Information Overload

Daylight Saving Time Starts Tomorrow

2010-03-13T00:00:00-08:00

Don't forget to spring forward tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 2:00 AM local time, assuming you observe Daylight Saving Time. It's always annoying to "lose" an hour, but it's great that the adjustment allows for more daylight during evenings. Unfortunately, the entire world—let alone the entire country—does not observe Daylight Saving Time. Different time zones are difficult enough. Thank goodness for technology!

P.S. for the new readers: The gratuitous SI pic has become an annual DST tradition for this blog.

The Crazies

2010-03-12T00:00:00-08:00

The Crazies begins with a crazy scenario. The military is flying (!) a highly virulent bioweapon to Texas. Of course, the cargo plane crashes in a fictional farmville outside of Cedar Rapids. The audience is treated to aerial surveillance that has the capability to focus on an individual yet is apparently not used to find all of the warm bodies running around in the middle of open fields. Furthermore, the survivors who spend a lot of time trying to evade the quarantine keep walking along the roadways, which are remarkably absent of checkpoints. Does George Romero's original movie contain so many plot holes?

Microsoft on Cloud Computing

2010-03-11T00:00:00-08:00

Finally watched Ballmer of Borg discuss the Borg's analysis of the multidimensional cloud. While high-level, this is one of Steve Ballmer's better presentations, which is not just lip service since the Borg bankrolled dinner last night. Microsoft truly has some semblance of a cloud strategy, and it's not as evil as it could be thanks to lessons learned during the Browser War. Also, as Ballmer basically says during the Q&A session: competition is good.

On a side note, it's somewhat ironic that the Borg does a better job at delivering their message via the cloud than Cisco (the Matrix?). Microsoft PR makes the video above readily available, and it scales up nicely for viewing on the HDTV. The Matrix makes one register to gain access to something ironically called The Cisco Collaboration Summit, which is downloaded via a creaky mashup of Flash and low-res Windows Media.

MacHeist nanoBundle 2

2010-03-10T00:00:00-08:00

Finally broke down and ordered the MacHeist nanoBundle 2 after the late addition of a Tweetie license today, the last day to buy the second nanoBundle. Scoring Tales of Monkey Island alone is worth the $20 price of admission that includes 8 quality Mac apps, plus 3 additional for those willing to whore their Twitter account. 25% of MacHeist's loot is also donated to charity to further make the sale a no brainer for Mac users.

Valve Announces Steam For Mac

2010-03-09T00:00:00-08:00

Yay! Valve officially announced Steam and Source for Mac yesterday! Steam is like Xbox LIVE for PC gamers. Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available via Steam on the Mac next month. Best of all, Valve's titles will be using their new Steam Play feature so anyone who purchased the PC versions can download the Mac versions at no additional charge! Starting with Portal 2, future Valve games will simultaneously debut on both Mac and PC.

For game developers, Source now works natively on the Mac, making OS X an easy target for studios who use Valve's top tier game engine. Steamworks lets studios self-publish to the Steam community of over 25 million online gamers—a number that's sure to grow with the addition of affluent Mac players. Steamworks publishers include practically every major video game company who now have more incentive than ever to make Mac versions of their games. One wonders if a version of Source and Steam for the iPhone OS is in the works...

Apple iPad Ad

2010-03-08T00:00:00-08:00

Other than Up winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the best part of Oscars' telecast last night had to be the premier of the TV ad for Apple's iPad, which will be available for pre-order this Friday.

Rambo

2010-03-07T00:00:00-08:00

After reluctantly ferrying missionaries into Burma, Rambo returns to rescue them by taking out at least an entire corrupt brigade of the Burmese army. He's aided in part by the missionaries' church that bankrolls a squad of former NATO special forces mercenaries, and ethnic minority rebels. The film fails to fill in what John Rambo was doing since he was last seen helping the Afghans, but it is an entertaining action movie that definitely earns its R-rating. More importantly, it helps raise awareness of the conditions in Burma, which is rife with human and drug trafficking problems.

TechRestore

2010-03-06T00:00:00-08:00

TechRestore rocks! Finally managed to crack the iPhone screen after an unlucky drop. Overnighted the iPhone to TechRestore on Wednesday, they fixed it on Thursday, and then overnighted it back yesterday. Thus, only had to endure the crappy Nexus One for a couple of days. Total cost: less than $150 for the new glass, installation, sales tax, and round-trip overnight delivery.

Penguin Books Gets iPad

2010-03-05T00:00:00-08:00

Not to be outdone by Time, Pearson's Penguin unveiled concepts that help drive home the game changing potential of Apple's iPad for print (thanks @genecowan) publishers, retail bookstores, the supply chain, and the rest of us:

Plinkett Reviews The Phantom Menace

2010-03-04T00:00:00-08:00

Fellow co-workers were kind enough to direct attention to Red Letter Media's hilariously insightful Plinkett Reviews of movies such as Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. Apple TV was made to watch this stuff!