US successfully test missile defense system.

The US military shot down a missile in an operation designed to test the new US missile defense system. The target missile was fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska and then tracked by several ground and ship-based radar systems and intercepted by a "kill vehicle" roughly 1900 miles away half an hour later over the Pacific according to the Missile Defense Agency.

The head of the Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, said the test was the most realistic test of the system to date, although the 40 year old target missile did not deploy the countermeasures as was intended. The program has come under fire for cost and viability questions. The test alone cost $120Million. It is hoped that the success of this test will allay the apprehension and fears of the tax payers.

A completely unreliable source (my imagination) has reported that Matthew Broderick was quoted as saying "You guys are missing the point, I'll just have to make another movie".

YouTube now serving up HD content

YouTube is now offering videos in HD quality. While not full 1080 HD the 720p resolution is well above the current quality we have all learned to live with. A search for videos with the tag HD reveals some of the first content uploaded. You'll note that embedding a video as I have done here does not offer the HD option. Hopefully that feature will be available soon. Double click on the video to go to the YouTube page. Once there you will see a link directly below the video that says, "watch in HD". Click, and enjoy the Hi Res goodness. So without further a do is the trailer for the new upcoming Ghostbusters video game.

Apple looking to liquid cool notebooks

In a recent patent filing, Apple tipped it's hand that it's developing water cooling technology for notebooks. While the idea is not completely new, bring it to market would be. Voodoo, acquired by HP, promised liquid cooled notebooks last year but failed to deliver. Whether or not Apple will bring the technology to market remains to be seen, but worth watching.

Dec. 5, 2008: The Week in Weirdness

"It's amazing, it's astounding, but it's no B.S."
- George Carlin(RIP)
News involving your fellow man at their less than stellar moments.

Yes, karaoke is annoying.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Police say a Malaysian man has been stabbed to death by customers at a karaoke bar for singing too much and refusing to share the microphone.

O Tannenbaum, Brings to us all, both joy and glee!
Parrish, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a west Florida man who lives with his parents has been arrested on a felony assault charge after he used a Christmas tree as a weapon to attack his father.

Not exactly a burning bra:
Garden City, N.Y. (AP) - Hundreds of people paid $9 admission for a "smashing pumpkins" event where New Yorkers threw rotten pumpkins off a second story balcony to answer the age old question of what to do with old pumpkins after Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Goodwill toward men, not pregnant women in labor.
BOSTON (AP) - A man in Massachusetts is appealing a $100 ticket he got for driving to a hospital in the breakdown lane of a gridlocked Boston highway while his wife was in labor.

Life imitating the internet:
Reno, Nev. (AP) - The Nevada Highway Patrol says a drunken driving suspect in Reno was gassed in more ways than one. A 40-year-old Reno woman was arrested early Tuesday after an ambulance crew saw her driving on U.S. Highway 395 with a fuel hose and nozzle sticking out of her gas tank. So even if that tired image passed around the internet of a gas nozzle hanging out of a moving car with the caption 'yes, it's a woman' was true before or not, it is now.

Apple does something stupid, Finally!

I love Apple and everything mac. For me, they usually can do no wrong. They have done things in the past I have not agreed with but they have always had clear reasoning behind it, even if that reasoning made me grind my teeth. Take Flash on the iPhone for example, or better yet the lack thereof. This seems an idiotic crusade on behalf on Jobs and company but at least they have purpose, and coming in 2009, this crusade may well benefit the entire net-accessing mobile device industry.

So, while you will rarely hear me complain about products and services provided by the venerable Mac maker, they finally did something that's got me scratching my head. So, to remain impartial, I'm gonna have to call you on this one Steve.

Apple on Tuesday started taking orders for the Apple Earphones and In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic. These new offerings from Apple are not unlike other ear pieces that connect via wire to a mobile phone to take calls hands free. The only problem is they are not supported on the iPhone. That's right, they only work with iPods. As the devices are new there is still debate about whether the devices will actually work with the iPhone sans stated compatibility. However, officially the iPhone is not supported.

Why the mic then? The answer is that new iPods introduced in September of this year support audio recording through the 4th connector of the headphone jack, just like the iPhone. In spite of this fact, the iPhone is still not officially supported. In the coming days or months I suspect that an update for the iPhone will appear that will enable these products to be supported. But Apple has a solid track record of updating existing software and hardware well in advance of upcoming software / hardware offerings.

For these reasons, I hate to do it Mr. Jobs, but here's your sign.

Patent Insanity

Throughout the blogosphere sarcasm and criticism has run rampant about the patent system for some time, and for good reason. For years now companies and individuals have started patenting everything under the sun. Patents, for impatient laymen like myself, are a lot like stocks: some are valuable, most are worthless and all of them are about as tangible as a fart. And just as with stocks, they are bought and sold by entities that often have little to do with the industry the patents are relative too.

This has given way to a new form of business called Patent Trolling, which of course is done by a Patent Troll, where by a person or company holds patents for the expressed purpose of waiting and watching for someone or some company to infringe on that patent and then drag them into court. It's a lot like fishing, you have your bait and you wait, or Troll for all you deep sea fishermen out their. When some unsuspecting shmoe comes along, you devour them and their assets to make a profit. These trolls often seek vague patents. The vaguer the patent, the higher the success rate of nailing someone.

Patent trolling gave birth to the idea of patent reform. Which was really just companies looking for headlines and publicity with little to no concern for actual patent reform. Many of these companies made bold statements about patent reform only to turn around and dirty their own hands with the forbidden fruit. Fruit forbidden by them.

Two examples that apparently have no shame are Amazon and IBM. Amazon vowed to reform the US patent system. IBM vowed to stop submitting vague and seemingly invaluable patents and stress significant technical content in its patents. However, Amazon is in it's ninth year of trying to patent 1-click buying on the internet. A technique employed basically since the birth of e-commerce. IBM has applied for a patent on software that basically recognizes a name as either a girls name, a boys name, or as being generic or genderless such as the name Pat. IBM has also submitted a patent for splitting a check at a restaurant. You know, us four are eating together but we all think the others will get the lobster but I'm only getting the salad bar so give us all separate checks.

While these patents seem ridiculous in nature (and they are) even patent trolling itself is not free from the foray. Haliburton (commonly known as the evil entity that once employed Dick Cheney, who is commonly known as pure evil), has applied for a patent on patent trolling. In a "anything you can do I can do better" move, IBM has applied for a patent on finding areas lacking patents. Careful, be calm, we're not quite done and whiplash can hurt for many years.

Like a virus, patent trolling has now mutated into patent insurance. A new company, RPX Corp is buying up patents promising not to use them, as long as you license the patent in question of course. You see how this is completely different right? Don't worry I just took another Advil myself. If that weren't enough, another new company, Article One Partners, is offering $50,000 rewards to anyone that finds prior art for certain valuable patents. Basically they tell you which patents help by companies with lots of money they want to go after. You find loop holes in the patents, they give you $50k and they in turn use that information to blackmail the company holding the patent.

To finish off, here are a few patents being applied for by companies. Hopefully the patent office will laugh just as hard as you will:

Microsoft: Applying for a patent to censor offensive words. Because the FCC hasn't mandated that offensive words be censored yet. That was sarcasm, try to keep up.

TiVo: Won an appeal to safe guard it's patent for Pause, Ffwd and Rwd. According to TiVo, no matter what you think you have never had these features until they came around. If you remember using these features in the past before TiVo existed, you should "just say no".

McDonald: If you made it all the way to the end of this post I applaud you and reward you by saving the best for last. McDonald's has applied for a patent titled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH". That's right boys and girls, Mickey D's is patenting the sandwich. Put that turkey on rye down or you'll owe them a nickle! They even have a flow chart. For those of you who haven't died and gone to Corporate America heaven, you most likely are like me, your forehead hurts and 3 hours have mysteriously passed since you saw the flow chart. Stop, don't look again, or you may be doomed to be caught in this vicious vortex of time for all eternity.

Great, another 6 figure ecomomy car

Fisker Automotive today unveiled the production version of the new Karma electric-hybrid sports car ahead of the 2009 NAIAS. The car boasts impressive stats:

0-60mpg: 5.8 Seconds
Top Speed: 125mph
Fuel Economy: 100mpg

The Karma can go 50miles on electric alone before invoking the 4 cylinder engine to power the on board generator and has a total range of 620 miles on a single tank and it's dead sexy. I'd being lying if I said I wouldn't die to have one.

However, the Karma costs $100k. I really get the need for this car. After all, the Tesla is only two doors and we absolutely had to have a 4 door. But, I gotta ask, do the ultra rich really need another economy car? Do you think the ultra rich even care about getting good gas mileage? You think that Jay Leno is gonna tool on down the road and tell people 'I bought it because it get's 100mpg and it was getting difficult to fill the tank'? Like I said, I love this car, but, where is the 100mpg car for people who actually need one to get to work, not for bragging rights at a red light when they pull along side a Porsche?

click image to enlarge

Education: brought to you in part by Corporate America.

If you think the Federal Economy is in bad shape, you should check out the educational system. While every industry across the country runs out of money, I think we tend to forget that the educational system has a budget too, and as such it's well is running dry too. I know this more than most because several members of my family are teachers in Florida. I won't delve deep into the troubling fiscal issues affecting the sunshine states educational system, but I will say that by comparison, Bush didn't do that bad of job. I'll also say that the next time you decide to give your child's teacher a piece of your mind, you should remember consider that they most likely paid for a majority of the supplies the kids use out of their own pockets. Why? Because the schools refuse to give them the money they need to purchase the needed supplies. Why? Because there is no money. But these issues are not exclusive to my home state, they are national.

Which brings us to the topic at hand. Finally unable to pay for simple things like test and quizzes, Tom Farber, a calculus teacher from San Diego, California gone the way of Google. Google is free, and so are the tests and quizzes, and they are funded in the same ways now as well. To offset district budget cuts, Mr. Farber is selling ads on his tests and quizzes, much like the ads that make Google free. The ad cost scale is as follows: $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test, $30 for a semester final. In one weekend Farber received 75 e-mail requests for ads.

My usual reaction to something like this would be to write out some sarcastic quips that would be contemptuous and scornful to say the least with special emphasis on his being a corporate whore. However my "inside" knowledge as it were of how dire the situations is, has left me speechless. It's wrong, I know that, but what are you going to do? Not teach?

USA Today is running an article on the news. Also in the article are more dignified means for teachers to raise money for supplies.

The US is in a recession, who knew?

On Monday the National Bureau of Economic Research released a statement saying that the US economy has officially been in a recession since December of 2007. The NBER is an organization of academic economists who study business cycles. To no surprise the stock market has begun heading for the basement. Well, it was already in the basement so I guess they've gotten out the shovels and jackhammers to find lower ground to wallow in.

I'm so glad that somebody got up and told me the economy was in a recession because I don't think we the people had any idea. Oh wait, that's right . . . we were the ones loosing our jobs and homes. But, don't worry, I have formed my own panel of experts to draft a response to the "experts" on Wall St. and at NBER. The Chairman of my committee has release the statement below in reply:

Kevin Martin: I like this guy!

Here at Digistenz I try to stay away from tech news that "could be" and post only things that are actually happening. You will also rarely see me applaud the FCC here. However, somethings are too good to pass on. I tend not to like the FCC because I don't believe in censorship, however I realize they have their place and have actually been pretty happy with the decisions made at the FCC of late. Then today I came across an article at the Wall Street Journal that just blew me away. Kevin Martin, the current FCC Chairman is pushing for free wireless internet for all Americans. Yes, you read that correctly, FREE WIRELESS INTERNET FOR THE ENTIRE US!

As I said, I try not to post tech news that could be because 90% of it never comes into existence. But, again, somethings are too good to pass on. There have been grumblers of course. Consumer advocates have voiced concern over a pornography filter that would be placed on access, but Mr. Martin went back to the drawing board and then stipulated that adults could opt out of the filter.

Of no surprise is the fact that wireless companies such as T-mobile have voiced concern about a free internet. And why not? They are charging for it now. They didn't say it like that of course. T-mobile said they fear that the access would cause interference with the transmission signals of their 3G network. Because for reasons that escape you, me and the FCC as a whole, free internet causes interference with nearby signals but when you charge for them they magically co-exist with other frequencies. Here's your sign T-mobile. But Mr. Martin has dismissed their concerns and continues to push the measure along. So here's to hopefully starting the new year with free internet and also to Mr. Kevin Martin - I like this guy!

Carbon Motors' E7 "The Machine"

It's been awhile since I've done a car post and a friend of mine still had not heard about this one so here we go. The E7 from Carbon Motors is billed as the first "purpose-built" law enforcement vehicle. Carbon says the E7, affectionately nicknamed "The Machine", is more fuel efficient, much cheaper to buy, equip and maintain than other police cruisers. The E7 is also more durable. Carbon states that "vehicle life durability specification" is 250,000 miles. It's also a mean looking vehicle whose specs are even meaner:

POWERTRAIN / CHASSIS
•Engine: Forced •Induction 3.0 Diesel
•Recommended •Fuel: Ultra-low sulfur (ULS) Diesel or BioDiesel
•Driveline: Rear-Wheel-Drive
•Horsepower: 300 bhp
•Torque: 420 lb-ft
•Transmission: 6-Speed Automatic
•Front Brakes: 14" Vented Discs, ABS
•Rear Brakes: 13" Vented Discs, ABS
•Wheels: 18 x 8" Steel
•Tires: 245/50R18
•Front Suspension: Struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar
•Rear Suspension: Multi-link, coil springs, self-leveling shocks, anti-roll bar

PERFORMANCE
•0 - 60 mph: 6.5 seconds
•Quarter Mile: 14.5 seconds @ 98.0 mph
•Top Speed: 155 mph
•Braking 60 - 0 mph: 125 feet
•Lateral Acceleration: 0.85 g
•Combined City/Hwy Fuel Economy: 28 - 30 mpg
•Fuel Capacity: 18.0 Gallons

There are other cool features of this vehicle that you'll wish were on your car:
•Designed to 250,000 mile durability specification
•Aluminum spaceframe body structure
•75 mph rear impact crash capability
•Vehicle dynamic control
•Optimized approach / departure angles and ground clearance
•Heads up display
•Reverse backup camera
•Remote start capability
•Driver specific intelligent key
•Nightvision compliant interior illumination

There are also other cool features that are specific to law enforcement, some of which you'll wish were on your car too:
•Cockpit with fully-integrated factory fitted law enforcement equipment
•Integrated emergency lights, spot lights, take down lights, and directional stick
•Segment exclusive coach rear doors for safer suspect ingress and egress
•NIJ Level III-A (or better) ballistic protection (front doors and dash panel)
•Purpose-designed seat for use with on-body equipment - Heated and ventilated seats
•360 degree exterior surveillance capability
•Automatic license plate recognition system
•Video and audio surveillance of rear passenger compartment
•Integrated forward looking infrared system (FLIR)
•Integrated shotgun mounts
•Hoseable rear passenger compartment
•Integrated push bumpers and PIT capability

I have on occasion met up with officers of the law. Most of them are good people doing a very difficult job. One I could not do myself. In response to this someone once asked me if I was scared and I finally got to use a line by Robert Deniro from Ronin: "Am I scared? Of course I'm scared! You think I'm reluctant because I'm happy?" This is why although some members of law enforcement are my least favorite people I do not fault or blame them in the least. They are strong, brave people doing a job not many can. They put their live on the line everyday to protect good citizens from the peril they face everyday. And to all members of law enforcement I thank you for your sacrifice and bravery. I sincerely hope that this type of equipment that can enable you to do your job better and more safely makes it's way into your hands sooner rather than later.

I can almost hear Elwood now:

"It's got a cop motor, a forced induction 3.0 liter plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a diesel model so it'll be good on gas and last forever. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?" Elwood Blues - The Blues Brothers.