Viral Crap
If there's one thing I can't stand it's viral marketing campaigns
Just tell me what the damn product is, Microsoft, so if I can see if I hate you more after the botched mess that is Windows Mobile 5.
This is worse than Gabbo.
Origami, WTF-ing kind of name is Origami?
If you're really that damn curious go here
iPod sHmipod
Apple has sold its BILLIONTH song on iTunes.
I deal with the cult of Apple all the time at work...I can't turn around without someone in my department crowing about how great his laptop is and how wonderful OS X is yada yada yada.
I'm not saying that they're wrong about OS X - I personally don't know - I don't want to know (just like I really don't want to know what the Jehovah's Witnesses want when they bang on the door on Sunday morning - any religion that forces its adherents into black monkey suits on a Sunday to sell their religion door-to-freakin'-door already has a most definite lack of appeal for me!) Cult members who try to indoctinate me make me steer clear of what they're selling.
Where was I?
Oh yes, the cult of iPod.
Yes they look cool.
Yes they are the fashion accessory of the 21st century...
They're overpriced, overhyped crap.
Your battery dies - too bad. You're carrying a brick. It's not replaceable by the user.
Video? My iPaq (Hewlett Packard, thank you very much) did that in 2003. They're making a big deal now about video, on a 2.5 inch screen. *Whips it out* My Dell Axim has a 3.7 inch glorious VGA screen. Sometimes size does matter.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that the iPod is a bad device. As a music/video player it's quite a good quality design...but let's compare, shall we:
60 gig video iPod: $499
Dell Axim x51v: $499
Let's see, same price and what do I get if I don't go with Apple and pick the Dell?
- Email.
- Instant messaging.
- Wifi networking.
- Excel, Word, Powerpoint.
- Games games games.
- GPS. (optional upgrade)
- With right free software it plays everything- all music/video formats.
Same damn price. I'm not even going to mention all the techies out there writing free utilities to let it do just about anything...Oh, I guess I just did!
The only drawback to the Axim is storage...which for $100 more buys me 2 gigs, which I can use in any damn thing that uses flash memory: cameras, PCs, other Pocket PC's, you name it.
"But the iPod looks cooler," says the guy in the cubicle next to me...hopefully the stapler I launch over the cubicle wall doesn't get me fired...
UPDATE (2/24/2006 10:52PM):
What...the...hell...
Even the Japanese are falling for the glitz - iPod Takes Japan by Storm
Japanese consumers, much like their U.S. counterparts, are jazzed by iPod's sleek and hip design, easy-to-use functions, and first-class software -- something local rivals have yet to match. "Apple has focused on developing a seamless, end-to-end experience for the consumer when it comes to portable music," says Jon Erensen, a senior research analyst at Gartner Dataquest. "Other companies, including the Japanese consumer-electronics giants, have been focused on one or two pieces of the equation." Sony, for example, has received plaudits for design and sound quality, but criticism for its Connect software.
Slick marketing has helped, too. In January the Nikkei Marketing Journal named Apple's TV advertising campaign for iPod the best of 2005. Another big boost has been the August rollout of a Japanese version of Apple's iTunes Music Store. The company also opened the brick-and-mortar store in Shibuya -- Tokyo's vibrant youth center. A month later it introduced its best-selling, ultra-slim iPod nano to Japan.
Slick marketing has helped, too. In January the Nikkei Marketing Journal named Apple's TV advertising campaign for iPod the best of 2005. Another big boost has been the August rollout of a Japanese version of Apple's iTunes Music Store. The company also opened the brick-and-mortar store in Shibuya -- Tokyo's vibrant youth center. A month later it introduced its best-selling, ultra-slim iPod nano to Japan.
51.3% of the Japanese market.
I just don't know what's going on anymore.
Wherein the Value of SHUTTING UP is apparent to all
Swedish coach ponders going in the tank
TURIN — Controversy is swirling in Olympic and Swedish hockey circles after the head coach of the men's Olympic team suggested it may throw today's final preliminary-round game with Slovakia, in order to receive preferable seeding in the medal round.
Ah, the true Olympic ideal comes through in shiny bright colours.
The reaction in Sweden has been swift and harsh.
A Swedish Internet site that posted a story about Gustafsson's remarks received overwhelmingly negative reaction from readers who insist the team give a full effort.
A Swedish Internet site that posted a story about Gustafsson's remarks received overwhelmingly negative reaction from readers who insist the team give a full effort.
I'm not naive. I'm sure this kind of thing happens regularly in tournament play. Tactically, it might even make sense.
But there is inherent value in shutting the hell up, at least with respect to minimizing the dangers of being pelted with rancid tomatoes upon return home.
Red Ensign Standard #37
Red Ensign Standard #37 is up at West Coast Chaos.
Incompetent or Malevolent?
Those are usually the two choices when something goes completely and utterly WRONG.
When it comes to the favourite Federal Government Program whipping-boy ie. the Federal Gun Registry, Captain Ed seems to be suggesting the second choice:
The RCMP, as the national law-enforcement agency, can act independently to investigate corruption and malfeasance. However, it needs the time and resources to do that. A government that wanted to avoid having the RCMP looking into its actions -- say in Adscam or other hidden scandals -- could handicap the agency by burdening it with a populist but massive new program, selling it as a low-cost civic safety program, and then underfunding it so that it ate up all of the agency's resources. That would leave the agency with no time and no people for other efforts, including political investigations.
But I'm willing to give the former government the benefit of the doubt: I'll go for the "incompetent" choice any day. I can't believe that they would A: be able to even think of this plan and B: be able to implement it so effectively. Anyone who could do that wouldn't have botched the election so completely (I still can't get the picture of Paul Martin playing air guitar the night before the election out of my head!)
B5
"The Avalanche has already started: It's too late for the pebbles to vote"
- always has been my favourite line from a perennially under-rated show.
Babylon 5 for me sounded the death-knell of the Star Trek stranglehold on science fiction. Both it and Star Trek DS9 premiered around the same time, with the same "important bus station in space" concept, but B5 seemed to evolve into something bigger and better than that and I'd look forward to episodes in much the same way I now look forward to Battlestar Galactica.
I guess that's why DS9 scores so close to Babylon 5 in this quiz. I'm just glad that I got on the right crew.
You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5). The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn't matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you'll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.
Via the Flea, who has found Serenity
Test is here.
Oppression Cakes
I'm surprised that someone didn't tell them how much of a groaner "Freedom Fries" was when it was tried out as the patriotic replacement for french fries.
Iran renames Danish pastries
In Zartosht street in central Tehran, cake shop owner Mahdi Pedari didn't cover up the words "Danish pastries" on his menu, but put the new name next to it.
"I did so just to inform my customers that Rose of Mohammad is the new name for Danish pastries," he said.
Some customers took immediately to the new name. But others asked for "roses of Muhammad" — "gul-e-muhammadi" in Farsi — with a laugh or even with sarcasm, apparently unenthused about the new form of protest.
"I did so just to inform my customers that Rose of Mohammad is the new name for Danish pastries," he said.
Some customers took immediately to the new name. But others asked for "roses of Muhammad" — "gul-e-muhammadi" in Farsi — with a laugh or even with sarcasm, apparently unenthused about the new form of protest.
Obviously, political thought/word-police enforcements sound just as stupid in Farsi as they do in English...
Of course, it goes without saying that I'm insulting the concept and not the Prophet, but it's safer in these cartoon fatwa times to be ever so precise and state it blatantly up front...
Rose of Mahammad sounds nice, actually, but wouldn't it make sense to use it for something else like, oh, I don't know... A FLOWER??
Unclean
My brother once told me that his coworkers think him crazy because he uses the sanitizing machines at work more often than any of his coworkers.
He works at one of the nuclear plants in Ontario.
I wonder what he'd make of this:
Computer mouses found in cyber cafes have been ranked as the second most bacteria-infested items in a list of commonly touched objects.
The survey, carried out by the Korea Consumer Protection Board, found shopping cart handles to be the worst of the worst. Typically, they contain an average of 1100 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria per 10 sq cm.
The computer mouses, were found to have an average of 690 CFU - more than twice the concentration found on doorknobs and handles in public toilets.
The survey, carried out by the Korea Consumer Protection Board, found shopping cart handles to be the worst of the worst. Typically, they contain an average of 1100 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria per 10 sq cm.
The computer mouses, were found to have an average of 690 CFU - more than twice the concentration found on doorknobs and handles in public toilets.
But it gets worse:
Girl's Science Project May Make You Rethink That Drink Order
Her project won the science fair at the New Tampa school, and she hopes to win a top prize at the Hillsborough County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which starts Tuesday.
The 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. Jasmine said she found the results startling.
"I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much," she said. "And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."
Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.
The 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. Jasmine said she found the results startling.
"I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much," she said. "And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."
Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.
Must.
Go.
Wash.
HANDS!!!
Legal Minions unleashed
Great. I come back without blogging liability insurance. I wasn't away that long! Has it come to this?
Kinsella v. Ottawawatch.com and Mark Bourrie
Firefox is groovy
This blog design looks so much better in Firefox than it does in Internet Explorer [sigh]...
In Firefox I used .png images as backgrounds to give that neat "smoked-glass tint" effect, and I've looked at it in IE and the stupid MS program renders the .png as a solid grey. There's a workaround in IE, using the "opacity" properties, but it wants to render everything - text, background, article images, etc. - transparent.
Just wanted to geek out and bitch about Microsoft. I don't think that anyone's ever dared do that before
.Use Firefox. See my blog in all its beauty and glory.
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