Siri Is an Apple Fanboy (Fangirl? Fanbot?)

May 19, 2012
,&Quot; instead of the Nokia Lumia, according to two separate Siris we asked at The Atlantic Wire, she finds locations with the word "ever" in their names like the " 4 Ever Fit ", which is a gym in nearby Maryland. 

But it looks like Siri's been hardcoded to promote the rest of her Apple family since pretty much every other electronics-related question elicits a pitch for the home team. When asked about the best laptop, computer and even MP3 players, Siri either said herself or Apple made things. 

Here are exact transcripts of our conversations with our phones:

The Atlantic Wire: "Siri, what's the best laptop?"

Siri: "I prefer the Mac."

The Atlantic Wire: "Siri, what's the best MP3 player?"

Siri: "You're looking at it."

The Atlantic Wire: "Siri, what's the best laptop?" (Just in case!)

Siri: "The Apple Macintosh is my favorite computer." 

Interestingly, when we asked Siri about the best phone, of the non-smart variant, she got snobby.

The Atlantic Wire: "Siri what's the best phone?"

Siri: "You're kidding, right?"

The Atlantic Wire: "Siri what's the best computer of all time?"

Siri: "If it's made by Apple, then it's the best computer." 

It's not the phrasing, it seems, since we tried "of all time." So, guess it must have something to do with the word "smartphone" that makes Siri give "real" Wolfram Alpha results rather than a cheeky programmed answer to make it seem human. 

About the Wire

The Atlantic Wire is your authoritative guide to the news and ideas that matter most right now. Our team tracks newsmakers and opinions across the entire media spectrum: newspapers, web sites, television, radio and magazines.

But we do more than just collect information. By synthesizing, analyzing and summarizing what’s out there, and adding new information when we can, we are a news engine that gives you a quick and valuable account of the issues of the day.

Source: The Atlantic Wire

“Out” on the Shelves: 26 Graphic Novels for Pride Month 2012

May 19, 2012

With the legalization of gay marriage spreading across the country and President Obama’s recent endorsement, LGBT themes have become more pervasive in media, notably graphic novels. In prose publishing, the male-on-male love story has established itself as a subgenre of romantic fiction, with Harlequin among other publishers releasing new titles (see /BL (boys’ love) manga is coming not just from Digital Manga and a few small presses but also from Fantagraphics and VIZ Media’s SuBLime imprint launching in June. Gay themes have gained more exposure and acceptance in mainstream American comics, also: witness Kevin Keller in the Archie universe.

Because of sexual content and nudity, the titles below are best for adult collections unless otherwise indicated. Thanks to Robin Brenner, Snow Wildsmith, and Mark McHarry for suggestions. For even more LGBT-themed graphic novels, see my 2009 roundup .

Alanguilan, Gerry. Elmer: A Comic Book. Slave Labor Graphics. 2010. 144p. ISBN 9781593622046. pap. $12.95. F After chickens became intelligent from a freak virus, violence erupted among men and fowl until the birds were at last declared fellow humans internationally. A second-generation chicken-human, Jake finds his late father’s diary and reads about those older days with horror. But as he struggles to understand his species’ tumultuous past, he must also sort out interfamily tensions. His widowed mother is grieving her heart out, his movie star brother is gay, and his nurse sister wants to marry a hominid-type human. Alanguilan’s realistic, highly skilled black-and-white drawings make this feather-clad race relations parable quite serious indeed—think Orwell’s Animal Farm A single father running his own restaurant, Oosawa has no time for dating or romance, especially with bed-hoppers like Yoshioka, who changes boyfriends as easily as his shirt. But when Oosawa’s daughter gets sick and Yoshioka steps in to help, his love and home life both head for a makeover. Volume 2 sees the reappearance of his little girl’s mom, and new complications to this blended parenting. This may appeal to fans of the heterosexual drama/comedy, Bunny Drop , her award-winning memoir about her father, was intended as irony, this “comic drama” is similarly multivalenced. Look for a rousing, intellectually challenging read folding in Dr.

Source: Library Journal

4Ever Fit Negative Ion Bands

Manufacturer testing the negative ions generated from the band.

Fit 4 Ever: Strength Training

Meyer & Meyer

List Price: EUR 12,07
Price: EUR 8,14
You Save: EUR 3,93 (33%)

Walter Wants to Be a Werewolf: Will Walter Grimm Ever Fit In?

Perseus Books

List Price: EUR 3,19
Price: EUR 0,76
You Save: EUR 2,43 (76%)

A good Autoresponder

Many movies have been made about the tragic story of the Titanic. Arrogance and ignorance was definitely present during its maiden voyage which was Titanic’s last voyage.

Many warnings were given but unfortunately the warnings were not taken seriously. On April 14th 1912 Titanic received six warnings that icebergs were present in their perimeter. On the night of April 14th Titanic struck an iceberg and ultimately sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

For other entities what happened to the Titanic does NOT have to happen to them. Many have learned from the mistakes that Titanic had made.

There are several examples that follow and form a parallel to what happened to Titanic and how an entity can learn from Titanic’s mistakes.

1. The Titanic only had 16 lifeboats which was not nearly enough to save everyone on the ship.

Only about 60% of the entire lifeboats’ capacity was utilized! Does your company have a disaster plan in place? Are your computers especially your servers being backed up on a regular basis? Many servers are now being backed up on a daily basis and sometimes on an hourly basis.

When I was working at a Helpdesk one of our afternoon gals was named the “Backup Queen” because she took EVERY major server backup VERY seriously. The company was very lucky to have the “Backup Queen” because there were several instances where our most critical server had crashed and lost information. Fortunately information restoration was quick and painless due to the machine being backed up on a regular basis.

We were very lucky to have someone who took the initiative to handle the server backups. Is your company that lucky? Yes doing backups can be VERY unexciting. However losing valuable data can be very exciting but in a negative way.

2. The crewmen in the lookout tower or the “crow’s nest ” were not issued binoculars to better search for icebergs.

Employees were not given the proper tools to use to do their job. Is your company using the right software for the job? Are you saving money on upgrading your operating system and software but are losing customers? If you are losing customers you’re NOT really saving any money at all.

...

Read more...