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I still haven’t made up my mind about you yet. Yes, you provide my homepage, my primary email address, and my RSS reader of choice. And you’ve created a scientific literature search engine that – to my thinking – still pummels any other competitor.
On the other hand, you have more personal information about me than Citibank. The GMail interface suuuuuuuuucks, and if Hotmail wasn’t such a tremendous box-o-crap (and Thunderbird wasn’t such a rockin’ good piece of software), I never would have made the leap. Oh, and your AdWords? They creep me the fuck out.
But I will say that this is a geeky masterpiece:
Depicting Google's master plan for harvesting LHC data long before those silly physicists get hold of it.
Thank you.
Visiting the fam… as always, this involves rapid fluctuations between states of extreme torpor and extreme hyperactivity. Right now, I’m in the former, trying to get some work done (and clearly not succeeding) at one of the many fine Starbucks establishments on Rte. 9. Unfortunately, unlike back home, in-cafe wi-fi seems to be more of a luxury, so I’m trying to nick off of anybody who’s willing to spare a few MB/sec of unsecured bandwith at any given moment. There are many choices:
Today's connection has been brought to you by...
To be honest, I can’t help but admire somebody whose commitment to wireless network security best practices takes a backseat to needlessly elaborate ASCII dick jokes.
On the other hand, the possibility that this might be intended as a tricksy lure set by some goofball hacker for transient internet thieves such as yours truly – “It’s a trap!” – has driven me into the warm and comforting arms of Travelodge.
Or, a defense of Microsoft.
Most people who know me are aware that I am DEEPLY, um, skeptical of the Apple Cultural Phenomenon. Which is kind of a shame, since I live in Brooklyn – probably the biggest hive of MacBook scum and villainy outside of the Bay Area. Not that I don’t love my iPod, and not that I don’t have Much Respect for the iPhone (even if I have zero desire to own one)… just that I get really tired of the smugness and proselytizing and evangelizing on behalf of an overpriced and overdesigned piece of hardware that – for my needs – isn’t particularly better than the $550 netbook I just picked up.
On the other hand, I’ve no great love for MS. Sure, XP has served me well – but part of my desperate, clinging loyalty comes from the urge to avoid Vista at all costs. I use Office, but because I have to – and I’m fairly confident that computers in Hell run nothing but Access and Powerpoint (on a Win98 or ME machine, natch).
On the other hand, the MS R&D team turns out the occasional wonder that makes me want to look at the Apple people and say, “This – this – is innovation.” One example is the World Wide Telescope project, which I first saw presented in the TED video series:
The other really fucking cool thing I saw from those lovely lads and ladies – also, not coincidentally, presented at TED – was this program:
It totally captures my fascination with digital photography, insanely cool image manipulation, and groovy 3D shit. So I was totally pleased to find that Photosynth is now open to the world at large.
I’m generally not an early adopter, but I did rush over and install this and create an account, just so I could give it a whirl. Of course, those who had gone before me had already made some valiant efforts – the Taj Mahal, the canals of Venice, and so on. But how pedestrian, I thought. Technology of this caliber deserves a subject matter more enobling, something more magical – something timeless. Like Gowanus, for example.
The system definitely has its limitations – I feel like it made some odd choices in the way it arranged the various panels, and the navigation is a bit confusing at first – but it’s still really damn cool. My first few attempts were a bit on the remedial side, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it – hopefully I’ll have the chance to play around with this a bit more before I go…
Good show, gang – it’s almost enough to make me forgive you for Clippy.
That’s right. My sweet-ass ASUS 1000H has arrived, and I’m already feeling that unnatural love that can only exist between a piece of electronics and a really geeky guy. At 3 lbs, this little fella (who shall henceforth be known as ‘El Chico’) may seem like a lightweight compared to big brother Moses (at right), but rest assured he’s every bit as fast and powerful and hungry for a fight.
And more importantly, he’ll stow oh-so-conveniently in my backpack, making him the perfect travel companion. Ole!
