Olbermann Special Comment" Fact Checking the President

Keith Olbermann once again whipped out the pen and whipped out another scathing indictment of President Bush's rhetoric regarding terrorism in the State of the Union address. Turns out that the examples the president used to prove he is doing his job right, generally scare the crap out of the people and try to give himself a little help in the history books can't even be supported by his own intelligence agencies. In one case, no one even knows what "success" he is talking about. Just another day in the incompetence that is the White House.

Click here to get the video. Worth watching.

The Real John McCain

BraveNew Films have posted an interesting montage that shows how John McCain as degraded from a moderate that Democrats and Republicans could get behind to a far right Republican nutcase that only "the base" could love. In his desperation for the Presidency he has sacrificed everything that made him a worthy candidate and now we are left with this shell that seems to fill his opinion with whatever he thinks the prevailing winds will help his goal. At this point who even knows what he really believes or even wants. I wonder if he knows anymore.

Should You Upgrade to Windows Vista?

No.

OK I will elaborate further. Windows Vista just isn't that revolutionary leap over XP. If you have Windows 2000 SP4 or XP there just isn't a compelling reason to make the jump or the expense of getting the software. That doesn't even include the cost of possibly upgrading existing computer. Pretty much the rule of thump with Microsoft is to double whatever their minimum system requirements are. In this case that means your computer should be at least a 2.0GHz computer with 2 gigs of RAM. It also means that to get the full experience, you want a separate graphics card not the imbedded one that comes with most computers.

So expense aside what about the bells and whistles? Well, there are some improvements in stability and security, but not enough to be worth the expense. Want to know more about the features Engadget did excellent job summarizing Vista's improvements (or lack of) compared to XP.

Vista is supposed to be a boon for a gamer, but that boon isn't going to be realized just yet. Part of the problem is there doesn't exist any games on the market that use DirectX 11. No game for it no advantage to having it. So you have it but it and that’s about it. Also Vista is just a general resource hog so it’s more then likely to hit the game performance. Also it turns out from test by PC Perspective, the ATI and NVIDIA graphic card drivers are not yet up to snuff so I would give them more development time if a gamer.

Maybe you love your multimedia files and feel that Vista will allow you take full advantage of them? Well no, the experience difference is minimal, usual HD standards are handled by the graphics card not the OS. Also Microsoft has added security to help the war against copyright infringement by bending over backwards to appease the RIAA and MPAA such as technical limitations in the OS to perform certain tasks. If you install Vista, you are agreeing to grant Microsoft the right to check the legitimacy of software on the computer and delete it without permission. These and several other "security" measures are aimed more at protecting big business interests rather then your own.

Long story short, if your computer is more then 6 months old, Vista really isn't for you as will incur upgrade expenses if you want to enjoy the full experience. Nor does the overall lack of leap in improvements make the expense worth while. You are basically paying a heap of money for presentation and not much else. Vista might be worth the cost in another year or so, but for now, just wait and get it whenever you replace your current computer.

Links of note:
Upgrade Guide To Vista Software
Upgrade Guide to Vista and Hardware
Review Roundup

Do You Suffer From ACS?

I watch Crossing Jordan every now and then, its usually not what you would call witty or clever but last night they happened to hit on both with a new condition called ACS.

From the episode: "So how long have you suffered from ACS? Ann Coulter Syndrome; wherein the afflicted gain strength through the hatred of others."

That is a pretty accurate summary of all that is Ann Coulter and hopefully will make itself into the political pulpit language.

To see the clip of the episode with the line, click here.

Hillary Clinton Officially Running for President

Hillary Clinton, via her website, has announced she is officially running as the Democrat candidate for President. Nevermind that she is a women and the country is unlikely do elect a female candidate before a black male. I am basically a Democrat now but frankly I see nothing about her record that proves she deserves to be candidate nor nothing about her policy approach that is new and fresh. She has a history of just going with whatever flow gets her the most attention more worried about what is best for her rather then what is best for the country. She is basically identically to Bush only more dangerous because she has a brain to back it up.

People forget that while the American public was supporting Iraq, she happily did so and once the tide turned, so did she. Most of her "beliefs" are based on public opinion of the moment that what she really thinks is best. That is not someone I want in charge. Sadly the election of Bush has proven that past history or really any qualifications is no longer a requirement to be President. All it takes now is a "aw shucks" approach and a desire to crush an opponent by any means necessary (McCain in 2000).

Video of Hillary's announcement:

MacWorld 2007: iPhone and Apple TV Announced

MacWorld 2007 has arrived and once again Apple has sent some disruptions across the tech land pretty much proving beyond all doubt that Apple intends to lock up the entertainment and media content market up all for themselves.

The highlights from Steve Job's keynote:

- iTunes Store: Sold over 2 billion songs, or 5 million songs a day now. In addition they have sold 50 million television programs and 1.3 million movies. A partnership with Paramount to sell an additional 250 movies from the Paramount library, with a price of $9.99 for most titles, $14.99 for new releases and $12.99 for pre-orders.

- Apple TV: Coming out in February, available for pre-order now, its a $299.99, 720p high def video player that uses Wi-Fi to take video, pictures and music from up to five computers and play them on your TV.

- iPhone: What is basically a leapfrog over all existing cell phones, Apple is clearly out to dominate the market. Its a cell phone, iPod nano, and wi-fi browser rolled into one slim product. Rather then using buttons or a stylus, it uses a touch sensitive 3.5 inch color 160ppi screen to display data and accept commands. It comes in a 4GB ($499) and 8GB ($599) sizes exclusive to Cingular and will be out in June. In addition the iPhone runs on OS X meaning the device will be able to play videos, graphics, widgets, applications, pretty much anything that a standard computer can have, with harddrive space and processor speed (intel) being the limitation. Also as a result of the large display (for cell phones) and OS X the internet browsing capabilities are run by Safari with email push out partnership formed with Yahoo. In addition it has a 2 megapixel camera and speaker. Since the display is touch sensitive, it also has 3 built in sensors, one for proximity so when on the phone cheek doesn't perform accident commands, ambient light sensor to adjust light to save on battery life (5 hours talk time, 16 for audio playback), and a "accellerometer" sensor to tell if the landscape or portrait "mode" depending on how holding the phone. With OS X, Safari browser, IMAP yahoo email and Google Earth, the phone is a mini-computer cell phone. If not for the price and being forced to sign up with Cingular/AT&T, I would be getting this phone.

- iPhone Accessories: Also announced where Apple designed stereo headphones with a dongle mic and switch and a tiny black bluetooth ear set.

- Apple, Inc: From today forward, as an indication of Apple Computers, Inc move away from just computers and into entertainment and multi-media, they have changed the name of the computer to just Apple, Inc.

So there you go Macworld 07 ends. iPhone (video here and here) and Apple TV. To major new forays into the entertainment arena. One is basically a cell phone with a built in fully functioning computer and the other is that missing piece to get multi-media data from the computer to the TV. If you have the money, if you don't already own some Apple stock, now is the time as chances are high that Apple is about to become king in two new electronic markets.

College Saga, A Final Fantasy Parody

If your a fan of the Final Fantasy series, especially from the early days, then this fan made video should bring back some memories and laughs. Mark Leung's College Saga tells the story of saving the earth from vegetarians FF style including leveling up, the silly environment pans before a fight and the up and down motions that characters constantly did.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Final Part:

(source)

How To Beat the Claw Game

Remember those annoying claw games where for a fifty cents you could win a stuff animal, except the claw seems to have the grip of a new born baby? Where it turns out that's intentional. Its seems that the simple devices are set up so that only every X person could win at it if their touch with the controls is good enough. In other words, they might set it so that every 10th person, or 20th person wins. The key then is to simply spy on the machine and figure out what the pattern is with winners and losers. Once do that, just make sure you are that Xth person and the booty is yours.

This video from Brainiac that airs on G4 explains it better:

(source)

RIAA, Intertainer Playing Dirty

Two stories came out today that demonstrate just how easily it is to use the law and ignorance of others to gain wealth.

The first story is from the RIAA who having a high old time suing old ladies, the dead, and children in an effort to "protect" the musicians they supposedly represent. Of course when those musicians are suing them for various tactics, all it proves is the consumers and the creators have nothing to do with it. Its the record labels that are driving everything. We all know this but doesn't hurt to see it confirmed.

Any case, in UMG vs Lindor, someone realized that RIAA has been using some pretty wacky numbers in compiling its various reports about how much piracy is costing the music industry. Keep in mind that in saying X billions lost a year, that the numbers are based on higher then normal price for music, say $20-25 per CD, assumes sales number that probably wouldn't exist (say 1000000 copies would have sold instead of the 200000 that did of X title) and assumes that everything that was pirated would have been bought if the option wasn't available (you would bought the CD if couldn't have downloaded it). Thanks to an enterprising lawyer realizing this, the defendants lawyers is asking the RIAA to disclose they wholesale price they get for each downloaded song which likely be less then a dollar. The RIAA is refusing as afraid the value would be provided to others in their litigation campaign.

The logic behind the request and the refusal is that the RIAA is suing basically claiming that the pirated music from defendant Y is costing the music industry Z number of dollars. This value of course is highly inflated so they tend to ask for thousands and thousands of dollars. But if the wholesale cost (amount they get from say iTunes for each song) is $.75, then isn't that the real cost the RIAA is experiencing for each song? So instead of owing $10,000 for 2000 pirated songs, isn't the real damage more like $1500? Not only would such a ruling be a blow to the RIAA's efforts to threaten through litigation but it would show how the RIAA uses deceptive values to compile their data. In a society where many people trust whatever statistics they are presented with, this could be a big blow to what the RIAA is trying to accomplish with their PR campaigns.

The other story is the good ole US Patent Office which rubricate anything sent through it real or imagined. If you can make it incomprehensible enough on paper, you can pretty much patent anything under the sun. It wouldn't surprise me if someone already holds a patent for a time machine. The problem with this "beats me what it is, so I will approve it" mentality is it opens things up to abuse.

In this case a failed dot com company Intertainer, which was granted a patent on downloading digital content that was filed on March 2001. Considering that anything on the internet is digital content that you download as text, pictures, sound and movies they essential got a patent for writing down a convoluted description on what the internet does. Considering that the internet has been around for now 15 years, its pretty clear this company had nothing to do with "inventing" digital downloads.

So you have now been given a patent for something that already existed and you didn't invent it, what now? Simple, you sue others for using your non-invention. SCO did it to great benefit by claiming people where using violating the UNIX patent, which it didn't create. This company is doing the same against Google, Apple, Napster with others sure to follow.

Go read the patent, anywhere you see "the system of" think "server". Anywhere see "interface" think Netscape, Internet Explorer or any other web browser. Anywhere see "processor" or "manage information" think "database". All these things that have been around long before 2001. I give credit for Intertainer for trying to get a patent on the internet. Can't hurt to try, but its inexcusable for them to sue over it and even worse offense that the patent office approved it rather then seeking clarification on what the patent was for. It all comes down to ego, not money, not power. Those two just feed the ego and not admitting "I don't know" is a fine example of the ego in action.

Sadly most companies don't fight these things as the patent office tends to protect the stupidity of its own as most people are loath to admit their own ignorance. Afterall, it doesn't look good if you get the approving patent manager to appear in court and he can't explain the patent he had approved. So sadly the patent licensing companies that are being created by abusing the system will more then likely get a nice feather in their cap and encourage others.