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The official update has been released… click this link to see the post.

Ok so the Alltel Touch got a new ROM update that added EVDO Rev. A. It also fixed some BlueTooth issues and added video messaging.It didn’t however, include aGPS (wierd huh?)

While Sprint users are waiting (and waiting) for the Windows Mobile 6.1 update that we assume will have REvA and GPS (only WM6.1 was officially announced) apparently some craft folks over at PPCGeeks have managed to take the Alltel ROM, rip it apart and get it to install on the Sprint Touch. So… if you’re comfortable with it you can now get not only RevA but GPS on your Sprint Touch as well!

• Sprint Rev A + GPS
• Verizon Rev A + GPS - some have reported this isn’t totally stable yet

Worldometers is managed by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format to a wide audience around the world.

It’s pretty interesting to see information on the number of books sold, cars sold, computers sold, water used versus people without viable drinking water, etc.Here’s a screenshot of a small portion of the stats they show (note that when you view it on the website below the statistics are being update in real-time.:

http://www.worldometers.info/

Many moons ago I got REALLY tired of installing XP, and then downloading updates/applying service packs. Turns out you can slipstream the service packs onto a new Windows XP installation disk. Essentially this allows you to create a Windows XP installation with the Service Pack already part of the install.

So, what IS slipstreaming? Back when Microsoft was developing Windows 2000, the company decided to create up a more elegant way of integrating service packs and other fixes back into the core OS, so that enterprise customers could always maintain an install set of the latest version of Windows, ready to be installed at any time on new machines. It’s also useful for end users who reinstall often. Paul Thurott’s SuperSite detailed this for the release of SP2.

Thurott’s method requires that you hit the command line for the slipstream creation. It’s not difficult process, however there’s an easier method using a free tool called nLite.

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Coming at ya straight from LifeHacker is the Top 10 Amazon Power Shopper Tools:

You already love the one-stop convenience of shopping online at Amazon.com, but chances are you’re not getting everything you can out of this feature-packed shopping engine. Did you know Amazon can email you suggestions from Mom’s wish list two weeks before her birthday? Automatically ship you a new case of toilet paper every two months? Refund the difference on the price of an item you purchased that went on sale? Several advanced Amazon features and third party apps and add-ons can help you get the best deals and the stuff you want delivered to your door right on time. After the jump, add our favorite 10 Amazon power-shopper tools to your cart.

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Microsoft’s just-announced Live Mesh platform is, as most things out of Redmond these days are, a complex offering that can be difficult to understand with the company’s typical marketing-speak and software-plus-services buzzwords. So what the heck is Live Mesh?

Microsoft’s new Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie is the mastermind behind Live Mesh and it’s been in development for two years. Live Mesh, if successful, could change the way PCs and other devices interact with Internet services and each other. Microsoft wants data and applications to be accessible from anywhere — online and off — using any device. When Ozzie came on board many assumed it was because, while Microsoft wouldn’t admit it at the time, the focus of your computing will be moving away from a single centralized desktop. Ozzie was going to bring true “cloud computing” to Redmond.

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In a stroke of genius CNNShirt (yes, it’s actually affiliated with CNN) releases a new TShirt that proclaims “ABC News Fucked Up The Pennsylvania Debate. I just saw it on CNN!”.

The shirts come in three colors: white, black, and grey. They have sizes for men and women ranging from small to extra large.

If you watched the debate, saw clips on any other news program, read any blogs, watch the Daily Show or Colbert Report, or talked to anybody remotely interested in the debate process then you’ll know the ABC debate was a total joke and it’s hilarious that CNN jumped on the opportunity to point it out.

The official update has been released… click this link to see the post.

UPDATE: for latest release date info go here.

Ok so no FIRM date, more of a “Summer 2008″ tiimeframe. Sprint has posted an official press release stating that the following devices will have ROM upgrades to bring them up to Windows Mobile 6.1:

• Samsung ACE - The Samsung ACE is the sleekest world phone in the Sprint portfolio with a full QWERTY keyboard, vibrant color screen, and ability to use Phone As Modem service.
• Moto Q 9c by Motorola - The MOTO Q9c has a slim form factor with a QWERTY keyboard, extended battery, and supports Sprint Navigation for turn-by-turn directions.
• Touch by HTC - The Touch by HTC is a full touch-screen wireless phone with advanced entertainment features. It is the first device to feature TouchFLO(TM) and features a new HTC- designed homescreen.
• Mogul by HTC - The Mogul by HTC is the industry’s first EV-DO Rev. A-capable handset, enabling users to send and receive large amounts of data at broadband speeds (comparable to basic DSL) and supports Sprint Music Store.

Windows Mobile 6.1will include a new Internet Explorer Mobile with IE6 tech and h.264, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support, better System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, as well as Exchange Server 2007 SP1 support. Gizmodo has a bunch of WinMo 6.1 screenshot over here.

Since Sprint originally marketed the Sprint Touch as having GPS available in Q1 2008 (ya… they OFFICIALLY posted that on the sprint store site and since the Mogul has already receive the GPS and RevA update it’s probably safe to assume that the WindowsMobile 6.1 ROM update will bring both RevA and GPS functionality to the Touch. Keep your fingers crossed!

UPDATE: Tired of waiting on Sprint? You can get RevA and GPS on your Sprint Touch NOW. Head over here for details.

I’m constantly mystified during discussions where people argue “they should show BOTH sides of the arguement about evolution in science class.” What they mean is that they should discuss Creationism, the belief that god created everything, in science class. I’m ALL FOR teaching creationism in a world religion or a philosophy class. However, creationism does NOT fall under the scientific method as a means to prove anything so it should stay OUT of the science classroom. It’s for this reason that, for instance, evolutionary biologist and astronomers, etc usually avoid the idea of Creationism altogether. It’s not that they do not believe in god… in fact many well know scientist are very religious. The avoid the subject because it cannot be proven. There’s no mountain of recreatable/verifiable evidence to back it up.

For those who have never had the opportunity to find out about biology or science, claims made by those who believe in supernatural alternatives to evolutionary theory can appear convincing. Meanwhile, even among those who accept evolution, misconceptions abound.

Most of us are happy to admit that we do not understand, say, the string theory in physics, yet we are all convinced we understand evolution. In fact, as biologists are discovering, its consequences can be stranger than we ever imagined. Evolution must be the best-known yet worst-understood of all scientific theories.

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You can now import the stories you Digg directly into your mini-feed (no application needed) on FaceBook. Simply visit your profile, find your mini-feed, click on the ‘import’ link, and enter your Digg username.

Easy as pie… and now your Facebook friends can see the stories you like on Digg.Once you enable this feature the stories you digg will not only post to your mini-feed, but also syndicate to your friends through the main Facebook news feed.

BBC News reports that eight out of 10 people in the Arab world have a negative view of the US. Wow… no shit ya think?

By extension, governments supported by the US are unpopular, found the survey, which was released in Washington. A recent BBC World Service survey found views of the US had started to improve by 4% globally, although they remained negative in the Arab world.

Only 6% of Arabs believe the US troop surge in Iraq has worked, according to the latest poll carried out by by the University of Maryland and Zogby International.

According to this poll, a majority of Arabs believe that if US troops withdraw from Iraq, Iraqis would be able to bridge their differences, the survey found.Which is odd and show how accurate polls can be… a ABC/BBC poll conducted in Iraq and released in March, appeared to show a 20% increase in the number of Iraqis who felt the surge was succeeding and described the security situation as good.