Are these grants for Professor Xavier’s school?
Because only if I were looking for a grant to pay for my education to hone my mutant abilities would this web ad make any sense.
Unfortunate truncation
I doubt that this truncated headline accurately conveys the message of the story. (Found on Yahoo!)
Concert going
I love music and really enjoy seeing music performed but there is one thing that has been bothering me lately. Concert-goers. I hate to break this to you, beefy guy with the beer gut waving his sausage-thick fingers in front of my field of view, but I go to shows to see the band... not you. I am not sure what it is about our culture that has encouraged people to try to be the center of attention. I remember having people come into middle school when I was a lad to teach healthy self-esteem. Has it gone too far to where everyone thinks they are the stars? Or perhaps it is a society that foists fame and admiration on reality television "stars" that makes everyone think they can be a star.
Oh, when the band engages the crowd with banter between songs, it is not an invitation to begin a conversation, drunk guy. Don't shout back your witticisms.
Or maybe my curmudgeonly attitude is a sign that I am getting too old for all that rock music.
Two Star Wars Parodies
This weekend I had the chance to watch two Star Wars parodies, compliments of my brother-in-law: Robot Chicken and The Family Guy’s Blue Harvest. I had seen snippets of the Robot Chicken show on YouTube namely the scene from the cantina and General Ackbar’s cereal commercial (“It’s a trap!”) and had very high expectations for it. Unfortunately, it fell a little short of those expectations. There seemed to be quite a bit of filler. The two bits mentioned above are absolutely milk-out-your-nose, laugh-till-it-hurts funny, in my opinion. None of the other pieces came close to being that funny for me though the scene where they infiltrate the prison area of the Death Star to rescue the princess and the scene with the Emperor talking to Darth Vader were also very good. I would definitely recommend giving it a watch. I think that I was probably a little disappointed because my expectations were colored by my seeing extremely funny pieces of the entire show beforehand.
Now, I am not a good critic for the Blue Harvest DVD. I have to admit that I am just not a Family Guy fan. I can’t get into it. I guess it is just not my kind of humor. If you know me, that very well could be an endorsement for the Family Guy. There were a couple parts that I found to be funny. The Grey Poupon joke was very amusing and the discussion of the minor design flaw of the Death Star was great. But, all in all, I found myself just scratching my head as to why so many people enjoy The Family Guy. Again, it just isn’t for me for some reason. I thought many of the Blue Harvest jokes were very obvious and that other jokes could have easily been removed from a Star Wars parody. They seemed pretty independent from Star Wars.
Random thoughts on the iPad
First, I didn’t think of female hygiene products when I heard the name. I thought pad of paper. I am kind of surprised that so many people mentioned that. I remember people decrying the naming of the Nintendo Wii and saying that it would not succeed solely on how terrible the name was. I don’t think many people even remember the hubbub about the Wii’s name now that it is such a huge success and so commonplace. I think the same thing is true of the iPad – if it is an attractive device that people want at an affordable price, then it will sell regardless of the name.
That said, I am really impressed with the price point. Seeing all of the discussion leading up to the announcement, I figured it would be in the $800 - $1,000 range. $499 for the low-end model seems like a great value… especially if you’re looking at, say, a Kindle DX. And, obviously, the iPad will have a lot of additional uses beyond being used as an eReader and, so, to me would seem like a better choice if you’re looking into that price range.
I understand why they went with the iPhone OS but I am still disappointed for a couple of reasons. First, most of the apps for the iPhone (which I do own) are not very robust. They are generally quite gimmicky. They are definitely not as full-featured as Macintosh applications. That said, the iPhone interface is obviously geared to the iPad’s multi-touch interface. I mean, it is essentially a big iphone, after all, and it isn’t clear how easy the full-fledged Mac OS X could be moved to a multitouch interface. But, I still would have liked to see it based on Mac OS X. I fear that Apple is losing focus of their full-fledged computers and are risking becoming much more of a gadget maker.
Another reason the iPod OS approach is disappointing to me is that you’ll have Apple as a gatekeeper to all applications (unless it is jailbroken or something similar). I understand why Apple would want to do this… think of all the revenue this generates as they get a cut of every paid application sold. Indeed, this may well be one reason that the hardware price is so low. Much like razors, they can make money on the blades (or the apps). But, having a gatekeeper in place is very limiting for developers. Will Apple refuse to release applications like Firefox that would compete with their built-in apps? If the iPhone’s history is any indication then, yes, they will limit applications and stifle competing products.
And, speaking of competing products, iPad will not support Flash. Perhaps there will be a workaround in the future but the iPhone still does not have Flash support. I have to wonder if Flash and Silverlight would be blocked to lock users out of all of the alternatives to the iTunes Store. The iPad would be much more attractive if I could watch Netflix movies or Hulu content right from it. Of course, having these options available would really limit the appeal of paying for content from the iTunes Store.
In the end, I think that I am not the target audience for one of these devices. That said, I do think that Apple will sell a tons of iPads. They are a really cool and neat toy… I would just not be willing to pay that much for something which, in my mind, offers so few advantages to having a smartphone and a laptop.
Rifftrax Live tomorrow
I am really anxious to go see Rifftrax live tomorrow – the Shorts Extravaganza with special guest, Weird Al Yankovic. I saw their last live show and it was great. I hope that they get enough ticket sales to keep doing these events. Ideally, they would have a showing in Portland but, alas, I will be driving up to Brunswick tomorrow night after work. The next three nights will have something going on so it will be a busy week. And I cannot believe how fast Christmas is approaching.
Windows Vista – or why I am switching back
I have a Macbook Pro computer. I have been using the Macintosh off and on for awhile. As I thought about purchasing a new laptop, I really wanted a 17-inch screen. I had two 17-inch laptops previous to my Macbook Pro but I just couldn’t afford any Mac laptop with a 17-inch screen. Right now, their 17-inch model starts at $2,499. Seriously. It is a really nice laptop and if you priced out a Windows laptop with the same exact specs, it might be a similar cost. But I just could not justify spending that much on a laptop. And, I could not get that screen size in the resolution I want.
I use a computer pretty much all day and I’ve always found a 17-inch screen at 1440 x 900 very comfortable. The laptop I have now is the same resolution (1440 x 900) with a 15-inch screen and I have noticed myself getting a lot more eye strain. So, to get ready for switching back to Windows, I have installed Windows Vista, via Boot Camp, on my Macintosh and have been running that full time for about four months.
My impression is that Mac OS X is a better operating system. I have been dealing with some of the kruft that happens when you’ve installed and uninstalled and used a Windows system for some time. It definitely feels slower than when it was freshly installed. I have run registry cleaners and that seemed to help somewhat… along with killing and not letting me enter registration information for a piece of software I use daily (Navicat). It is just more to worry about with Windows – it seems like more maintenance.
I also feel like I am rewarding Microsoft for their poor software in a way. You see, as a web developer, I spend a LOT of time debugging for Internet Explorer. On the Macintosh that meant having Parallels open with Windows XP. With my machine, I have a maximum of three gigs of RAM which goes very quickly with two OSes and a couple of Adobe apps running. Also, Microsoft Office 2008 is sooooo slow. Office 2007 is very quick on Vista. Also, not Microsoft’s fault, is that Dreamweaver on Mac OS X has some very annoying bugs that made it very difficult to use.
I am hopeful that Windows 7 will address some of the performance degradation that happens over time on earlier versions of Windows. On the whole, I am happy with Vista. I actually like the interface and I think the performance for running applications is better than Mac OS X, on the whole.
Watching the Mariners
I am not sure if I am supposed to be getting this channel or if it is a fluke, but right now I’m receiving a baseball station so I get to watch a little Mariners baseball and see one of the final games of the season. For those who don’t know, I am a Seattle Mariners and Miami Dolphins fan. I think I just wanted to be contrarian with rooting for Seattle – I didn’t want to cheer for the Red Sox since they were my brother’s favorite team. Had I realized the whole time zone thing, I may not have become a fan of a west coast team. But I’ve been following them for so long that they are my team. I liked the Dolphins mostly because of Dan Marino. The 80s Dolphins were a very exciting team to watch.
This has been a great year for Seattle. Ichiro has now racked up over 200 hits for the last 9 straight years, breaking the major league record which stood for over one hundred years. And, going from a really disappointing 100 loss season where their payroll was over $100 million in 2008, they seem to have really laid the foundation for a brighter future. They’ve assured themselves of a winning season this year which is exciting. And, of course, Griffey Jr.’s return to Seattle has had some incredible moments as well.
Beltre just hit a solo shot. This will probably be the last year I get to see him in a Mariners uniform. It is too bad he spent so much of it on the DL.
Anyway, it is time to switch gears and follow the Red Sox. Now that I am older and can actually tolerate my brother, I’ve grown to appreciate them. But I am excited for next year and I hope to see some more M’s games via MLB.tv.
Ugh… long day
It was a long, stressful day today. I made an error on a work project and had to work on it at night after going to my nephew's soccer game. I am tired of feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Hopefully things will get better.
I am finally getting around to setting up my blog. I've been meaning to do something with my website for ages. I'm not quite sure what I am going to use it for yet but I expect to post movie and game reviews. Perhaps some writing about my adventures in programming.
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