AWS is really one of the more historic feats of the “commodity box” generation; an achievement in pawning off excess compute capacity to the masses that grew into a business in its own right (though perhaps not as big a business as selling books). I know of five or six failed attempts by Fortune 500 [...]
This summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing marks the first real test of online video as NBC embarks upon the most ambitious online video project ever. NBC plans to offer 3,600 hours of live programming from Beijing, which translates to about 212 live hours for each of the 17 days of the Olympics. The majority of [...]
Additionally, while current incentives for playing are limited to street cred and “badges” on your profile, MTV may be stepping this up a notch. Executives hinted during the press conference that down the road, accumulated gaming points may become a virtual currency that can be exchanged for real prizes–memorabilia, products featured on the show, or [...]
Rain or shine, you’re given the option to sign up for an SMS alert service. It lets you know the next time you should bring an umbrella for that selected ZIP code whenever precipitation is in the forecast. You can also set what time of the day you want them delivered–like before you leave the [...]
“It’s time for the industry to provide a consistent platform for development across PCs, mobile devices, set-top boxes, and other platforms,” said Wadhwani. “There are five times the number of connected devices than PCs in the world. The consumer market is demanding video and rich content across all of these screens,” he said.
A new program, [...]
GM’s decision to invest in Mascoma–the second cellulosic ethanol company with which it has partnered–was disclosed last week. GM’s amount, however, is under wraps.
There’s a race among a number of new companies to build a plant that can demonstrate the ability to make cost-effective ethanol on a commercial scale. Mascoma, Range Fuels, and Coskata have [...]
I would suspect that Twitter and random IMs must double the wasted time leading to 17 hours a week of figuring out what you were just doing. This constant distraction is similar to gambling, heeding to a “variable interval reinforcement schedule” which is the same feeling you get from playing a slot machine.
As an interesting [...]
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In fact, they’re complementary. It’s actually quite difficult to distribute a 100 percent open-source product and monetize it at the same time. Support doesn’t scale. Determining how to make a “community” release compelling while also selling an “enterprise” release without selling “just support” is tricky.
It’s not, however, simply a way to make money. It’s also [...]
But you know what? The hype is justified. I don’t necessarily mean that this is the greatest album of all time. Simply that it’s so huge, so sprawling, so bizarre, that a massive multiyear hype storm seems just about right. Chinese Democracy is probably one of the last albums that will ever take rock and [...]
Kara Swisher (of All Things D) and Bloomberg reported the delay Friday afternoon.
Update 4:01 p.m. PDT: Yahoo wouldn’t clarify how long the brief delay would last, but the companies likely want it done before a new administration is elected one month from now and major changes could take place within the Justice Department. The Reuters [...]