there's only one thing that can cheer me up.
Maybe you could try broadening your horizons.
Is this Sexual Perversity in the Blogosphere?
Yes.
When I noticed that the score was a palindrome, I almost started to cry.
The Big Ten would be a lot happier if it resigned itself to being a second tier athletic conference, and that's true in football and basketball.
I hate college sports, and in particular college football, but I watched a bit last night for the shadenfreude. I thought about sending you (Labs) e-mails after every score: "Thinking of you," "Still thinking of you," etc. But then I remembered that you're gigantic.
You know, Cala, I was just thinking that you hadn't been around for a while, and that I missed you. I still think one of those things.
Football, schmootball. The natural order of the universe has been restored.
Tim, that would have been funny until the police eventually found your head in my freezer.
11: Even better: Duke out of the top ten. Ha! (I'm starting to feel bad about Redick's problems, though, as if my focused hatred might have played a part.)
There's something magical about seeing Jason Kapono, of all people, fouling Redick. If only Casey Jacobson were hanging out in the background.
Screw basketball. That video just never gets old.
And come to think of it, doesn't Justin Timberlake bear a passing resemblance to Labs? Hmm....
I was shocked by all the OSU cocksucking leading up to the game. And 7.5 point favorites?? WTF? They dominated the Big 10 but the Big 10 sucks. They'd have had at least two, and probably three, losses had they been in the SEC. I'd have thought USC's dismantling of Michigan (not to mention LSU's rape of Notre Dame) would have made at least some people realize this, but apparantly not. People are quite stupid, it seems.
All that said I didn't expect the blowout to be quite that bad.
Screw basketball.
Look B, we tolerate your America-hating here because you're cute and all, but some sentiments are simply beyond the pale.
I like basketball pretty well, actually, as sports go.* I was just empathizing with Mr. Labs.
*Which doesn't mean I actually watch it on television. I *will*, if it's on, and I can follow a game and enjoy it, but I actually don't really care. It's only crap like football, baseball, and golf that I actively loathe.
You may be interested in this bit of musical ephemera, if you are in fact who you say you are
This eclectic mix of Prussian psychadelia and blitzing death metal will keep your hands "sich heiling"
"Sich[/mich] heil" is my new favorite euphemism for masturbation.
Where does such an euphemism exist? Did you just make it up now? I thought it was a misapprehension of "sieg heil".
(Hey BTW thanks, in particular, to Biohazard, and to all the other people who took time from their schedule to tell me how to buy a used car. I have just availed myself of an '02 Niccan Sentra, previously owned by a little old lady who drove it only on Sundays.)
Niccan is the look-alike knockoff of Nissan that sidewalk auto vendors sell.
What?! You mean? --- oh no...
I thought Niccans were Japanese cars invented by Gerald Gardner.
Niccans?
Racist! Black people can celebrate solstice too, you know.
(God, I'm going to hell.)
Notre Dame isn't part of the Big Ten. Assraped by LSU, yes, but that's an independent assraping.
Am I the only one disturbed by claims about Our Lady being assraped? This is a family blog, people.
He told me it was the genuine article...
28 - of course. It was a display of SEC strength, not Big 10 weakness.
29: Hey, you gotta preserve your perpetual virginity somehow.
Notre Dame isn't part of the Big Ten, but it sure plays a lot of Big Ten schools, and the two institutions--Notre Dame & the Big Ten--prop up each other's arguably bloated reputations.
32 - of course. That game was a display of Big Ten weakness, not SEC strength.
Sort of. Except for how ND is part of the Big East everywhere but football. I think there were only three Big Ten schools on the schedule this year.
Can't we simply acknowledge that college football is a wholly corrupt "sport," and that success in it is mere a proxy for a school's moral depravity?
I think you want your air quotes around "college", not "sport", but it pretty much is just a minor league that the NFL doesn't have to pay for.
success in [football] is mere a proxy for a school's moral depravity?
As a UNC alumnus, I can get behind this definition.
Tim- why the scare quotes around "sport"?
B- it was just a bad joke. And that has nothing to do with Our Lady and everything to do with your implicit condoning of rape. Your blatant sexism offends me.
41- moreso than NCAA basketball? I'd say they're pretty comparable.
Jeez. You people joke about face-raping bears and it's all fun and games, but one little joke about ass-raping the virgin mother, and it's rules-to-the-back-of-the-hands time.
Can we talk about the new iPhone for a second? Ohmygodohmygodohmigod!
I'd say they're pretty comparable.
You'd be mistaken, though.
Dude, the iPhone looks amazing, I have to say.
45- I don't mind jokes about ass-raping the virgin mother, I mind your suggestion that she enjoyed it. You've been watching too much bad porn, or something.
44: You're wrong. Here's one reason why: "The draft is the first chance each team gets at players who have been out of high school for at least three years."
The iPhone looks awesome, but I'd prefer an implementation that turned a paperback sized calendar into a phone, maybe with some sort of break apart v. basic phone. Now that would be truly awesome. I suspect that sooner or later, someone will sort out handwriting recognition, and that that will be all she wrote.
46 -- how is this a big deal? A new cell phone, more expensive than most, oh and you can keep music on it. I'm not seeing the import -- it does look nicely designed to be sure.
Hmm, in my 47, I thought you were saying they were comparable in terms of moral depravity.
52: You have no soul. How is this a big deal? Did you watch these demos?
52: What, are you blind? It runs OSX. And it has a decent screen for a small device, something bigger than a postage stamp. Which means you can check email/surf the web? Chat? Use it as a PDA? Watch tv/movies while commuting? And its pretty?
The iTV thing seems pretty awesome too, I have to admit. But the phone--and until I saw it I was like, "eh, phone"--I want.
49: Preserving virginity doesn't mean one enjoys much of anything.
That little animation that lets you flip through album covers to pick music is pretty damn cool.
I agree, the iPhone has many many features that make it more appealing than my Treo. Here are a few:
(a) Bigger screen with more versatile controls -- much easier to see what you're doing, to zoom in on things, etc., and easier to type and navigate.
(b) Runs OS X
(c) Uses both wifi and cell-phone networks for data, switching seamlessly to wifi whenever it's available
(d) That "visual voice mail" is something I have wished for for ages, and which always seemed like it should be easy to get, and yet it isn't.
(e) Lets you do lots of stuff very easily while you're in the middle of a phone conversation with someone
(f) Is a nice widescreen video iPod
(g) Can tell if you're holding it vertically or horizontally and adjusts the picture accordingly.
Okay, now I'm torn between my technolust and my stated desire to be buried without ever owning a cell phone.
52 -- I also don't understand the excitement. It just seems like Apple wants to get in on the phone business, before phone manufacturers are able to torpedo their nice little ipod thing.
But running OS X? A "breakthough internet device?" I don't really see what's so breakthrough about it -- there doesn't look like there's anything on that phone that I wasn't watching my advisor do on his phone two years ago.
I mean, it's cool if you prefer Apple products... they do seem to have a pretty kickass design team. But saying that if you don't love it you don't have a soul seems pretty extreme. This is probably also the appropriate time to bring up the whole 'each purchase of an Apple product takes us one step closer to a repressive DRM-ized future'. Ahem.
My Sidekick is all depressed now. It's going to retreat into a corner and curl up and cry.
Not that I'm getting one of these any time soon (not nicer than my Treo: the price, the 2-year contract with Cingular), but I really look forward to being able to do real IM, over wifi, on my phone.
I still don't like the iPod, though.
Part of me thinks the iPhone looks great, part of my just wants to grumble.
But I am not an early adapter.
Is the "seamless switching from cell phone networks to WiFi networks" thing code for "You need to make monthly payments to a cell phone provider and also to a WiFi provider"?
But I am not an early adapter.
I have a long-standing love affair with Apple that stretches back into the mid-80s, but it's always a good idea to wait for their second revision of any product.
I think it's code for "the many, many people and organizations who don't password-protect their wireless networks make the world a better place, even if unknowingly."
56- how long must we belabor this? My comment was a joke, apparantly one that forgot its funny.
Next up, I'll be dancing for quarters on the street corner. Fair warning: the last move I learned was the cabbage patch, and I'm not sure I got that one right.
Not to mention that SF is building a WiFi network that will cover the whole city.
60 - Your advisor was watching episodes of The Office on his phone two years ago? Seriously, the thing looks sliiick. Built in GPS with a hookin to Google Maps!
apparantly one that forgot its funny.
No, just remember who is responding to you.
68 is right. And "no soul" was hyperbole, but I thought it was ok because we're all friends here.
60: The breakthrough stuff is, I think, the integration of all of its features (better than any smartphone I've seen), the multi-touch interface, the seamless EDGE/WiFi switching, and the fact that it's running a real OS.
Getting rid of the buttons is genius. Some of its greatness depends on how you use your phone. I do quite a bit of web surfing on mine, so the big screen and wifi is fantastic. Push IMAP email is a gift from the gods if it also works apart from their partnership with Yahoo. Partly, I think we just expect that the UI will be well thought-out, because it's from Apple, and I expect that having full OSX will be a very big deal as people build apps for it. And if it supported 3G, as opposed to just EDGE, it would be perfect.
74 -- I did not take offense.
Great. Another fragile doodad I can come up with thin rationalizations for not wanting.
74: But none of this stuff is "breakthrough," right? It's just done well for the first time. As per usual, a triumph of design (and that's not nothing).
I bet w-lfs-n is looking forward to being able to run Common Lisp on his phone.
Is the "seamless switching from cell phone networks to WiFi networks" thing code for "You need to make monthly payments to a cell phone provider and also to a WiFi provider"?
Nah, it means that when you're in range of an open wifi network or one that you have a password for, your phone-internet will be really fast.
I lust after visual voicemail.
none of this stuff is "breakthrough," right?
I think it's the first phone to run a full desktop OS.
Cheers, Clownæ.
I suppose "breakthrough" is in the eye of the beholder. Certainly, my opinion is that this is an order of magnitude cooler than anything else out there, but I'm just one man.
Also, I'm amused that cameras are so commonplace now that none of the demos even mention the 2MP camera.
71 -- Not The Office, but my advisor is Richer Than God, and likes to show off his fun electronic toys. I don't know what the name of the device that he has is.
74 -- I think words like "integration" and "seamless" mean things, and I'm sure that iPhone has got it all in spades (like I said, "kickass design team," and "design" includes things like this)... but I don't really see the point in using words like "breakthough" for this. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective. As for the OS thing -- unless you're programming for the thing, what's the big deal what OS it runs?
81 -- there have been Linux-based phones for a while, right?
Right, I haven't heard of visual voicemail on any other device.
what's the big deal what OS it runs?
Part of what makes (made?) the Palms awesome was that there were thousands of apps written for it so, much like Firefox, you could get it to do pretty much anything that occurred to you that you might want to do. Since there's already an OSX programming community, I expect we'll see very cool apps for this down the road.
Not The Office, but my advisor is Richer Than God, and likes to show off his fun electronic toys.
I believe that, but not that he could watch TV shows on his phone two years ago. Nor that he could use wifi on his phone, nor that he had the blessed visual voicemail, which, seriously, is a very simple idea -- but it's a simple thing that no one else has at all. (You can browse through a list of your voicemails, labeled with the name of the caller and time that they called, listen to them out of order, and delete them from this same interface, as if they were emails.)
unless you're programming for the thing, what's the big deal what OS it runs?
This is a good point -- people seem to invoke "OSX" and "Linux" in a sort of talismanic way.
here have been Linux-based phones for a while, right?
There have, that's true.
I think there are smartphones out there based on WinCE, although that's universally agreed to suck.
Look, AG, here's the point: Jobs has a massive cock, and he's promised to share it with anyone who puchases the iPhone. Via the phone, a la Sean Salisbury. Pretty cool, no?
(You can browse through a list of your voicemails, labeled with the name of the caller and time that they called, listen to them out of order, and delete them from this same interface, as if they were emails.)
OK, yeah, this is awesome. If I were more popular and so had more people leaving messages on my phone I would totally want that -- Just the other day I was thinking, Why doesn't Verizon make your voicemail box accessible over the internet so you could browse it from your computer?
Anyway, whether this is the first to have whatever feature seems rather beside the point. It looks like it'll be awesome.
And I say that as someone who is typically hostile to Apple.
I am really, really awful about checking my voicemail, and this would help a ton. It's always nice when technology makes me less of a dickhead.
It'll be interesting to see how the "and we intend to protect our patents" plays out.
Apple activates every technolust secret part. It's like having a biological clock, but with yearly new releases.
Yeah, now that I think about it, this phone will enable me to call Ogged gay in a variety of formats.
Cingular, whoever. I'd take a contract with AT&T if I had to. (Although I *may* hold off a while, since it won't come out until summer. Maybe the lust will have abated by then.)
As to "breakthrough" vs. "better design." Maybe this doesn't hold true for people like w-lfs-n, but for most of us, it's not a breakthrough if the design is so crappy that you're better off with pencil and paper (or whatever the doodad is aspiring to replace). One of the things to love about Apple is they don't release stuff that falls into the "neat idea, but..." category. (Any more.)
86 -- I kinda think he could do wifi on his phone, although probably not the other stuff. He's the kind of guy who owns one of those Iridium phones, and who needs to have constant web and email access on his cell phone whether he's in his office, China, or in his second house in Banff. I'm pretty sure that a lot of this tech has existed on really high-end devices for a while now. Which isn't to say that putting it in the iPhone and selling it to millions isn't amazing (or great business) -- it clearly is. Just not... you know, "breakthough."
I'm not arguing -- we are all friends here, I think, and I agree that the iPhone looks like a sweet piece of tech. When someone shows one to me at the next Boston meet-up, I'll definitely lust after it.
95: I'm interested in seeing what develops in terms of hacking the DRM on tv shows and movies from iTunes. I can't be bothered with music, but I can see wanting to burn a proper dvd.
Have the video iPods been deemed a success? I thought they were sort of a silly idea that wouldn't go over well, but I don't own one. Do they actually have some utility? (What?)
I like watching the tiny tv on the elliptical machine and on a plane, but it is just a little bit too tiny.
I know someone who uses it on a commute from the suburbs to the center of Chicago. But no, generally, no big deal. However, once it's integrated into a phone/camera/websurfer/pda, people will use the hell out of it. I suspect the main problem with the video ipod is that few people are willing to buy a new device *just* to watch cute little tv.
I have a video iPod. It is actually a lovely thing. Having a computer that's relatively old, I have completely filled it up with music and now it'll barely run, but the video that I download makes its way to the iPod and I can watch episodes of my favorite shows there. The screen's small, but there's a sort of satisfaction in being able to watch something you downloaded from the Internet on a device you can hold in your hand.
I use mine every day back and forth from school, which is basically an hour commute both ways. I love it. It has some use for me. I mostly use it for music, though, not video, but the video is nice to have. Sometimes you just have to have your "Heroes" fix on the train.
(One of the best parts of being home sick is having idontpayy request my presence here. I sneezed at him. He made me do it.)
Hi, Cochava! Are you a family member of idontpay's?
58: The feature it has that I really want is the sensor that turns off the touchpad when your face gets near it. I have had several phone calls dropped by the Treo when the wrong part of my cheek got too close to the wrong part of the touch screen.
Unfortunately, the fact that the iPhone doesn't have a physical keyboard (and thus you can't type by feel) is a dealbreaker for me.
105: If memory serves, she's his daughter.
Christ alfuckingmighty, Apple do have the best PR ever, don't they? The new phone and TV were on the 3 minute hourly news on BBC Radio 4 (the serious radio station) earlier, and now I come here and you cunts are raving about them too. I hate the way the BBC report every fucking product that Apple bring out as fucking NEWS! Arselicking wankers. They don't report on everyone else's new bloody phones. Grrrrr.
108: You're just jealous because the European roll-out isn't until next winter.
Other companies do make this shit you know. But Apple have done a fantastic job of brainwashing everyone so that they think everything must start with an i.*
(OK, iriver startes with an i and I don't hate them, but you get the gist.)
109 - I wouldn't use one if it were the last fucking phone on earth.
I wouldn't use one if it were the last fucking phone on earth
You hardly could -- who would answer?
My wife gave me for Hanukkah a fresh copy of my existing phone, a Samsung e105. So I don't need to fool with learning something new. My old, which had been my daughter's before me, had been dropped one two many times. My favorite feature is the infrared port, so that I can have Samsung's file manager software on the pc, and work around T-Mobile's pay-for-everything ways. I uploaded my "Let the Eagle Soar" ringtone, and I'm in business.
Has no one considered the problems likely to arise from this no-button touchscreen deal? My current phone has a keyboard, but it's unwieldy to slide out. I pretty much keep it in touchscreen mode constantly, and even though I'm pretty religious about using the stylus as opposed to my fingers, the screen regularly accumulates with grime and crud, which necessitates keeping a bunch of screenwipes in my bag.
The screen does look pretty good, but having to fetishistically clean it after every use would really suck.
112 - I just reread my comment and realised that and laughed. But I could NOT watch a film to distract myself from the end of civilisation, couldn't I? Or something.
mrh, you cheeky wotsit. I stick my itongue out at you.
115: Really? I just wipe the screen of my razr on my jeans. 'Seasy.
117: I do that a lot, too, but after a while that leaves me with a fortified ring of grime around the edges and in the corners. The screen is a little bit recessed, for reasons I can't begin to fathom.
I have a new idea, which is that I want a little iPod (or iPhone, if I had one) holder made entirely out of eyeglass-cleaning fabric. Then you can just apply a tiny bit of pressure as you insert and remove the device, and voila! Grimebegone! I think it will work. I do hate the facegrime that appears on the screen of my Treo, all the more so because there's that little crevice around the frame where grime can really get stuck and stay stuck. Ew.
Or do what Nintendo (and probably others, but we are inundated in this house with DSs (DS's?) so that's what comes to mind) have done, and produce screen protectors, so you can wipe them and change the protectors when they get too gunky. And every now and again peel it off and admire your lovely virgin screen. (And then fuck it up the arse perhaps, I got a little confused in this thread.)
But I do like that cleaning-cloth-pouch idea - you should have kept that a secret and made some!
Have you grime-challenged people considered bathing? I see this with other people's mice too: there's grime in the little crevices of the thing. Gross!
Clearly, you are supposed to buy a new one before the grime buildup becomes a problem. I don't know anyone who owns an iPod who hasn't replaced it over and over. (Theft, cracked screens, dropping it into water, etc.) iPod--it's not a commodity, it's an addiction.
122 -- You bathe your mouse?
(My keyboard: beyond gross.)
Have you grime-challenged people considered bathing?
Ogged: the hermetically sealed sebum-free posthuman!
124: I use alcohol wipes on my trackball, but I've long come to terms with the fact that I'm a giant spaz.
God, it really is true. Humans: unacceptably grimy.
(Actually the state of my keyboard is one thing, among many, that makes me glad I'll be leaving this dreary job in a coupla weeks.)
(Oh wow! I hadn't even thought of that til just now! I'll have, like, a clean desk!)
a little iPod (or iPhone, if I had one) holder made entirely out of eyeglass-cleaning fabric
The video iPods came with something like this, lined with a chamois-like material. Possibly chamois.
122 reminds me that I have to clean the mice's cage today. Thanks, Ogged!
(Also, a li'l dirt never killed anyone, wuss.)
I don't know anyone who owns an iPod who hasn't replaced it over and over.
I was curious about this. Because someone I trust was telling me that they had looked at the battery in an iPod and that it was a cheap LiIon battery that would only last about 13 months. I wondered if that meant that everyone replaced their batteries all the time but, apparently, they just replace the iPod.
I had heard 18 months, and that replacing the battery cost about the same as buying a new one, but then I don't own an iPod.
My daughter's on her third since March. You remember the guy on skates pushing her onto the platform and breaking the screen; the one before that stopped working, wouldn't communicate usb, and Apple replaced it.
135 -- that sounds believable, 13 months sounded too low, but I trust him enough to believe that the lifespan is pretty short.
He was, for what it's worth, soldering his own version of the cable that (IIRC) is used to connect the iPod to a computer that is proprietary to Apple and costs some terrible amount.
My Mini's lasted a few years now without any trouble whatsoever, though I've never used it more than 5 or 10 hours a week.
You can replace your iPod 'battery' for $60. It's about 500 charge cycles, which for me was about 18 months.
The interesting bit, though, is that oddly, if you have engraving on your iPod, when they 'replace' the 'battery', they can't preserve the engraving. Why? Why? Because 'battery replacement' means 'we'll give you a new iPod of the same type.'
(Oh wow! I hadn't even thought of that til just now! I'll have, like, a clean desk!)
Like slash-and-burn agriculture. I used to know people who did this with apartments.
I bet w-lfs-n is looking forward to being able to run Common Lisp on his phone.
I wish I knew CL.
56
49: Preserving virginity doesn't mean one enjoys much of anything.
Depends on what you preserve it in. Alcohol would be much more enjoyable than lucite, or salt, or, well, most anything.
108
now I come here and you cunts are raving about them too. I hate the way the BBC report every fucking product that Apple bring out as fucking NEWS! Arselicking wankers. They don't report on everyone else's new bloody phones. Grrrrr.
But that's the point. The iPhone isn't bloody, because it's a Virgin* birth.
79
I bet w-lfs-n is looking forward to being able to run Common Lisp on his phone.
That's "I bet Wolfthon ith looking forward to being able to run Common Lithp on hith phone."
*Yeah, I know, but "Cinglar birth" just doesn't have the same ringtone, does it? Or does that presage the Cingularity? Or Thingularity?
72: Crap, it's cingular only? What a tease.
I say "woo-hoo" that it's only Cingular, Cingular being the only union wireless company in the U.S.
This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood trade unionist.
98: Cingular, whoever. I'd take a contract with AT&T if I had to.
Actually, Cingular is AT&T (it was half owned by SBC and half by BellSouth). Once the AT&T-BellSouth merger is final, Cingular will be rebranded as AT&T Wireless, which I think is a stupid marketing move, but then nobody pays me millions of bucks to come up with genius brands like ExxonMobil. (Taking out the space makes all the difference.)