Turning To YouTube For Help When United Breaks Guitars

A Halifax, Nova Scotia musician has taken his fight with United Airlines, regarding a guitar which he says the company broke during transit, to the airwaves by posting his music video "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube. With 350,000 views to date and a 5 star rating, perhaps he'll find satisfaction?

Dave Carroll's web site explains the saga "In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise."



Dear United, is this kind of publicity truly worth the $3,500 dollars that it would have cost you to reimburse Mr. Carroll? I think not. I know I'll remember this catchy tune when I'm booking airfare... and I'm likely to visit a Sons of Maxwell show if I get the opportunity.

Google Announces Google Chrome OS

A post on the Official Google Blog introduces Google's latest shot across the bow of Microsoft. "Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google."

Google Chrome OS is said to be able to run on both x86 and ARM chips, and the company is working with OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year saying "... netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010."

It sounds as though this is a cloud computing initiative to rival the efforts of Microsoft and Windows 7. The Chrome OS is said to have a minimal user interface and is made up of "Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel." Applications for the OS will be developed as web apps and therefore will run on any standards-based browser.

Good News For Geeks, Caffeine May Reverse Alzheimers

Researchers at the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center have published a study indicating that increased consumption of caffeine may mitigate or even reverse the effects of Alzheimer's. In their research they fed mice which were genetically predisposed to the disease with the caffeine equivalent of 5 cups of coffee per day and found that after 2 months, those that were given the caffeine performed much better on memory and thinking tests than a control group which was not given any caffeine. This may be the news that Starbucks was waiting for...

Source: CBC

Ramen Noodle Preparing Robot

A restaurant in Minami-Alps, Japan, has some unusual help in the kitchen... "Momozono Robot Ramen," has a robotic chef of sorts, built by the shop's owner at his own expense. According to the Mainichi Daily News "Customers can place their orders on a computer in the shop, customizing various aspects such as the levels of soy sauce, salt, and richness of the soup. Uchida says there are 40 million different flavor permutations." Owner Yoshihira Uchida studied electronic circuits and motors at several universities and worked on noodle-packing machines at a food manufacturer until his retirement last year. The need for a machine came from his customers at his side business, a noodle shop, they often suggested his noodle's were too strong or not strong enough and so he decided to give them the controls by allowing them to customize their orders through a computer interface. The robot interprets their orders to prepare the perfect soup mixture.

Dell To Offer GPS Option For Netbooks

Dell is going to start offering a GPS and Wi-Fi card called the Wireless 700, for about $70, with the purchase of it's Dell Mini 10 Netbook. The card will make the Netbook a personal navigation device the likes of TomTom or Garmin. “Smartphones already have GPS capabilities,” says Alan Sicher, senior wireless product manager at Dell. “We are now bringning it to netbooks so the devices know where you are and can help you where you want to go.” The move will make the little laptops location aware devices and will compete with gps enabled cellphones for consumer dollars. Check out Wired for more details.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport... Wow

I'm speachless... take a look at what $2.1 million U.S. will buy you.

See Wired for more info.

The Wired BBQ

It's summer, time to char some meat! Wired has a video look at some of the latest advancements in geeky grilling techniques, there is no mention of the costs but let's face it... who cares when it comes to gadgets?

A Shopping Cart To Be Envious Of

It's a holiday here and I'm taking a break. Though I did find this youtube video and thought it worthy of a post, enjoy...

Thought Driven Wheelchair Demonstrated

Researchers in Japan, backed by automaker Toyota, have demonstrated a thought driven wheelchair that is said to have achieved as much as 95% accuracy rates. According to this CBC article "The system measures electrical activity in the brain through five electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes placed above the areas of the brain that handle motor movement. The sensors interpret the signals they pick up and translate them into motion." The technology, still in the developmental stage, is hoped to be useful for rehabilitation and for support of people who use the vehicles. Japan has an aging population and as the result an active robotics industry, with much support and encouragement from the government which is facing a demographic shift.

News Of Jackson's Death Sends Ripples Through The Internet

"Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson," a Google spokesman told CNET on Thursday. Other sites also became flooded with requests and experienced outages including TMZ which broke the story and Perez Hilton's blog who reports on celebrity gossip. Twitter and Wikipedia experienced difficulties as well as the news broke and spread like wild fire through the online community.