Results tagged “tech”

Members of Governor Perry's re-election campaign are in a huff after the web video feed broadcasting his live speech was hijacked by hackers.

Like every other newspaper trying to stay solvent in the face of declining advertising sales, the Austin American-Statesman is actively thinking outside the proverbial box, today quietly unveiling its latest revenue stream: Twitter ads.

The FCC is starting to hold field hearings to take public comment on the National Broadband Plan. The first hearing will be held here in Austin on Monday, September 21, from 9am-noon, at the UT Club (2108 Robert Dedman Drive). This field hearing will be led by FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker and will focus on infrastructure, broadband in rural areas, and other issues affecting broadband deployment in our state. The FCC's National Broadband Plan is supposed to be presented before Congress by February of 2010, so this is a great opportunity to make your voice heard. [Release from the FCC (.pdf)]

A leaked screenshot from one of Sprint's internal websites indicates that Austin is among the cities targeted for early WiMAX deployment, and is slated to get access to the "4G" wireless technology this winter.

Beginning on July 22, you can use your credit or debit card to pay for on-street parking. Pay stations will appear first on Congress Avenue, with all 3,800 meters replaced by Thanksgiving. Each pay station will replace 8-11 meters.

The video, above, is a pretty nifty behind-the-scenes look at the AT&T Distribution Center in Ft. Worth, where your future phone was probably packaged for shipment. Ahh, consumerism.

City officials will hold a community forum tonight to give an update on the latest developments around the city's web site. The forum begins at 6 p.m. at the George Washington Carver Museum, 1165 Angelina St.

Austin just got its own chapter of Beer and Blog, a weekly gathering where bloggers can exchange advice, share their work, and twitter about one another in real-time. The meetings take place in a bar (or other establishment where booze is served), and is open to anyone regardless of blogging software of choice or geek savvy. Check the website for the next meet-up time. [Beer and Blog Austin] [Twitter]

This poll illustrates why you need to vote on Saturday (if you haven't already)!! Campaign finance complaints traded between Leffingwell and McCracken. No sunset review of the State Board of Education after the House defeats a bill that would have done so. Budget shortfall leads KLRU to lay off 12 employees, including the two Docubloggers producers. Canada's Open Text Corp. is set to buy Austin's Vignette Corp. for $310 million. Richard Garriott suing NCsoft. Dispute between spouses at an auto shop this weekend: wife drove over her husband's leg with a customer's car.

• If these bills pass, maybe we’ll be able to buy liquor on Sunday?
• Soon you'll be able to catch Barbara Jordan at both UT and the airport!
• Texas beats OU! It's not football, but we're totally stoked anyway!

After much resistance from the four cities where the download cap trials were to take place, Time Warner and NY Sen. Chuck Schumer announced today that the planned trials are off -- for now.

Something to start planning for: Time Warner Cable is going to set up tiered pricing for internet subscribers in Austin and San Antonio very soon. A Time Warner spokesman told the Statesman's Omar Gallaga that this new pricing plan will go into effect this summer. This means that if you watch a lot of streaming video or download a lot of music, your cable bill is going to increase. If you don't, perhaps your bill will remain the same as it is, but you will be charged extra if your data usage goes over your set limit. The only good news here may be for Grande, who will likely get some new business from this. [Digital Savant]

Trade association TechAmerica reported a 0.6 percent decline in Texas during the last three months of 2008. The rate of job loss in the nation's private sector was 1.3 percent during that same period.

In We Live in Public, acclaimed director Ondi Timoner pieces together footage from two of Harris' past projects, one of which was "Quiet", a chronicle of 100 people living in an underground bunker in Manhattan for 30 days, their every movement recorded (voluntarily) and broadcast online by Harris, until the cops shut it down. Maybe it was the indoor shooting range that did it? Following that experiment, Harris and his girlfriend decided to broadcast their lives 24/7 online for six months—until she had enough and moved out. This from a man who began one of the first online television networks and made millions through web consulting. Harris, "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of," lived in public, and eventually lost his sense of self and his mind. And we could watch it all online.

Thanks to Mashable, we're trying out a new web service that makes it easy for groups to create websites to house their news, photos, message boards, and events. It's called GroupieGuide, and it recently launched a private invite-only alpha test.

Storm system that brought tornadoes to OK this afternoon is headed our way. Two women robbed a man in his North Austin apartment and attacked him with a frying pan and knife; one of them has been arrested. Speaker Straus making House committee assignments this week. Texas Medical Association joins class-action lawsuit against CIGNA and Aetna Insurance companies. AMD not able to reach shareholder quorum on spinoff vote. Peanut Corporation of America suspends operations at its Plainview plant after the salmonella outbreak. Obama Interior Sec. Salazar scraps W's offshore drilling plan.

Amid general economic bad news, a pair of Austin startups have managed to raise significant cash to boost their businesses.

• Obama's Blackberry ushers 2002 technology into the White House.
• The First Family causes J.Crew website to crash.
• Oath do over!

The system maker, currently known more for its business-friendly desktops and notebooks rather than its design sensibilities, quietly shared some "early marketing collateral" to a publication about luxury goods. When NYTimes blogger Ashlee Vance queried Dell VP Michael Tatelman about the possibility of the company unveiling a Macbook Air-type product, Vance claims that "Mr. Tatelman’s mouth gaped open and his eyes darted away from my face."

In an age where Windows and OS X reign supreme, it's no wonder that a local AISD middle school teacher became enraged upon discovering one of her students distributing bootleg copies of an operating system in class.

93-year-old former Texas Supreme Court justice almost drove into Lady Bird Lake today. Current Texas Supreme Court Justice Hecht facing ethics charges after accepting a dicey contribution. Nine major companies (including GE, Dell, IBM and others) are partnering with the Pecan Street Project to bring clean energy & green jobs to Austin. Tech company Analog Devices Inc. shutting down its Austin location. Former American Cancer Society employee involved in cell phone fraud, swindling $590,000 from the non-profit. New York Times fashion critic stops in Austin before Thanksgiving weekend, really likes the Counter Cafe. Farm-to-table dinner tonight at Cipollina.

Motorcyclist killed in early morning hit-and-run on 183 at Burnet Rd. UT cancer research lab fined by the USDA for the escape and death of a chimpanzee. APD searching for woman involved in 6th Street bathroom knife attack in July. The state has dropped half of the FLDS custody cases. Texas Parks and Wildlife increasing the acreage of Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Locally-based Whole Foods is firing 49 of its corporate staffers as part of cost-cutting measures. This week hasn't been the greatest for the business, as news of the FTC holding an administrative hearing on the Wild Oats deal and a recall of ground beef sold in the stores also came out in recent days.

Is there anything the iPhone can't do? The latest useful tool for Austin iPhone-iacs is Me2Bus, which lets you track Austin Capital Metro buses.

Photos of the line at the AT&T at 5th and Lamar early this morning (and the results of the wait) taken by KEB. It seems that if you were able to buy a 3G iPhone today or perhaps attempted to upgrade the apps for your "old" iPhone, you might have come across some issues.

Man who escaped Fayette County jail over the weekend found in Houston. APD chief fired a detective today for insubordination (keeping up financial investigations when he had been told to stop). This sort of thing seems to work better on TV. Three men from Central Texas are sentenced to two years in prison for identity theft after cashing fake checks. Grand jury rules that the Pasadena man who shot the two men robbing his neighbor's house shouldn't be charged. District Judge rules that Democrat Bill Dingus can run against current State Speaker of the House Craddick for his seat.

For the second time in two months, Austin Ventures has committed $50 million toward the creation of an online startup company.

In an opinion released Tuesday, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi said that Dell and Dell Financial Services LP engaged in deceptive business practices, fraud, false advertising and abusive debt collection.

These 'part time students, part time environmentalists' are holding a community-wide electronics recycling drive at the school this Saturday, May 17th. They'll be accepting all electronics, including computers, televisions, CD players, cellphones, and "whatever you can think of." Items that can be refurbished will be kept; anything else will be properly recycled by Austin-based Round 2 Technologies.

Jeffrey Dachis, who led Razorfish during its reign as one of the original digital services firms, will be the chairman and chief executive officer of the new company, which will be based in Austin.