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04 Sep 2009 15:13

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Tech: Harmonix: Lots of failures before major “Rock Band” success

  • I was watching people interact with our product, and the realization came crashing down on me – we had spent 18 months on a music system that was fundamentally flawed.
  • Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos • On a karaoke system that Harmonix developed that turned out to be a big failure. It was one of many miscues for the company before hitting on a formula that would bring them lasting success – music games with peripherals. With the help of Red Octane, they created the early “Guitar Hero” games, then took it in a whole new direction with “Rock Band.” Regarding a fairly unpopular poll question we asked the other day, whether the company had sold out, Rigoulos says “we didn’t feel that way at all. We felt that our time had finally come to compete in the big leagues.” A great interview that deserves to be read in full. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Aug 2009 09:57

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Sports: PGA Championship: Tiger Woods has statistics in his favor

  • 14 final-round major leads; he’s never lost when he’s winning that far in source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Aug 2009 00:26

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Music: More on the coolest guitar hack ever, Les Paul’s “The Log”

When Paul introduced this guitar to guitar manufacturers, they laughed at him, calling it a “broomstick with pickups.” They’re not laughing anymore, kids. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2009 10:16

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U.S.: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a tireless campaigner for the mentally disabled

Smithsonian portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver
  • She died early Tuesday at 88. Beyond being known as a member of the Kennedy family, Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968 just weeks after her brother Robert’s assassination. It was a profound idea – during an era where physical activity was unheard of for the mentally disabled, she started an event to encourage it. She learned about it from her sister Rosemary, who grew up in Kennedy household during an era where many with mental disabilities were institutionalized. Her victories may not have been as loud as those of her famous brothers, but in their own way they were just as profound. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

24 Jul 2009 03:06

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U.S.: Texas rethinking how important they want God to be in the classroom

  • We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it.
  • Reverend Peter Marshall • On his bid to add a major religious component to the Texas school curriculum. Among other things, the state’s education board is looking at recommendations to include history lessons on the role Christianity played in founding the United States. Some think he’s exaggerating and others think he’s spot on. As per usual, they’re all arguing.  • source
Posted by Nathalie Heiberg • 3 Comments • Permalink

25 Jun 2009 20:59

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Culture: “Billie Jean” at Motown 25: Remember Michael Jackson this way

  • Before he got ruined by his fame, this is him earning his bread. This dance made his career. “Thriller” was big, but it became epic after this performance. Forget all the other stuff. This is where he should be frozen in amber.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jun 2009 11:26

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World: Need a little background on Iran’s post-Islamic Revolution era?

How did things get to this point? CNN has a fairly thorough timeline of the events leading up to the current protests up. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

04 Jun 2009 11:10

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World: Life Magazine gets up close and personal with Adolf Hitler

When we wrote about the site a couple of months ago, these are the kind of intimate features we were hoping they would do. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Jun 2009 10:39

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Biz, U.S.: How did General Motors go from pioneering to bankrupt?

General Motors circa 1906
  • There’s a long, winding story of how GM got from hand-crank to Hummer to handouts. For a company this essential to our country – especially the Midwest, but really everywhere – it’s a sad, bastardized legacy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Apr 2009 08:29

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Tech: Nerds are working to preserve your crappy Geocities site

  • Yahoo’s closing it, so they’re working fast. Jason Scott has made it his mission, at least since Yahoo announced that they’re closing Geocities, to download old pages from the site to preserve them for history. The software he’s set up downloads five sites a second and has downloaded over 200,000 so far. They’re grabbing as much as they can but it’s a little tough to be comprehensive with such a highly-used service. And if you’re curious about the overall structure of Geocities, nerdlinger, click the link, because Scott goes into it in great detail. Ah, Geocities: The pet rock of the ’90s. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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