Dvorak News Blog

Blekko to Kill Google?

By John C Dvorak Monday November 1, 2010

4 Comments

Blekko tops the news with odd reviews.
Android makes hay in market share.
XboX Kinect suppose to kill the competition?
Apple suing Motorola over patents to multi-touch. This should be rich.
Violent video games protected by First Amendment? Yes? No?
Viewsonic rolls out a tablet that does dual boot.
Google sues over bad bidding practices.
Nissan electric cars are weird looking.
Hotmail supports all email addresses. So what?

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Did You Know Bringing A Horse To School Is Like Bringing A Loaded Gun?

By Uncle Dave Monday November 1, 2010

28 Comments

A teen’s spirit week stunt has landed him in hot water.

Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Senior Dan Depaolis, dressed in medieval garb, rode a horse into the school’s parking lot as part of spirit week. What he, and his parents, thought was a good-natured stunt, the school deemed dangerous. Depaolis was suspended from school for two days.

The vice principal allegedly suspended the 17-year-old even after the boy’s father explained that the horse was brought in on a trailer and that no one was in danger.

The father tells FOX25 the school compared the stunt to bringing a “loaded firearm” to school and that he and his wife were shocked to hear about the suspension, saying that the 1100-pound horse, named Pierre, would never hurt a fly.

Zach Galifianakis Fires up a Doob on Bill Maher

By McCullough Monday November 1, 2010

28 Comments

A conversation about California’s Prop 19, which would legalize marijuana in the state, took an interesting turn on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night when guest Zach Galifianakis lit up a joint. “It’s a tricky thing politically to jump on that bandwagon ’cause I think that maybe people see it as taboo still,” Galifianakis said before pulling out his lighter. A rep for Galifianakis, however, was less certain when contacted by EW, saying, “I believe it was a prop.”)

In the meantime recent study claims alcohol more dangerous than heroin or crack. Is this the beginning of a new prohibition?

EU diplomats spending $53 million on bullet-proof limousines

By Eideard Monday November 1, 2010

25 Comments

The EU has been accused of “vanity” after it emerged that the new diplomatic corps headed by Baroness Ashton will spend $53m on bullet-proof limousines for some of its 7,000 officials who will enjoy postings in Barbados and even the tiny Pacific island of Vanuatu.

The cost covers the purchase and maintenance of the 150 vehicles for four years with 30 cars being sent to missions in each of five regions around the world, including capitals where there is little or no terrorist threat.

A breakdown of the new European External Action Service (EEAS), which will have a budget of $13 billion, shows that the diplomatic postings will include sending 46 officials to Barbados, 57 to Vietnam and 95 to Ukraine.

Even the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, which has a population of just 230,000, will have six diplomats…

Stephen Booth, of the Open Europe think tank, said, “We were told that the EU’s new foreign service would be ‘budget neutral’ but this promise has been broken in its first year. At a time of widespread austerity, taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pay for the EU’s pretensions to global power status…”

As the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Lady Ashton is the best paid female politician in the Western World and earns a salary of £230,702 a year…

If the EU is to succeed on their mission to keep up with the American State Department at self-aggrandizement they will also have to add a private army of mercenaries. Are the Hessians still available?

Video – The T-Mobile Welcome Back Ad

By Gasparrini Monday November 1, 2010

12 Comments

Guess that T-Mobile didn’t get the memo about ‘Trains good, planes bad’.

No Agenda Show
Stop Albedo Now!

By John C Dvorak Sunday October 31, 2010

9 Comments

This Episode’s Executive Producer: Steven Pelsmaekers
Associate Executive Producers: Jarred Forrester, Edgar Rothermich, Jeremey Ash, Paul Sankowski
Art By: Michael Birch

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Show Notes here.
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Suppose The Serenity Movie Was Done In The Style Of Inception

By Uncle Dave Sunday October 31, 2010

10 Comments

Ex-President(s) First Pitch

By McCullough Sunday October 31, 2010

20 Comments

We can only hope this is their last “pitch”.

Coyote Cause of Car Mashup

By McCullough Sunday October 31, 2010

13 Comments

Car Crash Caused By Coyote

IDAHO – Idaho State Police are investigating a three-vehicle crash caused by a coyote. The accident happened around 10:30 p.m. on Thursday on westbound Interstate-84 near New Plymouth. A woman driving in a Ford Focus heading east on I-84 swerved to avoid hitting a coyote and went through the median into the westbound lanes of traffic.

Her vehicle struck the rear axle of a tractor-trailer heading west on I-84. A second tractor-trailer heading west struck debris in the roadway and was damaged. No one was injured and police do not believe alcohol was a factor.

Meep-meep.

Pic of the Day: Escape

By McCullough Sunday October 31, 2010

25 Comments

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK – The man responsible for snapping the dramatic photographs of a bison being chased by a grizzly bear has surfaced, providing Q2 with 14 more pictures and the end to the tale. Alex Wypyszinski had just dropped off his wife at work and had a few hours to kill one morning last April.

It all started when he was driving in the Fountain Flats area, located between the Madison Junction and Old Faithful, when he heard an unusual sound. “I thought it was a horse and carriage,” said Wypyszinski. “That was the kind of noise that I heard.” By the time he turned around, the two fuzzy brown images were racing quickly toward him.

“I thought I was having a hallucination or something,” said Wypyszinski. “I couldn’t believe what that buffalo looked like.” It was a bison, badly burned from an encounter with one of the numerous hot spots in Yellowstone National Park. The sight of such an injured bison alone is rare, but what Wypyszinski saw next was once in a lifetime.

“Never, ever, ever,” said Wypyszinski. “I’ve seen plenty of bear, and more buffalo. But I’ve never seen anything like that before.” A grizzly was chasing the buffalo (which was practically cooked already) and gaining quickly. Wypyszinski stopped his car on the desolate highway and took out his camera.

“I stood along the car as long as I thought it was safe.” The two beasts passed the man by without paying any notice.

The result: these 14 hair-raising pictures. Wypiszinski says once in the safety of the woods the bison out maneuvered the grizzly, escaping to live exactly one more day. Park rangers had to put the bison down due to the injuries it sustained.

Don’t Even THINK Of Selling/Having/Using Silly String In LA On Halloween

By Uncle Dave Saturday October 30, 2010

24 Comments

“I’ll give up my Silly String when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!”

Amazon.com Charges Affiliates a $15 Check Processing Fee

By Marc Perkel Saturday October 30, 2010

19 Comments

Many online marketers pay web sites commissions to advertise their products. The web site puts a link to the product with their unique ID code and if someone clicks on the link and buys something, the web site owner gets a piece of the action. So you would think that the online companies would want to treat their affiliates right, but some don’t get it.

Amazon is one such clueless company. Their affiliate rates are pretty low to start with but when they pay you they deduct a $15 “check processing fee”. So a commission for $102.24 becomes a check for $87.24. Pretty pathetic I think. If you screw over those who are selling your product then they are going to be less enthusiastic about giving you space.

My two cents…

UPDATED: The Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear

By Uncle Dave Saturday October 30, 2010

109 Comments

Deana Schupp, a cable company worker from Florida, stared out over the huge crowd on Washington DC’s National Mall and had a sudden but welcome realisation. “When I see this crowd, I feel I am not alone. We are here for sanity and there are a lot of us,” she said. It was, she admitted, her first protest march.

She definitely had company. Tens of thousands of people gathered here in what must surely be the strangest-titled mass protest ever held in America’s capital: The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Hope.
[…]
The crowd was enormous – easily a quarter of a million people. As the masses listened to music and comedy routines broadcast from the tiny distant stage over giant screens all the way down the Mall, it was an impressive display of the power of comedy and celebrity. Whether it was a display of the power of American liberalism was much harder to say. Many observers saw the rally as a response to Fox News pundit Glenn Beck’s recent “Restoring Honour” rally, which occupied the same space several months ago. That event, which attracted between 250,000 and 500,000 people, was seen as symbolising the rising power of conservatism.

Cartoon of the Year

By hhopper Saturday October 30, 2010

27 Comments

DU Job Finder: How To Become A Bounty Hunter

By Uncle Dave Saturday October 30, 2010

4 Comments

In this economy, finding a job can be tough to impossible, so working for yourself may be the way to go. We’re here to help. Let us know if any of you become successful in this week’s highlighted profession.