Bizarre Headline of the Year: Yahoo Tech says that Microsoft is courting the-get this- “Macintosh business crowd” by making Outlook for Macs. Other than some graphic design industries, do any businesses actually use Macs? They are more expensive and most employees would have no idea how to use them. If someone wanted to make a hilarious reality show, they should replace PCs with Macs in some big corporate office and then film the ensuing chaos.
Incomplete Wish List Department: I agree with the things on PC World’s iTunes 9 wish list, but I strongly disagree with what’s not on it. Like a completely new interface. And folders. At this point I would support a constitutional amendment requiring that every software application have folders.
Jargon Smackdown Department: I love this quote from Harry McCracken: “In the end, there are really no such thing as netbooks-there are just notebooks in various sizes with different specs at different price points.” Amen.
Speaking of Dell: Am I the only one who thinks Dell’s entire lineup of desktops are butt-ugly? Every time I visit the Dell site and look at computers, I can’t get past the photos. I’d pay $100 to interview the person who decided those cases were anything less than heinous.
Advertising Nonsense Department: Harry McCracken asks what if all web ads were blocked, and gives us 10 possible results. He forgot number 11: Companies would have to create business plans that actually make sense. Without going into an economics/philosophy lecture, let me just say that (a) advertising cannot support an entire economy, because if there is nothing to sell, there is nothing to advertise, (b) our economic shift from manufacturing to largely a financial/service economy coincided with the economic mess we are now struggling with, and (c) when you don’t produce or provide something that people will pay for, you don’t have a business. Paywalls will not work. You cannot go backwards from free, unless you are a drug dealer.
Friendfeed Facebook Thing: I would write something about it, except I don’t really care about it. Yawn.
Fitly Physical: DrugMonkey writes a good read on the so-called myth about exercise. I average over 90 minutes a day on the treadmill, and I can tell you from personal experience that I am one hell of a lot fitter than I was when I thought I was exercising hard by doing a measly 3 miles a day. On a related note, Dr. Isis explores how much water you really need when exercising. The photo alone would have made that the best blog post of the day.
Lack of Privacy Department: Now you can opt-out of Google’s plan to control everything about you. Here‘s a good story.
Getting Ripped: MakeUseOf has a great primer on how to rip a CD, and get the track names right.
I Tweet Dead People: Lance Ulanoff has a list of 6 dead people he’d follow on Twitter. Here are mine:
1. John Lennon. Watch just a little of Imagine and you’ll see that he was a very smart and thoughtful dude.
2. Robert Heinlein. I don’t love all of his books, but I love a lot of them.
3. Shel Silverstein. He was really good at a lot of the things I like.
4. Jesus. So I could find out where he was for those 17 years. And see if this is really him.
5. Townes Van Zandt. He was one of the greatest story tellers ever, both on stage and off.
6. Becky Newsome. My mom, just because she was cool and I miss her. And that would mean she finally learned how to use a computer.
What the World Needs is More Ringtones: And you can help. Make and share your own ringtone with Make Own Ringtone. Here’s one I made from my song Dreams of McKenzie.
I thought ringtones had to be in some special file format?
Newsome.Org 