Category Archive: General

Dec 29 2013

An illuminating trip to the Microsoft store

Microsoft has, as you may know, released a piece of hardware called the Surface Pro 2. I own one. It's currently a doorstop, but I'm told it may compute once again maybe sometime tomorrow. What's sad is that the hardware isn't defective; the developers are. Specifically, MS pushed out a firmware update for the Surface …

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Dec 28 2013

Netflix streaming continues to founder as dozens of prominent movies are taken down

As I've written before, Netflix streaming is not a particularly good deal if you want to actually watch movies that people want to watch. With the end of 2014, the streaming catalog is about to shrink yet again: For a while, it was also possible to find out what was expiring, information that was valuable …

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Oct 17 2013

Virtual reality is finally coming next year

HMD90s

Virtual Reality has been a joke for years. For all the derision heaped on nonexistent flying cars, jetpacks, and cures for cancer, no seemingly straightforward bit of technology has been vaporware for so long. 1992's film The Lawnmower Man enticed us with the idea of entering a fictional world, a facsimile of Star Trek's Holodeck, …

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Jul 10 2013

Netflix streaming still a crap deal compared to disc plan

Zap2It is out with a press release that Netflix streaming will now be expanding its vast collection to include ... a major network show that's been running for almost 9 years. Netflix, Inc. today announced an extension of its multiyear licensing agreement for select CBS library content streamed instantly to Netflix customers. Under the revised …

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Mar 05 2013

Georgia drivers die mostly because of yokels

MotorVehicalFatalitiesByLocation

A huge traffic sign adorns the highway near my home, announcing the number of fatalities on Georgia roads this year so far (it's about 150). Moving here from California, knowing this is a small state, that seems like a lot, and it is. Here is the data from 2008 for both states (rates per million …

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