teh TODDtastic webLog-a-majig

http://www.macworld.com/article/139333/2009/03/ipod_shuffle_design.html

Apple definitely went to far with this revision of the iPod shuffle. The thing has no buttons at all. They are built into the headphones. So when you loose the headphones, you have to buy special headphones with the controls built in (I’m assuming other companies will develop headphones with controls built in… and charge a premium for them). But the part that will surprise people… is that Apple will still sell the darned thing better than any other companies’ superior MP3 player just because it has the name Apple on it.

Terrible, Apple. Terrible. But please… keep it up. Without Steve around you’re bound to fail anyways.

Slashdot | The Case Against Web Apps.

After reading that…

I also have a case against Web Apps… and it’s as simple as having to remember those times when your Internet is down. Yes, when the Internet is down it already sucks so much because you can’t check your new sites, blogs, podcasts, e-mail, etc. Add on top of that that you can’t watch TV shows on hulu.com or do anything that requires a connection to the Internet… you are screwed.

Having all your apps, such as Word Processors, and any other apps that you might find yourself using on a daily basis for important work… you find yourself completely screwed not having a word processor with you. What if you have a paper due tomorrow that you simply can’y do because your Word processor is on-line and you are not.

As you can see… Computing entirely in the cloud has a significant downfall. So… proceed with caution on that front.

So, I just played a demo of the latest Need For Speed Undercover…. and it is seriously as bad as the last version of the game. It’s the same high speed, shinny roads, with the sun in your eyes crap that it seems Need for Speed is opting for now.

I will admit right now… that I’ve played every single need for speed from the beginning From back when 3D racing was brand new until now. And I might even say that it is a tie between Underground 2 and Porsche Unleashed for my favorites. I’ve been a fan of the entire series and beaten every single one.  At least until Pro Street. I played the Pro Street demo and it was so bad, that I did not even get the full game. And that was a huge disappointment to me. And now that Undercover is equally as bad, I’m really disappointed in EA.

I hope the next one is better so we can move on and just forget about these 2 bumps in the Need For Speed history.

So… consider this my official review on Need For Speed Undercover: It sucks… hardcore.

While many people may not realize it… I don’t like Apple as a company. Everyone else has orgasms every time Steve shows off something shinny. It’s ok… I went through that phase, too.

“But Todd… you own a MacBook Pro”

Yes… Yes I do. It is a very nice machine. The only reason I got it was because I did want to see what exactly Mac OS X was all about and being that it was an Intel chip… I knew that it could do all my Windows and Linux duties as well. It’s like having at least 3 computers in one… and it’s the perfect size and it does perform very well. Also… since laptops in general are not very upgradable (the reason desktop machines are my thing)… I figured it definitely couldn’t hurt to have a well known, good quality laptop. No… it is not perfect… but yes… it is pretty much perfect for my above average needs.

Would I buy another Apple computer? Only if it’s a laptop because their desktops are not nearly as flexible as a PC system can be. But no… I’m not a brand whore for Apple Laptops. I’ve considered many times picking up a smaller, cheap laptop just to have another throw around laptop (an upgrade from my current throw around laptop from 1995).

While there was a time I was seriously considering the iPhone… after much thinking and the disappointments in the 3G update… I’ve concluded it simply is not a logical phone to have.

But what I really can’t stand about Apple is the fact that Steve Jobs could litterally get up on stage… present the iPooponastick… and people will still clap and chear and everyone will critically claim it’s the best thing to happen since poop (without the stick). So much hype surrounds everything Apple does and I’ve not yet seen why:

• Their last OS (Leopard) was glitchy as hell when it first came out (it’s better now, though)
• Their iPods are overpriced, sub-par music players. Oh yeah… Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player… I had an mp3 player years before apple made one.
• Their computers are over priced (although they are of very good quality).
• Their AppleCare service is less than impressive (twice it came back all dirty). And they hugely over charge if your system is out of warranty (right Kristin Y?).

To me… Apple is just another company with annoying hype all the time. And I get annoyed by it because people assume so much just because it’s Apple and it must be great

My brother even gets pissed and wonders why he spent so much on a shitty laptop every time it is a little slow… all spawning because he assumes that Apple is perfect. He was once ready to smash it… of course cursing at Apple the whole time (if that makes sense). It’s just like buying a car from Ford… running over a nail… then cursing at Ford because you should’t have to deal with a flat tire. (Of course… my brother only bought the exact same laptop as me because I got it.)

So people… please see through the hype bubble surrounding Apple. Realize things like how apps on the iPhone are not a new concept to the cell phone market.

Seriously… who the hell do ISPs think they are? Where do they think they find the right to police how the Internet is used?

I just read an article stating that major ISPs are planning to roll out the “charge-per-gigabyte” billing method.

Do they not realize this is a HUGE step backwards? That is the completely wrong thing to be doing… especially now.

When did ISPs forget what they’re selling. Internet Service Provider means that they are providing a link from the rest of the Internet (that large network out there) to your home. It’s literally as simple as that. They are not serving up the content, they are not to be looking at what is going across the lines, they are to have no involvement in what you use your internet connection for. There is law enforcement for that.

Consider the example of having a letter copied X times at CopyMax. They are to have no concern of the content they are copying. If they denied the copying of the letter because it didn’t sound nice, then they are violating the constitution.

ISPs that are interfering with torrenting and other P2Ping protocols are absolutely NOT allowed to do that. First of all, their very reason for doing it is extremely wrong because these P2Ping protocols are not necessarily being used to download illegal files. GASP. What!? There are legal uses for P2P? Yes, there are.

I am getting so sick of the ISPs chatter about charging by the byte and their filtering of content. We the people need to take action on this very very serious issue. What these ISPs are talking about doing will absolutely kill the Internet as we know it today.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to pretend that someone is right or that you agree with them.

You know what I’m talking about? You know… when you’re in one of those situations where it would be inconvenient to disagree with someone… or when you might sound dumb for disagreeing because you’re probably the only one in a group that disagrees.

It’s really tough sometimes.

So… Memorial day is… today. I’ve come back home for the day just to handle things back at home…

I wasn’t planning to turn on my desktop… but I suddenly discovered I had to find something that was on my desktop. So I turned it on and I’m greeted by a sorts of weird issues. First… my BIOS said something about being in safe mode… as in something went wrong with the overclocking. I have to wonder if for some reason my system had a little trouble overclocking after being off for so long. I’m not completely sure why that would be, but that’s just the first issue. I overclocked it back to where it should be and it seems fine.

Then Vista proceeded to boot. It booted up normally… and upon login in I discover that everything is messed up… nothing like how I left it. It’s all complaining about crap that I have no desire or care about. My sidebar gadgets are all messed up. And everything seems so slow! Windows is loading and grinding endlessly. It’s as if it’s happy to see me or something.

I’m beginning to think it might be better to leave it turned on while I’m gone for the the remainder of the summer just so it isn’t a pain when I come back. When I say on… I mean shut down, but power still being provided by the power supply to keep the mother board all happy.

Oh well. It just added to things I had to deal with.