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Exit ArchiveArchive for November 12th, 2004
Permalink Comments Off on The Audion StoryComments Off on The Audion Story By

I have just read the most entertaining account of a third-party app life-span ever.

Fine, it’s the only one I’ve ever read, but it’s incredible. Funny, engaging, meaningful, oh, my.

It’s The Audion Story.

Audion is a music player for the Mac, which is being “retired.” It was created back in the Mac OS 8 days by two guys who shared an apartment. Their timing was perfect, as MP3s were becoming a huge deal, and all the big fish were slowly lumbering to the light.

The story, which is engrossing on its own, is filled with entertaining links, like footnotes. The blog posting from Steve Gedikian is insightful and painfully accurate. The Slashdot postings right after the original iPod release are riveting. And the slowed-down Chipmunks clip is priceless! Click on all dem links. (Okay, except maybe the download ones.)

As an Apple fan, and as someone who hates it when the big guy wins by being mediocre or devious, I was genuinely moved by this account. Apple, while being cutthroat in a cutthroat business, manages to come out being a-okay in the mind of the guy who created a much-loved app that is being retired thanks to the competition from the company he worships. And he and his business partner did what they felt was right, not giving in to incredible pressures. It’s honestly very inspiring.

The Audion Story is not just a geek delight; it will also interest some of you who could care less about computers.

Permalink Comments Off on Science Ain’t BushyComments Off on Science Ain’t Bushy By

The Guardian, that fantastic British bastion of Bush-critical journalism, has a great article online about scientists’ reaction to Bush’s re-election.

The end of the article contains some specific subjects and how Bush views them. Of course, creationism in schools is there. So is the funding to get people to Mars.

You all know by now what I think of teaching intelligent design in schools. But you may not know that I, a member of The Planetary Society and believer in manned space travel, am extremely wary of Bush’s call to get men on Mars. His reasons can only be negative. It’d be The Martian Chronicles without the Martians, where we go to conquer, not study, the next planet out from us.

After the article are some handy links. Of course, I visited the one for Intelligent Design Network. Reading their homepage statement, you can see how illogical and skewed their thinking is. Their call for “constitutional neutrality” is hilarious, since their aim is to hamper that very thing. Just because science isn’t providing you with the answers you want to hear doesn’t mean you get to make up your own science.

This is precisely what Bush has been guilty of, as the article describes. Take a few moments to read it!

A grilled cheese with the Virgin Mary on it, I guessWhat do I say to something as stupid as this?

It’s an e-bay listing that expires in three days, so in summary, a guy who is really bad at spelling and grammar is selling his grilled cheese sandwich with, as you can see, the face of “the Virgin Mary” on it. Festooned with genetically-enhanced ellipses and clip-art Mardi Gras masks, his posting is, I deem, suspect, or, at the very least, crappy.

Jesus, put any lady’s face in an unusual place and it becomes the Virgin Mary. Why not say, “Hey, I made this grilled cheese sandwich and the face of Traci Lords was on it! Bid high!”

Thanks to Sven yet again for a wacky link.