Have Laptop Will Travel

New 7 Wonders of the World

Originally posted on October 17, 2006 @ 8:24 am

So for a very long time, we’ve had the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World:

  1. The Great Pyramid of Giza: A gigantic stone structure near the ancient city of Memphis, serving as a tomb for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu.
  2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: A palace with legendary gardens built on the banks of the Euphrates river by King Nebuchadnezzar II.
  3. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: An enormous statue of the Greek father of gods, carved by the great sculptor Pheidias.
  4. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: A beautiful temple in Asia Minor erected in honor of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature.
  5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus: A fascinating tomb constructed for King Maussollos, Persian satrap of Caria.
  6. The Colossus of Rhodes: A colossus of Helios the sun-god, erected by the Greeks near the harbor of a Mediterranean Island.
  7. The Lighthouse of Alexandria: A lighthouse built by the Ptolemies on the island of Pharos off the coast of their capital city.

Indeed, some pretty amazing places and things.

Well this morning my friend Jennifer let me in on a website dedicated to selecting the New 7 Wonders of the World where users like you and I can vote on what should be the new 7 wonders. Pretty neat idea.

The New7Wonders Foundation, which is the body behind the New7Wonders campaign, has the express aim of documenting, maintaining, restoring and reconstructing world heritage under the motto:

“OUR HERITAGE IS OUR FUTURE.”

The “New7Wonders Foundation” calls on all citizens of the world to support it.

Through film, television, the Internet and books, people shall be alerted to the destruction of nature and the decay of our man-made heritage.

Monuments in jeopardy, perhaps in a dangerous state of decay, can be saved by publicizing their beauty and highlighting their plight to the international community.

As of this post, there is approximately 263 days for people to vote on what they feel should be the new 7 wonders of the world.

After I’ve made my choices, I’ll post them as a comment and please do the same if you participate in this vote as I’m interested in knowing what my readers feel should be considered a “wonder of the World”.

Microsoft Ices Windows XP SP1

Originally posted on October 12, 2006 @ 10:18 am

As of October 11, 2006, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP SP1 and SP1a with security updates, although the day before it issued patches for multiple vulnerabilities affecting the operating system, 2 of which were judged “critical.”

Under Microsoft’s current lifecycle policy, it promises to support Service Packs with security updates for 12-24 months after the release of a succeeding Service Pack. Windows XP as a whole will age out of support only after two years have passed from the time Windows Vista is officially released.

Windows XP SP2, the free-of-charge update first issued in 2004, can be downloaded from the Microsoft Web site.

Walmart.com Relaunches

Originally posted on October 26, 2006 @ 9:03 am

So it seems the world’s largest retail store has relaunched Walmart.com after a 13-month overhaul with Open Source features.

Some of the new features on the site are built on open source OpenLazlo and Flash. I’m happy to find out that more and more companies are turning to open source applications but I’m not a huge fan of flash.

After spending some time looking over the new Walmart.com site, I’ve noticed some interesting interactive functions all over the place.

According to Debbie Kristofferson, Brisbane, California based Walmart.com vice president of user experience said:

The toy section aims to entertain kids, as well as help adults find detail product information and reviews to make the correct buying decisions.

It’s interesting to me that Wal-Mart has done so many things internet wise the past few months. All sorts of features and projects coming in and going like dust in the wind.

Notably missing from walmart.com is the HUB, Wal-Mart’s experiment in social networking that launched earlier this year to promote back-to-school season fashions for kids. The site was up for about six to eight weeks. Yeah, it sucked.

According to Raul Vazquez, walmart.com chief marketing officer:

The website changes are the first major revamp since walmart.com’s return to e-commerce in 2000, just in time for the holiday season where an estimated 300 million visitors will log onto the site during the next few months to search on the goods.

I personally don’t shop at WalMart.com or in the actual store that often, however around the holiday’s they do stay open 24 hours, which rocks if you need something at 2:00 am like World of Warcraft :)

Microsoft Security Updates For October

Originally posted on October 10, 2006 @ 8:35 am

Microsoft is planning to release the following security updates today:

  • Six Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. Some of these updates will require a restart.
  • Four Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.
  • One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft .NET Framework. The highest Maximum Severity rating for this is Moderate. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool. These updates may require a restart.

As always, keep in mind that Microsoft doesn’t anticipate any changes to the above list but the number of bulletins, products affected, restart information and severities are subject to change until officially released today.

Matsushita to offer 103-inch PDP

Originally posted on July 21, 2006 @ 9:02 am

TOKYO – Panasonic the brand for which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known will offer a 103-inch PDP TV that uses a plasma display panel measuring about 140 by 240 centimeters (cm).

Panasonic-Matsushita 103-inch Plasma Display Panel

Can you just imagine playing console games on that? Mario would be huge! Read on to find out about the detailed specifications of this plasma beast.

The PDP offers full high definition 1,920 by 1,080 pixel resolution, a 4000-to-1 contrast ratio in dark surroundings and includes a connection for the High Definition (HD) Multimedia Interface.

Matsushita said in the press release that it will begin taking orders for the 103-inch TV in September 2006. This huge Plasma Display Panel TV will be priced around $50,000. Yikes! If I had $50,000.00 I could buy a killer new car or truck and have money left over.

To find out more about this cool new product from Panasonic-Matsushita, visit the Thinking big? Think plasma! website.

Image source: Panasonic