Dave Slusher of Evil Genius Chronicles has a podcast about his atheism.
"Samson went out and had to slay 40,000 Philistines. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of slaying to do, particularly with just one bone. That's a hard day's work. God is omniscient, but he can't even create a world and a set of people that he doesn't need to smite, over, and over and over again."
"The governor can grant you clemency, but with God, somebody's got to die."
This post is pretty far from done. This is just a smattering of facts right now. Why are you even reading this?
When Apple released the original iPod in November of 2001, it was the largest capacity portable mp3 player to hit the market. It was not the first, the cheapest, or lightest. Unlike most of its competitors . . .
"Jobs admits iTunes loses money." --USA Today, article about Magnatunes by Kevin Maney, January 20, 2004
Article about harddrives in iPods: http://nytimes.com/2005/03/05/business/worldbusiness/05copycat.html?8hpib
Aesthetic changes to the various iPods:
initially sharp edges
3G+ rounded corners
There have been four generations of Apple's iPod, commonly referred to as 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G. There are also two smaller variants: the iPod Mini and the iPod Shuffle.
Originally, the (1G) iPod came in one size: 5 GB for $399.
5, 10, and 20 GB and sold for $299, $399, and $499 respectively.
New in 2G:
touch-sensitive scroll wheel
Apple press release Apple Unveils New �Mini� Retail Store Design, October 14, 2004
Interesting quote from press release:
"During the first three years of Apple�s retail strategy, Apple has successfully located 84 retail stores in the United States and today over half of the US population lives within 15 minutes of an Apple retail store."
Best Buy, Target, Bose, Circuit City deals?
Related links:
Leander Kahney Inside Look at Birth of the IPod, Wired, July 21, 2004: Article about former PortalPlayer senior manager, Ben Knauss
Includes interesting quote:
"'There was no discussion of (digital rights management),' Knauss said. 'Their belief was DRM would hurt sales when they rolled out the music store. They specifically wanted no DRM in the original iPod.'"
Jeremy Horwitz and Dennis Lloyd Instant Expert: A Brief History of iPod, Ipodlounge, November, 2004
Rob Walker The Guts of a New Machine, New York Times Magazine, November 30, 2003 ($$ req'd)
Probably illegal copy of Walker's article
Interesting quote from Walker article:
"Apple was not ahead of the curve in recognizing the power of music in digital form . . . various portable digital music players were already on the market before the iPod was even an idea."
Companies involved in making the iPod:
PortalPlayer (processor)
Pixo (made OS for 1G)
Toshiba (hard drive) (Also Hitachi, GS Magic Stor (mini))
Designer:
Jonathan Ive, according to USA Today
Amy Scott of Marketplace on National Public Radio, 050211,
claims that The Sharper Image only keeps 11% of the revenue from its iPod sales.
My first great pencil was the classic PD105T "Techniclick," which I used from 1999 until 2002. Two years ago, after a brief investigation of the PD235T "Techniclick II," I migrated away from the Techniclick platform entirely. The Techniclick has a small plastic cap that covers the eraser, which necessitates removal of the cap whenever erasing is required. (Admittedly, the Techniclick is a consumer-grade pencil, aimed more at college students than providers of professional services.) Though I can't say that the aesthetics of my replacement, the QE515 "TwistErase III," match those of the Techniclicks, the superior erasing system of the TwistErase won me over.
Since arriving at my current workplace, I've been using the standard PD345 "Quicker Clicker," or the translucent PD345T, when available. These are a fine pencil for the money, though the erasing system is particularly substandard-- a cap AND an eraser that can be removed inadvertently.
As the careful reader will have noted from the part numbers, up until now, I've been using strictly 0.5 mm leaded pencils. Today, I experimented with the PD347T, and the results were encouraging. The 0.7 mm lead doesn't seem to develop the same sharp edge endemic to the 0.5 mm ecosystem, which can result in paper tear. I'm not sure how the 347 will fare in the long run, but initial results are promising.
I have also been considering experimenting with Pentel's "Caplet" series. As the Babelfished copy at Pentel's Italian website says, it "does not pierce the pockets." Certainly an annoyance I've suffered, but I don't know that keeping track of the cap would be worth it to me.
In 1993, I returned to my college dorm room to find that I had left the window open. I closed the window, and went to the bathroom. When I returned from the bathroom, the window was open again. I assumed that someone was hiding in my room. There wasn't anyone under the bed, so I opened the closet. A man named Victor who had fled to Spain 12 months previous leapt out of the closet wearing rubber boots and brandishing a frying pan.
Victor, who lived down the hall from me in 1991, chased me out the door, upstairs, down the hall, downstairs, down the hall, outside, across the street, and into another dorm before I was able to find a door that I could lock behind me. I regret that I was not able to elude him; I think I might have been devoting too large a fraction of my energy to yelling things like, "I am being pursued by a ghost!"
The last time I had seen Victor was around 5:30 am on a Saturday morning in December of 1991. He had bought a ticket to Madrid without telling anyone. At 5:30, one of our friends whom he had brought into confidence was driving him to the airport. The college didn't figure out that he was gone for a week or so. In his room, he had laid out all of his belongings with notes saying things like, "These ping-pong paddles are for George." He had also hung a life-size sculpture of himself, made out of stuff he found lying on the street, from his overhead light. His bureau was filled with hundreds of copies of the college alumni magazine.
Makes me feel well-adjusted.