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Keystone Business Solutions is the Hendersonville ...
Did you know that the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce hands out a Business of the Year award? It’s annual–duh–and we’ve just learned that Keystone Business Solutions is this year’s winner.
We’re pretty blown away by it, and very proud. We do a lot to try and offer our clients and our community the very best in our products and services, and it’s rewarding to feel like that’s something the Chamber can see.
Thanks to all the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce members–you guys all help to make Hendersonville such a great place to live. We’re honored to receive this Business of the Year award and will do our best not to brag too much next time we see you.
In all seriousness… thank you.
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The TSA Would Like To See You Naked
Do you remember the security X-ray screeners in the movie Total Recall, where the passengers filed through a corridor and on the outside… security personnel could see their skeletons as they passed through?
Those are now a reality… sort of.
Ten US Airports are getting the machines, with a total of 30 screeners planned across the country by the end of 2008.
The controversy, of course, is that in addition to any guns or other contraband, these machines also apparently show off the passenger’s naked body. The ACLU thinks that’s unacceptable:
“People have no idea how graphic the images are,” Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.
Okay, is there anything the ACLU finds acceptable? Isn’t it their mission to abhor and challenge pretty much everything?
But seriously, they have a point here. How many of you, by show of hands, want the TSA screeners to see you naked? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Oh, but they won’t know who you are:
While it allows the security screeners — looking at the images in a separate room — to clearly see the passenger’s sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger’s face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.
Right. Because they can’t see my face as I’m walking into the machine. Somehow I don’t see the fact that the faces are blurred making Americans feel better about being so exposed.
The images are also not stored in any way, but are erased once the passenger is cleared through the checkpoint. So that’s good, at least.
Look, not to be graphic or anything, but I really don’t care if the TSA wants to see me naked. I’m all for doing whatever it takes to help make the skies safer. And I’m no Adonis–it’s their loss, really, if they have to put me in one of these things.
But millions of Americans are going to cry foul.
Thankfully, the TSA is saying that travelers have some options:
Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines. “The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down,” she told AFP.
Sweet. So if I don’t want strangers to see me naked I can choose to let strangers put their hands all over me. Excellent choice. I believe that’s what’s called a Catch-22.
Anyway, now that the TSA is blogging, you can head over there and leave them some feedback on this new development.
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Disney Will Stream Some Movies Online For Free, Fo...
The Disney Vault is something I loathe and admire all at once. They release movies to DVD (or, in the old days, VHS) for only a limited window, and then put the title back into the “vault” for another 10 years. It creates a nice marketing buzz and cranks up the demand for their beloved films.
It’s a genius idea, from a business perspective–and not too many studios have the cache to pull it off.
But as a consumer, it’s mind-numbingly awful. You have to wait years for certain titles to become available. I honestly think it’s counter productive at this point. In today’s on-demand world, I think they’d make more money if I could buy Bambi whenever I darn well pleased.
(Don’t even get me started on this business about Disney DVD’s ALWAYS costing $20, no matter what… no matter where… no matter the title. That is about as annoying as anything.)
So the announcement today that Disney will start streaming their films online for free caused a bit of cautiousness in me (understandably so). Because I figure there would have to be some major catch to this deal.
And guess what… there is.
First, not all Disney movies will be streamed. Only the films they are showing each week this summer on ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney series will be streaming online for free–and only for the week following their airing on television.
So, it’s basically the streaming-online version of the Disney Vault.
That being said, if you have kids, and haven’t bought Finding Nemo for them yet (what are you waiting for?), you can watch it online with them for free through Friday.
While I can see some upside to this for the consumer, it’s very small. Fact is… if you’ve got high-speed internet and a hearty enough computer to handle quality video streaming, you can probably afford to own the Disney titles your kids love–and you probably already do.
Oh well. At least they’re trying something. Here’s a sampling of some of the other movies to come this summer, from the article:
“Monsters, Inc.,” “Haunted Mansion,” “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen,” “Princess Diaries 2,” “Freaky Friday” and “Peter Pan” also will be available on the site this summer.
So there you go. If you want to watch any of those movies online for free, with your family or something… check out the article. Or you can just borrow my Finding Nemo DVD.
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Just Born: United Chambers of Sumner County
The many Chambers of Commerce in the Sumner County area decided to work together in a big way, and part of that mission was to design a launch-pad website through which one could access the site of any of the individual municipal chambers.
We have worked with most of the Sumner-area chambers before on websites and other projects (we’re members of several as well) and have always found each to be a pleasure to work with. As this was basically just a one-page portal to the individual Chamber sites, we tried to evoke some things visually that would speak to this wonderful Sumner County area we all love.
Check out the new site at SumnerCountyChambers.org.
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Microsoft Lets Windows XP Live On With Last-Minute...
We’ve sort of been following the saga of Windows XP for some time now. Clearly Microsoft would prefer all users to move on up to Windows Vista. But for various reasons (mostly bad reviews and XP loyalty), a lot of users have resisted.
The availability of XP on new computer purchases has been reluctantly extended by Microsoft a few times already, and they were set to shutter it this month. And whether it was due to user petitions or simply basic business math… Microsoft has decided to extend XP’s life yet again with a last minute stay of execution from Governor Gates.
Actually, they’re extending its availability through 2010–when the next Operating System from Microsoft (currently called Windows 7) will be released.
That’s right. They’re going to let you buy XP all the way up to when Vista’s new baby brother arrives.
But… there is a catch (isn’t there always a catch?). You can only get XP on new machines if you’re buying the lower-end computers.
From the article:
The extension Microsoft granted to XP for these low cost laptops, or netbooks, covered machines that have no more than 1GB of RAM; a hard drive up to 80GB in size; a processor running no faster than 1GHz; a screen no larger than 10.2in (25cm) and no touch screen.
So far Microsoft has laid down no specifications for the low cost desktops, called nettops, but it said it was working with 20 PC makers on these machines.
So, basically, if you want to buy a really slow computer that might have been top of the line 8 years ago, you can still get XP. Sweet! It’s really kind of a bittersweet victory, though, isn’t it?
But seriously, if all you use your computer for is surfing websites and checking email, then you’re probably the target market here. If you want to watch DVDs or play video games or do much in the way of multi-media… you’re stuck having to upgrade to Vista–which really isn’t as bad a thing as you might think.
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