Apparently the intrepid souls at Customs and Border Patrol CBP, think that they've the right to

1. confiscate my laptop
2. copy it's contents, if they don't just keep it.
3. take my phone and or it's contents

without cause. Or rather without warrent. Saw this on MacObserver. It's being debated right now, or rather was being debated, yesterday. The 9th Circuit Court already said our rights don't amount to much when we come back from over seas. the EFF, and others are working to fight such lameness.

I totally get that some exec or developer or whomever could load their laptop up with secrets and scoot on over to China, and sell 'em. I get that. And if they make it all the way to China without one of our many snoopy agencies catching them, well shit, good on ya brutha. I mean really. the Telcos gave us all up to the NSA already, so phone calls are being listened to, records surrendered. Echelon is still running as far as I know so they're definately keeping an eye on us. Plus, by the time that bad guy is returning, he'd damn well better have erased evidence of his bad guy-ness. And I doubt we're buying illegal secrets FROM China, it's no secret how to mistreat your citizens, pollute your air, built low quality iPod knock offs, etc.

I know we live in strange times, and security nuts in our government agencies are still power grabbing 7 years after 9/11, but really! Confiscating our laptops and phones? copying the data to be rifled through later? Oh and if I'm innocent, what then? whatever secrets I did have, legal or otherwise are now yours. I'm not the paranoid type in many cases, but when it comes to my data. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands. I might have to install a cleaner on my machines now.... F you CBP how about you work on the illegal aliens strutting across the border problem, or work on keeping the Canadians out of Palm Springs. Work on that!

I watched the WWDC keynote with only mild interest. 3G iPhone, done, we all knew it. To not announce it would be suicide.

What I wasn't prepared for, was yet another raping of iPod touch owners by Apple. I paid what? 400 bucks I think for my 16gb iNewton. Then I paid, what? 15 bones for the 1.1.4 firmware update. Now I'll have to pay another 9.99 for firmware 2.0?

Why? If I remember right, the excuse was something lame like like SOX accounting or some bullshit. SOX is a whack excuse, and a whacker still law. All it's accomplish is making "SOX compliance consultants" and Lawyers rich. Great job government.

I'm seriously weighing whether or not the 2.0 iPhone will be a crackberry replacement for me, and a large part of that is I'm tired of apple screwing me on firmware updates. I didn't need a phone, but the iNewton functionality is great. Apparently it's also taxable, since Apple has twice now levied a tax against me for owning an iNewton.

Denver has limited ATT 3G coverage so I'm not 100% sold. When it comes out, i'll go look, but the Crackberry is such a great device. I've no complaints other than build quality about it. The iPhone has a lot to measure up against, but we'll see. I'll need to practice more on my iNewton, for the keyboard.

Apple sure is clever. I feel completely taken as an iNewton owner. Add to that, no new enhancements to the device itself, Shoot, hook it up with GPS! Give it some location awareness, at least!!

This coming Thursday Nicole and I will be boarding a plane for Italy. My conference is next week in Milan, so we'll be doing that first, getting it all set up over the weekend, then doin' our thang Mon-Wed.

After we wrap up the conference, Nicole and I will be doing a little self guided (for the most part) tour of Italy, from Milan to Rome, where we leave the end of the following week.

I'm both excited and nervous. Traveling a foreign country is always a bit daunting, neither of us speaks Italian, and Spanish is sorta similar, but not so similar we could use it. Thankfully it seemed like most folks could at least interact in english, when I was there a month ago. Except the rude gal at the airport snack shop, her english sucked, and her attitude was atrocious.

It's made finding a project a little tough, since being gone for two weeks is a bit of a barrier, so I'll be glad to be home and nave no further travel (aside of Japan, but that's only three days) to worry about.

I'll try to blog as much as I can as we travel. I'll have the MacBook AIR with me. The MacBook Pro is staying home. It'll be interesting to not have my "Main Machine" with me, the AIR is great, but it won't have a ton of things I'm used to having with me. Oh well, it's technically a vacation so I shouldn't need any code or anything.... we'll see. The nice thing about the AIR is that I won't be worried about my code (my life's work) or even my writing (it'll be backed up to .MAC each time I find Wireless internet), and I can just toss it in my bag and go. Many have said it but the construction is quite remarkable, so tossing it in a bag and going, won't bother me much.

Here's to a fun trip!

"Wal-Mart's digital media chief departs for Apple"

I don't know if it was his brain child or not, but he was in charge, so whether it was his idea or not, he helmed the ship as it crashed in a ball of fire to the ground... I've talked about Wal-Mart's retarded attempts at getting into digtal media, and how those attempts, almost exactly when i said they would, folded.

Of all the things, Apple does that make me shake my head and wonder if Steve isn't getting a little to full of himself, this move makes me shake my head in a different way. Granted he'll be over the international market, so the chances of him doing any real damage are slim, but still, why would Apple bring in someone from Wal-Mart? I'm sure he was one of the more visionary execs in AR, but really? A kid off the street, with an iPod and a computer, would IMO be a better choice than any one from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is hardly the breeding ground for executive decision making I'd want in a high tech company. Well any company for that matter, but Apple, no less?

Hopefully not a sign of things to come, I'd really hate to have to switch back to Dell or something, what's next, "we're moving to all plastic laptops, they're lighter. Lighter is better!"

So I've gone around and around with different folks on this MacBook Air thing, Apple Insider has an article reporting that "those in in the know" say it takes only three minutes to replace the battery in the MBA.... well, three minutes and $129.00!!

"The mail-in repair process normally takes 5 business days, the company says."

5 days? granted, this won't be anyone's primary machine! but how that makes sense to anyone, I simply can't see how this makes sense to anyone.

5 days without an iPod, ok, no biggy.

5 days without an iPhone, no thanks, but I don't own one, for that among many other reasons.

5 days without a laptop, even if it's not my main one... oh hell no!

"Given the simplicity of the upgrade, however, it's possible that Apple will in time offer the service on-demand at its retail stores."

Ya think? How was that not something they already had in place? I'd be more inclined to buy one if I could go in and get a new battery lickity split! But 'maybe' we'll offer in store service? WEAK

I'm sure there third party market will pick the slack, sounds like there's not much to taking the machine apart, but still, i just don't get it.

The reality distortion field is one thing, it's well documented and always presumed to eminate out, from Steve to us. I think there's another field acting on him. The NYT got some time with his ego-ness and more or less everything he had to say was such a load of horse crap, it almost made me want to go buy a Dell.

It's bad enough iPods have to be so tiny they don't hold a music library, but get to be called "the thinnest blah ever" a Title he seems to want for all his gear. And Now the MacBook Air, a very expensive "device" that looks like a laptop.

"Still, the machine is a reversal of field for Mr. Jobs, who in the past has insisted that less-than-full-featured laptops are undesirable."

Uh, that's still the case... Sure it'll sell, it's an iProduct, but people want useful AND sexy. Sexy alone is just lame and over priced, look at Bang & Olufson. I'd deck my whole house out in their stuff... but it's 8x the price and not more useful.

"Some of the competitors’ machines are so flimsy, he said, they require a fifth or even sixth pad to keep from sagging."

Well, that's good, I'm glad the MBA only needs four pads, I've been thinking, "There's just too much pad being used by these flimsy WinTel machines."

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Ok Sure. A lot of folks don't read. A few never read, a few even don't know how. 40%? I think that's an exageration. I find it funny, that since no one reads, Apple isn't interested in eBooks, however "no one" was buying music in the numbers they are now, prior to the iPod, and "no one" wanted a phone with out a tactile keyboard prior to the iPhone, so I'm sure that when Steve decides the world is ready to read again, Apple will be all over eBooks, until he's decided that though, it's a terrible idea, doomed to fail. Sheesh

"Having created a phone its a lot harder than it looks,” he said. “We’ll see how good their software is and we’ll see how consumers like it and how quickly it is adopted.”

LOL, "having created a phone..." Yeah Steve, Apple is an old hand at handset manufacturing now. And uh, in case no one told you, the iPhone is probably more unlocked and Jailbroken, than it is not. I recall a load like "People don't want third party apps, They want a stable OS" speaking of phones, turns out, yeah most want third party apps, especially if you're not gonna provide any yourself. Also turns out, a "stable OS" is harder to accomplish too, since the iPhone isn't V1 any more..

It sucks, I'm really started to get tired of Apple and Steve's ego in product creation. I'm sure when Steve reached Shambala and lists his accomplishments and being the creator of the thinnest (every piece of tech ever) will be impressive, but consumers, in general, I don't think car... Shit look how many SUVs are on the market still...

Saw this on lifehacker, kinda cool, some of the features aren't even remotely interesting to me, but one or two were cool enough. Since the app is free, only one or two cool tweaks ain't so bad :)

It's on macupdate, so take it for a spin. the one I like the most ironically is the one I always activated in Windoze. "full path in window name"

I just like knowing where I am.

Oh yeah, ready for MacWorld?

Wal-Mart, drop kicked it's movie service into the round file. I called it in February, but looks like it took a little longer than I expected.

Engadget reported it.

According to Engadget, any schmoe that purchased one of these, is still able to watch it on the machine they purchased the video on, but no where else, since it's DRM'ed to hell and back. Have fun, dummies.

Apparently part of the end was caused by HP discontinuing some bit of technology that Wal-Mart had hung it's hat on, bummer.

CNET has an interesting article entitled, Is Apple becoming Microsoft?

Well duh, i wasn't aware that was up for debate. It's been happenning for a few years now. Unfortunately for Apple, M$ is successful inspite of itself, VISTA can blow chunks, no one likes it. Enterprises are STILL standardizing on it. M$ can stumble, fuck up, fall down, rip us off, etc, and the enterprises will still be running Exchange.

Apple doesn't have that leisure. Apple is largely supported by Fanboys. I know it. I am one. I extol the virtues of OS X to anyone who makes eye contact (I don't but I know DB thinks I do, LOL)

The writer of the article, wraps it up by saying he doesn't think Apple or M$ are evil empires, blah blah. I disagree.

I don't think they're evil, I think they're smug. Which is often worse.

M$ releases piss poor software, not ready for prime time, we allow them to. I'll give them that being the 5,000,000 lb gorilla in OS/Software makes them largely a target for attack by virii and script kiddies, but really. Both have been around so long, maybe M$ should work on hardenning the system rather than making it look like OS X. One battle I think they can win, the other, never.

Apple, bends us over, and uses a wiffle ball bat on us, and we let them. a 16GB mp3 player for $400? a phone that doesn't even do what most other phones do, $600 with contract?

Laptops, that cost a good deal more than any other...? let's not start the comparison fight, i agree that you can get darn close now, but that hasn't always been the case.

Does iPod technology still cost what it did 6 years ago? I can't see how, no other tech costs what it cost that long ago, yet iPod prices aren't coming down.

Add to that, the fact that Apple likes to leave it's early adopters out in the cold, and even some of it's late adopters. I have an iPod Photo (that's the one with a color screen, the first one, even) it hasn't seen a firmware update since.....  I dunno. ages long past. At least M$ gave Zunies with the 1.0 a bump to the 2.0 firmware. Apple just expects us to upgrade, and we do.

I'm not immune, I'm 100% throwing stones, inside my own glass house.

That might be coming to an end. My laptop has at least another year before I start to think of replacing it, so no new money from me yet in that market. since Apple thinks MP3 players should do everything but play music, I doubt I'll own another iPod. I've got my 40gb that will be in use until the battery gives up the ghost. I bought a touch, for watching some video on, and using as a PDA, so no new iPod money from me Apple.

To sum up, Apple isn't evil, they're smug. The last time they were smug, was right before Apple stock was worth $8.  If Apple continues to abuse it's partners and customers, I can see them getting another consumer smack down. You can't rest on the "underdog" vibe forever Apple.

So today was Kindle day.

I've read the coverage, read most of the Newsweek article, time for my thoughts.

First a quick run down of the spec, in case you missed them elsewhere.

- Has a keyboard
- 30 hour battery life
- 2 hour recharge time
- 10.3 ounces
- 5.3 inches x 7.5 inches x 0.7 inches, 800x600 pixel
- SD Slot for storage
- USB 2.0
- Uses E Ink technology
- Adjustable Font size
- Can hold over 200 books
- Can search books for phrase or name
- 3.5 stereo headphone jack

- No wifi
- EVDO connection - No monthly contract
- $9.99 for new releases and bestsellers
- 1st chapter of books available for free
- No computer required
- $.99/month for blog subscriptions
- Annotations, bookmarks
- Has a basic web browser: Gizmodo: somethingcalled "Basic Web" browsing is available in the "Experimental" sectionof the menu, along with "Play Music" and "Ask Kindle NowNow."
- Plays MP3s

So my thoughts.... Not yet. It's cool and in my Amazon wishlist, but i won't be buying it myself... For a few reasons.

• I don't know if I can abandon the paper book. I mean, I love them.  I have shelf upon shelf of the things. I re-read the ones I love the most, multiple times. What will the bookshelf of the future look like? Just a Kindle sitting there?
• Why is a full 1/3 of the device, not screen? What a waste. Clearly Amazon is thinking people will be typing things up (what I can't imagine) rather than reading books. I don't know (and suspect it's not possible) if Eink can have a touch screen, but why not a slide out keyboard? or even a on screen keyboard controlled by the scroll wheel? Anything but wasting 1/3 of the device with a feature i suspect will be hardly used.
  
• 400 bones huh? Taking a page out of the iPod playbook, as stated by many. I'm inclined to agree. Meaning, the next model will cost a bit less, and do more.
• black and white? That's really taking a play out of the iPod playbook, only years and years after apple moved to color screens. I'm assuming Eink can be in color, I could be wrong, but if you're gonna sell a feature as 'blogs and magazines' you better get to turner-izing your device, Amazon. Books, black and white. The rest of the print world, very very colorful.
• SD but not SDHC? Really in 2007.. 2008. How about CF card? or better yet a PCMCIA slot? I mean really. Come on Amazon, why hamstring the device?

I can't wait for Version 2.0!  I'm not thrilled at the idea of having to repurchase all my books, nor am I sure i can do it, such a betrayal of my beloved paper....  

I've got quite a few old machines in the house, an old Dell tower packed full of hard drives, a 1u server in the basement, a (now dead) desktop machine that was a print server until I got an Airport Base Station, plus the only machine I'm really using, a WD (I think) netCenter.

So I decided to load the Dell box up with gOS. It's a bummer the machine is so large, but I'm gonna find  a keyboard, trackpad combo to help the foot print. At any rate.

I thought it'd be cool to have a machine in the kitchen, for looking up recipies, checking email, etc. so I loaded up gOS, created two accounts; me and Nicole, and away we go.

I've only been playing with it for a while, but it's no surprise Wal-Mart sold out of the actual machines, as reported by TechCrunch. The OS is great, so far, I doubt a power user could use it full time, but I think for an appliance, in a kitchen or basement, someplace you only need a machine for simple tasks, it's great!

Sure I could load Ubuntu, been there done that, but this OS is just "complete" all the google apps, skype, meebo, etc. pre loaded.

Check it out, the live CD is easy to use.