GlitchVo and UlticrashTV

alternateorg on April 18, 2001

Should software companies and computer companies really be making television devices?

“Those in the PC world have been conditioned to expect that things don’t work out, but consumer electronics is a whole different world,” Snowden said. “People expect things to work on a TV.”

Apparently TiVo and UltimateTV systems are having problems (constant rebooting among other things), and consumer electronics buyers aren’t happy with them. And they shouldn’t be… for the longest time, the only thing you had to do in order to get a TV to work was plug the damn thing in, plug the coaxial cable into it, and viola… a working TV. But these computer-based TV systems developers (TiVo runs on Linux, and UltimateTV probably runs some sort of NT kernel, I’m expecting, seeing as how it’s MS-owned).. don’t understand that there is a zero tolerance in the entertainment/consumer electronics market for glitches. Something MUST be perfect before it leaves R&D and goes into production, because customers simply won’t tolerate the ‘update’ schema that computer users have been used to for so long. I’m not saying that updates are bad for computers, they are asked to do a million different things every day. But a television or TV system has a very limited and specialized routine to follow. A ‘glitch’ isn’t an accepted event in that world.

Something I've been waiting for

alternateorg on April 17, 2001

If you’re using OS X, and you keep clicking the time display in the right-hand corner looking for the application switcher, then this is for you.. It’s an app called X-assist that puts the application switcher back into its rightful place, and it brings ALL windows of an app to the front when you select that app, instead of just the one you chose. Nifty.

Type.. Oh.

alternateorg on April 17, 2001

I hears that them there people’s at that New York Times news-a-ma-paper ain’t payin’ no ‘tention to them’s grammar…

No, I ain’t no smart man, but why in the heck wouldn’t they just-a get a rid ah that there bad story title? And what about them a-ma-postrophe’s there? Is they sposta be there, too?

In the black again?

alternateorg on April 17, 2001

This guy knows what’s up.. Apple saw their laptop sales rise 23% in February, leaving the rest of the industry behind at an average 2.3%.. And Compaq & Toshiba actually saw their sales drop a few points. We certainly will be eagerly awaiting Apple’s earnings announcement tomorrow… One of the only guys in the media to ‘get it,’ as we say at Alternate:

…software will never rival computers as a moneymaker for Apple. At the end of the day, it’s still cool new Macs that keep the company’s ping-pong court lit. Software such as OS X is the candy that tempts users to buy new Macs.

Yer preachin’ to the choir, man.

Scope this ware

alternateorg on April 17, 2001

The desktop of the future? Hardly:


Scopeware abandons the file folder in favor of a line of index cards streaming into the distance; a search window parses the information. Released last month, browser-based Scopeware creates a searchable index of all textual information on an individual computer; corporate networks can be similarly indexed.

Yawn. I’d like to see it, though. And I liked this quote:

The typical corporate employee, for instance, spends two hours a day dealing with e-mail.

Might that be because the average corporate employee is a freakin’ moron? I dunno.

mayFIRST

alternateorg on April 17, 2001

So.. those of you who slipped in and have taken a look at Deeperhue in the past week or so have found that the new design was up… Aw, but it’s down now. Why? Because I did something so radical, so insane, that it just has to wait til the May 1 Reboot for you to see it.

*Note: It’s actually not that big a deal, and this is in fact just a way to generate hype around my new sub-par portfolio site.

Colorado is where all the smart jocks live

alternateorg on April 16, 2001

From the RockyMountainNews:


A drunken, tired University of Colorado football player busted down the door to an apartment he mistook for his own, then crashed on a couch as the bewildered homeowner screamed at him to get out.

I knew there was a reason why I didn’t want to attend CU Boulder after high school….

Nevermind Jesus, where's Joey Ramone?

alternateorg on April 16, 2001

Joey Ramone of the Ramones died yesterday (Easter) of Lymphatic cancer. The Ramones have been one of my favorite bands even since my pre-teenage, junior high days and it really saddens me to hear that he has passed away.

The Ramones barely ever cracked the charts in 22 years of playing, but basically redefined music in the last 25 years. Joey gave music a new look, feel, attitude and sound. Very few people have been so influential and remained so quiet and humble about it.

NOTE: VH1 has a documentary on the history of punk rock on April 19th.