Browsing Category: "SMASH Technology"
It’s a small thrill to occasionally “discover” a musical artist or group that you haven’t heard before, something that sounds creative and fresh. Not the latest Top 10 artist either, or the pablum that radio stations spit out ad nauseam 50 times a day on their computers. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night at the Tesla auto plant in Fremont, CA, onlookers marveled at the new Tesla Model S luxury sedan, which finally made its debut after a long wait. Technically speaking, the unveiling of the new luxurious sedan was for the approximately 2,000 customers who have put down deposits of $5000, but these were prototypes, not their actual cars. Seeking to create even more buzz, if not bowl over these customers who showed up for the gala event, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, dressed to the nines in a tuxedo, asked the crowd to spread the word about this beauty, which won’t be ready for delivery until 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
You really don’t want to be around Obama nowadays. He will kick your ass. And he’ll be smooth about it. Let’s look at the last 72 hours or so of his schedule and take a look at what finesse and general bad-assness he has displayed.
On Friday, instead of just tucking in and watching the Royal Wedding and hat parade like the rest of us, he flew with his family to Alabama to comfort those who were devastated by horrendous tornadoes. He even went to Miami’s Dade College and gave a commencement address! Read the rest of this entry »
We are knee-deep in the film awards season, it seems. Last week’s brouhaha about Ricky Gervais tossing out some jokes that offended some Hollywood types as the host of the Golden Globe Awards almost overshadowed the fact that real awards were hand ed out. (We think Ricky rocked, and it’s high time someone of his courage decided to take the hot air out of the event. Like Angelina cared about her worthless nomination, or aboutcharges of payola with her rotten “Tourist” movie, as she leaned back into Brad Pitt’s arms.) Read the rest of this entry »
My nephew and I have a long-distance postcard relationship. For a couple of years now he and I manage to see each other rarely but instead send each other postcard dispatches in which I will describe a cool attraction I visited and he will get excited about a local dish or delicacy from a vacation spot around the US. I travel a lot internationally so I have sent him postcards from places like Singapore and Paris, and even more obscure places like rural Massachusetts (the homemade pasta e fagiule soup at Il Forno in Fitchburg = to die for) and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This latter spot was memorable because in the middle of 98-degree summer heat, a woman who was missing a front tooth was selling Siberian Husky pups outside on her pick-up truck bed. $400 in cash and that precious pup could have come home with me in a bag on my flight back to SFO –ah, the things I regret in my travels. Read the rest of this entry »
Free Slurpee
Get out! 7-11 is here. Not the date, silly -the store. Oh yeah, well it’s 7-11 the date too, we guess. Don’t you know what happens every year on this magical date? Thousands of people flock to their local 7-11 stores and celebrate the anniversary of the store chain by filling up on free small Slurpees. Tomorrow is 7-11’s 83rd birthday. That’s right -more than eight decades serving up local fare that’s literally a block away, and serving customers all over the world.
We all grew up with this chain, and we definitely grew up with the Slurpees -my favorites were the Cherry Red and of course, the old standby, the Coke flavored one. Pull back that knob and fill up those cups, but don’t get brain freeze like Bart Simpson did when he went into the Quik-e-Mart, which is “The Simpsons”’s homage to this most venerable of institutions. Read the rest of this entry »
For some reason, and after stints in LA, Las Vegas and Chicago, the Top Chef crew decided this season to decamp in the nation’s capital. As we can see from scenes that are coming up, the city plays host to a number of venues like the Goddard Space Center and politicians like Nancy Pelosi (yes, that Nancy Pelosi). The crew has also added Le Bernardin chef extraordinaire Eric Ripert to the lineup of judges, including Padma Lakshmi, Tom Collichio and Gail Simmons. Read the rest of this entry »
The latest product from Ymax, is a derivative of the magic Jack and is called the femtoJack, The femtoJack is very similar to the magicJack in look and feel but it takes the technology of the magic Jack to the next step and allow users to make wireless phone calls for free from their home instead of just landline phone calls. Read the rest of this entry »
You Gotta Start Somewhere
If you’re anything like me, you like to start your browsing day with a start page or “portal” that caters to your daily dose of online interests.
Sure there are the more well-known, corporate portals that allow their own brand of personalization [iGoogle, myYahoo, Microsoft Live]. But quite often these mainstays include “value added” content or sponsored links that interfere with your personalized experience. So if you crave to have something a bit more streamlined (or you’d rather have quick access to the aforementioned 3), Fav4 is worth a serious look. Read the rest of this entry »
The Next P.G. & E.?
In a word, no.
But a multifaceted, octopus-like reach is a trait we’ve come to expect from the stalwart giant Google as of late. The company is moving so quickly and in so many directions & markets that anything it does would hardly seem surprising - with the exception of becoming a utility company, which is now another card Google has up its sleeve. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mixable Dancer
OK, this is actually a bit frightening. I must admit that the first thing that came to mind here was the disturbing bunny from Donnie Darko and all the nightmarish imagery he brings with him. But after getting past the initial fright, I found the concept rather interesting.
So you thought that the cuddly teddy bear holding the little red heart box of chocolates really nailed it today didn’t you? You thought you scored with your special Valentine, right? Well, talk about thinking totally outside the box: a company called DNA 11 offers you a gift that is so intensely personal, so unique and yet rather unusual that it will never be forgotten.
DNA 11 offers you a chance to provide your own DNA sample, which they will then process and place on an artistic screen, either in mini-portrait form or on a canvas that you could use as artwork. Now, we’re not talking that kind of DNA sample. Read the rest of this entry »
Isn’t it a coincidence that on the day that Yahoo! had a screaming news story declaring that Sandra Bullock’s enormous smash “The Blind Side” just passed the $200 million domestic gross mark –an impressive feat never before done by any other major actress—we have a magical piece of news from two corporations that don’t normally like each other: Warner Brothers and Netflix.
28 Days Later
In a press release today, both companies agreed to essentially force Netflix and its customers to wait out a 28-day period before Warner Bros. distributes its new releases to them. Read the rest of this entry »
The former Jordan Roseman, raised in rural Iowa and schooled on a diet of 70s disco and 80s Depeche Mode and OMD that he tried to crank out on his Apple II computer, probably should prepare himself for some much-deserved fame right about now. He might also think about leaving his job as DJ at many of the hot locations in the city. Read the rest of this entry »
The Plaid Mystery
I don’t think there’s a quick explanation for it, but what is up with so much red plaid everywhere? Honestly, it can’t just be about the holiday season and the obvious red color scheme because this has been around for much of the year. And while this is a completely unscientific observation, I think I have a few hunches as to why this bold print seems to linger, and probably will so, even after we all take down our Christmas trees and store our ornaments from this holiday season. Read the rest of this entry »
