One of the great things about holiday marathons — The Twilight Zone Marathon on SyFy.

- ferg

One of the great things about holiday marathons — The Twilight Zone Marathon on SyFy.

- ferg

Happy New Year to all my readers! May this be a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous year ahead for you and your families! See you in 2010! Brian

Happy New Year to all my readers! May this be a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous year ahead for you and your families! See you in 2010! Brian

More Mark Fiore brilliance.

Via The San Francisco Chronicle.

Happy New Year,

- ferg

More Mark Fiore brilliance.

Via The San Francisco Chronicle.

Happy New Year,

- ferg

Saber-rattling between Time-Warner Cable and New Corp.’s Fox continues as the two have not settled their dispute over rates that the TWC will pay News Corp for Fox and its associated channels (Fox News, FX, etc., etc.). If all goes down as threatened, when the New Year rings in, it will be without any Fox channels on TWC.

Whether or not it actually happens remains to be seen. After all, no less that the FCC’s Chairman Julius Genachowski said he has “urged Fox and Time Warner Cable to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new carriage agreement today.” It could end up like TWC’s dust-up with Viacom last year, which settled at the last second. Or it could be like DirecTV’s negotiations with Versus, which resulted in Versus being shut down in September.

With all this going on, you might expect some enmity, and thus TWC has posted instructions on how to cut the cable, meaning how to head to Hulu, Fancast, or “any search engine” to find their shows. They can then use TWC’s instructions (below) on how to connect your PC to a TV, and watch sans cable (TV, at least).

In a way this is like cutting off your nose to spite your face, as the horror that cable and satellite companies imagine is that people actually start doing this en masse. Companies like TWC and Comcast would still be needed for the Internet, but they might lose their TV subscriptions.

Naturally, not that many people would go this far, but it is something that some people actually have done, already. Through the use of Hulu or some other method (BitTorrent), they get everything via the Internet, one way or another.

Of course, there’s always the one thing that will draw people back to TV: live sports and live events. Those are typically not broadcast as they happen. Anyone want to miss the Super Bowl?

As far as if this cut-off really happens, it looks like it will come down to the wire. The last major shutdown of major proportions came in 2004, when Viacom and Dish Network couldn’t reach an accord, and a number of stations, including CBS, horrifically for CSI fans, were shut down for a few days.

Read the instructions below, as well as a video (not too professionally made, as there’s some nasty coughing around 2:30).

TV_to_PC_TWC –

Saber-rattling between Time-Warner Cable and New Corp.’s Fox continues as the two have not settled their dispute over rates that the TWC will pay News Corp for Fox and its associated channels (Fox News, FX, etc., etc.). If all goes down as threatened, when the New Year rings in, it will be without any Fox channels on TWC.

Whether or not it actually happens remains to be seen. After all, no less that the FCC’s Chairman Julius Genachowski said he has “urged Fox and Time Warner Cable to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new carriage agreement today.” It could end up like TWC’s dust-up with Viacom last year, which settled at the last second. Or it could be like DirecTV’s negotiations with Versus, which resulted in Versus being shut down in September.

With all this going on, you might expect some enmity, and thus TWC has posted instructions on how to cut the cable, meaning how to head to Hulu, Fancast, or “any search engine” to find their shows. They can then use TWC’s instructions (below) on how to connect your PC to a TV, and watch sans cable (TV, at least).

In a way this is like cutting off your nose to spite your face, as the horror that cable and satellite companies imagine is that people actually start doing this en masse. Companies like TWC and Comcast would still be needed for the Internet, but they might lose their TV subscriptions.

Naturally, not that many people would go this far, but it is something that some people actually have done, already. Through the use of Hulu or some other method (BitTorrent), they get everything via the Internet, one way or another.

Of course, there’s always the one thing that will draw people back to TV: live sports and live events. Those are typically not broadcast as they happen. Anyone want to miss the Super Bowl?

As far as if this cut-off really happens, it looks like it will come down to the wire. The last major shutdown of major proportions came in 2004, when Viacom and Dish Network couldn’t reach an accord, and a number of stations, including CBS, horrifically for CSI fans, were shut down for a few days.

Read the instructions below, as well as a video (not too professionally made, as there’s some nasty coughing around 2:30).

TV_to_PC_TWC –

Lake Superior State University (LSSU) unleashed its 35th annual List of Banished Words, those words it wishes to see disappear from the English language. Most interesting this year are the number of technology-based words it has decided to “unfriend.”

Qualifications for the list include misuse, overuse, and general uselessness. “The list this year is a ‘teachable moment’ conducted free of ‘tweets,’” said a Word Banishment spokesman who was “chillaxin’” for the holidays. “‘In these economic times’, purging our language of ‘toxic assets’ is a ’stimulus’ effort that’s ‘too big to fail.’”

The annual list is developed by receiving nominations from the public, which are then culled by the word czars at LSSU. The list of LSSU banished words includes the following that are tech-related:

FRIEND AS A VERB – Came into popularity through social networking websites. You add someone to your network by “friending” them, or remove them by “unfriending” them.

“‘Befriend’ is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary.” – Kevin K., Morris, Okla.

TWEET – And all of its variations…tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere …

“People tweet and retweet and I just heard the word ‘tweet’ so many times it lost all meaning.” – Ricardo, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Jay Brazier of Williamston, Mich. says she supposes that tweeters might be “twits.”

APP – Short for application, as in the App Store.

“Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen? I hate the sound of it. I think I’ll listen to a symph on the rad.” — Edward R. Bolt, Grand Rapids, Mich.

SEXTING – Sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through the cell phone.

“Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.” – Ishmael Daro, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

SHOVEL-READY – “Apparently, the generally accepted definition of this phrase is to imply that a project has been completely designed and all that is left to do is to implement it…however, when something dies, it, too, is shovel-ready for burial and so I get confused about the meaning. I would suggest that we just say the project is ready to implement.” – Jerry Redington, Keosauqua, Iowa.

IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES … – Nominations concerning the economy started rolling in as the 2009 list was being put together last year, i.e. “bailout.” They kept coming this year, in these trouble economic times. “South Park” warned us about what would happen if we angered The Economy.

“In this economy, we can’t afford to be wasteful … In this economy, we all need some security…In this economy, frogs could start falling from the sky … In this economy, blah blah blah … Overused for everything from trying to market products as inexpensive to simply explaining any and all behavior during the recession.” – Mark, Milwaukee, Wisc.

STIMULUS – “Everything in the news is about the stimulus packages … it is no longer a grant, it’s stimulus money, stimulus checks, etc. I think it is just being over-used.” Teri Heikkila, Rudyard, Mich.

TOXIC ASSETS – We think we’re going to be sick.

“Whatever happened to simply ‘bad stocks,’ ‘debts,’ or ‘loans’?” — Monty Heidenreich, Homewood, Ill.

TOO BIG TO FAIL – “Just for the record, nothing’s too big to fail unless the government lets it.” Claire Shefchik, Brooklyn, NY.

TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY – “I can see clearly that this is the new buzzword for the year.” — Joann Eschenburg, Clinton Twp., Mich.

CZAR – Long used by the media as a metaphor for positions of high authority, including “baseball czar” Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life in 1919. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had an “industry czar” during World War I. Lesser-known “czar” roles in government during the last 100 years include: censorship, housing and oil czars in 1941; rubber czar in 1942; patronage czar (1945); clean-up (1952); missile (1954); inflation (1971); e-commerce (1998); bioethics, faith-based and reading czars (2001); bird flu (2004); democracy (2005); abstinence and birth control czars (2006); and weatherization czar (2008).

George W. Bush appointed 47 people to 35 “czar” jobs; Pres. Obama, eight appointments to 38 positions.

TEACHABLE MOMENT – What might otherwise be known as ‘a lesson.’ “It’s a condescending substitute for ‘opportunity to make a point,’” says Eric Rosenquist of College Station, Tex.

BROMANCE – “Have we really reached the point where being friends has to be described in a pseudo-romantic context? Just stop it already!” — Greg Zagorski, Washington, D.C.

“I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!” – Kaylynn, Alberta, Canada.

CHILLAXIN’ – Nominated for several years. We couldn’t chill about it anymore.

“Heard everywhere from MTV to ESPN to CNN. A bothersome term that seeks to combine chillin’ with relaxin’ makes me want to be ‘axin’ this word.” – Tammy, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

OBAMA-prefix or roots? – The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland … We say Obamanough already.

2009’s list wasn’t so tech-centric. It did include <3, which is supposed to resemble a heart, or stand for the word “love,” and is obviously used when sending those text messages.

Lake Superior State University (LSSU) unleashed its 35th annual List of Banished Words, those words it wishes to see disappear from the English language. Most interesting this year are the number of technology-based words it has decided to “unfriend.”

Qualifications for the list include misuse, overuse, and general uselessness. “The list this year is a ‘teachable moment’ conducted free of ‘tweets,’” said a Word Banishment spokesman who was “chillaxin’” for the holidays. “‘In these economic times’, purging our language of ‘toxic assets’ is a ’stimulus’ effort that’s ‘too big to fail.’”

The annual list is developed by receiving nominations from the public, which are then culled by the word czars at LSSU. The list of LSSU banished words includes the following that are tech-related:

FRIEND AS A VERB – Came into popularity through social networking websites. You add someone to your network by “friending” them, or remove them by “unfriending” them.

“‘Befriend’ is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary.” – Kevin K., Morris, Okla.

TWEET – And all of its variations…tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere …

“People tweet and retweet and I just heard the word ‘tweet’ so many times it lost all meaning.” – Ricardo, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Jay Brazier of Williamston, Mich. says she supposes that tweeters might be “twits.”

APP – Short for application, as in the App Store.

“Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen? I hate the sound of it. I think I’ll listen to a symph on the rad.” — Edward R. Bolt, Grand Rapids, Mich.

SEXTING – Sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through the cell phone.

“Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.” – Ishmael Daro, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

SHOVEL-READY – “Apparently, the generally accepted definition of this phrase is to imply that a project has been completely designed and all that is left to do is to implement it…however, when something dies, it, too, is shovel-ready for burial and so I get confused about the meaning. I would suggest that we just say the project is ready to implement.” – Jerry Redington, Keosauqua, Iowa.

IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES … – Nominations concerning the economy started rolling in as the 2009 list was being put together last year, i.e. “bailout.” They kept coming this year, in these trouble economic times. “South Park” warned us about what would happen if we angered The Economy.

“In this economy, we can’t afford to be wasteful … In this economy, we all need some security…In this economy, frogs could start falling from the sky … In this economy, blah blah blah … Overused for everything from trying to market products as inexpensive to simply explaining any and all behavior during the recession.” – Mark, Milwaukee, Wisc.

STIMULUS – “Everything in the news is about the stimulus packages … it is no longer a grant, it’s stimulus money, stimulus checks, etc. I think it is just being over-used.” Teri Heikkila, Rudyard, Mich.

TOXIC ASSETS – We think we’re going to be sick.

“Whatever happened to simply ‘bad stocks,’ ‘debts,’ or ‘loans’?” — Monty Heidenreich, Homewood, Ill.

TOO BIG TO FAIL – “Just for the record, nothing’s too big to fail unless the government lets it.” Claire Shefchik, Brooklyn, NY.

TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY – “I can see clearly that this is the new buzzword for the year.” — Joann Eschenburg, Clinton Twp., Mich.

CZAR – Long used by the media as a metaphor for positions of high authority, including “baseball czar” Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life in 1919. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had an “industry czar” during World War I. Lesser-known “czar” roles in government during the last 100 years include: censorship, housing and oil czars in 1941; rubber czar in 1942; patronage czar (1945); clean-up (1952); missile (1954); inflation (1971); e-commerce (1998); bioethics, faith-based and reading czars (2001); bird flu (2004); democracy (2005); abstinence and birth control czars (2006); and weatherization czar (2008).

George W. Bush appointed 47 people to 35 “czar” jobs; Pres. Obama, eight appointments to 38 positions.

TEACHABLE MOMENT – What might otherwise be known as ‘a lesson.’ “It’s a condescending substitute for ‘opportunity to make a point,’” says Eric Rosenquist of College Station, Tex.

BROMANCE – “Have we really reached the point where being friends has to be described in a pseudo-romantic context? Just stop it already!” — Greg Zagorski, Washington, D.C.

“I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!” – Kaylynn, Alberta, Canada.

CHILLAXIN’ – Nominated for several years. We couldn’t chill about it anymore.

“Heard everywhere from MTV to ESPN to CNN. A bothersome term that seeks to combine chillin’ with relaxin’ makes me want to be ‘axin’ this word.” – Tammy, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

OBAMA-prefix or roots? – The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland … We say Obamanough already.

2009’s list wasn’t so tech-centric. It did include <3, which is supposed to resemble a heart, or stand for the word “love,” and is obviously used when sending those text messages.