B. Mann Consulting

What special project could possibly take this kind of horsepower?

Okay, not being a technogeek (please keep reading!) this article came as a suprise to me.

My first thought - Boris could make a ton, a ton I say, of money building and installing these open source digital video recorders for people. Everything's not as open-standardsy as they suggest here - XMLTV my ass. Not something the average person would have the patience to fool with, but boy would they (I) enjoy a cheap DVR customized for my digital system (LOOK TV in my case). Of course, my 15 year old, 13" TV set would probably need to be upgraded. Enough blather - read on...
wired article

Thanks to several open-source projects, you can build your own digital video
recorder that will blow boxes from TiVo and ReplayTV right off the shelf.

About a dozen collaborative software projects are in the works that will
transform a spare computer, or one built from off-the-shelf parts, into a

In case you missed it, here's an amusing turn of events. An expose on spyware - read the article online and LOOK OUT. But this is my first introduction to the "drunken hamster", which is my real reason for passing this on (see the bottom of the page)...

Link

This from a Booze, Allen & Hamilton report...

Advertising and media, trade promotion, and consumer promotion spending now account for as much as 20 to 25 percent of sales among consumer packaged-goods companies in the United States, up from 15 percent in 1978. Trade spending today is the second-largest item on the profit and loss statement for most of these companies (following cost of goods sold).

Does anyone know where I can get components to make a USB cable?

I bought a new digital camera. So far so good. Early this morning, before completely waking up, I was getting everything in the mail for the manufacturer's rebate. This meant cutting the UPC off the camera box.

Snip, snip. Closer look. Egad!

I cut the USB cable. Slit it just enough to sever a few strands. I haven't tried it to see if it works, but I am not hopeful.