I'm not 100% up to date on the RVU alliance, but I'm all for the demise of the set top box (and the promotion of better user interfaces -- the UI in the current Verizon DVRs is awful)

However, I wouldn't bank on Samsung implementing this properly. The built-in DLNA support on their TVs is appallingly bad, to the point of being completely unusable. Unless all of your videos are encoded at one of the few supported codec/resolution combinations, forget about it. (Also, rewinding and fast forwarding are bafflingly unsupported)

In Britain, I can walk into any Tesco or Woolworth's, and buy a reasonably-priced phone, and a prepay SIM with a rate of approx $0.10/min, $0.05 text.

Pay with cash, or whatever it is that you use to buy your groceries. 10 minutes from first entering the store to having a working mobile phone. No commitments whatsoever.


Let me know when I can do this back in the US.

You really need to see both sides of the issues here....

1) Intel joined to promote their technology, so that it could be included in the product. Although I'm not sure on the specifics, I imagine that most of the hardware vendors involved aren't planning on selling their parts at a significant profit.

2) OLPC rejected Intel's design, and chose that of their chief competitor (AMD) instead. If the OLPC leaders wanted to be as diplomatic as possible, they could have specified an x86 or PPC "CPU module" for the laptop that could include any compatible processor, along with the necessary electronics to interface with the rest of the system.

3) The OLPC project is coming under considerable flak for vastly exceeding their original cost estimates, which also do not include the (considerable) cost of infrastructure and training. Widespread criticism of the project is also being made by governments and educators, primarily focusing on the unfavorable cost-benefit analysis compared to building additional libraries or schools (which can be done very inexpensively in developing areas due to inexpensive labor and locally-available materials).

4) These criticisms have led to much speculation about the motives of the founders of the project. Negroponte's overblown reaction to Intel's withdrawal from the project does seem to lend some credit to this theory.

Although I *do* support the notion that all children around the world should be entitled to an education, I frankly don't see the OLPC as being a viable method of providing an education to children in impoverished areas (heck -- initiatives to give laptops to children in *America* haven't been proven to be all that effective, even ignoring the monetary costs).

Intel probably saw the same thing, and decided to focus their charitable efforts elsewhere. Even though I'm not a fan of huge corporations by any stretch of the imagination, I can't say that I blame Intel one bit for choosing to withdraw from the program.

I'm pretty happy with my AppleSac.

It's not quite as swanky as the Wrappers, but they're a bit less money, and are fantastically well-made (and I do indeed like the way they look)

Mine actually came with a handwritten note apologizing for a delay in processing the order, as they ran out of burlap (to give you an idea of how small of an operation it must be..).

Funny thing is that because of the delay, they bumped me up to faster shipping, and I received it a few days earlier than I would have otherwise. They seem like all around cool guys.

http://www.applesac.com/

music sync would be cool, but I honestly don't see how it's practical with iTunes....

I'm a Linux geek by day, so I'm no stranger to the command line :-)

It goes down to below -50C in Alaska, and phones generally continue to keep chugging along.

The two things you have to watch out for are the screen (response time will be 'glacial'), and the battery, which will lose its charge much more quickly than usual.

All in all, I doubt you'll permanently damage anything as long as you don't heat it or cool it too quickly.

As far as canada goes, AT&T has stated that they won't tolerate the iPhones being used for extended periods of time in Canada or Alaska.

They actually don't do this for any phones -- they'll cut off your service if they see you roaming for a really extended period of time. Alaska's got no coverage from either Verizon or AT&T, but has roaming agreements with the providers out here.

Seems to me like they're shooting themselves in the foot, considering that they reap a near 100% profit on sales through their own store.

I'd by from TMBG direct any day of iTMS. No DRM, Higher Bitrate, Lossless Option, and the knowledge that the artist is actually getting my money. It's a no-brainer.

There's also always Hamachi, which will allow you to run Bonjour apps (such as iTunes sharing) over a WAN connection. It's secure too.

Although Lightroom is nifty and all, I can't think but help think that it's the bastard child of Rawshooter and Aperture.

Personally, Rawshooter was the only thing that made me keep a PC lying around. Definitely obeyed the KISS philosophy, and was fast as lightning, even on somewhat mediocre hardware (UI and Image-processing elements were obiously threaded separately -- like they should be).

I haven't used Aperture much. Lightroom's not bad (it's what I use now), but it's incredibly bloated, even on a decent machine. There is NO reason why any application should gobble up over 1gb of RAM during normal usage. The sluggishness of the UI also makes managing the library of photos a somewhat tedious task, and as a result, things get messy quickly.