Staples Lowers Ink Cartridge Recycling from $3 to $2

Now, I usually am on top of things like this, but somehow I didn't get the memo until I logged into my Staples Rewards account and noticed my 20 cartridges that I returned weren't worth the normal $60 but now $40. So it's $2 instead of $3 now? Oh joy. A 33% decrease in value. Nice.

It would have been nice if Staples actually gave a reason for this instead of just doing it, but it is still good that they offer the program. It just makes it less likely I'll buy stuff like paper and DVD media for my company there and move back to an online store to take care of it.

So I thought I'd post this for the folks who use Staples for this and were in the dark, like me.

Source: http://freedomtoprint.com/2010/07/01/news-staples-drops-cartridge-recycle-reward-price-from-3-to-2/

-Nate

ATi (AMD) finally beats out nVidia in Graphics Card Shipments

For a long time, through the early to mid 2000s, nVidia was the card maker to beat. They always seemed to have the cutting edge speed and rendering capabilities that left ATi in the dust.

But since the inception of ATi's 4 Series of cards, all of that changed. Now, with the 5 series, ATi has finally taken that 51 to 49 percent lead (on dedicated card shipments).

I've used both through the years, and both have served me pretty well. I had always found nVidia's drivers to be better for the early to mid part of the 2000s, but once ATi catalyst started getting good, things changed. It started a shift for ATi to write good drivers and good software to go along with their quality cards.

Around 2005/6 I began noticing (especially on the low end) nVidia cards that would fail, particularly due to bad capacitors. Since the card specs are licensed to 3rd party companies (such as XFX, BFG, Asus, etc.), some companies like to cut corners (as any industry). I noticed that the ATi cards that I installed around the same time STILL WORK TODAY and I still used them to spruce up older hardware for users that either still use the same PC or want a recertified one with the ability to play some decent flash games.

So congrats ATi for beating out nVidia. Now if you could get those chipsets with better RAID functionality in place like nVidia has, you'll be top dog all around.

Of course, all of this could change...tomorrow, just like anything else.

-Nate

Source: News.com

When will everything that isn't real be free?

I was reading an interesting article about what percentage of Android apps and iPhone apps have access to your personal information here:

http://blog.mylookout.com/2010/07/introducing-the-app-genome-project/

When I clicked on the image and saw the stat that 64% of Android apps are free versus 28% of iPhone apps. I then began to wonder if the quantity of apps had originally been free was near that percentage. At that point I began wondering...

When will everything that isn't real be free?

Now, this is a problem that has been confronting us since the advent of software and has slowly increased through the whole Napster "free music" era into the app era. Basically the only thing that has true value in life is time. And I know that these app developers that are "giving away" their apps usually also do so with ads that magically pop up every so often in the hope that you click on them to generate revenue, so they really aren't "free" as much as "annoying".

But when will that company or guy or whomever who has to give his product away finally go belly up? Sure, he can make a million or two, but like any other industry out there, those that are well funded and have an army of coders is likely to survive and expand. That's how things go. So he gives away his app and a thousand other people make the same iPhone app in a different color slightly differently with a little more sparkle and their free version pushes his to oblivion.

I guess what I'm trying to say is are we headed in the direction of a reality where we get what we want with no cost (YouTube, etc.) and have to live with the ads like TV? Is the only thing we pay for anymore the actual hardware (which costs have been obliterated as well)?

I'm trying to find the next big "thing" in America that will set us apart, above and beyond any other country with our innovation. iPhones and iPads are nice. But they aren't something that moves an entire country to another plane. Maybe giving everything away is the new norm, I just don't see it becoming anything of real use as we all become greater media consumers to the nth level.

Just make sure I don't have to pay.

-Nate

Sprint actually gains customers! Shocker!

Having been a Sprint subscriber for nearly five years now, I was with the company through the hard times, the poor customer service, lack of decent phones, and all the jokes from people about "You're on Sprint?!?!?!?".

Things are changing, a new CEO has turned the company around, their unlimited data plans (soon to be the last of the big three to do so, and T-Mobile doesn't count because they STILL don't have 608 area code phone numbers) are the best in the industry, their coverage is good (not best, but good), and their customer service isn't 1/2 bad.

They also have released good phones and have fully embraced Android with the HTC Evo 4G and the upcoming Samsung Epic 4G, and they have a wide array of lesser Droids and a slew of Blackberrys.

In a world where most people just hear the word iPhone and AT&T or Droid and Verizon, Sprint has turned themselves around to start catching those folks who want to save some pocket change and still get a good service and a good phone.

Congrats Sprint for hanging in there and keeping the industry competitive.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sprint-Nextel-posts-first-apf-1149187495.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=

-Nate

But...Rambus doesn't even make anything!

Not sure if you're old enough or geeky enough to remember this RAM company called RAMBUS from back in the early 2000s, but they had some memory that was cutting edge, super fast, etc. for early Pentium 4 processors. Then DDR memory came along and wiped them off the face of the earth (thankfully). But they're still around, basically don't make anything physical anymore, and seem to just come up with patent ideas so if you're a company such as nVidia who does physically make a product, you can stumble on a patent created by this "innovation" company and get your pants sued off.

That's exactly what's happening now, and seems to carry on America's long tradition (and seemingly more and more twisted) weird patent laws.

Link from Bloomberg.com

I guess Rambus still has us in its grasp too, as the old chips are hard to come by for a decent price, and every so often, someone needs a pair. Yes, you have to install them in a pair. Oh, and if you have open slots on your motherboard you need to install dummy sticks into them in order for it to work. See why this stuff cost so much?

-Nate

Google Canary Eaaaaarly Dev Browser Version

Looks like Google is letting folks get ahold of a separate install (similar to Mozilla's Minefield) developer version of their next generation browser, Canary.

Check out Google's Canary Page for more info and to download.

Currently it's only available for Windows users, and it's just been downloaded and installed on our Windows 7 box. Looks almost identical to Chrome v5, will see how stable it is once it's run through its paces.

Interesting thing that on startup, it gives the user an option to select their search engine - Google, Yahoo! or Bing. Now that is weird.

If you're a bit ahead of the curve, give it a shot - you can always go back to your old browser as it is a separate install if things turn south.

Obsolete Technologies

Just ordered this book for my Birthday, pretty excited to get it actually. Hardcover with tons of stuff about technologies that are dead and gone. I have a soft spot for old stuff, particularly cars, advertising and computers that I usually am dismantling and recycling. Check out the site - it's pretty cool! You even get to see some Apple II ad from the late 70s with a guy in a turtleneck. What's next, one from the 80s with a woman in tights (or would that be 2010)?

http://obsoletethebook.com/

1980s leggings

2000s leggings