Joe Wilson's Marketing Team Mobilizes

Here's what you got on his website last night:

And here's what you get today.

 

They must have gone to Colbert's people for some of that patriotic zazz.

Meanwhile, In Technologyland...

Steve Jobs got a nice reception when he showed up to unveil the new iTunes and the new iPod Nano - which ironically now includes the media the iPod nearly destroyed: an FM tuner.

Watch.

Nutcases With Money = Monkeys With Machine Guns

Nobody told John McAfee, the anti-virus guy, how to invest his money instead of wasting it on bullshit. If he let hackers into his Quicken account, he would have made out better.

Slow Leopard (No More!)

Uh oh.

I must've done something horribly wrong. I installed Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro, and it's performing as if it's a 286 trying to run Grand Theft Auto IV. Scary slow. Like click, wait 15 seconds, browser slow.

Like seeing the technicolor pizza way too often slow.

Anyone else having this problem?

UPDATE: I'm being told by the Apple Discussion Groups that I have to let it sit there and reconfigure itself for a while. I'll give it a couple of hours to be safe. Stand by. Screaming might be forthcoming, especially whenever I upgrade an operating system.

UPDATE AGAIN: One of the suggestions was to delete "System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist" after the Snow Leopard install. That worked. And yeah, it's running faster than 10.5 now. Whew.

At the Apple Store

I was there for all of five minutes (they do have the checkout thing down), but it was enough time to see no less than 20 people buying Snow Leopard with me. I couldn't help it. I started doing the zombie walk chanting "Must have Snow Leopard. Me need Snow Leopard." And a few of the multitude joined in. Gave the geniuses a good laugh.

Now come the real laughs. Me installing a new operating system. Wish me luck. Here I go.

 

JUST STOP GRINNING AT ME.

Okay, Okay

I'm picking up Snow Leopard today. I'll report on it over the weekend.

Just tell that cat to stop smiling at me.

If You Won't Follow Us on Twitter...

...at least follow THIS guy.

• Name: Justin
• Bio: I'm 28. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says.

And here's his page: Twitter.com/ShitMyDadSays.

Uh...No...But Thanks for Thinking of Me, Facebook...

I'm not really sure I want to learn more about Groucho Handjob...

NOW Will You Stop Giving Me Crap About Switching to Mac?

I do use both. But this will be a serious timesuck with one of them.

Microsoft warns of serious computer security hole

Microsoft warned users Monday about yet another serious security flaw related to its Internet Explorer browser for which there is no fix.

Security firm Symantec said the vulnerability, which affects PCs using Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating software, is already being taken advantage of by cybercriminals.

It can allow hackers to remotely take control of victims' machines. The victims don't need to do anything to get infected except visit websites infected with a tiny bit of code that taps into the security hole.

Stop calling me a computer elitist for dumping Windows for Mac. This - along with people who keep asking me which is the best spyware/anti-virus/firewall/spam/wormware/webfilter for Windows - is bullshit I truly don't need anymore.

Internet Explorer is Starting to Look Better

Firefox's updates/new versions every freaking day are really starting to annoy me.

Had to get that off my chest.

New iPhone Apps are Underway

A Safari replacement better be among them.

Your Moment of Zen

The Flickr Clock.

But He's So HOT! LOL He'd B Such a Kewl BFF

Republicans Tweet about Obama.

Remember Your First Computer?

Maybe it was an IBM with PC-DOS for about $3500 in the 80's. Or in the mid-90s, you got a deal on a back-breaking huge desktop from Gateway (Pentium 3!) for about $2399 with an 80 pound CRT monitor. Even maybe an Atari 800 (me) in 1982 which retailed for north of $900. The disk drive was extra. So were the 16kb memory slats.

And oh, yeah. A Hayes Smartmodem almost as big as the computer itself running at 300 baud for only $459. And a Seagate 40mb drive for the same low price.

That's why even a frosty computer veteran like me is still kind of amazed that tonight you can go to Dell's outlet store (armed with the 20%-off coupon code HFSPJ2B288CR31) and get a netbook with a 4gb drive the size of a postage stamp for 183 bucks. Get one with a built-in webcam for a few dollars more, load Skype into it and you have that videophone. And they'll likely be cheaper in a few months.

Wild.

Quote This

"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari."

-White House spokesman Bill Burton on adapting to the Bush White House tech infrastructure

Playin' with Windows7 Beta

This'll be a very fast beta test for me, because there's no email and no quick-n-dirty photo editing included in this, what's being termed "Windows7 Ultimate." Ultimate? With no email program? Yipes.

It's pretty. That's about it. I wouldn't call it elegant because - I dunno - it looks kinda messy and busy. There's graphically pleasing, then there's showing it off too much.

If you have a spare computer with nothing to lose, you can download Windows7 "Ultimate" (yeah, right) for free here. It's 2.5 to 3.5 GB depending on if you download the 32 or 64 bit version. You'll need to know how to image burn a DVD (an 800mb CD is too small) to make the install disc. All for no email.

And oh yeah. Windows Media Player STILL doesn't play streaming audio .pls files. Weird.

I think you'll be glad I did this instead of you.

Pity. Steve Jobs should be enjoying this, but he's taking a leave of absence over his much talked-about health issues.

Zen Site Sighting

PrettyLoaded.com. Nothing but "loading" screens from dozens of other sites.

Caution: Not for the Wimpy!

Beta test Windows 7. IF YOU DARE.

(And if you do, make sure you're not using your main computer with all your important stuff.)
(We also found out you can't download it with Firefox...only IE. Natch.)

Don't Do This

...because you're not supposed to. Hacking a Dell Mini 9 to run Mac OSX. Like I did here.

 

I did it just for research purposes, you see. And I'm also supposed to tell you it's not easy, even though it was. That'd be wrong.

I did this entire post on it too. But officially, you shouldn't.

Somehow, I still feel I haven't covered my ass enough on this topic.

The Dell Mini 9

I've been road testing this webook over the weekend. (Major geek alert here.) I blew Windows XP out of it and replaced it with Ubuntu Linux.

I was always a Linuxphobe, thinking it's a foreign language which is a lot more convoluted than Hebrew, but I went for it. Ubuntu's actually kinda elegant, coming with Open Office, an MS Office-compatible suite, and just about every basic need (Firefox, Evolution Mail, a nice handful of games, media players, etc.) - all included in the free package.

Then I went to install a couple of things (Skype, Java 6, GoToMyPC) and get a couple of other things working (the internal mic) and that's when the Hebrew began. As Linuxians know, most of these adjustments involve opening the terminal and using your vast knowledge of the Linux language. Or as I did, look up your dilemma on Google and copying and pasting everything, bypassing any possibility of learning this.

The single most beautiful thing about Ubuntu is its ability to find and configure a wireless printer in seconds. It takes quite a while with Mac (and you have to have the printer drivers to begin with) and you have to manually do it in Windows.

Getting back to the Mini itself, it's pretty cool. I'd say it's built a little more solidly than the EE-PC which started the whole sub-subcompact subculture. It comes with a bunch of things they don't heavily advertise like an SD card slot for more storage, a built-in microphone, and a keyboard which feels like it was the result of impacted wisdom teeth. F'rinstance, the apostrophe's next to the space bar. This one which I'm writing this on has the built-in cam, so Skype worked pretty nicely. The mic sounds a little like a Fisher-Price walkie talkie.

Even with the tiny keyboard, Dell still managed to include a Delete button and a right-click button, something MacBooks still seem dead set against.

I'm enjoying it. You can save a bundle on one if you buy it from Dell's outlet and if someone posts a 20% off code at Fat Wallet.

And for God's sake, I'm not even thinking about hacking Leopard into it to make a MacBook Nano. No sir, not me. Wouldn't dream of it. And I will not let you know how it turns out even if I did. Which I won't.

MP5?

Where the hell have I been?

So We Haven't Won a Webby, a Koufax or a 2008 Golden Monkeyfist

Monkeyfister sent our check back and we didn't win a Golden Monkeyfist this year. But these guys did. Damn him and his integrity!

(We still have our 2006 Golden Monkeyfist proudly perched on my night stand, though. Don't ask.)

Deal of the Day

Just for kicks, I checked the Dell website to see if there was any service contract I could buy for a Dell laptop that's almost six years old.

The non-variable Tech Team obviously has a shitty agent.

Statistic of the Day

1. United States
2. France
3. Australia
4. United Arab Emirates
5. Saudi Arabia
6. Turkey
7. Egypt
8. United Kingdom
9. Germany
10. Pakistan

The Top Ten Countries That Have Played "Sock and Awe," an Online Shoe-Throwing Game

Here It Is, Your - uh - Hours of Zen

The antidote to Sarah Palin's turkey fiasco. The live Shiba Inu Puppycam. Best thing to hit UStreamTV since Barack Obama.