Wired gets it wrong

In the recent Wired article Diamonds? Who Cares? Give Me HDTV, the magazine says that 58% of women would prefer to own a HDTV set than a 1-carat diamond ring. Personally, I'm guessing that the problem with this statistic is that they asked the wrong question. Instead, it should have been either, "Which would you rather purchase?" or "Which would you prefer to receive as a gift?"

Anyone reading this blog regularly knows I have serious geek toy interests, but I'd still answer their question that I'd rather own the diamond ring or the earrings (mentioned later in the article). Why? Because that would mean that someone had bought me a very nice gift. The big-screen TV, the laptop, the digital camera? Those, I'll buy myself. (link courtesy of James Duncan Davidson)

What's the point again?

I love geek toys as much as the next person (especially true when the next person is Tom), but I have to admit that I don't get the point of this one: a Bluetooth Briefcase from Samsonite (requires Flash). Technology shouldn't just be for technology's sake.

Products we'd like to see

Photo Control makes a cool geek toy called a BookEndz. With it, you can dock your TiBook or iBook when you're at your desk, allowing you to plug in one big thing instead of a whole bunch of little wires. This is particularly useful given the number of things I have plugged into this laptop.

I've come to the conclusion that they need to make a new product: the BookEndz Plus. As in, a BookEndz dock plus a USB and/or Firewire hub. They've got power, they've got these things plugged in already, so how much more trouble could it be to add a couple more jacks? At least for the TiBook dock, there's plenty of room above the back to add these on. I'd love to see this in a future model.

Fuel for the fire?

Just to throw a little more fuel on the fire of the Macromedia new product discussion below, I figure I'll link to this.

But I, of course, don't know anything that isn't available from publicly accessible Web sites...

NDA? What NDA?

News is starting to leak out about what Macromedia may have in store for us: Macromedia's New Product (Camworld), Macromedia to announce new web content software (ThinkSecret) and Macromedia eases Web updates (ZDNet UK). As with any leakage, I'll guess that some parts of it are more accurate than other parts.

Just another damn good episode

Both Dave and Brad liked last night's episode of The West Wing. I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been in such sharp contrast to Tuesday night's depressing TV experience.

There were two things worth mentioning though: first, Tom and I both laughed our butts off at the Visa Check Card commercial (online via Brad, and thanks!), and second, the way they're bringing in Joshua Malina as Rob Lowe's replacement. I was wondering at the beginning of this season why we hadn't seen him on TWW yet, and it's great to see it look like he'll be a regular rather than just being in an occasional guest spot. The bad news is that as he's only 5'9", I can't see them fixing up Will with CJ, dammit.

Geek Lust

Apple announced their new Powerbooks today, and as usual, my geek toy lust has come out in full force. Unfortunately, their Web site isn't clear about whether or not the new TiBook fixes my main gripe about my current TiBook: in dual monitor mode, Quartz Extreme doesn't work. Anyone know the status on this one?

And you?

We voted, have you?

(images courtesy of Steve at Now This)

Hey, go vote!

Well, it's finally election day. If you're still mad about the last election, this is your chance to make yourself heard. If you think that the Coup of 2000 was just peachy, then this is your chance to show your fealty to your dark masters. Um, I guess it isn't too hard to figure out where I stand. Control of the Congress is at stake, and the results will shape the future of this country, and perhaps the world. But no pressure, folks. No matter your political persuasion:

Go Out and Vote!

Happy Birthday to us!

Today is Backup Brain's 3^rd birthday. Thanks to all of you for your regular readership, support, and friendship!

Voter intimidation, continued

Following up on my post on 11/1 about Republican voter intimidation and vote suppression efforts, Josh Marshall, at Talking Points Memo has two current examples. One of them -- the flyer being distributed to black areas in Baltimore -- is one of the most appalling political dirty tricks I've ever seen.

The plutocracy needs your help!

Via MoveOn.org PAC, this important message from the plutocracy:

From: The Executive Committee Against Uppity Citizens
Sent: Monday November 03 7:37 AM
To: You
Subject: Please don't vote.

Dear friend,

On behalf of Shell, Mobil, and Exxon; Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and GE; all the Enrons, Halliburtons, and Harkens; President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the other CEOs of the Cabinet; and thousands of us who are working for a better life for the wealthiest Americans, we have one simple request: Could you please just stay home tomorrow?

See, we have things to do. Nations to invade. Wetlands to destroy.Oil to drill. Courts to pack. Corporate taxes to cut.

What's frustrating for us is that we're coming up against some pretty stiff resistance. We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the Senate, but it looks like we just may lose it. Heck, we may even lose the House. We don't quite get what it is about our agenda that you people don't like, but it's clear that this time, you may be upset enough to actually do something about it.

That's why we're writing this message to you today. Please don't vote. Ask your friends not to vote. What could the harm be in sitting this round out? If you could just stay home on Election Day, we can get back to the important business of running the nation for you, and we won't have to bother you again.

Thank you,
The Executive Committee Against Uppity Citizens

Grrr

Today's pet peeve: getting a short and thoughtful email from someone, spending the time to write a long and thoughtful response, sending it, and having it bounce back because the recipient's mailbox is full.

Grrr.

Well, it was a good response, even if I'm the only one who'll ever read it.

Things I don't understand

Add this to the list of things that I don't understand.

A friend of mine is shopping for a new iBook. She lives in Canada. That matters, as you'll see later on.

She sent me her shopping list with her expected prices, and I made some suggestions. As always, I thought her RAM prices were too high. They always are, if you're starting with Apple's RAM prices as a comparison.

So, I did a little shopping, and found that you can get RAM for dirt cheap these days. Until... you try shipping to Canada. For instance, these folks want $26 for 256 Mb of RAM. That's a pretty good deal, until you realize that they want another $26 to ship it to Canada, for a total of about $80 CDN.

These folks want $29 for the same RAM, but only $24 for shipping. That ends up with about the same result, which let me know that it wasn't just one reseller.

Next step: try to find a reseller within Canada. Yowza! These guys want $130 CDN just for the RAM! I didn't even bother to calculate shipping.

So, my question is: I read once that some very large percentage of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. Why don't y'all just open up a private mail box on this side to order computer goods? I'm not talking about everyone opening their own, maybe just one per province or something. Or start up a delivery service company that picks up stuff from the mail box, crosses the border, and delivers it to your business or residence.

Okay, a little more seriously: who's doing the shafting here? Is it the US gov't, the Canadian gov't, or the shipping companies? 'Cause that is just too painful.