Geek Weakly »
Not too long ago, there was a fuss (and even a nice little movie) about the dirty little secret carried by the Apple iPod. Rumor had it that there was a $255 charge (plus shipping) to get your battery replaced. Might as well by a new one. I don't know if this ever was the case, not actually owning an iPod, but it does seem that it's not the case now. Battery service just $99 plus change.
Slightly more recently, there was a pretty big announcement that Dell was moving support out of India. As with too many things these days, the details are in the fine print. In the original announcement, it was mentioned that only the larger business support was moving. Consumers were still likely to get the India center. Now, it seems that even that much might be in doubt, since the Indian call center in question says no such thing happened.
In some interesting developements in research, it seems that the Stradivarius violins may be a product of the forest. Yet questions still remain - did Antonio Stradivari wander the forest, tapping on trees, listening for a particular sound? Dunno. I just think it's interesting that there's a web site on Killer Plants, devoted to the mystery and excitement of botanical connections that make our lives, our civilizations, possible.
You may have also seen all the hubbub about Google changing their search techniques, and generally annoying those who work in the search-engine optimization world. Frankly, I think the whole idea of having a job strictly to optimize your site for search engines is a little bizarre. But hey - who am I to complain? The Angler Fish jumped from a pretty regular spot at third or fourth in the list of results to second.
Speaking of fish, apparently a three-and-a-half pound catch pulled an angler (the fisherman, not the fish) into the Thames river in England. The guy died. Frankly, I'm still glad that I don't fish.
