coverage schmoverage

alternateorg on June 4, 2001

Three weeks ago I got layed off. It was not a big deal, because I was about to quit anyway, and had already started looking for a new job. Breaking an Office Space(tm) rule, I got laid off on a Monday. That same day I hatched a scheme.

You see, E3 was this week. Ever since I was a young lad, I knew of two events that real gamers would kill to be present at: CES (in Las Vegas), and E3 (in LA). I always wanted to go. This year, I hatched a plan. E3 is not open to the public. I decided to see if I had the moxie to get in, as Media. Only two golden tickets were required: 1) a letter from an editor, publisher, etc. (on their letterhead) stating that I was there “on assignment,” and 2) an industry-related article published within the last six months.

Thats it.

It was so simple. I figured I could do it all on my own, but to expedite things, I brought in the brilliance of Kevin, who is a master craftsman. For the article, he made it look all scanned in and copied. It was beautiful. For the letter, well, he actually sent me on assignment for Alternate. This is the “story” that was “promised” to “him” about “E3.”(continued in the Comment thingie)

BleediaGuide

alternateorg on June 1, 2001

So I made a quick trip to MediaGuide, the Denver Mac retailer who’s closing shop. Was I apalled at what I saw there? Yes. Was I surprised? No. I don’t know about you, but I ain’t paying $850 for a 233mhz G3 All-in-one education version computer, when I could spend 50 bucks more, get a brand new iMac with all new ports, instead of legacy ADB bullshit. The nerve of those people, I swear. I was looking for maybe an 8100 or 8500, for about 50 bucks. Those were $150, with PowerBook Duos weighing in at $250. They had a box full of what looked to be broken Duos, so I grabbed a disembodied display, took to the front to see what they wanted for it. Here’s the exchange:
ME: So, are you selling these parts over here?
HER: Yes, as parts. Working parts.
ME: What would you want for this display?
HER: Well, what would you pay for it?
ME: I was hoping to not pay anything for it, as I’m just going to hang it on my wall
HER: Oh, no, those are working displays
ME: For a computer that doesn’t even exist anymore? That’s 10 years old to begin with? Whatever.
— End of exchange —

Morons. They’re still trying to fuck you in the ass on legacy, worthless Mac products. Sorry, 808, no IICs. They had some Macintosh IIs, and a couple IIcxs, but that was it. Lots of useless beige hardware. Sucks that they’re not really treating it as a liquidation sale, otherwise everything should be dirt-cheap, like $10 for a Performa 400. Maybe I’ll stop by the last day and make some offers. The LISA was being auctioned off, with the highest current bid at $275.

For all you switch-hitters out there

alternateorg on May 31, 2001

An interesting article regarding Vermont representative Jim Jeffords and his brave party-switching actions… Aren’t they all Republicrats, anyway? 🙂 Link via email sumbission.


It does not take brain surgery to figure out that I really was standing still and the two major parties were revolving around me.

MediaDied

alternateorg on May 30, 2001

So there’s this store in Denver, known to the local Macintosh-using residents as just about the only independent seller of Apple products. So if you don’t want to go to CompUSA for that RAM for your aging 9600, you go to MediaGuide. And as it seems, Media Guide is going out of business. Maybe if those fuckers weren’t total jerks, I’d care. The upside is that there’s a giant sale about to start. Who knows what I’ll end up with.

If only I had ten million dollars

alternateorg on May 30, 2001

Gateway has a new $10,000,000.00 package on their 9500 series laptops.

256MB SDRAM, 20GB Ultra ATA Removable hard drive, 16MB 4x AGP ATI Mobility-M4 Graphics. Integrated 56K Modem and IEEE 1394 (only available with PIII850 CPU) [ US +$10000000]

Must be the integrated FireWire.

Screenshot

The penguin's in one corner..

alternateorg on May 30, 2001

Sorry about the lack of updates recently… I’ve been wrestling with a dilapidated HP and SuSE Linux the past few days. Good news: I did finally get PHP, Apache & MySQL playing nicely together, and now can recompile those bastards at will. It’s this damn Mac-networking thing I can’t get the hang of. But I’m sure I will soon, hopefully. So please be patient, once that’s taken care of, you’ll start seeing some new sites spewed forth, most notably Retinal.nu, a site that Eddie and I are working on together, and an oh-so-special website showcasing the cuteness of my 2 kids, one brand-new and the other not-so-much.