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I mean honestly, who really LOVES to use Microsoft Outlook? Don't get me wrong it has it's place (I guess), I'd much rather be using any other email/scheduling client. There's a lot that goes into the user experience, and when I use an application and enjoy it, there's something there. When using Microsoft Outlook, to be nice, it's lacking "feeling." And so, Google has released it's Google Calendar web application. Two words to describe it: "just works." I highly suggest it, and I plan on getting all of my friends that I got on Gmail, on Google Calendar, so maybe it'll be easier to plan more events. Unfortunately, it's everything the calendar component of the Hula Project has promised, except, I don't think it's quite there...yet!

Folding a T-Shirt Japanese style never got simpler!

Been messing around with my new toy. I have to say that having a projector is cool, but not entirely practical. One annoyance is the wait for the bulb to warm-up as well as cooling down. Brightness-wise, I lucked out and have a pretty decent projector, where I don't have to be in a completely dark room to see the picture. It also gives off an enormous amount of heat. I don't think watching TV would be practical on a projector, because of the bulb life, but for movies, and the amount of time I play video games, it seems to be practical. This new toy has not put my mind to rest on acquiring a LCD HDTV Display.

Of course here's the quintessential Ubuntu login screen capture.

I read The Trump Blog, he actually had something really good to say about branding.

So what exactly is a brand? Many people confuse branding with graphic design. I still have clients come to me saying, "Can you design us a brand?" They are asking for a logo, and my response is always what I call the First Law of Branding. Your brand is not your logo. Is your nationality a flag? Of course not! It is something deep within you that everyone who knows you immediately recognizes. The flag is just a symbol for that invisible but very important "something."

This is exactly what I think "branding" is all about, and MANY people make that mistake of thinking...."Oh if I create a logo, I'm making a brand." Partly there, but still WRONG!

The Second Law of Branding follows. The brand drives the buying decision. A great brand for any size of market forges a bond with its audience. It makes a connection deep inside people. That bond is in place for the moment when the need arises, and out comes the credit card. Think of your brand as a magnetic force. It may attract, or it may repel. Designing a powerful brand strategy means building a force field around your company or product (or you!) that draws people in -- specifically the people most likely to buy what you have to offer.

I totally agree. Today I found myself at Fry's picking up and putting back the iPod Hi-Fi. And I already own the Bose iPod Sound dock!!! The iPod Hi-Fi is SO well thought out, mainly, no lame power brick, and optional battery operation. It also uses that modular universal iPod dock which results in an actual snug fit for my 5th generation iPod. I bought the Bose pre-universal dock, so this version does not support the universal dock yet. Apple even put a green l.e.d. behind the speaker grill so when you're using the remote control you can see that there's feedback when using the remote. There's also a line in jack on the back of the enclosure, so I could connect my Airport Express and stream music via iTunes! On top of all of this, the speaker grill connects to the front of the enclosure with magnetic ball joint sockets!

I give South Park a lot of credit for "going there." Probably too much, but I have to admit it's a great laugh, and a great way of contrasting "realism" vs. "idealism." According to one of my previous posts, I made somewhat of a prediction, and it somewhat came true. I still don't want to count it as a hit, but they really did not go after illegal immigrants...yet. But in a scene from this week's SouthPark, there was a bunch of people protesting, then they cut away to another scene. They then cut back to what you think is the original group of protesters, but in fact they are a group of mexican protesters chanting. If SouthPark doesn't do an episode strictly on "illegal immigrantion," SouthPark is chicken. Then again, it could be Paramount, Viacom, or Comedy Central. I'm not making excuses for them, but who knows? I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

SouthPark "normal protesters."

SouthPark mexican protesters.

I missed CSS Naked Day.

Perfect activity leaves no track behind it;Perfect speech is like a jade-worker whose tool leaves no mark.The perfect reckoner needs no counting-slips;The perfect door has neither bolt nor bar,Yet cannot be opened.The perfect knot needs neither rope nor twine,Yet cannot be united.Therefore the SageIs all the time in the most perfect way helping men,He certainly does not turn his back on men;Is all the time in the most perfect way helping creatures,He certainly does not turn his back on creatures.This is called resorting to the Light.Truly, "the perfect man is the teacher of the imperfect;But the imperfect is the stock-in-trade of the perfect man".He who does not respect his teacher,He who does not take care of his stock-in-trade,Much learning through he may possess, is far astray.This is the essential secret.

I've got about ten more pages left in this book, if I could sum up this entire book in one word it would be, "awesome." It's a really good look at how and why Apple Computer has come back to life in full force. Through success and failure you get to examine the history of the company and how their history made them. If anyone is going to jump into starting their own business, I'm sure this book would be extremely helpful.

Honestly, the ONLY group that South Park has not offended is the "Nation of Islam." We can now check that off the list. I'm VERY happy that they finally pointed out that the television corporations in the United States almost literally buried their heads in the sand when those comics were published in Denmark, and the rest of europe. All so that we appease the muslims. Which makes the whole idea behind, "Freedom of Speech/Press" completely worthless. I'm glad South Park exists, and I hope there are more shows out there that point out more stupidity in the U.S. more often. Now all they have to do is go after this idea of, "Illegal Immigration."

Gotta love it. Most kool-aid drinking Mac enthusiasts have said that the new release of OSX codenamed "Lepard" will have virtualization built-in. Much like Xen, or perhaps Xen ported to Darwin? We will all know finally in June at the Annual Apple Developers Conference.Boot CampAnyways for now, Apple has released Boot Camp Beta, it allows customers who've bought an intel based Mac to dual boot Windows and OSX.Wait...someone has already done this!True, someone has done this already. The "other" method involves resizing partitions, re-installing OSX, then finally installing Windows. Then once Windows is installed, you come to find that none of the hardware is supported, like the 1000/100/10 ethernet card, 802.11g wifi card, and bluetooth, even the display drivers are running some Generic Display so you cannot even take advantage of the awesome Apple lcd displays. Apple has made it dumblingly simple, to install Windows on an Intel Mac. So once again the, "If my mom can do it" question holds true. Boot Camp will even burn a CD with all of the required Windows drivers for the Intel Mac hardware. It's awesome, elegant, and of course it's Apple!What about Virtualization?This only re-enforces the theory that the next release of OSX will have Virtualization built-in. It makes perfect sense cause now this will drive/enforce the transition from PowerPC based Macs to Intel based Macs. It's a win/win for new and the old die hard Mac customers.

If you can't read what is in the picture it's one of those sleeves you get your warm (scolding hot) Starbucks drink in.

This insulating sleeve is made from 60% post-consumer recycled fiber and uses approximately 45% less material than a second paper cup. Intended for a single use only.