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Why West Virginia stuck $22,600 routers in tiny libraries, some with only 1 computer

aarkieboy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:13:01 GMT

"West Virginia's Charleston Gazette has been hopping mad this week as one of its reporters learned that the state has been sticking 1,064 high-end $22,600 routers into �little public institutions as small as rural libraries with just one computer terminal.� When reporter Eric Eyre actually called up Cisco posing as a customer, he was told by a rep that the company's 3945 series routers were "our router solution for campus and large enterprises, so this is overkill for your network." Instead, the rep recommended a far cheaper commercial grade router for $500.

And while the 3945 series routers might be massively overkill for many of the locations to which they have been deployed, 366 of them aren't even being used. Instead, they're sitting in a warehouse.

The money for the routers came from federal stimulus funds designed to boost broadband access by better equipping public facilities like schools and libraries, especially in more rural areas. West Virginia officials decided not to vary the size of the routers they purchased based on the needs of the target facility. "A student in a school of 200 students should have the same opportunity as a student in a school with 2,000 students," one official told the paper.

In a series of articles this week, the Charleston Gazette has highlighted the scramble to spend the stimulus money back in 2010. Bids for the work went out quickly. By the time someone in the state Office of Technology wrote in an e-mail that �this equipment may be grossly oversized for several of the facilities in which it is currently slated to be installed," it was too late. The $24 million contract for the routers went to Verizon Network Integration, which had the lowest bid." (More)

Review: THIS KNIFE IS THE BEST DARN KNIFE FUR KILLIN' ZOMBIES!!

aarkieboy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:10:26 GMT

KA-BAR's Zombie� "Chop Stick"

Exposed: The Dark Side of Oliver Hardy

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:56:09 GMT

Lie costs teen Colorado's record for biggest striped bass

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:56:58 GMT

"LONGMONT, Colo. -- A Colorado teen lied about where he caught a hefty striped bass, so he can't claim the state record for the 31-pound, 8.4-ounce fish he landed.

Isaac Sprecher, 18, admitted he caught this large striped bass from one of the ponds at Pella Crossing rather than at McIntosh Lake. The 31-pound, 8.4-ounce fish would have qualified as a state record.

"It was a different lake, a different place," 18-year-old Isaac Sprecher admitted on Wednesday.

He said it was "stupid and immature" for him to have originally contended that he'd caught the striper on April 20 at Longmont's McIntosh Lake when he'd actually reeled it in that afternoon from one of the ponds at Pella Crossing, a Boulder County Open Space area about a mile from McIntosh. Longmont is on Colorado's Front Range about 15 miles northeast of Boulder.

Pella Crossing has catch-and-release rules for largemouth and smallmouth bass, and Sprecher said Wednesday that he hadn't immediately been able to reach a Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer to determine whether the striped bass he'd caught could officially be weighed before freeing it to swim away.

"We weren't sure we could keep it," said Sprecher. "I didn't know the rules and regulations."

"I couldn't get a hold of anyone," he said, and the fish "was pretty much almost dead." (More)

Video: Guitarist gets slapped by own band members

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:27:43 GMT

The awesomely insane Heaven and Hell nightclubs of 1890s Paris

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:16:36 GMT

Paris of the 1890s had several supernatural nightlife options, each of them with marvelously outlandish gimmicks. In the 1899 book Bohemian Paris of To-Day by William Chambers Morrow and �douard Cucuel, the authors visit several of the City of Lights darker drinking destinations, such as the Cabaret du N�ant ("The Cabaret of Nothingness") in the neighborhood of Montmartre.

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Verizon to end unlimited data for upgraders

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:07:30 GMT

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Verizon Wireless is planning this summer to begin forcing smartphone customers with unlimited data plans to switch to tiered plans when they upgrade, the company's chief financial officer told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday.

At the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the company will unveil a "data share" pricing model by mid-summer, which will give customers the ability to buy an allotment of data that can be used across multiple devices linked to the same account.

As that plan rolls out, Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) will discontinue its practice of allowing customers who have legacy unlimited data plans to keep those plans when they buy a new smartphone. Verizon stopped allowing new customers to buy unlimited data plans a year ago.

"As you come through an upgrade cycle and you upgrade in the future, you will have to go onto the data share plan," Shammo said, "[We're] moving away from, if you will, the unlimited world and moving everybody into a tiered structure data share-type plan." (More)

Who doesn't want to go to Bar29 after seeing this?

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:04:10 GMT

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Video: General Motors is becoming China Motors

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:54:43 GMT

Beach rocks spontaneously combust, woman gets 3rd degree burns

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:30:20 GMT

"SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) - A woman suffered third-degree burns after what appeared to be the spontaneous combustion of rocks that had been scooped up from a Southern California beach, a fire official said.

The 43-year-old woman's children collected the rocks Saturday at San Clemente Beach, and she tucked them into the pocket of her shorts, according to the Orange County Register.

While the woman was standing in her kitchen Saturday after returning from the beach, the rocks somehow caught fire, burning the woman's right thigh and knee, said Capt. Marc Stone of the Orange County Fire Authority.

The woman tried to stop, drop and roll but couldn't extinguish the flames, Stone said.

The rocks are small, smooth, and orange and green in color. They eventually fell from the shorts onto the wooden floor where they continued to burn and fill the house with smoke, Stone said." (More)

Also born on this day...Lawrence Welk...

Guy finds weird MS paint creations on his friends pc

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:21:15 GMT

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Guy finds Jeff Dahmer message and signature in his dad's high school annuals

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:18:00 GMT

See 'em

'Ring of Fire' Eclipse Sunday

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:14:07 GMT

"When the sun vanishes behind the moon for the first time over the United States in this century, what better place to enjoy the view than from one of the 154 national parks that stand in its path?

Astronomy lovers in the United States will be treated to a partial disappearance of the sun behind the moon this Sunday (May 20). Only the Eastern Seaboard will be totally exempt. Over the course of the solar eclipse, the sun won't vanish completely, but will remain as a ring around the moon for what is known as an annular eclipse. When the eclipse occurs, the moon will be near its most distant point from Earth, making it appear smaller in the sky and thus unable to block the entire sun. But it will still be a stunning sight.

Thirty-three national parks will see the full effect of the moon's interference. Many western parks will be offering an array of events for their guests, ranging from placing telescopes out for viewing up to a full-scale astronomy festival." (More)

Coffee May Make You Less Likely to Die

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:11:01 GMT

"Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can't get through the day without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit may help you live longer.

A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14 years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed the brew. In fact, men and women who averaged four or five cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of death, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The research doesn't prove that coffee deserves the credit for helping people live longer. But it is the largest analysis to date to suggest that the beverage's reputation for being a liquid vice may be undeserved.

"There's been concerns for a long time that coffee might be a risky behavior," said study leader Neal Freedman, an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute who drinks coffee "here and there." "The results offer some reassurance that it's not a risk factor for future disease." (More)

Disco Queen Donna Summer Dead at 63

aarkieboy — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:53:37 GMT

"Donna Summer -- the Queen of Disco -- died this morning after a battle with cancer ... TMZ has learned.

We're told Summer was in Florida at the time of her death. She was 63 years old.

Sources close to Summer tell us ... the singer was trying to keep the extent of her illness under wraps. We spoke to someone who was with Summer a couple of weeks ago ... who says she didn't seem too bad.

In fact, we're told she was focused on trying to finish up an album she had been working on.

Summer was a 5-time Grammy winner who shot to superstardom in the '70s with iconic hits like "Last Dance," "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls." - tmz