Freyburg

The Times has a good article about how Microsoft’s transition into middle age is marked by sluggishness and lack of innovation. I’d add “suckiness” to the list. 🙂

Apparently Rogers and Bell are working together to provide high-speed wireless broadband throughout most of Canada’s metropoli. That sounds really cool, especially for a net-addled freak like me, but I have to wonder just how much these cats will charge for such a service, given that it’ll be expensive to deploy, and the fact that Canadian telecom companies overcharge for everything. Oh well, anything that hurts Telus is defacto good.

When I was in junior high, I took a lot of flack for liking Devo (and also for being a lippy little nerd. 🙂 ) Well, it seems I’m able to bathe in sweet revenge as the legacy of the spuds from Ohio lives on through a bunch of fifth graders performing “Whip It.” Ohhhhhh yeaaaaaahhhhhhhh.

A German inventor has found a way to beat the high price of gas by fueling a vehicle with dead cats. You just can’t make stuff like this up.

Uhhh…huh? The country that harboured the 9/11 conspirators, a known terrorist haven, apparently ain’t worth America’s time. I guess when you invade a completely unrelated country and get bogged down in a never-ending insurgency, you’ve got to set priorities. Idiots.

Lost in the huzzahs about the new iPod Nano is the essential suckitude of the ROKR phone from Motorola that runs iTunes. The Guardian has a good piece about why this wildly hyped phone is a whole lotta nothing.

Also, apparently the software’s already been hacked, and you can install it on other Motorola phones. Since I have a V635, I might try to install it myself, though I’d never use the phone as anything but a potable communication device.

Maybe I’m jaded because I used to work in television, and I’ve seen enough of the eye-crack to last me a lifetime, but now that HD is finally becoming a mainstream, “guy at Future Shop is clueless but he’ll see you the most expensive HD set they have” phenomenon, I couldn’t care less.

It might have something to do with the fact that I barely watch anything other than news. Or maybe it’s that I find it easier and more convenient to just download the few shows I do enjoy and watch them on my laptop while I’m busy with something else. In fact, just vegging out tends to get on my nerves.

The other thing that keeps me from moving to HD is the cost factor. HD sets are cheaper than they’ve ever been, but I just can’t bring myself to spend good money on a television set. It just feels…wrong, somehow. 🙂

But I’m sure I’m in the minority; plenty of people like to coccoon in a media nest and get bathed by the warm rays of constant drivel, but I ain’t one of them.

The NYT Magazine knocks one out of the park with a long, long, long analysis of the “war on terror”, four years after since the planes smashed through the WTC and pushed history in a new direction. This one’s a brick, but it’s worth reading.

I picked up an Xbox back in my Osoyoos days, because despite what you might think, there isn’t a whole lot to do in Canada’s only desert town. I promptly had it modded when I got out to Vancouver, so now it can play movies and other digital files, can be used as a digital jukebox, plays (ahem) backed up games, and is one hell of an emulation rig. I’ve also got the dvd remote and the wireless adapter.

So why sell it? Well, turns out I don’t use it all that much. I finished Doom 3, and since then it sort of sat around. And though it has a 200 gig hard drive that’s great for storing movies and tv shows on, I found I actually prefer to watch movies on a window on my laptop as I’m plugging away at the blog, or writing, or on iChat. So I’m going to ditch the beast, but I thought I’d give all of you first crack at it before it hits the wilds of eBay. Any takers?

After the usual barrage of reality-distorting hype, Apple introduced an iPod phone (which is really a clunky Motorola with iTunes built in, big whoop), and the iPod Nano, replacing the Mini. I just got a Mini a few months back, so I’m not going to snap up the Nano anytime soon, but I have to admit it’s a pretty snazzy looking little unit. When the Intel Powerbooks come out, maybe I’ll pick one up, but until then, my now-obsolete soundmaker will do.