Monthly Archives: April 2005

In lieu of Apple’s highly anticipated operating system OS X 10.4 Tiger, which launches today at 6pm, I share a small gem of nostalgia for Apple fans everywhere. Different District hosts every Apple add or T.V. spot I’ve ever heard of and then some. Each clip has a counter on it, and after a quick glance over I noticed that Gwen Stefani’s Pepsi/iTunes add had the most hits… oh that Gwen *melt*

“Our conclusion has been that if you want people to understand the news better, then get that stuff off the screen” . –University of Kansas professor Tom Grimes.

A recent study proved that T.V. gives us too much information at once. We lose about 10% of the facts presented due to banners, scrolling stock tickers, and other distractions. This may be true, but there are many factors that I don’t see in the playing field on this one. I need things such as marquee headlines and cartoon ads to fuel my interest. Watching T.V. is not a means to gather important information, it is entertainment. Forgetting 10% of the facts from a T.V. show is a small price to pay for actually being entertained for the length of the show IMHO (in my humble opinion).

PC-TOO, an organization that must be completely out of their minds, is promoting a one-week halt on computer use. August 1st through August 7th is deemed PC-Turnoff Week. The motive for such a crazy idea is geared towards the kids. PC-TOO’s goal: “make parents aware of the risks associated with excessive computer use by their children “. –Ha, they don’t want their kids turning into geeks! It’s already too late.
Would I still be abiding by the PC-TOO insanity week if I only used my Mac and left my PC off?

The pen beat the sword in days of old, when pens were feathers and people talked like a Shakespeare play. This pen would kick those ancient artifacts in the tush, and be able to download it to your computer afterwards. Logitech’s io2 Digital Writing System pen remembers what you wrote, and even types out your written notes and diagrams. The pen is trainable, has 856kb of storage (40 pages), and a USB connection. Now there’s no excuse for me to lose all those phone numbers gorgeous women give me.

Tom Martin, clever lad that he is, has invented a glass that prevents spiking. Apparently, he got the idea after a friend was sexually assaulted as a result of drinking a spiked beverage.

From what I can tell, the glass is stylish, and cleverly designed. The center of the glass is hollow, and the beverage is contained between the double outer walls of the glass. The walls are so close together, that a special nozzle must be used to pour liquid into them, making it almost impossible to drop a drug into the drink. I hardly ever say this but, I am so impressed. And I bet, because Tom goes to design school in London, that he is probably English. Which would mean he has a sexy accent. Which means he’s completely awesome and gets to be my hero for at least the next two weeks or until I get distracted by something shiny.

I recently wrote about how free WiFi is the best thing since sliced bread. Well toss your routers out the window, call your ISP can cancel that $40.00/month bill, and buy some bird seed. Pigeons have been used and, proven to be faster at transferring data via ADSL. The term, as the crow flies will soon be replaced with as the pigeon flies with 1.3GB of data. The experiment was to transfer 4GB over the ADSL line while simultaneously sending out a few carrier pigeons with the equivalent data. First one to transfer the full 4GB wins! Wouldn’t you know the pigeons won the 100km race. I’m guessing that some people have just a bit too much time on their hands. But then again, maybe they have so much time because they’re waiting for slow downloads?!

Podcasts are the thing. So why not take an FM radio station and just make it pure Podcasts, that way you don’t need to pay the DJ? I’ll tell you why, cause it wasn’t your idea, it’s already in the making. KYOU Radio is going to launch in San Francisco and will be completely supported by Podcasts.

DJ’s could be out of a job. Then again, somebody has to sit around at the station to make sure it all runs smoothly. I for one applaud the idea, technology makes for an exciting time in music.

When I was 19 years old and in college, I procrastinated by watching TV, talking to dorm mates, playing sports, or just plain old napping. Our buddy Ben Horowitz is nothing like me. He breaks from research papers by creating a website. iProcrastinate is the name of his domain, and he’s assisted thousands of other college students in their quest to put off homework. MTV has taken note of the site and goes into depth about the features and functions of iProcrastinate. Ben had a different view of the phrase “procrastination is like masturbation, it feels good when you do it but in the end you’re just screwing yourself.”

Some games never do go out of style. Then again, after a quick revival, they get boring real fast. Atari, the first home video game maker is re-releasing a classic. Forty classics really. The refurbished game console will come with 40 of your favorite early 80’s crappy video games. It’s only $30 and in many ways its worth the nostalgia.

Personally, I want a new original Nintendo. You can still find people with them, but most are very moody, like cranky old retired men. The old blowing in the game cartridge trick doesn’t work like it used to. Please Nintendo, take a lesson from Atari and make some new classic units.

I am willing to wager that I was one of the first 1000 TiVo owners. I had an original Philips 14 hour unit when they first hit the shelves (although it was back in 1999 or 2000 when I was pretty much buying everything online using a bajillion free coupons the etailers were throwing around, courtesy of brilliant venture capitalists. But I digress), and I am definitely one of the ‘converted’. TiVo has changed my life.

Not necessarily for the better, mind you. I used to watch TV quite infrequently, I followed NO shows religiously, and didn’t really mind re-watching Days of Thunder on TNT every other weekend (it IS a new classic, after all). Fast forward to today (do-doo, do-doo, do-DOO!) and I have a couple of dozen Season Passes, and commercials cause me physical pain. I cannot (I will not!) watch TV without the ability to time-shift.

Now I want more. I want the handy little peanut-shaped TiVo remote to have some control over life events. I’d like a 30 minute buffer. Now of course the ideal would have me able to make changes once I’ve rewound, but I’m not greedy. With the buffer, I could plan to do a few things time-shifted. For example, I could skip through bus rides. Or waiting in line at the doctor’s office. Now I run the risk I might miss something interesting (for example: Apparently here in San Francisco, when a bus is driving through Chinatown, instead of the standard $1.25 fare, a can of pineapple juice works in lieu of payment. I would never have guessed such a thing, but it’s true!), but I’ll take my chances.
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Airbus, maker of regular airplanes, has just made it possible for potential purchasers of planes to supersize their order. That’s right, they’ve created the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380.

The A380, to summarize here, flew around for awhile and then landed in Toulouse, France. I found the entire procedure technologically impressive- they got 308 tons of plane off the ground, and back on the ground again. I’m sure it took a lot of work.

What concerned me about the article I read on the topic however, was the headline “‘Superjumbo’ A380 lands safely”. I’m of course, pleased the plane landed safely, BUT WHY ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH WAS THIS THE SPECIAL PART OF THE FLIGHT? It’s supposed to land safely! What’s next, “‘Oversized’ car with four wheels drives around in a circle without event”?!

I’m sorry, but if they want a pat on the back for landing a plane, which in general, is supposed to have the available feature of safe landing, then I want an article written about how fabulous it is that when I woke up this morning, I continued breathing as I had throughout the night. The plane lands safely really got me thinking though– do they make some planes that don’t land? Is this plane a marvel because Airbus made the biggest plane, or because long ago … perhaps when they designed the Airbus A330 prototype… engineers from the company decided they could save time and money by delaying the addition of the ‘plane is able to land’ feature to a later model?

Some cool features Airbus apparently isn’t going to delay much longer include passenger planes with cocktail bars, double beds and massage parlors. Ok I’m disappointed. Who makes a luxury plane with double beds?! Ca-learly that should be kingsize beds! It’s a superjumbo jet for chrissake. I want to speak to their designer immediately!

Crazier potential features include jacuzzis and mini-casinos. Because there’s nothing more entertaining than being next to a passenger who’s airsick AND having to share a jacuzzi with him at the same time. Except maybe being next to an airsick passenger in a mini-casino at a poker table…. “Um, I… bloorch!” … “The puking guy is bluffing, there’s NO WAY his hand could be that bad. I’m seeing his bet and raising…”

The most hilarious part of the article I read however, was the closing line, where the fuel efficiency of the superjumbo means, ha ha, that the tickets could be cheaper. Yes they COULD BE, except they went and added casinos and beds and other likely Austin Powers-esque features such as shag carpeting and whirling colored lights, which they’ll then have to charge us more for of course.

Want to complain/other? Email thetechdiva@gmail.com.