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Taiwan hopes to avoid US-style bail-out for DRAM industry
by Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

The Taiwanese government stands ready to help its ailing DRAM industry but hopes to avoid U.S.-style capital injections, the island's president said Wednesday.

"The plight of the DRAM industry is very much known to the government and we are taking effective measures to help," Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou said in a news conference with foreign journalists. "We will be very careful about doing the kind of capital injection the U.S. is doing," he said.

( Read more... )

Crimeny...
...I'm hairy. Not even a full moon today...I think.

UPS may have a xmas-season driver's helper position open for me. They will call me if it happens. I chose the downtown location as my first choice, since it is closer and will be easier to get to and from than Skokie, Addison, or Wilmette at 4 or 5 am.

Picture sparks claims of wood on Mars
A photograph of the surface of Mars showing a mysterious object has prompted a wave of speculation over alien involvement.

By Jon Swaine

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Windows market share drops under 90 percent, according to Net stats
Posted on Dec 2, 2008 12:18 pm by Cyrus Farivar

The analysis firm Net Applications uses a certain set of Web sites to monitor OS and browser usage. Last month, the company did a study finding that the number of Windows machines connecting to those sites dropped by 0.84, putting the figure at 89.6 percent—still a respectable margin, to be sure. However, the company said that this was the largest single drop in Windows usage numbers in the last two years.

Better yet, Windows's loss is Apple's gain. ( Read more... )

Saving the Big 3 for You and Me ...a message from Michael Moore
Friends,

I drive an American car. It's a Chrysler. That's not an endorsement. It's more like a cry for pity. And now for a decades-old story, retold ad infinitum by tens of millions of Americans, a third of whom have had to desert their country to simply find a damn way to get to work in something that won't break down:

My Chrysler is four years old. I bought it because of its smooth and comfortable ride. Daimler-Benz owned the company then and had the good grace to place the Chrysler chassis on a Mercedes axle and, man, was that a sweet ride!

When it would start. ( Read more... )

US: GM exec: bankruptcy not an option for American auto industry
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

WASHINGTON – General Motors Corp. President Fritz Henderson said Wednesday bankruptcy isn't a viable option for struggling U.S. automakers, maintaining that a new retooling plan can save the industry.

( Read more... )

Human Basketball
Human Basketball Stunt

Adventures with eBooks
So I got this really really nifty ebook reader--the Sony PRS-505. (Rob got it for me yaaay. Many gratitude points to husband for deciding I should stop moping about my dead Cliés and just get a new ebook device--and for saying, "dammit, you should have something new for once. No more scrounging through Craigslist hoping that someone's three-year-old castoff isn't two weeks from terminal.")

And it's...different. Not just bigger than the PDAs (which I'll get used to, but was not a selling point for me--I liked a device I could safely hold in one hand), not just better text imagery. Pages vs scrolling... yeah, I know I grew up reading pages instead of scrolling text. But there were a couple of years there where almost everything I read was scrolled. It felt very odd to have to move my eyes down the screen.

So I bounced over to http://www.mobileread.com which has a zillion forums and reviews and a wiki and faqs and a huge pile of free ebooks, formatted by members for the various eReader devices. And from there, I wound up at http://manybooks.net and http://feedbooks.com, both of which also have lotsa free ebooks. (Feedbooks even has fairly modern stuff--it's got a large collection of recent Creative Commons stuff, and apparently they've got people who look for pre-1976 works that didn't renew copyright. SciFi from the 60's, not just the 30's. Yay.) I've been downloading stuff of all sorts. And throwing my old ebooks into new formats.

And now I need to make a FAQ, because total strangers approach me and say, "is that one of those ebook thingies? Does it work well? Where do you get books? How much does it cost?" I want to put together a business card listing a few websites, basically saying, "yes it's cool; it's pricey and not worth it unless you adore reading; free ebooks abound but very few recent releases are available legally for free; there are several different devices and they all have their pros and cons." And like that.

So--if you were putting together or reading a FAQ on ebooks/eInk readers, what would you want in it? (Mainly, I think I want a chance to deal with questions when I have time to answer them, rather than 45 seconds while the BART train is pulling into the station.)

Irrelevant comment: Normally, this is my "fandom" icon. However, it's also an "ebook" icon--although a highly NOT recommended form of ebook. My eyes get twitchy just thinking about trying to reread it.

December 2 - Nipple Rings!

Just a small representation of adorned nipples. There will be more of these, I'm sure... No titles or artists names on these, I just found them randomly on the internet today! However, because he's got nipple rings that are displayed prominently in the other pics I found of his, the guy from the Corbin Fisher pay site will be featured in today's Penis Picture Post.

Enjoy!

Alert: Rated R for Nudity

( Ooohhhh...nipples! )

Current Mood: very tired
Current Music: :::whines::: "Is it time for bed yet?"

Goodbye To You - Scandal ( Live, Early 80s )

Florida - Modest Mouse

Chain Of Fools - Aretha Franklin ( 1960s TV )

How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths

Hot N' Cold - Katy Perry

The Sporting Life - The Decemberists

I'm Good, I'm Gone - Lykke Li

O Say Can You Buy?
Why going "Made in the USA" for a week left me hungry, broke, and half-naked.

By Nicole McClelland

I had been cursing up and down the aisles at the grocery store for half an hour when I finally found a can of black beans claiming to be "100% usa family farm organically grown." I was on a weeklong mission to buy only American-made goods, and my very first shopping trip had turned into a debacle. I'd been forced to put back the bananas, cherries, coconut, and chipotle peppers, and I was about to blow $15 on a tiny bottle of US-made olive oil.

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The Curious Retention of Robert Gates
by Kevin Drum

Barack Obama's national security team--at this early stage--presents more questions than answers. His selection of Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state has been a much-chewed-over topic of pundit puzzlement. And with the Monday morning unveiling of his senior defense and foreign policy aides, Obama made official another curious decision: his retention of Robert Gates as secretary of defense.

( Read more... )

December Theme of the Month - Decorations

Well, by the time you see this it will be December 2nd, but we're going to pretend for a bit, okay? Because I was so relaxed over the fact that I finished my mini_nanowrimo project, that I didn't even think about the fact that it's now December, and that means it's time for our traditional December celebrations: at least one picture a day (and at least one penis picture a day for the NC17 folks) for the entire month of December.

Knowing me, a few of them (like today's) will be late, but it's the thought that counts, right? So there will be at least two posts dedicated to each day from me for the entire month of December. Some may be short, and some will be filled with pictures, but there will be something for every day of the month.

And since this is the month of Holidays, I thought that Decorations might be a good idea for the theme...

Decorative: attractive - serving merely to look attractive rather than having a functional purpose.

I like that. So that's what we're going to concentrate on this month. The ornamental, the embellishments, the things that look make something look pretty. For that matter, the human body can look pretty without an embellishments at all, but we're going to see if we can manage to decorate it this month. Just for fun. And I'd love it if you joined in, so if you have any decorative pics to share, please feel free to post at any time!

That can mean clothing, leather, ropes, jewelry, ribbons, latex, paint, tattoos, spangles...there are tons of ways to decorate the body, and we're going to celebrate them all. So I brought an assortment of decorative ideas for today's post, just to get us in the mood.

Enjoy!

Alert: R rated for Nudity and Sexual Situations

( decorations under here... )

~

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: late, late, late...

The Fandom Meme
Stolen from everywhere. Wasn't gonna do it, 'cos I'm only involved in two or three fandoms. Then I acknowledged that "fandom," to me, isn't a list of TV shows and movies, and I have indeed been involved in more than a dozen fandoms.

The one who seduced you and fucked you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Ed

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets: Star Trek (TOS)

( MOAR FANDUMZ HEER )

It's official: Panel says US has been in recession since Dec. '07
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer – 10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday. The NBER — a private, nonprofit research organization — said its group of academic economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the U.S. recession began last December.

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A nibble. Fingers crossed...
A video-game company is hiring for a Character Designer, 2D and/or 3D. Either way, to apply for it, I had to get registered on another hiring board. This particular one seems to be for game and entertainment companies in need of artists, designers, musicians, engineers, etc.

One Man's Military-Industrial-Media Complex
By David Barstow / New York Times

In the spring of 2007 a tiny military contractor with a slender track record went shopping for a precious Beltway commodity.

The company, Defense Solutions, sought the services of a retired general with national stature, someone who could open doors at the highest levels of government and help it win a huge prize: the right to supply Iraq with thousands of armored vehicles.

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US: Report Sounds Alarm Over Bioterror
By Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 30, 2008; Page A03

Seven years after the 2001 anthrax attacks, a congressionally ordered study finds a growing threat of biological terrorism and calls for aggressive defenses on par with those used to prevent a terrorist nuclear detonation.

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Bush’s 11th-Hour Bid for Secrecy
By Stanley Kutler

The times are unprecedented. Not since 1861 have we watched the last gasps of an outgoing administration with such anxiety. Then the nation was concerned with drift and inertia; now we watch for further ideological mischief.

( Read more... )