XML
There’s now a (non-validating, I’m working on that) RSS feed over there on the right under “Related Links.” Check it out if it’s your thing to do so.
iTunes Music Store
Most of Alternate’s readers know this already, but some may not:
1, Apple’s new music store available in iTunes 4. 1-Click downloading/purchasing of songs for $.99 each or albums for $9.99. AAC-encoding and 30-second streaming previews. Available today.
2. New slimmer iPods with new control buttons available in 10Gb, 15Gb and 30Gb configurations, 0.62″ thick. Shipping May 2.
More details are available at the Apple website.
Drool, Drool, Drool
Now why is it that the day I’ve been waiting for, the one where I see a commercial for the Mazda RX-8, signaliing the return of the rotary engine to a modern car, has to include the fucking X-Men?
Well, whether mutants are involved or not, I would kill for an RX-8. Sigh. The shape of a circle within a rounded triangle should really not make me this giddy. But damn. 1.3 Liters providing 250 hp stock? Try and get a 1.3l 4-banger to do that.
Best Slashdot Comment
Yeah, see, people who don’t spend all day trying to fiddle with config files on Linux have things like “leisure time”. In that time you can choose to do things besides attempt to build libfrobber-0.0.1alpha from source. One of those things is called “watching television”, where someone sends pictures to a display box in your home. It’s a lot like downloading pirated dvd’s off the internet, but without having to recompile mplayer source to see it.
From this relatively uninteresting thread on Slashdot. That’s funny stuff. If you don’t get it, I really wish you could but won’t spend the time to explain it because then I’d realize what a geek I truly am.
Flash + Data = ?
Macromedia links Flash apps to data.
My thoughts as I’m reading this: Sounds good, sounds good, sounds about right, hrm,, no direct MySQL support, sounds good, sounds good, ColdFusion? People still use that? Sounds good, sounds good… $999 price tag for Flash Remoting? Good luck, Macromedia.
Just as they always do, Macromedia comes really close to getting something.. then just leaves you feeling screwed. To use PHP/MySQL, you still have to go through the still-required extra steps of taking MySQL data into XML, and writing your own ActionScript parser just so you can get nifty vector animations along with your dynamic data in the same compiled binary file.
Macromedia’s latest efforts would have you (if you feel like paying a ton of money instead) buy a ColdFusion license for at least $1299, or as much as $4999 (depending on the level of quality you need), buy a MSSQL Server license for at least $4999/processor, buy Windows 2000 server for $1199 to run the entire thing on….PLUS the $999 for Flash Remoting.
On the other hand (back to PHP), you could just write some XML-parsing code in ActionScript and some MySQL-XML translating code in PHP. Run it on Linux. Licensing fees? Nada. Massive development environment? Nope. Expensive production environment? Perhaps, but still not on-par with the Windows/ColdFusion world.
Or you could just use XHTML, forego the animation and buzzwords and get your files down to like 4k instead of 400k. Skip the XML step and get dyanamic data in its native form into your native code.
Why was I excited about Flash again? Oh, right. Because it takes 3x as long for me to produce so I get paid 3x the amount. Right.
Too many Windows
Microsoft at has 9.5 million different versions of Windows.
By current count, Microsoft offers about a half-dozen different versions each of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows CE .Net. Microsoft also considers Windows 2000 still to be a “current” product. Including the 64-bit editions, Microsoft also offers about six different Windows 2000 versions, bringing the total to about 24.
I’m still waiting for Windows RG, the one that’s supposed to work.
Also, previously forgotten until now, I was at the movie theater here, where pre-purchased tickets over the internet are redeemed at little stations placed in the lobby. When I went to use my credit card to have the machine print out my tickets, I was greeted with a nice little Windows CE logo combined with some insipid tagline on how great my life was going to be now that Windows CE was in it. Under which was an also-informative message that Windows CE had encountered a general protection fault error and needed maintenance. Of course, this meant I had to speak with an actual person, after waiting in line with actual people, which is never a pleasant experience.
O Has to be Coors or Coke
I solved the Retail Alphabet Game. Can you? I’m considering posting the answers in a comment, but I won’t until people start getting stumped.
Okay, who sneezed?
This amazing commercial is actually basically entirely real except for one part where they had to splice together the shot becuase they couldnt fit it all in one warehouse at one time. I thought at least the tires going up the ramp was fake but apparently they were weighted with lugnuts or some such thing. In total, it required 606 takes over 4 days.
HDD100 < iPod
- Ripoff of the iPod interface? Check.
- Ripoff of Apple’s brushed metal interface on website? Check.
- Using a transfer protocol half the speed of FireWire without power capability? Check.
- No contacts or calendar functionality? Check.
- Probably a lot cheaper than the iPod, in both actual price as well as look and feel? Check.