windows Mobile 6® Professional with Direct Push Email and HTML email support
- Wireless Connectivity: GSM/GPRS/EDGE Tri-band: 900, 1800,1900, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth® 2.0
- Choice of two colors at launch - elegant soft black or alluring wasabi green
Currently HTC has not identified a carrier in the US for the Touch however as it is based on GSM technology the choices are limited to at&t who merged with Cingular and T-Mobile. Based on the fact that at$t will be releaseing the iPhone on June 29th and the similarities between touchscreen interfaces, I believe it would be a safe bet to say that the Touch will be available with T-Mobile before the end of the year. Based on the time line we should also be seeing mention of the Touch in the FCC database in the near future.
Bob Dylan, responsible for all the hits…
Check out this interview with “Bob Dylan” in which he reveals he is responsible for every hit of the last 35 years. Ranging from Nookie to Bad Day.
Ifilm won’t embed so … Dylan is Responsible for the hits.
Get to the Point!
Tomorrow we make our first of several trips to Cedar Point for the season.
Our first task will be to get in line for the Maverick, Cedar Points new Thrill Coaster. More than likely we will wait 2 and a half to 3 hours to ride the 2.5 minute coaster. I can’t wait to give it a go and then go freeley ride the Magnum, Millennium Force, Raptor etc, while the line grows for the Maverick.
You can check out a POV animation of the maverick in action courtesy Cedar Point
I mentioned this last year but I would love to get an Ohio bloggers day at Cedar Point. Sometime in Early August. Anyone else get excited about this?
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
