Apple Store Marriage Proposal Update

Earlier, I posted a story about some guy proposing marriage to his girlfriend via the webcam at the new Manhattan Apple Store opening last weekend. Here's a happy follow-up, she said yes.

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Hicks Gets More Votes Than Bush

Taylor Hicks is now the 5th American Idol. He won on the show, American Idol last night.

According an AP story, "More than 63 million votes were cast, 'more than any president in the history of our country has received,' [Ryan] Seacrest said."

Ahh...but he didn't win the electoral vote!

Maybe John McCain should add him as his vice presidential running mate. Alabama's a red state right?

One OutsideTheBeltway.com reader noted,
Yes 63 million votes is more than any American president has received (62 million for Bush in 2004), but you are comparing apples to space ships. As noted above, you are drawing from a different pool of voters. Also, the 63 million was to total vote for American idol. The 122 million total vote in 2004 was considerably higher. This would be like comparing the 62 million votes for Bush in 2004 to the 62 million votes for Ike and Adlai combined in 1956.

I like Ike!

Nike Likes iPod

I own jackets from Columbia Sportswear and L.L. Bean that feature special pockets to hold my cell phone. The one from Columbia is much better than the one from L.L. Bean because my Motorola e815 fits in the pocket with the leather case on.

Now, Nike is offering shoes that connect with your iPod to gather data about your exercise. They also have clothes which offer ways to carry your iPod.

Just do it. Turn on the iPod. Now. Really. Just turn it on OK? Batteries are dead?

Hillary Has An iPod!

Hillary Clinton revealed to the New York Post that she received an iPod from her husband Bill for her birthday last October. She said she has a huge variety of songs on the digital music player.

I certainly hope all the songs on the iPod are legally owned by her.

She's so hip!



SOURCE

New Apple Store Time Elapsed Photos

Apple Computer, Inc. opened their newest Apple Store in New York City, on 5th Avenue, Friday May 19 at 6pm. The store features a 30 foot glass cube in front of the entrance.

As part of the celebration, they set up a camera in front of the store hooked to the web to show time-elapsed photos of the first 24 hours being open.

This is a very cool thing to watch. I never knew that many people could be wandering around in front of the store at 4 in the morning. Fascinating to watch the windows in the building behind the glass cube as the day progresses.

According to a reader at TUAW.com,"If you click on the time lapse, it will stop and you can step through the frames with the arrow keys."

One guy even proposed to his girlfriend in front of the camera.

I know where I'm heading on my next trip to NYC.

Love Me Do?

Paul McCartney...excuse me...Sir Paul McCartney. You know, the cute Beatle that America has known since 1963 or 1964, one of the most recognizeable icons in the world and all that. Well, he held a press conference to announce that he and his wife, Heather Mills, are splitting up and the press folks are to blame.

Hmmm...I dunno but you would think that a guy who has been in the public eye since 1963 would know how to deal with this stuff by now. Heather is no stranger to the press herself, using the attention to promote some cause or other.

CNN.com is reporting that Sir Paul did not set up a pre-nuptial agreement before the marriage. D'Oh! Seems pretty silly for a guy who is worth around $1,555 million (seems like an odd number) and given the state of other high profile marriages. This could cost him up to a quarter of his estimated worth, something like $380 million.

It hasn't been a good two weeks for Paul. First, The Beatles lose the lawsuit against Apple Computer, Inc. and now this.

Maybe Sir Paul could seek some cheer by allowing Beatles songs to appear on the iTunes Music Store (although Micheal Jackson would probably have to be involved in the deal. Look here for on that.). Or, he and Ringo could accept the $3,200 offer from Lorne Michaels if The Beatles reunited to perform on Saturday Night Live as The Beatles.

It's The Thought That Counts.

Last night, Wen-Yi and I drove to the mall to find a birthday gift for her friend's 8 year-old daughter. We went into a store called Claire's Accessories. After looking around for a little bit, the girl who was working there asked if we were looking for anything. Wen-Yi mentioned that she was trying to find something for an 8 year-old girl. The Claire's girl right away suggested that Wen-Yi get a gift card since she could leave it up to the 8 year-old to find something.

Mmm-kay, girlfriend, thanks for the hot, creative tip. I'm so used to my sales background where my managers told me to point out what was on sale, what was popular and point out how several items could go together. "Go for the Up-Sale." Instead, we get a suggestion to buy a gift card. Don't work too hard there, girlfriend.

While I thought the It's Happy Bunny stuff was cool, Claire's seems a bit too trendy and way too cute for me.

On The Air Job Interview...Not.

This has been making its way around the internet lately. Following the British court ruling favoring Apple Computer Inc. over Apple Corps (aka The Beatles), the BBC interviewed a computer expert about what he thought would come of the decision. The only problem was, the computer expert was really a cab driver. TVSquad.com explained:

How does this happen? Well, the cab driver appeared at the BBC front desk and someone assumed he was the computer expert who was scheduled to appear on a news program. Without asking any questions, he was whisked onto the set and interviewed on live television. He made a valiant effort at trying to answer the anchor's questions! She only asked him three questions about downloading music before suddenly tossing to a reporter in the field. I think someone told her in her ear that she had the wrong guy on set.

It's especially funny when the cab driver is introduced as the editor of some tech magazine -- the look on his face is priceless. Apparently, the real tech editor watched the whole thing from the BBC reception area.

There's another twist to the whole story. Turns out he isn't a cabbie at all:

And he wasn't there to pick up a fare, because he's not a cabbie. He's a Business Studies graduate, from the Congo, and he was there in reception because he was applying for a high level IT job with the BBC.

Apparently the unflappable Mr Goma assumed the whole thing was some kind of initiation prank. His own speciality is data cleansing, and (my source inside the Beeb tells me) was "a little upset that nobody asked him about his data cleansing expertise."

Check out the video at YouTube.com.

And we all thought situation comedy shows were unrealistic.

“I don’t believe...evil elections people exist.”

From a New York Times article about security flaws in the Diebold electronic voting machines:

David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold Election Systems, said the potential risk existed because the company’s technicians had intentionally built the machines in such a way that election officials would be able to update their systems in years ahead.

“For there to be a problem here, you’re basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of software,” he said. “I don’t believe these evil elections people exist.”

That's almost like saying GM stopped putting air bags in their cars because they believe there will no longer be any car crashes.

Diebold has been trying to down-play the security flaws in their voting machines in spite of everyone who has examined the system and reporting just how serious the security hole is.

Mr. Bear, here's a penny for the clue your company needs to buy. It is your job to make those assumptions to insure the integrity of the system.

Skype Offers Free Calls

Skype is now offering, until the end of the year, free outgoing domestic calls to all landline and mobile phones in the United States and Canada. Yes, free as in free:

Yes. It is really very, very free. There’s no prepayment, no minimum use, no subscription, no monthly fee, no nothing. You just download and install Skype and then you start calling. Both the caller and the number called must be in either the US or Canada. There are no strings attached.

The only condition is that we have said free SkypeOut within the US and Canada is guaranteed to last until the end of this year — that is, until December 31, 2006. We’re not quite sure yet what we will do after that. Maybe we extend the free period, maybe not. You’ll hear more about this towards the end of the year.

Until then, happy calling.

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Good News...Maybe

The good news: Verizon Wireless (my mobile service provider) and T Mobile are not supplying the National Security Agency with phone records.

The bad news: Terrorists now know which cell servces to use.

Battlestar Simpsons

Dylan Meconis has drawn the characters of Battlestar Galactica as characters on The Simpsons. Check it out.

Surprise

As I write this, I am listening to the second song, "Everything About It Is A Love Song," on Paul Simon's new album, Surprise. Definitely a well titled album given that it is not only a departure from work since Graceland but a completely sonic departure from anything he's done before.

Paul brought Brian Eno on board to help with the "Sonic Landscape" of the album. If you are familiar with Eno's producing on U2's "The Unforgettable Fire," "The Joshua Tree," "Achtung Baby," "Zooropa," "All That You Can't Leave Behind" and Peter Gabriel's "Us," then you have an idea of his atmospheric music.

The first song on Paul Simon's album is "How Can You Live In The Northeast?" I first heard this song two weeks ago on XM Radio. At first, I wondered if it was indeed Paul Simon that I was hearing because of the distorted electric guitar. What a departure for Paul.

What amazes me about Paul Simon, 65, is his complete willingness to change styles, adapt and change to what he is trying to accomplish musically at the moment. Even his mediocre albums are great. Paul Simon clearly remains one of the premeire American songwriters.

So give Surprise a listen. Be warned though, Art Garfunkel is not on this album and don't expect anything like the familiar Simon & Garfunkel tunes.

Worried for James Bond

I saw the movie Layercake with Daniel Craig, who is set to be the next James Bond. I'm worried. He seems to be more of a walking GQ ad than an actor. He just might have been a bad pick to play James Bond. It really should have been Hugh Jackman.

Playstation 3 and Gasoline

The best comment I've seen online thus far regarding the high price tag ($499) for the barebones version of the Playstation 3:

"500 bucks, Hmm... Just when I thought the price of gas was f**king high."

PS3, Wii, Xbox 360

This week, the E3 Expo is being held in Los Angeles. This is the big, big, big show for the videogame community and this year's show is definitely not a let down in terms of news.

I've just finished reading announcements from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft regarding their game systems.

Sony Playstation 3 - Will be out in November with two configurations. The core system, which supposedly cannot be upgraded, will dig $499 out of your wallet and the premium unit will fetch $599. Ouch.

Now we see why Microsoft has the hard drive and other accessories seperate from the console. Upgrading from the core unit is easy. This press conference made Microsoft's Xbox 360 look downright enticing.

Nintendo Wii - They showed off some gameplay with their unique controller system and mentioned some features but nothing was said about the release date or price. The rumor is that it will sell at around $250. I'm more impressed with the system now. Could be cool.

Nintendo DS - The Nintendo DS Lite will be available June 11, 2006 for $149. They showed off a bunch of games. It looks like Nintendo is really getting behind the DS now.

Microsoft Xbox 360 - The HD-DVD, wireless headset and camera will be available this Fall. Lumines will be available soon in Xbox Live. Grand Theft Auto in Decemenber. Halo 3 will be out in 2007.

All Microsoft game development will be under one roof, so to speak for the Xbox 360, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

I would have to say Nintendo came in first with Microsoft as a close second.

Moussaoui Wants To Withdraw Guilty Plea

After being sentanced to life in prison, Zacarias Moussaoui had his lawyers file papers saying he wants to withdraw his guilty plea and be granted a new trial because he lied on the stand about his involvement with the terrorist murderers on September 11, 2001. READ

There's speculation that he is trying to continue having his day in court or that he wanted to receive a death sentance, not life in prison.

I'm sure Moussaoui will not be granted his wishes simply because he pled guilty to the crime.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema summarily rejected Moussaoui's motion late yesterday, saying federal rules prohibit a defendant from withdrawing a guilty plea after being sentenced. "Because defendant was sentenced on May 4, 2006, his motion is too late and must be denied on this basis alone,'' Brinkema wrote.

Moussaoui can appeal her ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, but legal experts said such appeals are rarely granted and would probably require a grievous legal error by the judge.

While Moussaoui isn't insane in the legal sense, he's certainly a very high maintenance indivual, to say the least.

Even Moussaoui's attorneys acknowledged in a footnote yesterday that their motion could not be granted under federal rules, but they said they were filing it anyway "given their problematic relationship with Moussaoui."

The sentence Moussaoui received was something of an eye-opener for him:

He [Moussaoui] also offered measured praise for the U.S. legal system he has spent the past four years attacking. Moussaoui said he lied on the stand because he assumed he would be executed "based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11.'' But he was "extremely surprised" at the jury's verdict, he said, and now believes "it is possible I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors.''

At first I thought the life in prison sentence was indeed fair. Reading this story I've come to realize Moussaoui's sentence was fair on two levels. First, even though Moussaoui pled guilty, there are some doubts as to how big a role he served. Second, if you receive the death sentance, your case is automaticaly appealed. With a life sentence, it isn't. Thus, disallowing him from having his pulpit, he's really hurting. Plus, he doesn't get all those virgins after death. So sorry, bud.

John Lennon's BeatleBox, The First iPod?

Yesterday, Apple Computer, Inc. won the lawsuit brought on by The Beatles. Steve Jobs then invited Apple Corps to release The Beatles catalog on the iTunes Music Store.

Today, we learned that it was actually John Lennon who invented the iPod. There's even video proof.

Top Ten Professor Comments

Last Friday was the last day of final exams for the Spring semester here at Penn State. Graduation ceremonies are scheduled for this weekend. One part of the end of semester rituals is the student evaluation of professors. There is a website where students can rate and comment on their professors at campuses across the nation.

Here are the top twenty comments from students regarding their professors at RateMyProfessors.com:

20. You can't cheat in her class because no one knows the answers.
19. His class was like milk, it was good for 2 weeks.
18. Houston, we have a problem. Space cadet of a teacher, isn't quite attached to earth.
17. I would have been better off using the tuition money to heat my apartment last winter.
16. Three of my friends got A's in his class and my friends are dumb.
15. Emotional scarring may fade away, but that big fat F on your transcript won't.
14. Evil computer science teaching robot who crushes humans for pleasure.
13. Miserable professor - I wish I could sum him up without foul language.
12. Instant amnesia walking into this class. I swear he breathes sleeping gas.
11. BORING! But I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling.
10. Not only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality.
9. Teaches well, invites questions and then insults you for 20 minutes.
8. This teacher was a firecracker in a pond of slithery tadpoles.
7. I learned how to hate a language I already know.
6. Very good course, because I only went to one class.
5. He will destroy you like an academic ninja.
4. Bring a pillow.
3. Your pillow will need a pillow.
2. If I was tested on her family, I would have gotten an A.
1. She hates you already.

Beatles Told To Let It Be

There is a long history to the whole legal issue between Apple Computer, Inc. and The Beatles, or more specifically, their record company, Apple Corps (Yes, it still exists).

This latest legal battle between the two Apples stems from a 1991 agreement by Apple Computer, Inc. to not get into the music making business. The Beatles thought the computer company had done so with the iPod and iTunes Music Store. That legal agreement came after Apple Corps sued Apple Computer because the computer company was offering the ability for musicians to connect musical instruments to their computers.

Here's what the Justice Edward Mann said:

I conclude that the use of the apple logo ... does not suggest a relevant connection with the creative work," he wrote in his judgment.

I think that the use of the apple logo is a fair and reasonable use of the mark in connection with the service, which does not go further and unfairly or unreasonably suggest an additional association with the creative works themselves.

According to that BBC News report,

But Mr Justice Edward Mann ruled that the computer company used the Apple logo in association with its store, not the music, and so was not in breach.

The Beatles not only lose, but have to pick up Apple Computer, Inc.'s legal bill, some £2 Million. Alas, all is not over yet.

Apple Corps manager Neil Aspinall said: With great respect to the trial judge, we consider he has reached the wrong conclusion.

We felt that during the course of the trial we clearly demonstrated just how extensively Apple Computer had broken the agreement.

We will accordingly be filing an appeal and putting the case again to the Court of Appeal.

While the conclusion may seem obvious, it is official and these are highly technical points. I would be surprised if Apple Corps wins on appeal.

There is scuttlebutt that the cash-strapped Michael Jackson may put what Beatles songs he owns up on the auction block. What if a certain Steve Jobs were to buy said songs.

Until something like that happens, don't hold your breath over The Beatles songs appearing on the iTunes Music Store anytime soon. Too bad though, that would be a win-win for everyone involved.

Or, as a recent episode of The Office noted, a "Win-Win-Win."