Audi R8 Supercar Official Launch

Not sure what's going on with the over-enthusiastic flash in the background, but Audi officially announced the R8 at the Paris Motor Show today. With a 420bhp V8, 0-62 in 4.6 seconds, and what I think are good looks (I haven't quite decided yet), this is Audi's Porsche and M6 chaser. I think it's going to cost about $100k 8-( but all the details and more pics are here for your viewing.

Update - I just realized it's got a big black thing halfway down the body - what's the deal with that? It better be carbon fibre.....

Update 2 - I just saw the interior and the engine bay - back in love...

Cheaters Host Stabbed!!

I'm a little ashamed to admit, but Cheaters used to be a staple part of our Sunday night viewing (thank you for the arrival of Greys Anatomy to break the spell), so this video is particularly entertaining. The host was always to high and mighty, and despite the number of "security" guards they brought to every confrontation, it was only a matter of time before someone released their anger his way.

Blockbuster Cancels All Fees

Quote from the press release on the site

According to press releases, Blockbuster’s new nationwide program, "The End Of Fees," promoted using $7 million of the company’s last remaining $10 million, will eliminate all costs associated with DVD rentals as well as per-unit charges for its video games, snacks, carbonated drinks, gumball machines, promotional cardboard standees, and literally anything else a customer comes across at one of its thousands of nationwide locations.

Given it was on a VC website, I re-read two or three times to make sure I understood it properly. And then I realized the link was to The Onion. Oh how the simple are deceived by simple things.

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: Blockbuster Cancels All Fees

Liquid Cocaine: Red Bull on Steroids

Two things - it's meant to be 350 times stronger than Red Bull, which scares me to death, and apparently it really really burns when you drink it.

Read the full review in the link below, and check out Best Week Ever, the site I found this on (but only if you want to, and I accept no responsibility if you don't like it).

Best Week Ever » Blog Archive » REVIEW: Liquid Cocaine: Cayenne You Say Nasty?

Supercharged Exige Burning a Path to the US

The mini-supercar from Lotus is finally on it's way to America. Powered by a supercharged engine, pushing 220 BHP (which doesn't sound like much, but given it's as light as a feather makes a big difference), the Exige S will do 0-60 in 4.1 seconds. $56,990 will put this little baby on your driveway (although I'd suggest you keep it in the garage overnight). When I get rich and can afford 5 or 6 cars for different moods, one of these will be included.

Just for Neil

Another music blog - welcome to stereo gum....

stereogum

Ultimate ATV

See what happens when you add an STi engine in an ATV 4 wheeler.....

Weekend Working - Bathroom Remodelling

Or, in it's current guise, old bathroom destruction. Not that I can claim any credit at all - the in-laws are assisting with all of the work (read that as I do what I'm told, when I'm told, coz I know nothing about anything of a practical nature).

So far, no serious injuries (I did somehow hammer my hand the other weekend, and not even sure how it was physically possible), and we're aiming to keep it that way. The new bathroom will in no way look like the one in the picture, but that is the bath we've ordered, with some equally swanky other bits and bobs to go around. Luckily, I have a great wife who has a lot more talent than I do with colors and design type stuff, so it should turn out looking fantastic.

When it all gets done, I might even post some pics of what it looks like. We'll see.

Business Week Best Web Sites

So Business Week have released their best web-sites - some of which I read, some I haven't even seen before. However, what's probably the weirdest thing about the page is that they don't even link to each site - can you believe that?

Business Week Bestof2006

How Much Is a Blog Post Worth?

So apparently some people are paid on a per-post basis for contributions (that word is just for you Glenn). So someone thought it would be a good idea to work out how much one post was actually worth.

The figure came out to $2400 if you can believe that (details are in the link on how it was all calculated). Now there's no way that would be the same if I got someone to write a post for this site (maybe 2.4 cents if i was really lucky) - or maybe, just maybe, the reason this blog never earns any money is just coz my writing is crap and uninteresting? Anyone volunteering to write something interesting to see if it makes a difference?

How Much Is a Blog Post Worth? Would You Believe $2400 Each?

Airport Security - It Could Be Much Worse

Hard to believe, but if you've ever flown on Israel's airline, El Al, you'd realize how easy the currently increased procedures actually are.

USATODAY.com - Unfriendly skies are no match for El Al

Veyron Acceleration

It'll make you smile.....

Full speed ahead Captain

Frosties reborn?

Rumour has it, Frosties is about to make a re-appearance. Given the failure of previous re-introductions, I wouldn't hold your breath if I was you, but I have it from the horse's mouth that it is mere hours away.

frosties.com

Top Gear presenter hurt in crash

Richard Hammond (the short one) from Top Gear had a crash in a jet powered car during filming. He got air-lifted to hospital unconcious, and is currently in critical condition.

Here's hoping he pulls through ok, as I'm not sure the light hearted nature of Top Gear could continue if he didn't.

BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | Top Gear presenter hurt in crash

Update - apparently this is the car responsible

125,000 movies sold in iTunes Store

Not bad for one weeks worth of work, especially considering people paid $9.99 and up for each of these. I just wonder how Amazon Unbox did, especially given it's been getting slated in all of the reviews I've seen. I love Amazon in general (Prime Customer, get all my DVD's there, Associate Program member and links all over this site), but their Unbox T's & C's seem to be scary, and iTunes just works (to coin a frequently used phrase when I got my original iMac). Now if iTunes gets a few more films on here, it's the solution I'll be using. Now, HD instead of VGA sometime in the near future may well be the tipping point.

125,000 movies sold in iTunes Store first week - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Spy Shots: 2009 Porsche Panamera

Courtesy of The Car Connection, here's a supposed picture of the Porsche Panamera - the four door car rumored (or confirmed) to be produced by Porsche.

Spy Shots: 2009 Porsche Panamera - The Car Connection

Neogeography

Here's a new word for you - find out what it means here (semi work related, in a not really kind of way).

Speaking of work related stuff, here's O'Reilly Radar in case you haven't seen it. Seems like there's a lot of new stuff out there related to GIS (or GIS Systems for Mr Bland), and given their history in predicting the "next big thing", it looks like our little specialized world is tearing towards that big wall called mainstream. I wonder who will survive the impact?

Squidoo - do you?

So I somehow came across this Squidoo website a couple of weeks ago, following some unrelated links on a topic I can't even remember now. Since then, I have ended up here looking at "lenses" on about 5 or 6 different occasions, covering a whole list of topics (personal MBA reading, and a "how to get your blog started off right" lense that I can't find now.....).

So, from that conclusion, this might be the next big thing (or I could have stumbled across something that's been kicking around for ages and ages, and I just never realized it was there). I still haven't gone through the faq, joined or anything like that, so I'm not sure how it's different to something like wikipedia, so if you know, let me know please.

Just somehow got a brainwave - why not use wikipedia to find out what Squidoo is? Answer is here

Sometimes I scare myself.......

Music Note - Kasabian hit the US Big Time

Kasabian are playing on David Letterman tonight. Worth staying up for if you ask me.

Jonathon Ive, as seen by Business Week

I like Jonathon Ive for two reasons - 1. He designs some of the coolest things in the world, that just seem to work (think iPod), and 2. He went to same Uni as me (although in a different department).

Apple tends to keep the majority of their employees out of the media spotlight, so that makes this Business Week article on him all the more interesting.

PS - Sorry for the lack of posts again this week - limited time and Blogger playing silly buggers every time I get 3 minutes to post something has hampered my style (or something like that). I'm hoping the Blogger outage scheduled in 25 minutes is designed to make everything work just like it used to (fingers crossed).

Panorama Undercover Exposes Premiership Managers

Well, sort of. It looks like Sam Alladyce's son got a cut of a few deals for players sold to Bolton, and Newcastle's current assistant manager (funnily enough on personal leave for the last couple of weeks or so) was caught on film discussing taking illegal payments to sign a player.

I was informed last week that Newcastle might be implicated in this show, but apart from Bond (who was still working for 'Arry Redknap at Portsmouth at the time), it looks like we got off without anything major being uncovered. Of course, that doesn't mean Newcastle is innocent, but I bet Freddi had a couple of beers tonight when he realized he wasn't highlighted.

BBC NEWS | UK | Agents claim manager was bribed

Video Conferencing Attire - The Half-Suit

Here's something that every telecommuter needs - the half suit. Designed specifically to make you look nice and smart on your next video conference, without all of the hassle of actually getting dressed (we all know the people who work at home don't get out of their boxers until after lunch, right?). You still have to do your hair I guess, but it'll come in handy when you need the extra few minutes in bed every morning.

Amazon Unbox may not be that good

If you read all the little details, it seems that Amazon has heavily stacked the T's & C's in their favour.

Boing Boing: Amazon Unbox to customers: Eat shit and die

Smart Truck?

Sand dune riding in a Smart? Only with some special mods...
Hemmings Auto Blogs » Blog Archive » Little feet

Bounty hunter Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman arrested

Oh boy - the wife won't be happy about this one. Dog The Bounty Hunter was arrested in Hawaii charged with kidnapping in Mexico, for which he was arrested and subsequently (and with particular irony) skipped bail.

Turns out this is in relation to him going down there and getting the Max Factor heir Max Luster, to bring him back to the US to face trial on rape charges (he's since been put away for over 100 years for the crimes). It appears that Bounty Hunting is a crime in Mexico, so he's charged with kidnapping - apparently a "diplomatic note" was issued by the Mexican authorities to institute extradition procedings against him.

Sounds to me like Mr Luster must have paid off a few diplomats to make his life in Mexico nice and easy, and when they didn't protexct him, he's getting his money's worth in revenge. Here's hoping they chuck this out of court with the speediness it deserves (although I have a feeling if that happens, it'll turn into some big diplomatic incident).

Bounty hunter Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman arrested - REALITY TV - MSNBC.com

Not Your Usual Bollocks

Music. Podcast. Subscribe with iTunes if you're feeling lucky.

Not Your Usual Bollocks - Latest Updates

Idolator, All About the Music

This is a Neilio special post. Music, in a blog - can it ever be as good as just listening to the music itself (no, but at least they're trying).

Idolator, All About the Music... If Only It Were

Top Gear 100 Sexiest Cars

Haven't looked past number 1 here (a 911 S from the 70's), but given it's Top Gear's list, I'm sure I'll agree with at least a very large percentage...

Top Gear | Galleries

The Lee Clark Interview

Lee Clark, Geordie Legend, was recently intervied for the BBC, and the write up of this is up now for all to read.

Probably the only player to actually increase his reputation with the fans after a move to Sunderland, due to the now famous (it's even mentioned on wikipedia) wearing of the "Sad Mackem Bastards" t-shirt for the FA Cup final, while still employed by said club. That obviously upset their fans, and resulted in Clarkie making a move down south to Fulham. before finally coming back home.

BBC - Tyne - Junior Football - The Lee Clark Interview

Stay Away from Electricity

It's bad for you.....

Alfa Brera Tuned by AutoDelta

You need words after that pic?













How about a supercharger making things a little more blurry out of the side windows, ugraded suspension and exhaust, and 0-60 times in the 5.x region.

Let's hope AutoDelta make it across the pond when Alfa does, coz I want one of these.

All the details and more pics here

New Honda Civic Type R

No doubt this will once again never reach the far shores of the US, so this is especially for you Daniel and Matthew.

Type R details, and a nice new special site were released today, so check it out if you fancy a bit of hot hatch happiness.

Style is the new black

Finally, a post with no geeky electronics or cars (you see, I do try to keep you at least a little entertained Lauren).

A couple of new fashion/style/clothes sites for your perusal. First is Styledash, from the makers of Engadget (one of the many sites from Weblogs, that cover such things as Food, Cars, Cancer!?!, HD and Movies.

Second is Yoox, which I thought might be another blog, but turns out it's a store (maybe - haven't looked around too much). It does have what looks to be a pretty full collection of Paul Smith stuff for sale over here, which is always a big plus in my mind.

OK - Public Service announcement over. Try not to spend all your money.

Microsoft Zune Gets Officially Announced

Just to prove I'm not totally biased, here's a pic of the new Microsoft Zune player. It got officially announced today (without pricing or availability, apart from the usual "available in time for the holiday season").

Specs are almost as dull as the brown color version - 30GB, built in FM tuner and 3 inch screen. Big differentiator is the wireless capability, where you can share songs with your friends (they last 3 days or 3 plays before you have to buy the song). No word on whether or not you can load this wirelessly as well, but plenty of accessories announced with it, and the iTMS like Zune Marketplace, to buy content to fill it. It'll play MP3's, windows media files and even AAC's (although not the copy protected versions from iTunes apparently).

That's about it - are you as underwhelmed as I am?




Microsoft Zune Gets Officially Announced - Gizmodo

US Iran report branded dishonest

So what makes headline news on the BBC site doesn't even get a mention on CNN (not the first time this has happened).

I'm starting to get a little more scared than normal when this sort of stuff happens....

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US Iran report branded dishonest

Cingular bans the word "engadget" from its customer forums

And then, once found out, doesn't. Oh to be caught up in the pleasures of customer relations at such a large and open organisation. Given our companies experience, you'd think they'd spend more time working on their billing system to get that sorted out, than worrying about gadget sites who keep the public excited with advance word on new handsets. But still, that would just be sensible, and we're dealing with a large organization post merger. Been there, done that, it wasn't pretty (but living the happy life now).


Cingular bans the word "engadget" from its customer forums - Engadget

New iPod Nano Packaging

Sorry for all the iPod posts (or more specifically the lack of much else in the last few days), but you're stuck with it, as it's my blog ;-)

Anyway, this is the new packaging that Mr Jobs briefly mentioned when talking about the new stuff the other day. It's definitely smaller, but not sure I like it as much as the old box that this stuff used to come in.

Lonelygirl15 wasn't alone

The increasing power of YouTube once again flexes it's muscles - this time Lonelygirl15 gets a mention on CNN. Well, she would if she was really real.

It turns out that this was a couple of guys (well 3) writing scripts for an actress, and then filming it and posting it up to YouTube. It got a pretty incredible following (as you'll know if you've ever checked out the site - her/their videos were normally up on the front pages of popularity).

Although initially some people were a bit pissed off that they had been duped, the number of subscribers has gone up in the last couple of days, so guess being fake can make you real.

Her page is here if you're interested.

CNN.com - Mystery solved: Lonelygirl15 wasn't alone - Sep 13, 2006

Apple Anouncements - iPod Heaven

So loads of new announcements made today, most of them predicted. New iPod nano's, now in shiny colors and more memory, video iPods come down in price, and the largest gets an upgrade to 80GB. Also, new iTunes app, which is currently downloading on my computer, and a pre-announcement of the iTV (name to be changed at a later date), which streams movies etc from your computer to your TV and I imagine will signal the end of the Windows Media PC as we know it (and not many sorry people there I don't think). Also, movies are now on iTunes (limited to Disney owned companies so far) and NFL games, with a season pack option. Resolution on the iTunes purchases also jumps up a level, which is nice. More battery live across the iPod board as well from what I can tell.

However, the smallest, and probably thought of as the least exciting announcement, was the new iPod Shuffle, pictured above. As you can see, it's tiny, and it has a clip built into it, so you can just attach it to your clothes and you're away. 1GB of memory (or around 200 songs in the real world), and a price of only $79 - I mean, why wouldn't you buy one?

After the announcements, Apple's share price when down a little (after a recent run-up over the last week or so) so I guess the analysts weren't too happy with no huge surprises. Still, I personally think they're making a mistake - I can see in the runup to Christmas, people struggling for present ideas will just put down the $79 for a shuffle. I mean they're cute, kids will love them, and what's to stop the gadget freak buying a couple to put in his pocket??

Update - ok - apologies - the new Shuffle is 2GB of memory, not 1 as I stated earlier. Plus, just in case you don't believe how small this thing is, check out the pic of it in someone's hand...

Apple Showtime Live!

Apple is streaming the event apparently, so instead of refreshing your screen every 3 seconds, just hit this link and watch it yourself in all it's glory....

Belated Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates - we headed up to Aspen this weekend to show our visitors how the rich people live. I did plan on loading up all the photos Sunday night, but then Flickr was having a (very unusual and definitely not frequent) barry meaning uploading photos didn't happen as quickly as I wanted.

So, here we are - photos are (mostly) up. Taste of Colorado, PF Changs, our almost rained out Rockies Game, more rain on the drive up to Aspen, Lunch in Vail and our Aspen Weekend pics. Got another set sitting on the computer at home which should be loaded tonight.

Big news today is going to be the Apple Showtime Event - should be live coverage here starting at 11am Mountain.

Amazon Unbox Now Live!!!! Download Movies and TV Shows Today

Amazon's UnBox Site is now up and running. If you haven't heard, this is the bit of Amazon that lets you download Full Length Movies and TV Shows, and watch them on your computer. Key differences with the current implementation of iTunes is obviously the movies (for now anyway, stay tuned for Apple's September 12th Showtime press event), Star Trek making an appearance for download (the original one!!). Instructions are here, and I'm still trying to work out which portable devices are supported by this.

OK - FAQ is here - big news - no support for native OS X (but you probably could run it through Parallels or BootCamp if you're on an Intel Mac), it looks like you have to download to a named box to view it (so no copying, obviously), file sizes are about 1GB for an hour, and you have to use their own app to run the files (and they're .wmv files).

Supported mobile devices are

• Creative Zen Vision: M
• Creative Zen Vision
• Toshiba Gigabeat S
• Archos AV 500
• Archos AV 700
• iRiver PMC (Portable Media Center)

Think this covers most of the information you need, and if it doesn't, you can just read up on it yourself!!!

Have fun, but given no Mac, iPod or PSP support, I think I'm holding off for the time being to see what happens next week. Let the movie downloading wars begin - the consumer will benefit, trust me!!!

Update!! - OK, it looks like they have their own BBC section, so I've come around a little - I can see Coupling, Dr WHo, House of Cards, Keeping Up Appearances, Little Britaon, Mansfield Park and To Play The King so far....

Uncrate | The Buyer's Guide For Men

Just in case there are some of you out there who don't know (and have some spare cash lying around), Uncrate is the site to help you spend all that money under your mattress...

Uncrate | The Buyer's Guide For Men

Pimped Car a Little OTT

This makes me sad

Confidential - Do Not Distribute

So after I found Reddit, and pointed you all to it in a previous post (and I got a comment from one of the guys who runs it), I've been perusing it every now and again to see what news stories are hitting the high life.

So, imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this link, which was at no.1 in the list. Someone worked out that you can use Google to do a search on the phrase Confidential "do not distribute" to find a lot of things that are posted to the web that shouldn't really be out there. I took a quick look at the results (but didn't click through to any of it) and I noticed Microsoft made it onto the front page from the looks of it. I'm sure there's some cool stuff in here somewhere, so if you find anything, let me know.

Maybe we'll get to know more of the clandestine goings on in the HP Boardroom?

Steve Irwin Dead - What Now for Australia

I was struggling to say anything relevant about the fact that the Crocodile Hunter (not Crocodile Dundee, darling) Steve Irwin passed away this weekend, doing what he seemed to love the most - following after deadly creatures who at any minute might turn on him and kill him. Unfortunately, his time was up, and a Stingray spiked him in the heart, and The Hunter was no longer. What seemed a little weird was the fact that Stingrays had only claimed a handful of lives (13 if I remember correctly) in the last 100 years, and here this one goes and gets one of the most famous animal people in the world.

Anyway, it's obviously going to put a huge dent in the nation known as Australia, having only a few people they can call famous, and now with one less. As so kindly pointed out by one of the guys here, there is Dame Edna for all those young Australian boys (and combined with Pricilla, Queen of the Desert, and Ballroom Dancing to watch, what more could they wish for). Kylie as well I guess, Rolf Harris, although I'm not sure he's still alive, Russel Crowe, although I'm not even sure he's Australian, is he? Isn't he a Kiwi, or am I getting all confused with our very own Iro? And then who? Nicole Kidman, but she's been over here for so many years (even longer than me!) that I'm sure she must be almost American at the very least. And theres that girl out of Without A Trace, Poppy Fields or some such, who I only found out was Australian when she appeared on Letterman with what I thought was her "fake" accent, which turned out to be her real one.

Hmm, really struggling now - I guess Mark Viduka, but being famous for eating all the pies isn't really a valid claim to fame (as I have found out on numerous occasions). And Kylie's sister, who's only famous for being Kylie's sister.

And that's it. Not many to go round the whole nation really. Will the country suffer? Or do they have a steady supply of new "heros" for the common man, hidden away for emergencies such as this? Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Apple Update - 24" iMacs Available Today

And even on the official website - guess that's one announcement you can cross off the list for September 12th 8-)

It's Showtime! Apple to unveil new iPhone, movies and more?

OK - the rumor mill is in full effect this week, so I'll try to cover all the bits and pieces about what is and isn't real in the world of Apple. Obviously, this is all based on speculation, insinuation and a little bit of dreaming, so take it all with a pinch of salt. After all, I did publish something ealier in the year about a rumored plasma TV with a mac mini stuff inside it's inner workings that never appeared.

So, confirmed is a press "invite only" event on the 12th September called "It's Showtime", so at least we only have a week or two to wait before we find out the real deal.

Rumor number one is downloadable movies on iTunes (and shouldn't they change the name if this is indeed the case?). A supposed leaked list of initial movies is here, which looks heavily weighted towards Disney films (which sort of makes sense given Jobs is the major Disney shareholder).

Related to this is the possible release of a video iPod, although Think Secret thinks that isn't going to be released until early 2007.

What else, well, a 23 inch iMac with bigger and better processor, new and updated iPod Nano's as well as bigger drives for the existing iPods.

And of course, there's the usual iPhone rumor, this time I believe started by an analyst tracking Apple.

I think that some of these rumors must at least be true, and it looks like the stock market definitely thought so, with Apple up a few points more than everyone else in trading today. Now this I like, given I have one or two shares....

So, stay tuned to a computer on September 12th, when all the latest and greatest will be revealed. I'm just hoping it's not going to be as disappointing as the last few hyped up moments (like WWDC), where what's imagined is way better than what's announced. Am I the only that wants to go back to the good old days when everyone was surprised by Apple announcements, adn there was a genuine excitement for weeks afterwards?

HP PC for 99 bucks at Office Depot

You get a monitor and printer included as well. Only downside is the multitude of mail in rebates that accompany the deal to get it down to 99 bucks, and the $99 shipping charges attached. Still only comes out to 198 though - hows that for a deal?

Office Depot to offer $99 PC with $99 shipping | CNET News.com