Why Big.com?
I don’t see why BIG.com is getting any attention at all:
In Chinese I could say, ????????. In English, “Big isn’t better.” Just taking Google (or whatever mix of search results) and making everything larger and slightly more textually simple isn’t at all an innovation. In this regard, the infamous gada.be is more innovative at meta-search than Big.
Russell Beattie decided to make his pages all big. Great. The Search Engine Watch says “it’s pretty cool.” I say it’s nothing worth looking at, and something nobody would ever want to actually use. It’s also a terrible waste of a three-letter-word domain name.
Update: I am really sorry that I rank in the SERPs for the keywords you’re using to get here, but it’s all your fault. It just took one of you to search for “big xxxxx” and then the rest poured in. Now GO AWAY!
Microsoft NY Class Action Settlement
In a 350 million dollar class action settlement by computer hardware and software manufacturer Microsoft, New Yorkers who bought a personal computer would be eligible for a $12 refund in an antitrust settlement. If you purchased a computer between 1994 and 2004 that came preloaded with Microsoft software, please file a claim.
According to the NY Daily News,
No receipt or proof of purchase is necessary for individuals claiming purchases of five computers or less. Anyone who bought popular Microsoft software products like Word, Excel or Office during the same time frame is eligible for $5 vouchers.
This effectively means that everyone with a computer living in New York is eligible for a $12 * 5 = $60 refund. The deadline for submitting a claim is October 18, 2006. I filed a claim for three operating systems I bought:
- Windows XP Professional
- Windows XP Home
- MS-DOS
Yes, I actually bought a copy of MSDOS in 1999 for some reason or another. I think I had a really ancient 386 model computer I wanted to load some of the old games on…
A little nerd humour
[21:19] <poo3728732> yeah, where do you guys even get new episodes of 24?
[21:19] <poo3728732> can you rip it straight from tv?
[21:19] <kiwiii> we watch tv
[21:19] <kiwiii> and recite the pixels
[21:19] <kiwiii> into notepad
[21:19] <poo3728732> wow
[21:19] <poo3728732> that must take forever
[21:19] <kiwiii> after computing the discrete cosine transform
[21:19] <kiwiii> in our heads
[21:20] <poo3728732> it must be a discreet cosine transform, I’ve never heard of this process
[21:20] <kiwiii> LOL
[21:20] <kiwiii> HILARITY!