I Don't Know What it Is....

But I can't wait until Cloverfield comes out in January.

Is Apple Dealing with the iPhone's Biggest Flaw?

Basing its information on an Apple, Inc. help wanted ad, AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is busy working on Exchange syncing.  According to AppleInsider, "Thus far, the iPhone's official support of Exchange has been limited to IMAP functionality under certain conditions. The lack of full support for the Microsoft platform is commonly cited as one of the primary barriers to adoption of the Apple handset by businesses, as Exchange is widely deployed as the email solution of choice amongst the corporate world."

They're totally right. One of the main impediments to official support by corporate IT departments is limited or non-existent Exchange support. Even those like me who'd deal with unofficial support by my IT peeps, can't justify it. This may change.

Suburban Atlantans State Sitting in Traffic is Worse than Black People

Gwinnett County is a suburban county located northeast of Atlanta.  It is also the poster-child for ugly sprawl.  This land of strip malls, massage parlors, million dollar homes, chain restaurants and other ubiquitous symbols of modern suburbia for years barred the door to Atlanta's mass transit provider, MARTA.  Well, the worm has turned, I guess.  The AJC is reporting that 2/3 of Gwinnetians are now in favor of MARTA accessing their county.

"I think the general perception in Gwinnett that voters would not want to have it in the area, that's obviously changed," said Chuck Warbington, a Dacula resident and director of the CID. The CID is proposing a local light rail line from Gwinnett Place through Indian Trail, Gwinnett Village and Norcross that would connect to MARTA's Doraville station. It might or might not be run by MARTA.

Warbington said he's lived in Gwinnett all his life and remembers the fears that went into the county's 1990 resounding vote to reject a MARTA extension, 70 percent to 30 percent. While the money was important, he said, "the biggest thing I remember, and I've had people tell me who lived in Gwinnett then, is MARTA's crime, and the urbanization of Gwinnett...I think that was the perception back then."

Well, this is good news.  

Taser

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Rose!

What if a Cyclone Hit the 8th and 11th Biggest Cities in the World

and nobody knew it? That's about to happen. I had no idea that Tropical Cyclone Sidr is galloping towards Kolkata in India and Dhaka in Bangladesh. It ain't on CNN, CNN's Asia page or even Sepia Mutiny. WTF?

Injured Reserve

My sister-in-law's dog and I both had knee surgery last week. She, Lea, is the smaller one in the picture below. We're both doing well, but i thought I would share a photograph of us together this weekend.

What a Game! What a Season!

Awesome!

Holy Chit on Here!

A desi balla!  The kid on the left just decommitted from Oregon State.  The kid on the right, is named DiPanjot Singh and plays basketball for Evanston High School in Illinois.

It's no surprise that he's a Sikh, I guess.  They're generally the tallest and burliest Indians around.  But bravo for him keeping his culture and religion in the forefront and wearing his patka on the court.

Seven and Five

Offered Without Comment

The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year is a Mac. Try that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware. The $2419 (plus the price of a copy of Windows Vista, of course) MacBook Pro's PC WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88 beats Gateway's E-265M by a single point, but the MacBook's score is far more impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run Windows.

-- PC Magazine

Offered Without Comment

I'm Going to Love this Site

St. Petersberg Times PolitiFact-O-Meter

If only for this avatar/icon:

This Should Cause Some Concern in Redmond

Steve Jobs says that Apple intends to release a new version of MacOS every 12-18 months or so. Yeah, sure, it's also a way to squeeze out another $129 from Apple fanboys every year or two. But Leopard offers some amazing technologies, like Time Machine and Quick Look, things that aren't really incremental, but revolutionary. My personal favorite is the combination of Cover Flow file-system browsing with Quick Look. In fact, I think Cover Flow file browsing and the likely-upcoming multitouch interface will revolutionize the PC interface.

Frank Rich's Article on Iraq War Profiteering

is remarkable in a few respects -- the human toll it has taken, the failure of anybody heretofore to provide adequate oversight and this little statistic:

As the investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele observed in the October Vanity Fair, America has to date “spent twice as much in inflation-adjusted dollars to rebuild Iraq as it did to rebuild Japan — an industrialized country three times Iraq’s size, two of whose cities had been incinerated by atomic bombs.” (And still Iraq lacks reliable electric power.)

I'm Back and I'll Try to Be Better

Illinois beats Wisconsin

We're in first place in the Big Ten!

Val Kilmer is Still Hungry

If There's any Question as to Why Illini Fans

are tortured souls, I think this should pretty much erase any doubt. Coming off of a winning season, undefeated Illinois met undefeated Michigan before a home sellout. Illinois raced out to a huge lead and Michigan clawed its way back.

Then, the officials got in the way.

Just in case you were wondering, the first ball was ruled a fumble and the ball given to Michigan. The second play was ruled not a fumble and the ball given to Michigan.

We're in First Place!!!!!

The Fighting Illini are in first place after containing a very good Indiana offense and beating the Hoosiers 27-14.

Train.Wreck.

iPhone Price Drop

I am pretty surprised that there are a lot of people whining about Apple dropping the iPhone's price $200. First, this is a consumer electronics device. All CE products drop in price significantly. Second, everybody knew that there was going to be a big price drop sometime below the holidays. Third, as the NY Times puts it:

Mobile phones tend to be more prone to price declines because the pace of product introductions is faster than for televisions or DVD players. Motorola, for instance, introduced the ultrathin Razr phone for $499 with a two-year service contract in early 2005. Six months later, Motorola realized it had a hit on its hands and dropped the price to $199 in an effort to aim at more mainstream buyers. By the end of 2005, the price was $99.

Why all the whining?

Go See this Movie

Dramatic Chipmunk

I don't know why, but this makes me laugh everytime I see it.

Don't Make Me Choose

Long Lost Lawsuit

Apparently, SCO, who was funded by Microsoft to sue Novell over certain important UNIX IP, has lost.  This is an old lawsuit that I had almost forgotten about or thought was settled.  In a long opinion granting summary judgment to Novell, the District of Utah also granted Novell the royalties that SCO earned by licensing the IP to Microsoft and Sun.  That's right, the money Microsoft paid to bankroll the law---er---license certain technologies from SCO is going to Novell.  Teh awesome.

Shipping Luggage?

You may as well buy another ticket and put the bag in the seat. My wife is flying to Italy on British Airways in October. I just saw an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution  warning that European airlines lose bags at an alarming rate.  More specifically:

Such is the magnitude of the problem that travelers were advised this week by the Association of European Airlines, which includes the major national carriers, to avoid checking bags altogether if possible and to take carry-on luggage instead.

The association released figures showing that an average of 10 passengers per flight lost bags between April and June. British Airways was cited as the worst among Europe's major airlines, and is on track to lose a record 1.3 million bags this year.

So...being the good husband that I am, I searched for luggage shipping services to ensure my wife does not lose all her clothes on the way to or from Naples.   One, LuggageForward.com offers door-to-door delivery service.  I expect my wife to take one medium bag.  The fare?  $527.  

Yeah.  So I went to LuggageFree.com.  $600.  5-day service.  FirstLuggage.com?  $524.

Her ticket cost us $630.  So, we're going to live on the edge, I think, and check her bags.

College Football is Just Around the Corner

Thank You, Ron Mexico

The retribution has already started...Dog shoots man in back.

Police say King George, a 150-pound Great Dane, accidentally knocked a .22-caliber pistol off his owner's end table around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. The gun went off, hitting his 21-year-old owner in the back, MyFOXMemphis.com reports.

I Just Got Back from Alabama

alive!

How Stupid are Atlantans?

This stupid. Atlantans voted Imperial Fez, a Moroccan restaurant, the best Indian restaurant in a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll. Nevermind that Morocco is a mid-sized Arab and Berber country in the northwest corner of Africa, and India is a large multi-ethnic country that comprises most of South Asia. They're all brown, I guess.

TED: Not the Airline

What is TED?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

TED spreads interesting, earth-shaking and challenging ideas far and wide. And it is one of the most compelling things I've seen on the web.

Update:  Available as video podcasts on the iTunes Store.

Most Surprising Headline of the Day

Especially if you're as cynical about Atlanta and Atlantans' transport choices as I am.  

Flexcar service cranking in Atlanta

That Flexcar, which rents cars and trucks by the hour, is expanding in Atlanta and not retreating from it is a pleasant surprise.  According to the AJC, the company has seen solid usership here in Atlanta, where 80% of workers commute to work alone.  

Flexcar, a short-term, low-cost car rental service, has proven it can be popular in dense cities where commuters tend to bike to work, like Portland, or use mass transit, like Washington, D.C. But in sprawling Atlanta, where the U.S. Census reported about 80 percent of commuters drive to work alone, the Seattle-based company has taken a gamble— one that, at least in the short term, seems to be paying off.

Now with about 80 vehicles stationed in spots such as Buckhead and Decatur, the company expects to add 20 more cars in the next two months, said Liz Wattenberg, Flexcar's general manager for Atlanta.

Good for Flexcar and good for Atlanta.

Keep the Good Times Rolling

Kingfisher Airlines coming to the US?  They have A380s on order and just put in an order for some A340s.   Fly the Good Times.

With Apologies to TINA

America goes from Alaska to Argentina, we are just so self centered as to not have an actual adjective.

Looks like I won one heart and mind.

Cool Service at Lowe's

I was checking out after getting a new fridge for the condo, and saw something really cool. Because the unit was a floor sample, I had to check out at the customer service desk to get the immense price reduction. Up there, I noticed multi-lingual signs -- not just English/Spanish -- which is de rigeur at home improvement stores -- but also Russian, French and what I thought was Korean. Pretty cool, eh?

But that's not all. They have a service called Language Line, that will translate dozens of other languages, including Gujarati, Hindi and Bhojpuri. That's pretty amazing. I don't know how useful it is to Lowe's in terms of attracting business, but I'm more likely to go there just because I know they have it.

No Rhyme or Meter, but Poetry Nonetheless

YOU HATERS OF ANOTHERS THOGHTS ARE BITCHES. I KNOW NONE OF YOU GET SEX. I KNOW NONE OF YOU LIFT WEIGHTS. I KNOW NONE OF GOT MONEY. I KNOW NONE OF YOU GOT A LIFE. WHAT KIND OF BITCH CRIES ABOUT CAPS? THIS FORUM IS FOR FOLLOWERS. B!TCHES WHO CO SIGNS ONEANOTHERS THOUGHTS. @#%$ SUCKERS IF YOU WILL. I WOULD LOVE TO VISIT YOU B!TCHES DOWN IN YOUR RED NECK ,COUNTRY, FARMING PART OF ILLINOIS. BUT YOU ARE YELLOW BACK COWARDS. I AM A REAL MAN WITH REAL THINGS TO SAY. YOU WHO HATED ON ME ARE ALL @#%$ SUCKING, DADDYFCKING,COWARD ASS,CAPS OFF BITCHES. YOU CANT KICK ME OFF THIS FORUM I CHOOSE TO LEAVE. GO SUCK NICK SMITHS @#$@ AND TELL HIM HE'S GOOD. YOUR IN LOVE WITH SKINNY ASS WHITE BOYS WHO GET BEAT DOWN. YOU MUST HATE BIG BLACK MEN DOWN LOW. YOU ALL ARE FAKE ASS FANS. THATS WHY YOUR ALL LIVING LIKE YOU DO. YOU LOSERS. DONT EVEN RESPOND B$TCHES. IM GONE. IM GOING TO COME DOWN THERE AND @#%$ YOUR DREAM GIRLS YOU HILLBILLIES.

Mind Blowing...

article on the Dharavi slum in Mumbai.

It is an aerial view of Dharavi, considered Asia's biggest shantytown, two square km (0.8 square miles) of open sewers, muddy lanes and ramshackle tenements that is home to almost a million people. But strip away its squalid veneer and Dharavi bares a unique entrepreneurial spirit, and multi-million dollar micro-businesses, that breaks all the stereotypes of a slum.

Capitalism is a hell of a drug.

Bad Dot

Well, it's happened.  An Indian-American has been revealed to be a giant douchebag*.




*Dinesh D'Souza and Ramesh Ponnuru excepted, of course.

Mac Rumors leaks iPhone Sales Training

manual.

Jessica Biel is

the number one hottest thing in Hollywood, a fact proven by the linked post over at What Would Tyler Durden Do. She looks hot in a robe and a towel on her hair taking out the trash.

Woah -- Punjabi Mexican Americans?

Sepia Mutiny has a really interesting post on intermarriage between Punjabis (South Asians from the Punjab region) and Mexican women in the early 1900s. This is absolutely fascinating to me. And there's even a book about it. I guess I'll put in on my list.

Bamboo Flooring

We just ordered flooring samples for the house. We are probably going to go with bamboo because of its hardness, aesthetic and because it is an environmentally responsible choice. "Environmentally, it’s hard to argue with a wood-substitute that matures in three years, regenerates without need for replanting, and requires minimal fertilization or pesticides." Bamboo is also thought of as quite a luxurious surface by folks in India, because it provides a warmth missing in a place where many floors are marble or granite.

Another option for us is FSC-certified wood. This wood is more like the standard and exotic species more commonly used in the US. But the wood comes from trees harvested sustainably.

Finally, a third option is a hybrid approach. Weyerhauser has come up with a flooring system made from fast-growing eucalyptus trees. "Lyptus® Eucalyptus trees are grown on plantations certified to Brazil’s national sustainable forestry standard, CERFLOR. This standard has been mutually recognized by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), an international organization that endorses credible sustainable forestry programs." This looks like a promising alternative in a reasonable price range.

Teen Tests Internet's Lewd Track Record

OK, so I admit, even I fount it somewhat creepy. But I thought it was all in good fun.

Zune HQ has an iPod Amnesty Bin

iPod Amnesty Bin
Originally uploaded by fimoculous.

Dear Microsoft:

I'll be happy to take those nasty iPods off your hands. Just send them to me here in Atlanta.

Site of the Day

What if the Earth's population was 100 people?

Too Bad for the Illini....

Illinois lost to the best team in the country today, 4-0. Illinois did not win the NCAA Championship, but getting to the final probably tasted pretty sweet to these Illini.

They were left for dead after Ohio State pummeled them in the regular season. But they got up, dusted themselves off, reached the Big Ten final (where they once again lost to Ohio State) and then scrapped their way to the NCAA finals.

Georgia's team reminds me of the 2003 Illinois squad that swept every team and individual title that year. Illinois hung with them for much of the day, despite the score. Great work guys.

Picture of Atlanta's Smoke

74LD0169
Originally uploaded by MrCrimson.

This is what I'm looking at right now -- it's not my picture, but it approximates the view outside my window.

Atlanta's Smokey Again

We woke up this morning to a foul smell in the condo. We thought it was from the rough in of the broken toilet that we have removed. But no, it's the forest fires in south Georgia and north Florida. The entire city's covered by a nice shroud of smoke right now. Everything has taken an ochre tint. Atlanta's covered by smoke.

More on Illini Tennis

From ZooTennis: Illini's Dream Run Continues. And Illini beat reporter Mark Tupper. And Illini basketball writer Paul Klee.

Illini are in the NCAA Finals

Congratulations to the Fighting Illini men's tennis team, who are headed to the NCAA Finals for the first time since 2003, when Illinois capped off a dream season. Back then, Craig Tiley guided the Illini to an undefeated season in dual-match play, the team National Indoor Championship, the team NCAA Championship and NCAA Championships in both doubles and singles.

Brad Dancer's 2007 Illini are not as heralded as the 2003 team, but are a scrappy bunch. They've beaten No. 2 Ohio State (who had won four straight matches between the two teams) and No. 3 Baylor in the past two matches. Illinois will face the winner of the UGA/UVA tilt. UGA will be tough to beat on their home court, but nobody gave the Illini much of a chance against Ohio State or Baylor, either.

Go Illini!

MAJOR UPDATE!!!!1

We closed today!!!!!

Apparently, Zell was Crazy Back Then, Too...

POT LIQUOR OR POTLIKKER?

"Dear Sir:

I always thought The New York Times knew everything, but obviously your editor knows as little about spelling as he or she does about Appalachian cooking and soul food.

Only a culinarily-illiterate damnyankee (one word) who can't tell the difference between beans and greens would call the liquid left in the pot after cooking greens 'pot liquor' (two words) instead of 'potlikker' (one word) as yours did. And don't cite Webster as a defense because he didn't know any better either.

Sincerely,
ZELL MILLER
Lieutenant Governor State of Georgia"

The Best and the Brightest

Jon Stewart explains why the Bush administration has hired so many graduates of Regent University Law School, a fourth tier law school.

Do Over

Well, our closing was canceled yesterday because the mortgage broker didn't have all of his paperwork. Retry today at 4 PM.

Wallet's a Little Lighter

Just ordered the check from E*Trade for our closing on Monday. It's a pretty nice tidy sum. I guess I can party on my dirt after the closing, so it's a fair trade.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Jordan to Illinois

Not exactly like Mike, but Jordan's son Jeffrey will be heading to the University of Illinois, the Chicago Tribune and Champaign News-Gazette are reporting. Jordan is considered a solid player, but not a superstar in the making. He will be a preferred walk-on, meaning that he will be guaranteed a roster spot and the school won't lose a scholarship. Of course, it doesn't hurt Illinois that he'll suit up for the team, for countless other reasons.

Closing

Monday.

Dirt Update

I realized I haven't provided an update on our house. We were originally scheduled to close on our lot on Friday, April 27. But we had a delay in getting our house plans to our mortgage broker, so he's had to scramble to get an appraisal. Plus, our seller, who asked for us to close on April 27, had to change the closing date. So it looks like we're closing next week. Cross your fingers.

We haven't moved any dirt, but we did get our tree permit. So that's a great step. In the meantime, we've been tinkering with house plans. We're really close to a floor plan and our architect is furiously working through elevations, too. Here are some of our ideas...




These designs are getting there, but not final. We also want to reduce the size of the house to a certain extent, too. Also, we're starting to look at finishes and bathrooms. We'll have more updates soon...

Trader Joe's -- Better than Expected

$33. That, and some loose change, is what my two full grocery bags cost me at Trader Joe's new Midtown Atlanta location yesterday. I got two bottles of wine, some tomato soup, a package of sliced pepper jack cheese, some yogurt, crackers and sundry other products. Maybe I'm missing something, but I think that's pretty good for the amount of food we got, especially considering we had alcohol, too.

Granted, the booze was Two (and a Half) Buck Chuck.

Is it sad that I enjoy my wife's favorite website...

even though it is a catty, celebrity oriented site full of only ugly pictures of women? Some sample pics...

I'm So Very Sad....

So I thought I'd post something to cheer me up.

Shyamali Malakar

Holy Crap! My Apple TV's in Atlanta!

Finally!

After a nearly one month delay, my Apple TV finally shipped. According to those in the know, the delay may have been due to FCC approval. But I guess the wheels of justice spun just enough to get this product out of the warehouses in Shenzhen, China.

The feature set is rich. 720p. HDMI, Component and Toslink out. 802.11b/g/n and 100BaseT ethernet networking. A USB 2.0 for God know what.

As you might imagine, I'll report on my experience with it when I get it. Hopefully next week will be lighter than average at work.

What a Flop

Greg Paulus puts in an Oscar worthy performance in their first round loss to Virginia Commonwealth.

Since It's March Madness Time...

Lay of the Land

Well, we got good news about the contract. And we went to the property to take a look at the land and start developing a plan for the house. The first step in the process is to cut down some trees. Atlanta has a pretty strict tree removal ordinance, which we have to comply with. We talked with the city's arborist, who will approve which trees we can remove and which we can't.

We also are going to start working on the house plan. Today, we put together a list of things we need and things we we want. The plan should come together in the next couple weeks. Lots of drawing. Lots of dreaming. Lots of wishing. Hopefully I'll do some budgeting, too.

Well, with out further ado, the pictures:


This is a shot of Lake Claire Park, which is two doors down from the lot.




The view of Lake Claire Park from where our front porch would be.




The view up the current driveway. The green house on the left is right on the setback line. The property extends very close to that house.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part...

The Mrs. and I are in a back and forth with the owner of a piece of property in Lake Claire. We really hope we get the lot, because it is a great piece of property. We're not in a disagreement about price, luckily. Just a few terms.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Now Those Atheist Liberals have Gone Too Far....

Look at Me!!!!!

Tonight, I logged onto TerraPass and purchased offsets for my car and my wife's car. I was inspired by a messageboard discussion and decided that talk was cheap. In the end, so was reducing my net carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets from folks like TerraPass.

I like to think that I'm actually doing something -- anything -- to help. And I really like the fact that what I'm doing is based on the market, not some government mandate. Anyway, maybe you'll think about it, too.

Happy Birthday to Steven P. Jobs

india's magic masala lays

india's magic masala lays
Originally uploaded by this is emily.

...

A Game of Desi Parental One Upsmanship Gone Horribly Wrong

RIP Chief Illiniwek

Chief Pictures submited by public
Originally uploaded by chiefilliniwek.

A Nice Photolog of Chambana, Illinois

Some really great pictures of the prairie at gct13.com.

Never Underestimate the Stupidty of Law Enforcement

What, they just had Sharpies at their desks?

Off to India

See you in two weeks!

Colbert on the iPhone

Tip of the hat to tuaw.

I got this from Josh Marshall

who got it from Andrew Sullivan..on the President's remarks last night. Unburied lede:

Sorry, but it struck me as a snow job, from an administration that—pretty much like the rest of us—has no clue where to go from here.

Apple I

As the folks at the Unofficial Apple Weblog and the banners at the Moscone Center say, the first 30 years was just the beginning. To the left is an ad from the beginning. Four whole Kilobytes!

The New Cadillac CTS

Slightly bigger, much more powerful and much more refined on the inside and out, the new CTS seems like a great ride. It's got a lot of design features that I like about my Audi -- very well executed interior with touches like ambient lighting. You can get it in either 258 bhp or 300 bhp with a 6-speed manual standard. An automatic with 6 speeds is optional, as is all wheel drive.

Huge Week Upcoming

North American International Auto Show



Macworld


and CES

Snakes on a Plane!

I'm finally getting to watch this movie. It's so terribly good.

I'm the Captain of this Boat, Ladies...