Porsche Cayman.

i was waiting for this ever since it was first rumored.

a factory hardtop Boxster. not a removable hardtop. but an actual legitimate hardtop Boxster. well... it's here... sort of.

http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000627033030/



the best part about the original rumor was that ... in theory... a hardtop Boxster would be cheaper than the conventional ragtop. as is the fact in all other ragtops... the coupe version of the car is almost always cheaper.

unfortunately... Porsche decided that adding a hardtop and hatch to the Boxster deserved a new nomenclature. so instead of a cheaper hardtop Boxster... we get a 'new model' called the Cayman... which is positioned between the Boxster ($42,000) and the Carrera ($90,000-ish)... so it actually costs more than a Boxster. rats.

it does have an upgraded higher horsepower engine vs. the Boxster. and it most likely could end up being a better drivers car than the $35,000 more Carrera. but i am pretty disappointed... even if it is a killer deal at the price. in my opinion.

though one thing is that... like the Cayenne... they introduced the "S" model first. meaning... like the Cayenne... there is the possibility for a "base" model to appear later on with a lesser engine (V6 vs. V8 in the case of the Cayenne) and a cheaper price. so here's hoping that a base model with the standard Boxster engine and a more Boxster like price will appear soon.

not that it matters... i wasn't planning on buying one new anyway. currently the plan is still "buy a dirt cheap used Boxster"... since they go for stupid cheap prices ($18k-$24k) on the used market.

actually ... along that line of thinking... the biggest competition for the Cayman may very well be the used Carrara market. you can get a used Carrera 4S (my personal favorite) for around Cayman prices. or close enough.

and... like i posted on the Autoblog entry... it is only a matter of time before a "G" in Porsche script appears on the market. actually... it doesn't even have to be a full "G"... just a little magnetic shaped bar of chrome that will turn the "C" into a "G". and then the hilarity will ensue. or something.

z.

HP hw6500... minus the GPS.

excellent!

HP has designed a version of the HP hw6500 Mobile Messenger called the hw6700 with integrated Wi-Fi in lieu of integrated GPS. so all the things i really like about the hw6500 with the one feature it was sorely missing. and not only was it missing... to add the feature back via an SDIO card... you would have to put the card into the slot on the side of the machine where it would stick out about 1cm or so. bad idea.

but the hw6700?

i can't wait.

http://www.msmobiles.com/news.php/3613.html

although it means i would have to use GPS via a Bluetooth adapter... or go side-slottin' a SDIO GPS receiver... both those options are vastly preferable than side-slottin' a Wi-Fi card. seeing as Wi-Fi would be used daily... (er... hourly... minutely... secondly.) and GPS would be used... well... monthly? weekly? i have no idea really how useful GPS would be to me on a daily basis. but i *know* Wi-Fi is very useful to me which is why i am extra pleased with this hw6700.

now all HP needs to do is price the unlocked / unbranded versions of this device for around current HP 6315 prices. meaning right around or just under $600. please HP?

the article is saying end of April for the hw6500. and most likely the end of June (at least) for the hw6700.

z.

Yet Another Phone/PDA.

wow. this one has some serious promise. the MDA IV. (it's one of those designs that gets sold off to several different 'brands' to pretend is their own...)

it fits all the criteria that i layed out here. plus it has a feature i only hoped for... and never really expected. landscape orientation. i don't know why exactly... but it is seriously hard to find a PDA that has the form factor of a teeny tiny laptop. apparently everyone was put off by the idea back in the Jornada/Cassiopeia days? or what? it really is the best form factor in my opinion. portrait seems like a waste of space to me most of the time.

in addition to all the goodness that i want and the mini-laptop form factor... it appears to have 2 cameras... and can operate with the screen flipped around like a normal portrait PDA. and i dig the use of a freaking normal USB connector. even if i would most likely sync via WiFi or Bluetooth... i much prefer the mini-USB vs. some funky $45 proprietary cable. i assume it charges over USB? and if it is USB... can it operate as a USB Mass Storage device? does Windows Mobile even support that?

with the HP hw6500 looking to cost around $900... just like the BenQ P50... it is appearing to price itself out of my market. hopefully this one will be a bit cheaper? probably not though... as the MDA III (and re-brands) went for around $900... so it's not looking good. too bad.

Pics of the MDA IV

More (better) Pics of the MDA IV

MDA III and it's $900-ness (gee... 46 in stock? maybe because you are charging a billion dollars for it!)

z.

Top 100 Gadgets.

this has been posted basically everywhere... but it is a good read.

the Top 100 Gadgets of All Time... according to Mobile PC magazine.

it's a pretty decent list actually. i am really surprised how high the Powerbook 100 placed. (read it! you'll see where it is!) though when it came out it was pretty cool. i remember really really wanting one. even if it was black and white with an 8Mhz processor. it was a portable Mac Classic and it looked awesome. Apple actually contracted it's design out to Sony. i believe Sony actually manufactured it as well... but i could be mistaken.

z.

Nintendo DS + Palm.

personally this would be awesome if it were to actually happen. i would buy it immediately.



it makes perfect sense. the DS easily has all the capabilities of a decent Palm OS device already... a touchscreen... decent resolution on both screens... 2 cartridge slot that could easily take a cartridge adapter for SD media... built-in WiFi... dual processors... microphone and speakers/headphone jack (VoIP anyone?)... it would actually make a really good Palm device compared to some of Palms current offerings!

i don't know how it would work though... cartridges loaded into the bottom (Gameboy Advance) slot can't access both screens was my understanding. and only the bottom slot would be big enough to hold an SD card within the cartridge. so that would be a dual-cartridge solution... not the end of the world... but might be a pain to have to physically load 2 separate cartridges to have the Palm stuff running. DS slot holding the actual application... GBA slot holding an SD card adapter. though i suppose the DS cartridge could simply include a small amount of flash memory on it. say 32MB or so.

i imagine all the syncing could easily be done via WiFi as the Tungsten C (and presumably WiFi-card equipped T5 and Zire 72) supposedly has the capability already.

considering there are Gameboy and NES and other emulators already out for Palm OS ... i can see Nintendo enforcing it's recently granted patent a little more stringently in regard to Palm OS emulators... should they themselves become a Palm licensee. as in ...

Last year, Nintendo was granted a patent on emulating any type of gaming platform with software. It has used this to try to stop companies, most notably Crimson Fire, from making applications that allows handhelds to play Gameboy games of various types.

that's from a Brighthand article concerning the Palm OS powered Tapwave portable gaming system. personally i don't quite understand how Nintendo was even granted such a far-reaching patent... especially when they themselves have little to do with actual emulation software. seems like the patent itself basically just acts as protection against emulators. which seems counter-productive to the actual patent process. oh well.

also ... all this rumor seems to be related to the recent "V-Pocket" name that Nintendo got... personally i think "V-Pocket" is just the North American name for the "Play-Yan" video adapter cartridge they already have in Japan. "Play-Yan" makes no sense as a name in North America... "V-Pocket" however makes perfect sense as a name for a cartridge that lets you play video.

more reads on the whole DS + Palm rumors :

Slashdot

Engadget

z.

A Box That Sees The Future.

i saw this a few days ago... and then yesterday it showed up on Slashdot as well.

i thought it was pretty cool. a bit Coast To Coast... but sort of freaky nonetheless.

basically it's about a small box set up to generate random numbers... well not random numbers... but a 0 or a 1. like a coin flip. non-stop. now normally over time a line plotting the results of the random ones and zeroes would have a baseline average... basically a straight line more or less. but this is where it gets sort of strange...

During the late 1970s, Prof. Jahn decided to investigate whether the power of human thought alone could interfere in some way with the machine's usual readings. He hauled strangers off the street and asked them to concentrate their minds on his number generator. In effect, he was asking them to try to make it flip more heads than tails.

It was a preposterous idea at the time. The results, however, were stunning and have never been satisfactorily explained.

Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machine and produce significant fluctuations on the graph, 'forcing it' to produce unequal numbers of 'heads' or 'tails'.

weeeeeeird.

it gets even weirder though... it seems that right before major earth-changing cataclysmic events... like 9/11 or the recent tsunami... the graph would fluctuate noticeably. freaky.

Not only had they registered the attacks as they actually happened, but the characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers had begun four hours before the two planes even hit the Twin Towers.

They had, it appeared, detected that an event of historic importance was about to take place before the terrorists had even boarded their fateful flights. The implications, not least for the West's security services who constantly monitor electronic 'chatter', are clearly enormous.

'I knew then that we had a great deal of work ahead of us,' says Dr Nelson.

What could be happening? Was it a freak occurrence, perhaps?

Apparently not. For in the closing weeks of December last year, the machines went wild once more.

Twenty-four hours later, an earthquake deep beneath the Indian Ocean triggered the tsunami which devastated South-East Asia, and claimed the lives of an estimated quarter of a million people.

So could the Global Consciousness Project really be forecasting the future?

so basically. it's a future telling box. and i want one.

read the whole article... it's pretty interesting.

there are also some good comments on the Slashdot posting of the story.

...and the actual Global Consciousness Project site.

z.

Mini LED Video Projector.

i think i saw this one at CES... at least i saw something similar.



basically a 14oz. 800x600 video projector...

has VGA inputs / video inputs and uses super super long-lasting (20,000 hours!) LEDs for bulbs. now i highly doubt that LED bulbs are bright enough to project a visible images in a lit room... it still sounds like awesome technology that will only get better with time.

right now the biggest issue with me for getting a normal projector is the cost of bulbs (around $300) and longetivity of said bulbs (3,000 hours or so). this one presumably fixes both those problems as LEDs are dirt cheap in addition to lasting 6-7x as long.

this thing is pretty awesome though. $699 is a great price. though the 800x600 resolution puts me off... and the likelihood that it won't be able to project in a lit room... and the fact that i heard a rumor from CES that they will only project around a 27" max screen.

more info here. and Engadgets blurb as well.

Sony MDR Headphones.

i have had a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones since approximately the beginning on the Earth. they are easily the best headphones i have ever had. mostly because you can wear them for hours and hours on end and they never get uncomfortable. ever. and they sound decently good. not too over-bassed like most headphones these days.

unfortunately the low end started farting out about 4 years ago. probably due to being used at maximum volume as monitors while DJing several nights a week for a good 3-4 years straight. so i looked around trying to find some new ones to buy. and i couldn't find any! they must have been discontinued! and all the Sony headphones i did find online looked nothing like the excellent MDR-V6! and looked horribly uncomfortable!

and when i actually found a good selection of the new fancy Sony versions in real-life... they all :

1. sounded like complete ass and over-bassed like the song was playing through a few cardboard boxes
2. looked like i was wearing a Transformer™ only without the benefits of any transforming ability
3. were uncomfortable within the short testing period of a few minutes

so needless to say i was pretty bummed. but never really looked again. as i just assumed Sony just no longer made them. and never made a comparable replacement.

i even started trying to decide on some new headphones from the awesome online store Headroom... was thinking about these nice AKG K501 headphones. but was having a hard time committing to them (and dropping 2 bills on them) without trying them on first... so never got around to it. (they do still sound like some great headphones though...)

then today on Engadget there was an article about using a Mac mini as a barebones recording studio... something i was planning to do anyway... though once i move into my house... the Apple audio interface comes out... and i buy an actual Mac mini. but in the text of the article they reference a pair of Sony headphones called the MDR-7506... they looked identical to my MDR-V6!!!

so i am extra pleased! as i was finally planning on getting some new headphones once i move this week... and now i can actually get some that i am already used to and already know i love! yay!

Best Convergence Phone.

i still can't decide which "convergence" phone truly is the best thing ever. i definitely want one. a device that can combine the features of multiple separate devices into a single more convenient device. i really am looking for the jack of all vs. the master of one. seriously.

my criteria :

GSM : preferably quad-band. i just got my GSM phone and never had one prior when in europe. meaning i was always cell-less. which can be highly annoying i had found. quad-band means i can buy a SIM at the airport when i land and be set for the trip.

WiFi : i want to be able to have a connection at work or at meetings with wi-fi or hotels when travelling or coffee shops. or even at Burning Man where there is wi-fi... but no cell service. and i don't really feel like bringing a company laptop to the desert personally. but would like something to carry around in case something breaks and i need to fix it remotely.

Bluetooth : i'm not going to ever plug a phone in to sync contacts with my laptop. ever since i've used bluetooth for that... i'm never going to use a wire again. also i dig the idea of using the phone as a modem if needed. and not having to physically plug the phone into the laptop with some funky cable to get a data connection going. what am i? a caveman?

PDA-isity : not really the actual PDA functions. but being able to run all sorts of various applications on the phone on a nice decent sized screen will be great. like a terminal for SSH / email client for direct POP3 & SMTP access / web browser (is there a Mozilla/Firefox build for Windows Mobile?) / VNC or other screen control app / MP3 or video player stuff / Bluetooth remote control apps (like for controlling a computer remotely via Bluetooth like Salling Clicker does) / IR remote application might be cool / map software that is GPS capable ... and all the other billion of cool random apps for PDAs these days.

Camera : nothing super fancy... but nice enough to take a decent not-entirely crappy picture if needed. hopefully decent enough to leave my small 3.2MP Kyocera at home most the time. not that it is a huge camera... but i'm really looking for the 'one device only' ideal... and frequently have to decide if the camera is more worth a pocket than my wallet (unlikely) or my phone (also unlikely... but possible).

Card Slot : presumably SD and SDIO compatible. for like a 1GB card or so for storage. it would be nice to be able to possibly get a GPS unit for it at some point. though an external Bluetooth GPS might be good enough... though a card GPS might be better as not to get lost and not needing batteries.

Thumbboard : i don't feel like using an onscreen keyboard for emails or for browsing or for taking notes. and i definitely don't want to rely solely on predictive text on a 3-per-key keypad or having to use Graffiti. i want a normal QWERTY thumbboard style keyboard. i had one on a 2-way radio pager before and after a few days got plenty fast at using it... enough that it wasn't a burden or cumbersome at all.

Price : not costing as much as a laptop. i'm looking at like $500-600 tops. i probably won't be able to get any of these at any carrier up here. and would want an unlocked phone. so that means buying a non-contract unlocked phone off eBay or a place like Expansys.

so this is what i came up with so far... none really have all the features i want ... at the desired price.

Treo 650

at first i was super excited about the pre-release rumors concerning the Treo 650. it seemed like such a cool device... at least in rumored form. once it was actually released however it had a few problems that i just can't overcome to justify it's price.



good things:

• general form factor
• Palm OS
• built-in Bluetooth
• quad-band GSM
• EDGE data connection
• built-in camera
• SDIO slot
• thumbboard
  

bad things:

• no freaking wi-fi... i can't believe they released it without wi-fi. the PalmOne wi-fi SDIO card doesn't even have available drivers for the Treo... so even if you bought their own card it won't actually work. someone hacked some drivers to make it work... but it requires rebooting the phone. not exactly a daily use solution. and even if it did work right... the PalmOne wi-fi card doesn't have built-in memory available like the SanDisk combo wi-fi/256MB card you can get on Pocket PC.

• only 32MB of RAM. and only 22MB available to the end-user. due to new memory management... the actual 22MB 'grows' the data... so a normally small app on a Treo 600 will use more disk space on a Treo 650. sure... you could add a 1GB SD card for more data storage... but not if you have a wi-fi card in the slot.

• Bluetooth has the DUN (using it as a modem for a computer) disabled on some carriers. not a big deal since no one sells them here on contract anyway. hopefully the unlocked/unbranded no contract ones don't have such a limitation. since it has EDGE (and inexplicably we have EDGE service in Alaska) DUN would probably be something i would actually use.

• $699. for the unlocked one direct from Palm. it was $599 for a few days. $599 almost sort of made me look past the other problems... $699 would take more convincing... like built-in wi-fi.

• built-in camera is only 640x480. kind of weak these days. better than my T637. but not good enough to make me use it as regularly as a "real" camera. 1.3MP would make me leave my regular camera at home most times. not for serious photos though. the Treo camera does take *decent* pictures though... compared to the Treo 600... just a basically unusable size.

• Palm OS 5.4... this is getting sort of old hat. where the hell is the Cobalt / 6.0 OS? a non-multitasking OS is sort of pathetic in 2005. even for a PDA.

so all in all... until the wi-fi gets fixed... i probably won't bother. and even then... it'll probably be outdated and outclassed by the time that happens. maybe the (entirely ficticious) Treo 700 will have these things fixed. or maybe Palm will be out of business by then. which is a shame... because i like Palm OS (in general) better than Windows Mobile.

BenQ P50

this one got me super excited once i got disenfranchised by the Treo 650 after it's released specs. this one seemed way better. sure it ran Window Mobile 2003.... which will be a bit of a pain seeing as i run Mac OS X. but not entirely unusable... and the next (in Tiger?) version of iSync is supposed to be more 'open' and allow developers to more easily create modules for different devices. this was the one i was totally going to get... especially when i saw a pre-order price on Expansys for a mere $449!



good things:

• built-in wifi
• built-in Bluetooth
• 1.3MP camera
• decent built-in memory
  
• quad-band GSM
• SDIO slot
• thumbboard
  
• no external antenna nub like the Treo
• looks pretty good in person (i thought)
  

bad things:

• no EDGE data connection.... GPRS only. so were talking 14kbps 1990-era modem speed. not the end of the world... especially with the built-in wi-fi.

• Windows Mobile 2003... not the worst thing in the universe... all the apps i would want are available in some form for Windows Mobile. but syncing would be a bigger pain than a Palm OS device. and in general i like the Palm OS better... even if it isn't multi-tasking right now. the other thing is that the P50 isn't even out yet... and still is shipping with 2003. 2005 "Magneto" has been announced already... and the guy at the BenQ booth at CES said the P50 won't be upgradable to 2005. so by the time it actually ships it'll have an outdated (or close to outdated) OS.

• price... sure Expansys had a pre-release price of $449.... too bad it was a totally bogus price. at CES BenQ released a list price of $900. nine. hundred. dollars. that just a bit much for a PDA. even if it does have all the features i do like. $900. wow. the BenQ guy insisted that was just 'list price' and it could be around $500 'retail'... but i assume that is with a carrier subsidy.... which i won't get.

• still isn't even shipping yet. so even if i had (and felt like spending) the $900 i couldn't get it. it'll probably be obsolete as well by the time it actually comes out. i think Q3 2005 was the proposed/rumored release period.

HP Mobile Messenger / HP hw6500:

this one was just recently announced at the HP Mobility Summit. so that means it'll probably arrive in the showroom sometime in 2007. well... actually HP seems pretty on top of things and are a big enough company it might actually arrive this summer... mid-2005 is the current rumor. this one has me pretty excited .... minus a few things of course.



good things:

• fast processor (520MHz!)
• quad-band GSM
• thumbboard (that looks easier to use than the Treo/BenQ ones)
  
• EDGE data connection
• 1.3MP camera
• decent built-in memory
  
• built-in GPS with software (wow!)
• no external antenna nub
• Two Expansion Slots : SDIO slot and miniSD slot

bad things :

• no built-in wifi... grrr. so close to being perfect. but then... wait... doesn't it have a SDIO slot? doesn't it run Windows Mobile? which unlike Palm OS has several card options and plenty of drivers? yes... but look at the picture again. the slots are on the side. wi-fi SDIO cards are *long* cards... meaning the card would stick out the side of the unit about 1/2 an inch. 1/2 an inch isn't bad if it was popping out the top... but side-slottin' won't really be convenient at all. actually it would be totally 100% inconvenient. maybe if they made a build-to-order option to replace the built-in GPS radio with a built-in wi-fi radio it would be better... as a GPS card would be more a special use card i wouldn't mind having to side-slot and plugged in only sometimes.

• screen resolution... it's only 240x240. a bit on the small side. and a new (?) size for a Windows Mobile device. so i don't know if the non-standard slightly small size will cause any application layout issues.

• not out yet... and no price listed or rumored. hopefully it'll be around the HP 6315 in price... meaning able to be found for around $500-ish. hopefully.

• will ship with the older Windows Mobile 2003 (just like the BenQ). not the newer announced 2005 version. no word on possible upgrades... though unlikely is my guess. PDA makers aren't too keen on offering OS updates it seems.

other random phones i am not really even considering at all (and why) :

Samsung i730 - really dislike the slider design. looks massively fat. and more importantly... not a GSM phone.

O2 XDA II / iMate PDA2K - same deal as the Samsung... but is GSM... but i still don't like sliders. looks big. $900.

Motorola MPx - massively vaporous in nature. will probably never ship. i like the option of landscape laptop style orientation. but when i saw one in person at CES... seemed too big for a clamshell... and the keyboard design seemed to be designed funky-style just for the sake of being funky-style. and hence... is annoying to look at and use. they'll probably want like $78,000 for it too.

Blackberry - looks like a label maker. dislike the proprietary software and OS. as far as i can tell from the website spec sheets... you can't even just check a normal POP3/SMTP account... seems like you need some sort of Exchange-only server component... or an Outlook-only client side forwarder... no thanks. the nicer looking 7100 series don't have a thumbboard but instead 3-per-key nonsense.

HP 6315 - this almost was a contender due to the price... but the snap-on keyboard looks like a pain in the ass to use long term. it looks way too large with the keyboard attached. the processer seems a bit slow at 200Mhz... though i heard it was dual core. and the camera is only VGA like the Treo 650. plus the new HP looks so much better it might be worth the wait.

iMate SP3 - no thumbboard. really is a major consideration for me. decently cheap though.

so that is basically all i have come up with so far... don't think i've missed anything. a few times i've considered even just getting a wi-fi PDA... but that seems like a waste... as it would have a similar problem as my Kyocera camera does now... competing for limited pocket space and thus not get used. and none really seem like a good deal for the price. HP 4350 is looking just way too large. Palm Tungsten C has wi-fi... but no bluetooth... so if i lack wi-fi access... i can't use dial-up networking on my phone via bluetooth. basically no wi-fi access = no access. so no PDA-minus-phone is really seeming like a good deal.

so for now i am just waiting for :

1. cheaper BenQ P50 release prices
2. HP hw6500 with built-in wi-fi or a top-slottin' SDIO slot
3. a made-up Treo 700 with wi-fi and Palm OS 6

looks like i'm waiting at least until mid-summer. oh well.

Automagical Car Disabler.

i've heard this suggested before... or similar technology... way long time ago on VWVortex. so it's probably the same thing. and thus old news. but it was mentioned today on (*ahem*) Paul Harvey... and when you want bleeding edge technology news... you listen to Paul Harvey. so it could be like 19 years old.

but if not... basically it uses focused microwave energy to disable fleeing cars preventing high speed chases.

http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,66473,00.html

sounds well and good.... except it isn't going to work on cars from basically the early-'80s and prior. since they don't actually have microprocessors to disrupt and cause them to slow down. on those cars you'll just make the FM radio crap out. PISSING THEM OFF EVEN MORE!

so they say it'll cut down on high speed car chases. how very incorrect. it will simply *increase* the amount of car chases involving awesome Mad Max styled '70s muscle cars. to which i say 'yes. yes. i hope so.' ... as if the prices for '60s/'70s iron wasn't getting ridiculous enough already.

good thing i already have one. time to prep it for a high speed chase and sell it for big $$$. yay!

SE Theme Editor for OSX.

talk about perfect timing!

i just got a Sony Ericsson T637... and the software for theme editing was PC only.



i was this close to buying a massively over-priced piece of shareware for the sole purpose of removing the pink outlined text on the main screen. sure... it did other stuff too... like allowed for note uploading (which i hope is fixed in the next version of iSync anyway) and some other random crap. but it was $30. half the price of the phone.

now i can edit the themes for free.

Napter vs. iTunes.

looks like Napster wasted a few (million) bills on their SuperBowl commercial.

USAToday.com Link Of Commercial Ratings.

LAST PLACE... as in worst commerical.

could be the ad just plain sucked (possible. i didn't see it. i was sleeping.) ... or it could be that no one cares about Napster. and no one cares about renting music. who on earth wants to rent music? who on earth wants to have to *make* sure they have their portable device 'phone-home' on the billing day or else have the music disappear or become unplayable? not me.




right.

i'll get right on that.

or... also... there is also the option of "none of the above". which has been working great for me. plus i get this shiny disc as an uncompressed un-DRM'ed backup of all the files (a feature that will cost you an additional $0.99 per track on Napster...)

Air.

seems good. like for breathing and stuff.

maybe not the absolute best thing ever. but not total complete crap like say "Alone In The Dark".

(a 9! ouch!)

Project Pterosaur.

Project Pterosaur is so awesome it makes the inside of my penis feel happy.



seriously. who can forget that Bible story from ones youth. the one with naked Adam and naked Eve just chillin' with some actual pterodactyls. feeding them grapes... apples... etc.



ah yes. the old story of Moses frightening away the (now evil) pterodactyls with his magic pterodactyl-repelling staff.

call me crazy... but i would think that ptero-freaking-dactyls would be an important enough plot element to have maybe mentioned a bit more. not just in the Bible. but in other historical works on the time period... seeing as it's not like the Bible is the *only* written accord from that time period. seems like maybe some other stories might have at least *in passing* mentioned a pterodactyl or two.

Project Pterosaur is great though because once they find a real life living pterosaur flying around in the Belgian Congo... those smarmy 'evolutionists' will for once *finally* be put in their place... as the ENTIRE theory of evolution hinges on the very fact that there are NO LIVING PTEROSAURS. case closed!

for addtional fun reading be sure to check out :

• JUST 4 KIDZ! The "z" is for "zealousness," 'cause Jesus wants us to be hot for Him, not lukewarm.

• the hip and cool teen site with your funky fly webmaster Fred "Skeet" Hoskins offering "Totally Radical Salvation".

• ever wondered why in this age of modern scientific marvel no one has ever thought to put an actual CROSS ORBITTING THE FREAKING EARTH FROM FREAKING SPACE? worry no more!

• i honestly don't know why i even bothered mentioning Wikipedia earlier... this is where the true answers lie. ("lie" being the operative word...)

i wasted enough time on these sites... and the numerous sites linked out of them that for at least a good 48 hours this was indeed totally the best thing ever. seriously.

Wikipedia.

wikipedia is bad.

you go to it trying to learn one simple fact. next thing you know you've traversed 17 embedded links and are now learning about the history of that stupid chunk of Russia that isn't connected to Russia but instead lives on the coast crammed in between Poland and that other country that is next to Poland.

time i could be spending with the Lord Jesus.

Cool Shirts.

nothing says 'hipster' like a good collection of random hipster shirts.

but not like the random hipster shirts that get beat to death from being sold at Urban Outfitters... not that they have bad shirts... and they work fine for me... as there isn't an Urban Outfitter within an easy 1500 miles. but in locations that have a store nearby... everyone and their actual mom has the shirts.

so for those needing some non-UO hipster shirts... here are a few good places that i enjoy:

Diesel Sweeties:



that's like my favorite shirt in the entire universe. because it is oh oh oh so very very true. of course... by posting a link to the shirt... that means other people will in fact like the shirt... thus making the shirt no good. i think i can deal. the site originated with some bitmap comics that are decently funny and slathered with various esoteric references... i mostly like the shirts.

Panic:



for some reason the company that makes the *excellent* OS X FTP client "Transmit" now makes and sells shirts. no idea why... but they are pretty goodly. they actually were giving away cool Transmit shirts with the purchase of Transmit 3 at Macworld SF 05. so for $25 i got a program i would have bought anyway... and a cool shirt that wasn't a blatant promotion for the product but in fact quite cool. the above example might possibly be my new favorite shirt. as it is hilarious.

Brandwashed:




these make more sense on the east coast. and i am as far from the east coast as is just about physically possible while staying within the United States. so these are sort of nonsense for me to have. which of course is why they are *even funnier* for me to have. it is considerably less ironic to wear a "Invade Harvard Square" shirt when in actual Boston than it is to wear in it in freaking Alaska.

'80s Tees:



this place has got freaking HUGE since i actually ordered anything on it. like easily 20 times the amount of shirtage. some of it is repeat from what you could reasonably expect to find at say Hot Topic... but a lot isn't. for some reason they totally jacked up the prices. $20!? ... at $15 i'd buy 4-5 at a time... at $20... i think more about if i even want to buy *anything*. totally not rad of them. and they seem to have a serious 'ringer' fetish that i could seriously live without. 'ringers' haven't been cool since like freaking 2004.

i have some more... just can't (or won't) find the links right now.

iPod.

this is a stupid thing to start off the totally the best thing ever blog with. which is exactly why i did it. sure i could have started with a truly better best thing ever. like say "respiration" or "the earth"... but in all honesty... i think the iPod has a greater chance of affecting popular culture than either of those things... combined.

and no one would get in a hissy about the first post being about say 'air'... whereas 'iPod' will get a bunch of [imaginary] people yipping and yapping about how "the iPod sucks cause it has no integrated shortwave radio." or "the iPod sucks cause the iRiver YT-4230N has a built-in CB and costs $70 less and combs my hair for me."

so that is why i did it.

i actually thought the iPod was a total rip-off when the first generation came out. i said 'maybe if it was 10GB i'd pay that...'

and then the 10GB came out ... so i WAS FORCED to buy it as not to be a hypocrite.



that is just the funniest picture i could find of an iPod.

has 2 key things :

1) very high nerdosity... not one but *two* model Star Trek ships.
2) if you look *really* close... the guy is playing REO Speedwagon. RADICAL.

and NOTHING says 'i'm hip. i'm cutting edge.' like REO Speedwagon. NOTHING.