20050726   

Michael considered fate at 10:59   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

I'm back in the saddle, folks, after a few days hiatus - having had nothing of import to relay to you. I even stifled a mopey woe is me post last night because, heck, you can read the archives. I drank beer instead. In fact, I drank beer on a wonderful summer night enjoying a wonderful bar patio with some funny people and one too-good-to-be-true fashionable/hippy/hipster/down-to-earth/crazy/trendy/....girl. I drove home with her, had some herbal tea, and talked. Really. It's been sweet but no doubt we'll have time for those woe is me posts soon enough. Stay Tuned.



In other news..

The Family Guy movie was leaked onto the internet and is making the rounds via bittorrent. It was supposed to be due out in two months.

TV Guide is relaunching as a large format magazine? What the .. Somehow I don't think this one is going to work out for them financially, but what do I know. The whole point of a small form-factor is that it sits nicely out of the way on the end-table until you are dying to know: what's on next? So what is next, Reader's Digest goes R-rated?

Perhaps coincidence, perhaps a snafu of another color, we may never know: Microsoft's MSN Virtual World online mapping tool would lead you to believe that the current Apple Headquarters do not exist. Time to choose sides folks:

a search for Apple's campus on Virtual World shows a largely vacant lot where the campus stands today. Meanwhile, a similar search on Google's mapping service verified that--despite Microsoft evidence to the contrary--Apple is still alive and kicking.

Who do you believe? Wheelchair-ridden granddad of Software companies with billions in the bank ("Come 'ere little child, give me your hand") or creepy mysteriously rich young search engine company with no revenue who just moved in down the street ("Hey, little kid.. yah, you.. do you know where the closest porn store is?"). I don't know about you but I have been laying awake at night for quite awhile now trying to figure out if iPods really exist..

And speaking of Apple, they announced their latest incarnations of the iBooks and Minis yesterday. While the iBooks didn't get better screen resolution (I never expected it but I certainly pined for it) they did get a bevy of new features including:

• Built-in Airport Extreme (i.e. 802.11g), something I'm not at all surprised at given the current state of wireless connectivity everywhere. Not including wireless at this point would be a crime.
• Built in Bluetooth. This standard isn't dead yet?
• a scrolling trackpad - Just drag two fingers over the trackpad to scroll vertically and horizontally or pan around any active window - something I'm a little wary of, but at least you can turn it off.
• And last but not least, motion-sensing drop protection? From the website:

  Now every iBook G4 is equipped with Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor to help protect your most valuable asset: your data. The Sudden Motion Sensor senses change in axis position and accelerated movement. In the event of a drop or fall, the Sudden Motion Sensor instantly parks the hard drive heads so they won’t scratch the disks on impact, lessening the risk of damage and improving your chances of retrieving valuable data.

Despite new seemingly-elite features like the sensor-based drop protection, they are still choosing to outfit the low end iBook with a very anemic 40GB hard drive, though the standard 512MB RAM is an improvement. Come on guys, left over inventory? How much does a 60GB drive really cost over a 40 anyway? The Mini, on the otherhand, is starting to look a little more attractive. The mid-grade model at $600 gets a 1.42G4, 512MB RAM, 80GB of storage, and Airport Extreme wireless. The only thing these puppies are really weak on, if you don't mind the G4, is the graphics card; an ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB RAM.

More on the entertainment front, Netflix second-quarter profits nearly doubled. Not so interesting in and of itself - I swear you can figure these things out if you just go down on the street and take a fucking pulse, people. I don't know a soul using Blockbuster and I know plenty trying out Netflix. Did anyone really think Blockbuster could wham-bam-thank-you-mame open an online rental store late in the game and take over Netflix's bidness? Nah uh, honey, you did not just do that. Go figure. Blockbuster, a nationwide chain who has been fucking people over for years now with higher prices than even most place's local mom & pop rental establishments thinks they can just buy in? Not with my money, you can't. Remember people, America is on foodstamps, we need our prime-rib on the cheap or our Grade C dressed up in sheeps clothing. Why do you think Wal-Mart is so successful? Nevertheless, Netflix has held Blockbuster off (no doubt with a bit of help from the Wal-Mart endorsement I mentioned in May) and it, apparently, didn't even effect them much:

Netflix didn't have to spend as much as executives anticipated to fend off Blockbuster in the second quarter, leaving the company in a much stronger position than almost everyone expected.

Which leads me to believe executives aren't, as I say, down on the street taking a fucking pulse. Even more worrisome are corporate executives who express these sorts of thoughts:

Emboldened by the second-quarter surprise, Netflix management predicted it will finish this year with a profit of $2.4-million to $11.9-million, a reversal from just three months ago when the company warned it might lose as much as $15-million with Blockbuster hot on its trail.

Makes you think they're playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with their revenue charts in the boardroom, doesn't it?