Category: News

With web hosting services like Rackspace going down time, and time again, Down For Everyone Or Just Me has become a hot spot to check to see if a lagging site is down for everyone, or just you. The site was created as a side project by longtime Twitter engineer Alex Payne, and has managed to grow quite a large following.

Over the weekend, Payne sold the site to Bweeb, Inc, which is known for running Site5 Web Hosting. Although Payne isn’t too sure what Bweeb’s plans are for the site, I suspect they’ll keep its functionality largely the same (and people will keep coming to it).

In a blog post, Payne mentions that the site hasn’t received that much attention lately, and wanted a new owner that would continue development of the site and add some new features.

I had numerous feature requests after the site launched, but turning it into a robust, multi-homed uptime checker was never my goal. All I’ve ever done with the site is:

1. Ported it from a simple Ruby implementation to App Engine.
2. Put some ads on it; first Google AdWords, then later individual campaigns that I negotiated by email. I made about USD $300/month from the site, on average.
3. Wired up a Twitter account that would tweet out sites that were frequently seen by the service as “down” within a short time period. (This functionality has been inactive since November, 2008.)

The price of the sale was not disclosed, but Payne also mentioned that “it was proportional to the amount of time and effort I’ve put into it (that is, not much).” Payne has also made the source code of the site public again.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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MusicSkins has just launched a whole line of Beatles skins designed for your cell phone, laptop, mp3 player or gaming device. They offer custom fit skins for basically any popular device. Choose from Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, Yellow Submarine, Let it Be, A Hard Days Night, Rubber Soul or other various Beatles skins. It’s a sticker with an interesting adhesive that leaves no residue and can be removed and reapplied many times while maintaining a strong grip. Not only does it look pretty sweet, but it’s nice knowing I can sell my iPhone on eBay next year nearly scratch free. The skin itself is very impressive, check out our review of MusicSkins here. So if you’re not bold enough to void your warranty with colorware, laser etch your device, or add a bulky case, MusicSkins safely gives your device that customized look without putting much of a dent in your wallet.

It turned out Gray Maynard was trying out last night during his Ultimate Fight Night 20 win over Nate Diaz. Maynard won a close decision but the fight was sloppy at times and "The Bully’s" took a beating. He needed to wow the powers that be to earn a title shot against UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn. 

During his New York media blitz to announce Flash Entertainment/Abu Dhabi’s 10 percent purchase of the UFC, UFC president Dana White explained why he tabbed Frank Edgar as Penn’s next challenger.

"We gotta put people in there who have a better shot at beating B.J. Penn. And Gray Maynard didn’t sell me on that last night," said White.

Maynard used his size and wrestling to dominate Edgar back at UFN 13, but clearly the little guy has moved back ahead of the unbeaten Maynard in the pecking order.

"Frankie Edgar has looked great in his last few fights and he’s been dominating good opponents."  

Edgar will meet Penn at UFC 112 Apr. 10 in Abu Dhabi. Maynard and his coaches Randy Couture and Gil Martinez didn’t exactly scream and yell for a title shot last night during the UFN 20 postfight press conference. They even suggested Maynard might need more seasoning (VIDEO).

White and UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta also expanded on the news of the transaction with Abu Dhabi. 

Last month when I showed you a concept for a cat bed from Steve Lukes, several readers left feedback for Steve concerning the food bowl being right next to the sleeping area. Well, Steve went back to the drawing board (well, back to the computer) and revised his ideas based on the feedback. The ultra modern cat bed now has a scratching pad by the sleeping area instead of a food bowl. While he was at it, he also came up with another idea for a two-story, raised bed. I’m sure he’d like to hear what you think, and if you happen to be looking for a product designer, I hear he’s available!

In an interview airing Wednesday on Extra, controversial celebutante Tila Tequila reveals that she is prepared to fight for custody of her late fiancee’s adopted daughter. Socialite Casey Johnson was found dead in her West Hollywood mansion last week. The heiress to the multi-billion dollar Johnson & Johnson empire left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Ava Monroe.

Little Ava — whose godmother is hotel heiress Nicky Hilton — currently lives with Casey’s mother Sale and her husband, sportscaster Ahmad Rashad. However, Tila cites cryptic “dreams” which tell her that the current custody arrangement is not the one Casey would have wanted. The former star of MTV’s A Shot At Love has vowed to file papers to fulfill Casey’s “final wish” and adopt the child.

“She’s not resting in peace right now. She has come to me in my dreams,” Tila explains. “Her last wish was to have Ava, have me have Ava.”

Oh, Vestal, what were you thinking? Listen, I’m totally down with a cheap chrono movement in a classy watch. But no letters or numbers? You can barely read the thing, let alone use any of the functions.

Watchismo seems to like it, calling it “bold” but I’m of the school where tools should have some indication of their function. What if everything had no markings? Where would we be then? Think of the children.

Available now for pre-order for $279. It also comes in black.

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The Eco-Friendly Greenhouse Kit from Burpee was one of the first new products that caught my eye in the 2010 catalog. Personally I like reusing seed trays but I don’t like that most are made with non-renewable plastic in the first place and while I like fiber seed pots they cost more. That said this is a nice little kit if you’re looking for an easy and green seed starting solution and don’t have a dozen recycled egg cartons laying around.

The Eco-Friendly Greenhouse Kit is an all-natural and biodegradable seed starting kit. The kit comes with bottom watering tray, seed tray, Burpee’s Super Growing Pellets, three wooden plant markers and organic fertilizer. The growing pellets are made from sustainable coconut coir and the trays are made from plants.

I like this new kit but if you’ve got some spare time or handy kid helpers I’d suggest the PotMaker instead which allows you to make nice little seed pots with recycled newspaper. The PotMaker is longer lasting and even more eco-friendly than the kit.

Post from: Blisstree

New Eco-Friendly Greenhouse Kit

While at the Consumer Electronics Show, and all the way to this very day, I’ve been asked the same question: Aaron, what was the most interesting thing you saw at CES?

If there’s anything that I picked up from CES 2010, it’s the fact that Android is king.  Thanks in part to the versatility of Android, the OS is being utilized in almost every mainstream electronic appliance on the marketplace.  From upcoming tablet PC’s to netbooks to eBook readers to refrigerators, Android is being implemented as the operating system of choice.  I knew Android was up and coming, but the sheer number of products showcasing Google’s OS was staggering.  Move over Apple, you have a competitor coming up fast, and they have the benefit of diversity.

The rest of the news – on the wireless front, at least – was mostly expected.  Palm announced the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus, both destined to Verizon Wireless on January 25th.  With a new navigational input pad similar to the Pixi’s, 16 GB of storage space, an improved keyboard and slider mechanism, a Touchstone back installed out of the box, and Wireless Hotspot, the Pre Plus is quite the upgrade.  The Palm Pixi Plus offers Wi-Fi, and that’s about it.  Both are said to sport “upgraded” processors, though I couldn’t get anyone to disclose an official number.

The Motorola Backflip, which appears to be AT&T’s first Android smartphone (I know it’s not announced as of yet, but c’mon AT&T, don’t put the stock Backflip picture in your keynote address unless you want people to make assumptions), sports a unique, albeit mildly irritating design.  I’m sure that many will disagree, but their thoughts will likely change when the phone is mistakenly placed in a puddle of condensation on the table.

Sprint’s Overdrive product was a welcome addition to the marketplace, but nothing earth shattering.  We knew that the carrier was working feverishly on their WiMAX coverage footprint, and the MiFi-esque Overdrive product serves as an attempt to further their marketshare (a good idea, considering no other wireless carrier is offering 4G at this time).  When 4G isn’t available, the unit reverts back to 3G.  Other improvements include a display with connectivity information, signal strength, number of users, and battery life.

On the accessory front, RIM announced the BlackBerry Presenter, which is clearly targeted towards a particular demographic (see video for a demonstration).  Like it sounds, the BlackBerry Presenter allows BES users to play Powerpoint presentations in the board room.  Features include the ability to freeze, activate a blank screen, view speaker notes, and more.

My favorite part about the trip…was meeting my colleagues!
Though few readers knew (until we started discussing it before and during the trip), most of the PhoneDog editors hadn’t met in person, with the exception of Adriana and I during CTIA Fall 2009 in San Diego.  While the technology was the focus of the convention, being able to spend time with the PhoneDog Crew was the greatest perk of the trip.  I can’t say enough positive words about these guys, so I’ll leave it at that.

So, my take – stay tuned, because Android is going to be an industry changer.  Palm is back in the game, landing on the nation’s largest wireless carrier (with rumors of an announcement on AT&T soon).  Motorola has joined the Android bandwagon, and seems to be successful.  What will the future hold?  Considering the increasingly present convergence between the computer and wireless worlds, your guess is as good as mine.

Well, we’ve got to hand it to Google—the company’s “don’t be evil” schtick has long worn thin and governments around the globe are already probing its potential monopoly power, but who else would come out swinging against the entire Chinese government and announce an end to its own collaboration in censorship, all while recognizing that it could lose access to the entire Chinese market? And do it in a blog post?

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UK-based illustrator Jonny Wan is celebrating the Year of the Tiger with this awesome illustration. You can, too, by purchasing a print from Society6.

via Grain Edit | thanks to Peter for spotting this one

With perennial foe Pakistan always teetering on the brink of political collapse and neighboring superpower China taking strides into space technology, India has announced that it is developing an exo-atmospheric “kill vehicle” that will knock enemy satellites out of orbit.

The program was proudly announced as part of India’s ballistic missile defense program, a division of India’s Ministry of Defense. However, in a briefing last week defense officials admitted lots of work on the project is yet to be done. Like, almost all of it. The kill vehicle (read: missile of some kind) will be guided by a laser, which will lock onto the offending satellite and keep the kill vehicle on a solid interception course. Neither the laser nor the kill vehicle actually exists yet, but be forewarned: India will put a dent in your space capabilities at a time and place as yet undetermined.

Of course, India isn’t the first state to dabble in space-based defenses or satellite-slaying technologies. Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative — the now infamous “Star Wars” — proposed to arm a series of ground- and space-based stations with interceptor missiles (for defensive purposes only, of course). In 2007 China brazenly launched a ground-based missile into the atmosphere to demonstrate its ability to destroy satellites, creating a mess of orbital debris when it blew apart an aging weather satellite. The U.S. also used a ship-based missile to incinerate one of its own spy satellites in 2008, as its decaying orbit was threatening to send it crashing down to Earth with toxic materials on board.

So exactly whose satellites might India be protecting herself from? Pakistan, India’s most reliable nemesis, isn’t exactly running a robust space program. More likely the world’s largest democracy is a bit wary of the world’s largest military-minded single-party ruled “republic” right across the Himalayan range. Whatever the reasoning, putting weapons in space has never been a popular topic in the international community; we likely haven’t heard the last word on this. [Space]

Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what’s new and what’s next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.

Turning the CFB world on it’s ear, USC announced late today that Lane Kiffin will be named their new head coach. This change comes only 14 months after Kiffin replaced long time Vol coach Phil Fulmer. Wringing his hands both literally and figuratively at his hastily called press conference, Kiffin said that the decision was a hard one and that ultimately, USC was the probably the only job he would leave Tennessee for.

Kiffin’s departure leaves in it’s wake a slew of wreckage from his inaugural stint as a college head coach–the pre-season trash talking, the admonishments by commissioner Mike Slive, three players arrested for armed robbery and all the secondary recruiting violations, including the well-publicized one concerning recruiting hostesses. It’s certainly ironic that USC, a school who may very well be in the cross hairs of the NCAA’s enforcement division, has now hired a coach who’s recruiting habits are to say the least, suspect.

Today also saw a public turn-down of the possibility of a job offer by Jacksonville Jaguar head coach Jack Del Rio, a former player at USC, but someone who has no college coaching experience. Del Rio was the second name to be mentioned behind Oregon’s Mike Riley. DC Monte Kiffin and Ed Orgeron are leaving with Lane Kiffin, and word has it that an effort is under foot to get current UCLA OC Norm Chow back across town to his old stomping grounds, where he served as OC under Pete Carroll early in the 2000s.

While the dust settles on today’s event, I don’t think that I’m going out on a limb by saying that Kiffin, by suddenly jumping ship to USC, will now become the most hated coach in all of CFB, jumping such notables as Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino, who both had perceived ‘loyalty’ issues. As if he wasn’t already.

Anyone wanna reach Al Davis for comment?

UPDATE: There are unconfirmed reports that students ganged up en mass and have attempted to block the departure of Kiffin and were dispersed with tear gas. There are also rumors that departing coach Ed Orgeron has told early Tennessee signees not to go to class this semester in an apparent attempt to get them to sign with USC before their committment is official. Again, as of now, these are unconfirmed and we will have more as it breaks.

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