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January 24, 2005 Mac geek, meet English geek. Had anyone out of uniform used the term lanyard before the iPod shuffle intro?
12:49 PM
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January 20, 2005 True story time. Nebraska resident Derek Kieper publishes an editorial decrying the mean old federal government's trampling on personal liberties, specifically his imagined right not to wear a seat belt in a car. Fast forward four months and the same 21 year old is killed in an automobile accident. He was ejected from the vehicle because, you guessed it, he wasn't wearing a seat belt. His belted companions suffered non-life threatening injuries only. Sad on two levels. People loved him and are in grief. My heart goes out to them. But also I can't help thinking that this guy died without realizing what a moron he really was.
10:24 PM
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God I hope it's a fake ad.
02:59 PM
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January 18, 2005 The kids are already ripping apart their iPod shuffles to find out what makes them tick.
09:25 AM
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January 17, 2005 The past 10 days or so have been new guy stuff overload. CES. LA Auto Show. Macworld Expo. Detroit Auto Show. There are almost more new, shiny toys that one geek can lust after. Almost. Mac mini. Frankly I didn't care much about the notion of a headless iMac that the grapevine has been buzzing about for years. Once you're bought into the pro side of the line, who cares what's entry level, right? Leave it to Apple though to make a fashion statement out of last years specs. Combine the looks with a $499 price and I see a winner. The only possible hitch is the choice to make all upgrades -- even RAM -- the province of dealers. Maybe it's not a big deal but it seems to me that some of the most curious folks in the PC camp are also the ones who expect to tinker with stuff. And they tell their friends. Saturn Sky and Aura. Yes, Saturn. And not just one but two. The Sky roadster looks great. But is it too close to the equally gorgeous Solstice. Could this be the start of another set of fraternal twins like the Camaro and Firebird? Or by spreading the Kappa love around is GM trying to avoid the lingering odor of the Fiero? Sony PSP. I'm not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination. Hell the first and last game I played regularly was that Pong thing. But the PSP is sexy. I wonder if it will run that Pong deal. IPod shuffle. Again, I scoffed at the rumors. But I have to hand it to the Cupertino crowd. They have spun this one right. I'd already been thinking about buying a larger USB flash drive since the 128MB I have for shuffling class files around fills up way too fast so this purchase is almost a no-brainer. If that is I can actually find one before the end of the month. Most amusing press quote of the week comes from the NY Times about the Detroit auto show, of all things, specifically the debut of the Jaguar Advanced Lightweight Coupe and the oh-so-British electric show. This just in: Jaguar’s Advanced Lightweight Coupe show car made its debut a little while ago. The sleek sports car rolled onto the stage in Cobo Arena amid flashes of green lasers, and with a nod to the British marque’s long affiliation with Lucas, the electrical equipment maker, only one headlight was working. The Prince of Darkness strikes again. Also in that Times piece is perhaps the most surprising and far-reaching development of the show. Namely the news that fighter-plane-piloting cigar-smoking car guy and GM vice chairman Bob Lutz has a blog. Say what you will about the General's recent products, certainly can't be worse than what I say about them, but you have to admit that having someone with that much authority publishing his own musings is rather significant, if not unprecedented. Maybe GM gets it after all.
11:17 PM
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January 16, 2005 Free music. Legal. Not just a single this week. iTunes has an album of 13 free songs from Universal. Get it will it's there.
11:45 AM
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January 09, 2005 Musical archive time around here. Seems to come in waves lately. I had New Order's last three albums in one of the car's CD changers for the weeks bracketing Xmas. Tonight though something clicked in my head and I had to hear the entire X catalog. For some reason, seminal has always been attached to X in my mind. As in, the seminal LA punk band. Without question, a group that should have been huge but for inexplicable reasons just missed big fame and money time after time. My affection for the combination of John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake dates to 1982 and Under The Big Black Sun. Even though I had heard of the previous albums Los Angeles and Wild Gift, I somehow missed actually buying them. An oversight quickly corrected after I saw the foursome live. A memorable night at Club Foot it was (even though those linked picts are from two years prior). I knew something different was up the moment they hit the stage. My friends and I had parked ourselves in front of the speakers at the edge of the stage. From the first notes the sound waves blasting out made my clothes move independently of my body. (I seem to remember that I couldn't hear correctly for a week.) Then a few songs into the set some ass in the pit tossed a drink, hitting the normally placid Billy Z. In a flash, he dived off stage and chased the guy out of the club. While he was gone, Exene lifed an ancient, huge, men's black wingtip onto her monitor, at my eyelevel, all of three feet from my head, called us all assholes and said she didn't care how long they waited for Billy to come back because it just gave her more time to drink beer. That was the moment I went from liking a record to being completely entranced by the band. You probably had to be there. Regardless, the four Ray Manzarek produced albums, the three mentioned above plus More Fun In The New World, rank among the best rock ever recorded. From searing anger to raw grief to cynical humor, X pushed the boundaries if not popularity of what punk meant. And as a happy post script, while researching the links above, I discovered that X will be playing a show next Friday at Slims. I immediately bought two tickets but Rich refuses to go. (That's okay. I declined to go to a Marilyn Manson show with him recently.) So who wants to join me?
01:20 AM
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January 05, 2005 I stole a National Geographic from reception last night because of the cover story on coffee. Once again, I was dazzled by the society's photos and surprisingly impressed by the innovative layout. But reminded why I'll never pay my own money for the book. The infuriating small format. Why do they limit the beauty of the shots with that tiny footprint and stiff binding?
12:12 PM
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Mac geek time. Why doesn't every print dialog box have a Page Setup button?
12:06 PM
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January 03, 2005 I've developed this odd affection for Silk Nog. Just in time for the holidays!
10:26 PM
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January 01, 2005 New year, old subject. I've been meaning to post this for a day or two. Once again, the current administration makes me ashamed of my US citizenship. Why did it take our dipshit president until Wednesday to publicly mention the worst natural disaster of our time? Why are we being such skinflints with that anemic $35 million in aid? Please, we're spending $35 million every 7 hours in Iraq according to MoveOn.org. Or to think about it another way, that $35 million represents less than 12 cents from each person in this country. It's literally the kind of money we find in between the couch cushions. I don't know about you but I'd be willing to round it up to 50 cents or maybe even a full buck. Update: Looks like I posted in the same time period that the current administration was shamed into pledging the moral minimum. I'm pleased our current administration capitulated to popular opinion. I remain ashamed that it took so many days and such a reaction had to be forced. |