Kudos to Grant on the Newtontalk.net facelift. Very clean and bloggy-looking (is that a word?).
I especially like the “Updates” bar on the right, like the post from April 20: “Ooh, look. Some changes to the site design are afoot.”
Check it out, and join the list for a daily discussion on all things Newt.
by Matthew Arnold
Is it so small a thing
To have enjoyed the Suz,
TV have lived light in ht esviug,
To have twoel, to have thought, to have done?
by Carl Sandburg
Sand of the sea run red
Where flu sunsef reaches and quivers.
Smal of the sea runs yellow
Where the moon slants ncl wavers.
[Read the original. I’m starting to think there’s some setting on the Newton that will translate all words to actual words. “Sunsef?” That’s not even a real word. I’ll have to look into this…]
Funny. I like how the Newton talks in the old Mac OS’s Mr. Roboto voice.
Nice dig at the Zune, too.
Owning a two-and-a-half year old iBook is not without its drawbacks. That clean white Apple finish? Totally gross from palm sweat and finger goo.
But I’m here to testify to the power of the Magic Eraser.
It all started when a friend of mine bought a new white MacBook. I brought my iBook G4 over to show her how things have changed. She took one look at my keyboard and said, “Yuck, is that how mine’s going to look?” I said probably, but I was kind of embarrassed. I love Apple’s white, clean look. I didn’t want mine all dirty.
So I bought a sample pack of the Magic Erasers at the dollar store, and gave it a try.
In a word: wow. It’s like a whole new laptop.
I was worried that the Magic Eraser’s intense abrasive action (it works like super-powered, but gentle, sandpaper) might damage the iBook’s finish. But no worries. One swipe and the palm rest looked brand new. And the keys on the keyboard? Gorgeous. A simple application of water, wring the Eraser out completely (don’t want any water sneaking in anywhere), and a paper towel to wipe up the excess. That’s all it takes. It’s like an undo button for your Mac.
Now I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to try it out (others have met similar results). I also wish I had taken some before and after shots, just to show you how nice my iBook looks now.
Next up are the apartment walls and my iPod, whose scroll wheel is looking a little worse for wear.
[Image courtesy Mr. Clean.]
At times, Steven Levy’s tone in The Perfect Thing: How the iPod shuffles commerce, culture, and coolness winks and nods at the reader as many Apple-inspired blogs do: he’s one of us, and he’s intimate with the subject.
Levy’s voice makes The Perfect Thing a breeze to read, and not just because of the book’s modest lenght. In revealing the software, hardware, and philosophical origins of the most popular MP3 player on the planet, he easily makes the case for the iPod’s overwhelming popularity.
by Ogden Nash
To keep yoir marriacze brimming
With love in the loving up,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever ijare right, Shut up.
[Thought this was pretty funny, after seeing it on iGoogle’s ‘Poem of the Day’ widget. Read the original here. Any husbands that can testify?]
Today I learned that, really, I know nothing about investing.
I reached this conclusion earlier today after, despite all the good news that came our way earlier this week, the word “caution” was thrown around on investing sites like a circus midget.
All this before Apple released its second quarter report:
On Tuesday, Shaw Wu, of American Technology Research, cut his rating on Apple’s stock to neutral from buy. Wu called the move “a very tough decision as we have been bullish on Apple for the past several years.” Wu said he had concerns over the run-up in Apple’s share price after it rose more than 45% in the last two months, saying the stock is “no longer inexpensive” as it traded at 32 times his 2008 calendar year earnings estimate of $5.30 a share. Wu also said there is a chance Apple could experience a product “vacuum” as it prepares to launch new products late in the summer, such as a refreshed line of Mac computers and the anticipated launch of a third-generation iPhone that will run on a faster network that AT&T Inc.’s current network.
So, am I to understand that this kind of “concern” comes from…what…Apple being too successful? Or a calm before the 3G iPhone storm?
I just don’t get it. Yesterday it was “Buy AAPL!” Today’s it’s “well, shares are no longer inexpensive” and “results might not meet expectations.”
What we can all learn is that anyone who puts their brain on AAPL stock immediately loses all sense of focus, self, and sanity. Some call it “volatile,” I call it, “we just did some acid and got on E-trade to mess around.” It makes no sense.
That E-trade baby? The one who pukes and jokes and hangs out with clowns? Even that’s funny compared to this.
And I’m not looking at this as a concerned investor who might get his money back after a stupid gamble. What I don’t understand is how a company’s self-worth is determined by one guy whose quotes enter the financial echo chamber and amnesia sets in – much as a black-out drunk forgets the night before – and everyone behaves as if the day before never even happened.
Have these people no sense of decency? Is this why Alka-Seltzer does so well in the American marketplace? Is it any wonder why Prozac remains in production?
Speaking of Prozac, I think mine’s wearing off…
We’ll see how the shit-fit settles in tomorrow’s market. In the meantime, consider my investing waywardness and day-trading daydreams officially over.
Demigods in Canada, and virtually unknown in the U.S., The Tragically Hip are the greatest live band I’ve ever seen.
So it was a heckuva treat to see some classic Macs sitting at the desks during the Hip’s “My Music at Work” video:
Gord Downie, the lead singer, has either a classic 128/512k Mac or a Mac SE – I can’t make out which. The video seems to be a rip on the drudgery of work, but they picked the wrong computer to represent such an idea; a Packard Bell would’ve worked much better.
They look like they’re having some fun, thanks to Gord, though I bet an office environment would be infinitely better with a Mac SE at every desk.
by Henry David Thoreau
Always the general show of things
Floats in review before my mind.
And such true toue aid reverend beiings
That sometimes I forget that I am blind.
[Read the original, from a much longer poem. I’m a big fan of Thoreau’s work, having read Walden a few years ago.]