It's not a dump truck, it's a series of Jews

Hell, it's about time.

2010-01-22T09:42:00.001-08:00

So I know that practically frakking nobody actually reads this blog, but I figured this is monumental enough news that it should go up here, regardless of the venue's quantum state:

Hamas has announced that it will accept Israel's right to exist. Also, it's willing to take out the bit in its charter about Sham-Wow-ing Israel off the face of the earth. So there you go; now it's Israel's turn to play proverbial ball.

If there is anyone out there, please let me know; maybe then I'll actually update sometimes.

What? Jonathan's posting?

2009-06-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

And about Israel, no less.

I'm a bit late in seeing it, but whatever. I'm reconsidering going on Birthright. I've met many a reasonable Zionist, but it's sad that so many of these people exist too. (I have independent confirmation that there's much more where this came from.)

Midnight Hunger

2009-03-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

I find myself, at this moment, sitting at my friend's computer in San Francisco a little after midnight with nothing to do. I've checked my email. I've checked my Facebook. I've spent three or four hours playing Assassin's Creed, which, by the way, is hell for a completionist.
I'M HUNGRY.
I've already eaten a package of turkey bologna as a late snack. I ate dinner. I ate a full breakfast. I was snacking all day. Why am I hungry? It's not fun. I'm thinking about going to sleep, maybe with another couple of hours of gaming before I finally succumb to the Sandman's wiles.
Stupid stomach. I should just learn to digest things more slowly.
Or I could go to sleep at a reasonable hour, but I like the dumb idea better. I'm gonna try that. I'll get back to you when I manage it.

Numbers

2008-12-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

In the New York Times' most recent article regarding the situation in Gaza, I found the following quote: "The three-day death toll surpassed 350, some 60 of them civilians, according to United Nations officials."
I'd actually been wondering how many of the hundreds of people killed were a result of collateral damage. I was shocked to find that it was only about 17% percent. One would think, based on dozens of pictures of smoking buildings, people running around, and fat Arab women crying around dead bodies that Israel, in it's OBVIOUSLY murderous intent, had sent in super-massive new bombs that only target children and puppies and teddy bears.
Yes, teddy bears. Jews HATE teddy bears. It's even in the Protocols. Didn't you know?
By saying "only" 17%, I am absolutely discounting the 60 dead Palestinian civilians. Not that they deserve to die, or that more ought to, rather, that I assumed the ratio to be more like 50 or 60%, based on other articles calling this attack the most ferocious and deadly against Palestinians in decades (though not necessarily in those words). Why is an operation which is successful at avoiding civilian deaths over 80% of the time being criticized so heavily? Someone should point out that something more like, umm, 100% of successful suicide bombings kill civilians.
Numbers are fun.

Response to 'It Ends Not With a Bang"

2008-12-27T23:14:00.001-08:00

The following is something I originally intended to publish as a comment on the Mirvish Chronicles most recent post, and realized would do better as a full blog post.
Something I have learnt from my involvement in "ethnically" related discussion (if you can call protesting a discussion, which I most certainly intend to do), is that one must ALWAYS have a cameraman around if one intends to become involved in "conflicts" with "political activists" of the same kind as Mr. Zakharia.
A camera, though, will not deter violence; in many cases it will in fact provoke it. I mentioned an incident to the author of the above cited post where I followed an "activist" (read:Paul LaRudee) whom I disagreed with to his car with my camera, and was confronted later with intimidation, jeers and rude hand symbols from his friends and supporters. Not of course, that the original "activist" noticed me, the piano-tuning scum-of-the-earth. But other people who saw I was not wearing the appropriate hyper-liberal black dress (in fact I was wearing my yarmulke) did jeer, intimidate, and gesture rudely at me. The incidents I refer to occurred at Israel in the Gardens in San Francisco earlier this year. One particular "activist" shouted at me that I needed to "unlearn my Zionism." I politely replied "no thanks," and returned to the friendlier faces across the street.
On the other hand, I have found that quite often members of my own rather wide ideological community (read: Zionists) who have the courage to show up on the streets of the Bay Area often hurt our shared cause by escalating or even beginning conflicts with differently-minded "activists" (In case you haven't figured it out, these activists are in the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic camp that includes the particularly violent Mr. Zakharia).
At least, if one does have the camera, one can selectively capture the violent goings-on intiated by the opposing side and ignore the unkindness of one's own allies.
To sum up, stupid & angry people suck.

A Villanelle

2008-12-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

Of written forms the sonnet's clearly king
Amongst the others it always stands most tall
No other poetry take words on wings.

Sonnets have a classic beat that rings
That holds the listener in enchanted thrall
Of written forms the sonnet's clearly king.

To every single sonnet's line a ying
Exists to answer in rhyme its yang's call
No other poetry takes words on wings.

Only in iambics do sonnets sing
If not in pentameter then not at all
Of written forms the sonnet's clearly king.

To fourteen lines the sonnet's form does cling
Another size is much too big or small
No other poetry takes words on wings.

Have I said all virtues of the form ruling
In poetry over the villanelle?
Of written forms the sonnet's clearly king,
No other poetry takes words on wings.

Big news!

2008-11-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

... And not from Slashdot, this time!
It seems a cease-fire has been declared between Israel and Hamas around the Gaza Strip, and Islamic Jihad is willing tor respect it as well. Ironically, each group has the same qualms -- they expect the other side to break it.

In other news, I saw some crazy Zionists at Sather Gate the other day: They had a gratuitous number of people holding Israeli flags and were handing out literature purporting, among other things, that wearing a keffiyeh is tantamount to displaying a Confederate flag. I only wish I had kept some of their literature so I could remember their name, but the literature-handing-out guy was such an ass that I wasn't exactly thinking clearly at the time. Still, though: hilarious.

Oh, and speaking of protests, I stopped by to watch a Critical Mass protest in Berkeley last Friday, and it ended with someone lighting a gas fire in the middle of the street, which seems to me to be not only a fucktarded thing to do, but also a hypocritical one. The rest of the protest was fairly peaceful, but this just goes to show how one person, police provocateur or not, can ruin the image of a protest.

Tune in in some to-be -determined amount of time for my reflections on what it's like to go to school in Berkeley vs. San Francisco, especially Maybeck vs. JCHS.

Terrible Jew, Bipartisanship (That's totally a word, guys.)

2008-09-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I'm not nearly as pro-Israel as Avi. I fact, as far as I'm concerned, if neither side can start acting mature, the rest of the world should give the entire swath of land to refugees from Darfur, etc.

Anyway, the point is this: How is it that Israel is more important to the stability of the world than any other country? Why do presidential candidates have to do Swiftian tricks on string for lobbyists representing Israel, but not for lobbyists representing, say, Iraq? What about Georgia? Sealand, even? Why, in fact, does no country other than Israel have a major lobby in the US? Earlier last century Ireland was in a similar, though obviously not identical, position to Israel. Why didn't American politicians try so hard to impress their lobby? Did they even have a lobby?

Incidentally, it isn't Berkeley that's doing this to me. I was like this at my old school, too.
That, and I'm no more pro-Palestinian than I am pro-Israel. Incidentally, both sides say that they would support a two-state solution, but that the other group is totally against any such idea. Lolwhut?

Just sayin'

SO AWESOME, yet somehow I feel cruel.

2008-09-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

SO.
Apparently Sarah Palin's daughter is five months pregnant.
In a normal situation, that wouldn't be all that interesting. Except that this isn't a normal situation. Here's why:

Sarah Palin is the Republican VP nominee (at this time, technically the presumptive nominee).
Part of the reason she was chosen was because she's a pro-life evangelical Christian, something McCain isn't.
Sarah Palin's daughter is SEVENTEEN. Technically, she's above the age of consent in Alaska, but she's still a minor.
Sarah Palin's daughter is unmarried. According to the linked article, she does plan to marry the father, but I still find this relevant

So Sarah Palin's daughter (whose name is Bristol, by the way), committed an icky icky sin by having premarital sex. At least she used protec- OH WAIT! She DIDN'T. That's why this is so funny. She did something BAD (by having unprotected sex) which would be GOOD (by not using birth control) for her religion, but is also VERY VERY BAD (by having premarital sex) for her religion.
This is the most incredibly funny thing ever, not counting those two closeted gay Republicans. Remember them? Mark Foley from, Congressman from Florida, and Larry Craig, Senator from Idaho? Actually, I didn't. I had to Google them.
Seriously though, I feel bad. The whole world knows that this teenage girl both slept with her boyfriend and got knocked up, which can only be incredibly embarrassing for her. Not only that, but because of religious and political pressure, she now has to marry the father, which will most likely turn out badly for both the couple and the eventual offspring.
I feel bad for her. But I still can't stop laughing.

Briefly: Barack Obama on Israel

2008-08-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama said something in his speech tonight about Israel. It wasn't particularly shocking to me, but it might be to some people. The fact that he said it though, is not the point of this post. I am writing about what he said:

“You don’t defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq. You don’t protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can’t truly stand up for Georgia when you’ve strained our oldest alliances."

Now, there's a right way to read this and a wrong way to read this.
The wrong way is pretty simple: Obama mentioned Israel in the same breath as al Qaeda and the Russian invasion of Georgia. Therefore, he must think that Israel is only as important as these issues and not something special.
To repeat myself, that would be just plain wrong.
The right way to read this is to think: Obama mentioned Israel in the same breath as al Qaeda and the Russian invasion of Georgia. Well, al Qaeda is a direct threat to ourselves, and Russia being aggressive (or dirty rotten bastards, whichever you prefer), is a threat to world stability. Therefore, Obama must think that Israel's security is both important to our own safety and to the entire worlds.
Obama must think Israel is pretty special.

A Note on Language: Unfit to Print Part I

2008-08-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

It being the last day before school starts, I became bored, so I started reading the New York Times.
My eyes immediately fell on an article by Isabel Kirshner titled "Israel Frees 198 Palestinians Before Rice Arrives for Talks."
Let me preface this by saying that I have no problem with the title of the article or with its subject.
My first problem arises in paragraph five where Kirshner refers to two specific "veteran prisoners" who were released. Calling these two men veteran prisoners is an obvious issue, which I will return to in a moment.
The second problem is in the next paragraph, where these two "veterans" are described in detail. The first, Said al-Ataba, was imprisoned for his participation in a 1970's terrorist attack, called a "bombing" in this article, which killed an Israeli woman. He was affiliated with the terrorist group Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, here referred to simply as "leftist."
The second, Muhammad Abu Ali, murdered an Israeli student in the West Bank, apparently for the crime of being Israeli, and later killed "a fellow prisoner whom he suspected of collaborating with Israel." He was elected as a Fatah legislator while still in prison.
Admittedly, Kirshner did say these men were "sentenced for life for murdering Israelis," a description which is not nearly harsh enough in my opinion. These men, simply by their description are not simply murderers, but they are terrorists. Abu Ali in particular was not committed an act of murder, not even taking the helpful step of removing himself from the face of the planet in the process. And a reminder: he did that twice. The people he killed weren't soldiers. One he killed simply because of their nationality and religion (and because he was a West Bank settler), the second because he and only he suspected the victim of collaborating with Israel.
How does this qualify him as a "veteran prisoner?" The man is evil, he is a murderer and he is a terrorist. His election as a Fatah legislator only serves to show the true nature of that supposedly reformed organization.
Al-Ataba is no less a terrorist and a murderer than Abu Ali, but the fault in Kirshner's language comes not in her description of him but in her designation of the DFLP as simply "leftist." The DFLP, while admittedly leftist, is also a terrorist group, and should be referred to as such.
I admittedly don't know whether to blame the author or her editor, but either way, this sort of biased language is absolutely unacceptable in the world's most respected newspaper. While I don't find it necessary to refer to these two terrorists as evil bastards (which they are, but that's my job), to simply call them prisoners imprisoned/convicted for murder or bombings is just wrong. Terrorists should be called terrorists, bombings on civilians should be called terrorist attacks, and killing a settler should still be called murder. And terrorism. Can't forget the T-word.

I'm Back!

2008-08-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, remember me? I'm back at the blog!

So what's been new since I've been gone? I'm so glad I imagined that you asked:

I now volunteer at the Alameda County Computer Resource Center, where I put together/modify computers for placement in nonprofits and disadvantaged households.

I use Ubuntu, a fork of Debian GNU/Linux.

I am a member of a Live Action Role-Playing group called Westfinder. If you're interested and in the area, feel free to stop by Codornices Park on Sundays from noon to about 4, when we play Capture the Flag with foam swords.

I sadly no longer go to the same school as Avi.

I have become a fan of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, as all two of you should have by now.

Oh, and I've found Raptor Jesus. He was behind the lion-- Jesus Christ, it's a lion! Get in the car!

Consolidated Tea Co, Inc

2008-08-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

At about 5 o' clock today I realized that I had become extremely bored. I was also somewhat tired. I decided that I felt like making some tea.
So I pulled out the smaller of our two teapots (we have a third ceramic serving pot, but apparently it's meant for coffee), and put the kettle on.
Why do we even have a kettle? We have an Insta-Hot pumping out 190 degree water right at the kitchen sink. So why do I bother?
I was bored. Waiting for the water to boil gave me something to do.
About five minutes later the kettle began two sing, and I poured the now boiling water over a few teaspoons of kosher for Pesach Swee-Touch-Nee Black Tea.
Yes, I did say teaspoons. We happened to have an actual tin of loose tea in the pantry. Making tea in a remarkably old-fashioned way made the entire experience all the more enjoyable for me.
Anyway, I offered my father some of the freshly brewed tea, which he gladly accepted. He took the liberty of looking into the tin and discovering that there was very little tea left. Mind you we'd bought this tin over a year ago, so its survival was a miracle in itself.
I took to the intertubes to look for another tin of this fine product. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to exist any longer, at least as far as Google was concerned. I did, however, discover that Swee-Touch-Nee is now made, or at least distributed by a company with the incredibly dull name of Consolidated Tea Co, Inc from Lynbrook, New York. This information was repeated on the side of the tin, but why would anyone look at the packaging when Google is right there next to the address bar?
At the discovery of the location of the tea company, I exclaimed quite loudly "Lynbrook? And Brooklyn? What the hell!?"
Many people, such as my father, who grew up in New York, probably know of this strange naming feature of Long Island. I, having never really paid attention to the dozens of towns on Long Island, had no idea.
When my father heard this, he began spouting off the stops on the Babylon line: "Valley Stream, Lynbrook, Rockville Center, Baldwin, Freeport, Merrick, Bellmore, Massapeequa, Masaapeequa Park, Amityville, Copiague, Lindenhurst, AND Babylon. All others change at Jamaica." The stops, to his knowledge, have not changed.
Another interesting note: Consolidated Tea is located on a street called Merrick, the same street in Queens where my grandfather's pharmacy was once located.
Not that any of this helps me in my search for another tin of Swe-Touch-Nee. Sigh.

Curious...

2008-06-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

An article in today's New York Times caught my eye this morning. First of all, it was about an Israeli military exercise that seemed to be preparing pilots for an attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure. More interesting, though, was this line:

"A National Intelligence Estimate that was issued in December by American intelligence agencies asserted that Iran had suspended work on weapons design in late 2003. The report stated that it was unclear if that work had resumed." (emphasis added)

I don't think any article I've read, and admittedly I haven't read everything, has ever mentioned that last bit. The NIE that most of the media, except for the extreme right wing, took as vindication for the liberal "Hands-off Iran" stance, was no such thing. It said only that work was suspended five years ago, not that the program had been ended as it felt (to me) we were led to believe.

That's not to say that it isn't still suspended, or that Iran isn't enriching uranium. We know for damn sure that that's still going on, there was widespread coverage of Ahmadenijad touring a facility doing just that. The program that was stopped was the development of ballistic missiles capable of transporting a nuclear warhead across the planet. The missiles they have are relatively short range, and they suspended work on the scary stuff that could actually kill us.

In any event, I think it's interesting that the New York Times is changing its coverage of the NIE in this slight but important way.

A Poem

2008-03-05T21:10:00.001-08:00

The itsy bitsy spider went up the spider web

Down came the rain and crushed its little head

Out came the sun and fried its little brain

And the itsy bitsy spider was never the same again

What's that smell?

2008-01-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

What do I smell here? That's not quite the smell of a fresh-baked Macworld Jobsnote, no, OH NO! That is the disgusting stench of obsolescence.

Just as everybody has been predicting for the last couple of weeks, Steve Jobs' big announcement of his keynote, at least so far, has been the new MacBook Air. This is now the absolute thinnest computer on the market today; Intel had to physically shrink down the Core 2 Duo chip to make the concept work.

Now the argument against Apple ever releasing a product such as this had been that subnotebooks always have really crappy tiny keyboards, and Steve Jobs has big fingers and wouldn't allow a product to go through that he couldn't comfortably use. But they've solved that pretty simply - the Air has the same screen as my MacBook (which now disgusts me). IT also comes standarad with 2 GB RAM, an 80GB HDD (64GB SSD is a more expensive option), A USB 2 port "micro"-DVI out, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and audio out.

It costs $1799 in 2 weeks.

I'm sorry, but I have to go cry.

Tom Dickson is my Homeboy

2007-07-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the magic of a BlendTec blender. It can blend just about anything, as almost anyone with an internet hookup knows from Tom Dickson's incredible online video series, "Will It Blend?" in which most thing inevitably do. The most recent episode of this iconic example of viral marketing is the iPhone. And yes, it does blend.
The best part of this is that the remains of Tom's blended iPhone are up on eBay (packaged with a BlendTec Total blender, a signed T-shirt [reading Tom Dickson is my Homeboy], and a DVD of the first fifty episodes). As of writing it's up to 1151 USD. Now I know better than anyone how tempting it is to buy something useless to show off your geekiness, having bought the t-shirt from Judgement Day to have to explain to people who the hell this super-indy band is rather than buying the album for the same price with which I could actually "spread the love," if you catch my drift. But a completely useless iPhone even I don't get.
But here's the kicker:
YOU WILL NOT BE RECEIVING A BRAND NEW IPHONE. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE THE REMAINS OF A BLENDED IPHONE- A TSHIRT-A DVD AND A TOTAL BLENDTEC BLENDER!
'Nuff said.

Coke (of the soda variety)

2007-07-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

The other day I went out and bought myself a few bottles of Coke Zero, as I, unlike Greg Dean of Real Life fame, am an absolute Coke fanatic (Rather than Pepsi). I knew from experience that though it lacks the calories which define good soda, it tastes way the hell better than Diet Coke, and somewhat similar to regular Coke.
Now, for some idiot reason, the label calls it "Calorie Free Cola" rather than the classic "Diet." I do realize the formulation is different from Diet Coke, and I understand the marketing aspect, but still, it just seems weird.
What's even weirder is that even though Coke Zero tastes way better than Diet Coke, they haven't just phased out the old stuff and replaced it with Zero.
I guess this is why I'm not in marketing.
Anyway, point is that Coke is awesome and Coke Zero makes me happy.
Especially because it has about 57 grams of caffeine per 20 oz. bottle.

Avi needs to learn to put "http://" before his links

2007-07-18T00:37:00.000-07:00

See title. Y'see, if you don't put "http://" before the url in the link, the browser assumes the link leads somewhere within the same folder, which is not good if you're not looking for, say, http://www.blogger.com/www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com/, and would rather Uncle Goog were not aware of your, hmm, subversive activities. 'Nuff said? 'Nuff said.

Why, as a matter of fact, I DO come with a bottle of Schnapz

2007-07-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it. I read Jewschool. Sure, Mobius posts some stuff that's a bit "post-Zionist" (IMAO) for my tastes, but in general, it's pretty damn good.
So today he came across, and posted for all too see, this HIlarious video parodying the "Get a Mac" ads, changing the characters to an iPhone and a "jPhone."
One's a twenty something regular guy who explains the iPhone's kickass features. The other is a Chassideshe looking guy who Jew-ifies all of thos e features, i.e. doesn't work on Shabbos, gives restaurant recommendations (rather than just listings) and so on.
It was pretty funny. Go watch it here. Only thing is, I hope there's an option on the jPhone to get blue label Johnny Walker instead of red.
Speaking of Johnny Walker, I just read the Wikipedia entry and discovered there's also a green label. Who knew?
Also, I got a call from an iPhone today. Apparently the one's in the Apple Stores are not only touchable, you can also use them. AS PHONES. The only weird thing was that the call was from 408 (San Jose) area code. Still, not my problem.
Last thing: Microsoft recently paid out on one of it's anti-trust suits. So somebody who got a good amount in the deal gave me the voucher. Finally, I can buy a flatbed scanner. (w00t!)

Crosslinkage

2007-07-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm the one that B.O.T.H. said would probably end up smoking a pipe when I'm older.
Let me explain: First of all, both of my parents smoke. Both the crappy stuff (highly treated poor quality cigarette tobacco) and cigars. Not a very good smelling place. But it's my opinion that this would be fixed simply by getting rid of those little filtered sticks of crapola and sticking to the good stuff.
As for the working briars, one of our pipes fully lacks a stem, and is officially retired. The other one has a complete bowl, but the end of the stem is not only broken, but there is something stuck inside it. So at some point soon we'll hopefully get it fixed. And then we'll get a tin of some decent chips perhaps.
Umm, I think there was something else I wanted to talk about. Probably had something to do with Law and Order or Trader Joe's blended juice. Ehh, whatever. If I'm awake I'll write something later.

Why I Need to Learn German

2007-07-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

This may be a bit confusing. I need to learn German.
I'm NOT joking.
The only language I know (besides, apparently, English), is Hebrew. Which, outside the realm of Israel and Judaism, is essentially useless.
On the other hand, German is not only kickass because it's the root language of English, but half the important Jewish stuff written not in Hebrew in the past couple of centuries was written originally either in German or in Yiddish, which is about 80 percent German anyway.
Admittedly, most of the stuff I want to read has been translated into English.
But Freud's original work was also in German. And I have a theory that the stuff I learned in seventh grade Tanach class was not Freud, and that he actually wrote horrific baby books for a living based on the lives of Vienna's tragically poor and malnourished youth. It's a conspiracy, I tell you! And Chaim Potok was totally in on it.

What, No Waffles? A Quick Rant on Current Movies

2007-07-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the other night I finally got around to seeing Ratatouille, which those of you who've been living under a rock, is Pixar's new film, and one of the best reviewed movies this year. Now, it was pretty good and all, but I have a couple of problems with it. First of all, the (second) villain, evil food critic Anton Ego, was played by the most awesome Peter O'Toole. Now, it's cool that they got him to play something in what is still essentially a kid's movie, but there is an issue with that. Peter O'Toole is Irish. Which to my mind (please don't kill me for saying this) essentially means he's English, at least as far as food goes. How the HELL did an Englishman become the most revered critic in Paris? Seriously. Come on. Even someone who had left England for France could not in any way reform his tongue to be able to appreciate the fine cuisine of the city of lights. I guess in the end I am vindicated by the fact that his favorite dish is made by a rat.
Also, they didn't make any waffles. I know it's more of a Belgian thing, but hey, nobody's really ever satisfactorily explained to me the difference between France & Belgium anyway.
I also saw Harry Potter Five, which I must say KICKED ASS. I see no reason why it shouldn't win best picture. Or at the very least, best adapted screenplay.

Jonathan's notes:
No, Harry Potter 5 did not quite KICK ASS. Sure, it was ok, especially if you pretend that it's totally unrelated to the book of the same name, seeing as it left out a whole bunch that, in the novel, was essential to the overall plot. That being said, the battle at the Department of Mysteries was badass. One thing about that, though: What was with the whole apparating different colors thing? When Snape was deciding whether or not to join Voldemort, was he just like, "Well, I apparate with black smoke, so I guess I don't have much choice, do I?" (Yes, I know I skipped past the obvious answer, that the apparator controls the color of thon's smoke, and indeed whether smoke is involved at all, but that one's not nearly as fun. Also, is it smoke? If not, what is it?)
Also, waffles are a French thing, too-- just look at all the street stands selling "gaufres."

Online, like a Goliath

2007-05-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

A monumental occurrence has shaken me out of my blogbernation: Check it out now, the funk soul brother.

Many other, slightly less monumental things have come to my attention as well:

First, just three steps short of a Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot, I propose a propination to this marvel of modern engineering! Note: This makes Hardcore easier.

Put off because your 'puter pales in comparison (Fine, that last one was a little forced.) with the '80s ones you saw in that movie? Despair no more!

Flustered by a floundering frame rate? Can't cope with your corpulent computer? Long loads driving you loco? Look no further!

Finally, though some of the foremost authorities (id est, us) have theorised that what was formerly known as the ARPANet was a progression of yahoodies, it would seem that someone else has proposed a new hypothesis. Some of the foremost authorities (see above) say that this revolutionary new possibility merits some consideration.

Braaaaiiiiiinnnnsssss....

2007-03-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

The recent lack of updatery is certainly troubling, and has two primary causes:
1) Avi is lazy and defeatist
2) I am lazy.

Next (hopefully nonexistent) time there's an "extended unplanned hiatus," hackneyed zombie clichés may not be able to save us.

Slashdot

2007-02-17T23:35:00.001-08:00

Hooray! Avi has seen the light of /. and has begun to teach others of its glory. Now that Avi likes it, though, it has become passé. All hail kuro5hin!

It is by popularity alone that things become conformist-feed. That's kind of obvious, though, isn't it? Don't you hate when people type stuff in illegible font sizes so you have to either view source or copy-paste it into a plain-text editor? What about when the font's just small enough to be distinguishable from the rest of the text? That was an ambiguous "it" a couple of sentences ago, wasn't it? This is way too many consecutive rhetorical questions, isn't it?

Apparently, someone at Microsoft still has a brain

2007-02-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has played Xbox Live, especially Halo, knows about how annoying the yapping can be in the unranked games. Now, this isn't a problem in ranked games, where people actually strategize, but in the "just for fun" games, where people have guests, you often come across total dumbasses who just WON'T SHUT UP.
Thankfully, Bungie (read: Microsoft) has come up with the clever idea for a new feature which the good folks over at Slashdot are calling "Mute the Jerk." This is a long overdue addition to online gaming. Go over and read the post on their site.
(No, I don't have an Xbox, I just played at a friend's house)

I am the laziest person on the planet

2007-02-10T00:33:00.000-08:00

I also happen to have just made a new blog, BlueTruth. Yes, that does mean that I bought a domain name . Pretty easy too, I used GoDaddy.
Speaking of GoDaddy, which invariably leads to talk of Super Bowl ads, they sucked this year.
Umm, apparently some jackass attacked Elie Wiesel. Seriously, how bitchy can you get?
I don't know, it's after midnight, and it's the weekend so there really isn't any news because other bloggers have brains and are asleep by now and after midnight my newsreader, Vienna, trashes all my old articles.
Vienna's been acting up lately, it gets the same articles about five times. It's really annoying, especially because it's the best free newsreader out there (besides Google Reader), and I don't have the money to buy NetNewsWire.
On an entirely unrelated note, some South Korean kids tried to take down the internet by sending a HUGE amount of data at the DNS. They failed miserably.

Huhbuhguhbuhduhwha?

2007-01-27T19:32:00.000-08:00

For some reason (probably related to our various migrations), the blog template has changed. I haven't changed it back because of the slight possibility that Avi actually wants it this way. We've also changed locations again, which shouldn't cause too many problems, since nobody has read this blog for at least a month anyway. In case we change again, the URL this time is/was/will have been/willan-on-have-been jew-chip.blogspot.com.
Also, apparently we're not important enough for Microsoft to send us free laptops. Either that, or they thought we didn't want "Christmas presents". (For the record, I don't care if they're presents for some screwed up Church of Scientology holiday. Where did L. Ron Hubbard even get the word "Scientology?" I mean, seriously, it's like "tempur-pedic," in that it's got parts of words in it that evoke "advanced-ness" and "understanding," yet, like "overexaggerate", when you look at it, it's just, for lack of a better word, stupid.)
See you next time for more tangents, appositives, parenthetical statements, and cultural commentary.

(Edit: Apparently, Avi does want it that way.)

Curorokusu

2007-01-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

The wait over: The BLEACH fillers are... well, over. I have a feeling that one of the reasons that people, especially manga readers, negatively prejudge anime fillers (so called because they give the manga artist time to accumulate more of a backlog, not for lack of substance) so often is that "original anime-exclusive storyline" arcs (as filler arcs are often called to remove the negative connotation) rob manga readers of the power to spoil the plot(Dumbledore dies!) for those who only watch the anime. There are certainly other reasons, such as the not-uncommon lack of quality or the arc not being true to the style, neither of which apply to BLEACH, but certainly do apply to other anime.

I went to a concert Friday night! It was at 924 Gilman, and there were 3 bands:
Cookie Mongoloid
Judgement Day
Arnocorps
Judgement Day was awesome, as always, as were the other bands. Cookie Mongoloid had the Cookie Monster as their lead singer, while Arnocorps restored such traditional Austrian folktales as Predator and Terminator to their former (i.e. pre-film) glory.

Music

2007-01-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

Something someone said to me the other day really bugged me. I told him that I did not like listening to the Rolling Stones, which I don't. He said that I "didn't respect the classics." Now he was probably kidding, but I'm never sure with this guy. I am a Beatles fan, and a John Lennon fan, just like both of my parents. I don't disrespect the Rolling Stones, or their immense popularity, I just don't like their music.
So why did my friend say this? It seems that in different social groups, people for some reason feel that they need to like certain kinds of music, or any sort of media, be it movies, games, or whatever. I catch myself doing this all the time. Jonathan is an anime freak, and I can't stand the stuff. But I don't usually say anything about it. Except now (sorry Jonathan).
But I've seen it most with music. Recently people seem to be into every sort of classic rock except the Beatles, and I only really like the Beatles. One of my friends, who I didn't even know listened to music, just added The Who to his favorite music on Facebook. I like indie rock, classical soundtracks, and just about anything with funny lyrics. And I am seen as peculiar.
Why is this? I like certain music that isn't particularly popular at the moment, but that doesn't mean I'm weird. I think people are weird for the music they listen to. I would probably put them down if I had the opinions of the masses backing me up, but still.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that people have different tastes. In everything. However much we may want to, we shouldn't really say anything bad to someone simply because of their tastes in music, television, or computer companies. At the core, this is a plea for common decency, damn it. So go out and be excellent to each other.
(I know I sound a bit all over the place in this, but I wasn't, I was just listening to reggae)

Al Gore is pretty boring, isn't he

2007-01-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

My friend Judah Mirvish, who hapens to be one of the wittiest people I know, recently posted the following on his Facebook. It's just a compilation of interesting stuff from his MySpace blog, and it's absolutely incredible. Read it, you'll laugh, I swear.

I read through my old Myspace blog. Here's some stuff that made me laugh.

On pain: "pain is just the body's way of telling you 'Ow.'"

On kindness: "You're like St. Francis of Asissi but without the chipmunks or something."

On hip-hop: "Essentially, whatever degree your milkshake brings boys (all of them or otherwise) to the yard is absolutely no business or even interest of mine."

On popups: "If they had asses, I'd be kicking the crap out of them."

On our wacky neighbours: "...he was Canadian, and as such, he bled red, white, and maple leaves."

Random:
"Speaking of words that make sense by themselves but not necessarily in correlation with one another, Mesopotamian gastroenterologist make enjoy. Got it? Me neither. Anyway, it's begun to rain again, but this time behind the wall of falling water there's a bright sun glaring at me as if to say, "You think you're tired? I just get to sit here on fire, all day, every day!" I have to agree. It would be tiring to be the sun. Then there's the issue of that constant burning sensation, with no dermatologist large enough to tell you which salve to apply topically 3 times a day. Plus if you were the sun and you managed to go back in time, ancient Greeks would call you Helios. Would you want to be called Helios? Really? Wierdo."

More thoughts:
"Of all the holidays I don't understand, Flag Day is the most amusing. Of all the songs I don't understand, Stairway To Heaven kicks the most ass. Of all the people I don't understand, Al Gore is the most boring. Of all the organs whose function I don't understand, the utricle has the funniest name. Of all the blog entries I don't understand, this was the most satisfying."

Gnite, everybody. To quote an early blog, "Thanks for your attentive ears, especially those of you who were expecting something else."

Al Gore, in all his boring glory.

Holy Contrast Ratio, Batman!

2007-01-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

Sony has announced, and seems to have showed off the prototype of, a 27 inch OLED with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. WOW! Incredible. Go here.

Is it the Apocalypse? No, just another CES announcement.

2007-01-07T21:59:00.001-08:00

Apparently, Microsoft is going to add IPTV functionality to the (in my opinion) not particularly noteworthy nauseatingly hi-def gaming systemXbox 360.Seeing as I don't own one and have no plans to purchase one in the near future, I'm not sure why I'm posting this, but what the hell. Anyway, here's the article from everyone's favorite geeky blog, Engadget.

'Elp! 'Elp! I'm being repressed!

2007-01-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

Politics? Politics!

In the words of science fiction author Steven Gould (no relation):
"'The jig is up! The jig is up! Hee, hee! Cuff him, Goofy.'"
In case you were wondering, that quote comes from the aformentioned author's novel, Jumper, which is in the process of being made into a movie starring Hayden Christensen, about whom the best thing I can say is that he's *er-hem* avant garde-- not in the "great artist ahead of his time" way, but in the "uncomfortable to watch" way-- but I digress.

Seriously, folks, this does not bode well for us independent reporters. Hopefully Google will have more spine than Spocko's ISP when the revolution comes.

The triumphant return of the Avi

2007-01-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

So, even though I still have a TON of work to do, I am going to do this thing again. Not that anyone is going to read this. Oh yes, and I changed the Url: somethingwithsilicon.blogspot.com.
So what's new?
Macworld's this week. And CES is going on. What came out? I don't know, a lot of stuff. Go read about it on Engadget.
And I got a new MacBook. Now both Jonathan and I have dual core 64 bit computers. W00t!
And now we can publish this at whatever url we want, as long as we own it. How does jewchip.com sound?
Here's to some hits, for God's sake!

Obligatory "Cricket Noise" Post

2006-12-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

So, neither of us has posted in a while. No comments, either, but that's hardly out of the ordinary. I'd say, "Anybody here?", but there was pretty much nobody here in the first place.

Also, Wikipedia has... never mind, this speaks for itself.

Or... not.

2006-11-13T22:36:00.000-08:00

Well, the URL we wanted wasn't available, even though it wasn't taken. This may merely be a bug in Blogger, but it also could be because the name seems derogatory. One would think that a blog partially written by one "Avi Schwartz" might be a bit of an exception, though.

I apologize for the lack of writing stylishness in this post.

URL Change

2006-11-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Since Avi isn't the only blogger hereabouts any more, we've decided to change the blog URL. This shouldn't be too difficult, because nobody has really read our blog for a while. Anyway, the new URL will be JewChip.blogspot.com. Update your bookmark (since there seem to be ≤1 reader)!

Insert Overused Pun On "Influenza" Here

2006-10-31T16:46:00.000-08:00

Indeed, these days it seems everybody is getting down with the sickness. Also, Happy Crimboween Part 1 of 2!

Not Just Slashdot Links!

2006-10-23T22:36:00.001-07:00

In the interest of making this blog Not Just Slashdot Links!™, here's something that's Not Just a Slashdot Link™:
I've debated plugging this for a while, and, for the trademarked* reason above, I've decided in an affirmative direction. This was also linked in my first post here, but:

The Kingdom of Loathing

An Adventurer Is You!

If you create an account, post your username in a reply and you'll be contacted.

Oh, and by the way, we've always been at war with Oceania.

*Not actually a registered trademark

Interrobang

2006-10-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Despite popular belief-- which, around here, would seem to only require one person-- Avi did not notify me before any of you (read: all one of you). It's not that Noone loves you, as odds are you haven't even met him. I'll probably still post when I find something interesting, but this blog will unfortunately remain Avi-less for at least the next month or so, at least, quoth the last post.

For example: Microsoft is trying to replace Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) with its own XML-based format as the standard "portable" format for documents (Fancy that!), at least in the EU.

This last sentence is dedicated to those who don't know what an interrobang is.

The End (for now)

2006-10-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Well..
I have way too much work, and keeping up with tech news for more than my own benefit has been really trying. So I'm gonna stop. At least for a month.
Thanks.

Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center

2006-10-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

The New York Times published this interesting article about public opinion in Europe. I just think its an interesting story. Here's the link.

What are you talking about!?

2006-10-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

Anandtech published an article quoting a Sony rep in Australia saying the Nintendo Wii is too expensive. WHAT is this guy thinking? The PS3 costs 500 dollars US, which is twice as much as the Wii and 150 more than the XBOX 360. What is this, the second time this week a Sony person has said something really stupid? Here's the original article I read.

Quicksilver

2006-10-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

My favorite new app this week is: Quicksilver. It's not a Spotlight enhancer, it's not a Spotlight replacement. It's a launcher, which I desperately needed. You know the problem: The app isn't in your dock, finding it with Spotlight takes forever, and loading up your Applications folder takes way too long. Well this fixes all that. With a quick keyboard shortcut (I'm using option-space) you can find and launch any application with just a few strokes of the keyboard. The UI is amazing, and it's just so quick, even on my piece-o-crap iBook. I just love it. Oh, and it's Aaron Freedman of MacUser's "One Program I couldn't live without."

Bullflop

2006-10-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

Engadget just a few minutes ago reported that the product manager of Sony announced today that his company had no plans for any price drop in the oh-so-drool-worthy PSP. Personally, I think this is utter bullflop. The Nintendo DS, the PSP's main competitor, goes for no more than $129 while the PSP is at least $200. And I really mean at least. The only advantage that the PSP has over the DS is it's ability to play media and browse the internet, but you have to pay extra to get a decent sized memory card for media, most movie studios don't make movies on UMD's anymore, and the DS beats out internet browsing with internet play FOR FREE. We are no longer paying for R&D, and the PSP as it is now is not worth 200 pplus hard-earned dollars. Not that I can buy one anyway, I waste all my money on stuff for my computer. Oh, and soda. Here's the article, at Engadget, the new domain of the delightful Cyrus Farivar.

Googling Google gets you Microsoft

2006-10-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Here's something weird. If you search for "search" on Google using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature, you get shot to Microsoft Live Search. Weird, huh?

GoogleTube

2006-10-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

Both Macworld and MacNN have reported that Google may be in talks to buy YouTube for 1.6 billion dollars. Doesn't sound too weird to me, except that the only sites that reported this were Mac sites.
Update: It has happened. Cool. The official number was 1.65 billion.

Life Imitates Star Trek

2006-10-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

I found this cool photo article on CNET. It includes stuff like needleless injections and the phaser. Pretty cool.

Top Ten Geek wallets

2006-10-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

Slashdot found this awesome article on the ten top super-geeky wallets. Two of them have special pockets for iPod nanos.

I want ecto!

2006-10-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've already sung the praises of Bleezer, but the other day, I tried out one of the more advanced blogging clients, ecto. The developer just released an unsupported Intel build of the program because version three, the official Universal version of ecto, won't come out for a while. Now, it was totally awesome, far more, uhh, nice looking than Bleezer. I really want it! Unfortunately, it ain't free: It's eighteen bucks, which I unfortunately don't have. Kind of like another program I've been using on demo mode, Notae. It's also awesome, it's kind of like TextEdit with notebook style abilities. I actually prefer it to VoodooPad, a better known program. Anyway, I want ecto!
On another note entirely, Macworld Expo tickets went on sale! 215 bucks to see the keynote. I can't wait.

Wal-Mart and Apple?

2006-09-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

We've all been hearing that Wal-Mart has apparently been going around to all the major movie studios and threatening to cut them out of DVD sales if they make a deal with Appleto sell movies on the iTunes Store. There have also been reports that Wal-Mart sent cases of movies back to Disney after the announcement of movies on iTunes. Anyway, today MacNN reported that Wal-Mart and Apple are working towards a deal for Wal-Mart to sell iTunes music cards (which would give them a tidy profit), and in turn, somehow, Apple would gain the rights to sell movies from every studio through Wal-Mart. I don't understand it, and its just a rumor, but its news.

An Arthropodal Account

2006-09-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

It seems that Jolly Old Deutchland is starting to attract... stranger tourists than usual. One wonders how they were allowed through customs...

In other news, if this blog were more popular at the time of this post, we would be able to slashdot Slashdot!

We've been Hit!

2006-09-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

I checked the hit counter this morning and saw two IP addresses I've never seen before. One was reffered from Technorati, which is cool in itself. The other one though, which of course I will not reveal here, seems to be from JAPAN. COOL!. Of course, it could just be a proxy, but its still cool. I gues all the hyperlinkifying that Jonathan did helped. Oh yeah, he's working on something cool.

Zune

2006-09-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has released some more details on the Zune.
The differences between it and the iPod.
Screen is 3 inches rather than 2.5
Usable with WMA and WMA Protected
Unusable with AAC protected
Available in brown
Oh yeah, and the name sucks.
Here's the CNET article.
A weird note though: this article seems to imply that the Zune will sync with iTunes. Weird.

Cool Blog

2006-09-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

I found this place examining the logs from this blog. I hit the URL just to see what was up, and it was so cool. It's a photo blog of this cute little kid named David Isaac done by his parents (duh) who just happens to share my birthday. Happy upcoming second one little guy.

Lions and Tigers and Bears... At the same time.

2006-09-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sharp just introduced an LCD screen that shows up to three different fullscreen pictures or other visual media at the same time, each from a different angle. So, if one person wants to watch screaming mime, another wants to look at pictures from a trip to Emoworld, and another just wants to play Let's Do Homework, each can now view his/her media of choice, now with new Three Simultaneous Jumbled Audio Tracks Support™ (or just 3 sets of headphones. It had better have at least 3 headphone jacks, though, or else two-thirds of the device are a lot less useful than originally predicted.). Sort of reminds you of the 3D video without glasses on a laptop, doesn't it.

Bleezer

2006-09-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

I finally found a good, free, blogging client for Mac: Bleezer. In fact I'm using it right now. It could use a little touching up, and if I ever have a decent amount of spare cash I'll probably buy something like ecto, I'm happy for now. Uhh, Google it if you like what you hear.

Edit by Jonathan: Or you could click the link that Bleezer automatically put at the end of this post.

Why I Use Camino

2006-09-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

I promised you it was coming
Here it is...

A few months ago, there were some tests run on the four major browsers for Mac OS X: Safari/WebKit, OmniWeb, Firefox and Camino. (The WebKit browser is an open-source project based on Safari, and is different from Apple's Web engine of the same name). The WebKit based browsers, Safari/WebKit and OmniWeb, came out on top as far as speed, with OmniWeb coming out on top. Seeing as OmniWeb actually cost money, I chose to stick with Safari. I tried WebKit, but it didn't work with any of the Safari plugins I had, and sent me to this "download the new nightly!" page every day. So I stayed with Safari. A few times I tried to use an independant RSS reader rather than the one built into Safari, but I was so used to Safari that I always reverted back.
Soon enough, I accumulated so many RSS feeds that using Safari was simply inefficient. As I hope you know, RSS feeds in Safari are really just a special type of web page, and can sometimes take forever to load. So I started using another open-source project called Vienna, similar to the Lite version of NetNewsWire. It was, and of course, still is, quite good.
I, like many people, am predisposed towards using open-source software, which is why I chose Vienna. After about two weeks of using Vienna and Safari, I realized that I could switch to Camino. I say Camino rather than Firefox, because Camino is in Cocoa and the Cocoa version of Firefox is still in alpha. Speed was not much of a factor to me, it was just a good reason for me to stick with Safari for as long as I did.
So finally, I made the open-source switch. Camino is quite a bit like Firefox, but it feels speedier, and uses Aqua-style buttons. It doesn't have RSS support (yet) but that didn't matter to me anymore. I really enjoyed it.
So why did I stay with it?
Well, there is that cozy feeling I get, and a lot of other people get too, when they use open-souce software. You know that another real person put real time into making something great.
Second, there is the fact that I always pledge using Firefox on Windows. Firefox on Mac doesn't look very nice, at least not yet, but the Aqua-fied version is in the works. None of the Firefox plug-ins are crucial to me, so I went with the stable Mac equivalent, Camino.
Third, Camino has some awesome features not present in Safari without a hack.
Among these include the favicons in the bookmarks bar, built-in Google Images and in-site searches, a warning before closing a window with multiple tabs or quitting the program with more than one window open, stuff like that. I also prefer the Keyboard shortcuts in Camino to those in Safari. Most important among the Camino features is AdBlock. Use it once, and you'll be hooked.
Anyway, that's how I came to use and love Camino. I recommend it to any serious Mac User.

THE OCTO-MAC IS COMING

2006-09-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Intel announced that its four-core processors are due out in November. This is awesome for gaming, since most of the popular titles are multithreaded already, but this is also awesome for another reason. AnandTech, or at least, I think it was AnandTech, had their hands on some pre-release models of these monstrosities (code-named Clovertown) and was able to put together an eight-core Mac Pro. This should mean that soon after these come out, we will see the Mac Pro line get a serious bump. I'm drooling already. Just a note though, these chips apparently have a lower clock speed than the current dual-core Xeons, also known as Woodcrests, topping out at 2.66 GHz per core, vs. 2.93 GHz for the Woodcrests. The downside to this is that most applications will not be able to take advantage of having eight flipping cores in a machine, as they are not multithreaded, meaning they can only run on one processor at a time. Seriously, who wants to live with at most a 2.66 GHz machine with most apps? Not me. But then, I can't afford a Mac Pro anyway, let alone a Clovertown.
As usual, here's the CNET article.

Firefox 2.0 RC1

2006-09-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

Mozilla today released the first Release Candidate Beta of Firefox 2.0. The big new feature are: Serious security upgrades (keeping you safe from phishing or scamming sites) and built in spell-check. There's probably some other stuff, too, which Jonathan knows about. Maybe he'll post some other stuff. Anyway, here's the CNET article.

Matchstick Hogwarts

2006-09-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

David Pogue found this, and it is quite possibly the coolest model of anything I have ever seen. It compares well to the Mini-Israel Park in the Galilee. Anybody been there? That place is awesome. Anyway, check it out.

Cardinal Blog

2006-09-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

I thought this was cool. A Cardinal of the Catholic Church has started a blog. Here's the CNET article

Aaaaand We're Back

2006-09-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

This year's ROSH HASHANAH MADNESS (tm) has ended. In other news, Wikipedia actually has a list, albeit an incomplete one, of living people. I don't think I need to comment on that.
l4t0rz, dr00gz0rz!

Apple at the Bottom

2006-09-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

David Pogue posted a compilation of quotes from approzimately ten years ago about how Apple was going to DIE. Brings you back, doesn't it?
The Article

Late

2006-09-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

As you can tell (Who am I talking to, anyway? Is it just Avi?), the Google writeup is late. This is owed mostly to writer's block and

EIGHT NEW ZONES!!

Also, it be nigh the end of International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Avast!

Movies on ITunes update

2006-09-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's been like five days, i know.
But there reall wasn't any news, except of course for the five billion or so iTunes 7 bugs. By the way, most of those only affect Windows users. I believe a writer for MacUser expressed the general sentiment of the Mac community, that after years of buggy ports of Microsoft products, the Windows users finally get that same crap from and Apple port.
Anyway, the news is that Disney has sold 125,000 movies in one week. WOW. I really didn't think it was gonna take off like that. This is good.

Exploding batteries again.

2006-09-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Michael Dell, chairman of (guess which company) Dell, said today that the exploding battery problem in Dell notebooks is entirely the fault of Sony, who made the batteries, and had nothing to do with the way the notebooks were built. If this is true, Apple should come out with something like this as well.

Bad Segway, bad bad Segway.

2006-09-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Segway (or whatever the name of that company is) announced a voluntary
recall of ALL Segways ever sold. Uh-huh. Wow. It seems that a mechanism
in the machine could cause it to suddenly tip over backwards, which
obviously is not such a great thing. Article

Zune/iPhone

2006-09-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Today Microsoft released information about the upcoming Zune player. It will have all of the features we thought it would have. Sigh. It has a 3 inch screen, 30 gig hard drive, and is available in black, white, and for some reason, brown.
Oh yeah, and Macrmors.com posted a mockup of an iPhone they say is an artist's rendition from a reliable source. Okay then.

It's all Geek to Me

2006-09-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

The most awesome tech writer on the planet, David Pogue, is having a new series on the Discovery Channel. AWESOME. Unfortunately, this means no videos from him for two months or so during shooting. Still awesome though.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=137

Wii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-09-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Gadgetbox today released the release date and price of the forthcoming Nintendo Wii. The long and short of it is (drumroll please) November 19th, $250. Can't wait, a friend of mine is getting it the second it's released and I get to play on it. http://gadgets.macworld.com/games/date_and_price_for_wii_reveale.php

New Blogger

2006-09-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

In the next couple days, my friend Jonathan will be joining the newly renamed GeekWorld. He will probably be covering more PC oriented stuff, and he's also visting Google soon, so he'll give us as much information as he can outside of whatever kind of NDA he'll probably have to sign.

Apple Updates

2006-09-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Today was big day number one.
Apple reveamped the entire iPod and iTunes line of products.
iTunes 7 features a cool new non-aqua UI, movie downloads, 640x480 video resoltion in downloaded videos, and games for the fifth gen iPod, as well as a ton of other cool stuff nobody saw coming.
The new iPod is the same physical size, but comes in 30 and 80 gigs, is apparently 60% brighter, has a longer battery life, and sports a brand new headphone design. Best of all, the 30 gig is 249, and the 80 gig is 349!
The new iPod nano comes in five different colors in an anodized aluminum case. It comes in 2, 4, and 8 gig sizes, with different colors and prices for each size.
The new iPod shuffle looks like an aluminum version of the iPod remote/FM tuner. It comes in a 1 gig size, and goes for 80 dollars.
I got iTunes 7 and none of my music will play. What gives?
Just check out the Apple Homepage and you'll find out everything you need to know.
Last but not least, Apple demoed a product called the iTV (yes, the name will change before it's release) which is built to stream video wirelessly from your computer to your TV. It supports HD and surround sound, and will be released in the first quarter of 2007. No word on what flavor of 802.11 it uses, but it may be delayed because of the wait for 802.11n to be verified.

Mac Pro on PC Magazine

2006-09-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

PC Magazine wrote a review of the Mac Pro, and I have only one gripe with them: Their given pricing. They show it as 8500 dollars, way beyond actual pricing lines. With different configurations its possible to get it down to 2000 dollars. I don't get it.
Of course, they are using the one with the top of the line graphics card, 4 gigs of RAM, and 2 TB of storage, as well as a 23 inch Cinema display (another 1000 dollars). I think they're just trying to make it look worse.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2014434,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530

Slow News Day

2006-09-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

All I see on the feeds is this article from MacUser about Macs on college campuses. http://www.macuser.com/hardware/macs_penetrating_the_collegest.php
As anybody actually reading this knows, and I'm not convinced there are any, I mostly cover mac stuff. That's the deal. I will cover important PC matters, but this is mostly a Mac blog.
Oh yeah, the virtualization software, Parallels, was updated to support Windows Vista and the Mac Pro.
Coolest tip ever: In Cocoa based apps, if you select a word and press Control-command-D, you get a little pop-up dictionary definition.

Apple Product Updates

2006-09-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

The iMac is now Core 2 duo, starting at 999! Cool! You can also get up to a 24 inch screen. Unfortunately the low end model doesn't include the Apple Remote. Weird.
The Mac Mini was also bumped. The low end is now a 1.67 GHz Core Duo, and the top end is 1.83 GHz. Prices remain the same.

Popularity

2006-09-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm actually getting hits! COOL!!!!!! I've gotten like ten today from four different people (admittedly, one of those was me, but I don't care). I can actually find this on a normall Google search, at least if I use quotes. Tell Your friends! Tell Everyone! Link to me and I'll link back! Send me an email, though. avichsc@comcast.net

Mac Mods

2006-09-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

I always love this
The Great Mod challenge pics are up, and they are so cool. I like the iG4 video.
This is so cool!

MacBook shutdowns

2006-09-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

Seem to have been solved. It seems that during operation the heat sink would sometimes come in contact with the heat sensor (because it expands) and cause a short circuit. Here's the original article.

ClipArt

2006-09-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

This PC tips site I watch compiled a list of good clipart sites. I recommend Google Images, but these are probably better for more cliparty style needs: http://hintsandtips.com/ShowPost/435/hat.aspx

Digital Devide Study

2006-09-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

So someone did a study about childhood internet use, and it seems that way more white kids than black or hispanic kids use the internet. here's the link to the CNET article: http://news.com.com/2061-12645_3-6112514.html?part=rss&tag=6112514&subj=news

More Battery Recalls

2006-09-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

It would seem that Panasonic/Matsushita is getting in on the recall fun. Only 6000 batteries this time, though. All of them are in Japan, and it doesn't seem that these are Sony's fault.

Apple Event on September 12th

2006-09-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

The rumored September 12th event has officially been confirmed, with the tagline: It's showtime!
This graphic, and of course the name would seem to indicate something having to do with movies. This could of course be any of the tumored products: 23 inch iMac, full video iPod, Video streaming device, or the iTunes Movie Store.

Treo 700wx

2006-09-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Palm just came up with a small upgrade to the 700w. Apparently, the only big difference is the memory, but all the other problems remain the same. I don't have a PDA of any sort, but for those of you who have a palm, feel free to laugh at those poor little Windows Mobile users.

Voldemort the Best Bad guy

2006-09-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

So Bloomsbury, the people that publish the Harry Potter had an online poll for the UK's favorite villain. Voldemort won. Hooray, another Harry Potter honor.

RSS

2006-09-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

So these days, everybody has an RSS feed. I have a freaking RSS feed. Cool thing about blogger: It's set up automatically. But the preeminent PC magazine, PC World, has none. Macworld, it's sister publication has one. The New York Times has one for like every page. But PC World doesn't. And on that subject, my favorite Harry Potter site, Mugglenet, recently set up a feed, but you can still see HTML tags for the images and other links. Hop to it people!

BitTorrent for Mac

2006-09-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yes we all know it's not technically right, but we do it anyway: File Sharing, especially with BitTorrent. Anyway, for those of us Macheads, here's a review of the count 'em, five bittorrent clients for OS X. I recommend Azureus, because of the great advanced capabilities and the plugin API (ahem.. safepeer).
http://torrentfreak.com/mac-bt-clients/

Foxconn Lawsuit

2006-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, so remember how someone reported a couple weeks back that Foxconn, a contractor that builds iPods, had really cruddy working conditions? So they were sued up the wazoo for fealsifying their report. Anyway, the damages were dropped to like one dollar, and now the entire thing is over and done with.
Hooray for everyone!

Foxconn lawsuit dropped

2006-09-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

So remember how orginally Foxconn (the contractor that Apple hired to build some of their iPods) had this giant lawsuit against the reporters who wrote the story about how totally horrible the working conditions were in the Foxconn factory? By the way, it wasn't true. Anyway, the damages for that suit were dropped to next to nothing, and now they just driooed the whole thing.
Cool.

Google Image Labeler

2006-09-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Google has this fun little game thingy that also helps them to add descriptions to images in their index. You get paired up to another person and score by adding descriptions to images. Knock yourself out. http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

The Empire Strikes Back (151 times)

2006-09-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

It seems that there's this cool little photo slideshow on starwars.com comparing the original 1980 release and the 2004 DVD release. Have fun: http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/release/video/f20060901/index.html (Click the little picture of the walker).

Geeks.com

2006-09-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

First real post
I really want to recommend everyone and anyone to this awesome site: geeks.com. They sell computer equipment at seriously discounted prices. Shipping is pretty quick, with many options. They are especially good for buying cables and flash memory.
Check 'em out.
They're based in San Diego, so California purchases usually only take four days using the FedEx Ground option.

Hiya

2006-09-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

First post here.
To anyone who's reading this, um, hello. This blog will be about whatever I care about, namely technology, and other geeky things. Political stuff might show up every now and then, but mostly this will just be about geeky stuff, reporting the important stuff and giving my take on it.
Welcome to the Mind of the Avis