dan

Castroneves wins 2009 Indianapolis 500

This Memorial Day weekend, as usual, was the yearly host to one of the most historic American professional car race traditions: the Indianapolis 500. Well, this Memorial Day weekend was the host of the 93rd edition of the Indy 500, and what a race it was.

By the time the final lap, it becomes obvious that Helio Castroneves is going to finish first, and what a sweet victory it is for him.

This victory marks his third win at the Indianapolis 500, and this time around it was a clean sweep of every prize at the historic annual race. Finishing … Read more

Sprint CEO: Expect Palm Pre shortages

Apple iPhone aside, it's pretty safe to say that there hasn't been so much hype and anticipation over an upcoming smartphone as the Palm Pre. The tech community was all abuzz on Tuesday when Sprint and Palm finally announced the pricing and release date, but could there already be rough waters ahead?

Speaking at an investor conference on Tuesday, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse warned of likely Pre shortages:

"We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while. We won't be able to keep … Read more

Google energy guru hot on geothermal

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Dan Reicher, the director of climate and energy initiatives at Google.org, says we're standing on a great untapped source of renewable energy: enhanced geothermal.

Reicher spoke on Tuesday to university students at the announcement of the winners of the Clean Energy Prize organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and sponsored in part by utility NStar.

In addition to talking up clean energy, Reicher said Google will "very soon" launch PowerMeter, its Web-based home energy-monitoring software that is now in private beta. The software can now monitor homes' appliance energy consumption, but over time … Read more

The 404 337: Where Dan Levy makes it rain

Our good friend Dan Levy from OntheDLPodcast joins our show today in our studio and witnesses the first-ever live 404 unboxing! Justin's choice to buy a refurbished Macbook Pro turns out to be the right decision after all.

We then talk with Dan about various stories from around the Internet, including one out of Dublin, in which a student's fake Wikipedia edit actually wound up in newspapers as legitimate! This leads us into a a discussion of proposed legislation that would make it basically illegal to slander someone online. Isn't that what the Internet was created for?

All this and more, plus Calls from the Public on today's show! Also, make sure to check out Blogs With Balls if you're interested in the just-as-nerdy sports blogosphere.

Sorry to those looking for today's video stream--a few technically difficulties prevented us from uploading the video. We've got everything figured out and tomorrow we'll be back up on CNET TV!

Leave us a voicemail 866-404-CNET or e-mail us at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com!

EPISODE 337 Download today's podcast |  Subscribe in iTunes audio |   Subscribe in RSS Audio|   Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Employee (almost) chronicles Sun's top 10 failures

Dan Baigent is senior director of corporate development with Sun Microsystems. He's also one of the most candid inside observers on the failures that brought Sun to the point that it had to be bailed out by Oracle in a $7.4 billion acquisition, down from Sun's bubble-era peak of a $200 billion-plus valuation.

In a series of blog posts, Baigent starts to identify Sun's top 10 failures, and their consequences, as he seeks to describe how Sun got to this point.

Actually, he only managed to get his first three reasons posted before the posts were … Read more

NFL Eagles' worker fired for Facebook update gets player's help

A few weeks ago, I wrote about an unfortunate employee of the Philadelphia Eagles, Dan Leone.

Leone was upset that the Eagles had allowed Brian Dawkins, their nasty (in a good way) defensive back, leave for the Denver Broncos.

He adorned his Facebook page with feelings: "Dan is ******* devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver...Dam Eagles are Retarded."

He was fired.

Now Dawkins has decided to honor Leone's Facebook faux-pas. He has offered Leone his two tickets for Denver's visit to Philadelphia, a game at which Leone will, no doubt, be greeted with garlands of flowers … Read more

Sprint's CEO awarded $2.6 million bonus

Sprint Nextel's CEO is getting a big bonus for 2008, despite the fact that the beleaguered cell phone operator is still losing customers.

A proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed this week shows that CEO Dan Hesse will receive a bonus of $2.6 million for 2008, which is about 30 percent higher than his targeted payout, according to The Wall Street Journal. Hesse's total compensation package is valued at $15.5 million, including a base salary of $1.2 million and equity grants.

The proxy also indicates that Hesse received additional corporate perks valued … Read more

Dan Rosensweig to be named Guitar Hero CEO

Update at 6:10 a.m. PDT March 23: Activision makes it official.

Quadrangle Group partner Dan Rosensweig will be named CEO and president of Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero franchise, CNET News has confirmed.

The pending appointment was first reported Sunday evening on AllThingsDigital. Rosensweig's appointment will be announced Monday morning, according to people familiar with the decision.

Rosensweig spent 18 years at Ziff-Davis in a variety of senior sales and publishing roles, the last one as CEO of ZDNet, before its acquisition by CNET Networks in 2000. He then served as CNET's president before becoming chief … Read more

Sprint kills baffling ad campaign, we smile

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Sprint will soon end the ad campaign featuring Dan Hesse. Produced by San Francisco-based agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the black-and-white spots show Hesse in various New York City locations from Central Park to the back seat of a taxi on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I've never been a fan of the ads, mainly because I don't see how Hesse talking about the need for communication in our society really sells Sprint and its services. Sure, he does mention Sprint's Simply Everything plan, but even then I just don't get … Read more