Freyburg

Palm, the company that pioneered PDAs and then languished for years before sort of coming back with the Treo, seems to want to plant one foot firmly back into the grave. The company has just announced the Foleo, a quasi-laptop that works in concert with your smartphone and costs $500.

In a word…WTF? Why spend $500 on this odd bit of kit (after doling out a presumed $250 or so on a Treo) when in a few weeks you could get an iPhone for close to the same price? I have a feeling this product will be completely forgotten within the year, only to be resurrected in “Tech Disasters” columns years from now.

At least according to Time Out – New York, they should. Obviously the piece is aimed at New Yorkers, but a quick glance down whatever the trendy and youth-oriented street of your city happens to be will reveal much the same bunch of ne’er-do-wells (Main St. in the case of Vancouver.) Should they die? Something will inevitably take their place that’s just as irritating, and as a 30something reformed nerd I’m not sure I’m qualified to judge.

I’m certainly not the first person to reflect on the fact that 30 years after the fateful day of May 25, 1977, Star Wars is still a cultural force to be reckoned with. I won’t bore you with the same reflections and nostalgic waxings that other sites are undoubtedly wallowing in…instead I’m going to note that if one of my friends hadn’t have made a comment on this site, I probably wouldn’t have thought to write anything at all about the goings on a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

And that’s the real story, at least for me. Time was when Star Wars was an all-consuming passion for me, second only to Doctor Who in my nerdy heart. Part of the reason I got into television (and many many others got into film) was the Holy Trilogy.

But it would appear age and maturity has caught up with me After a trio of dismal prequels (well, Sith wasn’t too bad, but…) and a shifting in priorities, I’m no longer the Star Wars maniac I once was. I still enjoy the films, but they aren’t the all-consuming obsession they once were. And I don’t think I’m alone. I’ve heard many people my age say that once they stepped out of the theatre after Revenge of the Sith, they felt like they’d finally left their childhood behind.

So, happy birthday, Star Wars…but now on to new and better things.

One of the best episodes of the new season and indeed the series, Human Nature is the subject of this week’s podcast. Steven and Warren discuss the episode for a solid 30 minutes, and only rarely descend into their trademark digressions and Who-trivia-oneupmanship. (feed, web, direct download)

Jim Cramer is best known for “Mad Money”, a chaotic screamfest where he answers viewer questions about stocks in as boisterous and crazy a way as possible. With all the yelling, Cramer’s (self-proclaimed) message of doing your research and buying stocks based on what institutional investors are picking sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. At any rate, New York Magazine gave Cramer a few pages to explain himself.

This cartoon pretty much says it all.

This is pretty much the sweetest Mac rig I’ve ever seen. Three 30 inch monitors, side by side? Me wantee.

Robert X. Cringley can sometimes prognosticate in ways that make you think he’s gone off his meds, but his latest column on the company that’ll take over from Google as Lord of the Internet is a good solid read. His basic assumption is that the engineers and megabrains currently at the Googleplex will be the ones to eventually leave and start a Google-killer, and he’s probably right.

Surely I can’t be the only ink-stained wretch reading my blog. Here’s a list of resources for those of a writerly bent in Vancouver.

Having only recently seen the Big Apple for myself, I couldn’t tell you why NY folk look fondly back at crack epidemics and financial crises. But this article in the New York Observer might explain the fascination with Old, Bad New York.

Also, I’ve found that many people (who haven’t been there) still carry the outdated “dangerous” image of NY around in their heads, even though the city is nothing like that in 2007. I felt safer in Manhattan than I do in parts of Vancouver.