This action was not authorized by me...

I wake up this morning to this horror outside my window...


That's like 4-5 inches of snow overnight. Time to break out the desktop wallpapers of sunshine, palm trees and ocean beaches...and people sincerely wonder why I want to be in So. Cal...

The money shot...

I think they got it pretty close to right if I dare say so myself...and if you want to see more...

Macworld keynote impressions...(screw you, Mr. Jobs)

It's a day late, all thanks to Fox's new 168 hours per week of American Idol programming, which is not soon enough for them thanks to the WGA strike.

However...the Macworld keynote recap

The good...

Nice update for the iPhone and AppleTV. I sit patiently by my AppleTV every night waiting for it to tell me that there is new shiny goodness waiting to be sent down the Intertubes to me.

That Macbook Air is also pretty sweet. The sealed battery is cause for hue and cry among those who love to mindlessly hue and cry and are generally irrational Apple haters anyway. Of course they deny it and try to pretend to be rational and call everyone else who disagrees mindless fanboys for not climbing on the "Look, Apple is successful, it is only right that they be hated" bandwagon.

Still, do comment on the sealed battery - do you need another one immediately? Do you not understand that to get the system engineered to be the size and design that it is that it kinda had to be sealed? Do you care in the slightest that the replacement cost doesn't seem that out of line with other laptop batteries, at the very least other Macbook batteries? Or that the cost of labor to replace the batteries is included in that? Or are you too busy frothing over little things to also ignore nice stuff like the recyclables in the product that they were touting. No, no...feel the hate...it's post Macworld keynote and the crazies come out like everyone's favorite Mr. Always Wrong, John C. Dvorak.

Another unexpected surprise, the Time Capsule - I know someone right now who needs one and I hope gets one. A convenient and clever combination of 802.11n router and hard drive to perform automated Time Machine backups. I've got an external drive for Time Machine right now, but I may go for one of these, just for the convenience of it all.

The bad...

Movie rentals - I'd almost side with the haters on this, but the 24 hour viewing restrictions weren't Apple's idea - they were apparently put in to placate cable and satellite companies. These same companies (and let's face it, television networks), who are probably starting the process of wetting themselves as they see the future unfold before them. Television shows and movies on demand for rental/purchase. It's got some hamstrings in there on the rentals thanks to those cable and satellite companies, and only being able to rent HD on the AppleTV is annoying for those without said devices. However, I can see studios freaking out at the thought of an HD movie even touching a hard drive of a computer where all sorts of nasty haxoring can be done to it - because we all know the AppleTV is a deadlock sealed box that nobody can get into...

The ugly...

YOU SERIOUSLY EXPECT ME TO HAND OVER $20 TO GET THE REST OF THE RELEVANT APPLICATIONS FROM THE IPHONE FOR MY IPOD TOUCH? WITH A SMILE ON MY FACE? SCREW YOU, JOBS! SCREW! YOU!

Ahem... I may yet do that - but I assure you, as I hand over the credit card numbers, not a hit of a smile will dare cross my face. I would hope that some reconsideration of explanation will be forthcoming. A clear explanation of accounting rules would actually go far to placate me.

Creature Features tomorrow - American Idol notwithstanding...

Frankly, I don't care if it is your birthday...

Last night was the second to last episode of The Amazing Race for this season and while racing it was the birthday for Jennifer of the team Jennifer and Nate. Fortunately these two were eliminated as the very thought of them winning the race filled me with dread. I shouldn't have worried of course, their constant petty bickering, A-type personalities and simply amazing sense of immature self-entitlement pretty much guaranteed that they self-destruct before the final leg of the race. Now mind you while they (and by they I mean Jennifer in particular, but by no means is Nate innocent) are spoiled, odious and have no problems finding the faults in everyone around them save themselves, I will admit they aren't the worst players ever to be on the show.

But now we have our final three teams, Ronald and Christina, Nick and Don, and TK and Rachel. Next week is the finale and my money is actually on TK and Rachel to take it all. But we'll see...

Tomorrow is the Macworld keynote! Get yer' Keynote Bingo cards ready! My predictions:
Mac OS X 10.5.2
New iTunes
iTunes movie rentals
New iPod and iPhone firmware
iPod and iPhone development SDK
Announcement of the 3G version of the iPhone
New ultralight laptop

Find out just how wrong I am tomorrow...

SFX

Have you ever seen an old movie from the 60s where there is some sort of computer running in the background and you see the reel to reel tapes moving back and forth, lights blinking furiously and people walking up to it and flipping switches, adjusting their glasses, straightening their lab coats and otherwise looking important? Remember the sound effects that ran underneath those scenes? The bleeping and blooping noises with the self-important pinging sounds of industry and science working hand in hand to deliver the promise of technology to you the viewer?

Yeah, right now at this very moment I've been listening to those sounds on a loop running the background on a call I've been on for well over an hour. I want to find the master tape of this effects loop and burn it.

More on this week's Amazing Race later today. Tomorrow - a post Steve Jobs Macworld Keynote wrap up. Wednesday - John Stanley and Creature Features.

Another video...

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, a discussion of Creature Features is forthcoming...

A short story...

For those not immediately familiar with the area in which I find myself living, this may not make sense. However...

Upon my triumphant return to the United States from my trip to India, via Thailand on the way there and England on the way back (all without receiving a request to please not return to any of those countries), I was quite tired. Too tired in fact to then immediately get into my car and drive three and a half hours over a mountain pass to visit family for the Fourth of July. It would have proven to be a fatal mistake.

Enter my friend Ben, who happens to own his own plane and offered to fly me over in the span of one hour vs. the aforementioned three and a half. Quite the bargain I say. His plane is hangared at an airstrip just south of Eugene and the morning of the flight I dutifully print my Google Maps directions and blearily attempt to obey them without question. On the way I get a call on my cell from Ben checking in on where I was and when I might arrive so we can take off. I told him that I was now on Highway 58 - Oregon's Portal to Southern Oregon and Head On Car Collision Hot Spot.

I don't remember the exact words, but his reply was something along the lines of "So where exactly are you planning on going this morning, because right now you're not going to wind up at either the airstrip, or in Prineville." This was also accompanied with words encouraging me to turn around, get onto I5 and follow directions that he then provided.

The flight itself was pleasant and without incident. Here are some pictures - a regular album may follow: