Frosty's Mumblings

Halo 2600 -- A revolution in Vintage Computing Games

2010-08-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

By Bill Martens

The Year is 2010, July to be specific. The world has seen some of the best games come and go. Halo is one such game. Many played it, many buy it, and many more have gone on to even more advanced games in the first person shooter genre.

But now imaging if the year was 1977 and you knew all the programming ideas you know now. Atari 2600 is brand new this year and being limited, you have to write the game in 4K. This would be daunting for most people to accomplish.

Ed "Eddy" Fries is not most people. He was one of the key people in Microsoft Game Studios, the game division of Microsoft for many years. While many of the games available for the Atari 2600 are quite simplistic with the usual video games including Pac-Man, Frogger, and Space Invaders being among the most popular titles, even the Adventure made on the Atari is no match for what Ed has accomplished in Halo 2600

Halo 2600 was created as a hobby project which allowed Ed to see firstly what he could do on the old platform with his knowledge and secondly to create something that would showcase a platform that has long been forgotten and thrown away by most folks.

Not only did he nail a winner with Halo 2600, but now many people around the country including the mass media are knocking at his door wondering how he could get away with producing this game while Microsoft is right on the door step of releasing "Halo Reach". However, Microsoft doesn't seem much interested in it, and according to a report in the Seattle Time, the MGS president laughed it off as some kind of joke.

The game play is controlled by the arrows for Up / Down / Left / Right and the spacebar controls the firing. You can only fire left or right which makes the game more challenging but once you put together the movements and the firing restrictions, then you will find that they fit right into the ideas of retro gaming.

While you , Master Chief, the super enhanced cybernetically enhanced soldier of the the future, go through the task of shooting the aliens, getting weapons upgrades, picking up keys to unlock passage ways, you will find the pay amazingingly familiar. But while it is not the simplistic pick up the spear and kill the dragon like adventure, many of the same concepts that appeared in Adventure for Atari 2600 also appear here.

If you are looking for the fancy graphics of the commercially released Halo games, then Halo 2600 is not the game for you. But if you are looking to enjoy 64 levels of tough, challenging, retro graphics fun, then you definitely need to check out the program.

The game has been offered as a free download from Atari Age at:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/166916-halo-for-the-2600-released-at-cge-download-the-game-here/

You can also join the Halo 2600 Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Halo-2600/137474846287097

A flash based browser playable version of the game is available at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Halo-2600/137474846287097

If you dont have flash, then we have it up for users with Java at:
http://virtualatari.org/soft.php?soft=Halo2600

If you like Halo 2600 and think it is the best thing since sliced bread as we do, then be sure to leave a comment on Ed's Halo 2600 Facebook page.

(c) 2010 Virtual Atari (http://www.virtualatari.org). All Rights Reserved

iOS 4.0 First Looks

2010-06-22T07:38:00.000-07:00

I had the unfortunate experience of actually falling for the iOS 4.0 update this morning. Released to great fanfare by Apple and supposedly compatible with my lowly iPhone 3Gs, the update has a number of glitches that I am extremely annoyed with.

Starting off, the update download took forever. Or it seemed like it did. Maybe that is because Apple just shoved it out to everyone at the same time, totally slamming their own servers. This seems like a plan of idiocy. Apple had advertised that the update was going to be on the 21st. For us here in Japan, the 21st came and went.

While the total update of my iPhone including download took about an hour, it seemed to take an extraordinary amount of time just to do the initial copy of the iOS 4.0 to the iPhone unit.

Now that the machine is updated, I am still not seeing what all the hoopla about new features is. I found myself playing one of my favorite time passing games and suddenly the browser started up and my game kept going in the back ground. It seems that the browser starts up without the usual tapping of browser link or an ad which would normally open it. I have had this happen on several occasions today and have been less than pleased.

Also, there seems to be a glitch that makes applications skip a beat. I only noticed it because it happened in the middle of a continuous screen game. Whether this is related to the new multitasking features of the phone or not, I am not sure but it would seem like the most likely culprit.

The cool screen updates, really are quite atrocious at best. Yes, you can change the background shot but I am not feeling it. The new default makes everything hard to see. Who ever created the color scheme should be fired for being the most annoying graphic artist in the world. (and for being color blind)

I still have yet to have figured out how to create the so called folders which Apple has hyped to no ends. It is not readily obvious in either iTunes or on the unit so i have basically given up on that feature until I find the instructions. (So much for the adage that we all ready know how to use the iPhone.)

One of the most inexplicable features of the new OS is the so called exact location services. I noticed that my navigation software which before the update was off by 1/4 mile is now off by almost a mile of my location. I am sure Apple will try to say it is the software developers fault, however, it is interesting that it mostly worked before the update and now is so bloody slow that I cant even use the navigation software for any actual navigation. The maps now take about 10 times as long to load. One other not so cool feature is the fact that on the navigation software, my location changes by almost 2 miles with me sitting at my desk writing this review!

Funniest of all was the fact that Google maps asked to use my location and then couldn't even activate the maps within the app. So much for the usefulness of the Google maps application.

Initially, I figured I must have done something wrong with the setup of my iPhone or that I had missed something. Then I started reading online and found that it was no phenomena, but instead seems more like a firestorm of criticism that is not limited to any particular section of the world.

For the amount of hype that went into this update, perhaps Apple should have put far more effort into solving the issues with the OS before they shoved it out to the world. Sadly, this is the first real OS issues I have had with Apple related products and it does not make me happy to write this. But alas, it must be said quite frankly this time around. "Fix the darned iOS Apple!!!" And yes, you can print that I said that!

Building iPhone Apps for Free (Or nearly Free)

2010-04-17T04:45:00.001-07:00

Over the past several months, I have seen one post after another proclaiming that a particular site or app would allow you to build an iPhone App for free. What I found instead was a bunch of B.S. artists who allowed users to build the apps for free and then charged an arm and a leg or a monthly fee for the actual production and sales. Many others too more than 40 percent of the profits of the app.

I have a list here of the only Apps or frameworks that are truly free for use. While Apple charges $99.00 for the iPhone Developers license, every thing else on this list is free for use or open source.

1. iWebkit

This framework is one of the only truly iPhone compliant frameworks that allows you to build an iPhone website in minutes instead of hours. Featuring all of the snazzy menus in their sample website, the sample can be modified to produce a website that is totally specific to you with only HTML.

Our magazine which takes 3-5 days to layout was completely produced in a matter of 3 hours from start to finish. You can check it out here:

The iWebkit framework is downloadable from the iWebkit website at:
http://iwebkit.net/

If you like their work, be sure and support their fund raising efforts by sending them a donation.

2. Phonegap

This is the framework which makes the entire App creation process a matter of building a website, copying the code into the XTools www directory of the Phonegap framework and then compiling. The resulting App works on the iPhone and is ready for sending to the Apple store. If you are seriously short of time in the development realm, we highly recommend this application framework.

The other absolutely cool part of this Framework is that iWebkit fits right into the Phonegap Framework allowing you to create a really nice looking app and get it ready for the Apple Store without killing yourself on the development portion.

Phonegap is available from the Phonegap webite at:
http://phonegap.pbworks.com/

There are also a ton of tutorials and information for iPhone development on the Phonegap wiki as well. Also, you are not limited to just the iPhone but since we are writing about iPhone development, we chose to focus on that aspect of Phonegap.

3. iPhone RSS Reader App

At first glance, it looks like we are promoting an App here. However, this is an app with a serious twist for those wanting to create their own apps on the fly. This App comes with the full source code, making it easy for you to modify it and produce your own app.

While the iPhone RSS Reader App is a one shot pony, for those of you with your own blog or news site that you want to have an app for, using your RSS feed with this App is a breeze. Change the code and the items in the App you want to change, color scheme, etc., and then re-compile in X-Tools.

Luckily, this is the one App that is free to build. Just add your Apple Dev code to it and go!.

You can download the program and full source code at
http://imthi.com/blog/programming/iphone-rss-reader-application-with-source-code.php

While there are a ton of other development platforms, frameworks and examples out there, so far the only ones that we have found were worth the time and remained free are the ones we have listed. Short list but then they should be all you should need other than a good graphic designer.

A New Era for an Old Machine

2009-12-16T00:34:00.001-08:00

In 1984 during my freshman year of college, I drew a computer in my English Comp class in about 10 minutes. The Disktran/W1 computer was a total redesign of the Apple //e computer, however, The design of that computer seemed to me to be more of a boom box than a computer and being as it was inspired by the Kaypro series of computers, it would have taken a miracle to build the thing and actually have it work. However, my design incorporated an Apple //e motherboard and Disk II floppy drives. The design never was built but was stored in my college papers.

As you know, the laptop computers began to appear not long after that with the Mac series and ancient looking 386 machines being the norm. There were still the portables such as those built by Compaq, Commodore and the IIgs portable produced by Tony Diaz, however, none of them were of much consequence in the overall computer world.

Then in 2001, I began to look at the possibility of building and Apple IIgs into a laptop form factor that would not only operate as a laptop but would have the capabilities of the desktop, including allowing external components, expandability, and ease of use. But the display had to be of the sort that would not only impress those people who were involved in the original Apple IIgs era but also a new era of hobbyists. In other words, according to Jim Maricondo, "It has to have Graphics and Sound!". Thus was born the A2GS-L01. While the plan incorporated many technologies that existed, many did not and the project was shelved.

Then in 2007, a hack named Ben Heckendorn produced an Apple IIgs laptop complete with specialty case. It was a sight for sore eyes and proved that the concept was not far fetched. However, even with as many obstacles that had been overcome with Ben's project, there were still many things missing.

Jim Maricondo and I talked about the project once again and we decided that the time was right to pull the project out. James Littlejohn, a well known hardware engineer also began his own laptop project about the same time and we began sharing notes. By November 2009, we all began to pull the resources together and place all the efforts into one house rather than several.

We had purchased the A2GS.com domain several years ago in preparation for the project but it seemed like it was never going to happen. But since we were suddenly presented with the opportunity early this year, the A2GS.com domain was pulled out of the mothball state that it had been in and it is now the live update site for the A2GS-L01 project. The team now has reached a total of 7 people, with the three of us in Tokyo and 4 vendors around the world. The prototype of our machine will be available by New Years with full production beginning in February or March of 2010. Orders for the machine will be taken starting 15 February 2010 and all machines will be available in one of two flavors. Fully stacked and Bare Bones.

For those people who still own a IIgs and have cards for the machine, those cards will work in the new laptops as well as long as they run on a ROM01 machine. There is a movement towards the ROM03 at some point within the year but the initial run will run ROM01's due to the availability of certain technology for it.

If you would like to find out more, then I suggest you follow along on the blog at A2GS.com. If you would like to see the machine in action, be sure to see our demo and sales booth at KFest 2010.

Twitter...a few hints for new followers

2009-04-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Every day, I get a dozen new followers. I have had some very enjoyable conversations and even arguments with many good people on Twitter. They make each day very fun and I look forward to their input.

However, While I appreciate most of the new followers, there are a few practices by some of those in the twitter community that really get my gourd. In no particular order, they are:

1. After welcoming a new follower, they DM spam me with Mass following spam. I dont welcome new followers because I want any mass following tricks or my inbox filled with spam. This applies to those followers who send a message saying check out my new website and it turns out that it is another get rich quick scheme. Both of these are grounds for instant deletion and addition to the Twitspam website.

2. Followers who have thousands of follows and followers, yet have only 1 update or in several cases, no updates. I dont care to have followers or follow people who dont care enough about the community to post updates that are at least readable. The people I follow are interesting which is why I follow them. If you have no posts on one post, dont follow me as you will get blocked and added to the Twitspam website.

3. Twitter is NOT a popularity contest. Unfortunately, Ashton Kucher and CNN screwed that idea to heck and now Oprah and all these other A List celebs are doing the same thing. while they did it for a good cause, the only thing these people have done in my book is screw up and slow down Twitter for the rest of us. Get over yourselves already.

4. People who post every minute with the only thing in the post is the URL for their website. This is not enjoyable and in fact can be quite annoying. Twitter is not a place for you to takeover. It is a community and if you practice this type of twittering, you will find yourself deleted in very short order and on the Twitspam website.

While this list is short, I am sure that there are a dozen other things I could post here. But in closing, I would like to say to my Twitter friends, thanks for following and I look forward to talking with you. But to the spammers I say, please dont follow me unless you enjoy being blocked and added to spammer lists.

Superduper 2.5 -- An A.P.P.L.E. Review

2009-01-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Product Name: Superduper
Version: 2.5
Cost: Free for Basic, $27/95 for Pro
Publisher: Shirt Pocket
Website: http://www.shirt-pocket.com

It finally happened! That's right, that weird noise that signals the end of the lifetime of my hard drive. The one these the Shirt Pocket crew talks about in their reasons for their program. But then, the noise might not have been the hard drive. It may have just been the internal fan gone awry. But of course, I wasn't taking any chances. I got on the net and looked for a simple backup solution which would backup an entire drive.

Superduper was the one program that seemed to to prevalent. It came up in several forums as the program to have. And at a 2.7mb free download for the basic backup utility, it is perfect for the job. It loaded right up with its installer and was running within seconds

User Experience
The hard drive I was forced to use was a dual partition hard disk drive with Leopard on a separate partition for installing from HDD. Obviously I didn't want to lose that and was afraid the program would delete all the partitions. However, my fears were soon laid to rest when the program told me it was only going to wipe out the one partition that I wanted to use.

And true to form, it did and soon the drive in my machine was being backed up like a champ. Now I cant tell you enough that doing a backup like this is time consuming, so dont wait until your drive completely dies before doing something about it. In my case, I was wanting to upgrade to a larger drive anyways, so with 500gb hard drives at barely $100, it is now time to do that in coordination with everything else.

Good Points
Everything about this program is great as far as we can see. Not only does it backup your drive to an external HDD, but it also makes that backup bootable. This is a key factor in dealing with HDD failures and replacements. It allows you to back up the drive, tear out the old one from your machine, install a new one and then backs up the external right back to the new internal disk. It all is quite simple and elegant.

Also the fact that the programs integral components are as the site says, "free -- forever!", plays heavily in the fact that this program is great. You don't really need all the pro features to make your hard drive copy but if you do, the cost is not out of this world.

The one feature that is in the Pro version that is a nice to have item is the ability to schedule backups, allowing a bootable image to be stored on the Time Machine drive. The problem with Time Machine is that it only copies files and thus any installed apps are useless and the only good point of having it is to backup your files. Superduper goes beyond that allowing complete recovery.

The best point of the software is the learning curve. There is practically none. It just does what it says it will do. It even gives the warnings about how it will deal with the partition and the fact that if you have any information on it, it will be gone.

Bad Points
The only bad point we could find is one that is not even related to this software. it is about backing up HDD's in general and that one point is the amount of time it takes. Be prepared to do something else while the program is performing its magic. Our drive only took 4.5 hours but that is for 160gb. Larger drives will obviously take more time. You can figure just over an hour of time for every 30 gb of hard disk space. Even the cost for the pro version is not out of reach.

Summary
Our experience with this program has been wonderful. The best part is now I can replace my drive without worrying about the fact that my machines internal drive is on its last leg. It certainly allows me to sleep much better at night since it was 5am in the morning when the machine's drive started making enough noise to wake me out of a sound sleep.

5 out of 5 Apples

Universal Binary
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Microsoft closes Aces and kills FS World in one swat

2009-01-28T02:01:00.000-08:00

Over the past thirty or so years, the Flight Simulator has been the center of the universe for most wanna be pilots and even real world pilots. Even I have the latest versions of the program along with all the goodies from CH Products and multiple screens, etc. But now that world has become somewhat confused thanks to Microsoft closing down the Aces Productions where the program was made.

Flight Simulator X was an advancement in the technology of the flight simulation systems with many new ideas and clarity of graphics and objects being added to the program. Supposedly the version that was being worked on for the next release of the product series was even more advanced. Of course we will never know due to the fact that when Microsoft laid off 5,000 people, they had all signed the Non-Disclosure agreements with the company meaning they cant even talk about the company or the product.

I guess that means the 14 million dollar question is "Will Microsoft ever sell Flight Simulator again?" My only answer to that is hopefully someone else will take it off Microsoft's hands and continue the hard work that was put into it.

If you are wondering where I came up with the number 14 Million dollars, that is the amount of money that Microsoft made from the release of Flight Simulator X. Not huge money by today's standards but it is still a sizable sum. And it means that there were a lot of people out there willing to plunk down the 70$ for the simulator and then a lot more who bought the other items that went with it.

Now an entire industry hangs in the balance. From those companies like CH Products who make controllers and joysticks for Flight Simulation systems to those companies that sell skins for the airplanes and enhancements for the scenery and flight control. Even Jeppesen stands to lose from this closure.

If you want to follow the conversation on this closure, you can check out some of the community sites at:

http://www.fsinsider.com/community/Pages/default.aspx

So far what I am seeing is not pretty and many people are angry. This is a small fish but it just goes to show how intertwined many of the computing companies are.

Apple Users Groups -- Where are they?

2009-01-27T23:54:00.000-08:00

One of the interesting items of talk over the years has been the Apple Users Groups and their relevance in today's computing world. For many years, I was a member of the largest users group of its time, Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange or A.P.P.L.E. for short. It was just one of thousands of groups in the US at the time.

But then the membership started to wane in about 1987 as did many other groups. But then where membership in our group waned, other groups popped up. One such group was the Willamette Apple Connection or WAC, Inc. as it became known. A small group in southern Oregon, it grew to about 30-40 members and stayed at that number for the duration of its life span.

What is interesting is that the group was successful in spanning the timeframe of the first Internet usage and the closing down of the Apple ][ series production in Cupertino. What spelled a death knell for most groups even before this time, did not spell the end of WAC, Inc. for almost a year and a half. But in time the end did come, primarily because no one wanted to take over the work of doing the newsletter for the group.

But even though they are long gone, the materials the group produced are still alive thanks to the materials being preserved by the owner of the group for more than ten years. Now they are available online for all to see at:

http://wac.callapple.org

It will be really interesting to go back 50 years past the time frame of the Apple ][ computers and look back at this material and be able to see what the inner workings of the groups were like.

Are We At The Cold Reality Now?

2009-01-27T23:05:00.000-08:00

Is this the year where all of the predictions of the abnormal weather patterns comes back to haunt to world full force? So far, in Europe and parts of the United States, this has been the case. Originally from Seattle, our family has never seen weather like this years.

I personally can recall 13 inches of snow in 24 hours on Thanksgiving Day 1987 but that was just a freak storm. Not two weeks of snow and now it is happening again. Snow in Seattle and then ice storms in the mid west stretching from Texas to New Hampshire. It is almost ironic that this is not the only place we have seen the weird weather.

Two weeks ago, 90% of Europe was facing snow including the traditional hot spots in Spain. You can just imagine going to Europe for the vacation and having to walk through 6 inches of snow. But that was no dream, it was reality. And now this week, heavy wind storms. This is not normal and the fact that it lasted so long made it unbearable for many people.

For many years the scientists have been talking about the repercussions of the global warming problem and the massive pollution issues that have been wrecking havoc in countries like China and the US. But no one listened until this year or so. Now everyone is talking about it and there aren't too many folks with any solutions that are viable or even being funded now that the global economy has sank to the point where there is no money or even concern for it.

But we must get back to being concerned about it. We all stand around with our hands in our pockets saying that these things are not our problem or that we are already making an effort or buying so called Carbon Credits. But this is all malarkey and really does not solve the root issue of the problem.

The real problem is that no one person can buy off their carbon imprint or footprint as it is called. You have to make an effort in your own home, life and work place in order to change what is going on.

The first area is the automobile. We have been societies that have traveled by car and truck for just over a hundred years now and we are still using very similar technology to the very first fume spewing jalopies of the the automotive awakening. To answer this, many people are recommending Hybrid cars that run on both gas and electricity. But Hybrid cars are just the start. Hopefully,we can switch totally to hydrogen or electric vehicles sometime in the next 10 years. That will kill a large percentage of the pollution problem especially if countries like India and China get on board with making it a requirement to have electric vehicles instead of gas driven ones.

If we can go to electric vehicles, then the next generation of self driving car would also come along quicker making the full circle of the automotive pollution evaporate because the car would be efficient, electric and would not be crashing like humans do.

The next issue is the deforestation of the world. The removal of forests all over the world has contributed to this weather and pollution problem as well. Having looked at satellite photos of my home state, I can tell you that there are large tracts of land right around my home that have been clear cut. Now this is not unusual activity in the Pacific Northwest, but when it happens in the largest forests in south America at a pace that is unseen since the dawn of mankind, it will definitely change the the world weather patterns. We need not just concerted efforts in the re-greening of massive areas of the world but also we need efforts on the parts of individuals to stop this crazy pattern of weather and the associated pollution.

But as I said earlier, the resolution to the real issues rest not at the corporate level or even the town or city level but with each individual. Re-cycling, not wasting as much or using as much natural resources, using paper instead of plastic, and things like riding your bicycle or walking instead of driving are great places to start. Even mass transit can be better than driving your own vehicle in the pollution arena. Car pooling is the one thing that needs to occur more and more.

But will these things change the weather? Not likely until every person, company, city, and country on this planet makes the effort. Will that ever happen? Well maybe not everyone but the ones that start will be seen as the forerunners of the effort and will wield great influence on those that do not. So just like our new president has called for civic responsibility, so am I. We all need to make the effort. It is up to all of us!

The Mac and 25 Years

2009-01-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

There it was, the bright shiny machine that we had heard so much about. Brought about with the fanfare of the gleaming Orwellian style Superbowl commercial, we had been just jumping at the bit to get our hands on the new machine. 128k, 400k floppies and its own built in monitor. The Macintosh. That was 1984 and I was a Freshman in college.

Everyone was still enthralled by the PC and the Apple II systems, but the Mac had something that the PC and Apple II's didn't. True Type Fonts. I wanted to write a programming book as I had been teaching some of the professors and other students how to program in BASIC as I had ever since I was a 15 year old kid. It was supposed to be an easy to use book and easy to understand. The Mac facilitated this book like no machine before.

I had written hundreds of programs by that time and probably just as many documents and papers and yet that was the first time that I had an experience with a machine that was memorable. The whole thing of WYSIWYG type fonts on the screen in Mac Write was foreign to me. I was still lost in the dot commands of the Applewriter world. The whole graphical interface thing was cool but at the same time a bit disconcerting for someone who had been using system text on teletypes and CRT based terminals since 1976.

I also found that the disk swapping requirement was just as big a pain as was the Apple II and other systems of the time. This was no break through but then the size of the floppy was. 400k was a lot of space if the file was just plain text, but in using programs that were producing true type WYSIWYG type text, the disk usage was higher. I was a bit discouraged by it but then with a little prodding from my professor and a great deal of usage in the first 2 months, I began to warm up to the idea of the Mac, although I still preferred my Apple II.

In 1990, I bought a IIfx and that was the start of my love hate relationship with the Mac. I loved to hate it just because at that time, the machine was not the simple little box that I had begun to love many years before and the quality was no where near the same level. By the time I got my Quadra 840AV, I was not a happy camper and the Apple was losing its luster in my house. At one point, I even threw out all my Mac manuals and software.

But then came the new generation of machines. The iBook and MacBook series. Once again it was cool to own a Mac and the fact that it was UNIX was even better for me. I once again went back to the Mac camp and felt like it was worth the while. Its almost funny that it only took me 25 years to really feel like a Mac was worth the cost again but then that is primarily because it has taken that long for Apple to produce a truly ground breaking machine.

Now as they celebrate, so does the rest of the world. With their iPods, iPhones, MacBook Airs and other neat toys from Apple, I am sure the world is a better place because of it. Now is 2009 was just like 1984, we would all be better off.

The world is ending! Or wait, Steve Jobs is taking Medical Leave.

2009-01-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

Over the past 3 years or so, every time Steve Jobs has sneezed, we in the media have written about it. While he may wonder why that is, the share holders have no doubts as to why. Today they got just proof in the pudding that Apple, Inc. without Steve Jobs is worth less. but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

On January 5th he released one letter due to the fact that, just after announcing that Phil Schiller would deliver the MacWorld Expo keynote, the mainstream media went nuts saying Steve Jobs was dying or dead. Thus he wrote then:

---
Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve
---

But now on the 14th of January, less than 10 days after Steve announced to the world, a new letter to Apple employees circulated announcing a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

---
Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve
---

While many are not particularly worried and he may not be terribly worried, the share holders obviously are and the stock plunged more than 8% in trading and had to be halted. This fall was not a calculation that Apple, Inc.'s demise is at hand or that Steve may die soon, but more of a statement that the share holders have no faith in those others who run Apple, Inc. on a day to day basis.

This lack of faith does not come without merit either as the past history of the company has shown that the only one who seems to be capable of running the company in an up direction is Steve Jobs, in spite of his now apparent human flaws.

For those who want to write off the company, dont count on it happening this month or even during the medical leave. Steve has built quite the juggernaut in Apple, Inc. and it will surely survive with or without Steve Jobs. After all, Microsoft has survived without Bill Gates so far, so why not Apple, Inc.?

The Ultimate Apple II Fonts

2008-12-31T01:20:00.000-08:00

Reviewer : Bill Martens
Version : 1.0
Date : 2008/12/30
Publisher: Kreative Korporation
Website : http://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/apple2.shtml
Category : Mac Intel / Miscellaneous / New Release
Cost : Free

About The Program :

A young college student, Rebecca Bettencourt, has creative a beautiful rendition of the Apple II and Apple IIgs fonts. These fonts have been done in True Type format for both Mac OS X and Windows as well as any other system which can handle true type fonts.

The fonts have been very popular with Apple ][ enthusiasts over the years, but this is the first time they have been made readily available on newer systems.

User Experience :

The fonts downloaded and installed quite easily. Rebecca has even gone so far as to create a keyboard layout patch which allows the end user to quickly change from normal font input to inverse character input. The funny part of all this is that she has stayed true to the original Apple II series by naming the fonts with names such as pr number 3 (PR#3) and the keyboard patch as in number 0.

Positive Aspects :

Very few authors these days stay true to the original spirit of the Apple ][ when developing their software. This package has been a breath of fresh air in that realm with fonts that look exactly like they would on the Apple ][ and ][gs. The font maps are clear and complete and shows a great deal of detail work that went into producing the font package.

Once you have copied the keyboard layout to your Keyboard Layout directory and placed the two font files into the fonts directory, you are good to go. The are there and ready for usage.

We loaded the fonts and then tried them out in Indesign 2.0 with our current issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. Not only did the fonts works as advertised but they clearly enhanced the look that we were wanting for the current issue.

Negative Aspects :

No minuses in this package. It is all about look and feel and Rebecca has hit a home run.

Summary :

If you want the true look and feel of your old Apple ][ computer, then you will want to check out this package.

Rating : 5 OF 5 APPLES

Platform 1 : The Ultimate Apple ][ Font Package
Download 1 : http://www.kreativekorp.com/swdownload/fonts/bitmap/apple2/pr.zip

Platform 2 : Mac OS X Keyboard Layout Patch
Download 2 : http://www.kreativekorp.com/swdownload/fonts/bitmap/apple2/in.zip

Platform 3 : Shaston Apple IIgs True Type Fonts
Download 3 : http://www.kreativekorp.com/swdownload/fonts/bitmap/apple2/shaston.zip

About the Reviewer :
Bill Martens is the user group Ambassador for Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and is also the production editor for Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. (http://www.callapple.org. Non-commercial replication of this article is permitted for User Groups.

End of another Year

2008-12-30T23:09:00.000-08:00

Well, 2008 has come to an end here. As I site here in Japan writing this, we are about 8 hours away from 2009. So what to say about this year.

I for one, finished a half dozen projects and none seem to have gone past the front door. I guess it is a sign of the times when the money stops, the viewers disappear and everyone starts putting their cash under their pillow or mattress.

I finished another football season. Not the way I wanted to end it but it ended none the same. It was an enjoyable season with the team making the second round of the playoffs for the first time in their 27 year history. Hopefully the team can go all the way next year and win the championship.

But then I guess I should stop talking about me and start talking about my favorite subjects. We are still at war (Major bummer) and we still havent gone back to the moon or on to Mars even (More major bummer). When will it be that man begins to explore the universe in earnest and quits trying to destroy each other with the best weapons money can buy.

While I dont have any of the answers, I do hope that all of you, my readers will have a joyous new year and find a way to spread a bit of cheer around to those who share our lives.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and what ever else you celebrate, make it a good one!

Santa Comes to Town Screen Saver -- An A.P.P.L.E. Short Review

2008-12-14T05:52:00.000-08:00

By Bill Martens

Well for those of you in the mood for Christmas and santa, here is a package which plays fairly on both the Mac and on Windows. The Santa Comes to Town Screen Saver is a nifty little program that starts out with Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and then the rest of the team followed by Santa and his Sleigh.

This is definitely the thing to leave on your screen on Christmas eve as you walk away. It's cute and not playing any obnoxious music so it is probably even safe for the office or the library.

Installation is a breeze with the installer playing nice on all levels. The best part is that it is Free. If you are still stuck on halloween, Raul Silva has a screen saver for you too. My only wish on this screen saver was Santa being more random sort of like the old Flying Toasters was.

4.5 out of 5 Apples

Download the program
Mac OS X Version -- http://silva.com/exe/santa_comes_mac.zip
Windows Version -- http://silva.com/exe/santa_comes_win.zip

Silva.com
http://www.silva.com

We are all just prisoners here of our own device

2008-12-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

Or so the words of the Eagles song go. But, in light of the trials and tribulations we must face just to get off this rock we call Earth to explore the universe, maybe the problems are too great and are keeping us here.

It is funny to hear myself say that especially since I have advocated manned space travel all of my life. Watching the moon landings in my living room in Maryland during the heyday of the Apollo program and then again in the Shadow of the Air Force Academy during Deke Slayton's mission stirred up a hornets nest of curiosity. Of course, there are many other people who were also inspired by those events of the 1960's and 1970's who have pursued the dreams with all of the fervor that the adventure is deserving of.

However, we still have not gotten far off this planet. And even here on the planet, we continue to face the same issues time and time again that we have virtually no control over. Famine, wars and natural disasters continue to rule our lives and much like the stories we write and read, the ending does not seem to be very easy to achieve.

If we ever are to get off the earth and truly explore the universe, we must first learn to live together and work together. Even best of friends don't seem to be able to do that all the time much less other countries. We continue to kill and plunder each others countries yet, we say things like for all man kind.

We also must get past the hunger issue. If we cant feed everyone here on earth, how do we expect to feed ourselves in the vacuum of space where we cant grow the foods except in enclosed environments. Sure, we would all love to have the TV program Star Trek to spring to life but the realities are that I doubt that any machine could produce enough meals for a major crew the size that we are talking about that would be necessary for colonization of other planets. Also, even if we do grow our own food in space, we still have to process that food and prepare it. This step alone is a major undertaking. The reality is that any food we need in space, we are going to have to take it with us.

There is also the problem of other consumables. Recently the International Space Station received a water processing plant which turns urine into drinkable water. But that is only one system and relying on a single system would be foolhardy at best. Redundancy again is needed. Also when the toilet clogs in space, its not like here where things just stay in place. They truly go all over the place. Smells also are not alleviated easily as in an earth borne environment.

I don't know about you but the idea of living inside a bubble anywhere we go as humans doesn't seem all that appealing. Until we find another planet with an environment that is close enough to Earths, we will always be living inside a bubble. That bubble is prone to failure both from the inside and from the outside. We have a long ways to go in being able to make a planet livable without the aid of enclosed environments.

The ultimate goals in all of the science we pursue in the exploration of space needs to be applied to all mankind and not just the select few that are enjoying the fruits of it right now. Sure, all of the films are inspirational and continue to motivate those of us who think that space is truly worth the money that our governments put into it, but until we do figure out how to solve all the big problems, then we are all "just prisoners here of our own device."

Yule's Christmas Quest -- An A.P.P.L.E. review

2008-12-12T03:36:00.000-08:00

By Bill martens

Candlestone Productions has released a nifty little Christmas game / adventure game which is directed primarily at kids. Yule's Christmas Quest is a freeware package that focuses on the idea of finding all of the gifts from the twelve days of Christmas. Santa apparently forgets where he puts things and it is up to you to help Santa's helper puppy, Yule, find the gifts so that they can be delivered. The program is available for both PPC based Macs as well as the Intel machines.

Installing the Game

The game comes in a zip file and unpacks to a single file, making it easily transported around your machine. The lightweight 6.5 mb program is refreshing since most programs these days take far more drive space and accomplish far less. But then you are up and running in two minutes. Perfect instant entertainment installation.

Game Play

The controls off the game are run by moving yule around the screen collecting the different items on the screen. There are blue bears that will run into Yule and send him back to the point he started in the current screen. The timer also must be renewed with the clock icons around the game board. As each item is collected, there is a counter beside the particular item that will increase. Once all items of a particular item are found, the item becomes highlighted.

This game should have had a nice little game ending such as some type of musical act on the screen. However, it abruptly ends the game and returns to the game start screen. This could be particularly disheartening for a kid who has just sat there and collected everything essentially winning the game but no prize. The one aspect of the game that is definitely appropriate is the time out screen with Yule's face coming up in a frown with a clock in his hand.

While the graphics are cute and will draw children's attention, the actual play is a bit too precise in its required movements at points. The game also did not quit gracefully and I had to force it to quit. There is definitely room for improvement in this game but it is a good first effort worthy of mention.

Downloads

Candlestone Productions Website : http://www.candlestoneproductions.com

Intel Based Download : http://www.candlestoneproductions.com/YuleIntel.zip

PPC Based Download : http://www.candlestoneproductions.com/YulePPC.zip

Rating

3 out of 5 Apples

About the Author

Bill Martens is the user group Ambassador for Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and is also the production editor for Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. (http://www.callapple.org. Non-commercial replication of this article is permitted for User Groups.

Mailplane Version 2.0 Reviewed

2008-12-11T06:10:00.001-08:00

by Bill Martens

As the amount of spam being received by our accounts increased, the more I redirected the accounts to a GMail account, allowing much greater SPAM deletion prior to receiving mails. This method of SPAM filtering unfortunately produced the side affect of needing an application which allowed control over multiple GMail accounts. Then came Ruben Bakker's Mailplane application to the rescue.

Over the past year or so, I have steadily followed the progress of what I consider to be the best GMail reading app developed. The Mailplane program is not only intuitive but allows easy control over all of the email accounts that I manage. It has allowed me the peace of mind that none of the SPAM that gets sent in will ever make it to my inbox. But in spite of the program being great, Ruben did not rest on good enough. Now he has released version 2.0 and made it all that much better

41 new updates were made to the program including Quick Links, Video Chat Support and full support of GMail 2 features. While most of us think this many changes could only come from Apple, think again. The new application is bright, fits into leopard nicely and even looks good now.

We started from version 1.6.x of the application and upgraded via the upgrade feature in the Mailplane menu. Not only did it pick up the upgrade immediately but it upgraded the application in less than 60 seconds.

Once restarted, the application came up and showed an email with a list of all of the new features included in the application. This allowed me to easily go through the feature list and see if there were any in particular that enthralled me. One such feature was the new Attach Folder and File Bundles feature in composing emails. No more clunky single file attachment nightmares. Now it can be performed in a single swoop.

Growl also seems to play much nicer with the application now. Many features related to notifications are among the half dozen items in the program related to notifications that been update. This in turn has made the application much less annoying when mail items come in while working.

While, I would like to say everything is wonderful, there is one new item that I do not like whatsoever. If you have any accounts that have over 999 new mails in it, the accounts tab shows the number as something that is not really readable. It puts the thousands digit followed by a comma and "..."; i.e. 1,.... I have a few accounts that have system notices in them and this was the one negative thing I found during my experience with the latest version.

Other than that, this version of the Mailplane application is not only a solid application but a well thought through and complete application. It certainly makes my life easier and I am sure will make yours easier too if you have numerous Gmail accounts.

What is best about this application is not just that it is useful but also that the cost wont break the bank. At $24.95 for a single license, it is well worth your hard earned money. If you have multiple machines like I do, you will particularly like the $15 family option that Uncomplex Ltd offers. The system requirements for the program make it easy to handle too. The program runs on either Mac OS 10.4.11 or 10.5.5 meaning it should work comfortably on any G4, G5, or Intel based Mac.

For those users who are still using Windows, I know that Ruben has been considering a version specifically for the Windows platform. (http://mailplaneapp.com/blog/entry/would_mailplane_for_windows_make_sense/). Obviously he is awaiting feedback from users prior to building that version though.

You can download the Mailplane application from the Uncomplex Ltd. website at: http://mailplaneapp.com/

Rating: 4 out of 5 Apples

About the Author

Bill Martens is the user group Ambassador for Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and is also the production editor for Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. (http://www.callapple.org)

Is Apple covering something up?

2008-10-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

Last week, Apple Inc introduced a line of new machines with Die Cast Aluminum bodies. No more of the aluminum sheet metal that flexes and bends with the slightest pressure.

For my poor MacBook Pro, this has become a serious issue. Too much pressure from my arms on the right corner has left the CD band out of place and dipping down so I actually wound up having to cut it off in order for CD's and DVD's to slide in and out.

The Metal is warped in several places and bent in others. It makes me wonder if Apple has been receiving customer complaints about this, resulting in a new body type rather than fixing the issue. Get customers to buy the new machine when those of us with the 17" MBP already spent $3000 buying this computer. Nothing like spending another $3000 just to fix the problem.

I just wonder if I am alone in this analogy or if there are others out there with the same issue. If you have had similar issues, let me know.

9/11 -- Where were you?

2008-09-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

I was asleep taking an early snooze on that fateful day when I was awakened by the ringing of a phone. Groggily I answered in a gruff tone which stated that I was annoyed at being woke up. A long time friend of mine was on the other end.

"Turn on the TV!" was all she said. I was wondering what could be so important. Nothing was planned by NASA so we could not have lost another shuttle. No wars were ongoing so I figured it had to be a take over of another bank as I was involved in the financial industry at the time.

"A plane hit the world trade center" she said to me and as I turned on the TV and tuned in CNN, her words began to sink in. I was still groggy as I laid down on my couch but the sleep was slowly fading from my body.

"Oh My God" was all I could say. I knew people in there. Many people. Oh my, oh my. It could not be possible. As we sat there wondering what was going on, another plane slammed into the second tower of the World Trade Center. I jumped from the couch as the sounds echoed through the TV and the Announcer started to calmly say that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center.

"Jesus! Did you see that?!" I asked knowing full well she had seen. I had to gather my wits at this point. I knew my former company, Goldman Sachs had moved out 18 months earlier but all the people from Knight Ridder were in there. Having worked with many of their people in the Market Data installations that we performed on many trading floors around Tokyo, I was suddenly flush with worry that they people I knew were in imminent danger.

We both sat there with the phones to one ear, taking in everything visually and from the announcers on the TV. It was so overwhelming that tears began to flow. America was under attack. The news flashed the news that one more plane had hit the Pentagon. Gees, I thought to myself. How many planes are going to crash?

By this point I was looking for answers which I knew would not come any time soon. It was to be another two weeks before I totally understood the relevance of that moment but like millions of other people around the world, I became very engrossed in the reporting, looking for any new tidbit of news that could explain exactly what happened.

Of course, the whole time, I was also secretly hoping that it had all been a dream and that I would wake up from this nightmare sometime soon. But the news reports continued, another plane crash in a field in Pennsylvania. That was four planes. Out of the 6000 or so in the US actually in the air at that time, why these four planes.

News, more news, and more. I couldn't get enough. I was addicted and I had to have answers. I laid on that couch for the full two weeks not sure why this happened but then suddenly I started watching the first baseball games that were being played after the attacks. It was then that I too woke up and said I had to go on. Friends died but now we were going after the bad guys and we were going on with our lives again.

It was these moments of realization which pushed forward the agenda which I had been afraid of when Bush took over the presidency. Hunan Island and 9/11 had just been a minor precursor to what the world was about to witness. Shock and Awe. But I thought that had already occurred but then the building exploding in downtown Bagdad on live TV told me we were in this war now. Grainy green colored videos of battles with the tracers floating gracefully towards their targets with devastating effect. Military hardware and building erupting into a ball of flame shooting black smoke and fire skyward. It was these images which stuck with me.

I decided to go do what I could for my country and even though I was too old to be in the military there were still plenty of civilian positions available, especially as we ramped up for war. I was to do my part as were many in my family and those of my friends who I grew up with. Now all these years later, I wonder if it had been worth it.

We are still in the wars, no end in site. People have forgotten why we started these wars and they have become apathetic again. But all we have to do is look to Islamabad and we suddenly realize that the baddies are still out there and we need to go forth and kick some butt in that old fashioned American style. And lest we forget, 9/11 is the reason for it all.

IOC Diciplines Swedish Wrestler

2008-08-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

I wrote this response to an article by Bill Plaschke about the IOC disciplining wrestler, Ara Abrahamian. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/and-you-thought.html)

"Hey Plaschke, You got this one right. The IOC has become a bunch of loser old men sitting in chairs making judgments on the athletes of today, only interested in their cushy little jobs and not in real promotion of athletics.

And by the way people, China also agreed to abide by the code of conduct and balked on that when it inconvenienced their totalitarian rule over the country. The IOC stood by and did squat and then everyone says oh, it is ok...its China.

Well, NO, it is NOT ok. It is pure BS and the same reason why many of us who grew up with the boycotts of the 1980's and being affected by those boycotts cant stand anything the Olympics stands for now because it doesnt stand for the athletes except for people like Michael Phelps.

Personally, I think we should have given the Olympics to a more deserving country where freedom of speech and basic human rights are not squashed at the drop of a hat. after watching the farce of a torch relay and the heavy handed security guards (special Chinese Police) made me just absolutely abhor watching any news of the Olympics. It the IOC was really interested in abiding by the Olympic charter, they would have called the Chinese on their farce, but then, the IOC is only interested in letting the government of China write their own rules for the Olympics and making tons of money."

China Shooting Self in Foot

2008-08-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks here, the Beijing Olympics have looked less and less desirable for those attending. First, the journalists were being censored after being promised unfettered access to the Internet. Then the air became a major issue and the fact that four American cyclists arriving with US Olympic Committee issued masks on, caused the Chinese to take offense and the US Staff chastised the athletes. Now, Olympian (Notice I did not say former) Joey Cheeks has been refused a visa, as just added fuel to the fires already burning in Beijing.

China for it's part, opened up the reporting during the earthquake only to shut it down again when people started asking why only schools collapsed while government buildings in the same area went unscathed. Then they started jailing folks for even asking the questions. Journalists were given the boot from the country again.

Tibet and Turkmenistan have become issues with several bombings and the protests against China's over bearing repression of the regions. Granted, for it's part, China has highlighted the problems by trying to associate them in the same way with 9-11 with the war against terrorism. But this is all home grown issues that China's repressive hands have created for themselves and in no way bears any resemblence to the 9-11 and 7-11 terrorist attacks that occured in the US and the UK. You are talking instead about people who just want their home lands back and want to live in peace.

What is saddest about all of this is that China was even granted the Olympic games in the first place. The Olympic charter is supposed to promote peace and harmony, yet China's human rights record alone should have been enough to sink their application back 6 years ago. But instead, people thought China would clean up its act both ecologically and socially. Instead, they have become so repressive that now they even are brazen enough to block Olympians from attending the Olympics and to try and say that if you speak out against anything China doesn't like, you will be booted from the country or refused entry.

I take issue with the US Olympic Committee not supporting Joey Cheeks, but then, when has the USOC ever done anything that was supportive of the athletes. It is time to boot out the old cronies that are running the show in many of these cases including the IOC which has also failed to support the athletes instead bowing to China's repressive tactics.

People have forgotten all about Mexico City where U.S. athletes made political statements. Yes, they were chastised for it, even booted off the Olympic team in an era where tolerance was in low supply, but it had the effect that was required. It is time once again for a Mexico City type revolt on the part of the athletes and this revolt should continue until the Chinese back down from their idiocy. I also think it is time that the leaders of democratic countries around the world throw their weight around again and threaten boycott (This may be too late as we have already sent most of the athletes to the games).

Beijing Backs Down

2008-08-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just a day after the uproar over the censorship of the Internet that I mentioned in my previous post, Beijing appears to have relaxed the Internet censorship according to this Time article (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1828587,00.html) But is is a bit too late to get the stink back in the horse?

What is amazing to me is that the Chinese government says free unfettered access, but what they mean is free and unfettered as long as you dont want Falun Gung or Free Tibet sites. The government apparently have made the relaxation complete through out the entire country. But the fact that they still block these sites tells me that they are afraid that if they let the Internet completely open, they will lose the strict control they have enjoyed for many years.

The earthquake sympathy is finally wearing off and the reality that Beijing is the biggest farce in the history of the Olympic games is just becoming apparent. Hopefully, the rest of the world will wake up with the few that have already been enlightened.

China Censoring, IOC helping censorship!!!

2008-07-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

A while back, I wrote that they should move the Olympics on the grounds of the crackdowns in Tibet and the jailing of journalists as well as other areas of ill will towards people. Now I have found one more reason why we should not support the Olympic games in China...Censorship. While, the IOC had originally announced to the world as had China that the censorship would be lifted for journalists, this has not and will not be the case for the duration of the games.

Several reports on ZDF's Heute and CNN's Headline News programs have shown evidence that China is censoring the journalists right in the Olympic press pit. They even blocked access to the ZDF's website which makes it nearly impossible for the Germans to turn in reports.

Now it turns out according to this report in reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/olympicsNews/idUSPEK15086520080730) that the IOC agreed to allow China to clock certain sites and censor the traffic. Not only does this go against the Olympic charter but it makes the IOC a total joke. They display with the Iraq national team was so pitiful, I thought to myself, where is this going? Now I know where it is going. The IOC has given in. They no longer press China on tough issues and they wont press for changes in the censorship.

While many people have refused to comment, I have chosen to take a stand here and now. I DO NOT support the Olympics in China. Period! While, my father was angry when carter canceled the US team going to Russia in 1980, I instead have a different suggestion. Create an alternative games for countries who do not want their athletes going to the smog infested capital of the world, where journalists are beaten, jailed and censored unlike anywhere else in the world.

We should also disband the IOC and create a new organization run by athletes for athletes. No more BS from political groups and governments. It is time that athletes are allowed to compete as athletes and not as pawns of their governments.

As for my idea of the Alternative games, they could be planned for any place in the world with the infrastructure willing to host them and would welcome all Olympic qualifiers. This would allow people to take part and perform in a grand stage without the politics of the IOC or the restrictions of the Chinese who obviously are trying to politicize the entire Olympic movement, just as Hitler did in 1936. Enough is enough and I again say "NO Olympics for China!"

Is the Washington Post aiding the Enemy?

2008-06-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was horrified to find an article in the Washington Post, suggesting that we should negotiate with the Taliban instead of sending more troops to Afghanistan. But then I looked at the source of the article. It was written by a Dr. Ali Ettefagh in Tehran, Iran. While I normally would not have made anything of such an article, the whole premise that we should negotiate with the Taliban just absolutely shocked me. It amazes me even more that the Washington Post would endorse in any way shape or form the policy that the article is espousing.

One need only look back 10 years when the Taliban were firmly in control of Afghanistan and blowing up religious symbols that had stood for a thousand years. They basically put the people and the country of Afghanistan into the dark ages, yet they themselves were allowed to use technology. Women were not allowed to be educated and strict Islamic extremist law was implemented, complete with public executions in facilities that were build for peaceful sporting exhibitions.

These are the same group of people that Dr. Ettefagh is suggesting that we negotiate with. All we need to do is take one look at some of the film from that era prior to 9/11 from Afghanistan and jump up and shout a resounding "No Way In Hell!"

While I am one who is definitely concerned with journalistic freedoms, I also have family members and friends who are currently fighting over seas and everything that they have fought for seems to be forgotten by the one paper that is supposed to be the supporter of American freedoms. My friends have died there and the things they gave their lives for, most of us take for granted. It is not a war about anything materialistic as has been suggested by many outlets. It is a war about doing the right thing. This is something that people who have become obsessed with President Bush have forgotten.

The article, http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/ali_ettefagh/2008/06/understanding_a_changing_talib.html, which does not even seem to matter to anyone at the post, is obviously pushing a very Iran centric theme. Negotiate till people are blue in the face. But the author tries very hard to compare the wars fought by the US after 9/11 to the drug wars of the 1990's.

The complete and utter failure of Dr. Ettefagh to understand that this is no 1990's drug war and that this is a war for the freedom of the Afghanistan people, only serves to highlight the fact that this article should not have been in the Washington Post in the first place. If this had happened during any other war we have fought over the history of the US, heads would have rolled and the owners of the paper would have been thrown in jail for treason.

Our papers in America are no longer the bastion for the red, white, and blue but are now the mouth pieces of our enemies and the Washington Post is right at the top of that list. Maybe the next time Bush names the Axis of Evil, he can include the Post in the list. While I do not necessarily agree with the policies of our government, I certainly do not endorse the undercutting of our brave men and women in uniform the way that this article does. It is a total dis-service to them and should be called for what it is; pure and utter rubbish which does not belong in a paper that would be read by the American people.

Plurking the Karma Thing

2008-06-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

It is kind of funny that I have been using Plurk (http://www.plurk.com) for the past month and have come to the realization that people are very much rank and rating oriented. Everyone complains about their Karma as it is called on the site.

Everytime people’s Karama reached a point where they got the benefits of having high karma (usually just colors and emoticons), they complained louder. The funny part is that over 30 percent of the messages on the site were about the Karma.

I find the whole rules thing with Plurk a bit annoying as well. It seems to me that just because someone has something interesting to micro blog, they should not be penalized for posting it just because they have posted more than 30 times in a day. But they do penalize you.

One more funny change is with the Karma growing as well as the number of users on the web site, they have begun to throttle those plurkers whose Karma is over 60. Real nice. You cant have anyone reaching 100 otherwise the balance and the game would be pointless.

For me, I just ignore all of it. I find that the conversations posted are 90% of the time well worth the dozen or so replies. You will find that the items on the site with the most replies are generally things of value although occaisionally, one of my food or coffee plurks draws more replies than the news plurks that I have become known for.

When Social Networking began to become an item, many people thought of Facebook or Myspace, but these days it is more about Twitter (http://www.twitter.com) and Plurk and for good reason. No bulky items cluttering the user’s pages and the sites are all about communicating. If we had these sites 10 years ago, the world would be much more at peace. It is funny but I have rarely seen anything negative in my adventures of Plurking or being onTwitter. Maybe we should make all world leaders join just to see how they would handle it or make it a pre-requisite for becoming president.

For those of you who follow me on the social networking sites, I have added a partial list of the sites I am on. You can find me there and feel free to give me a holler or a request to be a friend.

My Social Networking Sites
Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/semipro)
Plurk (http://www.plurk.com/users/semipro)
Pownce (http://pownce.com/semipro/)
Bright Kite (http://brightkite.com/people/semipro)

My personal Sites
Virtual Apple II (http://www.virtualapple.org)
Wazoom.com (http://www.wazoom.com)
A Voice from the Minor Leagues (http://football.wazoom.com)
Bill Martens Photography (http://photo.wazoom.com)

World Records on the Internet

2008-06-17T03:37:00.001-07:00

Today, Firefox is attempting to set a world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours with the release of their newest version of the Firefox Browser. While this attempt is seen on the surface as just a really cool idea, it has serious undertones for the Internet at large.

With an approximate 30-50 million users all trying to download the same software from the same servers all in the same day, I can see some serious slow downs on networks occurring very rapidly. Until now most of these type of slowdowns have been related to social networked viruses that made their way through the home computers and office PC's of millions of users all over the world.

But this slowdown that will result will be the direct result of people purposely trying to download a new software package. Having just upgraded to FF3 RC3, I, for one will not be participating in the download. This is not because I don't want the latest version but it is primarily due to the fact that I do not want to contribute to the willful destruction of the Internet as we know it. Besides, I can download the new release tomorrow or the next day and it is not going to make much difference in my experience with Firefox.

Slowdowns in places like India where the Internet is already at a crawl, could place so much burden on these locations that they will be cut off from the rest of the world for several days. I am sure there are several multinational conglomerates around the world that will not appreciate the inability to communicate with these offices.

While I have not seen anyone take the same approach as I, I am sure that once the Internet starts to slow down, people will either give up on the Internet for the day. However, there are those who can not escape having to use the Internet. Financial institutions all over the world already use the Internet as their primary resource for communications but if they suddenly can not send or receive trades, updates or End of Day items, there could be some serious hell to pay. The losses financially could balloon into a number of the sort that we have been seeing with the Sub-Prime losses all over the globe.

My recommendation is that while this type of thing is fun and it is cool to say you set a record or were part of the record, I am saying, "Just say NO!"

URLS:
Get Fire Fox -- http://www.getfirefox.com
World Record Attempt -- http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

Is Mars Getting Closer?

2008-06-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have to admit, the headline is a bit misleading. But it is more of a question of are we getting any closer to going to Mars? We have robots and rovers there but so far, not a single man has gone to any other planetary body since 1974 when Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt left Mare Serenitatis.

But this week, nasa at least got the ball rolling with the awarding of the design of the next generations spacesuits to a Houston based company, Oceaneering International, Inc. (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/spacesuit.html) Of course, this is only half the battle but at least if the guys go anywhere they will have new spacesuits. It almost reminds me of the old Jose Jimenez jokes that Bill Dana did on the Steve Allen Show back in the 1960's. "Why, I even got a helmet and gloves!"

All joking aside, this is serious business. And with a $180 million contract, this type of business will provide a ton of good high paying engineering jobs. If the whole Mars trip costs $200 billion by the time man lands on Mars, this will be an adventure well worth it in economic growth and hopefully a bit of restored pride in both NASA and the US.

While politicians like to complain about the costs, they all know that these are the types of jobs that cant be shipped over seas or farmed out to third world countries. These types of jobs also allow for economic prosperity. It was the whole space program in the 1960's that caused the economy of the US to boom, even in a time of war. In spite of our fighting in Vietnam, we were still able to cause the average American consumer to actually have a high level of confidence in the basic economy, all the way until the oil shock hit.

Unfortunately, we are in the middle of another oil shock that is shaking the foundations of almost every country in the world, but this is primarily due to the fact that while the oil companies are making record profits, the workers have not benefited int he same way. If the US doesn't find a way to distract the American consumer at this point, all may be lost. Especially the space program which is the first to be cut any time that there are funding issues elsewhere.

In my book, if we make it to mars on the schedule that President Bush laid out, then it will be an absolute miracle worthy of the stories that are still told about the men who went to the moon. Will this be Bush's legacy? The man who brought Mars closer to us? Dont bet on it but hopefully as more contracts are awarded to US companies, we will find that the date of the trip and man setting foot on Mars will get closer with or without all of the external circumstances.

ABC Sportscaster Jim McKay Dead

2008-06-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

No one can forget the Wide Wold of Sports intro for ABC Sports or the way that Jim McKay was a mainstay in the world of announcing at a time when the sports world needed someone like him.

He announced almost any major sports event and the ones most people remember him for are 1972 and 1976 Olympic games. In 1972, the Israeli athletes were murdered and he was the one voice which came through with a sound of reason amongst the madness that followed the incident.

In 1976, it was he who presided over the games, announcing as Jim Walker won the 1500 and Bruce Jenner won the decathlon.

He began sports casting in 1961 and was a main stay in tv broadcasting during an era long ruled over by the great news casters of his day. But it was Jim McKay who with stood all the ups and downs and became beloved by many in his time.

We thank you for the memories Jim and wish there were others like you. Jim McKay was 86.

My new twitter like toy, Plurk

2008-06-05T04:01:00.000-07:00

Over the past six months or so, I have posted over 3000 messages on twitter, put up with the ups and downs of the site and grown to love the site in spite of its short comings. That was until this week when I discovered the promised land of social networking micro blogging sites.

Plurk, has a flavor much like that of twitter, in fact most of the twitter folks are there. There is one distinct difference. Plurk allows you to take part in a pure conversation directly in the users plurk, creating a near real time conversation between many people, much like the party lines of old.

While it has a ways to go to be perfect, Plurk is definitely a step up from the singularity of the twitter world. It allows you to follow multiple discussions all within the same time frame with by the minute break down of the Plurk chain, making it easy to find discussions you are taking part in. Another nice feature is the fact that the handling of the microblogger follows similar patters to the twitter ones.

If you havent tried out Plurk yet, you should. Just a bit of fore warning. It is addictive and you will find yourself among the sleep deprived of your fellow Plurkers. But until you get to the point of completely screwing up your sleep patterns, have fun and enjoy the graphical interface.

URL's
My Plurk -- http://www.plurk.com/user/semipro
My Twitter -- http://www.twitter.com/semipro

Space Ambassadors Needed

2008-05-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to tell someone about going into space and be an evangelist for Space? Now you can. The National Space Society and Virgin Galactic are starting a space ambassador program or as they say on their website, "Space Ambassadors can be anyone — you just have to have a passion for space and the ability to effectively communicate that excitement to others. Teachers and artists are particularly encouraged to apply. Membership in the National Space Society is not required to participate, but is encouraged! "

Check it out at https://www.nss.org/cgi-bin/register/tdregister?$Origin=SpaceAmbassadors

They say on the web site that one lucky ambassador will be chosen to fly. Gosh, maybe I have a chance to go up after all :D

Netaudio Ads...Real or Scam?

2008-05-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I wrote a blog entry on this site about having joined the Net Audio Ads craze that was hitting. While it all seemed like it would be the latest and greatest way to add monetization to my web sites, it has panned out to be anything but.

Over several weeks, the idea went from a few people signing up to viral and then to Net Audio Ads being on the blink to them back tracking on the fees, to them not starting the service to the people who signed up thinking that there was a large advertising machine behind the group being asked to sell advertising.

Now the only thing that ever plays on my blog is an ad for Net Audio Ads. In April, when I looked, I had made a whole penny off my ads. That's right folks, 1 red cent!!! Now when I look, they don't even give me credit for that one. The funny thing about that is, I get more in one click through on Google Ads than I have ever gotten from Net Audio Ads.

My feeling is that the way they hyped the site and the service far too much and basically the only thing they are left with now is no ads. And while this seems to be the way it is, I haven't removed their ad module from the blog because I want to see this story to the end.

I don't know if anyone else has been following this or had experience with this group but I would definitely be interested in hearing how other have made out with it.

A new openess in China?

2008-05-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

Over the past week or so since the big 7.9 magnitude earth quake in China, we have seen scenes of the destruction and the suffering unlike any we have seen out of China before. One might ask, is this just a convenience to get the sympathies of the world or is the open reporting for real?

It has been amazing with reports by phone, satellite, and even video phone, seemingly coming to the world without impunity from all of the reporters there. Never before have we seen this aspect of a country that has become synonymous with human rights abuses and closed borders.

It is refreshing to see this, but then comes the ultimate question of "will it last?" Once can only hope that it does last. And now that the country goes into a three day mourning period with more than 35,000 people dead, 200,000 plus injured and millions left homeless, the situation is far from over there.

The only thing that has been a bit like the old days is China's refusal to accept most aid but that has been changing too with a team of search and rescue experts from Japan being allowed in to help in recovery efforts. Also, the world has generously offered stocks of food and water and China, unlike burma has been readily accepting this help and distributing it with no holds barred.

Everyone thought that the Olympics would change China. My feeling is that maybe it takes an act of God to change China and now that we have one, China seems to be changing very rapidly. Even dissension and questioning of the government has been allowed very openly after more than 7000 schools collapsed throughout the country. The reporting of this dissension has also been freely allowed and almost encouraged.

While China is still communist, one can only hope that now that the country has seen one of the worst natural disasters in human history, that the country can truly change and become the real world player that it has the potential of being.

Double Amputee Allowed to Compete

2008-05-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Over the past two years, many news reports have covered Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee record holder in the 100,200, and 400 for disabled athletics. Many of the articles I have read have not been so favorable on him competing against able bodied athletes and fulfilling his dream to compete in the Olympic games in Beijing.

Oscar was born with several deformities which cost him his legs at the age of 11 months old. Obviously with the advances in technology, he can now compete on a fairly level playing field with other runners. Not disabled athletes but able bodied ones. This is the way it should be. However, not everyone feels that way and after the way the International Association of Athletics Federations ruled, it is obvious that they didn't feel that way either.

The IAAF ruled that Oscar Pistorius had an advantage over his able bodied competitors because his prosthetics gave him an advantage of having to expel 25% less effort over the same distance. Yet, in spite of this supposed advantage, he has failed to automatically qualify for the Olympics. In the IAAF testing, it is unknown exactly what they based this judgement on but one can only assume that they based it on him being completely whole in body which he is not.

Now, finally after all the wrangling and testing and the sheer hell that these people and organizations have put Oscar through, The Court for Arbitration of Sport has made a decision that he can compete for his country. Luckily, this decision is final and there is no appeal for the IAAF at this point.

Because of his failure to qualify automatically to compete, it is highly likely, according to some reports, that he will go to Beijing as part of the South African 4x400 meter relay team which is allowed to take 6 athletes to the games to compete. I sincerely hope that Oscar Pistorius does well and performs his best there as the whole world will now be watching. Not because the man will break any world records, but because he is now joining the ranks of the able bodied athletes after being forced into a classification most of his life that he neither asked for nor had any choice in.

To all the nay sayers in the world, who thought that Oscar Pistorius was not capable of competing or that he had a technological advantage, I say "go Oscar Pistorius!!!"

WWDC Sells Out....What????

2008-05-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

WWDC, the developers conference for Apple which is held each year at Muscone Center in San Francisco, apparently has sold out. While the exact number of tickets available for the conference is not known, it is a bit odd that there were 6000 some attendees last year and it wasn't sold out but this year, it is sold out at 5000.

Is this a limitation being placed on the number of people by Apple or is it real? Who is to say, however, after my experience with last year's conference, it almost doesn't seem to matter.

We went to last years conference looking for meat and potatoes developers information yet, got spoon fed apple sauce marketing crap from companies all over the spectrum. The ever elusive developers information on the iPhone was not only non-existent but the short run through that they did in the keynote, which supposedly had information available on the WWDC web site wasn't even available until the conference closed. Not much good for any question and answer sessions with the Apple developers when you have them right there.

But of course, with the popularity of the Mac increasing as a computing platform, it is no real surprise that they would say it is sold out. However, I find the numbers to be just a bit too artificially set and it is with doubting heart that I believe this is any more than just a marketing ploy. Of course with past history as an example, this is no real surprise.

The only real surprise is that it took a year for them to add the iPhone track to the program. This track should have been made available in last years conference when the iPhone was the entire focus. But instead, Steve chose to come on and say that we didn't need an SDK. Then in February, he decided we did. Now as the throngs of the Apple faithful clamor to Muscone with hopes of seeing the next generation iPhone and other goodies, will they be once again disappointed the way we were with a second round of Leopard stuff that wasn't really relevant to developing much of anything.

To this accord, I say "Please, Apple, make up your mind, quit faking the numbers, and get the meat and potatoes on the table for us real developers to eat."

Apple Camera Nabs Thieves...err...Stupidity nabs thieves

2008-05-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

I have read several articles this week that Apple store employee, Kait Dupalga of White Plains, NY, had her MacBook stolen and recovered it by remotely capturing a photo of the thieves using it. While many stories on the net had everything from this being miracle work, to the Mac having anti-theft devices, it is amazing how few people check their facts before actually publishing a story such as this.

First, the Mac does not have an anti-theft device. The fact that the Mac was remotely accessible was due to Back to My Mac remote access that is part of the $99 a year .MAC package offered by Apple, Inc.

Second, this is no miracle. When you have stupid thieves who use a computer as is, they are bound to get caught. These idiots didnt even change anything. They just fired it up and using the browser, were shopping for beds.

Third, It begs the question why the owner had no security set on the computer. No passwords, nothing. If Ms. Dupalga had been smart, she would have installed a security package such as Lojack or Undercover. But she did no such thing.

All I can say is she got lucky. Extremely lucky. The fact that she was able to get the shot of the guys and that it was someone her room mates knew and recognized, obviously payed dividends. But if you want real security on your system, get one of these programs and install it.

Back to My Mac -- http://www.apple.com/dotmac/backtomymac.html
Undercover -- http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
LoJack for Laptops -- http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/
Verey I For Mac -- http://www.bak2u.com/verey.php

Where are the militaries of the world now?

2008-05-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

When countries have felt threatened in the past, they have rushed in their militaries with lightning speed. Such was the case in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and other hot spots. But the Burmese people who have one of the largest despot militaries is seeing no such help.

We will send billions to Africa in aid, but barely a trickle to Burma. And not only that, the aid that is being sent is now being stuffed into military warehouses to support their military rations or marked with the names of generals of the regime and then handed out. It is odd that these jokers think that the people will be fooled about where the aid came from when the box is clearly marked, Kingdom of Thailand, China, India, US Aid, or others.

It sickens me to think that the big countries are going to sit by idly and let the Junta in Burma kill 2 million people. It is time for these countries to quit fighting over the wealth of the world and for them to step up and to fight for the humanity of the world. I am surprised that the US has not resorted to aid shipments in the manner which it took with Yugoslavia in the 1990's. Drop pallets of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat for you non-military types) and water rations from C-130's flying over head and let the people have them. Protect these flights with F-18 fighters and Navy carriers and tell the Junta straight up that if they interfere, we will destroy their military and military bases in a fortnight. (this could be done since they seem to conglomerate in certain areas).

It is high time that the crimes that are being committed against the Burmese people cease and that the real aid begins to happen. The Burmese have suffered long and hard at the hands of these idiot generals and it is time that it comes to an end. The US, UK, and all the coalition forces or NATO or other militaries, should step up and make this mandate happen immediately.

Talk about timing!!! China Espaces the Glare.

2008-05-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

This week after the world had the weight of its criticism focused squarely on the Junta of Burma and the Chinese for its handling of the Tibet issue, something happened that has turned all that criticism on its head.

An earthquake of 7.8 struck killing more than 10,000 people at last count. While most people are still focused on the Burmese Junta's handling of the cyclone aid, their criticisms of China and Burma have suddenly waned. Call it the sympathy factor or the ADD factor.

Of course, at the same time, the Olympic torch relay has been reconfigured and seems to no longer be the main focus of the government. Unlike other governments around the world who have been criticized for their handling of a natural disaster, the response of the Chinese government has been praised to extents never seen.

The focus of the government has rightfully turned to rescue operations and they have implemented the usage of their military in a manner that is consistent with the military being the people's military. Even the US government failed in this respect with the Katrina response, at a time when it could have won the hearts and minds of the people. Now China has obviously learned from that and the Burmese government failures and they have squarely focused the full efforts of their military machine on recovery and rescue operations.

But are we being too soft on China now that they have their own issues? will the focus on their human rights abuses be lost in their great response to something that no one expected them to step up to the plate in? Or is the Chinese government the ultimate propaganda machine that has learned that the real way to help change people's minds is to do something that shows benevolence and compassion? Only time will tell, but I have noticed that the reporting in this disaster has been clear, numbers concise and accurate, and even the reporting by foreign press freely allowed, seemingly without restriction.

It is my feeling that the government of China will play this up, try to show it's best face in the Olympics and then go right back to being the over bearing, people beating, polluting country that it has been once the focus is off. But the only things people will remember will be the handling of the earthquake response and the Olympics. And in this, the people of Darfur, Burma, and Tibet will be forgotten once again and left to their own devices.

Recovering from a crash

2008-05-02T23:49:00.000-07:00

Over the years, there have been several times where I wished I could back data up to something that would never loose my data. But this dream is probably the dream of every engineer or programmer on the face of the earth. Of course, this dream is probably the biggest dream there is. Unfortunately, a recent database crash caused the dream to come back again.

In this day and age with free storage online and the availability of big hard drives cheap, the problem of hard disks failing is becoming more prevalent. Which leads to other failures.

Is this problem leading us into an era in which we truly are going to loose everything? If we were to suffer a magnetic pulse on a large scale around the world, such as that caused by an asteroid hitting the earth, it would be foolish to think that anything of our data would be left other than that which is in print format.

Should we even be thinking about the paperless office that people have been trying to create since the 1980's, rather foolishly and unsuccessfully in reality. But what is the flip side of that thinking. If we go back to using just paper, things slow down, and also we use more natural resources that are already strained beyond belief.

So what to do? In the short term, I would say that if it is important, back it up on two different mediums. Use online as well as offline resources. If it is really important, print it out. And if it is even more important that that (imperative to your life), put a physical and a media copy in a safe deposit box.

Luckily I dont have much that is in the final category but I keep thinking how many web sites would become my only copy of items I have created should I loose my hard drives.

My Coffee and I

2008-04-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

I have always appreciated a good cup of coffee. While there are tons of places that supposedly specialize in making a good cup, I have found that most of the places are just barking in the wind. That has in turn made me take to buying the coffee and grinding it myself.

While most people are happy with the MJB or some other form of canned coffee from the store, I appreciate a bit more flavor in my coffee. Especially a bold or extra bold coffee. This is why I normally will turn to Seattle's Best, Tully's, or Starbucks for my beans or Peets when it can be come by. But they only do the trick half way.

The one coffee that I have enjoyed the most outside of Kauai is the coffee from the Gold Coast Coffee Company in Kailua-Kona Hawaii. For anyone who has visited the Big Island, this is a no brainer. The Coffee Samurai (http://www.countrysamurai.com/) is owned and operated by a third generation Japanese descendant and has by far the best coffee there is.

I don't normally endorse too many things but this place has coffee that will not only fill the air with an aroma that is absolutely distinct, the brewed coffee is a different flavor from anything you have ever had before.

If you are going to the Big Island anytime soon, be sure and pick some up or you can order online from their web site. It is definitely well worth the price.

The Apple ][ and my Life this week

2008-04-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

This has been a weird week. I haven't had much time for almost anything and everyone keeps asking why. Well, when you look at what I have done this week in the world of Retro-computing, hopefully you will understand.

First, lets talk about Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange. (www.callapple.org) This has been my baby over the past 10 years and I am finally stepping aside and letting Mike Pfaiffer run with it. But in doing this, it meant that I had to re-do the web site, clean it up, and delete the items not needed on the server. I also had to write a standards document for the production of the magazine. While this might seems like an item that you would have on hand anyways, I hadn't updated any of the items in the document in many years.

Also the 30th anniversary issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E.. 30 Years. How did it get to this point in time. But that is the legacy that is the Apple II computer. It is now 30 years and still going although we now cover the Mac as well.

And speaking of the Apple ][ or Apple2 as it is known, the retro sites we have re-released this week include our Apple Archives site (www.applearchives.com), the Beagle Bros site (beagle.applearchives.com), and the Willamette Apple Connection site (wac.callapple.org). These three sites constitute a good portion of information available for the Apple ][ series computers. Also a ton of software and manuals to go with the packages.

So, if you still have a penchant for the Apple ][ computer and liked the IIgs laptop mentioned in my last post, check out these sites and re-live the 1980's like it is still here.

Apple II gs Laptop

2008-04-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

Ben Heck's name has become synonymous with great computer hacks. Once again he has hacked a system which no one said could be done. This beautiful machine not only allows the spirit of the machine to come alive but is a one of a kind machine that Ben is auctioning off for charity.

http://benheck.com/04-14-2008/apple-iigs-original-hardware-laptop#more-366

Check it out.

A Mistake in position on the Olympics

2008-04-06T22:26:00.001-07:00

Initially, my thinking about the Olympics was that we should go forth in non-protest, but as things have ratcheted up in the last few weeks with China cracking down on dissenters and on the Tibetans, I have become more and more soft on my stance. While I have never supported protests against the olympics, I am now for moving them all together from China. We could move them some place like Sydney or another city that already has infrastructure to support the games.

Such a move would not only be a wake-up call for the Chinese government but even the mere threat of such a move would hopefully get them moving in the right direction. And if it didnt, we could always set a deadline for them to do it and at the same time have another city prepare for the games.

One may wonder what it is that made me change my stance. In the world of free journalism, there are few of us who are as well known as Wu Lihong. A ecologist who has spear headed China's AIDS campaign and their anti-corruption campaigns is now in Jail for three years for speaking his mind on the Olympics.

While there are many of us who have spoken our minds on it, few if any of us have served time for our thoughts. But now, Wu's wife is having to figure out how to survive in a country where the government doesn't care what happens to a person's family. With 2 Billion people, who can blame them much on this but as one who cares about people, this type of attitude is not only unacceptable but is completely abhorrent.

Which brings me to Tibet. Just because the Chinese government claims something as their own, it does not make it so. I say to the Chinese government: Get a grip dudes! Let the Tibetan people live in peace and quit jailing people for speaking their mind. The deaths of nearly 200 people for protesting something that is frowned upon in all free countries is unacceptable.

NO MORE OLYMPICS FOR CHINA!!!!

The last of the Big Three Sci Fi Writers Dies

2008-03-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

In the Science Fiction writing world, there are three writers who wrote books that almost transcended everything. Frank Herbert with his ecological themes, Isaac Asimov with his Generational Government and population themes and last but definitely not least, Arthur C. Clarke with his Scientific themes. Herbert died in 1986, Asimov in April 1996.

Everyone always thought of Clarke as the best of the three because of his scientific knowledge which seemed to go into his stories in a manner which could be easily implemented and believed. But whether you think any one of the three were the best, all of them are now gone and the world is a lessor place because of it.

For this writer and reader, these three writers were a main stay of my library with first editions of each in it. Of course, having read many books outside the main stream by these authors, I can tell you without hesitation that not everything they wrote was great. But the overall package was far greater than the average writer could ever hope to achieve. With careers spanning more then 50 years each, Herbert, Asimov, and Clarke had a style which is lost on today's writers.

In the stories written by the big three, you could always count on the fact that the stories they had written would paint not only a unique world or universe, but also that their characters would be rich, deep and well rounded. No shallow characters for these writers.

And now here we are 22 years after Herbert died and now all three are gone. Lost are the new stories that they would have written. And at 90 years old, Clarke was the longest lived of the three. But you can say that he gave us all of those years in 2001, 2010, 2061, and finally 3001.

For the science fiction world, I guess the challenge now will be to find the next big three that will affect the next generation of readers.

Are terorists targeting the Olympics?

2008-03-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

China has announced that it has broken up a terrorist group that was targeting the olympics. The group known as ETIM, while as small as a couple of dozen members, has been all but wiped out by the raid which killed two and left 15 in custody.

While the Chinese are playing up this incident, many are a bit hesitant to agree that it was really terrorism. But based on the history of the Olympics and the fact that is has been a target with the Munich and Atlanta incidents, we have to take this threat seriously.

Unfortunately, the Olympics are the highest profile event there is with more than 150 countries participating in the event. Terrorists see this as a chance to make their impact upon the world, spreading fear. It has not worked out very well in the past but with the damage that 9/11 caused, it is bound to be similar in impact if they are successful.

I for one applaud the amount of effort the Chinese are putting into stopping these idiots. It is high time that the terrorists were stopped and that events like this were respected for the good that they bring to the people of the world.

New Olympic Facilities in Beijing...and Censorship

2008-03-05T22:53:00.001-08:00

The 2008 summer Olympic Games are upon us. Almost. And befitting of the timing, this week, the Chinese government gave tours of the new olympic housing facilities to the media. While spartan by normal standards, I am sure that compared to the normal chinese home that these temporary housing units for the athletes are better than many of those used by every day Chinese.

Running water is the hot item and definitely a must have when you are living in a dormitory type situation and competing on the highest level there is for athletics. But that brings us to the one item which the Chinese are not being so open about.

Internet access and transmissions apparently will be available but will be subject to the same stringent safeguards as the official government line says. What this means is that those athletes who plan on blogging their experiences will find that their words are being scrutinized by people who agenda it is to prevent any dissension among its people.

Free speech which is enjoyed in many countries is not enjoyed by the most populous nation on the earth and will not be enjoyed by any of the athletes coming to beijing this summer. Those who have politically tuned blogs will particularly need to be wary of the censors and would more likely be better off doing a daily journal and posting those to the blog once they leave China.

A more interesting way would be to post to the blog and then when they get home, post the real materials. It will be particularly interesting to find out what the government feels is worthy of their time and efforts. Any one care to take this one on?

The Olympics as a Political Tool

2008-02-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

In 1980, my father and a friend of mine were both Olympic hopefuls who were ready to compete for honor and glory for their countries in the biggest and grandest of the athletic stages.

My father was an archer of some renown and had worked for 4 years of his life to become one of the best in the world. I can remember tournaments where the weather was freezing temperatures and sleet and snow and rain and all he did was shoot.

On the same lines, my friend was one of the best discus and shot putters in the world at the time. He had worked all of his young life towards the goal of the olympic games. It was supposed to be his crowning achievement.

Then, some fat assed politicians in Washington D.C. started screaming up and down about politics and decided that we shouldn't support the Russian olympics. All because they were a communist country and didn't agree with our idea of politics and democracy. Then Jimmy Carter decided the US would not be attending the olympic games. All because of politics. We have had olympic games in the middle of the most obnoxious of political situations but the athletes disassociated themselves from it for the most part.

Everyone seems to forget that it is the athletes who are important here, not the b.s. politicians. It is the crowning glory for those athletes who have dedicated their years, blood and sweat to the goal of being crowned olympic champion.

Now the same fat asses in D.C. are at it again. A campaign to get people to turn off the TV because of Burma is under way (http://uscampaignforburma.org/8808-beijing-olympics-campaign). What these people seem to forget once again is that the Olympic Games is not a political game or a political stage. It is an athletic competition. Of course, these are the same folks who would show up and protest at a children's soccer game or baseball game.

In 1980, when Carter cancelled the Olympics for the US team, my father turned pro. He never watched another minute of olympic sports and he voted for Reagan. Why? Well, he said he was fed up with the Olympics being used for everyones political agenda. He was an athlete and now here I am 27 years later looking at the way people play politics with athletes, and nothing has changed.

As for my friend who was the discus thrower, he competed for a few more years before health issues over took his life. As for 1984, he was retired a year or so by then. But neither were interested in their sports on the amateur level due to the politicians.

I remember all these events like they happened yesterday. They had a profound effect on my life and the way I believe. It also led me to believing that you compete where ever you are and you accept those of other faith's countries, religions and you compete in the name of SPORT!

Thus I say to you who would support groups like that one mentioned above; Leave us athletes out of your agenda's. It s really not cool and while we support many of your causes on a personal level, don't make our sports part of those causes as they are not related. We are athletes first and last and friends and fellow competitors, no matter what country we compete for. Just because we are from that country, it does not make us part of the government of the particular country.

Post Script: Don't misunderstand me here, or even bother questioning my patriotism as I am as red-white-and-blue as they come. Since my family has a 400 year history in the US, I am not inclined to listen to nay-sayers. But I am also not a politician and sure as hell don't want a politician telling me who and where, or against whom I can or cannot compete. As an athlete I want to compete against the best, whoever or wherever they are. That is the creed of most athletes I know.

Microsoft getting slammed left and right

2008-02-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of weeks, Microsoft has gotten slammed from both sides of the water on a variety of topics. But is it all warranted?

Over the years, many people have come to hate those up in Redmond, including most of the Apple world. Anytime there is a problem in the online world, it seems that everyone starts pointing at Microsoft or Bill Gates. Well, Bill gates is gone supposedly now and Microsoft is trying to play nice with the open source world that they have long stepped on with every turn of the hat.

Now the European Union has stepped on them with the largest judgement against any company ever. The EU courts has fined Microsoft 889 million for dragging their feet on changes that were mandated by the same court in 2004. Developers in Europe have long suffered at the hands of Microsoft and now the high fees MS charged the developers is coming back to haunt them again.

Also California courts decided this week that a class action suit against Microsoft could proceed. The case which contend thats the Vista Ready label on machines was misleading. Many of the machines so labeled could run no better than the Vista Basic version of the operating system. Since Microsoft dictates what constitutes Vista Ready, they are now a target.

Now with these high profile cases happening, many of the good things that Microsoft does on a daily basis get over looked. And it is no wonder since the cases are extreme and unfortunately warranted, it will take a while before the good things get looked at again.

The fruits of Star Wars

2008-02-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

No, I am not talking about that 1977 movie that is the favorite of every one I knew as a junior high school student back then. It is the big budget extravaganza, paid for by all of us American tax payers during the Reagan years. You remember, first called Star Wars, then the Missile Defense Shield and these days, a budget breaker.

Oh but wait, we can salvage part of it by taking chancy pot shots as a derelict satellite. For a mere 60 million dollars, we get to shoot one missile at one satellite. All of course because the fuel on board is toxic and we dont know where its going to land. Thats right folks, we still cant predict where it will land.

That then leads us to the real story, NSA Decides technology on board is risk to National Security. Thats right, the satellite we are talking about is the most advanced, and top secret satellite that the military has ever launched. We surely dont want that landing in the Chinese back yard intact.

(yeah, right! Who are we kidding. By the time the thing went through the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, it would be more useful to a scrap dealer than a technology stealing scientist).

Oh and wait, there is a show stopper. We have the shuttle Atlantis at the international space station and cant risk losing another shuttle. So we better land it first. (DUH!....You think?)

I wonder who writes this stuff for the guys in the press room at NASA these days. it is funnier than Space Balls. And yet, we are paying for this folks. Do they honestly believe that the fuel will not ignite in 60 miles of 25,000 MPH burn out? Get real. Let it drop, quite trying to one up the Chinese, and let the Atronauts at the ISS do their jobs and come home. Number one, quit wasting or tax payer dollars NASA and get on to Mars and the real science.

Are we there yet?

2008-02-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

Over the past several days, I have watched endless hours on CNN of people crunching numbers on the US primary elections. While, I don't mind all of the information overload from a statistical knowledge point, it seems to me that a good bit of news is getting severely left out on a daily basis that has just as much bearing on the world as these elections.

Each day, the idea of who is winning seems to change. I can remember just a couple months back when Fred Thompson was the leading man and he wasn't even in the race. Then he started to run and then faltered in spite of announcing his candidacy on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. All the popularity of that show didn't help him one bit and now he is gone.

Then there was another half dozen candidates that dropped out of the races including Rudy Giuliani and Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, probably three of the more popular people in the race and then came our Mormon friend, Mitt Romney, whose faith second campaign didn't deal him any better hand. But did you know that in spite of what the national news would have you believe, there actually are still 7 candidates on the trail for the white house.

On the Democratic side, there is Mike Gravel and on the republican side, we have Ron Paul and also Alan Keyes. But like any popularity contest, these minor candidates dont get the money, the coverage or the votes and eventually their names will be dropped from the hat like yesterday's news.

So we are left with A Freshman Senator, a former First Lady and current Senator, A Preacher and former governor, and of course, John McCain. Well, I guess I just let the cat out of the bag who I am endorsing for president. But does it really matter who I endorse? I see the news making waves about who other people are endorsing but then again, they have money machines that I just don't have as a blogger and web master.

And of course, there is the wow factor. When Florida's governor and California's Governor stood up there and announced their picks, everyone tuned in. Hopefully, no one from the main stream media will give my endorsement much more than a passing glance. If not, then we are in a real hurt for news. Which brings me back to where I started before this road trip got a bit long.

The news being reported is not necessarily the news. it is what the people at CNN and the money folks want you to see. It is not that there are blizzards in India, monsoons in Madagascar, problems with Marines raping local girls in Okinawa, or even the storms hitting the US. These stories all seem to magically disappear anytime that there is the least bit of politics involved in a story that runs counter to what the news outlets want to show. I am sure Oprah supporting Obama is important, but then so is the fact that tornados destroyed towns in the US and our young men and women are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I am glad we do place such importance in our choice of leaders in America. But I will be glad when we are there and we start putting the other stories that are important back where they belong.

Iran tests rocket. West reacts.

2008-02-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

Iran tested a rocket today, causing severe concerns among western allied countries. While Iran has said that this type of rocket will be used to launch their first home grown satellite Omid (Hope), The US government has sad that the same technology could be used to build long range ballistic missiles and Nuclear capable missiles.

While this is not the first time that Iran has tried to join the big 5 in the space race, it is the first time that they have built up the ballyhoo to go with the launch. Unfortunately for them, their claims of peaceful science surrounding the launch are being met with sever skepticism due to their involvement in the Iraq war. Also Iranian president Ahmadinejad's public displays of hatred for western countries is not helping their cause.

Back in the 1990's everyone knew Iran was working towards satellite launching capabilities as it was widely reported in the media and they had fairly open reporting on the launches. However with this new government, the country has once again gone back to the style that was prevalent during the tenure of Khomeini. I guess the idea of hating America is fashionable again so everyone is jumping on board as quick as they can.

Only time will tell if they are truly developing this technology for peaceful purposes, however, one would not want to see countries suddenly bombed with nukes just because some despot like Ahmanainejad decides he doesnt like ssomething that was said by a government of another country.

Steve Jobs looses $354 Million since Mac World

2008-01-25T06:01:00.000-08:00

Acording to a reports in Forbes (http://tinyurl.com/338ukj), Steve jobs has lost a total of $354 million between his holdings in Apple and Disney. While his salary at Apple is just a single dollar, it is well known that his benefits over the years have been very high market range, including a 90 million dollar jet, shares in the company and other CEO type goodies.

While I dont think anyone is going to cry yet, it is kind of funny to see someone such as Steve Jobs lose more money in a single day than the average company makes in a year in total sales.

Real Space Flight Anyone?

2008-01-24T07:57:00.000-08:00

Virgin Galactic has unveiled the latest space ship that will carry passengers to sub-orbital flight. Could it lead further? Richard Branson sure seems to think so in this video

Yahoo Publisher Network...Holier than thou???

2008-01-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

Last month, Google had it's latest round of rehashing the Adsense network. So we started to look at other options. One option that recently opened up was Yahoo's service. So we applied. The response we got back was not one that we expected.

Dear William,

Thank you for applying for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. We have reviewed your request and we regret to inform you that you were not accepted into the program. As the program is currently in beta, we are accepting a very limited number of new publishers. We will keep your contact information on file and let you know when we launch to the general public, or if we are able to invite you to join the beta before then. To maximize your chances for approval in the future, please make sure:
You have a valid U.S. Social Security or Tax ID number, and web site content that is predominately in English and targeted at a U.S. user base.
Your site provides a good user experience. Please see our complete list of guidelines for a positive user experience here.
Your site does not contain problematic content. Please see our guidelines for displaying our ad results here.
Thanks again for your interest. We look forward to welcoming you into our program when it is open to the public.

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! Publisher Network Team

Now I dont know about you, but if this were my staff putting out letters to customers, I would highly recommend that they dont call the potential customers stupid. But that apparently is foreign to what Yahoo is doing. They not only seem to imply that either we are foreigners (we are all Americans in the company), that we produce web sites that are problematic, or that our web sites do not give the users anything.

Well, being the hot head that I can be when insulted, I immediately fired off a letter back to their corporate staff. I am hoping that I am not alone in this but it seems to me that shooting down the exact people that Yahoo is trying to get as customers is definitely not the best tactic. It appears that they are headed the same route as their failed Auctions site with this one.

The Macworld Expo Keynote

2008-01-16T03:16:00.000-08:00

One notable item this year from the Macworld Expo keynote was the Internet. The Internet, you might ask? Yes, the Internet. Or in other words how the Internet and a dozen major web sites around the globe were brought to their knee.

Large operations such as Engadget, Macworld, Twitter and a host of others were all useless. I was only able to get a reliable fix from CNET, and I dont even like them but they were they only thing I could get onto.

But now that is is over, you can watch one of the following versions of the keynote. The long one or the short one

For users desiring the long one:

The Macworld 2008 Keynote Speech

For those who dont want to take all day to find out what went on, you can check out this one.

The Macworld 2008 Keynote Speech in 90 seconds!

While the goodies they produced are quite nice, there really was sort of a dead ending to the whole keynote. I was waiting, as were many other people, for the "One more thing" speech that they were going to bring out the real meat of the keynote. But then, that never happened so we were stuck here holding nothing but the Air.

Are we there yet?

2008-01-14T21:53:00.000-08:00

It sounds like something your kids might say to you when you are driving the 2000 miles to grandmas house. But this is no trip to Grandmas. After 50 years of the Space Race, we have no men on the moon permanently, no moon base, no mars exploration and certainly no 18 month trip to Jupiter as depicted in the books and movies 2001 and 2010.

It almost makes you want to ask NASA the proverbial question, "Are we there yet?" But of course, now they are pushing plans back due to internal issue and conflicts of interest in plans. To the outside viewer, it looks like a three ring circus. To the media, it is more fodder for the anti-NASA people who want the government agency shut down. And to the space advocate, it is just an absolute disaster.

Originally, we were supposed to have a huge space station in orbit. We have lifted little more than a 3 bedroom apartment. Problems with parts and software keep the shuttles grounded. Losing a shuttle or two also does not help matters. It keeps everyone going in circles. What happened to the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo era "Can Do" type attitude that everyone in the programs had.

In spite of the failures, we still got things up there and managed to go all the way to the moon and back. Today, I doubt we could get a box car halfway down a hill with the way the program is run. Its just that bad. Space is no longer the sought after materials for the school children. In the 1960's and 1970's, if you asked a kid what they wanted to be when they grew up, a good percentage would say Astronaut. Now we cant even get kids interested in the sciences so the percentage of qualified applicants has waned to a point of near disaster.

If nothing is done with NASA to kick them in the seat of the pant, we could lose out on the technological advantage that has driven America for the last 100 years. The Japanese and the Chinese are now the ones pursuing the moon and doing very well with it I might add. We need to get the "Go fever" back and take the chances. Take the risks and get the people there and back.

Whoever becomes the next vice president will have a hard job of putting some pride back in the program at NASA and if he or she cant get the President on board, it will be an absolute that NASA will no longer exist as we know it within 10 years.

The Human Side of Sports Hoopla

2008-01-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

Over the past several years, many who have watched the game for professional football have come to either hate or love Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys. They have written about him in the media, announced things about him in the news programs and even had long discussions on programs that banter about the sports items of the day. The one thing no one had said about the man was that he was human. Until Now.

Today, after the Dallas Cowboys lost their game to the New York Giants, a blubbering and sniffling Terrell Owens defended not only his quarterback, Tony Romo, but also mentioned the word team in almost the same sentence. While this would not be news with anyone else just about, it is note worthy because Terrell has been criticized for not being a team player.

His whole battle with the Philadelphia Eagles players and management as well as his antics when he was in San Francisco made him the dorr mat for every sports talk show host in America. Everyone loved to hate him and blamed all of the problems the teams were having on him.

Today he had 4 catches for 49 yards and a touchdown, yet was unable to show everyone that he was the man and the reason they were winning. And as he said in the post game interviews, "we lost as a team." I almost dare anyone to say something bad about him tomorrow as they will be barking up a tree which will have very few branches of followers after the display by T.O. today.

I think T.O. showed what it is about the sport that all who play and watch it love. There is the good times when you win as a team and everyone looks like they could be on the level of God himself, and then there are the times where you lose and look for answers. Today, I think the answers weren't what mattered. It was the fact that a man who has been accused of being one of the most selfish men on the planet showed not only humility, compassion, and a sense of team but also that he showed us that he isnt superman and might actually be classified as human.

Our Fascination with the Celebrities

2008-01-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

Over the past five years, I have had to endure absolutely pointless news broadcasts concerning the lives of celebrities. CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and especially FOX all are guilty of broadcasting these pointless stories of the fall from grace of people like OJ Simpson and Britney Spears.

Things like Dar fur and Iraq, Lebanon, Burma, and Afghanistan have all taken a back seat to this stories that serve no purpose other than to further help destroy a life that needs no help in being destroyed in the first place. Just look particularly at the downfall of Britney.

Of course, the news companies believe tht their main audiences are bored house wives who have nothing better to do than watch this garbage. While the stories do gain some eyeballs, it does nothing for the average highly intellectual person who want to sit down and relax after a day of work and get a bit of news. Or maybe I am wxing nostalgic to the lost era of the 1950's to 1970's.

But we continue on. While I don't think celebrities deserve special treatment, you have to wonder where we draw the line. When does a situation become a Lady Di situation in which people are hurt, maimed or even killed. The over zealousness of the paparazzi is well known. And while this was only driven in the past by tabloid papers which most people didn't read, we are now forced to watch it as part of our evening news casts.

What would Walter Cronkite, Ed Bradley or Edwin Murrow have done? I dont think that for a minute that they would have even considered announcing anything like this. They would have laughed and said "find me a real story". CNN even fired announcer Aaron Brown, a well respected news caster for not being dramatic enough last year. Now his replacement, Anderson Cooper, does nothing but spend way too much time on these garbage stories. Their new statement is that they do "Distinctive Reporting" but the only thing distinctive is the self serving crap that these stations are putting out as "News".

And so I say to these big news companies. Get the garbage stories off the news and give us the real stories. Start focusing on the things that really matter and the stories that are worthy of our time.

The new face of advertising on the Internet

2008-01-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

Over the years, there have been fads come and go in Internet advertising. Each generation of the web seems to have its own methodology associated with it. The latest methodologies have been floatin ads, ads that open on mouse over, complete page ads and then load the site, or even peel back ads. But none of these methodologies allowed the web site owner to make sure that all customers saw the ad. I have personally used both Amazon and Google Adsense for ads on my sites.

That has now changed with audio ads or Pay per Play as it is known The audio ads play for 5 seconds and then are gone. But the nice thing is that the web site owner gets paid for each ad rather thn having to count on click throughs for the ad. It plays on site loading as you heard when you loaded this page. I am assuming that the blank air is because their service will not start officially until 1 February 2008.

Will this be the next fad in advertising or will this just be another passing fancy. One can only wonder but from what I have seen so far, I like the idea. Of course there are the purists out there who will argue that the web site should not force the ads onto their users. The nice thing about this is that the ad will not take over the page, only plays for 5 seconds and then is gone forever. No bulky ads that keep popping open or that obscure the page.

We will just have to see if the ads pay enough to actually be worth the time and the effort or whether it will be another lame attempt to monetize the web. (Hopefully it will be the former).

URLS Listed in this article

Pay Per Play (http://sellingppp.com/a.cgi?ppp=1200929766)
Google Ad Sense (http://adsense.google.com)

RIAA and their henchmen

2008-01-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years we have heard time and time again how the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has gone after 9 year olds and grand mothers and house wives and any other person they could. Each time I have seen them go after someone, it was always someone who was too weak to fight. They have made millions off the tactic of scaring ordinary folks who hardly know computers much less know music sharing into believing that they were a governmental agency that could send them to jail.

The only time they seem to blinkis when someone with money and good lawyers fights them (as in the case of the University of Oregon). Now they have taken to sending out scare letters or pre-lawsuit letters to 23 universities around the country. The only thing this is likely to do is to fly back in their faces.

EMI, is also reviewing their funding (see http://mashable.com/2008/01/11/emi-and-riaa-to-call-it-quits-me-thinks-no/) but is unlikely to pull it according to this article on mashable. While I can understand the need for artists to get paid for their work, the majority of artists never get a dime hardly from the big companies. RCA never paid my father for his album but made decent money back in the 1960's from it. That has not changed in spite of it being 50 years later. The companies make billions.

What needs to happen is for the RIAA to go away and the artists to see their wares in the way that Motorhead did.. Take to the Internet and let people download it and pay what they think it is worth. Real fans will always pay (One reason I have every Pink Floyd Album ever made).

If the RIAA doesnt go away and the courts continue to give them carte blanche on the lawsuits, there will be a complete collapse of the industry and the court systems. (and possibly the internet music scene).

The NFL Coaches Dance

2008-01-11T04:15:00.000-08:00

I never got an invite to the ball, then then again, I am still playing the game. The NFL coaches though seem to perform this annual ritual called the NFL Coaches Shuffle with the grace of a herd of bulls in a china shop. Every rumor is followed by another and rarely contains any substance.

Coaches with impeccable records are fired, and those with horrible records are extended and then there are those that don't have to have the door shown to them. They just know as in the case of Joe Gibbs.

With teams out of the playoffs clamoring for their next coach, the speculation and the rumors and the meetings and interviews fly like grains of rice thrown at a wedding. The amount of pomp and fan fare is about the same. Names come and go. Retired guys, Other teams guys, college guys and even the occasional no-name from the middle of nowhere.

You would think with the amount of money that is thrown around, this would not be the pulling teeth that it seems to be each year. Who will Atlanta hire? Who will Washington hire? Who will Miami Hire? Who cares!! Call us when it is over because this daily speculation, new conferences rejections and everything else associated gets really boring.

Personally all I want to see if who is going to win this weekends games. The guys playing in them deserve more of the spot light. They worked hard to get there and now this coaching shuffle is over shadowing the players and their accomplishments.

So for this weekend, I have Seattle over Green Bay, Giants over Dallas, Chargers over Indianapolis and Patriots over the Jaguars. Not because it really matters. Just because CoachBart (twitter) took the other 4 and we have a little rivalry after my Seahawks beat his Redskins last week.

What's up Apple's Sleeves?

2008-01-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

The speculation about what Macword Expo will bring from the mouth of Steve Jobs and the great machine that is Apple, Inc. While in past years, we have had sites like Think Secret to darn near announce the product for Apple, we no longer have that after the lawsuit with Apple. So it is now left up to the rest of us techno junkies to figure out what they will announce.

One item of speculation over the past 6 months has been the possibility of Apple introducing a sub-notebook. While the 13" MacBook is a nice machine, it is still heavy and bulky when compared to the little notebooks offered on the PC side by Toshiba and Sony.

I figure they have something of the sort up their sleeve as they dumped all their junk over board the week before (8 core machine, etc). But if this year is anything like last years MWE and WWDC, then there may be a revolt in the palace. MWE brought the empty basket and wait until spring thing and then WWDC brought the "You dont need an iPhone SDK" speech. I am sure they have to be planning something that will allow them to recover some of the glory of past years or is this Steve's way of saying that Apple will announce their products on their timeline and not on the MWE timeline?

Also, supposedly in the works is the lastest version of the iTouch and the iPhone. While one can only speculate, you would have to imagine that at some point Apple will have to introduce the G3 / GSM capable iPhones in the US. Especially before they try and introduce their product to the Japanese market which GSM will not work in.

But then the day approaches. We will all have to wait and see what Apple really introduces but for my money I am betting the farm on at least the Sub-Notebook. I will wait on the iPhone until the Japan release no matter what as I want the kanji input method on my iPhone so I can send Japanese notes as well as english ones.

Goodbye Bill Gates....Or so he says....

2008-01-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

Over the years, we have all come to either love or hate Bill Gates. Much of the hate was based on the fact that he had managed to become the richest man in the universe in the life span of many of those around him. And now that he has come to the end of his time with Microsoft, the company the he and Paul Allen started in 1976, many are beginning to ask "What Next"?

Well, for starters, we will all have to put up with Steve Ballmer from now on. Not only is he more hated or loved by those around him, he doesn't seem to care about whether people love or hate him. The only person he really cares about is Steve Jobs, the man he most likely loathes more than the devil himself.

Then again, the love-hate relationship between Cupertino and Redmond has always been at the forefront of the technology world. Just look at the way in which Office Mac 2008 has been released. No fanfare, no applause, not even hardly a press release. Most of the mass media didn't even pick up on the release and unless you dug into Apple's web site, you wouldn't have even noticed it.

We did however, dig around and did find the new office product. And in true Apple-Microsoft tradition, there will be the lovers of the product and the haters because it is a Microsoft product running on the Apple. Oh but wait, Microsoft always has had a product that ran on Apple's ever since SoftCard CP/M and The Language Card for the Apple II series computers. Yet people still hate Microsoft and still for some unknown reason hate their products. But is it really Just Bill Gates that they hate? I am not sure but since Bill Gates says he is leaving, there might be hope for a truce. But then again with Steve Ballmer in the wings, probably not.

Do we say goodbye for good, or will he likely appear in almost every talk show on technology or become some goodwill ambassador in the way that Bono has done? Or will the two of them appear together almost everywhere you go? You can almost bet on it as they both are involved in philanthropy to the extreme and don't seem to be slowing down.

And if you don't believe that he is gone, just check out the following video and let me know if you still think he will have his hands in Microsoft after this one.

Is the tech bubble coming to an end?

2008-01-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years, we have seen once again the rise of the enormous beast that is the Technology Stock Bubble. But as in 2001, we are beginning to see signs that all is not well in wonderland.

Over the past week, Google has lost two high profile executives. Not because they went somewhere else, but because they got out, got their money and ran. Now they dont have to work another day in their lives really.

Before that several other companies lost people to one thing or another. It seems that Google, Amazon, and Yahoo are no longer must have jobs. The job listings seem to get longer and the wait to get hired longer, so many people on the outside are looking elsewhere. But if the people on the inside are also looking elsewhere, it means that something must be coming that none of us can really fore see.

A downturn in the market one might ask? Well, the bubble has run 7 years from the last downturn when all of the stocks hit rock bottom. And with technology companies being worth as much or more than traditional manufacturing companies, it is time to look at the possibility that within the next year or so, we could be looking at 2000/2001 all over again.

While I am no expert in financial matters, I do know that when the rats start to leave the ship it must be sinking.

The Power of the pen (and the blog)

2008-01-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

Over the years that I have written, I have never underestimated the power that the pen (and the computer) had over our lives and the lives of those around us. Once in a while, we need a reminder of that power and today I got one that I was rather surprised at.

Many have protested the war, many more have fought war and many more of us have sat on the sidelines not outwardly expressing our opinions. Having been a Marine Corps contractor, I have known many who have served our country, known at least one who gave his life for the country. They all served with the pride and the candor that made them marines. Not once, did I hear one of them complain that the war was a dis-service to them or hear them disrespect any part of the country.

It probably never occurs to the ordinary man what I am talking about when I say they served with candor. After reading Andy Olmsted's posthumous blog post, it became even clearer. For those who would like, you can find it at:

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/01/andy-olmsted.html

The one common theme in hist blog post which brings it all home is his thought that he fought for his own reasons. Not someone elses. For those who don't understand that, well it would take me far too long to try and explain it, not that I would ever pretend I could but it just brings me back to my original point.

Remember what you write. And in remembering, be sure not to write that which might be construed as flame or hate. But always write in the true spirit of journalism of telling and exposing the truth to the world. (And if you cant tell the truth, lie humourously and make people happy.)

Longevity in Sports and the Toll

2007-12-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

I reached my 43rd birthday this last August, 1 week into my 2007 football season. Not as a coach but as a player. Most of the guys I played against in the 1990's are gone. There is only one player in the league that even remembers the 1991 JPFF Spring Tournament who is still playing besides myself.

One might ask, how does one keep playing or better yet, why? and why do I mention myself and those who I played against or with. For starters, I have been blessed enough with the longevity and health with which I continue to play. As to the issues associated with such longevity, I only started thinking about this them when I was feeling bothered by the fact that I was out of the game I loved from 2001 to 2005. It was a game and a sport that I had given my heart and soul to (don't take this bit the wrong way. The man upstairs still has control over my soul). While we play because we love the game, the professionals do not. They are paid entertainers. Notice that I did not say highly paid entertainers, in spite of the fact that many are. Most players do not have the high multi-million dollar contracts. they play for the league minimums or less if they are on the practice squads.

And while there have been several NFL players have been in their forties when they retired, most have been in their twenties and thirties. Unfortunately the toll the older players paid has been great. Reggie white retired at age 42 and was dead at age 43. Lyle Alzado tried to come back at age 41 but was dead at age 42 from brain cancer. There have been others who died in their forties including the great Walter Payton at age 45. Kenny Easly of the Seattle Seahawks had to retire because of a sudden onset of a kidney ailment at the prime of his career. And it does not seem to get any better.

Is their a reason for this and the other debilitating injuries suffered by those who play the game of football or other hard physical sports? One might say that the constant banging would do it, but then how do you explain those who live out their lives to a ripe old age and die of natural causes? And the problems are not limited to Football but are certainly much more in the limelight due to the high profile of football in the U.S..

There could be several explanations for the problems including depression when the player retires, dementia caused by brain damage from the pounding, or even the possibility that the players were more debilitated by the issue of drugs in sport, particularly HGH and Steroids. Also if each hit is the equivalent to a 60 MPH car crash, well, it has been proven that high speed car crashes can take years off a person's life span.

But while we want to blame something, the sports which benefit greatly from the contributions of these players, give little to nothing to the research and care of those players issues. Finally in 2007, in an effort led by the Chicago Bear's great coach of the 1980's, Mike Ditka, there is some money flowing to the care of former players. But this is just a drop in the barrel when it is compared to the billions in profits that the teams and team owner have made from these players.

If more is not done to research why these players from all hard physical sports are having the issues and dying as young as many of them are, we will wind up with hundreds and thousands of these players in the future who will be no better off than the disabled veterans who live on the street. We are only remembering them in the past few years with the aid they need and we need to start taking a more serious approach towards this issue.

Perfection in the world of sports

2007-12-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

The title Perfect only comes along every so often so when it happens, you have to savor the moment, and congratulate the group that has accomplished that perfection. And then we come to the NFL.

The 2007 version of the New England Patriots has accomplished what only one other team has done. They have gone through the entire regular season without losing. Of course, the 1972 Miami Dolphins went on to win the Super Bowl. What will this group do has yet to have been seen. Will they go on and will the hallowed Lombardi Trophy or will they falter in their quest to become the ultimate in perfection. Only the next month in time will tell us the answer to this question.

At 16-0, the Patriots have more than become the best of the regular season. They are the only team to win every game since its expansion of teams and games. But did they do it legitimately or was there something in their bag of tricks which was not legal according to the rules of the game?

Who knows for sure, but of course, this season will not be without those will will say that they have been spying on all the other teams. The Spy Gate scandal which started the season off in a negative effect will have lingering words to be written about what really happened. Was it real or was it just a ploy to rowl up people and the rhetoric that surrounds NFL games and teams on a weekly basis.

Who knows but for the sake of the New Englad Patriots, I sincerely hope they do win it all because if they dont, they will become the best team that never won the Super Bowl.

Burger King Returns To japan

2007-12-06T05:40:00.000-08:00

I guess I missed the memo or something because I just discovered that Burger King, the company that was nearly bankrupted by their venture in Japan, have once again returned to Japan but in a much smaller capacity.

Their new web site at http://www.burgerkingjapan.co.jp shows 5 locations instead of the 190 some that they opened back in the 1990's here. The one great thing about them was there actually was a location at my local station but the thing that killed them in the first go around besides over extending themselves was their prices. In a country where the Big Mac is 260 yen, no one is willing to pay 380 yen for a whopper, much less 390 yen for the new version. Prices are everything here and it appears that they just cant get them down.

But now with the smaller operation, hopefully they will last longer than the eight to ten months that they lasted the first time. I know that I will head into Ikebukuro tomorrow to test them out and get my beloved double whopper.

A time for everything

2007-11-13T18:06:00.000-08:00

I recently found out that a long time friend is dying of cancer. Unfortunately, this struck close to home as my own father died of cancer 3 years ago and his girlfriend died the year before that and his sister the year before that. This is something that strikes so many people that you would think that more efforts would be made to find a way to cure cancer.

Unfortunately, the common theme among cancer patients is that the doctors all recommend radical radiation therapy. However, the side effects of this sometimes can be even more devastating than the disease itself. In my father's case, he would be down and out for three to five days after each session. It was enough to make him not want to do it any more.

There has to be a better way than radiating oneself to the point of being dead. One friend of mine had decent results with herbal remedies and is still living after 9 years with the disease. But I am sure that this is not a catch all for cancer curing. But there needs to be more research into the herbal and the chemical cures. One can only hope that it is in time to save more families loved ones and friends.

CNN Censoring Broadcasts

2007-10-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Its kind of funny how a news report tends to upset people. I was watching AC 360 today on CNNj, which is Japan's broadcast arm of CNN. During the 11:00am hour broad cast there was a news report on Baby Gap clothing being made by child slave labor. Then during the 12:00 noon broadcast of the report, they put up a blackout screen saying that the broadcast was being blocked due to copyright issues about 30 seconds into the report.

What gives? Has CNN begun allowing censorship whole scale? Is there Japanese Government interference into the broadcasts and are they blocking other things. Or is this CNN just trying to protect businesses in other countries where they dont have the consumer laws we have in the US.

Either way, it is blatant censorship and really needs to be brought to light. I guess this is just one more thing which adds fuel to the fire of the conspiracy theory folks!

Where's the beef?

2007-10-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

That is the question that people were asking Steve Jobs during WWDC this past summer. As an attendee of the popular developers conference, myself and about 5000 other folks were extremely disappointed when Steve choose to say, "You dont need a developers kit for the iPhone!"

This statement by the CEO of Apple, Inc. not only gave the entire conference a start, but made the phrase, "you could hear a pin drop", come to fruition. It was one of the most disappointing announcements in a conference which cost over $1300 USD just to become an attendee not to mention the other $1200 for hotel and flight to San Francisco.

Maybe we have come to expect too much of Apple, but then again, that does not explain the flip flop where Steve is now saying "you do need an SDK". Apparently, Apple is releasing an SDK which will be available sometime around the 1 February 2008 time frame. While I am sure there are those in the Apple community who are jumping for joy, this is one developer who is still miffed at the fact that Steve totally dissed all of the 5000 plus people who paid the $1300 USD per person just to get into WWDC 2007.

All I can say at this point is, "Way to go Steve!" But dont expect my money next year or the year after. I will save it for a new iPod or iMac or something substantial, rather than paying to have my hopes quashed again in San Francisco. Its no wonder, I had to leave my hear there, it got broken!

Don Imus to get 2nd Chance

2007-10-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

I saw a report on CNN this morning that Don Imus was close to completing contract negotiations with ABC radio. Too many people think that he doesn't deserve a 2nd chance. Well is that is the case, then 90% of the American population would probably be isolated.

Not only did Don Imus apologize, but then Rev. Sharpton took it upon himself to call for the ouster of the popular radio host. It just makes me wonder, who made Mr. Sharpton the judge for all situations. Also does he really believe that he is so perfect that every thing he says is law?

Don Imus will get his chance, and there will always be those who don't like it. But in my book, I say that there should always be those who dont like it. It keeps the program going and provides talking points.

Marion Jones -- Sprinter, Steroid Baby!

2007-10-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

This week, after all of the years of denial, Marion Jones finally admitted that she had used steroids. While she had maintained that she had never used even though her ex-huspand, Shot putter C.J. Hunter had tested positive and been suspended.

Now there is the possibility that others besides her will have to surrender hard earned medals thanks to her selfishness. Who knows what all those poor girls who were on relay teams with her in 2000 are thinking now.

Not only had Marion sued anyone who even hinted at her having used steroids. The fact that she screamed loudly when people pointed fingers must seem prophetic now. Each time she barely escaped, she would almost disappear from sprinting. But now she is back and very likely will be suspended for the 2 years that is normally given to cheats. I just pray for those others who have become entrapped by her. May the committees that govern track and field not take away from their performances.

Family in Space

2007-10-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Back in the early 1970's, Owen Garriott was a member of the NASA astronaut core and was one of the few men to spend time on the Sky Lab Space Station. While this fact may not seem like it is that important, it is when it comes to the next Space Tourist to the International Space Station.

Unfortunately, we all know Richard Garriott at Lord British, the creator of the Ultima series of adventure games. But, according to Space Adventures, Inc., Richard is due to go up on the next Soyuz launch for staff replacement at the Space Station.

This will be the first time that two people from the same family have spent time in space. It is coming around full circle for the garriott's and hopefully it will come full circle for many families in the future. But for now, we have to be happy for these two who will share an uncommon bond.

Hypocrites in U.S. Soccer

2007-09-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Last week, Greg Ryan, the coach of the U.S. womens world cup team, made probably the biggest bone-headed mistake in the history of the game. He replaced his goalie, Hope Solo, who had won every game to date, with Brianna Scurry who had not played a single minute in the entire tournament.

This change led to a 4-0 drubbing of the U.S. women at the hands of a team that had never won the world cup, Brazil. The fact that Brianna Scurry allowed the U.S. team to take the worst beating in the 22 year history of women's world cup soccer lens nothing to her credibility and legacy which should have ended in 2004.

Taking nothing away from Brazil's play, it is the decision of Greg Ryan which created one of the biggest maelstroms in sporting history. After the match, Hope Solo spoke with the media, criticizing both Ryan and Scurry's play. While this might seem out of place and according to some, unacceptable, people are quick to forget that Scurry did the same thing in 2004. However the reaction was very different.

Now the U.S. team has isolated Hope Solo and doesnt even want to ride home in the same airplane with her. This type of reaction shows the type of team mates she has. People who are not only pompous asses, but also very vindictive little witches. Instead of accepting Hope Solo's apology a day later, they choose to cast her out and treat her exactly like they would in Communist China.

It is embarrassing that the team from the country which exposes free speech and freedom of press, is more akin to a pack of out of control witch hunters and Stalinist types. Maybe she should have been taken out and executed. Maybe that would have placated these sniveling little girls.

I for one will not be watching the U.S. womens soccer team until the wrongs done in China are corrected. Yes, Hope threw her coach and her team mate under the bus. But they definitely deserved it. And the way her team mates reacted is nothing more than mob law and wholely unacceptable.

The Tasering of Free Speech

2007-09-18T03:39:00.000-07:00

Today, Free Speech was once and for all killed in America. No longer can you question the leaders without actually being arrested and possibly being held down and tasered. But this is not something out of an Orwellian dream. It is real life.

A University of Florida journalism student, Andrew Meyer, asked former presidential candidate, John Kerry several questions before the mele began. When he asked Mr. Kerry a question that was a bit edgy, the forum staff cut the microphone and police tried to remove him.

In spite of there being four police involved in the arrest, they still had to hold him down and taser Mr. Meyer, inspite of the fact that the whole time, he was asking for help and asking on what grounds he was being removed. (Can you say Rodney King Beating all over again?).

While most people expected him to be simply handcuffed and removed, no one in the world was prepared for the scream that this man let out while being tasered and you can hear people in the video screaming to stop. All the while, Mr. Kerry is continuing on as if nothing is happening.

Several reports I have read on the incident have said that Mr. Meyer started a riot, but the only thing that I saw starting a riot was the over zealousness of four university police who will now have to answer for the actions. Obviously, the university will clear them of all wrong doing, but I am sure that when the ACLU gets their hands on this one, those police will no longer have jobs. And I am sure the University of Florida will be a few million dollars lighter in the budget for their programs.

If these ridiculous charges against Mr. Meyer are not dropped outright, expect a long drawn out lawsuit to pop up someday soon. I am sure the students who were there will also be protesting the squashing of a muslim student's first admendment rights in such a public way.

Disney Upset About Study at the UW

2007-08-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

Robert Iger, CEO of Disney actually took the time to call the UW according to a report in the Seattle Times http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003835606_webdisney14.html to complain about a recent announcement about a study that the Baby DVD's such as Baby Einstein may not be all that they claim.

While this may be news to some, there have been studies that looked at child development among those kids under the age of 2 who watched TV. What the studies have found is that children who watch TV under age 2 tend to more likely to have problems with ADD at a later age.

Many news organizations have reported on current science events such as this, and doctors including the well respected Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN have looked into it. Dr. Gupta's report on the fact that the Baby DVD's dont help went into detail about what constitutes the problem associated with the TV watching. Many things happening on the screen at once tends to make childrens focus run all over the place so the learn to focus in short spurts. (classic ADD symptoms).

I guess Iger is afraid that the truth is finally going to come out and that he will loose all that money from the Baby Einstein DVD's. (Maybe he is just afraid of the truth or he is afraid of loosing his multi-hundred million dollar bonuses each year).

Irregardless of what Iger thinks, we should all be alarmed if we have small children watching these things. Get them outside and away from the TV!

Adventures in Driving -- Washington State

2007-07-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

Over the past two months, I have made many trips in the Seattle area, racking up 9000 miles on my truck. While this may not seem like much, you can imagine with all of the craziness that occurs on a daily basis, this was quite frankly enough to actually make me not want to drive anymore.

During traffic jams, most people know that just staying in your lane and going straight will get you there much faster. However, with the influx of Californians over the past 20 years into the Seattle area, the driving habits have also come with them. Now you see people automatically start weaving from lane to lane and tail gating, not only endangering them selves but everyone around them.

You can also forget about merging. The other day, I was merging with a 12 foot trailer on the back of the truck and in most realms, people would let you in. Not these guys. Three cars passed me at as high of speed as they could must in 10 feet, with the last one even using the shoulder to actually stay ahead of me. He then made a universal sign of peeve. I thought to myself, what happened to all those driving school lectures which said, take a deep breath, take your time, and merge.

Now we not only have to put up with three accidents in two miles due to this type of overly aggressive behavior from drivers, but we also have to have people yelling obscenities and making obscene gestures in front of our children. And without the police cracking down on these behaviors, we will continue to have more and more accidents and definitely more grid lock.

Car Chases In America

2007-07-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Once again, the media has become enamored with the police high speed chase. Then there was the O.J. Simpson low speed chase. Now, once again, the chase is on in California. A woman is being chased at 45 miles per hour. And the police just follow. But what is the point? People get killed in these chases, yet CNN will broadcast 30 minutes of the chase.

Where will it end. After 30 minutes of stupidity on the part of CNN, I am sure there is something else that is making news today. But still the chase is going on and still CNN is repeating the same stupid questions to the supposed "Experts"

---Just a follow up here. The chase ended after 1 hour plus and without incident. Apparently the driver just ran out of gas.

The Apple iPhone -- Hype or Savior?

2007-06-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Over the past 6 months, everyone has been debating whether or not the iPhone will be the product which takes Apple into the next decade in profits. While Apple has been short on details, they have definitely been one of the down sides of the iPhone.

When Steve Jobs failed to announce a SDK for the iPhone, the silence in the auditorium definitely showed the extreme disappointment of the developers. While Apple may think that their announcement that developers could create applications for the iPhone through the browser, this was not enough for anyone in the room.

The iPhone is the leading edge in design and with that, most developers I know expected to be able to produce applications that could run on the same level as the base applications. This is particularly true for the game developers such as ID and EA, who Apple seems to be in bed with on the computer platforms but failed to give them anything that they can hold onto for a future with the iPhone.

But under the wraps is apparently the ability to produce Cocoa based applications for the iPhone. Although this was let out of the bag by a developer at Apple, Inc., nothing official has been seen and is likely not to be let loose until at least October with the release of their next OS release, code named Leopard.

So while every news organization has been following in the hype mode of Apple, little has been done to really put it out there beyond the fact that it is another cell phone. If that changes, the potential for the iPhone to actually take over the market of the PSP and other hand held game consoles.

Are we short changing our military

2007-06-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my Sr. Partner the other day about what it was with the military and the fact that a Marine SGT with 2 kids qualifies for food stamps. How was this possible? But then there was an article on the internet about the fact that the water at Lejuene, North Carolina was contaminated, causing several ailments include cancer and birth defects among the children born at the base.

How was this possible that something like this contamination went undiscovered for many years affecting some 75,000 families? How is it possibile that many of our military bases have become dumping grounds for all sorts of chemical waste over the past 50 years without someone standing up and crying "Foul"?

We must first look at the fact that the military is a beurocracy all to its own. The only people allowed on the bases other than the families of the military men are the beurocrats themselves.

Is it possible that we also dont care enough about these young men and women who put their lives on the line voluntarily and perform heroic tasks everyday? We have abandoned our troops in a manner not unseen since Vietnam. To make it worse we sweep the lack of support under the carpet due to the popular lack of support for a war.

We have to support our troops with the money and the proper living situation otherwise, it wont be long when another country just attacks us and takes over, forcing us into their way of life rather than the way of life that our fore-fathers wanted for us.

A ride on the Washington State Ferry

2007-06-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

One of the best kept secrets of Washington State has been its ferry systems. Going between points that are too far to drive or that cant be reached by any method other than boat or plane, the ferry is one of the best ways to get there.

Of course, there is the perverbial get in line and wait bit going on with it. I got in line going against the morning traffic and was on in about 15-20 minutes. It is then an hour to Bremerton. But the ferry ride cuts off about a half tank of gas in my truck and I can go all the way from Seattle to Shelton and back on a quarter tank of gas.

I decided that since I had my laptop with me that I would sign up for the Wi-Fi access on the ferry. While everything seemed ok at first, once I got about a quarter of the way into the trip, the access died. Iam not sure that this is normal but the cost also will be a thing that will deter people from using it.

*Monthly Unlimited Access Plan - $29.95 (1st month $14.95)
*Daily Access Plan - $6.95/day (24 hours)
*One Time Use Plan - $2.95/per 15 min ($.25 per min after)

Unless you are a daily traveler who has to be in contact at all times, I would not recommend this.

Once the connection died, I used my trusty bluetooth connection on my cell phone which got me through the rest of the trip. I am sure that while most people will not need this level of connection during the ferry ride, it was nice to know that it is there.

But the one thing that makes it all worth while is the view of the Olympic Mountains as you get closer to Bremerton. The view is breathtaking on a clear day and definately worth the trip.

Temporary marriages....but only in Iran

2007-06-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Check out this article about the latest idea in Iran:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_temporary_marriage

Its almost as if we have this already in America with the way the divorce rate has gone through the roof. Imagine if we had this kind of law here. Maybe then we could do away with Divorce almost totally.

Google offers Street er...streak views

2007-06-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Googles new "Street Views" apparently is offering users much more than they are bargaining for. The new zoom and street level view combination allows users to put themselves almost into peoples living rooms.

But the view apparently does not stop there. Between a street corner nose picker and the wild girls of summer at Stanford university, people are getting views that they could never have imagined.

Is this the beginning of the loss of privacy and the true "Enemy of the state" syndrome? Or is this just innocent fun for everyone? Only time will tell, but obviously it does need more research if people are showing their goodies to the world on a system open to everyone. (I can see the decency police on this one real fast).

Spam King Arrested

2007-05-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

Todays news that the spam king of Seattle has been arrested, also brought hope that the level of spam in our mailboxes would be less. However, I would not get your hopes up too high yet. He is only one of the top ten.

Many of the spams on the Internet today originate in places outside the control of the US Government. So what makes them think that with all of the spam originating in China and Russia and other Eastern European countries, that the level of spam will decrease significantly with the arrest of just one operator. In a 12 hour period my spam box had over 2000 spams and it does not seem to be decreasing. Instead it is just the opposite.

So what can you do? Make sure that your ISP has spam blocking software. If they dont, insist that they get it. Most of them these days do implement some type of blocking software.

Turn on your junk email box. In Microsoft Entourage, this has the effect of catching some things that still get through but keep an eye on this as well as sometimes there are false positives.

If you are completely overwhelmed, you can do a White List, which will allow only those on the list to email you. Although a bit draconian in nature, it does work and is completely controllable.

Hammer Man on Google Maps

2007-05-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

Google today announced that they will be having street level views of the google maps. So I thought I would check it out. But I found that my location in Seattle was not available with the new features. But what I did find is that the shadow of the famous "Hammer Man" at the Seattle Art Museum is viewable in the satellite photo of the corner of University and First Avenue in downtown Seattle.

There is even a bus turning on that corner in the satellite photo so you cant miss it when you are looking, but be sure to go down to the lowest viewable level in google maps.

Apple to produce sub-notebook

2007-02-17T18:53:00.000-08:00

Apple Insider has reported that Apple, Inc. will produce a sub notebook much in the same style as the old 2400 series. Is this a return to the smaller laptop or is this jsut a ruse for Apple finally doing a real Tablet style laptop. Only time will tell but in the interim, you can check out the article and draw your own conclusion.

http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2500

Has Microsoft Finally Seen The Writing on The Wall?

2007-02-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Today, Microsoft stock got slammed after Steve Balmer said that original forecasts for Vista sales were outside reality. The article in the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574610_microsoft16.html) says that he doesnt think consumers are going to buy many PC's. But of course, for those of us who have been watching the long time Apple versus Microsoft battle, we already know that Microsoft has been playing catch up ever since Apple came out with OS X 10.4 And the Mac Intel machines.

I guess only time will tell is this is Microsoft's last hurrah or if this is just a temporary glitch in the software and PC markets.

URL's

Article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574610_microsoft16.html
Apple: http://www.apple.com
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com

Passenger Bill Of Rights

2007-02-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

Once again, this topic has poked its head above the horizon. For too long now, passengers have had absolutely no rights once they are on an airliner. This has led to abuses in 1997 where passengers sat on the tarmac at minneapolis-st.paul for more than 12 hours and now once again at JFK and at Austin for more than eight hours.

Is this the way we wish to be treated as air travelers? I know from my own experiences, that once an airline staff says something, their word is taken over any one else as gospel whether they are in the wrong or not. And in situations where passengers are stuck in an airplane going nowhere, being told nothing, having no food, overflowing toilets, no medical care and in general, staff who are about as uncaring about the situation as anything, it is time to have change.

Here is a link to a much further reaction to this type of thing:
http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2007/02/passenger_bill.html

American Airlines has said that this type of thing is "an Overreaction" according to a report on CNN. But is it? If someone had died in this situation, I wonder what they would be saying then. And Jet Blue who was at the center of the controversy in these cases, have said that they want to "Serve their customers in their own way". Northwest, who was at the center of the 1997 controversy basically said the same thing and nothing was done. Now we have the situation happening again.

When is the government going to wake up and do something about the lousy way passengers are being treated? I say the time is now and if you care about this, call you legislator or senator and let them know to vote for the bill that is being introduced in both the House and the Senate.

Wait on Vista or it will cost you?

2007-02-12T02:39:00.000-08:00

Finally last week, Vista was released to the world. Bill Gates was promising big things out of his new baby. He was right. One thing that you will get is a big bill according to an article on the PC World website. Not surprising from the news reports mentioning that you would need a new machine to run the OS. As far as I am concerned, the Mac Book Pro has my vote for my next machine.

What the Heck is Mental Anguish

2007-02-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

I just read an article (http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=59342&source=2) about Astronaut Lisa Nowak, saying that she suffered from "Mental Anguish." What the heck is "Mental Anguish". Does that mean that she was wasnt crazy when she drove 900 miles across the US in a diaper just to "talk" to the other woman? Or does that mean that she was suffering mentally from some tragedy?

As far as I know, the only tragedy in her life is the ones she created. She separated from her husband of 19 years to chase a guy who was already dating someone. She supposedly broke up a marriage other than her own. And she sprayed mace in a womans face after driving 900 miles. "Mental Anguish?" I would say she was downright nuts!

If she cracked, then someone should have seen this coming. Where is NASA folks when someone cracks? They sure jump to the forefront when the glory is to be had. But not many voices are heard when something like this happens. Come on NASA...Speak up. We cant hear you.

By saying she suffers from "Mental Anguish", it sound to me like the same old bureaucratic problem of trying to shove things under the carpet that NASA has always done.

Video "Every OS Sucks!" Pulls No Punches

2007-02-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you who gripe and moan about Windows, well, this video will make you groan about a lot of things. It should make the older generation who lived in the time of 8 bit machines smile a bit though.

Check out the video at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2514730680283477734

Mac World Expo 2007: Where's The Beef

2007-01-10T04:22:00.000-08:00

In all of the announcements that Steve Jobs put forth in his Keynote this year, it seems that the only thing that came out were the things that were almost like the secret that everyone knew about.

For those diehard Apple Computer, Inc. fans, the name change to Apple, Inc. is sure to create almost as much of a clammor of voices as the lack of any new computers. Is Apple really dropping all of their computers as well or is this just purely a name change.

There were none of the expected quad core machines nor any updates to its long line of laptops. Also the lack of any mention of Leopard is sure to put some pundits off their game.

While the two items that Steve Jobs introduced were nice, it would have helped if he actually had those in hand to begin selling today. This Mac World Expo will likely go down in history as the one that Apple introduced nothing. At least nothing tangible. Just all Vaporware. Much in the methodology of another big company everyone loves to hate, Microsoft.

Email Account Hijacked? Dont expect help from Yahoo.

2006-04-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

I was reading through a few things today and ran across this tale of email account hijacking.

Unfortunately this article about email hijacking hits home here. In my case, nothing in the account was changed. Unfortunately, I am the careful user who normally doesnt use real info when setting up the account (i.e. BDAY, address, etc). Doesnt help too much when trying to get back in or the password reset. Of course, the hacker probably changed all that anyways.

But I had to write off an account about 2 years ago that I had since Yahoo first opened email to the public. Yahoo unfortunately wont do anything about it to this day. And the only thing you get to track down help is a bunch of menus that really are no help at all.

That should be the real story here is the fact that the big corporations who run these systems are more and more hiding behind automatic html systems with no listed phone numbers and no publicized address. And unless you are aware of security commision filings, you wont have a clue of where those corporations are.

Hopefully Yahoo and others like them will eventually get real people who can help other real people.

Apple tells 9 year old to read the legal page

2006-04-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

A 9 year old who wrote to Apple Computer, Inc. as part of a school project, got a response from the legal dept. at Apple, telling her that they dont accept "suggestions".

Her mother, who was absolutely horrified, immediately called the local CBS affiliate and certainly got the attention of Apple then.

You can listen to the video here of the news report.
http://cbs5.com/investigates/local_story_103023852.html

I guess it just goes to say, there are days where everyone screws up. (Or as I would say, "What the heck were they thinking?!!")

The Eclipse or how not to see one

2005-10-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Once again, a major event is taking place and once again, I am relagated to the list of those folks who read about the event, even wanted to see it but who for one reason or another couldnt get the picture except on TV.

Unfortunately, I guess I have to move to Hawaii or some place like that where crear or mostly clear skies is the norm. The cloudiness and the haziness of the weather here in Tokyo once again has prevented seeing anything, even if we could see it here.

I guess the next event for me to miss is the leonoid storm and while that is one of the brightest meteor showers of the year, its brightness doesnt do anything to penetrate the general cloudiness of this place.

Many times, we travel half way around the world for these events of our solar system, but when we get to the place we are going, either it is perfect beyond words or it is miserable and a wasted trip.

I guess it pays to check the weather forecast for these events and I think I will do that next time a meteor shower or eclipse takes place prior to jumping off the deep end.

Tourist. A bad word in space?

2005-09-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Once again, a non-astronaut is making the trip to the space station. The word tourist seems to have been applied to these non-astronauts but even that is a bit misleading. Astronaut has always been associated with anyone who has reached 62 miles up. And the wings associated with space flight awarded to those folks.

But this is not a teacher in space type program or a fantasy Pan Am flight from the movie 2001. It is instead the program which the russians have been touting for 20 million USD per trip over the past few years. Not bad if you are a multi-millionaire with nothing but time and money on your side.

There have been two before him but Gregory Olsen is not letting that stop his enthusiasm. According to Olsen, "Someday everyone will be going into space just like they are flying in planes today."

He will be spending approximately 10 days in the zero gravity of the space station and coming home with the current crew on board the station. These change over flights always only take a total of 2 astronauts and the Russians have been using the selling of the third seat to inject their space program with much needed cash.

While this is a good way to get into space, it would be easier if companies like Scaled Composites suddenly started making a ship which would go all the way into orbit rather than just into sub-orbital flight. Then you would see people lining up for flights, especially if it was as safe as flying in a plane.

Google in Space!

2005-09-29T07:29:00.000-07:00

Once again, Google has struck a deal which will keep it at the forefront of the data collection business. According to a report in the Miami Herald (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/12768218.htm), Google has signed a deal with NASA to “work together” although the details on this deal are few.

Like Google, NASA is also known for having collected large amounts of data but the percentage of the data which is available and accessible by the public is relatively low. Google on the other hand has made large amounts of data available in a relatively short time.

Having just reviewed Google’s latest release, Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/), it is completely impressed upon my brain that no company in the world can keep up with them and now even NASA seems to validate that fact.

Of course, the fact that corporate America has taken a lead in space is obviously not lost in the deal. Now that NASA is on board, perhaps this is not just a passing fancy, but the start of something glorious for the

Where is Yahoo!

2005-09-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Over the past several year, it has become a major trend among the biggest of the corporations with presence on the Internet to automate their systems for customer service.

Much like those dreaded phone systems that say for “for option one, pres one, for option two, press two”, the automated online help system is a pain and it is almost useless when a case for real help is needed.

two years ago, my Yahoo! Account was hijacked. After multiple tries of getting help to recover it, the only thing I have gotten from Yahoo! Is the great runaround and automated canned responses which did not address the issue at all. Of course, if you try to call them using the telephone, you get even less help. And just try and find their corporate offices. Here in Tokyo, they are particularly anti-customer service and as such don’t even let the general public into their corporate offices.

What ever happened to the customer service of yester-year? I am afraid that as we get further and further into the real of online systems with the ease of not having to actually support products that we sell, the trend will be that the corporations will be saying, “you have a problem? Tough!”.

Of course, this might just be a figment of my imagination, but two years going and I still don’t have access to my account and someone else does.

To the Moon....AGAIN!!!

2005-09-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the country is back at it. Or is it? With the Chinese set to launch a two man crew in October, the US is once again looking to send a man to the moon. Of course the 2018 date set by NASA is not exactly tomorrow. It also isn’t the same as the “within this decade” challenge set forth by John F. Kennedy in 1961.

But once again we are looking towards the heavens. And of course, the politicing has already started including the possibility that the next President of the United States will just outright kill the whole program and possibly even close NASA all together.

The current NASA director, Michael Griffin, is also telling the media (USA TODAY Report) that the shuttle and the space station programs were a “mistake”. I wonder if this is because we don’t have a base on the moon as everyone who grew up with Apollo thought we would by this time, or if it is just to cater to those penny pinchers in Washington D.C..

Of course with a price tag of 104 Billion USD for sending a man to the moon, the current 16.5 Billion USD budget isn’t going to go very far. It goes to figure that with the pace of private corporate development in the space arena in the past few years that a commercial operation will make it to the moon and Mars before NASA gets there. Or maybe at the rate the Chinese are going, perhaps it will be them getting there first.

Thus far, the Shuttle has cost billions, as has the Space station. But why is this? It seems that everyone has forgotten how much Apollo cost. Especially when it comes to lives lost. They complain that we have lost 14 men and women in the numerous Shuttle missions, yet they forget that the 8 Apollo Missions cost us a total of 7 men, 4 of them in training and flight accidents.

Yes, there is a cost. It is both monetarily as well as in human terms. Yet those who went before, all went because they knew the inherent risks and because they believed they were doing something good for their families, their country and most of all, mankind as a whole. This is a spirit which has been lost on much of today’s youth who complain if they get a blister on their finger playing their video games. It seems that the attitude of those in the management of the space program isn’t too far behind that level of apathy.

Where is that wild-eyed fighter jockey of yesteryear who had the attitude that they could do anything. Much of the country followed them in this attitude and it put men on the moon in 9 years. All of this without having even put a man in space when the Kennedy challenge went forth.

The technology of the day also progressed at a frightening pace because the country put the sciences first and foremost, teaching those who came after much of what they had learned and encouraging them to think and progress. This is another aspect of life which has been lost on this generation and yet we do not even seem to be concerned that many of the technologies which the country always led the world in developing are now being developed in other countries

Now we are talking 12-13 years and possibly 15 years before even attempting a moon-shot and we are accepting this as status quo and normal. And with the dreams of the generation who lived through the space race and the cold war dying as quickly as they are, it will be a miracle if we even reach the moon by 2050.

Finished Novel

2004-12-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally finished Nanowrimo (www.nanowrimo.org) this year. I dont know how I did it but I guess I will now have to edit my book (Toward Oblivion [www.wazoom.com/pcnovels]). Meanwhile, I have another idea for my book for next year or possibly even next month. Thank goodness for the computer.