Kenny ://

As if I needed another 8 reasons why I'm not cutting edge

I just finished reading an article whose title is "8 Signs That Apple Customers Are No Longer Special" on Wired.com.  As if I needed another 8 reasons for that to be the case.  I'm a mac user at home and, as a member of the business world, a Dell user at the office.  I have a person iPhone (hate it - sound quality has never been good), a MacBook Pro, a couple of iPods (I think 4 at last count), and a Time Machine that acts as both a wireless network point of access and a back up for my mac.  I have a Blackberry and a Dell for work, along with everything that goes along - scroller ball and two button mouse, 5 minutes before being able to do anything on my pc when I start it up (with minimal apps in my systray, thank you g33ks), and a constant need to restart apps after task-managering (new verb, you're welcome) those merfs off.  

Here's the gist of the article, it's now cool to have apple products. Duh.  I just needed to look around me at the library last summer to see a guy wearing Croakies, a backwards hat, cargo shorts with a pastel izod and popped collar using a mac at the next table to make me want to go home and duct tape over the Apple on the back o' the MacBook Pro. Of course, he doesn't know to call it an MBP, like I do (and the Apple Geniuses do, too. Score one for Kenny).  

All that is well and good but the true sign that Apple jumped the shark from the intelligentsia to the rest of us? Walmart sells the iPhone.

Ouch.

Article here

Finally broke down and bought a new one

The harddrive on my macbook pro died about a month and a half ago. That's right, I never replaced it. I've got a $2500 paperweight that has a cool little fruit logo on it.  The reason I didn't replace it is that I have not only a plan B for when something goes wrong, as it did, but also a plan C and D. 

How many computers do you have? I've got my macbook pro which will be working again this week, I have an old desktop that I pulled out of the basement when the MBP went south, I have a Dell that is my work laptop which has been coming home with me here lately, and I have an iPhone which, let's face it, gets more use as a web-browser than any of the other computers I just mentioned. 

How spoiled am I?  Seriously, I need to pare down and I think I'll start with the old desktop that is probably so rife with viruses that it could be considered medieval.

I'm going to automatically pare down the work laptop on October 8th, my last official day with my current employer, and considering I've got a week to road trip and move before starting my new adventure, I'll be needing that connection, yo.  I'm not sure how connected I'll be between the 8th and the 13th since I'll be travelling, camping, maybe mtb'ing, but it'll be better than none, right?

Simplify simplify. Who said that? Spock?  (I'm kidding, I know it was HDT).

Hard drive ku
Et tu Macbook pro?
Failure catastrophical?
Where's my sledgehammer?

Me no likey Windows Browsers

I don't know how I even happened upon this but could we have evidence of Apple not wanting to play friendly with Microsoft? I was trying to get to my company's web-based outlook email and it looks friendly-like only in IE so I clicked the wrong thing in the drop down address bar and tried to get to my Me account (nee .Mac - the Apple email/photosharing/everything social service).  Look what happened. Warning, chuckles ahead.  Suckit IE.

A great application of mobile mass messaging

Here's something I think is a GREAT way to gather mobile numbers for affinity and support growth.  Barack Obama is going to notify his supporters of his Vice Presidential nominee via mobile messaging to those who've signed up for this service. 

Go to his site to sign up for email OR you can text "VP" to 62262 and receive the mobile update.

It's a great application of a technology that till now has been used predominantly by those little brats sitting in front of, beside, and behind me in the Dark Knight.

Radiohead, the next great thinkers of our time

As if there were any more reason to think Radiohead were groundbreaking artists, here's one.  First of all they released their latest album In Rainbows for free online and now they've released a video for House of Cards that was created without any cameras whatsoever.  Seriously. It was all 3D Laser Shot. 

Amazing

see the video here

screenshot of it:

Maybe it's just me

Maybe it's just me, but I think the new Palm Centro smart phone is the mazda miata of the mobile phone world. It's something only a high school girl should drive/use. It sure is cute, though.

Plus, it's gaining the company market share

What's the noun?

I was in a meeting at the office the other day going through one thing or another and the topic of TXT came up. It wasn't anything we were deciding how we could implement mobile into campaigns. Instead, it was someone criticizing themselves for their poor communication skills of late.  

Instead of composing complete emails or documents, thanks to sms'ing and short form of communication, this person claimed to be paring down the volume of words they use to communicate.  "I stop using adjectives and sometime soon I'll be doing without verbs.  I'll end up just asking 'What's the noun???' when talking to people." 

What's the noun?  I thought that was a poignant statement.  Is language taking a turn for the succinct? 

I knd of hp so.  

Man's bst frnd? Dm strt! These my dawgs, y'all. They got my back:

RSS Never Ceases to Amaze

Is it me or is it funny that this RSS feed has a picture of the Jeff Buckley album "Grace" as the image for a news item clearly NOT Jeff Buckley related?

I mean, I could be wrong but I don't think Jeff Buckley was ever involved in the government, let alone the HUD office or anything to do with it. Nor do I think he ever penned a ballad or any other type of song about them so . . .

What do you think? Effed up RSS editor? I think so, too.

Live in the past or live in the present?

Old faithful showed its value again. I'm not talking about the geyser. It's my old favorite, Google Reader and, more accurately, the quote reader I've subscribed to.

Today was a quote by John Maynard Keynes - a noted British economist. Ever heard of Keynesian Theory? That's the guy. He thought it was a good idea for the government to use monetary and fiscal policy to mitigate the negative effects of economic recessions. One of those tools is lowering interest rates to a level whereby the public reacts and starts borrowing/spending.

I think we could potentially blame him for the effects of the oil crisis in the 70's. I wasn't old enough to know there was a crisis going on, or even what oil was, but I have seen the pictures of people lined up around the block for a few gallons of gas.  The oil crunch was due in part to oil being very expensive (it wasn't unavailable, just internationally we weren't in a good spot) but also due to the fact that the government, subscribing to Keynesian theory on government intervention in times of financial crises, decided to lower interest rates a few times in a very short period of time.

What that effectively does is to create easy money - it was very easy for any joe shmoe to get a loan and not spend it wisely, by paying down debt, buying government issued bonds (thereby putting money into a usable state for the gov't), or anything else that would actually help counteract an impending recession. Nope, instead, people are people and what do they do? They blow cash on cars (which require oil), homes (which require oil to heat), and other non-essential items. Thanks a lot, Mr. Keynes.  I'm sure he wasn't to blame, it was our Fed but still, you get the picture of who the guy is and what impact he's had. He was a brilliant economist, don't get me wrong. I just think gov'ts sometimes inappropriately apply his principles.

The quote today was:

"I do not know which makes a man more conservative - to know nothing but the past, or nothing but the present."

I'd say that knowing nothing but the past makes a person more conservative.  Knowing where you came from allows for knowledge of past mistakes and successes. Knowing nothing but the present could lead to a lack of understanding of consequences. Come to think of it, I guess if you know nothing but the past, you don't know what the consequences of the past are, considering you don't know the present. Great, see that? I've just talked myself into a corner.  I'm going to stick with my original answer - knowing only the past makes a person more conservative. I wonder if there's an expectancy theory to someone who only knows the past?

Knowing (and living in) only the present makes you a Jedi. At least that's what Yoda say, yo.

P.s. - Perez Hilton was at Paris Hilton's birthday party. Do you think anyone who wasn't 'in the know' was confused?

That crazy RSS, it's so antic-ey

I know this probably bores pretty much everyone who reads this site. Yes, all 3 of you. But it makes me giggle.

Why will a language render properly on one site but not on the site that leads me to it? 

Here's the feed:

And here's where it goes:

Looks pretty good when I click through, right? Why won't it show me what it is before i have to click through. Is this some backhanded way for BBC to get me to click through to their site so they can inflate advertising rates because of how many visitors they get, no matter how crookedly?