these things i must say...

which isn't much... yet you'll find content a plenty today...


apple is evil!

damn them for making me want a thing so bad!

it was today, this day, that the words of steve jobs, at macworld 2007, were delivered, in the form of a keynote, had me truly longing for an apple product like i've not done before.

what follows is pure editorial on the new product and my opinions of apple, inc. (they changed the name officially, dropping computer from the title). if you would like to skip all that, click this link and prepare to drool... this link will be repeated at the end if you'd actually like to read what i have to say...)

don't get me wrong. i'm not a true apple hater. i have an ipod, which is ancient but well loved (though replaced by my newer, prettier zune). for a brief period i owned a powerbook g4, and even now wouldn't mind a new g5 or intel based macbook pro. i would gladly accept the fact that apple, in stark contrast of the rest of the desktop computing world, have INTENTIONALLY designed their rediculously powerful towers to weigh something in excees of 3,000 lbs. it's fine, because they're neat. i would accept the higher latency refresh rates on one of their cinema displays, because, who doesn't want 30"+ of lcd beauty that matches or 1 1/2 ton tower? who wouldn't want two like i do... who i ask?

of course, my relationship with apple is love/hate. because, i, like many others, can see well beyond the beauty of their products. they make things that look good and are marketed well. this by itself is acceptable, but they do so while making us, the consumer, pay a premium for the pretty boxes. the minimalist matte black finish and unassuming white apple logo on the the cardboard enclosures their product comes in alone means i'm paying 10% more.

they do this without a lot of extra capability. i've said it, and been criticized for it, but i stand by it. it's all the more true now that their computers are running intel processers of the same class you can find in a pc. the truth is that they aren't more stable or less succesptabel to virii, they just deal with it differently. in terms of stability, for example, if a windows machine becomes unstable, it tells you, in near panicky tones, that it's all over ctrl-alt-del, we're done. sorry, you probably lost what you were working on. but, on mac, a beautiful dialogue box is presented informing you that macos is in need of restarting, and you click the button, for the good of humanity. it doesn't happen less often, as a matter of fact, i have many friends that will tell you without the slightest hint of sarcasm that it happens more frequently. in terms of virii... well, let's be honest. no one is going to drop a bomb in a cornfield in the hopes of taking out 1/120th of a countries population, are they?

however, this day, TODAY, it was announced that apple has 'redefined' the world of cell phones. in most cases i would skoff at a statement like this. but they show you HOW they've done it. i can truly say... WOW!

while they announced the long awaited 'iTV' (and are simply calling it apple tv, which is a simple video conversion box meant to help integrate all of your home a/v equipment into the apple collective...), it was far less interesting than the announcement of the long rumored iPhone.

yep, it's called iPhone. and it's amazing. forget the krazr and the rockr, forget chocolate and the mda, forget the blackberry and treo's... forget the word smartphone, cellphone, and forget everything you knew about integrated multimedia devices.

here's what it is. it's a device. it comes with onboard memory to the tune of 4GB or 8GB. it is compatible with GSM and the EDGE network. it's a cellphone with no primary buttons or keyboard. it's entirely touchcreen, using multi-touch recognition to perform everytask, and softkeys for all of it's input.

ok, you say, so?

it plays music. it allows you to flip, via touch, through your library. it allows you to send sms txts while performing multiple tasks. it plays videos, which it can do while downloading email in the background and updating a weather widget.

widget? oh yes, it uses those beloved macos apps that do amazing things for you. but how, you might ask. simple. it has macos onboard.

yes, macos in built in. so is safari. and you might think, so what, i've seen smartphones and their browsers, they suck. not so for the iPhone. it has breathtaking imagry, and can be zoomed in and out using 2 figners. you see, when you open a page, the entire contents and navigate about the page like you might a large digital image, which it supports very nicely as well because of it's built in iphoto interface and 2MP camera. and you can look at them and webpages with portrait or landscape without touching a button, a built in sensor will reorientate the image based on how the phone is held... and there are other magic-like sensors for light and the weather you are ON the phone to help conserve battery life... smart.

well, you say, the web sucks on cell service. not trure, though, the EDGE is near broadband speed, and expected to get faster very soon, but that's ok, because you can use the built in 802.11 b/g wifi to connect as well.

while you're connected, you might as well send a text message while downloading a song from itunes and talking via your bluetooth headset.

omg! you might say. you might, if you knew what i was talking about. if you don't... just take a look at it. instantly you'll see while it's the tenchophile's wet dream come true. it's just amazing.

alright, you'll probably think, damn, i bet it's pricy as hell...

to a degree, it is. they said to themselves, "hey, selves, how much is the ipod?" "$199," was their reply. "ok self," they said, "how much for a decent smartphone?" "well, $299," they replied again. "and what we've got here should be how much then?"

they hemmed and hawed. they knew they could get a grand a piece off these things easily. they knew they could go sony on it and push the $1500 mark. instead they landed on a simple math problem. ipod + smartphone = iPhone...

for those of you of limited math skills, that's "$499" for the 4GB model, and "$599" for the 8GB version. for everything that you get here... that seems almost laughably priced. but, i will gladly accept their insanity, as if they were 'krazy martin of krazy martin's auto sales' because, well, i'm just that way.

no word yet how much the service will run that i've seen, but i'm guessing it will be premium, being that there's a lot of innovation. not least of which is the new 'visual voicemail box'. hate having to listen through each message in your vm box to get to the one you want, which is usually the most recent and therefore at the end of the queue? me too... try just opening your voicemail screen on the iPhone and tapping the name of the person who's message you want to hear. simple, right? yep. why didn't anyone else think of that?

200+ patents have gone into the thing and i am pretty much blown away by it.

wow. it's the only thing i can say.

now, if only i had the money to buy one when (if, actually) they get their fcc rights.

again, if you didn't click the link above, please do so now and be amazed! apple's iPhone

truly astounding. apple isn't one for doing things on a small scale or whit baby steps, they are going for the gusto with this one.

bastards.





zune news that will pale in comparison...

alright, here comes some telephone like series of quoting. according to a gamasutra.com article, bloomberg is reporting that it was announced at CES is L.V., NV, that the zune will we be getting some games! i'd say soon... but it's anticipated in mid 2008.

it's not a huge surprise, but it's pleasant news to me. it's assumed that this is in response to the ipod's game library, or perhaps the ipod's games are in response to the rumors about the coming games for the zune. eitherway, it'll be interesting at least.


the con game!

i don't know why, but i always love reading and watching and generally hearing about con artistry. and it is that: artistry.

this recent story was picked up on fark.com, but i read the article in utter disbelief. a woman has gone to cold war espionage-esque lengths to steal the identities of several people, the most recent of which is a long missing woman, all in the effort of attending some high level colleges.

not for the money. of course the money seems to be coming as if by magic for her, but no, it seems she's doing this for motives unseen. she's doing it... just to go to harvard and columbia?

truly astounding, read the new york post article to find out more. it's nearly unbelievable.... but, if nothing else, is a good read!



the new mike section...

mike, a great contributor to this blog, whether he likes it or not, sent me some more good links.

first, we have....
amazing screw on head @ amazon.com. per his recommendation i read the first customer review, i encourage you to do the same. as i told him... it had me at david hyde pierce. ;)

from the product description:

"In this hilarious send-up of Lovecraftian horror and steampunk adventure, President Abraham Lincoln's top spy is a bodyless head known only as Screw-On Head (Paul Giamatti). When arch-fiend Emperor Zombie (David Hyde Pierce) steals an artifact that will enable him to threaten all life on Earth, the task of stopping him is assigned to Screw-on Head. Fortunately, Screw-On Head is not alone on this perilous quest. He is aided by his multitalented manservant, Mr. Groin, and by his talking canine cohort, Mr. Dog. Can this unorthodox trio stop Emperor Zombie in time? Does Screw-On Head have a body awesome enough to stop the horrors that have been unleashed? Where can we get a talking dog? All these questions (O.K., maybe not that last one) are answered by the thrilling tale of The AMAZING SCREW ON HEAD! Based on the award-winning comic book by Mike Mignola, creator of HELLBOY."

yay i say!

in news of the great 'frank millers's 300'!
joblo.com visits the set of 300! this stands on it's own, check it out!

some news on grindhouse...
specifically the 'faux' trailers in the middle... i'd happily see rob zombie's the werewolf women of the s.s. in feature length!

and finally:

mike's open letter to the creators of the new fantastic four sequel, a trailer can be seen here... (this is copied verbatum from an email to me, this is done without permission and simply to make myself look good... suck it mike!)

Query 1: Have you seen the trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the
Silver Surfer?

Comment 1: At the end of the trailer, Johnny Storm has been
"extinguished" and is "dropped" in to the Earth's orbit, in space, by
the Silver Surfer.

Query 2: How the hell does that work? A) He would explode due to the
severe lack of air pressure in space. B) He would freeze to death
(though I'm sure that they'll say that his warm internal temperature
kept him alive, though that doesn't explain why his skin wasn't frozen
off because his skin, probably, is not much warmer than ours seeing as
how he can still fornicate with human women.) C) He would be torn apart
by the friction created by traveling through the Earth's atmosphere at
terminal velocity (being on fire would not be of much assistance
there). D) He would suffocate due to the aforementioned lack of air.

Comment 2: I call bullshit on this movie. Don't try to fool me with
all that crap. I know my shit. Physics don't cease to exist just
because you were caught in a gamma storm in space and developed
super-human powers. The Invisible Woman could, theoretically, create a
force-field strong enough to resist the friction and lack of air
pressure in space as well as contain a decent supply of air, but that
still wouldn't solve the temperature problem. I could see Johnny and
Sue Storm surviving in space by combining their powers, but
individually, they would be dead before you can say, "it's clobbering time".

having now watched the trailer he speaks of... i couldn't agree more. i assume that silver surfer is acting as galctus' herald at this point... but... it's so hard to tell from this blurb... i will be forced to do more research. i will say this. while i didn't hate the first one, i so much HATED the casting that it made it hard to enjoy... jessica alba, while definitely high on the list of women i'd love to practice baby making with, cannot and will not EVER be a good fit for mrs. richards... i don't care how hot she is... i will inevitibly see this one, and i assume i will gripe about it. but oh well... marvel can have my money. they've given me enough, i don't mind donating to the cause...



soylent green is... people!?!?

not really.. but cloned meat? i don't know, i guess if it's tasty and it doesn't kill me.... i'll eat it... read all about it! (no... not people... just rtfa)


something to occupy your time...

i've been playing with this in my free time for quite awhile... well, this and others like it...

it's a sign generator... in this case... a church sign generator. go ahead... try it out!

there are other 'generators' there too... pointless entertainment.




these are merely links without editorial...

re: cancer and smoking...

miracle cure and supporting article

another miracle cure

smoking does not cause lung cancer and failure to cause lung cancer


that's it...

hopefully, sometime in the next couple days i'll get the pics of my daughter's birthday up... but, i'll need to comb through them to find some good'ns.


i would like to mention that i hate womens and their evils. just putting it out there.

thanks.

have a good one internets!