On November 17th, 1978 - there was a disturbance in the force. Jedi at the time remember hearing the sound of a million voices screaming at once - and then 30 minutes later… silence (after the show ended)…
Lets just put it this way. Bea Arthur is in it - along with Jefferson Starship and the rest of “Chewbacca’s family”… I’m busy today, so I only watched the introduction.
The Internet Movie Database entry about the special gives some interesting reviews.
Let me start this post with a yawn. Apple had a media event for this? Not exactly earth shattering news. It turns out that reports circulating around the internet starting at ThinkSecret.com were true. Apple is making a boom-box like add-on for the iPod.
It’s ugly.
It’s certainly not going to replace the home stereo that we have here at our house… (Oh wait, we don’t have one…)
They also announced a new Intel Mac Mini that’s “5x faster” (on native things only, of course… If you are thinking of programs like Photoshop it should read “0.5x as fast”)
They also are going to make $100 leather cases for the current iPod line.
The only thing “big” they announced today was the iPod Hi-Fi, with a big pricetag ($350) and a big form factor. Thanks Apple. Next time you have a weak product announcement, do us a favor and issue a press release. Not a press event.
I stumbled across this article the other day about a piracy raid in Europe somewhere. A guy was selling pirated games and videos out of an ice-cream truck. I guess that would make a crappy getaway car - what with the “Da de dump da de diddy diddy dum da diddy dump” playing at 120dB (re 20 mPa) everywhere you go.
The part I found fascinating was their description of his “lair.” It sounds like something that would make Batman jealous.
“Raids carried out by a team of ELSPA investigators with Dumfries and Galloway police and trading standards officers took place at a number of locations: a one-bedroom flat belonging to the man, a shop, an internet cafe, and two other houses…”
The search in the flat uncovered a hidden staircase that led to a secret second floor containing several rooms of state of the art copying equipment and counterfeit merchandise. A safe containing jewellery [sic] and over £2,000 cash was also found, as well as a stash of copied discs behind a fake partition.
So he has a one-bedroom flat, two houses, and an internet cafe - but he still drives an Ice Cream truck? Going back to the secret-staircase two-story one-bedroom apartment… How do you go about getting one of those? Do you just call a local realtor and let them know what you are looking for?
Hello? Century-21? I need a house with a hidden staircase that leads to a hidden room… I’ll also need a large covered-parking spot sufficient to fit an ice-cream truck in… Oh, and I’ll be paying cash.
Original article: Pro-G: Another successful piracy raid
Apple released a 1 GB iPod nano today (in both black and white) for $149. The 1 GB shuffle is still available - but now for only $99. The 512 MB shuffle can now be yours for $69.
This is similar timing to last year when Apple released the shuffle - just in time for valentines day.
Again, let’s hope that these are extremely hard to come by and that the BYU bookstore somehow manages to get 500 of them in stock… we can only hope.
The Apple Store (U.S.) - iPod nano
Yes, today is Groundhog Day - the day of predictions. If you thought “Groundhog day? How could winter POSSIBLY be over so soon?” don’t worry - the toothless-beaver saw his shadow today. This means you have 6 more weeks of winter.
CNN.com - Punxsutawney Phil predicts … - Feb 2, 2006
Creighton University has started giving their applicants the option of hearing back from them via text message - instead of via mail. This gives them near instant feedback from the admissions department - usually within 24 hours. (This would have saved some Harvard MBA students a lot of trouble earlier)
Imagine the joy of your children receiving their acceptance letter:
GR8 NEWS! U R IN! TTYL! - BYU
Or imagine their disappointment when they hear:
U SUK. - BYU
And if the housing department starts using the text message thing, Nicole’s old Virgin Mobile phone’s pre-written text messages such as “On top, or bottom?” would help them decide bunk-mate placement…
The future is bright.
An Oregon man hurled both of his prosthetic legs at a police officer, striking him with one, after his son was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, police said today.
The dad got mad, and charged at the police officer several times. The officer knocked finally knocked him down to the ground, when - according to the police report:
Passenger removed a prosthetic leg and threw it at trooper, hitting trooper in chest. Passenger removed second leg, threw it at trooper but missed.
Now the father faces charges of assaulting a public safety officer. When the District Attorney was asked if they might issue a temporary insanity plea, he commented:
Well… They could try [an insanity plea] but they really don’t have a leg to stand on there.
Remember last summer, when the only thing really exciting was “Batman Begins”? Well, that’s not the case this summer. CNN has a list of the top new movies coming out this year, and reading the list makes me almost want to go get in line for tickets.
Here are a few of the top ones:
There are tons of more movies that are coming out this summer…
CNN.com - X-Men, Superman and the impossible - Jan 24, 2006
The African grey parrot kept squawking
“I love you, Gary”
as his owner, Chris Taylor, sat with girlfriend Suzy Collins on the sofa of their shared flat in Leeds, northern England.
Given how Parrots take forever to pick up a new phrase - that would be a rather odd thing to hear. When the owner saw how embarassed his girlfriend got when the parrot said that - he put two and two together. Of course, the fact that the parrot said:
“Hiya, Gary”
Everytime her phone would ring might have also tipped him off.
He obviously dumped his girlfriend. Taylor said he had also been forced to part with Ziggy after the bird continued to call out Gary’s name and refused to stop squawking the phrases in his ex-girlfriend’s voice, media reports said.
“I wasn’t sorry to see the back of Suzy after what she did, but it really broke my heart to let Ziggy go. I love him to bits and I really miss having him around, but it was torture hearing him repeat that name over and over again. I still can’t believe he’s gone. I know I’ll get over Suzy, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over Ziggy.”
So let me get this straight. The man’s best friend on the planet was a bird - and he wonders why a girl might have gotten bored with him? I just hope the parrot’s new owner is named Gary. (Although wouldn’t it be cute if the new owner had a male parrot named Gary?)
Read the full story at CNN.com