kevin barnett

Google brings their maps to the skies (also the Moon and Mars). Like Kottke, I got all teary-eyed.

I was just listening to Del tha Funky Homosapien - Bubble Pop

B&H Photo acquired and is selling a Canon Super Telephoto 1200mm lens. Weighing at 36 lbs and available only by special order, there are less than twenty of them known to be in existence (not counting the ones mounted on spy planes, etc.).

Only $99,000.00. Question: How much of a geek would I be if I went to the B&H store to take a picture of this lens? Could I convince them I wanted to test it out on my Rebel XT?

Tempting.

I didn’t realize they changed their name from Children’s Television Workshop. In any case, Grover can tell you all about the Sesame Street embedded videos.

I was just listening to Les Savy Fav - What Would Wolves Do?

This Saturday marks 30 years to the day on the countdown towards the next dystopian harbinger of our time: the Year 2038 Problem in which 32-bit hardware and software will run out of digits calculating the date in binary.

So why not get a jump start on the stock piles of water, food and ammunition? Although I’m sure most people can use whatever was leftover from the Y2K scare, I am pretty certain the non-perishable food could use a refresh before then.

I was just listening to Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Fake Steve Jobs has some fantastic coverage of Macworld…and is offering a look into the inner psyche of Jobs while he delivers the keynote (Twitter crashed during the keynote). It’s brilliantly funny.

Hundreds of Apple faithful have been camping out in the streets around Moscone Center since last night. The brisk morning air is redolent with the odor of reefer, patchouli oil and nerd body funk. TV trucks are parked outside interviewing idiots and asking them what we’re going to announce today. The Starbucks on 4th Street has a line halfway down the block. Even the filthy hacks in the press corps have started lining up early. There’s pizza, Krispy Kreme donuts and lots of coffee. Sleeping bags and mats and folding chairs and pieces of cardboard, piles of fat geeks sprawled on the pavement — it looks like a homeless convention. Overall I think it’s about the ugliest single group of human beings I’ve ever seen in one place.

Also, FSJ’s update on the schedule change for the afternoon mass suicide slays me.

*Post keynote thoughts:

Time Capsule - would be great if they offered RAID 1. But otherwise a decent and obvious product.

iPhone update - not a big deal, details on this were leaked weeks ago.

iTunes Movie Rentals/Apple TV update - this certainly addresses the criticism I’ve had for the Apple TV which is there hasn’t been any HD content to play on it. Now there is, albeit in the form of rentals. Netflix must be pissed. Blockbuster was already done but now they just seem sad. Tivo and Amazon have to be concerned. Apple cut the price down to $229 but a HD Tivo can be purchased for $70 more. Hmmm.

Macbook Air - An amazing product if you have $3100 to blow. I wouldn’t buy the $1799 lower-end model. It has a frickin iPod hard drive in it. Parallel-ATA, not serial. 4800 RPM. I’ve seen way too many of those hard drives fail.

The design is ahead of it’s time. Maybe when SSD storage is cheaper and in higher quantities.

The way this company approaches digital music is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Ass backwards also comes to mind (i.e. every iteration of the digital Walkman since 2003). Guess what wizards: it isn’t 1988 when everyone had a Walkman and everyone wanted a Discman. It’s now 2008, where everyone has an iPod and everyone wants an iPod. And they want to put music on those iPods using the path of least resistance.

Their latest plan to offer DRM-free music might the path of most resistance as compared to the other labels. Nobody in their right mind is going to buy a “pass” from a retail store for $12.99 granting access online to purchase DRM-free mp3s of Britney Spears’ Blackout. Get over yourself and play nice. At least EMI, etc. are only 7+ years late to the party.

*update: Looks like Sony BMG reads ye ol’ blog.

I was just listening to Ladytron - All The Way