Freyburg

Apple has once again thrown some sweetness at the computing public. Top of the list is the new iPod with video capabilities, which I’m lusting after pretty damn hard. The 30 gigger in particular looks like the kind of gadget I could snuggle up with.

The new iMac is nice, and I like the built in iSight camera, but I think I’ll wait until the Intel boxes come out before I upgrade my computer. And even then, I’ll probably get a Powerbook, so it’s sort of a moot point.

But the new remote and Front Row software is pretty sweet, and I’d consider picking up an Intel Mac mini at some point and using it as my main media box. But luckily, all that is at least a year away.

Your thoughts, fellow Mac fruits?

According to the scribbling elves at the NYT, the reality TV craze is starting to run out of steam. This should come to the surprise of no one, though like any genre there’s some actual decent content and a whole lotta crap. Apparently the Martha Stewart version of the Apprentice is really doing poorly, which I find odd since it’s much more entertaining than the original Trump version. Stewart’s business lends itself to a wide spectrum of bitchiness, wheras Trump’s show is essentially just a bunch of ruthless MBA types.

The New York Sun (yeah, I’ve never heard of it either) has reviews of a few more books about Iraq. One of the most intriguing is “How America Lost Iraq,” written by a young reporter for the Pacifica network. Pacifica is a left-leaning group of radio stations in the States, and apparently they had just as much of an agenda as Fox News does, since they sent the author to Baghdad to specifically find screw-ups and bad behaviour on the part of the Americans. They were a little cheesed off with him when he actually found (initially, anyway, this was in 2003) fairly broad support from the Iraqis for their occupiers. Just goes to show that not just conservatives can be ethically challenged.

The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq is the best book about the Iraq war yet, according to Salon. George Packer, the author, apparently covered everything from the corridors of power in the White House and the Pentagon to individual American units and Baghdad slum-dwellers. I haven’t read the book yet, though I probably will, but the review on its own makes for an interesting read about just what a fiasco the war has become.

You have to go through Salon’s day pass drivel to read the review, which means watching a trailer for soe Cameron Diaz drivelfest, but just turn down the volume and give it a minute. 🙂

I know many of you pine for the days of a fine calculator made in the good ol’ USSR. I know I do. And then, if I prove my Cryllic math skills, maybe I can work my way up to a Soviet PC. 🙂

Apparently the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic that killed a whole pile of people was caused by something very similar to the bird flu now coming out of Asia. Luckily, after sequencing the genetic makeup of the 1918 flu, they’ve determined the bug our feathered friends are carrying isn’t quite there yet in the people-killing department, but give the little bugger time and I’m sure we’ll all be quarantined indoors jabbering away on MSN. Hey, that’ll be the nerds finest hour! 🙂

Looks like Microsoft might be in for a good old fashioned beating. Sun and Google are rumored to announce a web-based office suite today, which will presumably be accessible anywhere and free for all. That’s as opposed to a couple of hundred smackers for features I’ll never use and that goddamned paperclip. 🙂

Andy Rooney, the 60 Minutes curmudgeon, is best known for complaining about life’s little irritants, often to the great amusement of all concerned. But every once in a while he lets loose with a serious broadside that reminds you this guy, for all his “funny old crank” image, was a foreign correspondent in World War II, worked with many of the legends of broadcast journalism, and was one of the first Americans to witness the Nazi death camps up close. In other words, no slouch in the jourmalism department, and certainly worthy of listening to if he’s got an opinion about something substantial. He’s lashed out with a diatribe about the cost of the Iraq War, in money and lives. There’s also video, which is the best way to appreciate Rooney.

The NYT Magazine has a decent piece on Hillary Clinton’s supposed presidential ambitions. I’ve got nothng against a female President, but I have the feeling half of the United States won’t like the idea one bit, which will further marginalize the Democrats. I’d be happy to be proven wrong, though.

The BBC once again proves their mettle with a feature explaining who’s who amongst the insurgents in Iraq.