Today's phischbits
Digital Domain - What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting - NYTimes.com
Professor Keshav said that once a carrier invests in the centralized storage equipment -- storing a terabyte now costs only $100 and is dropping -- and the staff to maintain it, its costs are basically covered. “Operating costs are relatively insensitive to volume,” he said. “It doesn’t cost the carrier much more to transmit a hundred million messages than a million.”
UNTIL Mr. Kohl began his inquiries, the public had no reason to think of the text-messaging business as anything but an ordinary one, whose operational costs rose in tandem with message volume. The carriers had no reason to correct such an impression.
Tags: communication, phone, text messaging
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Don't keep it in the closet
Glenn Beck, in the epilogue of The Christmas Sweater:
My mom gave me the sweater, but the greatest gift was given to all of us by a loving Father in Heaven. It is the only true gift ever given to all and yet opened or appreciated by so few. It is the gift of redemption and atonement, and it sits on the top shelf, largely untouched, in the closets of our soul.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, but by doing so, sometimes we miss the real meaning of the season. It is what that infant, boy, and then perfect man did at the end of His ministry that makes the birth so special.
Without His death, the birth is meaningless.
Today's phischbits
Northrop Grumman Unveils X-47B Navy UAV - Fighter Plane-Size UAV from Northrop Grumman Unveiled - Popular Mechanics
"Northrop Grumman unveiled its first completed X-47B Navy Unmanned Combat Air System at its Palmdale, Calif., manufacturing facility. This giant UAV could soon be one of the most lethal unmanned aircraft in the U.S. military."
Tags: aircraft, military, navy, uav
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Um, yeah
Expert Macintosh users who see "MacWorld" in an article know you don't know what you're talking about, just as most technology-literate readers would laugh at "MicroSoft," "QualComm," or "LexMark." Referring to a famous technology event without the correct name or spelling is a quick way to throw away your credibility. Saying "That's how I always thought it was spelled, and besides, everyone knew what I meant" is saying "I didn't bother to get the facts about my subject before I wrote my article." Don't be that writer.
Today's phischbits
Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime® components
"Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats."
Tags: mac, quicktime, software, video
DIY Gas Mask: A PopSci Fan's Step-by-Step Guide | Popular Science
"Instructables.com member TimAnderson uses a 1942 Popular Science article as a guide for creating a DIY gas mask."
Tags: diy, hack, science
Collide Magazine | ARTICLES + | Typography 101
For you typeface neophytes, a nice introduction to typography by the folks at Collide Magazine.
Tags: design, font, typeface, typography
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Today's phischbits
Do I look like the blue bird of happiness?
I wish I could explain why I love this captioned picture so much. It never fails to make me smile.
Tags: animal, bird, fun, humor, photo
Wall-E Bento! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
This is rather impressive.
Tags: food, fun, movie
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Today's phischbits
The Tax Foundation - Property Tax Map
Not surprisingly, Texas has the highest property tax as a percentage of median income. What this map does not show, however, is that there is no state income tax in Texas, as opposed to a low property tax state like California.
Having lived in a property tax + income tax state before (Louisiana), I like what we have here in Texas. Percentages of funds generated from property taxes are also specifically allocated (schools, for instance), rather than just going into a black hole account.
Tags: finance, liberty, politics, taxes, texas
Tweet Congress
"We believe transparent government is better government. Twitter enables real conversation between lawmakers and voters, in real time. Find your representatives in Congress, follow them and give them a tweet full!"
Tags: congress, government, politics, twitter
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Today's phischbits
Ursula And Olive: Geek of the Year Interview - Chris Hicks - Sole Artist and Designer of the Mighty Muggs
Chris Hicks is the designer of Hasbro's line of Mighty Muggs figures, which run the gamut of Star Wars (of which I have several), to Indiana Jones (I have just Indy himself), to Marvel super heroes (Captain America). Hicks confirms Transformers Muggs are on the way.
I just wish Hasbro could work out a deal with DC. I'd love a Mighty Muggs Batman...
Tags: design, toys
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The awkward kid
If any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Windows is that awkward kid that can't remember how the trick goes.
Wow
I had read somewhere a brief bit of Brian Welch's acceptance of Christ, but his testimony for I Am Second is powerful stuff.
[Wave of the phin to Evan Courtney.]
Today's phischbits
Sichuan's earthquake, six months later - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Powerful images.
Tags: china, disaster, nature, photo
TidBITS Home Macs: Minimize Desktop Distractions
New TidBITS staffer Doug McLean talks about software Mac users can utilize to keep those pesky distractions to a minimum while trying to get work done.
Tags: mac, software, tips
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Today's phischbits
Bookcase: Infinity Bookcase Stores Finite Amount of Books, Is Infinitely Cool Anyway
Oh, I so wish I had a room big enough for this...
Tags: books, design, furniture
ATPM 14.12
The December issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. We wrap up our fourteenth year of publishing beginning with some fantastic cover art courtesy of our friend Catherine. Mike ponders Apple's sales strategy post-Black Friday, given the downturn in the economy, while Mark comments on the oft-overlooked Services menu. GTDers, rejoice, for Ed has another installment, this time focusing on non-typical lists, or, in humanspeak, "things that don't conveniently fall in to our normal lists or categories". Ed also updates the application list for the final time this year; if you can't find an app to help you get things done, well, then you're just not trying. Or reading ATPM each month. Our friend Mike Shields returns from a long hiatus with perspective from a Mac user in Hollywood. Mike recently took part in the 168 Project, and discusses how you, too, can use your Mac to shoot an almost no-budget flick. Sylvester offers a guide for everyone who would like to run a second monitor on their Mac. Before I brought my old G4 Cube out of retirement, I was doing this with my 20-inch iMac and an older 19-inch LCD, and I confess, I do miss the extra screen real estate. Lee brings us some gorgeous shots of the Rocky Mountain National Forest in this month's desktop pictures section, including some widescreen shots. My personal favorite is number three. Just in time for the holiday buying season, we have a slew of product reviews to assist you in purchasing decisions for the Mac users on your list, or for yourself! Linus takes us through the new version of Art Text, while Ed lugs around Tom Bihn's Checkpoint Flyer, a bag which allows travelers to keep their laptop in the bag without being hassled by the TSA. Lee puts the Finder-based FTP client ExpanDrive through its paces, as Paul summarizes the tome, Foundations of Mac OS X Leopard Security. If you're unable to hit the links on a regular basis, Ed may have found a solution for you with GL Golf. Finally, Lee looks at the iRecord Pro to see if it measures up to its predecessor. As usual, ATPM is available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure. On behalf of the ATPM staff, thank you for reading. Concluding fourteen years of publication is quite a milestone, and we're looking forward to continuing the standards we've set forth as we enter year fifteen. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Today's phischbits
ET Had It Right: Phone Home! | Dad-o-Matic
"Phone Home! In this age of email, text and instant messages, it is easy to forget the power of your voice."
Tags: communication, family, phone, tips
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The future
"Praying about the future? Take heart! God is already there. He's standing at the end of our lives looking back on all our days."
Today's phischbits
Redeemer Sermon Store: The Reason for God
Free sermons related to Tim Keller's book "The Reason for God" from the series "The Trouble with Christianity: Why it's so Hard to Believe it" in MP3 format.
Tags: bible, books, christianity, church, god, sermons
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A message from God
"Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man." --Rabindranath Tagore [Via A Child Chosen.]
Today's phischbits
The 50,000 Pairs in 50 Days Challenge • Soles4Souls
"Soles4Souls is a charity dedicated to donating shoes to the poor via shoe drive, shoe drop, giving shoes to children, disaster relief, shoe help. Donate shoes to help shoe charity."
$5 buys two pairs of shoes, so it's a donation nearly anyone can make.
Tags: charity, donation, helping, shoes
JellyTelly
Phil Vischer's latest project, currently in beta.
Tags: children, fun, kids, teaching, values
Civic Literacy Report - Civics Quiz
From the Intercollegiate Studies Institute:
"Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams."
Yours truly scored 81.82%, or 27 out of 33 questions.
Tags: civics, constitution, education, government, history, liberty
How to Get Rich « blog maverick
"But whatever you can save, save it. As much as you possibly can. Then put it in 6 month CDs in the bank.
"The first step to getting rich is having cash available. You arent saving for retirement. You are saving for the moment you need cash. Buy and hold is a suckers game for you. This market is a perfect example. Right at the very moment when cash creates unbelievable opportunity, those who followed the buy and hold strategy have no cash. they cant or wont sell into markets this low, that kills the entire point of buy and hold. Those who have put their money in CDs sleep well at night and definitely have more money today than they did yesterday. And because they are smart, disciplined shoppers, their personal rate of inflation is within their means. Cash is king for those wanting to get rich"
Tags: finance, money, tips
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Today's phischbits
Panel of Experts: Now dig this Indiana Jones DVD review | Film | Arts & Entertainment - Times Online
"Each week experts assess the authenticity of a DVD. Here, archaeologists excavate fact from fantasy in the latest Indiana Jones caper."
Tags: archaeology, dvd, indiana jones, movie
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