And it's starting...

According to the New York Times, a 90 year-old paper in Madison, Wisconsin shut down their presses to devote their time to reporting online. The Capital Times was facing increased costs with lower print subscriptions, but a higher number of online subscriptions, so they reluctantly quit printing.

I think this marks an important trend in print journalism. Newspapers are becoming a dying a breed. While I do believe we will start to see more and more newspapers heading this direction, I do not believe that printed newspapers will die out completely. However, they will probably become pretty sparse with only the few major ones surviving eventually. 

I know I would much rather pay for an online subscription to a newspaper than receive it daily in print. It is much more convenient to be able to read it whenever and access it from wherever there is a computer. Besides, reading online doesn't leave the dreaded black streaks on your fingers from reading the newspaper.

Read the article from the NY Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/media/28link.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin 

Tonight Show

I heard on the radio that Jimmy Fallon (SNL star) is the new replacement for Conan O'Brien's late night show. However, for those Conan fans out there he is not gone forever, because he will instead be taking over Jay Leno's spot earlier in the evening. 

I'm kind of excited to see how Jimmy Fallon is going to do. I liked him on SNL so it will be interesting to see what he brings to late night television. However, I am sad to see Leno go. I will definitely miss his Jay-walking and headline segments, of course. I do think Conan will do a good job he will probably have to tone down some of his stuff if he is going to fill Leno's shoes. 

In yet another article I was reading on the Machinist's web page... I read an article about Macs being better than PC's. (duh) I thought this article highlighted a very important factor in the Mac vs PC war: start-up and shut down time. 

I use a Mac at home and for school but at work I have to use a PC. I am always amazed at how my Mac will fire up at the push of a button almost instantly. However, when I'm at work I have to go to the bathroom, pour a cup of coffee and read my mail before my computer is fully up and running. According to the article, a "Gateway desktop computer at 1 minute, 13 seconds to start up, and 44.3 seconds to shut down.  A comparable iMac started up in 28.7 seconds and shut down in only 4 seconds."

Take that PC users. 

Check out that article here:

machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/04/16/mac_vs_pc/index.html

Web Security vs. Chocolate

According to an article on the Machinist's web page, women are more likely to give up their computer passwords than men. However, the part of the article that gets me the most is... they gave up their passwords in exchange for a piece of candy. Now, I guess if you were having one of those Hungry? Why wait? moments this could be justified. But in most cases I don't believe it would be. 

As far as women disclosing their information more freely... Whoever heard of a woman turning down chocolate?

For more information, check out the article. 

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/04/17/password_survey/index.html

Squirrels Gone Wild...Really?

It's a little rough, but here it is..FINALLY!!!

Gee Whiz

If only they could come up with something a little more practical. I'd prefer a mirror on my iPod or on my cell phone please?

VEISHA...

Well... the verdict is back on student response to this year's new VEISHA policies. You could say they revolted, but not in the sense of previous VEISHA riots. Instead, hardly anybody purchased the wristbands or attended the concerts. According to a girl I know on the VEISHA committee, they had only sound around 2,000 wristbands, when they expected to quickly sell out of the 7,000.

Apparently, students were not the only ones who were upset with policy. Eve 6 was one band that was scheduled to perform on Saturday night. When they found out about the wristband situation, they negotiated a new deal with Iowa State because they believed that their concert should not be limited and anybody should feel free to attend. So, Even 6 ended up playing on Friday night instead of Saturday and it was an open concert. However, I believe that Iowa State did a poor job of communicating this, because I talked to a lot of people and nobody heard that it was open to the public. However, due to poor communication and bad weather, hardly anyone showed up to the concert on Friday night. The same goes for Saturday night. I personally, never ventured onto central campus for the usual festivities of VEISHA. All in all, VEISHA was kind of a dud this year. We'll see if they decide to rethink the new policies for next year.

Who Tall Are YOU???

Today's eye-catching read came from Gizmodo about the "Who Tall Are You Mirror." This article caught my eye, because being 4'11'' I constantly hear jokes about how short I am, how much I haven't grown, etc. The who tall are you mirror is a mirror that measures how tall you are compared to celebrities. I think this is pretty cool. Haven't you always wondered how tall celebrities really are? This mirror gives you a realistic comparison.

I might invest in one, this way the next time somebody cracks a joke about being short, I can have a quick comeback... "Hey I'm as tall as Dakota Fanning."

VEISHA

Those of us familiar with the Iowa, more specifically Iowa State University, knows what VEISHA is. For all of you who are not familiar, VEISHA is a week-long celebration of the university that credits the university's original colleges. For the students, it's basically a week long party.
I went to ISU last year, and did the VEISHA thing. At the heart of VEISHA is is the free concerts it offers students, faculty and the community. One of the most exciting parts of VEISHA was crowding onto central campus to wait for the concerts to begin. Last year, Chris Cagel, Story of the Year and Mike Jones were there. Central campus was filled with vendors, giving it a carnival-like atmosphere.

This year, I plan on going back to Ames to visit old friends for VEISHA. However, I do not have much too look forward to because VEISHA changed its policy on the concerts. As of this year, they are selling wristbands in order to get into the concerts. Not only that, but they are only selling 7,000 wristbands. Almost 27,000 people go to ISU, which leaves a total of 20,000 students who are missing out on the best part of the celebration. They have also moved the concerts off of central campus to a separate location (I think it's somewhere by Hilton) Needless to say, the students were not very happy about the turn of events.

I am going to have to say that I am not very happy either. The concerts were the highlight of VEISHA. It will be interesting to see how much the atmosphere has changed when I go down there this weekend.