Monthly Archives: January 2005

Skinny on the Mini

Here I am again, responding after MacWorld05-now that the Apple pundit/evangelist/rumor sites
have had their say. here’s mine:

I suggest you go to Apples’ website and take a look at the keynote. Not very exciting but you can
at least scroll through the boring parts and take a look at the demos. Obviously Steve is selling
Apple in his usual way-black turtleneck, paced very carefully, i was hoping for as “under the seat” surprise
like the wireless toilet-seat iBooks I saw in NY MacWorld one year. No such luck but some nice things did show.

SOFTWARE

iWork (Keynote 2 & Pages) (word processing app)
Hooray! Keynote is great and the one thing it is lacking is useful text editing. The “Appleworks” folks
can stay with Appleworks if they need a spreadsheet, I don’t need one. Integration with the iLife apps looks
promising. Output Keynote to Flash…? this means Pages will be your simple html editor. Since I’m a fan of Create and Composer (and NVu) I welcome the competition for simplifying this stuff.

iLife 05 (iDVD 5, Garageband 2, iMovie HD, iTunes 4.7)
The iLife suite is a great and cool suite of Applications. Like the iPod it introduces people to Apple software, which if needed scales to Pro Apps very well : iDVD to IDVD Studio, Garageband to Logic, IMovie to Final Cut, iTunes 4.7 to ??(iTivo?)??. Ok, you have to ditch your sub 1.25ghz iMacs to really use these applications (see below)
and a DVD drive is useful. But since this is included with new Macs-everyone has the tools for rudimentary
file editing- be they pdf,txt,jpg,html, etc…

Final Cut Express HD
-A nice upgrade and includes Soundtrack-precurser to Garageband, but a little more powerful.

iPod shuffle
$99 dollars for an iPod? cool.

Mac mini
$499 for an Apple CPU with iLife05? Awesome…be sure to get more memory, bluetooth, airport card, the combo
drive- the faster cpu–uh oh- better look at that iMac G5 again.
Really, I’m hoping Apple treats this as the loss leader it can be. Sure you can build your own *nux box inside a Shuttle case but this is so well constructed, technology folks will just salivate.


So I wait for more stuff to come along: Griffin Technologies released an awesome number of peripherals this week,
and NAMM is coming up -that may be interesting as well.
I just ordered an Alesis Micron- from what I hear this is the coolest keyboard anywhere.
more on this later…
O

Solutions and Problems

Owlgarden
People who know me well also know that I am no friend to Corporate greed and short-sightedness
toward Energy policy, Employee responsibility (formerly known as loyalty), and the exploitation of
third world industry in order to better the bottom line of an accounting sheet presented here in
America.

There are lots of problems with America, especially perceived if you’re a liberal who has compassion toward
all the hungry and impoverished people here and elsewhere around the globe. Industries like Automotive, Tobacco,
and Petroleum corporations are failing the American people with their lack of motivation to address these issues
and , by way of their international sales, this also fails the rest of the world .
Our republican administration seems to want it this way by supporting corporations as if they were wealthy
individuals- not as an infrastructure to our economy, letting these corporations perform terrible acts of irresponsibility
toward the environment, and forgetting that generations following us will be left with a deathly planet of poison and disease.

Rather than complain endlessly about this arrogant attitude (which I do elsewhere on this blog)
I propose doing a bunch of stuff to help forward the cause of building a New World Order, not THAT New World Order
based on terror politics in the Middle East and Asia, but replacing the conservative policies of our government
with that of a peaceful initiative, future forward looking policies, and the rebuilding the attitudes of Energy, Health, Education, Transportation,
and Media Industries toward a more social corporate responsibility.

First off, you cannot blame American people for smoking. The key problem here is the tobacco industry and the failure of
FDA to ban nicotine as a problematic ingredient. It is obvious to me, as a smoker, that I would smoke way less without the addictive
qualities of nicotine, and probably not smoke tobacco at all if other substances of less addicting qualities were legalized.
I find it weird that as a smoker who would like to quit, the government is not taking responsibility in this. I mean, the government
should be telling the tobacco companies to shape up or pick up the tab. All instances of litigation of the 90’s -billions of dollars –
were mishandled and abused-dumped into lame-ass programs hardly benefitting anyone but the lawyers. The government
has to step up and strike the industry where it hurts- and that’s in the addictive fuel of nicotine.
How do you do this?
1) Declare nicotine a controlled substance on the level of Cocaine and heroine.
2) Create a policy of 0% Nicotine in non prescribed products.
3) Let the tobacco companies continue the business but give them a time line to eliminate the nicotine in their products.
4) Encourage Big tobacco to grow Big cannabis instead. Why cannabis? Because it is economically sound to grow and has
far more useful purpose in producing cloth, paper, and oils than tobacco has. Legalize it, don’t criticize it.

Secondly, There should be NO tolerance for lowering gasoline and industrial emissions standards at all. SUVs burning less than 25 miles per gallon should
taken OFF THE ROAD. Trucks should be forced to comply with equivalent standards as well, and conversion to alternate energy
propulsion systems must start today. . There are dark days ahead if this is not done now. We have the technology to build personal and industrial technologies that don’t pollute and Americans will have to learn to move a little slower for the sake of the world. If America does this
so will the rest of the world. This I know.

Third, We have to change what we are teaching children. The Republicans and the Democrats seem to think that Arts, Music and Sports
aren’t that important compared to math scores and reading comprehension tests. By requiring schools to meet some politicized standard for
learning isn’t learning- it is Pavlovian training. Creativity through multiple means of expression, coordinating resources among communities
rather than forcing them to compete for funds (children being the victim in this case) is not right. We have to turn this around and
make Arts, Music and Sports the conduit for Math and Reading and social learning. We are in a society that is short on long term achievement
and long on short term attention span. And we reward this. Growth, in a child, is combined process of society, parenting, learning by doing,
and experiencing positive behaviors in peers and adults.

Fourth and lastly, We are predisposed to some ancient Judeo/Christian ethic that does not reflect our society as a whole. Indeed, where our founders established freedom of religion as long as it was their religion to practice freely. People need their religion in order to cope with their own personal issues but in America we should not tolerate the demands of any particular religious morality- which by itself often is defined by a political infrastructure. All Americans have a right to believe what they choose to believe in, regardless of the Government. This includes Buddhists, Atheists, Polytheists, Satanists, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sun worshippers, what have you…
The government cannot discern between these cultures, nor should it referred to on our money, in our courts, or in government institutions
anywhere. Time to take your religion home and to your preferred temple. Don’t try to proselytize me, I have my own relationship with
my own peculiar Godhead and I won’t try to convert you either.

I have more to say on how we should change our America -Today I see a decadent society starting to tumble into calamity and our nationalistic
attitudes reek of fascism and exploitation with our own population and in the world at large. Time to change this now. Revolution starts at home.

-Owlgarden

America 2004

this was a response to a friend about impressions of 2004 events: war,
baseball, elections, etc….
it is unfinished and also (obviously) encouraged by Alan Ginsberg, may
he rest in peace, (thanks to
rocktripper (www.rocktripper.com) for the Jelly Roll Beat stuff, them
cats is cool)

america
I’m breathing
and there is phlegm in my lungs
america
I’ve decided that my tomorrow isn’t any more important than your
yesterday
– so here we are right now
america
i’m inundated with market strategy, branding, targeted sales,
personalized credit cards
and classical hits advertising a gas guzzling monster truck and a 50
inch tv
america
I block out the noise with my ipod, don’t mug me for it
america
I am fundamentally christian in a fundamentally christian nation,
raging christian values
against other religious fundamentalists
america,
the reality is bleak
but it’s in high definition as long as you don’t show any tits
america
my boys and girls are dieing on foreign soil
we are defending a nation that doesn’t exist – where they have a reason
to hate me
america
I’m promiscuous, fucking the small potatoes into french fries, serving
them up
with an obese and greasy breakfast combination
america
I got my bikini waxed and i’ve been liposucked into
the somebody i wanted to be
america
see my blog for more information, google my picture,
steal my identity but don’t ask for my social security number
america
i am a right click to make it my desktop and you’re forensically
searching my files,
america
would you verify this information with me before
you send me a gmail invation
america
I wonder about nuclear bombs and how are they doing, how do they
feel so unused and alone
america
I voted for the guy who didn’t get elected, i should move to Ohio
america
you sold me heroin for cheap, and i can shoot-up a twenty-four hour
hard-on with
it and a little extra cialis
america
i want to be a patriot, a designated hitter,
i liked being a red sox fan when they were underdogs, now i like the
iraqi
america
i have the whole 1993 season on four dvds and the extra bits and
bloopers are great
america
i get all my news from a late night talk show host, i stepped up to the
window and you served me
and thanks for the toy, i think i’ll collect them all
america
the aids quilt isn’t big enough to cover africa
america
i murdered my child, my wife, i had a boat that should have taken me to
china
or at least let me sail away from a setting sun
america
i am your terrorist, in your waking dream, your cold sweat on the
pillow, behind your locked doors,
living your catholic pornography, I’m your jew nigger fairy putting a
jaw with teeth under your pillow
america
i am freely speaking
america
i am in your classroom, sitting in the back, waving my hand trying to
get your attention, and you call on me
and then march me down to the principals office
america
i’m downloaded,
america
i’m standing on a beautiful shore, on a beautiful morning, and wave of
sadness rises up out of the ocean
america
excuse me i have to blow my nose

Unpredictable Apple

Here’s my blog post for today on Apple….

If you’re a rumor junkie like I am- trying to detect just what old
Steve Jobs will announce next weekis a great game.
This week has been amazing – today Apple stock jumped
4+ to just shy under 70. Yesterday Servers were publicly released with 2.3 gig g5s
and a faster buss (and top off at 1.2 gig sata internally), Xsan boxes are shipping.
Imagine connecting your 5 G5 FCProHD Edit suites to an
Xsan sitting on top a 36 terabyte disk array (not just Apple’s array
either-Sun boxes/IBM/etc can be added to the array..um just plug them
in.. 10.3.7 was released last week and they dropped the price by 200$ on all
the Displays.

Rumors are motorboating along and its propellor is Apple suing the
rumor mills. HAH! what does this mean?
Apple did this last year and I remember Macworld 2004 being a bit
underwhelming. Lots of rumors (Apple pda mainly)
This year there will probably be lots of whelm.

rumor count:
1) Apple Phone with itunes (motorola alludes to this),
2) a G4 rectangle headless box (rumor lawsuit material)
3) Flash Pods (2 gig solidstate? or 5 gig mini or 80 gig pods? Beatle
ipod (that’s my own rumor)(lawsuit) ?
4) a new 17″ monitor? (for the switchers)
5) A fw i/o box for garageband users? I hope so…
6) Appleworks and Keynote and ??? as iWork suite (where goeth MS
Office?) Office for the rest of us…
7) Plus there will be talk about X.4 Tiger (uh, NDA alarm on) Maybe a
date set… some great stuff is in Tiger: widgets, Core DATA, Automator
(you gotta see this )Spotlight, Safari all in 64 bit(? maybe..I’m sure
the kernel will be 64 bit)- Finally data to saturate the bus.
8) Steve Jobs CEO at Disney?
9) Aqueducts discovered on Mars?

and I think Wednesday’s Apple financials will be amusing as well…
And though Microsoft is still King, it’s a one eyed King, and Apple
seems to have 2 or 3 eyes.

if this isn’t amusing enough Folks,
read the transcripts for the CES keynote with
Conan O’Brian and Bill Gates. (demo gods were not kind to Bill again)

http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/conferences/keynotes.asp

Conan Rules!

please note I bcc’d a bunch of folks on this message
be kind!
happy nu
b