Silicon by Gaslight http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/ en-us Copyright 2010 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:36:42 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification UTK Gets $325M Grant to Digitize Old Newspapers here.  Related job application here?
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/08/utk-gets-325-grant-to-digitize.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/08/utk-gets-325-grant-to-digitize.html Local Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:36:42 -0500 Comcast's Totally Legit P2P Settlement (Promise!) class-action lawsuit between communications giant Comcast and P2P users who had their internet speeds throttled.

If you're one of the affected parties, you too can publicly out yourself as a P2P user, and get sixteen whole dollars for your troubles!  Who in their right mind would pass up that kind of deal?
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/07/comcasts-totally-legit-p2p-set.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/07/comcasts-totally-legit-p2p-set.html LAW Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:45:48 -0500 Summer Rerun: July 2008 Edition Weird Al Yankovic is playing the Tennessee Theatre...wow, looks like tomorrow!

Here's an interview I did with him almost two years ago to the day.  Ah, the heady, innocent days of 2008.  I remember them like they were just a couple of years ago.

]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/07/summer-rerun-july-2008-edition-1.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/07/summer-rerun-july-2008-edition-1.html Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:57:48 -0500 Summer Rerun: July 2008 Edition "Weird Al" Yankovic is playing the Tennessee Theatre...wow, looks like tomorrow!

Here's an interview I did with him almost two years ago to the day.  Ah, the heady, innocent days of 2008.  I remember them like they were just a couple of years ago.

]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/07/summer-rerun-july-2008-edition.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/07/summer-rerun-july-2008-edition.html Local Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:57:48 -0500 The Internet vs. Bluff City PD the TN legislature is putting off state-level traffic camera reforms until at least next year, here's an innovative response to traffic camera gripes from our neighbors in Sullivan County.

Police chief David Nelson excused it away, commenting that "It just slipped my mind. If you open up a Web site and let it go down, somebody can buy it - I did not know that."

Way to join us in the 21st century, guys!
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/06/the-internet-vs-bluff-city-pd.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/06/the-internet-vs-bluff-city-pd.html Local Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:43:02 -0500 Hutchison Takes Internet, Goes Home hutchisonformayor.com currently redirects right back to Google.

Abrupt responses are one thing, but a complete vanish from the Web without so much as a "thanks for your support"?  Perhaps they're just in a temporary holding pattern while Hutchison prepares a post congratulating Tim Burchett on his primary victory.

UPDATE: The campaign twitter account is gone, too.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/05/hutchison-takes-internet-goes.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/05/hutchison-takes-internet-goes.html Local Wed, 05 May 2010 09:13:20 -0500 KERNELLWATCH: Palin to Visit Knoxville, Destroy Internet you betcha. ]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/03/kernellwatch-palin-to-visit-kn.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/03/kernellwatch-palin-to-visit-kn.html LAW Local National Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:59:57 -0500 BIG EARS '10: Fred Armisen? (Updated 2-24) Big Ears sources now reporting that Armisen's percussionist alter-ego Jens Hannemann will be opening for Joanna Newsom.

This one's a little out of my tech-ish blog idiom, but oh well.

From the Blab and twitter: SNL's Fred Armisen will be coming to Big Ears this year.

It remains to be seen in what capacity Armisen will appear.  He is best known for his comedic turns, but with 20 years in the music business under his belt, who knows.

If Armisen appears in a non-musical capacity, he may be the first non-musical addition to the 2010 roster.  2009's festival was all over the place, with spoken word events, workshops, and a  walking tour of downtown with Neil Hamburger, but by comparison 2010's events so far have focused on musical acts.  See above.  Armisen as Hannemann will play the music with, presumably, the funny.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/02/big-ears-10-fred-armisen.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/02/big-ears-10-fred-armisen.html 2010 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:20:27 -0500 UPDATED: Toyota Announces Global 2010 Prius Recall IT'S OFFICIAL.

Looks like Toyota is about to throw the emergency brake on the brake problems the 2010 Prius is experiencing.  "Ouch," say forward-thinking automotive pundits everywhere.

Expect the inevitable overwrought American consumer backlash against anything not .  Hell, with any luck we'll be back to burning whale oil by 2011!

But seriously, I've been wary of the Prius' brake system since its inception.  Not because of any precognitive ability re: the current situation, mind you.  I just think that it's playing with fire to throw too many variables in there with the big damn clamps that keep me from dying.  Academically, I like the idea of reclaiming kinetic energy and channeling it back into a usable form, but not at the risk of screwing up a mission-critical system.  Put some solar cells on the roof or something instead, Toyota. 

As far as I can tell, my misgivings are entirely theoretical in nature, and the issues currently facing the Prius are not related to my loony rants.  Which is a shame, really - risk management consultants make a lot of money.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/02/toyota-announces-global-2010-p-2.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/02/toyota-announces-global-2010-p-2.html National Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:41:18 -0500 This Week In Old-School Pings: LORAN Goes Offline going offline soon, according to this AP report.

Cost concerns are cited as the primary reason for the shutdown, which will begin February 8th and is expected to end with the final LORAN tower going offline by October 8th.  With GPS receivers cheap and the infrastructure pervasive, LORAN is seen as obsolete, and unplugging the system will save an estimated $190 million over five years.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/this-week-in-old-school-pings.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/this-week-in-old-school-pings.html National Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:14:08 -0500 1,000,000 V-Chips for Conan dick moves from NBC, Conan O'Brien has finally been cleared to take his ball and go..somewhere else with what appears to be few if any stipulations from the network, leaving The Tonight Show open for a second usurpation by Jay Leno.

If you're unhappy about NBC's decision to strongarm O'Brien out of the spot in favor of the least-funny person in late night, why not let your parental controls do the talking?

(And yes, it's my group.  It's also my blog, so there.)
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/1000000-v-chips-for-conan.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/1000000-v-chips-for-conan.html National Web-based Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:28:00 -0500 SbG's "Insert Lane Kiffin in an Outdated Meme" Contest kanyekiffin1.jpg

Express your outrage over the internet like a good civilized people should.  Make more, disseminate accordingly.  Post links here.  Go here for outdated meme ideas.  A decent Downfall subtitle is a shoo-in.

If you win, you get nothing.  Well, maybe passing internet fame in a niche audience.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/sbgs-insert-lane-kiffin-in-an.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/sbgs-insert-lane-kiffin-in-an.html Local Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:17:27 -0500 Me to Apple Tablet: Get Off My Lawn! iTablet iSlab Touch iTouchtabowabo Apple Tablet (name pending), is due for a major announcement by the end of the month.

As a new owner of an iPod Touch whose ownership thereof can be described less as "proud" and more as "that sound is inevitability, Mr. Anderson"*, I feel safe in saying that I understand the allure if I don't necessarily leap headlong into it**.  They're pretty, they're (legally, if not technically) proprietary, they're expensive.  I get it.

But a tablet?  While every other Apple product falls into a category that I can at least appreciate on the conceptual level, a tablet is something that I don't even care for in theory.  Everything that a tablet can be made to do can either be done smaller (on an iPhone/iTouch-level platform, with portability, convenience, and convergence thrown in as  bonuses) or larger (on a Macbook-level platform, with more power and versatility than a tablet could utilize without some sort of Miracle Drive add-on). 

This is not an opinion which I hold exclusively in regard to Apple products.  Tablets to me are a technology with one foot out the gate and the other in the grave. 

To be a viable product, a tablet must be big enough to handle manual read/write operations on a full-size touchscreen yet small enough to be "ultraportable" yet sturdy enough not to break in a steady wind yet light enough not to give the user arm cramps during use, while at the same time being cheap enough to mass-produce yet advanced enough to handle heavy multitasking over long periods in the field yet simple enough for the layman in that same field to use (and troubleshoot) yet complex enough to be able to handle a potentially mind-numbing assortment of load-outs...okay, I'm getting a headache. 

Get the picture?  Unlike other fields in which Apple products have flourished, tablet computing has not yet even begun to be sorted out.  A proper tablet is a logistical nightmare.  Apple's penchant for gift-wrapping a formula made of elements which already exist may or may not work too well here.

Unless they're just going to straight-up Kindle it, which is unlikely given the rumored $1000 price tag.

----
* Which isn't to say that I don't like it, in case its purchaser is reading this.

** The fact that I recognized Apple's stylistic contributions back when the rest of you fairweather end-users wouldn't have gone near one of their products notwithstanding.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/apple-to-release-another-produ.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2010/01/apple-to-release-another-produ.html Unsorted Geekery Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:44:15 -0500 Ripped From Today's Headlines: 2009's Bottom Five ]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2009/12/ripped-from-todays-headlines-2.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2009/12/ripped-from-todays-headlines-2.html 2009 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:06:04 -0500 Bean on Knology nice little anecdotes about Knoxville's premiere "maybe we cover you, maybe we don't" cable service provider.
]]> http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2009/12/bean-on-knology.html http://blogs.metropulse.com/silicon_by_gaslight/2009/12/bean-on-knology.html Local Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:32:06 -0500