Donovan McNabb made it pretty clear in his introductory news conference Tuesday he has an enormous chip on his shoulder. That's a great sign for Redskins fans. Washington landed an elite-level quarterback who spent the past 11 seasons making the Eagles one of the most successful organizations in the league. Watching him hold his new No. 5 burgundy and gold jersey with coach Mike Shanahan was the first of many surreal moments this blockbuster trade will produce.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/12806/mcnabb-opens-book-of-donovan
A few years ago, Scott Piercy stepped to the tee at TPC Scottsdale's notoriously rambunctious 16th hole and stiffed his shot to within 10 feet of the cup.
The crowd went wild, but not in the way you might expect. They booed him.
"They have high expectations of us," Piercy said while recalling that moment. "I just tipped my cap and waved."
Talk about a tough room.
On most occasions during the PGA Tour season, there are three appropriate responses to golf shots: wild applause for the great ones, polite clapping for the average ones, deafening silence for the poor ones.
The 16th at this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open is not one of these usual occasions.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/4941128/exception-to-rule
Thirty years ago, the future of golf films was changed forever.
When a meddlesome gopher won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the classic "Caddyshack," it set a precedent that this genre should be taken seriously by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Since then, "Tin Cup," "Happy Gilmore" and even somewhat inexplicably "The Legend of Bagger Vance" have all earned Best Picture accolades, but never before has a group of golf movies dominated the overall landscape like they did this year.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/4980682/talk-about-golf-movie-madness
I cannot tell a lie. There are plenty of times when being a golf writer is a pretty sweet gig.
For example, my favorite workday of the year: Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club -- just not the Sunday you're likely thinking about. Sure, the final round of the Masters Tournament is always entertaining, and watching the newest winner slide his arms into a green jacket is cool, but I'm talking about the Sunday before the tournament begins.
It is on this day that you will find the venue in its most natural and relaxed setting all week, as competitors mingle with members -- the former teeing it up in preparation for the event, the latter getting in one final round before stepping aside. No patrons are allowed through the front gates yet, and only a limited number of media usually attend, offering a unique, behind-the-scenes feel of the game's best players at the world's most famous club.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/5002393/expect-business-usual-tiger-return
How else to explain why the anticipation of the anouncement of his playing partners at this week's Masters Tournament and their ultimate revelation has become such major news?
Tiger Tracker -->
Get all the latest news, highlights and commentary about the world's No. 1 golfer on ESPN.com. Tiger Tracker
It was announced early Tuesday afternoon that Woods will play in the 1:42 p.m. ET group with K.J. Choi and Matt Kuchar in the opening round. Almost immediately, speculation was that such a grouping will throw off the games of those veteran pros, in effect killing their chances of contending for a green jacket.
I don't get it.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/5060718/much-ado-tiger-playing-partners
There was quite a privacy backlash after Google announced Buzz in February. The day it was announced, I was one of many who raised questions about both the privacy and safety implications of the service, including the fact that it is possible to use Buzz to disclose your location from a GPS-enabled mobile device. CNET's Molly Wood was less charitable, calling Buzz a "privacy nightmare."
The collective groan caused Google to almost immediately apologize for it missteps and quickly tweak its privacy settings.
On Monday, the company announced plans to start reminding users to reconfirm their privacy settings.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10472824-238.html
Don't worry, everyone. The Scrabble you know and love isn't changing.
When I read this morning that starting this July, the Scrabble rules will change to allow the use of proper nouns, I had to check today's date to make sure it wasn't somehow still April Fools' Day.
But no, according to every calendar I could find, today is April 6, and so the story from the BBC seemed to have been the real deal. In that story, a Mattel spokesperson is quoted as saying the rule change, which is expected to be introduced in a new version of Scrabble to be released in July, will "add a new dimension" to the game and "introduce an element of popular culture into the game."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20001840-52.html
It's more than a little ironic that the new "Glo" Web site--a highly stylized women's lifestyle destination that MSN just debuted after midnight today in partnership with Hollywood's BermanBraun and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.--will likely be one of the online media sites that shine best on the new Apple iPad.
Even though it was conceived before the tablet was even announced and currently uses Apple-barred Adobe Flash in its headline rendering (soon to be adjusted), Glo is actually more aimed at upending the notion of what makes a good women-focused Web site.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20001837-93.html
The appeal of the iPad, HP's upcoming Slate, and other tablets will take a bite out of Netbook sales this year, according to a report released Monday by DisplaySearch.
Driven by the iPad, the tablet market will see dramatic gains this year, taking market share away from clamshell-style Netbooks, says DisplaySearch's "Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report."
Most of the growth, especially for the iPad, will come from North America and Western Europe, where Apple has set up key distribution lines and created agreements with content providers. Overall, consumers are expected to pick up around 5 million tablets this year, forecasts DisplaySearch.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20001820-1.html
Google's quest to build the ultimate machine-learning system has produced some lessons of its own.
The project, code-named "Seti" in a nod to the search for life in outer space, is being used on huge data sets in an attempt to solve what Google calls "hard prediction problems." Google revealed the name of the project in a blog post Tuesday that also acknowledged the limits of engineering.
Machine learning is a favorite topic of Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and is useful for improving translation algorithms and semantic understanding, according to Google. But, of course, it's an enormously complex notion, one that can intimidate even Google's computer scientists that could make use of such a system.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20001843-265.html
The ailing Rhapsody music service that Viacom and RealNetworks failed to revive starts going it alone this month. The newly independent company will partner with a major music label this time around as well as slash monthly music prices from $15 to $10.
In February, Viacom and Real announced they would spin off the jointly run music subscription service and that they would sell a minority share while each held on to 47 percent of the company's stock. On Monday, Rhapsody said that Universal Music Group, the largest of the top four recording companies, has acquired a stake of just under 5 percent. An undisclosed entity acquired an even smaller amount.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20001831-261.html
More big news out of the Digg camp this week. Late Monday, Digg founder (and now interim CEO) Kevin Rose announced via blog post that the company would be "killing" the DiggBar, the iFrame-based content viewer that caused a lion's share of controversy when it was launched this time last year.
In Rose's own words, he called the DiggBar an "inconsistent" and "wonky" user experience, and one that was "bad for the Internet." According to Rose, the company will instead choose to focus on its browser extensions, which offer many of the same features that could be found in the DiggBar. Rose said that these add-ons would also be overhauled in a few months' time.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20001844-248.html
Researchers have uncovered a spy network that stole classified and other sensitive documents from the Indian government, the Dalai Lama's office, the United Nations, and compromised computers elsewhere, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The operation, dubbed "Shadow Network," is detailed in a report that also cites evidence it says links the Shadow network to two people living in Chengdu, China, and the underground hacking community in that country.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20001857-245.html
An investor in Plastic Logic said he was misquoted in a recent report and the e-book reader company is not for sale.
The Financial Times suggests that Plastic Logic backer Hermann Hauser was interested in a buyer for the maker of the yet-to-hit-the-market Que ProReader, quoting Hauser as saying the company was "in very interesting negotiations." However, Hauser said Tuesday that his comments were misconstrued.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20001865-56.html
The Federal Trade Commission is inching closer to a decision on whether to challenge Google's pending acquisition of AdMob.
Staff members inside the regulatory group have been asked to start preparing for the possibility of action against Google, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. That doesn't mean they are necessarily planning to take action, but the move--coming weeks after reports that AdMob competitors were being asked to weigh in on the deal--shows that the FTC clearly hasn't decided against it, either.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20001871-265.html
Didn't it seem like just yesterday that everyone and their brother was announcing plans to launch an e-reader? Well, now that the Apple iPad has landed, we wouldn't be surprised to see the floodgates opening and tablet announcements flying just as fast and furiously, if not more so.
Today's supposed contender: Finnish phone giant Nokia, which is working with design and manufacturing partners on a new touch-screen tablet that could emerge as early as this fall--at least according to one analyst, Ashok Kumar of Rodman Renshaw.
A federal appeals court decision against the Federal Communications Commission has left many people wondering if the open Internet's days are numbered.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. unanimously tossed out an FCC cease-and-desist order against cable giant Comcast. The FCC said in 2008 that Comcast had illegally slowed its customers' Bit Torrent traffic. Comcast, which changed its practices voluntarily before the FCC took action, claimed it was simply managing its network. The cable giant appealed the FCC's order to clear its name and set the record straight.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20001886-266.html
Undoubtedly, the Apple iPad is an entirely new class of device, but is it the gadget for you? CNET Senior Editor Donald Bell gives you his final word on whether the iPad will change the world as we know it--and whether it's worth your money. Read more
"As if the "Star Wars Holiday Special" and Jar-Jar weren't insulting enough to fans, George Lucas has decided to turn the franchise into an animated sitcom. I have a bad feeling about this." The article says that Seth Green is involved, which either sets off your late April Fools Day alarm, immeasurable dread, or excitement.
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/1718250/Star-Wars-To-Air-As-Animated-Sitcom
Now that the 300,000 early adaptors have had a few days to play and work with their iPads, we're moving beyond the "first impressions" articles (but here's a video of a 2-1/2-year-old's first encounter with the device). The detailed reviews aren't out yet. The largest source of early complaints is a complex of problems with Wi-Fi reception. Apple has posted a technical support note implicitly acknowledging the problems and suggesting some work-arounds — specifically, changing SSIDs or encryption methods on base stations that offer both 2.4-GHz and 5.8-GHz signals. Finally, here's a
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/1848242/iPad-Progress-Report
"From NPR comes this story about old-school communications in the age of Twitter: 'Only a few years ago, blogs listed ham radio alongside 35 mm film and VHS tape as technologies slated to disappear. They were wrong. Nearly 700,000 Americans have ham radio licenses — up 60 percent from 1981, a generation ago. And the number is growing.' The article goes on to say that while there's plenty of 60-plus year old hams, there's also a growing contingent of teens. I just met a 14-year-old, licensed in 2009. Getting rid of the Morse Code requirement sure helped in that regard. So does the fact that the test questions (and the answers) are freely available, legally, on the Internet. Study, take the test, hang the license certificate on the wall. Your geek cred gets an immediate boost. And who knows? Maybe the next time there's a Haiti-earthquake-sized disaster, you'll be one of the thousands of ham volunteers who provided the only communications in/out of Haiti for weeks following the quake, not to mention all of the tactical comms the country had for nearly a month."
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/195245/Ham-Radio-Still-Growing-In-the-iStuff-Age
"The Washington Post reports that under Obama's new 'Nuclear Posture Review,' released today, the US will foreswear the use of the nuclear weapons against nonnuclear countries, in contrast to previous administrations, which indicated they might use nuclear arms against nonnuclear states in retaliation for a biological or chemical attack. But the new policy included a major caveat: The countries must be in compliance with their nonproliferation obligations under international treaties. The problem for Iran and North Korea is that the pledge does not cover them because the US regards them as in non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The new policy will also describe the purpose of US weapons as being fundamentally for deterrence. Some Democratic legislators had urged Obama to go further and declare that the United States would not use nuclear weapons first in a conflict, but officials worried that such a change could unnerve allies protected by the US nuclear 'umbrella.' The president of the Ploughshares Fund said of the new stance, 'It orients US policy towards dramatically fewer weapons and greatly reduced roles.'"
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/1951202/Obama-Unveils-New-Nuclear-Doctrine
"Awesome: 'A gambling bill introduced by Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo criminalizes internet gambling and online poker. The bill calls for two casinos.' Not that they're against gambling, you see... just against being deprived of a monopoly in such a perfect fleecing opportunity."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/2036259/Mass-Gambling-Bill-Would-Criminalize-Online-Poker
Ars Technica is reporting that Yelp is going to change some features in the wake of the class-action suit brought against it. Yelp has been accused of extortion; the Yelp co-founder denies all. The NY Times Bits blog has more details about the changes Yelp intends to make. According to Ars, the business that filed the lawsuit say that the newly announced changes do not address their original complaints at all."
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/07/0044215/Yelp-To-Clarify-How-Advertising-Affects-Listing
"Several universities and commercial entities are developing multimodal, multitouch games, such as a card game with iPhones for individual hands and an iPad for public information and an iPad Scrabble game that lets you use your iPhone to see your letter tiles. Of course, it's an extremely expensive setup right now, but over time it will become cheaper. It's also pretty cool, so why wouldn't you want to play board/card/strategy games like this?"
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/04/07/0214239/Multimodal-Multitouch-Gaming-Gaining-Traction
"After more than 4 years C is back at position number 1 in the TIOBE index. The scores for C have been pretty constant through the years, varying between the 15% and 20% market share for almost 10 years. So the main reason for C's number 1 position is not C's uprise, but the decline of its competitor Java. Java has a long-term downward trend. It is losing ground to other languages running on the JVM. An example of such a language is JavaFX script that is now approaching the top 20."
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/2354221/C-Programming-Language-Back-At-Number-1
Warner Bros. has picked up Dante Harper's adaptation of "All You Need is Kill," a Japanese novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Deadline New York says the project will be put on the fast track with filming possibly to start within 12 months.VIZ Media describes the book as follows:There's one thing worse than dying. It's coming back to do it again and again... When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the B*tch of War. Is the B*tch the key to Keiji's escape, or to his final death?
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64816
Deadline New York reports that Marvel Studios is negotiating with Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist helmer Peter Sollett to direct Runaways, based on the comic book series co-created by Brian K. Vaughan and artist Adrian Alphona.Runaways follows a group of teenagers who find that some family secrets are bigger than others when they discover their parents are actually super-villains. Running away from their homes, the teens band together and begin a journey of discovery, both of their parents' origins and of their own inherited powers, while trying to make up for the evil done by their folks.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64814
Shawn Levy has directed some of the biggest blockbuster comedies such as Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. His new comedy, Date Night, stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey as a normal everyday married couple who are suddenly being chased by the mob when their identity has been mistaken for another couple who stole something from the ring leader. We chatted with Mr. Levy in a private room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he invited ComingSoon.net to talk exclusively about the film that hits theatres April 9th.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64723
Winona Ryder has joined director Ron Howard's comedy Cheaters, according to Deadline Hollywood.In Universal release, written by Allan Loeb, Vince Vaughn and Kevin James play best friends and business partners. Vaughn's character is tortured when he observes his pal's wife (Winona Ryder) getting intimate with another man in a restaurant.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64831
Olivia Thirlby (The Wackness, Juno) has landed one of the leading roles in Summit and New Regency's sci-fi action movie The Darkest Hour.Chris Gorak will direct the film, which is being produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Tom Jacobson.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64830
"Justice for Michael!"
That was the rallying cry for a Facebook-spawned group of superfans who hired a skywriter to spread their message over the downtown Los Angeles courthouse today—adding to the circus atmosphere as Michael Jackson's former personal physician made a court appearance in his manslaughter case.
Also on hand to give a thumbs-down to Dr. Conrad Murray were members of the Jackson clan, including patriarch Joe (who is plotting a civil suit against Murray for causing Michael's death), mom Katherine and siblings Jermaine, Randy and Janet.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b174908_jackson_family_stews_fans_jeer_michaels.html
The Hills are alive with the sound of…another breakup!
Sources tell us that Audrina Patridge and Ryan Cabrera are dunzo.
The two were first reported to be dating in February, but today…
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b175013_omg_audrina_patridge_ryan_cabrera_are.html
• Jemi were all over the place over Easter weekend selling their coupledom. But if this is how they do PDA, we don't know if we can buy their "we're best friends taking the next step (now please buy our new music)" schtick.
• It's a bad day for manhair. Jon Gosselin tries to rock a faux-hawk with his thining mane and Nicolas Cage is now blonde.
• Ryan Gosling's dog has a pretty serious mohawk going on. Adorable! And for those of you more interested in Ryan, he's got some pretty serious arms going on himself.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b174962_link_party_this_how_joe_jonas_demi.html
Tiger Woods didn't just drive his wife's heart into the rough.
Two of the bevy of ladies who identified themselves as members of Tiger's petting zoo when it was very de rigueur to do so say that the golfer hurt them terribly—and they're still hurting to this day.
"It still hurts every time some girl comes out and claims that they had this relationship that I had," Tool Academy alumna Jaimee Grubbs, the first woman to come out and say she had an affair with Woods, said in a recent sit-down with E! News.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b174993_tigers_alleged_mistresses_still.html
If Miley's movie The Last Song flops financially, since it already has critically, does that mean she finally might go away? Or at least what does it mean for her future film career? Will she fizzle out à la Hilary Duff?
—Elaine, via the Answer B!tch inbox
Your question triggered sympathetic chuckles from box office analysts. You know the chuckle, the one that says, "Oh my little friend, you are so naive, so, so naive." Yeah. It was that chuckle.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/ask_the_answer_bitch/b175002_miley_cyrus_over.html
Edie Britt is long gone, but the actress who played her just sued ABC and the creator of Desperate Housewives for $20 million for wrongful termination and assault, claiming Cherry smacked her in the face while on set and then arranged to have her fired (and not just fired, but killed off!) when she complained.
"While we have yet to see the actual complaint, we investigated similar claims made by Ms. Sheridan last year and found them to be without merit," a spokeswoman for ABC Studios said in a statement to E! News.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b175057_did_desperate_housewives_creator_deck.html
Sandra Bullock will have to show her face in public again one day.
But until that day comes, the public is going to her.
The actress' good pal George Lopez paid a visit to Bullock's Hollywood Hills home Monday. He stayed for about 20 minutes, then got in his car and left, ignoring all questions from the paparazzi that have been camped outside since word spread that Bullock was waiting out the media monsoon at her own home.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b175062_george_lopez_checks_in_with_sandra.html
Only two weeks in and there have been death threats, broken toes, aching muscles, exhaustion, boiling tempers. And that's just what went down between Kate Gosselin and Shannen Doherty after last week's elimination!
Totally kidding about that last part, but we aren't exaggerating when it comes to all the obstacles strewn across the contestants' path to glory on this season's Dancing With the Stars.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b175035_dancing_with_stars_kate_gosselin.html
The Egyptian publisher of a book supporting the former UN nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei has been released from jail, officials say.
Publisher Ahmed Mahanna was detained on Saturday and released a day later.
Mr ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has recently returned to Egypt and launched a campaign for political reform.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8603420.stm
Michael Jackson's relatives have attended a court appearance by the doctor accused of giving the singer a lethal dose of powerful anaesthetic.
Dr Conrad Murray, 57, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
During a brief procedural hearing in Los Angeles, Dr Murray's case was assigned to Judge Michael Pastor.
Judge Pastor adjourned the case until mid-June, when he is expected to rule on whether to revoke Dr Murray's medical licence pending the full trial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8603562.stm
The US transport department is asking Toyota to pay a record fine of $16.4m (£10.7m) for holding back information about faulty accelerator pedals.
The department says the company failed to notify it about the flaws "in a timely way".
The National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said documents provided by Toyota showed the carmaker knew about the defect in September.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8604150.stm
Opponents of the controversial Digital Economy Bill have urged MPs to give it "the debate it deserves" when it is discussed in the Commons later.
The bill includes plans to give Ofcom powers to cut off internet connections of persistent net pirates and measures which could see some websites blocked.
Campaigners have booked newspaper ads claiming the government aims to "fast track it into law before the election".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8603285.stm
Tiger Woods says he can win his fifth Masters this week, despite having been out of action for five months because of a highly damaging sex scandal.
"Nothing's changed, I'll still go out to win this thing," Woods insisted.
"I'm looking forward to teeing off. I haven't looked forward to that first shot in a long time."
The world number one, 34, also said he had been "blown away" by the reception from spectators during a practice round at the Augusta National on Monday.
"What a great day," he said. "The galleries couldn't have been nicer - it blew me away, it really did."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/8603810.stm
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is preparing to announce that the UK general election will be held on 6 May.
Following a cabinet meeting in Downing Street he left for Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament.
On returning from the Palace he will confirm the widely-predicted date and call the election "the big choice".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8603591.stm
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