ash

The poo problem has vexed pet owners since the first wolf started hanging around early human encampments. Wouldn't it be sweet if that pile of pup waste just disappeared? A new invention promises to turn Fluffy's excrement into ashes.

The AshPoopie is the brainchild of scientist Oded Shoseyov from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is aiming to reduce the huge number of plastic bags full of poop that end up in the trash all over the world.

A built-in pooper scooper on the bottom picks up the offending material. It combines it with the contents of a replaceable cartridge and what looks like a set of rotating paddles. At this point, some patented incinerating magic happens and out comes sterile, odorless ash. It's a poop blaster!

… Read more

These days, Sam Raimi is famous for making the "Spider-Man" trilogy of movies. But to a core group of die-hard fans, he'll always be known as the director of 1981's cult-favorite "The Evil Dead."

Though that horror-comedy classic has had 30 years to blend into the cinematic background, it still has a passionate and devoted following. And now Raimi and production partner Robert Tapert and their Ghost House Pictures have teamed up with the Los Angeles-based entertainment consultants TriggerGlobal to fire up those fans--as well as try to create a new fan base for … Read more

Neil Ashe, president of CBS Interactive, is stepping down from his post.

CBS confirmed the move after BoomTown made inquiries recently, after hearing of various executives who had been contacted by the media giant about the position.

"Neil has helped make CBSi into the successful and profitable business it is today. Looking out into 2011, we are working on a relaxed timeframe to name a successor to his post, as he embarks on his next great thing," said a spokesman.

It is not clear where Ashe is headed, nor who his replacement will be.

But an exec close … Read more

Updated 7.28am PST Saturday, following requests from readers, with details of the dead man and the full picture of the computer.

I wonder how many of you already know where you would like your ashes to live in perpetuity.

In a Cupertino parking lot, perhaps? Or strewn on the steps of a certain academy of sciences?

I only ask because it seems that a geeky man called Alan seems not to have wondered about this. With the result that his eternally powdered life is now being spent inside a SPARCstation computer.

One assumes this is what they call a SPARC of respect.

A Flickr member called Sam 3.14, who appears to be Alan's brother, explained on the site that it was he who decided to place Alan's ashes inside one of the most precious creations under the Sun.

Sam described it thusly on his Flickr page: "I kept the floppy drive cover but for space reasons removed the floppy drive, hard drive, and most of the power supply. I left behind the motherboard and power switch and plugs to keep all openings covered."

Which seems like a wise and brotherly gesture.

Sam continued: "The case worked quite well at his memorial party. His friends and family were able to leave their final good-byes on post-it notes. Anyone who wanted to keep their words private could just slip their note into the case through the floppy slot."… Read more

In January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang offered a sneak peek at Yahoo's next-generation, socially networked user experience. In a Flash-based demo, Yang showed how Yahoo was opening up its platform to third-party developers and building hooks to socialize the experience for the more than 500 million users of its various services.

But that demo of socially enriched Yahoo services is still incubating, and the company has not been successful in becoming a social-networking hub. Yahoo 360, introduced in 2005 , never took off. A more hip version, Mash, was recently shuttered … Read more

The unfortunate thing about writing all your thoughts down in a blog is that it makes it very clear just how wrong I can be sometimes. My "code" is online, for everyone to see, analyze, and critique.

And critique you do. :-)

A case in point is my fulminations earlier Thursday on XenSource and its alleged abandonment of the Xen project. John Vigeant, a friend from my Novell days and XenSource's director of Business Development, kindly swatted me in an e-mail for errors in my post.

Witness my sackcloth and ashes (with John's permission--he must have some perverse pleasure in seeing me don this hairshirt :-):… Read more