-8 is Cold
Sections: Uncategorized Jan 30th, 2004 1 Comment
Where's global warming when you need it? The high today in Chicago is 5F.
Archive for January 2004
Chicago Uncommon
Sections: Uncategorized Jan 19th, 2004 No Comments
simply one of the best photo weblogs you'll find anywhere.
…and speaking of photo weblogs here another that is sure to drain some time away from something you should probably be working on: hchamp.com.
Another Top Ten Albums of 2003
Sections: Uncategorized Jan 13th, 2004 No Comments
Rarely do I post anyone else's opinion on this site however, when Josh Eckhardt (good friend and college radio DJ partner) offered up his top ten albums of the year list, I thought it would serve well as a contrast to my own:
10. The White Stripes—Elephant
9. Animal Collective—Here Comes the Indian
8. Bonnie “Prince” Billy—Master and Everyone
7. Mogwai—Happy Songs for Happy People
6. The Books—The Lemon of Pink
5. Smokey & Miho—The Two EPs
4. Sufjan Stevens—Greetings from Michigan
3. Lightning Bolt—Wonderful Rainbow
2. Explosions in the Sky—THE EARTH IS NOT A COLD DEAD PLACE
1. Cody ChestnuTT—The Headphone Masterpiece
Mars Panorama
Sections: Uncategorized Jan 13th, 2004 No Comments
A Mars panorama brought to you by NASA and the Spirit rover (Quicktime required)
Why Handheld Video Players Won't Work
Sections: Uncategorized Jan 9th, 2004 No Comments
Here's an interesting read from an interview of Apple CEO Steve Jobs by veteren tech columnist David Pogue:
Mr. Jobs outlined three reasons he doubted video players would ever approach the success of audio players - not even counting their high price ($700 and up) and the time-consuming difficulty of loading huge video files onto them. It was clear from his answers that Mr. Jobs has done quite a bit of thinking about the topic.
First, he said, on a video player, “there’s just no equivalent of headphones.” That is, when you put on headphones and press Play on a music player, the results are spectacular-you get a very close equivalent to the concert-hall experience.
But watching video on a tiny three-inch hand-held screen is almost nothing like the experience of watching a movie in a theater or even on TV. It can’t approach the same realism or emotional impact. Second, he pointed out that Hollywood has been a much better job of providing outlets for its wares than the recording industry. If you want to see a movie, you can see it in the theater, on DVD, on pay-per-view, on HBO, in flight, and so on.
On the other hand, Mr. Jobs pointed out that until recently, there was pretty much only one legal way to buy music: go to a store and bring home a CD or tape. The debut of legitimate download services like Apple’s iTunes store was a huge factor in the popularity of portable music players-but there just isn’t the same kind of pent-up demand for new movie-buying channels.
Finally, Mr. Jobs noted, people just don’t consume music and movies the same way. You might listen to a certain song dozens or hundreds of times in your lifetime. But how many times in your life do you watch a movie? Most people probably wouldn’t watch even their favorite movies ten times in their lives, and therefore are don’t buy nearly as many movies as they do songs or CD’s
…But from his comments, he made it clear that he and Mr. Gates were miles apart on their assessment of a technology’s future. It wouldn’t be the first time.
No matter what the market share is these days or their personal wealth it's amazing how often Steve Jobs makes Bill Gates look like a fool. You can read the entire article here
The iPod mini
Sections: Uncategorized Jan 7th, 2004 3 Comments
There's been a lot of talk since the introduction of the iPod mini yesterday about it's pricing. But I think there's good reason to think that Apple will have another hit on it's hands. First off how much of the population's cd collection literally consists of 20 cds. Why not create a iPod for them with features that they'll need. Reduce the price somewhat from the standard iPod and throw in your choice of colors and you have a product that is aimed at a pretty broad market.
The weblog Signal VS Noise has a great post on their site discusses some of the other probably reasoning behind the iPod mini - check it out: iPod Mini: Smaller Rightfully Costs More.
