This is something I wrote some time ago in response to some tech blog post, specifically a Laptop Hunters ad coverage post.  How on Earth does that get overlooked?

The statement both products are the 'exact same' is disingenuous. Beginning with Windows 7, Word, etc. will not come pre-bundled by default. The typical Windows installation process requires at least three reboots during initial startup. The average Windows laptop lasts all of three to four years before apparent obsolescence.  Apple seems to pride itself on touting the opposite for their products.

I'm sorry, it seems to me that Apple could continue to gain market share despite Microsoft's best intentions. They are also making enormous inroads in markets Microsoft is losing its grip in, such as the mobile phone market and mobile application sales. This recession will not last more than four years, by which time Microsoft and Apple will be brought level by a "race to the bottom" in prices.

Microsoft will not win as long as Apple remains in a position to enter and dominate new markets AND conceivably continue giving out large educational and institutional discounts. Microsoft also often takes the credit for innovative price-cutting production and component-selection in laptops and desktops; I'm sorry, at this point Microsoft is only producing core OS products. The real credit should be given to HP and others for producing a 17" laptop at that price --

Even if, as I've said, there are significant flaws to the "Microsoft is 100% more better than the "I'm A Mac" image" argument, namely that it's not the cat's meow either.

That was written over a year ago, at the very dawn of the App Store. Results since have been varied; Apple may not be making $$$$$ but on the other hand they're virtually creating and then dominating a market. Why can't I always have predictions like this?

I had a dream that as the Enterprise (the first one, that is) approached an unknown planet, everyone started dying. People talk about "as a planet is approached, we all age rapidly" as a standard plot device, oh no, they just started entering into comas. Apparently it was similar to the radiation they experienced on that hippy-planet with the flower spores --

Then they arrive on the planet, only to be aided by aliens that are 1) ultra-advanced and 2) reactionary and prone to secrecy due to past wrongs against them (They use trains with only one rail because, golly gee, one of their invader-species used dual-rail transit, for instance).

And just as Spock is treated for the radiation poisioning (and informed there is a protein in his blood identical to one found in visitors 100 years ago, meaning Vulcans had been there when Starfleet thought it totally unexplored) -- I wake up --

AND REALIZE STAR TREK IS FUCKING AWESOME.

I started reading Mr. Publick's blog (of Venture Brothers fame) and thought maybe this LiveJournal thing couldn't be so terrible to keep up.

Better start whipping up some better public material if I'm going to start posting again.  So I need material! The only decent stuff is throw out my latest (and arguably dumbest) project.  My fraternity needs a good rush poster, and I'm tired of the same Kool-Aid jokes and black-Arial-on-white.  (Nearly used Anyone Can Swiss out of spite, good brothers.)

The original PSD is huge, the low-res JPEG isn't much smaller; I hope LJ's gallery doesn't choke on it.


TKE-IG's gonna have a killer rush poster, I tell you that much, my friends.

I guess everything works in cycles; the Venture Brothers are part of the reason I stuck with Futura and bold primary colors. I was thinking of the title sequences when I went for the rectangles, colors-on-cream. (Maybe the old-paper background is like the many books in Dr. Venture Sr.'s library, never touched by little old Rusty.)

* the colors come directly from my fraternity's website http://www.tkeiotagamma.org ; I managed to hear about a really nice Firefox extension for grabbing a pallete that made my life easier for it.

I never post here, so on the eve of my trip to Seattle, here's posting! :) I really hope two things happen - that Seattle goes well and that I have a successful job interview when I come back! I'd better get *ready* ready and out the door early, so here's signing off again!

http://www.comcasttown.com Oh man this ad campaign insults my intelligence.

Notice how many of the words in their "about" have more than three syllables? Oh? Virtually none?

How about those ads? A whole bunch of buzzwords that sound "active."  Honest-to-God lyrics:

So ... you're happy about ... something?  A technological service?  Some "new" Internet?  Sounds like CableOne's cable service on a national level, not much to get excited about.  How anti-folk and insipid can you get?

This is just like the AT&T "You Will" commercials from 1994. Every service is interpreted as being right out of Comcast, just like those did for AT&T.  Yetinstead of promising us future novel services, the "Comcast Town" campaign repackages basic services and products that are offered through other providers - and nodding at content, platforms and companies that have nothing to do with Comcast other than "it's on the Intarwebs."

The real problem with this ad campaign (despite what it's doing to my nerves) is a profound inability to pitch a product that AT&T, SBC Global, Insight, or any other larger telecom can't offer. Their solution is "that's okay, let's distract with how golly gee wiz how hip and awesome-tastic to the max with a vengeance Comcast Town is."

This sort of tactic makes me wonder what Comcast has to offer in comparison with other companies. They're desperately seeking a way to present their wares as "kewl" and "hip" -- after all, it avoids the obvious question of HOW MUCH the services cost.*

Then again if the ads DID address cost, Comcast would have to cowtow to what everyone else in the business is doing - try to pitch a plucky smart "service."  I hope that consumers will base their buying decisions on price and utility, especially in services.

* From what I've heard on Consumerist and friends, Comcast is rediculously expensive.

I've been hobbling around with ... well, I guess it could be anything, but really I guess it's Old Lady Sickness. After finally -- finally! -- printing out a final in Pickler Library, I let out a cough (the tiniest of coughs, oh my brothers!) and heard a

One would think it would be a sternum popping or something, oh no. It came from my side, and I had the most bizarre and intense searing pain.*  This is coming from someone who slashed their head on a horse trough, got run over by their father, and went through reconstructive jaw surgery on 0 painkillers**.  I hobbled across campus to turn in my project.

So I went to Dr. Wright today. He pumped me full of steroids, hopefully going to resolve the coughing.  It's really, really not fun.

Man if I don't feel like I can BREATHE now. I can't think in the same razor-sharp ken as usual, but what the Hell, I feel so much better.  After the past few days any respite is welcome.

*This was after a part of my epiola decided to play Angry Face, this thing called epilotic appendigitis. It's a little like appendicitis -- but, hooray, you can get both during your lifetime. That's another story for another day.

** All true facts

I'm not a huge whiner, but it seems to be one thing after another. Did I really just put a rib out of whack? REALLY? I swear, it never ends.

These /are/ my theme songs.

REM's "End of the World (As We Know It)"
Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid"
Abandoned Pool's "Start Over"
Smashing Pumpkin's "Goodnight and Farewell"
Orbital's "Halcyon and On and On"

Well, I really like this new Flock browser thingamajig.

I might actually start posting on this journal again.  :F

In the meantime, for those who know me, you probably know this already -- but if you're one of the few who read my feed after reading my fanfictions, I owe you a bit of an update.

I'm writing some HP crackfic and some Meet the Robinsons crackfic.  Although I'm loathe to divulge anything ever, they're both male slash.  I have a few ideas for femslash kicking around, but nothing substantial.  Yet.

Rest assured, "Vibrations" is not going to be the last femslash I ever write.  I'm sure of that.  :)

I'm very glad to say that classes are going very well -- so very well I only have twenty minutes until my next one started.

Secondly, I think I'm over being bitter or pensive over IMSA.  I hope that I'm right on that count.

Off to a Greek interest meeting and then a party then probably another party -- possibly one after that!

I am climbing in the social world.  :F

There's little time left.  One more week until doomsday, er, going to Truman.

I'm really looking forward to it, although I wish that residence life had informed me of my third roomie before, oh, three days ago.  There's books to be packed, and clothes to be picked, and lots of planning to be done in the electronics setup of the room.

I just really hope that I'm going to be able to get my computer set up along with my bed and my desk.  Seriously, that's my only real objective for the first week.  That and, er, making friends with others.

But first things come first, so by golly I'm gonna figure out how to fit everything in my corner.

I wonder how the other roomies are doing on their planning.

P.S. - The British Literature reading assignments are pretty good so far, although I really don't want to touch any Austen with a ten-foot pole. It's so cut and dry, it bores me to tears. And this is coming from a Sherlock Holmes fan, and a competent reader in other Victorian writing. Anna Karenina is a Discworld novel by comparison.*

*I did like Ana Karenina.

:3

Thanks to the magic that is Ubuntu Linux, it looks like I may have a full-blown Wacom-friendly GIMP setup.  Considering my budding interest in fanart and digital manipulation and my new membership in fanart100 it seems like this is all perfect timing!

Does anyone have suggestions with certain Wacom tablets or GIMP macros, that sort of thing?  What is the proper way to do photo manipulation for bright clean cracktastic fanart?  :3

I know that overall high-grade white paper doesn't look bad on the OfficeJet 3710xi, but I'm pretty damn certain it would look a lot better with another flatbed scanner.  Is there any particular thing I should be looking for as a somewhat casual fanartist and deviant?  :3

This is, by the way, going to be x-posted on DeviantArt itself.  Maybe I should link back to this page from DA, for that matter --

But most importantly, I need to make my crack all the more viewable!

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WTF, I really hope this goes through okay.

Well, I'm posting this mostly to keep up my LJ and hope that I can get some fanfic done by the end of the summer.

Yeah, I just said by the end of the summer.  It's sad, but I'm so ADD and my schedule's filling up so quickly that I may be entirely unable to write any fanfiction whatsoever.  No Hughes/Fury, no Hughes/Havoc, no Hughes whatesoever!  Not even enough time or attention span for Raven/Starfire!

THIS IS A SADNESS.

On the other hand, now I know that I have the ability to record TV shows and watch them later on the convenience of my own computer.  This is a good thing.  :3

HEROES RECORDING ON HARD DRIVE FOR WINPLOX.

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OH MAN.

I hope I'm not infringing on this guy's work, but OH MAN.  This is probably the best webcomic single I've seen in quite some time.  [Taking Sinfest out of the race, that is.]  I've seen guys do this in real life, and it's totally sad-sacky.

Heh, and I was listening to MC Frontalot's Goth Girls when I saw this, too.  Neat, isn't it?  :D

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Number One Threat to America:  Bears.

No doubt.

I think this says it all:

Man Throws a Log at a Bear, Killing It [New York Times]

That is a permalink, and I am blown away.

More to come later.  O_O

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