Tech
McKinley Whitehall, Inc. - David Simkins Writes for Television

Speaking of flying cars...

03/09/10 03:58 PM Filed in: Play
Jalopnik links to Popular Science’s best flying car covers. Ah, if only.

popsci_flying_car_1

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Not a flying car, but it's close

03/07/10 11:01 PM Filed in: Play
To really get this, watch it with the sound off. Just look at this thing. I mean look at it. Holy cripes.




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This won't end well

02/22/10 10:28 AM Filed in: Play


Nice.


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Duh.

02/09/10 12:38 PM Filed in: Rant
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Warner Music Group during its fiscal results call today acknowledged that its digital music sales have slowed since it helped push for variable pricing on iTunes last year. In the fall, the company's digital sales equivalent to whole albums grew about 5 percent compared to late 2008 where it grew 10 percent over this past summer and 11 percent in the spring. Absolute digital revenue followed a similar pattern as the income grew 8 percent year-over-year in late 2009, but less than half the 20 percent from the end of 2008.

[Electronista)

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Die-by-wire?

02/06/10 11:39 PM Filed in: Rant
John Dvorak at Marketwatch:

In a Prius, as well as many computer-controlled Toyotas, the accelerator pedal is more like a volume-control knob than anything else. In the olden days when you stepped on the pedal, it would be directly connected to, say, a carburetor, and open a valve mechanically as you pushed down.

This is now passé, as this activity is done electronically on the most modern cars by network signaling.

A good article explaining how auto makers went from hardware to software and may have put us all into hot water. Here’s hoping not.

[Marketwatch]

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Discussing the iPad

02/06/10 01:56 PM Filed in: Play
Charlie Rose spoke with David Carr, Michael Arrington and Walt Mossberg about Apple’s new iPad.



[Gizmodo]

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Shootout science

02/03/10 10:20 AM Filed in: Play
Pal Bob Goodman clued me to this (perhaps because I’ve just written a shootout on main street for a certain show I’m working on).



A fun examination of the neuroscience behind the Western Showdown.

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iPad via Mad TV

01/29/10 11:41 PM Filed in: Play
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NPR snagged the Mad TV writers who introduced the world to the original iPad. Funny.






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California needs high speed trains

01/28/10 11:40 PM Filed in: Rant


I hate flying. But I love traveling. Yeah, it’s a pickle. Here’s a slick bit of promotion pushing for high speed trains in California. The Huffington Post has an AP article on the deal. Here’s a piece of it:

High-speed rail projects in California, Florida and Illinois are among the big winners of $8 billion in grants announced Thursday by the White House – the start of what some Democrats tout as a national rail-building program that could rival the interstate highways begun in the Eisenhower era.

President Barack Obama announced the awards during a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla. – a follow-up to Wednesday's State of the Union address that focused on getting Americans back to work. Thirteen passenger rail corridors in 31 states will receive grants, which are funded by the economic recovery act enacted last year.


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Your pad or mine?

01/27/10 01:35 PM Filed in: Play


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Old media is new again

01/21/10 09:19 PM Filed in: Play
From Daily Finance:

Steve Jobs plans to bring new hope to old media with his tablet device. It will work well as a web-searching tool, but in addition it will almost certainly offer access to a wide array of text books, newspapers, and TV shows. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs plans to "expand Apple's influence and revenue as a content middleman." The company is already a dominant force in digital music because of its iTunes business. The Journal reports Apple is in talks with major newspaper companies and textbook firms.

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iCannot Wait!

01/21/10 06:14 PM Filed in: Play
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Gizmodo has a great roundup of the Apple tablet rumors. Lots of fun stuff here. Yippee.












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The Virtual Revolution

01/21/10 06:03 PM Filed in: Play
Gizmodo’s heads-up re: The BBC’s upcoming documentary, The Virtual Revolution. Looks cool.
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Blow!

01/05/10 04:14 PM Filed in: Play
dyson_airblade

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Memory (Chip) Lane

11/12/09 01:18 PM Filed in: Play
I'm sick as a sick sick dog today. So of course I'm reflecting on better times. Ahh. Hardware.









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Newspapers Lose the Paper

10/16/09 02:17 PM Filed in: Play

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It's going to happen. And with this, subscription-based "print" media will finally be justified.

From Wired: Picture a free magazine app that offers one sample issue and the ability to purchase future issues afterward. Or a newspaper app that only displays text articles with pictures, but paying a fee within the app unlocks an entire new digital experience packed with music and video. This is an example of the “freemium” model that Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson explains in his book Free. It’s a model that some publishers, including Wired’s parent company Condé Nast, are already experimenting with on their websites. (Our sister publication Ars Technica, for example, offers its general content for free, as well as a “Premier” subscription option for readers to access exclusive content.)

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Making Head with Ed and Ted

05/05/09 03:59 PM Filed in: Play
Summary only available when permalinks are enabled. Read More...

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Apple Not Slowed By Recession

04/10/09 08:53 PM Filed in: Play
Summary only available when permalinks are enabled. Read More...

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I Want One

02/09/09 09:03 PM Filed in: Play
Summary only available when permalinks are enabled. Read More...

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mckinley whitehall
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Suffer the musings, ramblings and occasional shameless self-promotion of a toiler in the screen trade.



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I've been producing and writing for television since I was thirteen. Began getting paid for it at 28. I wrote about a babysitter's night on the town for Disney then shared some adventures with Brisco County, Jr. and Lois and Clark before heading off to work with three witches, aliens in Roswell, a Dark Angel, a vampire, a wizard and at a warehouse in South Dakota. For a bigger bio hit IMDB.com.
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