proposed

There are a million ways to signal your everlasting love for someone. You could propose while skydiving. Or you could get married in Second Life. But asking someone to marry you with Legos in a wonderful, poetic, stop motion video may take the cake.

Over at the Huffington Post this evening, there's the very touching story of Walt Thompson, who "invested 22 hours shooting and 'God knows how long' editing this stop-motion LEGO marriage proposal for his girlfriend of four years, Nealey Dozier."

Thompson told the HuffPo that he'd kept the project a secret from his … Read more

An investor push for Research In Motion to split its dual-CEO structure was unexpectedly withdrawn today after an agreement was made with RIM.

RIM announced today that after discussions between the two groups, Northwest & Ethical Investments will withdraw its shareholder proposal before RIM's annual meeting.

In exchange, RIM will set up a board of directors committee that will look at the necessity of having a lead director on the board versus a chairman, whether co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie need to have "significant" board-of-director-level titles, and provide guidance on whether to continue with the jointly … Read more

Small businesses and start-ups need all the help they can get. Fortunately, there's a wide range of free tools that can help entrepreneurs, contractors, and tradespeople take care of business. Bid-n-Invoice Basic Invoice is an easy-to-use application for creating and printing professional-looking invoices and estimates. Best of all, it's free for both personal and commercial use.

Basic Invoice opened with an extremely basic interface, just a blank field and a toolbar with icons labeled New Invoice, Manual Invoice, and Help. We clicked New Invoice, which opened the program's template in a separate window. A drop-down list let … Read more

Some of you may well be readers of Glamour magazine. Others may not.

So may I quote this repository of optimism about a certain technologically sophisticated wedding proposal purportedly made in Central Park on Sunday?

"A Proposal Story: This Sweet Guy Proposed in Central Park--Then Threw the Ring! (I Got Teary Eyed!)" reads the Glamour headline. The post is accompanied by a YouTube video of the proposal.

The video purports to show a woman called Kasey who has been lured by a friend to the park, where she is surprised by her fiance in a rowing boat. While … Read more

I have never risen to such heights, but I understand that when men decide they will propose marriage to their beloved, they try to make it memorable.

They wonder whether the ring should be buried in the creme brulee or the butterscotch pudding. They debate whether to go down on the left knee or the right. They agonize over whether the ring should be larger than two knuckles or three (especially in Texas).

However, a fine young Minnesotan called Chad Clay decided that his exquisite, lovely, wonderful flower of a girlfriend deserved something magical and revolutionary. Well, almost.

He created a fake iPhone ad (embedded below) and had it screened at the movie theater at which he and his life-partner had enjoyed their first movie together.

I go down on one knee to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which revealed the intimate details of this moving proposal, made during a screening of "Going the Distance," a movie about a long-distance love that, well, goes.

The Press says that Chad's opening line to Vy Luong was one that I know many readers have turned to in a moment of passion: "Would you like to see my comic-book collection?"

From this tiny acorn, a tree of love grew.

According to Clay's own posting on YouTube, Luong had always wanted him to write a song for her, "a Top 40/Club type song." However, given that he doesn't possess George Michael's vocal cords, Clay allowed technology to hold his hand and his throat through the whole four-month process of creating his love song.

"I found it very convenient that AutoTune is very popular in this genre. Ha! I recorded and mixed everything in Pro Tools. No loops were used," he declared.… Read more

With Jeff's wedding creeping up sooner than we expected, it's about time that The 404 Podcast discusses exactly what we'll be wearing to the ceremonies. Always the responsible one, Wilson is prepared with his own suit, and Jeff will obviously be wearing the cheapest tux money can rent, but I've somehow made it 26 years without ever buying a suit and I refuse to start now...hopefully Stacie is OK with me wearing this old thing.

And speaking of horrible fashion, this shirt holster for your Apple iPad is proof that tech-fashion is, and will always … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

I've managed to slog through the 107-page "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" (PDF) issued late last week by the Federal Communications Commission.

Let me save you the trouble of reading the 185 numbered paragraphs, 310 footnotes, and three appendices, including separate statements from each of the five commissioners: there's nothing to see here, folks.

First, let's be clear about what has not happened. No new law was passed. No new federal regulations were enacted. No decisions were made.

Instead, the FCC proposed draft rules … Read more

I have always wanted to propose marriage to someone.

It's just that somehow the moment's never seemed right. Or, well, the lover in question leaves before the question can be popped.

So perhaps I might learn from this dashing, daring, and technically very correct man who found one of the more romantic ways to tell his girlfriend of five years he would like to spend at least the next five years with her.

He seems to be something of a geeky sort, so he reached for an editing program called Lunar Magic and inserted the deeply felt words "Lisa Will You Marry Me?" into a Super Mario World level.

Touchingly, the words were spelled out in gold coins.

The Super Mario suitor didn't reveal his name on YouTube, but the poster's identity is BradSmith182. So I know some of you might conclude his name is Brad Smith and he is a large aficionado of Blink 182.

The video does not start in a promising or loving way. Lisa somewhat rattily declares: "Why are we playing this?" as if, perhaps, there was some more cerebral game she had in mind.

But once she sees the magic words and BradSmith182 brings out the ring, she agrees somewhat shyly to be with him for better, for worse, and for Mario.… Read more

Intel announced Wednesday it's adopting a shareholder request to allow its investors to weigh in on its compensation policies and practices concerning executive pay.

Under the Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation, also known as "say on pay," Intel shareholders will vote at the company's shareholders meeting in May on the question of whether they approve Intel's compensation committee's compensation philosophy, policies, and procedures.

Intel shareholder Walden Asset Management had served as the lead investor to craft the shareholder proposal. But since Intel has adopted the "say on pay" advisory vote for its … Read more