Apple, Political Ad Mashup

Salon's Video Dog has a mash-up of the 'Hi, I'm a Mac' ads with a little political subtext.

It's funny, laugh.

Link

Accumulated Wisdom:

And, occassionally, I run into a great quote that I'd like to remember.
Here are two:

Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. — Seneca

All professions are conspiracies against the common folk. — George Bernard Shaw

Nintendo and Third-Place

Even as Nintendo has effectively conceded first-place sales to Microsoft and Sony, the company is actually making more money than ever, according to this New Yorker piece:

The point is that business is not a sporting event. Victory for one company doesn’t mean defeat for everyone else. Markets today are so big—the global video-game market is now close to thirty billion dollars—that companies can profit even when they’re not on top, as long as they aren’t desperately trying to get there. The key is to play to your strengths while recognizing your limitations. Nintendo knew that it could not compete with Microsoft and Sony in the quest to build the ultimate home-entertainment device. So it decided, with the Wii, to play a different game entirely. Some pundits are now speculating, ironically, that the simplicity of the Wii may make it a huge hit.

Nintendo's strategy with the Wii, focusing on game-play rather than graphics and simplicity rather than owning the home entertainment sphere, may make the company ultimately more successful than either of their competitors.

Link. Hat tip to DaringFireball.

Also, Amazon link to Nintendo's Wii just in case you were thinking of buying one.

I Swear, The Last Zune Post

BusinessWeek has a new fluff piece on the Zune team at Microsoft. Titled The Soul Of A New Microsoft, the article focuses on J Allard, the driven leader behind the XBox and the Zune.

Here's the thing, Microsoft doesn't need to find their 'un-Vista' they need to stop trying to seize every possible market with half-baked attempts and hope that their name and marketing muscles save, what would otherwise be, nothing but a memory. In creating the Zune, Microsoft created yet another buggy product with the hope that it will get better while convincing some sucker to pay for the development of the next version.

Microsoft didn't build the Zune, they bought the hardware from Toshiba. Microsoft didn't build the model, they watched Apple and then created a wonky version of iTunes, except that they created the obviously deceptive Zune Marketplace which uses points rather than actual money.

A song on the Zune Marketplace costs 79 points, but you can't just buy one song, you have to give Microsoft a $5.00 credit, meaning unless you buy hundreds of songs, you will always leave something in Microsoft's hands. Surely, some dullard will think the Zune Marketplace is cheaper than iTunes without noticing he's spent the same amount of money while giving Microsoft a micro-loan.

So, crappy product, crappy software, and a points system that screws you a penny at a time.


Update: I also ran into Andy Ihnatko's review in the Chicago Sun-Times and his explanation for the Zune Marketplace's goofy points system makes sense. They want you to buy points in $5.00 increments to save money on credit-card processing fees.

What I'm Reading:

It was my dad's copy of Martian Chronicles that did it. The musty little paperback, stained by the acidic paper and smelling of dust, so amazed me that I've loved science-fiction ever since.

With that in mind I've included two short story collections:
Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias. Edited by Kim Stanley Robinson, this collection of short stories includes the outstanding "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson.

The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-third Annual Collection (Year's Best Science Fiction) Another collection of science-fiction stories, this one includes Alastair Reynolds' "Spy in Europa" and my favorite "Timequakes" by David Gerrold.

I'm also continuing to read and try to understand poetry, and thus I have Camille Paglia's Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems

'Cause I Can't Leave it Alone

According to Engadget, the Zune is just a repackaged Toshiba 1089 with fun Microsoft software and a brand-new DRM-scheme.

Link

Tesla Roadster

Here's proof that environmental technology doesn't have to be a hippy's VW bus converted to run diesel, rather it can be sleek, fast, and bright red.

Slate's Paul Boutin gushes about the Tesla Roadster, an electric car that is not only environmentally friendly, but blast to drive.

From the article:

The Tesla Roadster won't hit the streets until next year. If you see one on the street, then, you should ask for a ride. Even from the passenger seat, the car feels impossibly stronger, faster, and safer than it should be. The trick is Tesla's torque curve—the arc of the motor's strength as it revs from a standstill to top speed. Compared to gasoline-engined cars, the Roadster's torque curve feels—and is—impossible. That's because the Tesla's motor is electric.

The real message from the Tesla Roadster is simple, Detroit's Big-3 needs to wake the hell up and start innovating rather than making yet another SUV or debuting a retro-designed Dodge Dart.

Update: Tesla Motors, the maker of the Tesla Roadster, has a blog.

The Zune, It Still Sucks...

Is there anyone out there who likes the Zune? Besides of course the astroturfing of Zunescene? Also, any website that uses "Dude, you're getting a..." without the ironic detachment necessary to use such a dumb catch-phrase is just a tad pathetic.

David Galbraith writes one of the most scathing, and I think, insightful descriptions of the problem with the Zune and Microsoft.

And, I learned a new word thanks to Galbraith, skeuomorph.


Link. Thanks to DaringFireball for this one.

The Zune, It Sucks: A Zune Review Round-Up

I'm not exactly unbiased when it comes to the Zune, first I love my iPod, the 30GB iPod Video I snagged earlier in the year, and second, Microsoft bugs me, but the Zune is a bad deal.

In yet another needy attempt to seize a market, Microsoft tries and fails to unseat the iPod with the new Zune, and it's proving to be one of the biggest flops of the year. Although Microsoft keeps repeating their mantra that the Zune is just a start, anyone who's been paying attention to the Mp3-player market should remember that this is Round 2.

Let's start with Engadget's two reviews, the first of which was unpacking and installation, and let's just say things didn't go well. In fact, things went so badly that the often even-handed Engadget titled the article "Installing the Zune Sucked." After running a gauntlet of installation errors and buggy user-interfaces, Engadget finally got the device to work.

They followed this with a full review, which includes this gem:

Microsoft really wanted to convince everybody that this time they'd changed, this time they were starting from the ground up, working for the consumer, working for the artist. Well, no one's buying that story anymore.

Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal also reviewed the Zune, he writes:

But, this first Zune has too many compromises and missing features to be as good a choice as the iPod for most users. The hardware feels rushed and incomplete.

And, David Pogue of the New York Times gives the wireless sharing a big 'meh', writing:

What's really nuts is that the restrictions even stomp on your own musical creations. Microsoft's literature suggests that if you have a struggling rock band, you could ''put your demo recordings on your Zune'' and ''when you're out in public, you can send the songs to your friends.'' What it doesn't say: ''And then three days later, just when buzz about your band is beginning to build, your songs disappear from everyone's Zunes, making you look like an idiot.''

Pogue ends with:

Competition is good and all. But what, exactly, is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication -- in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features -- just to indulge Microsoft's ''we want some o' that'' envy. Wireless sharing is the one big new idea -- and if the public seems to respond, Apple could always add that to the iPod.

Then again, this is all standard Microsoft procedure. Version 1.0 of Microsoft Anything is stripped-down and derivative, but it's followed by several years of slow but relentless refinement and marketing. Already, Microsoft says that new Zune features, models and accessories are in the pipeline.

So, instead of buying a 30GB iPod, you can tie yourself to Microsoft's new DRM-scheme, have fewer song choices, abandon podcasts, and have a larger, heavier, and absolutely buggy device. And you can help Microsoft beta test their new product for free.

Oh, the joy!

Lorem Ipsum

If you've ever paid any attention to typesetting or to Apple's iLife applications, especially iWeb and iWork you've seen this random chunk of Latin as dummy text. Having studied Latin for one painful summer, I was confused as to why I could never translate the text. That's because it's randomized and offer new words are added in as a joke. But, there's even more to the story.

Turns out, this text has a lot more history that I thought. According to lipsum.com, the text was from a copy of Cicero's de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (The Extremes of Good and Evil) written around 45 BC, and was first used in print by a 16th century printer.

What's amazing is not only how this tradition has survived for so long, but that it made the leap into digital printing.

Polysyllabic Spree

Several months ago, I bought a copy of Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree, a great compilation of his "Stuff I've Been Reading" column from the Believer. And, frankly I love the idea of writing down my own reading so much that I'm going to steal it wholesale.

Furthermore, since Amazon offers referral links and I can make a buck or two from this, I'm going to add these here as well, so anyone can peruse and even maybe buy one of the books I've decided to read and review.

Below, are two links, the first does directly to the McSweeney's Store for a copy of Polysyllabic Spree and the second goes to Amazon. Take your pick.


Link to McSweeney's Store.

Link to Amazon

Cell-phone cameras

I've called them effectively worthless at least once, but there is something to be said for a camera that's always around and capable of capturing the wonderful things one can stumble on.

So, I offer this from Lifehacker, How To Take Better Camera-phone pictures.

Steve Jobs has a Favorite Word

We all have our verbal tics. Whether it's the Canadian 'eh, the Valley Girl's like, or Keanu Reeve's use of the word Whoa, there's just certain phrases that flow unheeded into our words. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, is no different and someone put together a great little mashup. Let's see if you can guess what his verbal tic is.


Link. Via Boingboing.

Batten the Hatches, Secure the Doors, Vista is Coming

According to ZDNet, Windows Vista, the long-delayed upgrade to the Windows OS, will be released January 30, 2007. Microsoft has announced a November 30 press conference to introduce the new OS along with Office 2007.

Originally announced in 2003, Vista will replace the venerable Windows XP, which was introduced in 2001. This marks an extraordinary gap between major Operating System releases and has often been compared to Apple's Mac OS X, which has been upgraded four times in the same time period.

Apple has already announced the next version of OS X, called Leopard, and is expected to release the software during MacWorld San Francisco 2007, which opens with Steve Jobs' keynote on January 9.

George Ou's Apple Bashing Ignores Real Problems

Also, while George Ou was getting fantastically excited about the announcement of a 'zero-day' exploit for old Airport cards, Microsoft announced a 'zero-day' exploit for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

While the Apple exploit was limited to wireless cards produced previous to 2003 and required the card to be in active scanning mode, not to mention the attacker must within wireless range, this new Microsoft flaw allows for remote exploits over the internet.

So, George, which vulnerability should get the most press? An Airport exploit for older Macs. Or a exploit for a brand-new Microsoft product?