So Tyra Banks has learned how the other half lives.  Wow.  Remarkable.  Lets see, the world is full of assholes but apparently being rich and shapely makes them all disappear.  I would love to see Tyra disguise herself as a minimum wage worker and try to survive without becoming a stripper.  Much more entertaining television there.

Tyra Banks Goes Undercover As Obese Woman (AP) –

AP – Tyra Banks has gone undercover as a 350-pound woman.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)

Not to brag or nuthin, but at work I just plugged in my new 19" LCD and sweet holy mother of pixelicious love!  Its huge!  Its enormous!  It could change the Middle East Peace process.

OK, maybe not.  But you get the idea. 

 Extreme Tech takes a look at the generic PC from Fry’s Electronics. 

Verdict: for what you pay ($159) you get a suprisingly effective little websurfing and office use box.  And since this is a sale item (normally $269) the geeks at Extreme Tech found they couldn’t build it themselves cheaper.  They do recommend a memory upgrade but were pleased with what their $159 got them.

The $159 PC – Review: Loyd picks up a PC for $159, including OS, keyboard, mouse and speakers. Is a $159 PC a viable option? The answer lies in what you want to use it for. Is this the wave of the future?

(Via Extreme Tech)

 Just a nifty little piece of gear.  The only downside is that its from Sony so I expect some proprietary nonsense from it.  Next step for me would be to make the whole unit WiFi enabled so when I parked my car near the house, it showed up on the network automatically.  But this is a start.

MP3s From PC to Car in Seconds Flat –

Sony is putting out a new CD receiver for the car that will let you take off its faceplate, connect it to a PC and download your music as if it was an external drive. Just snap the faceplate back on, and all is well in the world of digital music. The Xplod MEX-1GP (Giga Panel) model—the name alone is worth an extra $25—is an AM/FM CD/MP3 receiver and can store up to 500 tunes, also allowing playback of CD-R/RW discs and any compressed music files burned onto a CD. It’s got a 13 segment LCD display, a built-in 208-watt power amplifier and a three-band equalizer. Comes with a wireless remote and will be available in February for about $350.

Sony’s Latest CD Receiver Transfers Music DIrectly From A PC To A Car Stereo [Sony]

(Via Gizmodo)

 Its ok to laugh.  This really is funny. 

Greenpeace fined for reef damage – Greenpeace fined for reef damage Environmental group Greenpeace has been fined almost $7,000 (£4,000) for damaging a coral reef at a World Heritage site in the Philippines. I know it’s wrong, but I just couldn’t stop laughing when I read this…

(Via Metafilter)

 Yes, I know the machine is going to be laden with free AOL offers and MSN nonsense.  But for $400 for a modern machine with a bigger hard drive than my aging desktop I would be tempted to stand in line and promptly load Linux on it when I got home.

Wal Mart and the $400 laptop –

Looks like Wal Mart’s one-upping itself from it’s sub-$600 laptops last year; looks like in 2005 you’re going to be able to get a $400 laptop from the ‘Mart, and a not too terrible one, at that (AMD 2800+ Sempron, 256MB RAM, 40GB drive, 15-inch screen, CD-RW/DVD). We’re sure they’re making like $3 on this thing, so come Black Friday (when they’re expected to sell in stores alongside their $400 desktop brethren) don’t be surprised if you’re in a super long line for a 12-pound monster of a laptop with a 25 minute battery life. But wow, what a stocking stuffer. At this rate, by 2008 you’ll be getting paid by rebate to take these damned things off their hands, as they’ll be just another loss-leader to get your ass into the store on the worst shopping day of the year.

(Via Engadget)