| Thursday, February 22, 2007 |
13:57 - George Takei is the coolest man alive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA20dKc3kK8
|
(top) |
One day...
When you least expect it...
UPDATE: Though Shatner makes a pretty good bid too...
|
| Wednesday, February 21, 2007 |
17:20 - Comics as journalism
|
(top) |
First there was this CNN story about a teenager who killed a homeless man, supposedly because violent video games warped his fragile little mind.
Then there was Gabe from Penny Arcade, who wrote a response from the perspective of the defender of the video game world. Not a balanced one, but not intended to be, either.
And then, today, there's Gabe's follow-up: a lengthy e-mail from the would-be stepmother of the teenager in question. Which really kind of tells the whole story in a way that won't be showing up on CNN anytime soon.
It deserves some currency, so I'm passing it on.
|
| Tuesday, February 20, 2007 |
15:55 - Steve Jobs, Union Buster
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/4560691.html
|
(top) |
Who put the tack under Steve's chair lately?
AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.
Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs.
"What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference.
So much for Smelly Hippie Jobs, huh? I guess the guy's all over the map. Plus, as Chris M. notes (who sent me the link), he doesn't seem shy about making pronouncements that would seem to work against his selling more products to a given market if it goes against his personal principles. Makes me think still more that he meant what he said in that whole DRM thing.
Considering that iTunes is apparently forcing the labels to reduce CD prices (via evariste), even with downloads such a small percentage of overall music sales, maybe he's just feeling like he can afford to have a few enemies at this point...
|
|
09:04 - Baring what passes for a soul
http://scribbleking.typepad.com/scribbleking/2007/02/i_love_this_mov_1.html
|
(top) |
Maybe I'll just ask you guys: Do I blog this or not?
Oh well, too late now.
G'wan then. I defy anyone to tell me it's any more nerdy or disturbing than being an anime fan.
|
| Monday, February 19, 2007 |
01:46 - Keep your fascist laws out of my ear canal, maaan
|
(top) |
Okay, here's something I don't get.
It's no secret that a lot of people don't like the standard earbuds that have shipped with the iPod since it was first released in November 2001. They work great for me, but I'm probably in a minority among people I know; most iPod owners with whom I'm acquainted tend to use their own favorite headphones or earbuds, and that's fine. Just means that if you measure iPod penetration by how many white earbuds you see in, say, the gym—where they've become almost a visual cliché—you'll be underestimating it.
But something else that's also become a visual cliché is people wearing the earbuds backwards. With the right in the left ear and the left in the right, with the lobes sticking backward from the stalks, in clear defiance of the little "L" and "R" printed on them. In fact, I'd say that of any given ten pairs of white iPod eabuds I see jiggling on a treadmill, nine are being worn backwards.
Why is this? Is it that much more comfortable for people? If so, how did Apple manage to get it so wrong? And why does it fit perfectly well for me of all people, the correct way—and feel really irritating if I reverse them?
I think there probably is a parallel universe out there somewhere; but instead of everyone having goatees, the differentiating factor is that people wear their iPod earbuds the right way around.
|
|
Brian Tiemann
