Al Franken rocks

I'm currently listening to the audio book version of Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liers Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right". I bought it through the iTunes Music Store and am listening to it on my iPod, which is a really great way to experience this book- beyond being very insightful and very funny, Al Franken's reading of his material adds a tremendous amount to the enjoyment quotient.

Case in point: my favorite passage in the book (so far; I'm only halfway through it). I'll risk copyright infringement by posting this 50 second blurb because I think it's so damn funny, and because I urge you to go out and buy the book.

More info on the Treo 600

The New York Times has a great article on the Treo 600, the ultimate phone/PDA convergence device. I would get one now, but it doesn't have Bluetooth support. The Treo 610 will, and I will certainly grab one and hop on the bandwagon then.

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ

I invite debate on this topic.

This film has been receiving a tremendous amount of pre-release publicity, for many reasons, the primary of which is that prominent Jewish leaders are expressing dire concern that the film's depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ presents Jews in a bloodthirsty manner, and will invite anti-Semitism.

As a Jew, I strongly support fighting anti-Semitism with facts and compassion. I do not, however, support the level of anger that many Jewish leaders are directing at this film and its director (Mel Gibson), particularly in advance of its release.

The fact that much of the criticism has come from people who have received leaked or stolen drafts of the script, or who have sneaked into screenings, is disturbing. The bottom line, to me, is this: If we, as Jews, want to dispel the myth that we control Hollywood and the media and are quick to preemptively slash our persecutors' throats, attempting to block the release of a movie is not the way to do it. Let "The Passion of the Christ" speak for itself, and let us defend any perceived inaccuracies once the movie has been released in a measured way.

What is the safest airplane model?

I'm a huge airliner afficianado, and my favorite plane is the Boeing 777. More on that later.

For now, here's a list that attempts to answer the question many people ask about which models of planes are safer than others. This is a very inexact science, and is somewhat pointless- all commercial planes flown in the US are exceptionally safe, and unless you're extremely vigilant about scheduling, you don't get to choose what kind of plane you fly on anyway. But this chart is a handy cross-reference for those who are curious:

Mac OS X vs. Windows

Mac OS X, with its gel-like, translucent, shadowy interface, has been on the market for four years now, and has seen four major upgrades within that time. When OS X first hit the scene in 2000, many people derided all of the "eye candy" that sparkled across its interface as unneccessary.

Check out this image from a Windows developer site:



This is a sample of some of the capabilities that will exist in Longhorn, the next version of Windows, which is currently projected to arrive in 2006 at the earliest, and quite possibly 2008 or 2009. Looks like Microsoft is, once again, trying to mimic Apple's design- albeit far too little, far too late.

Bone phone

Leave it to the Japanese. Very cool idea.

406 MPH?

Peter said: “I don’t see how anyone can trust this camera.”

Treo 600 to get Bluetooth in 610 update!

Yeah! The Treo 610 update will be adding Bluetooth support. I'm going to have to get one of those babies.

Pirates of the Carribean

Rented "Pirates of the Carribean". Better than expected- fun.

State of Grace

Rented 1990's "State of Grace" (starring Sean Pean, Ed Harris, and Gary Oldman). Disappointing.

Cold Mountain

Wow... What a fantastic film.

Warning signs

I haven't laughed out loud so long in a long time.

Great article on Mac OS X internals

Here's a fantastic article on the inner workings of Mac OS X. One of the best, and most informative, I've read. If you read this article and enjoy it, we have a lot in common.

Macworld predictions

Apple's Macworld Expo starts tomorrow, and Steve Jobs is going to give a keynote address at noon EST where he is expected to announce some new hardware and software. Mac-enthusiasts (including this guy) have been going nuts, drooling over the prospects of what Steve will announce tomorrow.

Here's a great article that predicts the kinds of hardware to expect tomorrow. While no one knows for sure what's going to happen, this article seems to have the right mixture of background research and imagination to earn it the title of "most credible guess" in my opinion.

Here are my humble predictions for tomorrow's Apple announcements. Note that Apple has bought commercial time during this year's Super Bowl, so I expect something big will be unveiled then as well. These predictions cover both Macworld and any potential Super Bowl announcement:

Revisions to the iPod. The current line of iPods may be tweaked to offer better price/performance ratios. The low-end iPod will probably drop in price from $299, which currently buys you 10GB. I predict a $199 model- either at 5GB or 10GB. Several people have been discussing the possibility that Apple will release new, cheaper, lower-capacity iPods- possibly based entirely on RAM as opposed to hard drives. Along these lines, I wouldn't be surprised to see a $99 "iPod Junior" that offers significantly less capacity.

Revisions to the PowerMac G5. I can see Apple updating the PowerMac G5 to offer better price/performance ratios, likely introducing faster CPUs at the high-end (which is currently 2GHz).

Revisions to the PowerBook. Likewise, I can see Apple revving the PowerBook line, bumping up processor speeds (currently the high-end is 1.33GHz). No G5 PowerBook yet, though. I predict we'll see that announced by July, though.

Revisions to the iMac. This one is tricky. At the extreme, I see Apple releasing a new iMac that essentially looks like the current iMac, but has no connected monitor. Instead, this iMac will connect wirelessly to a new line of Apple displays that are also announced tomorrow. In addition, this new iMac would be able to operate as an entertainment server, sending out music and video (and possibly capturing TV signals like Tivo) to wireless displays. Is this likely? Who knows, but we can hope.

Final Cut Express 2.0. This one is a sure thing- some retail locations have already received it.

Upgrades to (most, if not all of) the iLife suite- iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iTunes. People have also been talking about an iLife music editing program, which would make sense for Apple, given their desire to get people excited about music on the Mac and the iPod.

Wildcard. You never know what big surprise may be coming. But I would expect something unexpected.

Tune here tomorrow to watch the keynote live at 12:00 PM EST.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

The Indiana Jones trilogy is one of my all-time favorites, and this past weekend I fired up my new DVD copy of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is a fantastic movie- arguably the best in the series and a great mix of action, adventure, and comedy. Out of all of the movies that contribute to my inspiration to create, it is perhaps this one that does the best job of integrating action, humor, and nostalgia, and pulling it off flawlessly.

The Nazi castle sequence; the blimp/fighter plane sequence ("These guys are trying to KILL us!"); the tank sequence; and the father/son conversation between Indy and his dad... great stuff.

Secretary

I rented Secretary over the weekend, and watched most (but not all) of it. Overall, not bad, but not as intriguing as I'd hoped.

Yellow Dog Linux

I'm installing Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 on an orange and white iBook. I am excited to be taking this plunge into Linux. Check out this page on the Yellow Dog site that explains why someone would want to run Linux on a Mac.

Tomorrow's headlines

Both the US and Iran seem to be waging a political PR war regarding who is doing more to help with earthquake relief in Iran. Following are some headlines I imagine seeing in the days ahead...

Iranian search and rescue team rescues 104 year old woman from quake debris, survivor of 39 days of being buried alive

US sends $25 billion in aid to earthquake-stricken Iran. Money is deemed "gift from the people of America with no strings attached"

Majority of ancient Iranian city of Bam, stricken by recent earthquake, rebuilt by massive efforts of Iranian government and jealous Muslim citizens. New city deemed "Light of Humanity" by UN delegation

The Bush Administration, in efforts to provide further aid to earthquake-stricken Iran, offers to replace US government with rule-by-proxy by Iran's Muslim leadership

Iranian government solves Israeli/Palestinian conflict, invites leaders of "Israel/Palestine Two State Cooperative Political, Military, and Economic Council (democratically elected in both states)" to public speaking tours across Iran

President Bush proposes radical concept for 2004 Presidential election: "Howard Dean, you become President; I stay on as VP. Together, under your leadership, we will work to unite America and solve our problems." Dean campaign and Bush administration schedule joint press conference for tomorrow

Osama bin Laden submits award-winning design for World Trade Center memorial site. Surrenders to America and pledges to "explain my religious and philosophical tyranny to all"

Dean/Bush Administration negotiate Secretary of State position with Osama bin Laden.

Cancer cured; eternal life proposed by new experimental Pharmacia drug

Messiah appears; all see the entity in the light of their respective religions. All in world "saved"

Why not?

The Last Samurai

Just saw The Last Samurai. If you haven't seen it and plan to, skip the rest of this entry.

I really enjoyed the first 95% of the movie. The end, however, essentially invalidates everything that was set in motion before it. Roger Ebert sums it up nicely in his review: "Its power is compromised only by an ending that sheepishly backs away from what the film is really about."

Project Grizzly

First movie of '04: Project Grizzly, a tongue-in-cheek documentary about a Canadian fellow who, after surviving a grizzly bear attack, embarks on a mission to create the ultimate bear-proof suit. It's amusing, and worth watching on those late weekend afternoons when there's nothing else to do.