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Monday, October 20, 2003So, I finally broke down and bought an iBook. It was the wireless that made me do it, since I am trying to start a new "get out of your room more often" regimen, and being able to take a computer and internet connection with me will act as a great enabler. I got the base 12" model and added more ram and an airport card, and so far it is good.
Things I like: Safari, no noisy fans, internet on the shitter.
Things that could use some improvement: Keyboard sucks, gets hot fast, feels real breakable.
All in all though, I think apple makes good laptops. I think I'd always want a PC for a desktop, but for a limited use portable, this looks like it will do just fine. I've already discovered a unprotected wifi network in my building, one of many in the neighborhood, I'm sure. There is a SF Wireless node somewhere nearby, so I suspect I'll be trying to find that as well.
The FreeBSD part of this whole setup looks promising. Fink was a breeze to get up and running and now I have ports! I qualify for a $20 upgrade to Panther when it comes out, which promises better X11 integration, so I think I might actually pay for it.
One thing I will not be doing, however, is becoming a Mac Evangelist. I hate those guys. A product is a product, not a lifestyle. Please kill me if you ever hear me say different.
Update: Bastards! I guess I should have done some more research.
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Sunday, October 19, 2003Ha!
Haha!
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Thursday, October 16, 2003Dear Apple iTunes team,
Nice first try. I offer these suggestions for improvement:
1) Need more selection in the store. This is my least concern as I know there can only be plans to change this. I think trying to include more indpendant labels would be a good way to increase your inventory and appeal at the same time.
2) Software issues. iTunes for windows is VERY 1.0 feeling. Slow redraw on window resize, uses lots of resources (compaired to say, winamp 2.x), extra unessecary processes (iPod service when I don't even have an iPod), offensive take over attempt of media player. I mean, it reset my photoshop files to be opened by quicktime, even though I have Photoshop installed. Unacceptable.
It would be nice to be able to finish listening to your current song sample while you browse music in the store. It should play until the song is done, until you play another song/sample, or until you stop it.
3) Price. While I do not find 99 cents a track to be bad at all, there should be much steeper discounts for whole album purchases. I would be very willing to sacrafice the ablility to d/l every track on an album individually if it I knew I could just get a good deal on the whole album. Much more willing.
4)Bit rate. At these prices, I expect to get much better quality files, since CDs offer better quality and useability at the same price. But, if as I said, albums were cheaper, I would be more willing to accept the currect quality of the files.
Please keep up the good work. Steps like this need to be taken to revive the music industry. I appreciate it.
-Tom
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Wednesday, October 15, 2003This shit comes in threes.
So far this week, my UPS and my PC speakers have both reached the end of their design life (i.e. "hit the shitter"), thus ensuing that I must now go out and renew the consumer product cycle. Hate that. Want everlasting stuff. Once I decide on something and buy it, I want that until I don't need it anymore, not until it breaks.
The most solid thing I own is an old Sony receiver that I scored at a second hand store in Oregon for $5. Does it's job and has been doing it since the early 80's. Plus it weighs about 20 lbs and everyone who sees it is all like, "woah, you still have one of those?"
Yes sonny boy, I do. Fuck the minisystem, I want mine to require a whole side of my room to do the same job. No LCD readouts. No multifunction crap. It does one thing and one thing well. It receives. Forever.
Anyway, with my luck, after just saying that, it will probably be number 3.
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Saturday, October 11, 2003So, it's Fleet Week here in San Francisco, and the Blue Angels are doing all kinds of fancy-pants flying over the city, but with all the fanfare and noise, do we even once see them blow anything up?
NO.
Some great miliatry we have here, no wonder we are having trouble in post-war Iraq.
I mean, they could have at least dropped some cluster bombs on the Marina district. Lord knows, that would have been a basic public service. Waste of my damn tax dollars.
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Friday, October 10, 2003Tom's FoolProof Plan for The Future:
Step 1: Win the Lottery
Step 2: Buy large hat, possibly of the cowboy influence.
Step 3: Smoke more cigars.
Step 4: Make shirt that has "Don't Fuck with Me I'll Kill You" emblazoned on it in flowing golden script.
Step 5: Aquire Pinzgauer.
Step 6: Roam.
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Wednesday, October 08, 2003Terry Gross interview with Bill O'Reilly.
Bill is very good at spinning his opinion into fact, while condescending to others for doing the same thing. On his show yesterday, he calls Terry a "pinhead" and gives the interview his "Most ridiculous item of the day" award, because he believes the interview was nothing but a set up attack on him, and childes Terry for always being soft on guests like Al Franken.
It's true that she was tough on him, but what else do you do with Bill O'Reilly? Talk to him about the weather? You interview him about what's is interesting about him, and he happens to have controversial views, so of course you ask the questions that bring that out. With Franken, he's a political funny man, so you ask him questions that bring out his political humor. If Gross hadn't asked the host of one of the most popular and hard hitting political TV shows tough questions, what kind of interviewer would she be? Besides, there is a good 20 min in the middle of the interview that goes quite well for him, until he freaks out.
The most frightening thing is, if I hadn't known about O'Reilly's background, I might have thought he was right. He did do a good job of defending himself. Granted, people do hate him and harshly criticize him, but for good reason: He's a hypocrite who has a penchant for exaggeration in making his point and is sometimes even more guilty of the sins of which he accuses others of. But I don't think tough interviews are a plot to bring down the mighty Bill O'Reilly. Frequently he talks of liberal media bias while never once addressing his own biases, and often badgers and intimidates debate opponents while asking them why they are being so unreasonable. If anyone needs to address the need for "fair and balanced" reporting, I think it might have to be him.
But if I hadn't known that about him, I might think he had a point simply because he was well spoken for most of the interview. He sounded good, and that's what people tend to pay attention to these days. And that's what scares me.
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Tuesday, October 07, 2003It may be too early, but it's all your fault. I will continue drinking now.
9:41 PM.......
I had a dream last night about getting tattoos on one of my fists that made it look like it was a fireball. tempting.
Critique.
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VOTE YOU LAZY SONS OF BITCHES, VOTE.
I swear if we end up with the Kindergarden Cop as our collective substitute teacher, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.
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Monday, October 06, 2003You know, I always knew I liked Edward Burtynsky, but I never knew how good he really was until I went to go see his stuff in person. While the images might not look so great at 360x360, trust me when I say they have a completely differnet effect at 5'x5'. I browsed several galleries this weekend, and his was the only one I saw with a clear and thus impactful message that totally meshed with the impact of his visual style. Basically, you don't need a degree in art history to appreciate his message, but even if you don't, the quality of his images are stunning all by themselves. Reminds me why gallery photography is still relevant.
8:28 PM.......
Thursday, October 02, 2003Google knows all. While I am sure we have all googled our names to see what the great index of the net holds, I for some reason had never until tonight thought to search the google groups for old email addresses to see what horrible thing the usenet might remember about my n00b past on the internet. I have found a couple of things that I posted to various newsgroups and then totally forgotten about, only to come back years later to find that they had spawned massive threads. This one about the definition of cyberpunk is the one that surprised me most. I don't remember that thread at all, I probably posted it when I was drunk and never again even thought about it, yet there it is.
This one, however, really gets down to answering something much more important.
I'm just glad none of my old alt.philosophy posts showed up.
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