Today I received my Acer Aspire Revo which I ordered refurbished from PC Connection Express for $159 which I heard about from TechBargains.com Unfortunately the deal appears to be gone but they can still be had for $199 new at Amazon.

I first heard about this machine on Lifehacker featuring this machine in their post “Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap“. I fell in love with XBMC on my original Xbox and have since tricked out my PS3 to try and get most of that functionality but have still longed to get XBMC as well as Boxee added to my Home Theater. I toyed with the idea of hacking an Apple TV to run Boxee but it didn’t handle the Netflix streaming.

So today I get a letter from Citibank to inform me of the following:

…due to a processing error the nine digits in your social security number, along with a string of other numbers and letters all resembling a mail routing number, were printed on the lower edge of an envelope containing a year-end tax statement that we mailed to you recently

Here’s the letter

click to enlarge

The letter goes on to state they don’t believe there is a risk to me but wanted to bring it to my attention along with an apology and let me know the issue has been corrected. They go on to offer me a 180 day free service to monitor my credit if I am still concerned about their error. They go on to apologize again at the end for any inconvenience it may have caused me.

Alan Wilder shocked Depeche Mode fans around the world tonight, joining his former band onstage for the first time in 16 years to accompany Martin Gore on piano during a performance of “Somebody” at a Teenage Cancer Trust charity concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

We’ve got several different videos of the brief reunion posted below — one of them is actually a two parter, strung together — as well as clips of several other songs from the Royal Albert Hall show, plus the full setlist. (See video after the jump.)

Wilder explains the reunion on his official site:

I recently came across this page over at Moby Games for a PC game called Lifestream. It was a game created by Christopher M. Brendel and released in 2004 by Unimatrix Productions. According to its description page it was a 1st person adventure with detective / mystery elements, horror, and puzzle solving.

Here’s the full description

Father Randolph Holton, a Catholic priest, has disappeared. The son that no one knows about, John, goes to his father’s home to search for him. He soon learns that his father had become obsessed by something he called the Lifestream. To find his father he must also dive into the haunting, terrifying truths that seduced him. What on earth is the Lifestream and how could it have caused his father’s disappearance?

Mark Philpot spent quite a bit of time testing several different Lifestreaming apps including Sweetcron, Kakuteru, and a few other custom scripts. He ended up being fairly happy with the Lifestream plugin for Wordpress but wanted to create a more customizable view. So he decided to write some custom PHP code to do just that.

Click image to view Mark’s Lifestream using this script

His code utilizes the Lifestream plugin for Wordpress to pull data stored by it in the Wordpress database. Then he’s added quite a few nice features:

It was at the LA 140Conf where I first heard about how MySpace was really focusing heavily on Lifestreaming. They have continued to push forward on this path and amidst the departure of Monica Keller, who was the catalyst for delivering it, they keep moving forward.

I saw over on TechCrunch that MySpace has apparently quietly unleashed Streams (what they’re calling their Lifestreaming feature) onto profile pages. They’re doing this quietly without a formal announcement perhaps to see how it performs, is received, and if any problems are encountered (take note Google re: Buzz).

Below I’ve taken a screenshot of my page highlighting some of the features

From the TechCrunch Post

http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Marley

http://www.last.fm/music/Nouvelle+Vague

http://www.last.fm/music/Kent%2BSparling%2B%2526%2BJeffrey%2BFoster

The International CES is produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the consumer technology industry. CEA represents more than 2,000 corporate members involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of consumer electronics products. All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy.

author: Chris Brogan name: Mark average rating: 4.07 book published: 2009 rating: 0 read at: date added: 2009/09/13 shelves: currently-reading review:

author: John VanDyk name: Mark average rating: 3.95 book published: 2007 rating: 0 read at: date added: 2009/08/12 shelves: currently-reading review:

author: David Gelernter name: Mark average rating: 2.75 book published: 1991 rating: 0 read at: date added: 2009/04/01 shelves: currently-reading review: