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Archive for March, 2010

Google Pulls out of China

March 28th, 2010 at 11:58 am | No Comments

This article was originally written for the Hartford Informer on March 25, 2010.

Monday afternoon the Internet giant Google announced that it would leave the lucrative Chinese market as censorship issues plagued the dominant search engine.
For sure this was not an easy decision for Google, but it was a result of four years of negotiation, disagreement and hostility. The fiercest of which has been a hotly debated topic since January when Google suffered coordinated cyber attacks to their network. The source of cyber attacks were revealed to be allegedly connected to the Chinese government as part of a larger Internet surveillance operation of e-mail accounts, specifically Google’s Gmail accounts.

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Google Goes ‘Big With A Gig’

March 15th, 2010 at 11:33 am | No Comments | Tags: , , , , , ,

This article was originally written for The Hartford Informer on February 18th, 2010.
In a huge announcement this week, Google announced last Thursday the development of a gigabit internet service provider (ISP). The California company and internet search giant is going to places it has never reached. Google provided more than 65 percent of the searches in the United States in 2009 and in recent years Google has moved from its Web based origins in the form of Gmail, Google Maps and Google Docs and has begun developing an operating system. Android, the company’s phone OS, was released in late 2008. Google also plans to release a computer OS, named Chrome later this year. This latest announcement is a clean departure from online and personal computing.
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Vampire Weekend Releases Sophomore Album ‘Contra’

March 14th, 2010 at 11:31 am | No Comments | Tags: , , ,

This Article was originally written for The Hartford Informer on January 28, 2010.
Vampire Weekend returned this month with a sophomore effort and follow up to the very unique and deservedly well received self-titled first album.
“Contra” picks up for the most part where their first album, “Vampire Weekend” left off. The clean and melodic music, is something that will get stuck in your head without really knowing it.
Released just shy of two years ago, the first album began with a sound which was at first hard to understand—a perky full sounding keyboard, heavy snare drum beat that left nothing to be desired, a clean guitar, almost ghostly vocal, and symphonic overtone—grew on the listener easily.
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Super Bowl Ads Fail To Impress: Denny’s, Dove Among Winners

March 13th, 2010 at 12:28 pm | No Comments | Tags: , ,

This article was originally written for The Hartford Informer on February 11, 2010.
It may have been the most watched Super Bowl ever—even beating the famous M.A.S.H. numbers to become the most watched TV show ever. Unfortunately the advertisements were less than spectacular.
For those who don’t watch the Super Bowl for the football, the tradition is to watch it for the commercials. It’s an ironic twist on the status quo. This year however, the football took precedent. The story of the New Orleans Saints was compelling, and the ads were not so.
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Chatroulette Makes Connections, Headlines

March 12th, 2010 at 12:27 pm | 1 Comment | Tags:

This article was originally written for The Hartford Informer, February 25th 2010.
In a craze that’s sweeping the world, Chatroulette.com connects two strangers from around the world into a video chat.
Whereas applications like iChat, AIM and Skype connect you solely to your friends, Chatroulette connects you to anyone, anywhere. With more than 20,000 consistent users online, the range of users you may run into is diverse and varied.
The basic setup has the “stranger” video on top of your video, with a text box much like an AIM message to the side. The user interface is centered on two simple buttons on the top of the screen.
Next and Stop. Next takes you to the next stranger and stop stops the conversation between you and the stranger. With this you are instantly and randomly connected to a world of bizarre people.
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Better of Ted, Dead?

March 11th, 2010 at 12:09 am | 1 Comment | Tags: , , , , ,

What’s the point America? It seems like every time I really get into a show it gets cancelled.
Today I learned of the pretty much certain death of one of those said shows. Better of Ted will not return tonight with its counterpart Scrubs (2.0). The show about middle management and office sociology echoes that of NBC’s The Office, except without all the whiney documentary and general downhill slide that that particular show has been experiencing. Don’t get me wrong I love The Office; it was one of my favorite shows. But it doesn’t hold a flame to what Better Off Ted was. For however smart The Office was, Better of Ted was smarter.

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