January 2008 Archives
January 31, 2008
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Kottke: Sweet Jesus, that’s cool.
January 30, 2008
John Edwards has been an impassioned fighter for a whole mess of issues that are important to me: the war in Iraq, poverty, corporate greed, basic American togetherness.
Today’s he’s dropping out of the presidential race. But for his career of public service, he deserves all our praise.
January 29, 2008
I have entered my friend Gavrie’s Super Tuesday picks pool. Here are my best guesses:
| Alabama | Obama |
| Alaska | Obama |
| Arizona | Clinton |
| Arkansas | Clinton |
| California | Clinton |
| Colorado | Obama |
| Connecticut | Clinton |
| Delaware | Clinton |
| Georgia | Obama |
| Idaho | Obama |
| Illinois | Obama |
| Kansas | Obama |
| Massachusetts | Clinton |
| Minnesota | Clinton |
| Missouri | Obama |
| New Jersey | Clinton |
| New Mexico | Clinton |
| New York | Clinton |
| North Dakota | Obama |
| Oklahoma | Clinton |
| Tennessee | Obama |
| Utah | Obama |
Tiebreaker
| Florida (R) | Romney |
January 28, 2008
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Best. (Political) Ad. Ever.
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Worth a read / watch
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Start printing playoff tickets.
January 26, 2008
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I didn’t hate TWBB nearly as much as Salon did. But I thought they made some good points. More than anything, the ending that most critics have chalked up as “not quite right” kind of ruined the whole thing for me.
January 22, 2008
Last weekend James had some folks over to play some Wii, eat some cheese, and drink some drinks. I was rocking the Wii like nobody’s business. Pictures on Flickr and .Mac Web Gallery.
BONUS! We even made a video! Here’s the YouTube:
BONUS BONUS! I’m trying out the new .Mac Web Galleries. Take a look and tell me what you think!
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Important piece on internet filtering.
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Why it matters to believe something.
January 21, 2008
Help me out here. I have what I think is a dumb computer question.
Why is a built-in memory card slot superior to using a USB cable to suck photos from Camera to Computer?
I see this mentioned in a lot of computer reviews - often in the context of how Macs don’t have the slots. (1, 2) I have a Mac and have never felt like I was hobbled by using a cable instead of pulling the card out of my camera.
So can anyone help me out?
January 16, 2008
Cool picture of the whole Plants clan Tracy took over Christmas. I’m especially amazed to see my dad without glasses after 40 years!
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Thanks to these instructions, you can now have a super-pimp custom BTP icon on your home screen.
In honor of today’s MacBook Air announcement, I’m naming “New Soul” as the BTP Song of the day. It’s catchy as hell.
Plus, it makes the new laptops seem that much hotter.
January 15, 2008
Look! It’s my photographic debut, online with Spin.com!
My friend MacKenzie was desperate for a photographer to shoot a gig her site was covering this weekend and I jumped at the chance to help a friend and have a great time in the process.
The band wasn’t anything special, but shooting the show and meeting the peeps was great. I’m going to try to do it again when the opportunity arises!
The craziest part? I took 153 shots and this was the only one that I thought was really, really good.
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Great list from the Smithsonian Magazine.
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Oh man, this would be better than .Mac. Now if we can just get Google to adopt CalDAV…
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Lunch for Tracy this weekend. Thanks, MacKenzie!
January 14, 2008
Tomorrow, Steve Jobs will take the stage at Macworld to present all the latest and greatest gadgets and software from Apple. It should be a good show and it’s sparked all sorts of prognostification across the interwebs.
Here are my predictions.
Movie Rentals on iTunes
This sounds like it’s all but a done deal. I would guess that you’ll 24 hours to watch a movie that will cost $3.99. I would prefer for more hours for less money, but this seems relatively fair. In particular, I think we’ll see an update to Apple TV that will make it work. (See below.)
Oh, and everything will be supported by iTunes 8.0.
Apple TV
Specifically, I think Apple TV will allow for browsing and buying from your couch. This seems relatively trivial in the wake of the iTunes WiFi Store on your iPhone.
Plus, I think they’ll extend the “instant-on” feature currently used by movie trailers to allow for virtually “instant-on” movie rentals. This makes the 24-hour rental window more palatable because you can basically start watching as soon you decide to make the rental.
Still, you should be able to start your movie on Monday and finish on Thursday. Maybe they’ll institute a “one-watch” policy?
iPhone
I think we will see a storage capacity boost. You’ll be able to buy 16GB for the same $399, I bet.
I think we won’t see an iPhone with a 3G high-speed internet connection just yet. I bet this comes out in September with the regular pre-holiday iPod updates.
You’ll also see some previews of apps developed with the forthcoming SDK. I predict a game from EA, something from Google, and an Apple movie times app. Software version 1.2 required.
Ultra-thin MacBooks
Here’s where I diverge from most of the Mac prognosticators. I agree that we’ll see a super thin and light laptop, but I bet it’s a replacement - not a compliment - to the existing MacBook line.
Basically, I think we’re looking at the MacBook Nano tomorrow, and I think it will be humungous. Basically today’s MacBook, only super duper thin.
I think there will also be a thinner, lighter, more powerful MacBook Pro. Maybe even a smaller 12 or 13 inch model.
Something in the Air
Finally, I have to address the Apple taser banners (and teaser website) using the tagline “There’s something in the air.”
Most have explained this away as a “lighter than air” thing laptop, probably called the “MacBook Air.”
But that doesn’t seem like a very satisfying tie-in to me. It seems to me like “something in the air” refers to some sort of wireless something or another.
3G iPhone? “Cordless” MacBook? I really don’t know.
I think maybe some sort of WiMAX deployment - basically super fast, 4G level wide-area wireless. Built into every MacBook Air? Yes, please.
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“Catch this guy on the right day and he’s Che frickin’ Guevarra.”
January 12, 2008
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To some extent, I think I agree with Scalia (weird). There isn’t a painless requirement in the Constitution. But there sure should be a “you get to keep living” requirement.
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Reasons for liberals not to underestimate Mike Huckabee. DO NOT think we could destroy him simply and easily in the general.
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Looks like a tasty dinner some time soon.
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Great new book recommended by Joe.
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There are worse things than being compared to HIllary Clinton
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I’m sold.
January 11, 2008
For Christmas, my dad got Tracy and I his and hers Tigers / Red Sox Mr. / Mrs. Potato Heads. It’s awesome.
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Made me laugh.
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Pogue’s CES highlights. I’m disappointed, though. None of these really seem all that interesting to me.
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Preview of Windows Mobile 7. Seems like a pretty solid catch up job to mobile OSX, only 2 years later. I do hope Apple sees this and tries to roll out a bunch of brand new stuff to set the bar even higher.
January 10, 2008
First of all, good news from Techcrunch: Sony-BMG has agreed to sell their music DRM-free on AmazonMP3.
This means that Amazon is now selling unrestricted music from all four major labels. Yay! That basically means the end of DRM for music which is a totally pro-consumer move. Anything you download from Amazon will play on all your computers, all your iPods, all your CD players, forever and ever.
The frustrating comment comes at the end:
We expect Steve Jobs to announce the addition of Sony-BMG music without DRM to iTunes at MacWorld next week. But for now, Amazon has them all to themselves. Amazon now has 3.25 million DRM-free tracks in their library, compared to just 2 million at iTunes. ITunes has a far larger DRM catalog, but, really, do those tracks even count any more?
Of course those tracks count!
In June, iTunes became the third largest retailer of music in the country. The vast, vast majority of their sales have been of DRM-laden files. Apple seems to be trying to go DRM-free, and good for them, but seriously, they’re doing juuust fine selling DRM.
Sheesh, Mr. Techcrunch. Think this through a little, will you!
January 9, 2008
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Speculation on what expertise Andrea Jung brings to the Apple Board from her post at Avon.
January 8, 2008
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Good tips for Tracy’s iPhoto creations
January 2, 2008
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Customer service is important, I think.
January 1, 2008
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Man, I wish I could go home and get some tasty stuff from the Colony!
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How to be cool in 2008.
