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.

Newsweek Cover Story Missing Critical Poll Results

Newsweek year-end issue cover story is "The Race is On" where its asking if America ready for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as President. Or to put it another way, could America support a women or a black man as President.

The story offers historical perspective and previous historic groundwork for such a Presidential run but of course offers no real conclusions. Its a good question to ask but considering the focus of the article is on Obama and Clinton, isn't a poll that Newsweek conducted in regards to them asking who Americans would most like to see as President relevant to the discussion? Especially in light of the results indicating that at least 50% say yes for Hillary, 32% for Obama and 43% for McCain.

The poll in effect says yes America might be ready, yet its goes unpublished. Newsweek may view it as unrelated the cover story but how can it not be. I think some of the blogs see some bias, I think its just business. You have a cover story asking if America can handle a women or black President and then publish a poll that says "yep they can" it kind of makes the whole article and its cover (which helps sell the magazine) kind of moot point. In effect, reading the article becomes a waste of time. The Clinton camp has asked for an explanation, I doubt they will get one.

New Star Trek Animated Series?

Trek Movie is reporting that CBS may produce a new Star Trek animated series set in the year 2528. The series would mimic Star Wars: The Clone Saga cartoons that aired on Cartoon Network where each episode was about 6 minutes long. Whether the stories connect as those did into one larger story is not indicated.

The series takes place 150 years after Star Trek Nemesis, and about 60 years after a second Romulan War that has left the Federation devastated and fractured do to the conflict ripping holes in subspace preventing warp travel in large areas. In addition, Andoria is destroyed, Vulcans have left the Federation and the Klingon homeworld, Kronos, is still recovering from Romulan occupation. The protagonists of the whole will be Captain Alexander Chase and his crew of the Enterprise who hope to return the Federation to its glory days.

The full details are here.

Shriek The Third Teaser Trailer

Shriek the Third teaser trailer is now online and if the trailer is a true representative of the movie, then its going to be hilarious and compete toe to toe with Spider-Man 3.

click here to view the QuickTime trailer. Hopefully it will pop-up on youtube.com soon.

John McCain Declaring War on Blogs?

Think Progress is reporting that Senator and probably 2008 Presidential Republican Candidate John McCain is sponsoring legislation whose intent is to essential shut down blogs. The goal is supposedly the mitigate the influence of sex offenders, but the effect would be to make blogs illegal or at least untenable as a form of communication and conversation.

The highlights of the bill according to the article:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

I am hoping this information is exaggerated or incorrect. Considering that blogs have been credited with changing the political climate against Republicans, this could be an attempt to help smooth some of the bumps for his Presidential run. However, the odds of such a bill passing committee seems remote and he has to know this so that alone makes one wonder at its validity of the existence of this bill.

Amanda Congdon On ABCNews.com Review

Amanda Congdon, formally of RocketBoom, has most definitely landed on her feet just fine as a new face for ABCNews. The result is may be a boom for ABC but for viewers its just RocketBoom redux.

Despite the vast resources and money that ABC News offers, the first (and only show to be fair) indicates that Amanda has not grown at all as a performer (for lack of a better word) using the same tired tricks that she used on Rocketboom. The same wip pans, camera jerks, jokes and stories that where Amanda's bread and butter are being repeated for this new show. She literally has taken everything she did and developed in style over at RocketBoom and just repeated it here. Nothing new has been added except an increased budget, but that increased budget has been used poorly.

In its current form, the vblog appears to be a pass but hopefully that will change as the possibilities exist for this video blog simply because its on ABCNews.com. The real question is will Amanda learn, grow and tap the possibilities or just stay in her safe place she has grown accustomed to. Time will tell.

Some Funny Video

I re-found a two funny videos over the weekend. The first is a animated video created by Bernard Derriman for the song "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me." Great video, wish more of them where as creative as this. A larger, better and original location of this video is here.


Another video is the cast of Scrubs, a great show on NBC, dubbing over an edited version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." They more or less follow the story line of the story but its dubbed as the characters of Scrubs with their names and personality quirks. Its funny and well done.

James Kim of CNET, TechTV, Dead at 35

CNN.com reports that James Kim has been found dead in the Oregon wilderness, likely do to exposure to the cold. His family disappeared over the Thanksgiving weekend after a snow storm hit the area he was traveling too for a vacation. A large hunt involving the national guard, local police and even a satellite was in effect that ended at 3:03pm when his body was found. James was attempting to seek help for his trapped wife and children. He may be best known by many for his work on TechTV's The Screensavers and was a tech editor for CNET.com.

James Kim
August 9, 1971 - c. December 6, 2006

Update: An update reports that an autopsy determined Kim died due to exposure and hypothermia but exactly when was not determined. In addition, CNET has posted an "In Memoriam" video and article about Kim that might be worth reading.

I am going to be interested in how This Week in Tech handles this tragic event as Kim got his start with the gang on the Screensavers on TechTV. I remember watching many of his early on screen reports. He used to run the show's "lab". Moved to a slight on screen presence with the video comments from viewers, sometimes introducing those, and finally started doing reviews and reports for the show. It was always interesting watching him as he never seemed 100% comfortable on camera but clearly enjoyed the toys he got to play with. He basically had a dream job, knew it, and that joy came through on camera.

Olbermann Special Commentary to Gingrich

Gingrich, during an event honoring free speech in New Hampshire, declared that a "different set of rules" is needed when it comes to the first amendment in the effort to fight terrorism. Interesting though that often in the attempt to counter a threat, its freedom of speech that is first to go when someone is attempting to build power also. Gingrich is no sharing these ideas in an attempt to warn the public or even any real concern over terrorism, but as a possible 2008 bid for the Presidency, apparently one in which is playing from Karl Rove's book of fear. Hopefully Gingrich's efforts at the highest office will fail in its infancy as we do not need another president who doesn't believe in the ideals of this country.

Keith Olbermann last night did another "Special Commentary" on this entire issue, taking Gingrich to task for his words, reminding him once again, as its seems to be a constant with Republicans of late, that there is more to America then fear.

Officially the Iraq Civil War?

NBC has broke the press oath of Bush loyalty in regards to Iraq and officially announced on the Today Show yesterday that the Iraq is in a Civil War and the channels of NBC will begin to refer to it as such. Even Colin Powell, who destroyed his political career by siding with Bush, has said Iraq is in a Civil War. The White House, of course, doesn't like this term and have decided to call it secretarian violence in recent speeches. I am not sure of the definition is that no "official" definition exists. Tried google, yahoo, and Webster's, all blank on the word secretarian. I think that word means violence by different sects in Iraq all vying for control of the country. Which sounds like another way of defining a Civil War. Have to love the White House and their love for the semantics. Apparently its lawyers, not Bush, running the country.

Obviously Fox News will never under any circumstances call declare Iraq is in a Civil War until the President does, but what about the other news channels? Will CNN, ABC etc follow NBC's footsteps? If so when and what will be the reason for the change? Increased violence? Grab for ratings? In the end its really interesting how much effort is put into labeling things for Iraq while at the same time not really doing much investigation on what is occurring in Iraq up to the war and during the War by the Bush Administration and the various companies hired to rebuild such as Haliburton. How many more deaths before we leave Iraq to the Iraqi people to determine its future for ill or for not.

Nancy Grace Sued by Duckett Family

The parents of Melinda Duckett has decided to sue CNN's Nancy Grace for causing the suicide of Melinda Duckett. Nancy has previously sandbagged Melinda on her live television show, pretty much accusing her of killing her own child. An event that she was innocent of. Not that facts or even information of any kind means anything to Nancy Grace.

She is a vile human being that has no business being on television as her repugant form of punditry is based on nothing more then whatever sensationalism will get her attention. There is no low blow she isn't willing to go after. Deciding that Melinda Duckett was a murderer, based on nothing more then the police simply doing their job of investigating possible suspect is par the course for this women. She needs no evidence, no facts, nada to rant about her version of the "truth." If the police are investigating someone, that someone must be guilty. That's all the proof she needs and people find this acceptable.

Before this little stunt, she tried to draw out explicit sexual details from Elizabeth Smart on live television. Unlike most of Grace's guest, Smart has the youth to call Nancy on her behavior, reminding her she was there to support a law before Congress, this added with unfettered expressions of disgust.

In fact the vileness of Grace even goes into her own history, where she lies and exaggerates about her credentials as a victim of crime, something she hammers on a regular basis as if this makes here a sudden authority on all things. Her story is her finance Keith Griffin was the victim of a career criminal during a robbery where justice prevailed (in her mind, due to her tireless efforts) as the criminal is now serving a life sentence after days of deliberations and years of appeals.

Turns out the random criminal was 19, had no prior convictions and was a co-worker of Griffen. Also the criminal confessed that evening to the crime and the jury convicted in hours, not days. While Nancy claims she chose not to peruse the death penalty, it was the prosecutors that made that decision, as the killer was mildly retarded. Also no appeals have been filed.

Long story short, in every detail of this pivotal sob story of Nancy Grace's life, she exaggerates and outright lies about the story to gain credibility and sympathy. If she lies about something as important as this, the death of a finance, is there really nothing she is not capable of for attention. CNN should fire her and remove the stain of this women from their station.

Olbermann: To Bush, The Lessons of Vietnam

Keith Olbermann strikes again on his Countdown program with his "Special Comment" that takes Bush to task for Bush's apparently complete lack of reality and historic perspective. Bush recently traveled to Vietnam and apparently the lesson he took from the Vietnam War is "We'll succeed unless we quit." Keith, of course, feels there are many more lessons that could be learned from the war and runs through them in usual bombastic and clear headed fashion. Sadly, this simpleton view that Bush persists in taking on everything is a large part of the reason he will probably go down in history as one of the worse Presidents the United States has ever had. This is why the American public needs to learn that we don't want "everyman" as President but instead want the smartest, wisest man in the room as the President.

The video is here.