A former Microsoftie chides Apple for blatantly copying its Media Center interface. I've criticized Apple for the same thing, though in this case, it seems especially egregious.
In most cases, Apple at least improves the technology -- sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Not this time.
Nice rant against Amazon's new video download service. I tried it, too, but the software was so buggy I uninstalled it about five minutes later. Cory Doctorow's complaint is much more specific, but he absolutely right.
New York Times' David Pogue blogs today about cultural artifacts of obsolete technology, specifically, cartoon sound effects:
What about the needle-scratching-across-the-vinyl-record sound? It’s still used everywhere, in cartoons, movies and so on, to represent a rude awakening, an abrupt interruption of a scene’s mood or the main character’s reverie. But today’s children have never even seen a record player. Isn’t the record-scratch sound totally lost on them?
And what about “ka-CHING!”? Cash registers don’t go ka-CHING anymore–they go beep!
I'd add to that the whole notion of "dialing" someone's phone number on your cell phone.
"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone," Bush said in an Oval Office address.
Again, completely missing the point. Not a single person has suggested leaving Iraq so the "terrorists would leave us alone." No, critics suggested not invading in the first place because Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and has become a major, intractable distraction in the war on terrorism. Is the president intellectually dishonest or just an idiot?
Cheney: Govt did "helluva job" since Sept 11 - Yahoo! News: "The government has done 'a helluva job' guarding America, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday, as President George W. Bush prepared to visit Ground Zero amid an election-year debate on whether the country is safer five years after the September 11 attacks.Yes, even after Katrina, the administration is still tone deaf.
It's actually an online version of her portfolio, so if you'd like to see how talented she is, check it out.
Well, it's getting there. The formatting is slowly getting fixed, though new-and-improved commenting system is still whacked out. So everyone just shut up for a minute and let me think.
I'm performing a long-needed redesign of the site to make it a little fresher and less cluttered. So far, so good, I think. I need to fill up the left side and fix a few nagging style and coding issues, though.
If all goes well, I should have the update done before Andrea gets back tomorrow night.
I was wrong. Rumsfeld's outrageous, insane -- dare I say fascist? -- rhetoric does deserve a response. And MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivers a doozy:
Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American.
For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence -- indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse still, it credits those same transient occupants -- our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.
Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.
It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right, and the power to which it speaks is wrong.
Of course, Olbermann is understating his case. This administration hasn't been occasionally wrong. It's been consistently, spectacularly, tragically wrong.
In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion” about what threatens the nation’s security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.
In remarks to several thousand veterans at the American Legion’s national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.
This sort of rhetoric kind of speaks for itself.
This has been in the works for a little while, but I can finally talk about it openly now that it's official. I've been named assistant tech editor here at IBD, which basically means I get a little more money for a lot more work.
It also means I'll be stuck in the office most of the day rather than out doing interviews. I do, however, get a window cubicle. So I have that going for me.
Now this is what I call a monitor. Unfortunately, it looks like it'll cost about a million dollars.
The Financial Times reports that computers are generating breaking earnings stories for Thompson Financial and Reuters. My gut reaction, of course, is one of pure terror.
But on second thought, I don't know a single reporter who enjoys pounding out these boilerplate pieces. During my first year at IBD, the most mind-numbing part of the job was the quick-turnaround earnings shorts. In fact, my colleague and I used to refer to ourselves as highly trained monkeys every time earnings season rolled around. With standardized earnings reports, there's no reason why this "who" and "what" and "where" aspect to journalism shouldn't be at least partly automated. Reporters' time would be much better spent digging into the financials and asking the all-important "why" and "how" -- much harder questions.
I was a little skeptical when Andrea and I embarked on the South Beach Diet (or as a colleague likes to call it, the "Pretend You're Diabetic Diet") a few months ago. I figured that the initial weight loss would be mostly water weight and quickly return. But so far, it's been the most successful -- and easiest -- diet for Andrea. She's lost 20 pounds so far. And I'm back to the weight I was before moving to California and discovering Rubio's.
The Amazon review sums it up quite nicely:
While the diet is sound, the book could be better organized. The first half mixes scientific study with anecdote in a seemingly random way, while the mix of meal plans and recipes can be confusing. Still, the recipes are varied and tasty, and you'll never feel deprived, unless you currently happen to live by bread alone.
The other criticism I have is with the author's opening statement that the diet is neither low-carb nor low fat. That's a blatant lie -- it's both of those things.
Still, not a bad return for a $10 investment.
