Earlier today the FCC announced the winners of the 700MHz auction and AT&T swooped up the B-block in case you were wondering about the image. Instead of AT&T’s logo I decided to give you folks some eye candy. “AT&T’s strong spectrum holdings position the company to further enhance the quality and reliability of existing wireless […]

Earlier today the FCC announced the winners of the 700MHz auction and AT&T swooped up the B-block in case you were wondering about the image. Instead of AT&T’s logo I decided to give you folks some eye candy.

“AT&T’s strong spectrum holdings position the company to further enhance the quality and reliability of existing wireless broadband and voice services, and to set the foundation for new-generation wireless broadband technologies and services.” stated Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T’s wireless unit.

Upon final award of this spectrum, the company’s 700 MHz spectrum will cover 100 percent of the top 200 markets. Combined with the spectrum previously bought in the AWS auction, AT&T will have quality, spectrum available for new services covering 95 percent of the U.S. population. With this spectrum we have the ability to continue to deliver the latest technology and best-in-class services to our customers as the wireless industry grows and evolves.

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Feast your eyes on the L15 Airship by Airship Surveillance Ltd. It’s meant for very high-altitude surveillance missions of up to “15,000 feet with payloads as great as 1000lbs, durations up to 50 hours and speeds of 60 knots.” It looks like a remote-controlled toy Zeppelin to me but I’d superior watch what I say, […]

Feast your eyes on the L15 Airship by Airship Surveillance Ltd. It’s meant for very high-altitude surveillance missions of up to “15,000 feet with payloads as great as 1000lbs, durations up to 50 hours and speeds of 60 knots.”

It looks like a remote-controlled toy Zeppelin to me but I’d superior watch what I say, lest one of these things be hovering over my apartment, watching me type all day…waiting, waiting, waiting for one false move before delivering 1000 pounds of fury hurtling down towards my roof, breaking through my ceiling, and causing a general mess of my faux-leather chair from Office Depot.

L15 Airship [Airship Surveillance Ltd] via The Register

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A decision, one way or the other, on the proposed XM-Sirus merger should be reached by the end of the month. So says Sen. Arlen Spector, the ranking [Republican] member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Pat Leahy is the chairman of the committee, it should be noted.) He made an appearance on the Howard Stern […]

A decision, one way or the other, on the proposed XM-Sirus merger should be reached by the end of the month. So says Sen. Arlen Spector, the ranking [Republican] member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Pat Leahy is the chairman of the committee, it should be noted.) He made an appearance on the Howard Stern Show earlier today and tried to explain why no decision has been made just yet, well over a year since the merger was first announced.

There’s two primary reasons why the merger is still in limbo. One, the relevant parties are still considering the consequences of letting the only two satellite radio companies merge. Meaning, of course, that the anti-merger lobby has had at least some success in slowing down the approval process. (Not that regular radio has done anything, in my estimation, in the interim to make its product any more attractive.) Two, there just doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency to decide. Lives aren’t at stake—livelihoods, perhaps—and maybe constituents back home want to see more work being done to “fix” the economy than using man-hours on an entertainment industry merger. I completely invented that last point, but it seems plausible.

Presumably, Sen. Specter was only speaking for the Judiciary Committee. That still leaves the FCC and Justice itself to chime in.

Personally, I think this whole escapade has exposed how technologically ignorant some of our elected representatives appear to be. “What’s this here satellite radio thing? Is it like regular radio?” Well, sorta, but there’s more to it than that. Then you’ve got the likes of the NAB throwing its cash around, trying to convince the relevant parties that a single satellite radio company will kill competition, when in reality regular radio is up against iPods and other portable players, cellphones that play music and people listening to streaming music services while at work. Who’s gonna sit in their car or at their desk and listen to some awful, corporate approved, woefully generic playlist, at the mercy of commercials, when you can hear your own awful playlist on your nano or in your iTunes library?

Just decide already.

Sen. Arlen Spector: Merger decision by end of month [Orbitcast]

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Comments are the greasy oil that keeps the blog machine running. Here are three great (and 100% unedited) comments recently posted by your fellow readers. Johnal on Super-efficient micro-microchip could run on body heat and motion So machines are running off of human body heat… Matrix anyone? Morpheus: “The human body generates more bioelectricity than a 120 V […]

Comments are the greasy oil that keeps the blog machine running. Here are three great (and 100% unedited) comments recently posted by your fellow readers.

Johnal on Super-efficient micro-microchip could run on body heat and motion

So machines are running off of human body heat… Matrix anyone?

Morpheus: “The human body generates more bioelectricity than a 120 V battery and over 25,000 btu’s of heat. Combined with a form of fusion, the machines had found all the energy they’d ever need.”

Bruzer on Innovation: New Blu-ray standard mandates Internet connectivity (like HD DVD had at launch)

Ahhh, that headline on the paper should read “HD-DVD Defeats Blu-ray” the whole thing with the paper was that Truman actually defeated Dewey, and the paper printed the results too early.

http://www.historybuff.com/library/reftruman.html

Pertaining to this article though, like Matt said, this was all part of Blu-ray all along. The issue was they’d far more manufactures then HD-DVD and therefore it took longer fro them to work out the specs on how they wanted it implemented.

LN on The random endorsement: George Foreman Grill

Ummmm - you grill broccoli?

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We’re endorsing the George Foreman Grill this day. This is how I spend my spring break. Before using the GFG, I didn’t know how to cook. After using the GFG, I still don’t know how to cook! Is that the fault of the grill, or the fault of my own faulty upbringing and complete lack of ambition? […]

We’re endorsing the George Foreman Grill today. This is how I spend my spring break.

Before using the GFG, I didn’t know how to cook. After using the GFG, I still don’t know how to cook! Is that the fault of the grill, or the fault of my own faulty upbringing and complete lack of ambition? I’m gonna guess it’s my fault; the grill was cool.

Being that it’s 2008, I’m sure most, if not all, of you have seen the GFG advertised on TV. Some of us may have sat down for the entire half-hour infomercial, largely out of a lack of anything superior to do. I say that because, given that, there’s no reason to explain exactly what the GFG is and does. Briefly, it’s a small, cramped NYC apartment-friendly grill that cooks food quickly. There’s no built-in Bluetooth nor does it feature haptic technology in any capacity.

Hello, salmonella

Since I have so tiny experience in the kitchen—I know how to make a mean rice and beans dish, but that requires a trip to the Goya aisle of the supermarket and several hours of preparation; a sandwich can be made in seconds—I expected to be able to plug it in, throw a piece of meat on there and, minutes later, be enjoying a fine meal. That wasn’t meant to be, dear friends! I had to purchase all sorts of spices and ingredients, then prepare the meat, then set it on the grill, then grill, then eat. I guess my complaint here is that—and this isn’t a knock against the grill—cooking is hard and I don’t like doing it.

The GFG itself is pretty solid. Yes, I’ll define what “solid” means in a bit. I sprang for the smallest model. I contemplated buying the massive bad booty daddy version ($1 if you understand that reference), but then realized I live alone and have no reason to cook an entire steer in 15 minutes. I’m not training to fight Randy Coutoure or anything.

Yes, “solid.” While I didn’t test the unit’s durability by throwing it down a set of stairs or off a speeding motorbike, I did accidentally drop it already. (It came in the mail a few hours ago, mind you.) It still cooked my stupid piece of chicken and, later, a couple units of broccoli. Hooray for healthy food!

I don’t know, it seems weird to me to call the grill good when so many have already done so; I’m just piling on. It serves no purpose as far as I’m concerned.

But I do have my gripes. For one, the electrical cord is entirely too short. I know most kitchen appliances have short cords, but it’s still a pain in the ass. I have to rearrange my whole kitchen area, including removing my coffee maker and blender, just to get it plugged in. Also, while cooking, it makes what could only be described as sounds you’d hear in Silent Hill. It sounds like the thing is screaming for help. It sure as hell freaked me out. (But it does smell good when cooking, I’ll give it that.)

In conclusion, if, for whatever reason, you haven’t purchased one of these grills already, you can now do so with great confidence. Cooking is still a pain, what with all that nonsense prep work, but the grill works as advertised.

Now—hack ending alert—I have lunch to eat!

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