Thoughts

(Originally written 2008-01-15 at 2350)

I loved the CES 2008 keynote with Bill Gates.  As usual, he had a funny clip about his last day at Microsoft.

Unfortunately, most of the coverage for new products sucked - unless of course you like flat screen TVs and anything Bluetooth.  And who isn't?  But I wish there were more innovative and unique products.

Macworld 2008

Good: Time Capsule, Apple TV coming down to $229 with updated software, and the MacBook Air

Starting with Time Capsule, a $299/$499 wireless base station with a 500GB/1TB drive for remote backups.  That's just simple.  With 802.11n base stations running almost to $200 already, adding a HD in there to work with Leopard's Time Machine feature is smart.  Well, hopefully if you didn't already spend almost $200 on a 802.11n wireless base station and did spend $129 for the Leopard OS upgrade.  Too bad I already bought a base station and haven't upgraded my OS yet.  (But to be honest, after they patch the OS a couple times and work those bugs out - I'll probably pick up both Leopard and Time Capsule.)

Apply TV coming down to $229 with a software update that allows you to download rented movies in HD to your TV without tethering it to a PC or Mac.  Finally.  Anyone that ever asked me about it in the past, I've said three things: 1) You have to buy whatever is on iTunes so just watch it there; 2) Too expensive for simply slinging your bought videos from iTunes to the TV, just TV out your iPod; 3) No HD.  Well, looks like they've answered all three.  Although, I think a price of $199 would've been my sweet spot, but $30 isn't too much to fuss over.  (And I'm sure they did the market research to determine that.)

Last and definitely not least, the MacBook Air.  Hold on, I have to change pants.  DAMN!  That shizzle be just fo sho and off da hook.  What can I say.  I've always said Apple made the best hardware and here they do it again.  If they would just ship the system with Vista OS or Boot Camped and pre-loaded with Vista as options, I honestly think more businesses would buy them.  Most companies don't think that they could buy great hardware at a small premium that works flawlessly under Vista.  (And let's all be honest, most companies need Windows OS.)

I also owned and used an ultra-portable Sony VAIO roughly 4 years ago and I know a bit about what the system needs and doesn't need.  It looks as though this one's well rounded in features but it's not like the Sony I had sucked, I enjoyed it a lot.  It'll be interesting to try out with that past experience.  The only stupid thing is Steve Jobs comparing the new MacBook Air to a larger Sony portable and not comparing it to an ultra-portable which also would have had the optical drive removed.

The hardware specs are great, the form factor is great, it looks dead sexy, and the price is honestly good.  What more can I say?  Can't wait for Leopard and VMWare Fusion to stable out on my MacBook Pro.  Once I have a way to run OS X and Vista in full speed together simultaneously, I may have to drop my Toshiba Tablet PC for the Air... somehow... hmmmm...

Oh well, on to the bad stuff.

Bad: $20 for software update on iPod Touch

Unfortunately, the iPod Touch software update should've been included on it when it launched because it was the exact same software already available on the iPhone.  It's as if the iPhone Touch was an afterthought to begin with and now they're trying to make money off of something they're not sure what to do with in the first place.  I give the iPhone Touch 2 out of 5 stars, and the software ZERO out of 5 stars.  So stupid to charge for software that's already on the iPhone and updated software that's also free on the iPhone.  Crazy.  (Too bad they'll make thousands on it because iApplers love all iStuff even iStupid software upgrades that should be iFree.)

In summary:  I'm a Microsoft and Apple whore.  I'll admit it.  No problem.  I have Vista, I love .NET 2008/3.5, can't wait for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, I want a Microsoft Windows Home Server, I want everything new from Apple, and I wish I had money to buy it all.

I only have 2.

1. Learn a new language and that's forming up.  Spanish is first and relearn Korean is on-deck.  Hopefully Allison will help me out on both and my brother wants to do the same so I have a study partner.
2. Post more on my blog.  Done!

I'm doing great so far, eh?  I'm also proud to say that I don't have a lame "must exercise more" resolution because I'm already doing a fair amount of it.

In other news, if someone wants to buy me something - this is an awesome T-Shirt:

And poor poor Google.  I had this when hitting their site today.  That's gotta suck:

iPhone was a very cool announcement but they already made it.  So what did we get at WWDC 2007?

• Finder update
• Wow, it now scrolls thumbnails like iTunes.  Does anyone actually find their songs looking at album covers?  Cuz all I do is pick from the list or type it out, seems faster than flipping over each individual item.
• Safari for Windows
• I use Firefox on my Mac, why would I want yet another browser on my PC?  Between IE mostly, Firefox sometimes (mostly on my Mac), and Opera at home - I'm full - thank you.
• iPhone update
• So it'll run Web 2.0 apps with AJAX.  Ok.

Anyone see a reason to spend another $129 for Leopard point upgrade?  I mean, besides the new Finder?

If Steve wants me to spend $129, get those stupid menu option off the top and on the window itself.  Seriously, in the day of 24" and 30" monitors - you have to move your mouse all the way back to the top of the screen to select File from the top even if your window is all the way at the bottom.  Come'on!  (And damnit, you know I'm going to pay for it anyways because I just have to... own... buy... iStuff!)

Well, at least my macBook pro will last another year... woot.

Candi pointed this out today...

And it's not that Starcraft 2 is out, it's the tagline above.  At least they're saying it like it is.

I don't bring myself up much, but here's where my ethnicity is just so right and funny.  I'm half Korean so when Ctrl+Alt+Del Online came out with a new comic regarding the Starcraft 2 announcement, it made me laugh:

Tim of Ctrl+Alt+Del wrote:

I know the game is a ways off, but now we know it's coming and that's a nice feeling. I'm excited, but I imagine my excitement level is a drop in the bucket compared to that of nearly any Korean. Our excitement level has nothing on these people. Starcraft is better than sex for Koreans. Starcraft cures cancer, paves roads, delivers babies and then proceeds to raise the babies to be upstanding Starcraft-playing citizens of Korea. Who are then treated like movie stars ust for being good at Starcraft, I kid you not. For Koreans, a Starcraft tournament is like the Super Bowl.

I'll bet at least one person's head exploded Saturday after the announcement. And how much would it suck to be the guy standing next to the guy whose head exploded?

I won't say it's better than sex, but - yeah - you gotta love a new game.  Ah, Blizzard, you are officially a budget item on a completely different line item (well, if I had a budget).

Here's the web comic, funny!:  http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20070521

[fantasy] So I'm sitting at the red light when this Dodge Viper pulls up next to me.  He glances over at my V-Dub Golf GTI, nods, and revs his engine.  I have no idea why, my car's no threat and I've got nothing but milk, eggs, and ice cream on me.  But - eh - why not, so I flash my lights and nod back.

I can see the other traffic light changing to yellow, a car squeezes by on the orange, and we get the green.  Roughly 3.6 secs later, I have a tire up on the chump before the turn - which he wasn't able to make.  Made it home in record time, only 3 eggs broken but at least the ice cream's still chill'n. [/fantasy]

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/17/worthersee-2007-vw-shows-off-monster-golf-gti-w12-650-concept/

This little car has a 6.0L biturbo W12 with 650 HP and does 201 mph and 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 secs.  Sweet.  So who's sending me one?  Just enough room for me, my girl, and maybe 1 laptop - just maybe.

V-Dub in da hizy.

Regarding something I'll probably not own in Version 1 because my project 'iCalculator' failed to grab any of that Web 2.0 venture goodness.  Hard to believe no one wants to visit a web site, register (or login if you're returning), access the "Begin Calculator" menu option, and then Calculate something.  It looks like a neat Calculator - really - I even had 2 skins to pick from.  Oh well.  What was I talking about again, oh yeah...

That email said:

Ladies and gentlemen,

I'd like to inform you that on May 20, 2007 at 3 p.m. Moscow time we'll start accepting limited pre-orders for the Optimus Maximus Keyboard.

Watch the countdown at http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/.
All the project news are published at http://community.livejournal.com/optimus_project/.

It'll cost more than 1g... damnit!  But it looks swwweeeeeeeeeet!  Think about screensavers on your keyboard.  Or hitting Ctrl and then all the keys change to tell you what they'll do.  And it'll even let me show me my keys in Dvorak!

Let me check my bank for a mysterious deposit of $1,200 USD $1564.37 and, sigh, no.  :(   *price updated after the site went live and I might have done it for $1200 but almost $1600 is just plain silly.  :P