This morning Billy Mays, legendary pitch man, unexpectedly died in his sleep.

Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday.

Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry to Mays’ residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon.

“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,” Mays wife, Deborah, said in a statement on Sunday.

Very sad news, Indeed.

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“Unlimited international calling at such an affordable rate can dramatically reduce monthly long distance costs and is yet another example of MetroPCS’ commitment to providing industry-leading value to consumers in today’s tough economic climate,” said Roger D. Linquist, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of MetroPCS. “MetroPCS is eliminating the worry of high international calling fees, counting minutes and dialing a connecting number, typical of traditional calling cards. With MetroPCS’ international calling, consumers are truly unlimited now more than ever.”

Wow. MetroPCS has setup a website that you can test your international numbers against, but for $5 I say this is a deal.

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Advice sent to teachers says there are too few words which follow the rule and recommends using more modern methods to teach spelling to schoolchildren.

The document, entitled Support for Spelling, is being distributed to more than 13,000 primary schools. [...]

It says: “The i before e rule is not worth teaching. It applies only to words in which the ie or ei stands for a clear ee sound. Unless this is known, words such as sufficient and veil look like exceptions.

“There are so few words where the ei spelling for the ee sounds follows the letter c that it is easier to learn the specific words.” These include receive, ceiling, perceive and deceit.

The document recommends other ways to teach pupils spelling, like studying television listings for compound words, changing the tense of a poem to practise irregular verbs and learning about homophones through jokes such as “How many socks in a pair? None — because you eat a pear.”

Kinda wonky, I know, but I just felt years of education just evaporate away.

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Consumers should stop using Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and related products because they can permanently damage the sense of smell, federal health regulators said Tuesday.
The over-the-counter products contain zinc, an ingredient scientists say may damage nerves in the nose needed for smell. [...] “Loss of the sense of smell is potentially life threatening and may be permanent,” said Dr. Charles Lee. “People without the sense of smell may not be able to detect life dangerous situations, such as gas leaks or something burning in the house.”

Let’s see here… The cure for the common cold is the loss of your sense of smell.

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For those out of the loop Documents to Go allows the viewing and editing, as well as basic formatting of Word documents – a feature long lacking from my iPhone. But sadly thats were the real innovation fails.

For the price tag Documents To Go then uses Apple’s built-in viewer to view Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files which means no editing – which is very disappointing. DataVis will provide a free upgrade to Documents to Go when Excel editing is available which they claim is in “the future.”

For $9.99 DataVis includes a feature that will make it easy to get file attachments from Microsoft Exchange servers.

For Microsoft Exchange email users, a version called Documents To Go with Exchange Attachments includes a built-in email client which allows customers to download, view, edit and send Word attachments while on the go. This integrated portion of the product uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology, which DataViz has licensed from Microsoft since early 2005, to provide secure, wireless synchronization with Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 e-mail. Customers can make changes to their Word documents and immediately reply back with the updated files. In addition, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other attachment types can be viewed as well as attached to new e-mails sent from within Documents To Go.

My opinion, the software is worthless without PDF and Excel editing but for those we need to edit Word documents on the go this version of Documents to Go is a start.

As seen at your friendly Apple retail store right now. Enjoy!

Microsoft Corpis getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world’s biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would “soon” make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

[...] Investors are closely monitoring the free service, code-named Morro after Brazil’s Morro de Sao Paolo beach, amid concern it could hurt sales of products from Symantec and McAfee, which generate billions of dollars of revenue a year protecting Windows PCs from attacks by hackers.

For consumers, I say this is a win. For Antivirus companies, I say this is litigation.

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The internals are very similar to the previous Unibody MacBook, except for the non removable battery and a new hard drive mount. Notably since there is no “door” for the battery a hard drive upgrade required you remove the MacBook Pro’s bottom plate.

As time goes on my decision to become a Windows free computer user makes me happier and happier.

Cybercriminals are improving a malicious software program that can be installed on ATMs running Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system that records sensitive card details, according to security vendor Trustwave.

The malware has been found on ATMs in Eastern European countries, according to a Trustwave report.
Optimizing IT Budgets In tight Economic Times: Download now

The malware records the magnetic stripe information on the back of a card as well as the PIN (Personal Identification Number), which would potentially allow criminals to clone the card in order to withdraw cash.

The collected card data, which is encrypted using the DES (Data Encryption Standard) algorithm, can be printed out by the ATM’s receipt printer, Trustwave wrote.

link to article

Meet the Data Destroyer, this buster of bits is made of one task – and one task only – to mangle your sensitive hard drive.

It takes less than 15 seconds to destroy each hard drive. All one needs to do is to insert the proper drive height adaptor (if applicable) into the slot and crank the handle 8 rotations. The internal workings of the unit press down on the drive, bending it approximately 90 degrees. The MHDD then pushes the destroyed hard drive out for easy disposal.

Far better then any hammer magnet solution I know. If its used by the NSA & DOD for destroying hard drives its good enough for me!

Don’t let the shoddily designed website fool you, this sucker is gonna be EXPENSIVE!

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