Archive for 2010
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Apple In Wonderland: iSlate Is Late For A Very Important Date
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on January 9, 2010 by admin in Technology
Saturday, January 9th, 2010If nothing else, the Apple iSlate is aptly named. It iS late arriving, and other vendors are cashing in on that fact at the 2010 Consumer Electronics show.
Why have the computer manufacturers of the world initiated a campaign of torture against me? First, there have been these endless Apple Tablet rumours, then the CrunchPad gets ready for launch, but immediately gets hijacked by its Indian partners, then the HP Slate and Microsoft Courier rumours start floating, only to have Steve Ballmer parade around with what I’m dubbing the “HP Brick” (if it’s anything like an HP laptop, that’s what it’ll be soon after you buy it) at the 2010 CES…please, SOMEONE HELP ME. All I want is a thin and durable multitouch device the size of a clipboard that does everything that my laptop and phone do in one inexpensive device. Is that so much to ask? Apparently so. So while we ponder all the devices that could be, lets add some to the list. First up: the Skiff. Formerly called “FirstPaper”, they obviously got some startup loot and hired someone to re-brand them. It’s not really a tablet device per se, its more like a publishing platform similar to Kindle. See the Engadget hands-on here. To me, the coolest thing about the device is that it’s bendable. But you know what? It’s 2010, and this kind of thing was in the movie 2001 (see below), which was made in 1968! And you could watch the BBC from Jupiter on the thing in the movie! Also kind of cool, but not floating my boat too much, is the Freescale Smartbook, which, in spite of some of the early concepts being almost scary, turned out to be surprisingly appealing in some ways, especially if they hit the $200 price point they’ve been pitching. Engadget has a hands-on with the dockable tablet, and I’m sorry to say it looks like it has a slightly toy-like level of engineering quality. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of it. In the meantime, I guess iWait. Read the rest of this entry »
Food Stamps Feel A Lot Classier On A Credit Card
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on January 8, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Friday, January 8th, 2010One in eight Americans is benefitting from food stamps. Are you one of them? Would you be if you had to?
I joke sometimes about being a socialist, but in reality, I’m the type of person who’s more inclined to work within the system I’m born into. Since I was born in one of the most capitalism-obsessed nations on Earth, and raised in an intellectual, bleeding heart liberal college community, I’ve always had an odd mix of values. I’ve never applied for “welfare” of any kind, including unemployment (okay, 3 months when I was 18!), food stamps, or other kinds of assistance, but I think “the poor” are entitled to such help. In the past, I’ve always found it easy to balance these vaguely conflicted values, mainly because the overall economic situation in the states made it possible for me to go get some kind of work in thin times. I think a lot of “average” Americans feel the same way, but recently I was surprised to find that several “average” friends of mine were using something I’d never heard of to defray expenses: a Michigan Bridge Card. Suddenly being broke seemed a lot less shameful to me. Somehow “defraying expenses with a bridge card” sounds a lot better than “buying hot dogs with food stamps“. And apparently this is a national trend; the New York Times has a whole series called The Safety Net, where I ran across this interactive map that made me realize that in the county I live in (home to the relatively prestigious University of Michigan), one in ten people are collecting food stamps. This kind of blew me away, and when I add that to my ongoing ire over the secretive bailouts of billionaire bankers and the impending commercial real estate crash , I start thinking a little differently. As a self-employed person, I made some financial mis-steps over the last couple of years that I’ve struggled to bounce back from. I’m sure this is the basis for my anger about bank bailouts; no one came along to bail ME out and wipe the credit slate clean. But maybe it’s time to revise my strategy. I mean the NYT is literally advising us that walking away from our mortgages is okay. So why shouldn’t we “strategically default” and go on government support? How about you? Are you struggling? Would you accept government assistance if you were? Let’s not forget that the banking industry did, and they’re money experts!
TV Commercial Withdrawal: Why I’m A Trunk Monkey Junky
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on January 7, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, January 7th, 2010It’s odd that the only thing I miss since cancelling my cable service is the commercials, and now I can’t find any good ones. Have a fave you’d care to share?
This spot for Cullman Liquidation is hands-down a fave for me |
With the annual hubbub about the Superbowl ad spots starting to simmer (here are last year’s top 10), I’m reminded of the only thing I miss about television since shutting off my cable service back in 2003: the commercials. It’s more than a little odd that I miss them; when I was exposed to them on a regular basis, I had two PTSD-like reflexes to their sudden appearance: 1.) Hit the mute button and pointedly avoid looking at them, or 2.) Play a game of “distill the message”, in which my friends and I would take a beer commercial for instance, and distill it down to the message it was conveying. An example being “although you’re male and act like an idiot, chicks will dig you if you drink our beer“. So in my pining for a commercial to watch, I figured that with the advent of YouTube and the fact that even grandma has a blog these days, it would be easy to find a roundup of the best commercials of the last few years. How wrong I was. Try searching yourself; this tends to be a heavily-targeted keyword, so you’ll keep encountering things like this old European condom commercial, and the title on the clip is almost always something like “FUNNIEST COMMERCIAL EV-AR”. There’s also the added weird “meta” effect of TV programs that are actually devoted to filling the spaces between the commercials with commercials. So although I found some interesting clips to share, I realized I’ll have to come back with a “Part II” after doing a more themed, focused search. Something like the offensive car ads we rounded up last year. Below is a quick roundup of some of the quirkier things I found; feel free to share any goodies of your own. Read the rest of this entry »
January Holidays: Is Giving Blood Really As Pointless As Voting?
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on January 6, 2010 by admin in Holidays
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010And is Barack Obama black? After the psychological torture of the year-end holiday season, January is mercifully light on holidays. But let’s take a moment to honor Martin Luther King Jr, Elvis Presley, and David Bowie.
 We recommend giving, in spite of the AABB’s warning |
Thankfully, the month of January is a little light on holidays. After the brutal onslaught of holidays that begin around Halloween, most people spend the month in therapy or divorce court, or are busy failing to stick to their resolutions, so don’t really have the time or the inclination to celebrate. The only “real” national holiday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which should be a big deal this year, because the nation has its first black president. Or does it? We’ll leave that up to you to decide. I’m personally not sure I recognize race in the first place. Anyway, as a result of all these empty calendar spaces, non-profits and health organizations jumped on the opportunity, so we have Thyroid Awareness Month, Glaucoma Awareness Month, National Birth Defects Prevention Month, Cervical Health Awareness Month, and National Blood Donor Month, none of which had clever campaigns worth linking to, except National Blood Donor Month, which has a pretty lame pitch that says “donating blood regularly is as important as voting“. And as we all know after the past few years, voting is a waste of time. Way to go, American Association of Blood Banks! I might have given, if it weren’t for your input. To people of my era, probably the most important event in January is the combined birthday of Elvis Presley and David Bowie. So happy Elvid Bowsley day! Read the rest of this entry »
The Budapest Brothas Of Hungarian Hip Hop
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on January 5, 2010 by admin in Music
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010.Hu knew there was a thriving hip hop scene in Hungary in the 90′s? And does GEG mean gay? And is orange the new pink?
 Hungarian rapper, or redneck at Karaoke night? You decide. |
I’ve never been a big fan of most straight up American rap; I guess when I’ve got a Glock on me or I just got drunk or had sex, I just don’t think it’s something to build a song around. And then add insult to injury by not even bothering with a melody. Which is why I originally got into French rap, especially artists like Assassin
