Monthly Archives: April 2004

Current Events

Interesting News Stories

Another round of interesting news articles out there today…

To start with… here’s a good quote from New York’s Mayor:

“It’s just unacceptable that somebody can walk down the street and get electrocuted … We’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Apparently Con-Ed has a few shorts in their wiring, and its electrifying manhole covers/grates/etc.. in parts of the Big Apple. Who knew that walking your dog in NYC could be lethal! Full story here.

A couple of Miami DJs are in trouble with the Federal Censorship Committee for prank calling Fidel Castro… so, to get back at the FCC, the DJs are planning on paying their fine in person, in cash – well.. in pennies to be precise… here’s their story. And now would probably be a good time to mention www.stopfcc.com again, if you haven’t already done so.. go sign the petition, and follow the link to the ACLU’s fax your senator thingie…

Apple

iTunes Music Store turns 1

iToday was the 1 year birthday of the iTunes Music Store. To celebrate, Apple hosted a conference call for industry analysts and the media, to talk about how the store is doing…

All in all… I’d have to say the store is doing pretty good. The hoped for goal of 100 million songs downloaded in the first year, didn’t quite happen (apparently, no-one drinks Pepsi…that contest didn’t result in as high a number of redeemed songs as expected… not that I can blame anyone.. I don’t drink Pepsi either…—- on that note, if you still have any unredeemed caps, you’ve got a little more then 48 hours to redeem ’em)

Here’s the numbers:

more than 70 million songs downloaded in the past year.

70% market share (Number 1) of legal downloads for both singles and albums

Listeners are buying songs at the rate of 2.7 MILLION songs per week – on track for about 140 million songs in the next year.

Over 700,000 songs from the big 5 labels, and over 450 independent labels.

As if that wasn’t enough…. As a birthday present to the listeners.. Apple will be giving away free tracks each week – an easy way to increase your library. The current track is ‘My Hero’ by the Foo Fighters… but there is a note on one of the iTunes web pages that states there will be a new track on 4/29.

Also today:

iTunes 4.5 – Lossless encoding, convert WMA to AAC, Publish your playlist to the iTMS, Print CD inserts, Party Shuffle, purchased music now authorizable on 5 machines instead of 3, watch movie trailers via iTunes —– I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet.. I’ll let you know after I play around a bit.

Quicktime 6.5.1 — Goes with iTunes 4.5 – Lossless encoding is the biggie here.

iMovie 4.0.1 – Performance improvements for large projects

iPod update – updated all iPods to allow playback of lossless encoded music.

Apple

New Laptops and Software

This morning, in an unusual release date (Apple doesn’t normally release new stuff on Monday) Apple introduced revised Powerbooks and iBooks

So, as of today.. Apple is not making a machine that clocks out at less then 1Ghz. Full specs are available here . All in all a good update to the laptop line… Airport extreme now standard on High end iBook and all the Powerbooks.

This release comes on the heels of announcing new versions of Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, a new title called Motion, another new one called xSan at NAB yesterday…

Apple also released an updated version of the Airport software, and a new Airport management utility this morning. Apple product release gnomes have been very busy the last 48 hours…

Current Events

And You though your job was rough

It could be worse… you could be the leader of the terrorist group Hamas

Definitely not a job for anyone who plans on living long enough to retire… they’ve gone through 2 leaders in a months time. Apparently, whoever decides to run this particular terrorist organization has a habit of getting blown up by missiles. Wonder what kind of benefits Hamas offers to make up for the “your replacing the guy who got blown up last week… we expect you to be blown up by the end of next month… want the job?” job offer they have to make (Free Latte at Starbucks?)

Don’t get me wrong.. I’m thrilled that terrorist leaders are getting blown into little itty bitty pieces.. I just think it’d be hilarious to hear the job offer they make….

Hamas has apparently picked a new leader… and their keeping it a secret who it is this time… so I bet this guy lasts 2 months…

Kael's Adventures

First Words… Kinda

Super K’s babbling has started to sound like real words..

Kael has been babbling for awhile now. But for the last week or so, it really sounds like he’s talking. For example, Sunday when we were dying Easter eggs. Janice and I were talking to him, and telling him what we were going to do. We said something along the lines of “Are you having fun?” and his response sounded like he said “I’m done”. Last night, I was talking to Janice on the phone, and Kael was babbling in the background. She handed the phone to him, and he said “Hi Dad”.

Granted.. we know he’s just making noise and putting sounds together…and he’s not really talking yet….but.. its funny how much his babbling sounds like real conversation and how much it sounds like he’s answering or talking correctly for whatevers going on!

Apple

New eMacs

This morning, Apple introduced the latest revision to their eMac line of computers.

Both of the models feature 1.25Ghz G4 processors. The RAM has been upgraded to DDR RAM, which is faster then older SDRAM. The combo drive version starts at $799, with the superdrive version coming in at $999. So you can now make your own DVDs for less then a grand… all in all, a very solid update for the ‘low’ end of the Mac lineup. Full specs are here.

Kael's Adventures

1st Easter!

Yesterday was Easter…and it was Kael’s first one

He got a basketful of goodies, along with a few toys. His face broke into a huge grin when he saw his pile of goodies. The pictures we took are available here . One of our favorite pictures from the day is this one:

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Bunnicula!

All in all Super-K seems to have enjoyed his first Easter!

Current Events

FCC Madness

As everyone knows…since Janet’s Boob the FCC has been trying to get stricter controls over what is allowed to be said in on the Radio, TV, etc..

Apparently, the FCC and the rest of the government is no longer concerned with that little document called the Constitution, which, amongst other things, ensures something called Freedom of Speech. Now that some prude in the FCC saw a 5 second image of a boob, and then re-played that same 5 seconds like a billion times on his TiVo. They’ve decided that Howard Stern is ‘obscene’. Granted, he does say/do some gross things on his show, but nothing that I would say is obscene. Of course, they’re doing it “to protect the kids”… Got a news flash for the FCC and the rest of the anti-free speech members of government.. Its not your job to decide what my kid needs protecting from… that’s the job of a parent. Its the parent’s responsibility to turn the TV off, or change the channel, same thing with Radio… if somethings on that I don’t want Kael to see/hear.. I change the channel – I don’t try and change the world to suit my definition of ‘safe programming’ . Let the movie studios, television, and radio produce and air whatever they want – and let them air it WHENever they want… let the parent’s decide what they want their kids to see/hear on TV/Radio/Movies…

Just keep in mind.. you may think its OK if the government goes after “shock jocks” like Howard…but will you be ok when they decide a joke your favorite radio/tv personality told was obscene? and get him/her pulled from broadcast?

Go here : www.stopfcc.com – Yes, its an online petition and it doesn’t really accomplish much..but when you follow that up with letters/phone calls to your congresspeople it might actually accomplish something.

Kael's Adventures

1st Party!

Kael went to his first Birthday party this past Sunday

It was for the daughter of some of our old neighbors..she just turned 1..so she’s obviously just a few months older then Kael. We let him eat Ice Cream (which seems to be his favorite ‘big’ people food – after Cheerios). No cake for the little guy yet though.. We’ve decided to make him wait till his first birthday for cake. A big bonus from the party… we now know what ‘bigger’ toys Kael is interested in.. he kept trying to play with a few of Tess’ toys. His favorite seemed to be a riding/pushing ice cream truck. Pictures are here.

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Kael's Adventures

1st Passover

Passover is this week, and the Big K got to go to his first sedars

Sedars are the big, fancy dinners held on the first 2 nights of Passover. The first night, we went to a friend of my Mom’s house, and since we didn’t know in advance what would be served (ok.. we knew some of it, since it seems everyone has at least a few of the same things) We didn’t let Kael eat anything except his formula and Cheerios (which, by the way, are pretty much the only solid food he gets excited about eating… He should get an endorsement)

The big excitement came Tuesday night, when we had the sedar dinner at my Mom’s house. At Kael’s last checkup, I double checked with the Dr. (who also happens to be Jewish) to see what food Kael would be able to eat at Passover. After getting the OK for the foods I wanted to feed him.. Janice and I talked to my mom, who would be doing all the cooking.. to make sure she cooked a couple small batches of foods without any seasonings, and with as few ‘extras’ as possible. Mainly, I wanted him to eat chopped liver, matzoh, and horseradish… I was overruled on the horseradish – something about melting the poor baby’s sinuses and taste buds. So, Kael’s Passover dinner consisted of Chopped liver, Matzoh, and Cheerios (which I don’t think are technically Kosher…but.. he’s not even 8 months old yet, so I don’t think it really matters.

There’s a .Mac photo-album posted (you can get to it here ) with all the pictures from the big night… but here’s my favorite so far:

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This was taken right after his first bite of Chopped liver… guess it might not be his new favorite food!