http://www.grotto11.com/blog/ The Life of Brian: Macs, Tech, Politics, and Randomania en-us btman@grotto11.com Geez, who saw this coming? Lotus is unveiling three new models, starting with a new 2+2, the Evora: This after four years of being essentially a one-model company—just the Elise and Exige, which are for all intents and purposes the same thing, and the Europa, which is about as distinct from the Elise as the Mini Clubman is from the Cooper. Looks like all those Elises that the Silicon Valley and New York markets have been snapping up have driven Lotus to an Apple-like level of confidence—the kind that spurs them to make a play for markets they'd all but abandoned. Man, that's a sexy interior.And it's got that two-intersecting-greenhouse-contour-lines thing from the Ferrari 575 Zagato, which I've never been a particular fan of, but it works pretty well here—and feels at home with the Elise-evolution tail treatment and front cowl. Very, very nice-looking car.Plus it comes with a 6-speed manual. Exclusively. Take that, industry trends!(It's funny, though: just as I'd figured Apple had run out of big cats to... http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216763522.shtml 2008-07-22T14:52:2-08:00 Interesting article at PC Magazine showcasing a pageful of great-but-unsuccessful ideas each for Microsoft and Apple. Rather than making fun of obviously doomed flops, though, it focuses on ideas that actually were good, but failed for reasons unrelated to their own merits or lack thereof. Though sometimes just because an idea can't be made to work by the people who first envisioned it doesn't mean it won't be realized by someone else. The Microsoft list includes things like WinFS: Bill Gates, in his own words: "There is a famous quest of mine called integrated storage, where you have not just a file system but more of a flexible object-type database: Things like your contacts, calendars, favorites, your photos, your music—and how you rate those things—are stored in a structured environment." WinFS was this system, the next-gen underpinning to Windows, and it was planned as part of Cairo, the code name for Windows 95. It's still a great idea. But making it happen? Not so easy. I'm sure the Spotlight... http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216758153.shtml 2008-07-22T13:22:33-08:00 Okay, this is freakin' awesome: Neil Patrick Harris in his own Joss Whedon-helmed musical.Stick it out past the first few minutes where it seems like it's not going anywhere. Trust me, it does. Damn, I'm glad to see that the art of musical theatre still finds expression in this day and age.I do, however, wonder about the by-now well-worn "ironic superheroes" genre. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, it's not even really possible to play a superhero story "straight" anymore; the blockbuster movies do their best, but it's all they can do to avoid homages and injokes that render the whole thing tongue-in-cheek. The fertile ground these days is in this Venture Bros.-ish table-turning, where we empathize with supervillains and watch their political triangulations as they try to get in good with the Guild of Calamitous Intent/Evil League of Evil/Council of Doom/whatever guise the concept takes. It's all a much more "human" style of storytelling, and thus lends itself all the better to humor, acclimatized as we... http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216510630.shtml 2008-07-19T16:37:10-08:00 Via Mark. http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216357185.shtml 2008-07-17T21:59:45-08:00 Via JMH, the Periodic Table of Videos.I used to spend my lunch hours in middle school poring over an old Time/Life book on chemistry; in the middle was a multi-page section with a picture and blurb for every element describing its nature, history, and name. I got to the point where I could call to mind the etymology of any element you cared to name—which Greek myth inspired the name Niobium, for example, or which fivefour elements were named after the town of Ytterby, Sweden.But they didn't have videos of them all. Not until now. http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216351222.shtml 2008-07-17T20:20:22-08:00 Wouldn't you know it: Apple is the new Microsoft—and the new Standard Oil, the new DeBeers, the new East India Company. "This is the phone that has changed phones forever," Mr. Jobs said.We agree. A snake oil salesman not satisfied with his business of pushing proprietary software and Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology into your home, Jobs has set his sights on getting DRM and proprietary software into your pocket as well. Yeah, that's his nefarious scheme, the end short of which he'll never stop: forcing us all to accept DRM. Because DRM isn't a means to an end (e.g. making money); it's an end in itself.And wasn't the concept of "snake oil" a reference to something that didn't work as advertised? There is a reason so much emphasis was put on the visual design of the iPhone. There is a reason that Apple is so concerned about unsightly seams that they won't even let you change the battery in your own phone. And everyone just wails and gnashes their teeth over their inability to change... http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216348747.shtml 2008-07-17T19:39:7-08:00 LOL WHUT? Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix™ interactive entertainment products in North America, announced the release of SONG SUMMONER™: The Unsung Heroes, on sale at the iTunes® Store worldwide (www.itunes.com) and available for play in English and Japanese on the iPod nano with video, iPod classic and fifth generation iPod. SONG SUMMONER: The Unsung Heroes is a Role-Playing Game that transforms your iPod® songs into powerful "Tune Troopers" that you can control in battle! As the protagonist Ziggy, you will embark on an epic journey to rescue your brother from the clutches of the Mechanical Militia! Intriguing characters, an epic story and a tactics-based battle system combine for a rich RPG experience previously only available on home and handheld game consoles. Um. All right then.Via Steven Den Beste. http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216300855.shtml 2008-07-17T6:20:55-08:00 Apple just sent out a rather contrite public message: MobileMe services are now available. We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word "push" until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.We want to apologize... http://www.grotto11.com/blog/archive/1216227652.shtml 2008-07-16T10:0:52-08:00