We love anything that's dead simple. And you can't get anymore simple than Muxtape. The online service does one thing — let you create and share mixtape-like MP3 playlists with friends. With a 15-second signup, 1-click uploading and playback, and beautifully minimal playlist pages, Muxtape is our new music-savvy friend.

unmanaged.muxtape.com

It's fairly clear that we won't be happy until we've slathered every nook and cranny of the Internet in some kind of advertising. Not only have ISPs started bombarding users via DNS redirection ads, but Slashdot notes that Network Solutions has started putting ads on neglected user subdomains (or a path that does not resolve to a currently active page on your hosted site).

From The Register:
Earlier this week, a man named Win Betteridge told TechCrunch that Network Solutions pulled this clever little trick with his "social gaming" site, GotGame.com. Betteridge hosts GotGame with "NetSol," and somewhere along the way, he realized that his unused GotGame sub-domains resolved to ad-infested "parking" pages. "For instance, app.gotgame.com resolves to a Network Solutions page with text links, including 'Poker Tournaments' and 'Texas Holdem Games,'" he said.

What, you didn't notice you agreed to this in the 59,000 word Network Solutions user agreement?

From the company that brought you front running of domain registrations....

who the hell is the user Vile? He/she/it is very annoying....
and not really contributing anything more that being a scant turd...

"Speculation is mounting that Google is plotting the launch of a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell.

"Senior industry sources claim the two companies will reveal their plans at next month's 3GSM telecoms conference in Barcelona, although Google insiders deny an announcement is due in the near future..."

Google and Dell Tipped to Reveal iPhone Rival Plans

Austin, Texas--VIA Technologies, although very popular with Linux ultramobile PC vendors, has never been very open about its own hardware. Until April 8, when, at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit at the University of Texas Super Computing Center here, the company announced that it will start opening up its chip sets to the open-source community.

During the We're Shipping Linux on PCs -- Now What? panel, Timothy Chen of VIA Technologies, said, "VIA hadn't been doing much [in opening up] … it's been hard for the company to embrace open source, but at the end of the month you'll see us opening up."

This announcement drew a round of applause from the audience of Linux executives, leaders and core developers. Driver support for Linux distributions, a nagging problem, can be greatly eased by chip and component vendors opening up their hardware specifications and information.

In concrete terms, VIA will kick things off by launching its VIA Linux Web site by the end of month. On this site, users will find drivers, technical documentation, source code and information for the VIA CN700, CX700/M, CN896 and the new VIA VX800 chip sets. As time goes by, VIA will add forums and support for more of its chip sets.

VIA hopes that by doing this and working with the community, it will be able to create drivers for VIA Processor Platforms that will enable top-notch 2-D, 3-D and video playback. The company will also start issuing regular quarterly releases, which will be in conjunction with kernel changes and major Linux distribution releases. In addition, beta releases will be issued on the site as needed, and a bug report and tracking feature will also be integrated.

"This announcement is the first step in the implementation of our new initiative to better serve the needs of the open-source community," said Richard Brown, vice president of corporate marketing at VIA, in a statement. "We are strongly committed to improving the levels of collaboration with the community and adopting a more consistent approach across VIA Processor Platform technologies."

How sure is Chen that VIA and the Linux desktop are going to take off? During the panel, Chen said that he's made a bet and that "if Linux doesn't take 10 percent of the desktop market share in five years I'll be running the streets of Munich naked."

VIA to open up its devices...

project developing a free Linux distribution for x86-based network appliances has achieved a new release with some intriguing wireless access point features. Zeroshell 1.0.beta8 lets one physical radio support multiple logical SSIDs, each with a different encryption and authentication scheme, VLAN, and function (client/AP).

Free router distro gains wild WiFi features

The Simpsons has been dropped from morning TV in Venezuela after being deemed unsuitable for children - and has been replaced by Baywatch.

duh!

Simpsons ditched by Venezuelan TV

This is the RFL remote based on the Nordic nRF24L01 2.4GHz chipset. This remote uses a PIC18F2321 to read all the buttons and joystick and has a transmission distance of over 40m. The remote can be completely reprogrammed and modified. The exposed connector brings out the programming pins and the UART on the PIC! Remote is fully FCC certified and uses four AAA batteries. A perfect remote for your next wireless control project!

Ok this is driving me nuts... I have so many ideas for PIC projects it is driving me nuts...

RFL remote based on the Nordic nRF24L01 2.4GHz chipset...

The recent report by Gartner, the State of Open Source 2008 (http://www.gartner.com/; report G00156659), as summarized on their site provides some very interesting conclusions:

1. By 2013, a majority of Linux deployments will have no real software TCO advantage over other operating systems.

2. By 2012, 90% of enterprises will use open source either direct or embedded.

3. By 2011, open source will dominate software infrastructure for cloud-based providers.

4. By 2012, software as a service (SaaS) will eclipse open source as the preferred enterprise IT cost cutting method.

The State of Open Source 2008

OOXML needs to die. It's clear that OOXML is a faux standard -- not because it's a vendor standard. There are lots of vendor-created standards which are real standards (e.g. PostScript). No, OOXML is a botch because it's expressed in terms of an undocumented Microsoft graphics library. OOXML is all "and then a miracle occurs". You've seen that cartoon, right? Where the left and right sides of the blackboard are filled with equations, and the blank space in the middle says "and then a miracle occurs". Well, when there's a miracle required, there's no science even if the miracle is surrounded by scientific-seeming accoutrement. A standard which is expressed in terms of miracles is still a miracle and not a standard.

Any standards body that approves OOXML needs to blush. Any company which submits OOXML as a standard needs to blush.

Microsoft needs to blush