I’m always slightly irked when the Instapundit (or indeed any other blogger) writes about “the cult of the ipod”. It seems to me a bit of a joke really.
I’m one of those people who could justifiably wear the wonderful Diesel Sweeties T-Shirt “I had an iPod before you even knew what one was”. The early adopter who bought his 1st Gen 5 gig iPod the moment they hit the shelves. Back when analysts were umm’ing and ah’ing and Slashdot’s CmdrTaco was busy typing up the quote that would plague his reputation forever more: “No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.”
It seems a little silly to start proclaiming a cult based on an a product that already had a very strong following before you joined. It’s a bit like all those fairweather fans who attach themselves to successful football teams.
Waxing Lyrical about the Blogosphere is similar and a practice I try to ignore. Yes blogs are important but they’re strongest not as reporters but as pundits.
However I do see fit to post about one subject regarding the iPod in its current incarnations. I was given a new 30gig iPod Photo for my birthday and noticed to my dismay that there was no Firewire cable shipping with it.
Now admittedly I was being a bit thick, I remember having read something about it on the ever-hilarious As the Apple Turns, but it still made me stop and think.
One of the pioneering values of the iPod was its auto-syncing. You plugged it into your mac with one wire and your songs were transfered across at blinding speed. During his ‘Special Music Event’ unveiling keynote, Steve Jobs explained that the Firewire cable was also transferring power too. One wire was pushing a tremendous amount of data and powering the device at a high recharge rate. Watching it I felt an excitement that can only be expressed by Bill Waterstone’s 6 year old comic marvel, Calvin:
“Oh my gosh! This is so cool I have to pee!”
Firewire was the medium that made that happen (plus Apple marketed the IE1394 standard with a really cool name, which is always important). When I first began taking a real interest in video editing Firewire was this amazing technology that let me transfer my DV footage without having to spool it in analogue through an on board video-card (such as I had in my first mac, an LC630 which was a belated birthday gift when I was 11). Firewire is one of the coolest standards around and so opening the box of my brand spanking new iPod, I felt a twinge of sadness at it not being included as the cable of choice.
Sure I can understand that the iPod’s user market is now mostly PC users who generally have USB 2.0 ports on their computers and fewer Firewire ports (Firewire is for creative machines with fantastic video editing software, not beige boxes that run the laughable Windows equivalent) but it’s kind of sad that the amazing synergy between two products, one Apple made and one Apple co-developed, is now pushed to the back of the queue.
Firewire is still the undisputed king of digital video, in actuality that’s what it was developed to do and what it continues to do better than anything else (any medium capable of matching Firewire 800? I thought not) but it’s kind of sad to see it left out of the product it made possible.
I’ve ordered a firewire connector from Amazon.co.uk and it ought to arrive in the next few days but it’s a bit of a shame that I won’t be able to geek out as I did 4 or so years ago, at the coolness of lifting my pristine iPod out of its box and plugging it straight into my computer (Trevor the iBook was then the machine of choice), watching it hoover up my music library to satiate its voracious appetite for data to fill its cavern-like capacity (5 gigs then, 30 gigs now).
I guess I’ll have to console myself with the fact that my crystal clear backlit colour display will look rather nice with all my album covers on it.
Later
John
Hurrah, I’ve reached adulthood as at equity!
I now have to go to sleep for about 12 hours.
Later
John
An excellent, intelligent and enlightened look at what Neoconservatism actually is and why so many on the left appear to me ridiculous when they decry its ‘inherent evil’.
A foreign policy, which eschews the appeasement of dictators, the common tool of the United States’ old stability-based policy, in favour of democratisation and liberation is nothing more or less than exactly what the left was demanding years ago.
Now we have it, it’s been paying off and much of those to my left have basically had a 5 year tantrum over the fact that they weren’t the ones to carry it out.
It’s basically the same as a child ceasing to play with a jigsaw puzzle with which it has become disinterested, and then becoming enraged at some other kid who’s managed to complete the puzzle.
“Those dastardly Neocons! They’ve tricked us once again!” The Independent-reading proletariat cries, indignantly.
Some of us on the left can’t help but smile at how the principles of Liberalism and Democracy have been served throughout the world and we look down to find that the markings of political-parking have been shifted from under our feet. Somehow we’re now considered right wingers.
Well if an acceptance of the comprehensive failings of the United Nations over the past 15 years, combined with a desire to see democracy and freedom spread across the world by whatever means are available make me a dirty right-wing Neocon then so I shall call myself. A Labour party voting, Neoconservative. Put that in your pipe Mr Livingstone, and smoke it.
Later
John
(geez, that’s a long posting break there :) )
It seems that every few days the papers declare there to be another ‘key issue’ in the upcoming General Election, most recently it has been ‘abortion rights’ following a declaration by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’ Conner that Catholics no longer would consider Labour the no-brainer party of choice.
Speaking as a Catholic I know well enough to leave the church out of my political decision-making. I may happen to believe that life begins at conception but I’m not in a position where I feel right in impinging a woman’s right to choose. In this matter I share an identical platform to Mr John Kerry (it’s about bloody time too).
However I’ll say it now. Abortion Rights will not be an important issue of discussion in the coming election. Michael Howard is really bending over backwards to have something to talk about.
I wonder how long it will take for some real issues to hit the headlines? Perhaps it’s a tribute to the government that we have time to discuss relatively inane issues and no looming Healthcare, Policing or Economic disasters to chew over. It does however make for some astonishingly boring politics.
Later
John
I’m not really a big Audio-Book fan but I’ve spent my rail journeys as of late, listening to Michael Palin’s unabridged BBC Radio broadcast of his 1988 “Round the World in 80 Days” series-accompanying book.
It’s available in its entirety on the iTunes Music Store and makes for about 8 hours of excellent listening. So far I’m close to half way through it and its wonderful.
I love travel Michael Palin’s writing anyway and although he’s not nearly as hilarious as Bill Bryson, he is a superb narrator with a fantastic vocal range and an ability to pick out any accent that crosses his path (by contrast Bryson’s Audio-Books are, from the previews I’ve heard, dire.)
It’s very rare that I’d prefer an Audio-Book over its printed counterpart but I may very well end up picking through the travel works Michael Palin has put together through the BBC.
Now if only I could find DVDs of the shows themselves.
Later
John
I was in McDonalds today for the first time in ages. It had occurred to me that the growling sound emanating from my stomach was probably connected with the complete abstention from nourishment I had so perfectly effected since I awoke. No doubt the result of having to dash out of the house in 15 minutes following an embarrassing AM/PM related gaff perpetrated when I was setting my alarm.
Not wanting to pay the exorbitant costs of a filled baguette from the station vendors at Liverpool Street, I plumped for an apple pie: inoffensive, cheap and tasty.
Anyhow, after eating it and depositing the wrapped on top of the sealed litter bin* I needed to wash my hands, so I made my way to the men’s lavatory.
I squeezed some soap from the shiny metal dispenser, lathered it up and then looked to reach for the tap. Except there was none.
There was a small dome like construction, devoid of any feature besides a small grill through which I supposed the water would be dispensed.
Now being a reasonably well travelled fellow, I pride myself on having used the facilities in a great many airports and as we all know, airport lavatories are the guinea pigs for new taps and toilet fitting.
Almost every design company in the world has, at some point in the past 15 years, turned its hand to creating a new way to turn on a tap or flush a toilet and they have inflicted the products of their deranged innovation on the humble transcontinental traveller. Some of them have been bizarre, others ingenious and some quite complex, however much to my immense personal satisfaction I have always been able to glean the methods of their function from the standardized diagrams provided.
The instructions on the wall here showed a hand in some form of ‘super secret ninja crab’s-claw grip’ over a graphical presentation of what I assumed must be the dome.
Another gentleman approached, stood at the sink beside me, lathered his hands and then stared in frank incomprehension at the apparatus set out before him.
So began about half a minute of waving, pushing, pulling, turning, wafting and signaling in a futile attempt by both of us to get the taps to function. Our sudsy hands flailing in all directions.
He turned to me and laughing said, “Does this mean we’re idiots?”
“It damn well looks like it.” I replied.
We spent another few moments wrestling with the bathroom artifacts before someone gestured to a small patch of glue where presumably a button had been stuck before and of course when this patch was pressed the taps worked as normal.
Following this, no less than 3 people entered the men’s room and used the taps perfectly without any prompting.
Both my fellow incompetent and I looked rather sheepish exiting the men’s room and consoled each other with the fact that this was only a McDonalds. Had this been an expensive restaurant, sod’s law would have mandated that there be a trouser inseam-wetting setting activated by a very particular twist of the tap. This, we would invariably execute at length and with astonishing precision.
*(London stations have no bins in them whatsoever as a result of IRA terrorism in years gone by, however the no-bins strategy has now been rather over-zealously extended to the McDonalds, It seems a bit of a joke given that terrorists nowadays don’t bother to leave the scene when they detonate their explosives, preferring instead to disgrace the name of their deity with a loud cry preempting their hail of destruction)
Democracy and Liberty continue to march. Oh how bitter a pill this must be for the ‘stabilization’ junkies who inhabit so much of the left today.
Syria is taking a kicking and is reeling from the blows. I have to wonder how my Nonno is feeling at the moment. He’s probably walking around with a massive grin. (He handled US and Italian foreign affairs in Damascus for a long period and doesn’t have the highest opinions of the regime in Damascus).
What once was considered trite can now only be described as a jubilant and accurate insight:
“Let Freedom Reign” -
George W Bush.
Democracy really is taking root in the Middle East. It almost seems unreal, combined with the Liberal Democrats’ latest floundering poll numbers I don’t think I could ask for a more idyllic political atmosphere.
Now to hope that Charles Clarke doesn’t fritter away any more executive power for the crown.
Later
John