people prefer internet over sex

Intel came up with a novel way to show how important the Internet and computing have become in the lives of Americans. In conjunction with Harris Interactive, the company conducted a survey of adults in the United States under the prosaic-enough banner “Internet Reliance in Today’s Economy.” But the first “key finding” from the study is a little more attention-grabbing. According to the study, 46 percent of women and 30 percent of men would opt to forgo sex for two weeks instead of giving up access to their precious Internet for the same period. More broadly, those surveyed said access to the Internet ranked highest among the discretionary spending items they could not live without. Cable television, dining out, shopping for clothes and gym memberships followed in declining importance.

Along similar lines, 61 percent of the women surveyed said they would rather go without TV for two weeks than lose access to the Internet for one week. Using the data as a means of pitching products fueled by Intel chips, the company said: “The survey revealed that 65 percent of adults feel they cannot live without Internet access, and even more — 71 percent — responded that it is important or very important to have Internet-enabled devices, such as laptops, netbooks and mobile Internet devices that can provide them with real-time updates on important issues including the state of the economy.” Harris Interactive polled 2,119 adults on Intel’s behalf.

source: NY Times

12,000 laptops lost & a 400GB CD invented

12,000 laptops lost in U.S. airports every month

source: Dallas news
According to the study commissioned by Dell, more than 12,000 laptop computers are lost in U.S. airports every week. That’s about 600,000 notebooks per year. What’s more, only 33 percent of the laptops found in airports are ever reclaimed. That’s not surprising if (as the survey found) 16 percent of business travelers said they would do nothing if they lost their laptops, while 58 percent said they’d contact their companies for advice before they did anything. Just 27 percent said they’d immediately retrace their steps and contact lost and found.
A question for those who said they would do nothing: what do you do when you show up to the big meeting sans laptop? Pretend to type on an invisible computer? Act like you’re suffering from amnesia? Seriously, who does “nothing” when they discover their laptop is missing? I know laptops are getting cheap, but this seems like a stunning lack of concern for the whereabouts of a machine worth several hundred dollars at least, and presumably storing important documents, valuable photos and so forth. Of course, Dell is using the startling findings to pitch its new laptop protection and data recovery services, so make of these findings what you will.

400GB optical disc invented by Pioneer

source: Cnet
Got a big archiving project you’ve been itching to do? Pioneer’s latest development could help you keep all your data in one nice, little circular package. The Japanese electronics maker has been working on an optical disc, which, like Blu-ray, can store 25GB of data in a single layer. But Pioneer says it’s one-upped the high-definition format to the sixteenth degree. The company announced today that it has a single disc that contains 16 layers of storage, at 25GB each. That adds up to 400GB of data capable of being stored on a single disc.
Blu-ray comes in single layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) flavors. Pioneer does say that because the lens specification for reading the discs is similar to Blu-ray, “it is possible to maintain compatibility” between its disc and Blu-ray discs. That’s not saying it will be compatible, but it would make sense since Pioneer is one of the original Blu-ray Disc Association members. However, plans for that archiving project will have to be put on pause if you want to use this technology. Pioneer is going to demonstrate it at an industry conference next week, but for now the disc is read-only. Eventually, they’ll add write capability as well.

is this cruelty really necessary?

i read my good friend's blog yesterday and the post haunted me all through the night.. i could not sleep last night..

it was about how people in China get fur from cute furry animals. please watch the video as long as you can bear.

be warned.. it's highly graphical and disturbing.

click for the video.

was this really necessary? aren't there any humane ways of doing it? cruel.. just so cruel..

NO TO FUR!!!

giant squid found

source: dbTechno.com
Boston (dbTechno) - In New Zealand, scientists have been working all week to defrost and study a 1,000-pound giant squid. The squid is the length of a school bus. Upon studying her, they have found that she has the largest eyes in the world, and is also a female.

Scientists in a lab at the Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s national museum, have been studying the squid all week.

They have concluded that the giant squid is, in fact, a female. They do not believe that she was fully-grown as her beak is between 1.6 and 1.7 inches.

They have also found that the eyes of the giant squid are 10.6 inches, making them the largest eyes ever recorded from any animal.

To put it into perspective, the eyes are about the size of a soccer ball according to reports.

The giant squid was caught by accident in Antarctica’s Ross Sea back in February 2007.

The squid was frozen in a block of ice until scientists could join to study it.

Once they are done studying the giant squid, they will display it in a natural position at the musuem.

It is possible that as fishing continues in Antarctica, more of these giant squid will be found.

a pretty cool news if you're into weird unknown animals. i forgot the scientific word for it.. freaky-animal-zoology?

death by blogging

that's right.. people have actually died from blogging! i found this really scary article from the NY times.

Some of the blogging community are worried that blogging could be bad for your health. The constant need to publish new and exciting facts is putting stress on successful bloggers, and the recent deaths from heart attacks of three popular writers is causing something of a rethink in the industry. “I haven’t died yet,” Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, told The New York Times. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to hospital, or something else will happen. This is not sustainable.”


Arrington claimed that he has gained 30 pounds and developed a severe sleeping disorder over the past three years as a result of his job. Two other technology bloggers, Russell Shaw, 60, and Marc Orchant, 50, have died of heart failures. While blogging has not been directly linked to their deaths, the stress of churning out thousands of words a day may have been a factor. “There is no time ever, including when you’re sleeping, when you’re not worried about missing a story,” said Arrington. “Wouldn’t it be great if we said that no blogger or journalist could write a story between 8pm Pacific time and dawn? Then we could all take a break. But that’s never going to happen.”

scary..