eardrumbuzz: friends

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:48:31 GMT

The perfect thing for all those near-sighted neo-tribalists out there, James Sooy designed a pair of piercing-mounted eyeglasses that attach to that hunk of metal you hopefully already have spiked through the bridge of your nose. Also a good option for anyone without ears, but who needs glasses and doesn’t want to have to resort to wearing something as barbaric as goggles.

[Engadget]

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 20:22:20 GMT

Self-Powered LED Bike Pedals.

I'm about to get a bike—I've lived in this city far too long without one, and if things go to plan I might be able to ditch my car (or have an excuse to get that supercharger). One thing I've been sketched on, though, is the almost-certain death that biking in NYC seems to lead to (my buddy Aron is still recovering from a failed bike<->cab interface a couple of months back). Maybe I'll grab him (and myself) a pair of these Sahalie Self Powered Bike Pedals. For $20 they add three LEDs that are powered by the gyroscopic motion of pedaling itself—no batteries necessary. Of course, they don't have those fancy foot straps that Aron uses—you know, the kind that keep the bike attached when you go cartwheeling over a speeding cab.

Sahalie Self Powered Bike Pedals [TreeHugger]

[Gizmodo]

Mon, 08 Nov 2004 10:14:06 GMT

Shopping With My Friendsters.
Social networking features are popping up on auction and shopping sites, allowing visitors to compare notes and turn e-commerce into a social experience.
[NYT > Technology]

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 07:00:36 GMT

Spread the word: Announcing Our New Identity, "Microsuck"
After four years of being known primarly as Microsoft.com, the flagship site of the Microsoft Eradication Society now sports a new, slightly more family-friendly name: Microsuck. [Microsuck]

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 19:59:29 GMT

Inventor develops 'talking glove' for deaf.
An electronic glove that can turn American Sign Language gestures into spoken words or text, designed to help the deaf communicate more easily with the hearing world, is under development.
[CNN]

Fri, 30 May 2003 23:39:30 GMT

3DO Trips up, goes titsup.
Files for Chapter 11.
[The Register]

Mon, 26 May 2003 22:38:46 GMT

Nursing shortage driving hospital WiFi adoption.
Various hospital-chains are installing WiFi phones that can also do wireless data comms to enable their nursing staffs to be in many places at once without running their asses off. The impetus for this tech-adoption is a national nursing-shortage, which is increasing hospital administrators' willingness to try out new gadgets.

Most hospitals have relied on desktop phone systems. "Let's say they got a page," said Jeff Lett, senior director of technical operations at Tenet Healthcare. "They had to interrupt their rounds, rip off the blood-pressure cuff, and run to phone--or continue on and make the doctor livid." When Tenet Healthcare asked nurses what would make life easier, "the nurses came back and said wireless phones," Lett said.

[Boing Boing]

Mon, 19 May 2003 22:22:33 GMT

Yummy Times at Campbell.
Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) served up some tasty third-quarter results today. Higher sales and earnings made investors hungry for shares, sending them up 5% in the face of a down market. Revenues for the ubiquitous soup brand rose 17% to $1.6 billion. Net income increased even more, jumping 34% to $129 million. Per share, Campbell's cooked up $0.31, ahead of estimates by four cents. The company has found a sweet mix of innovative products and better-marketed old favorites to boost its shipment volume. Worldwide Q3 wet-soup shipments were up 9%, with growth here in the U.S. up 10%. It was only a few years ago that Campbell looked as watered down as off-brand chicken noodle, with soup sales and volume stagnating. CEO Douglas Conant, who has been on the job for over two years now, has solidly turned the company around. Sales for its North American soup operations improved 16% over last year, to $600 million. Operating earnings increased 32% for the division, thanks to lower promotional spending and better products. Campbell is giving Americans more of what they want from food -- increased convenience and ease -- and customers are responding. Its "Soup at Hand," for instance, is a drinkable soup that was introduced last fall. To capitalize on its success, Campbell is adding new flavors to the line this year. Campbell is addressing customers' convenience in other crucial ways, too. It's moving its entire line of condensed soups to easy-open lids and is rolling out a new product shelving distribution system for grocery stores, which should make shopping for soup a quicker and more efficient process. Let's not forget that in addition to its extensive soup lineup, Campbell owns Godiva and Pepperidge Farm. It's been very innovative with the "Goldfish" cracker brand, introducing more varieties of them than there are fish in the sea. You can get purple-colored Goldfish, baby Goldfish, giant Goldfish, and Goldfish infused with "extreme" flavors. It's a veritable Goldfish bonanza, and it's working for Campbell. Sales for the unit housing Godiva and Pepperidge Farm shot up 22% in the quarter, to $434 million. Campbell is looking for more of the same in the coming quarters, with new products scheduled to launch soon. It anticipates earning between $1.49 and $1.51 for its fiscal year. That represents earnings-per-share growth over the prior year of 16.4% to 17.96%. Trading at a P/E of 15, then, Campbell and its innovative ways look tasty.
Buy Campbell's merchandise at CampbellShop.com.
[The Motley Fool]

Fri, 02 May 2003 08:22:56 GMT

Bad Bunny, don't eat the cables. Online photo gallery of a misbehaving rabbit who can't tell the difference between CAT-5 and carrots. More proof that wireless networking is a better solution for all living creatures. Or, that bunnies in the home deserve cages and play areas of their own.
[Boing Boing]

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 06:55:21 GMT

KUNG POW: Enter The Fist.
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[QuickTime Trailer]

Sat, 29 Mar 2003 01:13:19 GMT

Montana Senate Candidate Has the 'Blues'.

The 63-year-old Montana Libertarian has turned blue from drinking a silver solution that he thought would protect him from disease. Jones says he started taking colloidal silver in 1999 because he feared Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics. The business consultant and part-time college instructor says his skin began turning blue-gray about a year ago. "People ask me if it's permanent and if I'm dead," he said. "I tell them I'm practicing for Halloween." He does not take the supplement any longer, but the skin condition, called argyria, is permanent. The condition is generally not serious.
[ABCNEWS]

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 08:54:36 GMT

'Were Not Number One!' - The Worst Franchises In Pro Sports.
The Los Angeles Clippers fired their 24th coach this week and top Jim Armstrong's list of 10 worst franchises in pro sports.
[Plastic]

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 10:29:42 GMT

130-year-old corneas still functional.
The world's first corneal-transplant recipient is still seeing out of her donor's corneas, which are 130 years old now.
[Boing Boing]

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 10:21:20 GMT

Meet a Rising Star in Game Design.
This 26-year-old former pre-med student finally found his calling as a video-game designer. Now, a game he created with fellow students at the DigiPen game-design institute will be showcased this week at the Independent Games Festival.
[Wired]

Tue, 04 Feb 2003 05:30:45 GMT

Vodafone pulls the plugs on Vizzavi email service.
Some skiploads of money later, Vodafone seems approximately back where it was prior to embarking on the Vizzavi portal adventure with France's SFR. A couple of months back Vodafone bought SFR's stake for very little money indeed, and today users of the Vizzavi email system received a message informing them that "the Vizzavi email service will be closing down on the 31st March 2003."
[The Register]

Sat, 28 Dec 2002 03:09:12 GMT

Post-Boom Meal Plan: Order Online.
Two small companies want to change the way New Yorkers have takeout delivered. Upstarts NYCTOGO.com and SeamlessWeb have resurrected the online urban delivery business, with one big change: They don't actually deliver anything.
Both are Web-based intermediaries that connect hungry New Yorkers with takeout joints. They're selling convenience by putting menus and ordering online -- which means no more stacks of stained, out-of-date menus. Plus, single bill payment will eliminate piles of receipts. [Wired]

How Tipping Works

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 06:47:44 GMT

How Tipping Works

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"Its not tipping I believe in, its over-tipping!"
-- Vinnie Antonelli

Sun, 15 Dec 2002 00:45:43 GMT

New Hard-Drive Tech Overcomes Magnetic Memory Problems. Hard-drive maker Seagate said it has overcome a significant challenge in magnetic memory with a new technology capable of achieving far beyond today's storage densities -- up to as great as 50 terabits per square inch. [osOpinion]

Wed, 11 Dec 2002 22:10:03 GMT

Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights

Thu, 05 Dec 2002 07:47:35 GMT

Mickey and Pals Are on the Line.
Motorola, a leading manufacturer of the battery-powered devices, has teamed with Disney to create a line of radios with cases, screen animations and call tones that are all Disney-themed. By Sarah Milstein. [New York Times: Technology]

Thu, 05 Dec 2002 04:13:15 GMT

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Tue, 03 Dec 2002 20:33:33 GMT

Joseph Smith: Magus, Freemason, Kabbalist and Gnostic.

The remarkable founder of the only truly American religion. [MetaFilter]

Tue, 26 Nov 2002 03:20:37 GMT

A wireless walk in Manhattan's Bryant Park: NYC Wireless's project at Bryant Park is treated to a gentle essay in the local City section of the New York Times, as the concepts of urban meeting places and interactions are neatly overlaid onto the latest technology. [80211b News]

Mon, 18 Nov 2002 01:45:00 GMT

New Charges Made in Suit on Homestore Executives of Homestore and AOL Time Warner invented schemes to inflate revenue of both companies without detection by creating three-way transactions that used bogus advertising buyers as intermediaries. A shareholder lawsuit against Homestore now alleges that AOL Time Warner Inc. and Cendant Corp. were involved in a complex web of shady deals that contributed to Homestore Inc.'s financial woes. Homestore inflated its revenue by $192.6 million in 2000 and 2001, allowing the Westlake Village-based company to beat analysts' expectations and yielded its insiders more than $70 million in stock-sale profits. Shareholders lost more than $1 billion, including $9 million by the State Teachers' Retirement System, according to Jack Ehnes, the organization's chief executive. "This isn't just a few low-level employees at one company gone astray. This is corporate greed at the highest levels." Federal charges also have been filed against Homestore executives. Former Homestore vice president John Desimone pleaded guilty last month to a federal charge of insider trading, and two other former executives have pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. Their sentencing is set for April. [NY Times]

Thu, 14 Nov 2002 02:41:06 GMT

3DO ships Heroes IV for Mac
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Heroes of Might and Magic 4
[The Macintosh News Network]