| Open Mike: Tiger always a hot topic
He was the greatest golfer of his era and would become the greatest of any era. He saw that if he was going to accept all the good things that came with that, he also had to deal with the bad. It wasn't for him that he had to do it, but for the sport. What Nicklaus didn't have that Tiger does is squadrons of promoters and agents buzzing around him, telling him that he's the best thing to happen to the game since gutta percha and that he doesn't have to talk to those vultures if he doesn't want to. Woods has kissed off the media — and through them his fans — before. No one has ever told him it's not right. Golf depends on him. It's made him rich and world famous, and he owes the game for that. He let it down on Sunday by refusing to talk. Two minutes would have been enough. It's not a great price to pay for the position he occupies.
Intel Pours 8 Cores Into New Skulltrail Platform
Skulltrail is a lot of computing in a desktop package, and it represents the kind of capability that mainstream desktops will have in a couple of years from now," said Martin Reynolds, a Gartner (NYSE: IT) Research analyst. "As such, it can deliver top-line performance on current games. However, its eight cores are beyond the reach of most software today, so it won't show its full potential until the game developers have had it for a while," he added. That's because each Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processor has four cores running at a 3.2 GHz and offers 12 MB of L2 cache and a 1,600 MHz system front side bus. The D5400XS supports up to four PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) x16 graphics cards as well as 7.1 channel analog audio and includes a digital optical audio output port.
The scoop on ‘green’ computers
Dear EarthTalk: As an online gamer, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer. What's the environmental impact? And are "greener" PCs available? -- Bob Grant, Burlington, VTOnline gamers and other heavy computer users are definitely leaving an environmental mark. Depending on when it was made and how it was designed, a standard desktop PC can use anywhere from 60-300 watts when in use, while an inefficient gaming PC with powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, flash memory reader and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts, or about as much as a typical refrigerator. Until July of 2007, government Energy Star requirements only measured a computer's energy use while in standby mode, which allowed the majority of brands to carry the label. New stricter efficiency requirements have brought greener models.
Other Fug Fixes
It's been another long week here at GFY HQ, what with the Oscars, and blogging about the Oscars, and then complaining about how boring the Oscars were... but, at long last, TGIF. Which around these parts stands for Thank George It's Friday. What better way to end the week than to borrow again, with respect, a gimmick from The Daily Show and sign off for the day with something that brings us inner peace. After a random conversation with a friend about Reba McEntyre songs, it came to my attention that she'd never been exposed to the sheer brilliance that is the video for that old duet, "Does He Love You?" I remember seeing this when the song came out back in the 90s, and it plucked every soapy heartstring I have. Behold the glories of what Reba is wearing in the very first shot! Of the hat she so boldly wears in extreme close-ups in Act 2! Of the hugeness of her hair in Act Three! The total generic himbo they're fighting for, and all the associated top-notch acting! And that ending.
All the King's Women
But first-time director Gilroy (who scripted the first two Bourne movies and collaborated on the third) has a knack for tunneling deep into cliché and coming out the other side. The title character, elegantly embodied by George Clooney, is something of a spiritual brother to Matt Damon's tormented amnesiac spy. Michael Clayton is a Jason Bourne who, unlucky for him, actually does remember all the terrible things he's done. Michael is the fixer for a top-drawer New York legal firm, a former public prosecutor who resides somewhere in the shadowy space between attorney and bagman. In essence, he's paid to protect wealthy fuckups from publicity, and from their own consciences. As the movie opens—the first 20 minutes are slow but dense, packed with details that become important later—Clayton is heading upstate to provide counsel to a well-heeled hit-and-run driver.
CES: LaCie unveils new hard drives, LCD display
LaCie on Monday introduced five new products including desktop and portable hard drives and a new LCD display aimed at professionals. Some products are available today; others are coming later this month and in February. The LaCie d2 Quadra is a redesigned quadruple-interface desktop hard drive. It features USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and external Serial ATA (eSATA) connections. Featuring a large surface area, the external drive dissipates heat without needing a fan. It's available now in capacities ranging from 320GB to 1 terabyte (TB), at prices starting at $189. The Little Big Disk Quadra is a quad-interface drive designed for portability. It's fast enough to handle video editing and digital content creation on the road, but sports an aluminum heat-sink design that cools without needing a fan.
Intractable, implacable, unavoidable change
I had a great visit today with an undergraduate journalism class at Washington State. The "professor" was former SR reporter Ben Shors who took a voluntary buyout last year. Ben is now teaching at WSU as an adjunct faculty member and also is on staff as advisor to The Evergreen, the student newspaper. Ben's class was as well prepared for our discussion as any class I've visited in recent years. It was an exhilarating visit. After the class I met with The Evergeen staff and other student journalists for a wide-ranging brown bag session that kept coming back to what these students need to do to prepare for careers in journalism. Inevitably, I fall back on some of my own "war" stories to illustrate my views. So I talked a bit about the changes I've experienced since becoming a professional journalist in 1973.
Peach Buzz
He recently came out with a Spik'eze special Nike sneaker, which he called a "best of" past Air Jordan sneaker designs. "It's flying off the shelves," he said. Lee is in postproduction on his next film, a World War II drama "Miracle at St. Anna" about black American soldiers fighting Germans in Italy starring John Turturro, James Gandolfini, Derek Luke, Michael Ealy and Laz Alonso. I noted that this sounds like a big budget film. "It looks like $100 million," he said. It comes out in October. During a talk on stage, he talked about how the movie landscape for African Americans has changed in 20 years. "There was only one black director when I got out of film school. Every time a black film came out, it was an event. Today, Tyler Perry has a film out every week." He also said Morehouse graduates too many business majors, too many people taking jobs simply for the money, not for the love of the job.
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