bruceb news

It’s either sad or amusing to read how Oracle suckered the state of California into buying millions of dollars of software and licenses that the state didn’t need, covering more people than the state actually employs. The papers have caught the highlights, but The Register adds a couple of extra juicy details. (For example, the state relied on data compiled by a consulting company about the need for the licenses and the benefit to the state; the consulting company apparently has a side deal with Oracle worth $28 million that wasn’t disclosed to the state.)

Any Philip Dick fans out there? Take a look at Precrime, the web headquarters of Citizens for a Murder-Free America. Precrime proposes using a revolutionary new technology called previsualization that allows police detectives to witness, verify, and halt murders before they occur.

It’s just for fun, of course. It’s part of the marketing for Minority Report, the summer movie by Steven Spielberg starring Tom Cruise, based on a Philip Dick story. Almost every movie has an elaborate web site now, and some have used the same trick – setting up web sites to extend the world of the movie. […] continued

I feel like I missed something obvious. Maybe you already knew this.

Remember the Segway scooter created by Dean Kamen and announced in December? Battery-powered, using computers and gyroscopes to make it almost impossible to tip over. Kamen has a wheelchair going through final FDA tests that uses some of the same technology to make it impossibly stable.

Did you realize the Segway scooter only has two wheels – next to each other? I pictured a traditional scooter, with a platform behind the handle. Nope, two wheels on either side of the handle, with just enough space for your feet. It’s little! […] continued

According to this story, the Patriot Act (passed last October) has produced results that might take you by surprise. The Patriot Act gave law enforcement officials expanded authority to subpoena information without a court order. The result is that the telecommunications industry and Internet service providers face an escalating barrage of subpoenas for subscriber lists, personal credit reports, financial information, routing patterns that reveal individual computer use, even customer photographs. There are literally hundreds of thousands of subpoenas out there, and the number is roughly doubling every month. It’s become a financial burden to the companies trying to respond – some have put on around-the-clock shifts of employees struggling to comply. […] continued

Some good deals at Costco right now.

A stack of 100 blank TDK CDRs is $29.99 at the register, and there’s a $20 rebate from Costco. (Unlike other rebates, Costco processes rebate forms quickly and actually mails the checks.) Ten bucks for a hundred blank CDRs! Incidentally, don’t be confused – these are labeled “Data CDRs,” but they are perfectly good for music CDs as well. To the best of my knowledge, the blanks labeled “Music CDRs” are physically identical, but they’re more expensive because a royalty has been paid to someone or other.

Costco has long had Sylvania monitors. I don’t know a lot about them, but I’ve seen several clients buy them and they’re perfectly happy. […] continued

Two announcements from Time Warner today that should strike fear into your heart, as we move into a future controlled by corporations and inundated by advertising.

America Online plans to increase the intensity of advertising on AOL and Time Warner web sites. (You thought it was bad already? Chuckle. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.) Later this year, it will increase its reliance on “rich media advertisements” – video, audio, animation and 3D effects that can cause little race cars to break free from their pop-up windows and race around the screen or whatever else the marketing geniuses come up with. […] continued

I don’t know if this is correct, but it’s interesting. The Register quotes from a Microsoft technical note that uses “she” to refer to actions by a potential hacker, and adds this comment:

All right, I’m only going to say this once: ‘He’ is the singular indefinite pronoun in English (“if a person drinks too much, he will likely experience a hangover”). ‘He’ also happens to be the masculine personal pronoun.

‘She’ is the singular pronoun of personification in English (“if England fails to advance America’s foreign-policy ambitions, she will suffer terrible consequences”). ‘She’ also happens to be the feminine personal pronoun.

[…] continued

According to a new study (reported in the Guardian Unlimited Observer), the thumbs of people under 25 have become the hand’s most muscled and dextrous digits. Almost all people over 25 rely on their forefinger as their hand’s primary tools, but under-25s have grown up with handheld technologies – mobile phones, GameBoys, and computers – and they are more likely to instinctively use their thumbs.

The Register is one of the best online sites for tech news and gossip. It’s one of my daily stops. The original site is based in Britain and has a fair amount of local news. Today a U.S. edition of The Register was unveiled – same content, but without the local British coverage. Update your bookmarks to www.theregus.com.

Chuck Jones, legendary animation director and artist, best known for his work on the Looney Tunes cartoon series, died on Friday. Jones helped bring to life many of Warner Bros. most famous characters — Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig – and he created Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew, Michigan J. Frog and many others. There is some marvelous animation being done today, but nothing can match the six-minute Warner Bros. cartoons from the Golden Age.