Circumstances

Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation — Online shoppers looking to spend the holiday season firmly planted on the couch can add the iPhone 3G back to their lists -- we've just confirmed that Apple and AT&T have quietly brought back in-home activation. Sure, it's been available in limited circumstances before, but now it's here and for real, just like with the first-gen unit. Would-be unlockers looking to score a phone for $199 flat can't start celebrating just yet, though -- you'll still have to provide your billing details and face an ETF if you don't activate within a set period of time. Oh well -- at... [Tags: 11 dec, amp, apple, billing details, boy genius report]

Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation — Filed under: Handsets, ATT, AppleOnline shoppers looking to spend the holiday season firmly planted on the couch can add the iPhone 3G back to their lists -- we've just confirmed that Apple and AT&T have quietly brought back in-home activation. Sure, it's been available in limited circumstances before, but now it's here and for real, just like with the first-gen unit. Would-be unlockers looking to score a phone for $199 flat can't start celebrating just yet, though -- you'll still have to provide your billing details and face an ETF if you don't activate within a set period of time.... [Tags: 11 dec, amp, apple, billing details, boy genius report]

How to Survive Being an Assistant to a Porn Star — This is Assistant’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit - your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own: For the past five years, I’ve had a very unusual job. That of scheduling appointments for porn stars so that their fans can meet with them on a one-on-one encounter. (1) Repeat to yourself, over and over and over again, the following phrase: Escorts... [Tags: bow chicka bow bow, bow music, brain, circumstances, copy and paste]

The Great Crash Of 2063, Ctd. — By Patrick Appel Ross counters Henry Blodget:[Blodget] runs through a typical housing bubble scenario - somebody buys a house late in the game and loses his shirt - and argues that almost everybody involved, from the homebuyer to the real-estate agent to the mortgage broker to the people on Wall Street and Washington who enabled the whole thing were making the same kind of mistakes, and indeed, were acting "just the way you would expect them to act under the circumstances." Now in a sense, this is convincing. But at a same time, our hypothetical homebuyer had very different responsibilities... [Tags: circumstances, citibank, consequences, ctd, distinction]

What is Motivation? — This is Ken Matthews’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit - your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own: Motivation is that inner feeling that drives one to achieve a result. It is an internal energy that moves one to actively pursue a goal, a desire, an end. Many words can be used to define motivation. Here are a few: passion, drive,... [Tags: challenges in life, church member, circumstances, civic group, desire]

The Other Side of the Sprint Vs. Cogent Depeering — Swoolley writes "A month back this community discussed the Sprint vs. Cogent depeering. Now a story I wrote for Forbes.com tells the inside story of the fight, based on the lawsuits the two companies filed against each other in Virginia state court. For once, thanks to those suits, the public gets to see the details of a confidential peering agreement between two of the Internet's largest autonomous systems, as well as the circumstances leading up to the depeering. (Which company is in the right? Read the facts and decide for yourself.) While some people have argued that the depeering is... [Tags: autonomous systems, circumstances, cogent, forbes, government regulation]

Patent Practitioner Ethics Update — In a recent presentation, PTO Discipline Director Harry Moatz repeated his statements regarding a practitioner's duty to make reasonably inquiry prior to submitting any papers to the USPTO. "Practitioners submitting papers must read each paper submitted to the Office before it is submitted. Each submitted paper must be read in its entirety … regardless of the source of the paper." The duty of inquiry is codified in the Federal Regulations as 37 C.F.R. § 11.18(b). That section requires that submitted papers be submitted only for proper purposes and that any claims made be legally warranted. Section (b)(1) requires that all... [Tags: art references, circumstances, contentions, disciplinary proceeding, discipline director]

Full screen Flash-enabling v2.53 PS3 firmware available now — We're still not over Sony's trickeration -- which led us to believe the version 2.53 firmware update was hitting prior to the US Thanksgiving holiday -- but we're not ones to turn down a free update under any circumstances. As of now (as in, right now), Sony's PlayStation 3 can support full screen embedded Flash videos courtesy of the latest firmware, so there's really no excuse for you not firing up the System Update and sucking it down. Get to it![Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks to everyone who sent this in]Filed under: GamingFull screen Flash-enabling v2.53 PS3 firmware available now... [Tags: circumstances, engadget, excuse, firmware update, playstation]

Full screen Flash-enabling v2.53 PS3 firmware available now — Filed under: Misc, Other hardware, Players, Sony We're still not over Sony's trickeration -- which led us to believe the version 2.53 firmware update was hitting prior to the US Thanksgiving holiday -- but we're not ones to turn down a free update under any circumstances. As of now (as in, right now), Sony's PlayStation 3 can support full screen embedded Flash videos courtesy of the latest firmware, so there's really no excuse for you not firing up the System Update and sucking it down. Get to it![Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks to everyone who sent this in]Full screen Flash-enabling v2.53... [Tags: circumstances, engadget, excuse, firmware update, hardware players]

The Humble Spreadsheet: A Tool for the True Lifehacker — When I was very young—I can’t remember how old, but let’s call it six or seven—I was introduced to spreadsheets. It introduced me to the world of statistics, of using data to track progress and predict the future, to work towards tangible, measurable goals instead of lofty, obtuse and too-often forgotten resolutions that people so often make about a month from now each year. I have my father to thank for this, a mindset and skill I consider vital to the successes I’ve had in many areas of my life, most especially those areas of my life that have... [Tags: accountants, apple computer, businessmen, circumstances, down software]

Live Earth India Concert Cancelled — In the wake of the Mumbai attacks, the Live Earth India concert scheduled for Dec 7 has been canceled. Al Gore, the founder of the group sponsoring the event, issued the following joint statement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Friday, November 28, 2008 Everyone involved with Live Earth India, from our U.S.- and India-based staff, artists and crew to our India-based broadcast, production, non-profit and marketing communications partners, is stunned and saddened by the tragic events of the past few days in our host city Mumbai. We always felt very welcomed and safe as we spent more time... [Tags: al gore, bereaved, broadcast production, circumstances, city mumbai]

BFG Offers Free PCI-E Upgrade for AGP Owners — Staving off the upgrade bug while waiting for the inevitable next best thing that's always just around the corner can cause you to be in a perpetual state of limbo. But if you've been suffering from this phenomenon since the AGP days, now might be the perfect time to pull the trigger. Not only has Intel released it's Core i7 platform, but if your aging AGP videocard is a qualified BFG-branded unit, you might be able to score a free or low-cost ($50) PCI-E upgrade."Now, for a limited time, if you send us your BFG AGP card in good, working... [Tags: agp card, circumstances, counterpart, e card, food chain]

Thankful — These ladies one of the best parts of my life.  They are just part of what I’m thankful for. I’m very blessed and I know it.  Regrettably I don’t tell folks that enough. I complain about circumstances way too often.  To help that, here’s a few of the things I’m thankful for. my salvation - ask me some time my wife - my biggest blessing on earth my granddaughters - shown above their mother/my daughter-in-law - she rocks and does a great job for the girls my sons - through thick and thin my worldly success - in spite... [Tags: blessings, blogger, cheers, christmas, circumstances]

FTC Pursues Rambus Appeal To Supreme Court — pheede writes "SCOTUSblog brings us news that the FTC has appealed the recent circuit court decision regarding Rambus's deceptive conduct on the JEDEC standards committee, where they conveniently avoided telling anyone that they owned patents on the resulting standards. The FTC, which is proceeding on its own without help from the Justice Department, notes the circuit court's 'sweeping rules that would immunize' deceptive conduct by would-be monopolists 'in most circumstances.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.... [Tags: circuit court decision, circumstances, deceptive conduct, ftc, jedec standards]

Airports almost empty day before Thanksgiving — Airports almost empty day before Thanksgiving | Venture Chronicles: Case in point, we are talking about taking a family vacation to San Diego early next year (look out Kedrosky!) and decided that renting a minivan and driving down would be cheaper than flying and less hassle to boot. It’s a lot of time behind the wheel but no worse than trudging through an airport pissed off about having to pay $150 to check bags. Whenever Laurie and I do our driving vacations -- which we've done since before they made airports so damn painful -- friends and co-workers have always... [Tags: airports, case in point, circumstances, co workers, compromises]

Would You Take an Online Appointment With Your Doctor? — I've had plenty of experiences where I had to wait what seemed like forever to see my doctor. Whether it be waiting months for a routine physical, or hanging out longer than expected in the waiting room because he's running behind. Don't even get me started on the hours I've had to take off of work because the only time I could see him is in the middle of the afternoon. All of these circumstances made me think that a webcam-enabled visit from my doctor would be kinda cool, and a new company called American Well is trying to make... [Tags: appointment, appointments, blue cross blue shield, circumstances, cross blue]

Do You Determine your Beliefs, or do Your Beliefs Determine You? (part three) — G’day Kids. So this study on beliefs has turned into something of an epic. Let’s look at a snapshot of what we’ve covered so far in parts one and two… 1. We’re all largely driven, motivated, limited, empowered and controlled by our beliefs; this can be both good and bad. 2. We have positive, negative and incidental beliefs. 3. Beliefs typically form over a long period of time. From the day we are born that computer on top of our shoulders is being programmed. 4. They often develop with no real effort, input or awareness on our part. We... [Tags: church politics, circumstances, conscious decisions, emotional attachment, experiences]

Even though there are already a myriad of tools that try to make collaborative editing easier, few of them are as elegant and easy to use as TextFlow, which just launched its public beta this morning. TextFlow is an Adobe AIR application that allows a master editor to merge documents from up to seven other editors. Unlike Etherpad, which we reviewed last week, TextFlow is not a real-time collaboration platform, but works with a more traditional editing model. Sponsor After finishing the relatively straightforward installation and sign-up process, the master editor can simply drag and drop different versions of a... [Tags: adobe, alpha users, circumstances, collaboration platform, corporations]

AT&T experiencing 3G outages? — Scattered accounts indicate that AT&T may be experiencing new outages in its 3G network, in areas such as Boston and the general Michigan and Hawaii areas. In at least several circumstances the affected customers have been iPhone owners, who may be ...... [Tags: 3g network, amp, boston, circumstances, hawaii]

Verizon To Obama: Sorry For Looking At Your Cellphone Account (VZ) — We imagine this sort of stuff happens pretty often: Service employees looking at famous peoples' account usage, bills, etc. But probably not a good idea to get busted sifting through the president elect's personal cellphone records without authorization, like some Verizon Wireless employees just did. So it's the right move for Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam to apologize on behalf of his company -- and industry -- which is already going to need plenty of Obama's help on regulatory decisions: 'This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama's... [Tags: barack obama, blackberry, business justification, ceo, circumstances]