Motel 6 Newport Beach <strong>#4460
Modern, minimalist look. Faux bamboo flooring. Hot tub. Great laundry room.
WOW. … I’m not worthy.
Category: product endorsements
download IE9
For the first time in over a decade, Microsoft just might have delivered the best browser.
It’s markedly faster than Chrome.
Microsoft set out to do four things with IE9. The browser had to be fast, it had to be standards-compliant, it had to be trustworthy, and it had to put the focus on sites and Web content, rather than the browser. …
arstechnica – The most modern browser there is: Internet Explorer 9 reviewed
Download Internet Explorer 9
You’ll need Windows 7 or Vista if you want this browser. It doesn’t work on XP.
Update: Not everybody agrees that IE9 is now best.
Denny’s Restaurant shout out
Denny’s Restaurants – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner 24/7.
In the past I’d rank Denny’s at the very bottom of my favourite restaurants list.
But I have to admit, it’s been very good the past 2 or 3 visits. And very popular.
call me a Gleek
An unlikely hit about High School show choir set in Lima, Ohio.
How could you do an elevator pitch on that?
I’ve been rewatching the series starting with the Premiere. What strikes me second time ’round is how strong the music is, in general.
Click PLAY or watch one of my favourites on YouTube.
Glee has been a commercial success, with over twenty-one million digital single sales and nine million album sales. …
In 2009, the Glee cast had 25 singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100, the most by any artist since The Beatles had 31 songs in the chart in 1964. In February 2011, Glee surpassed Elvis as the artist with the most songs placed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart …
I’m surprised the novelty hasn’t worn off.
Like many others, I’d watch an hour long show only for Sue.
And some of the characters: Kurt, Santana and especially Brittany have really grown on me over time. Coach Beiste, too.
This Canadian Life
One of my favourite audiocasts is This American Life with Ira Glass.
One recent episode I loved.
#426:
TOUGH ROOM 2011
Originally aired 02.04.2011This week we bring you backstage with comedy writers at The Onion. They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper. …
It’s now airing on CBC Radio One on Sunday nights. I’m hoping that increases the Canadian audience.
The CBC, of course, is a great symbolic sacrificial lamb for conservative politicians. It may be cut in coming budgets.
you want an iPad 2
The iPad 2 was announced on March 2, 2011. It will be in stores soon.
Click PLAY or watch the promo on YouTube.
It’s the little details that make Apple great.
Click PLAY or see the iPad Smart Cover on YouTube.
2010 was the year of the iPad.
Click PLAY or watch how people use them on YouTube.
Tech pundit Leo Laporte bet fading tech pundit John Dvorak it would sell 5 million units in 2010. It sold nearly 15 million, even more than Apple projected.
Steve Jobs says 2011 will be the Year of the iPad 2.
He’s right. But competitors will begin to catch up as they have in smart phones. Catching up to Apple in profits will take years longer.
Eventually Google Droid devices will surpass Apple in sales and popularity. The only question is, how long will that take?
related – The best take on the iPad 2 launch I’ve read was by the unofficial blogger for Apple, John Gruber – The Chair
Note: The Kindle sold about 10 million units in 2010. But it’s really not an iPad competitor. Many folks have both a tablet and Kindle.
Xoom vs iPad 2
Dave and I did a little comparison shopping after the launch of the iPad 2.
If you want to be cool, get the iPad 2.
If you like fit and finish, get the iPad 2.
But you kind of have to hold the iPad 2 to really get the redesign. It’s thinner by a third, plus its edges taper to a thin line of metal. It’s almost inconceivable that this thing you’re holding is a multicore tablet computer. The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty … but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor instead of by Motorola.
If you’re an annoying Apple fanboy, get the iPad 2.
_____
I’m an annoying Apple fanboy and there are some things superior with the Xoom.
Click PLAY or watch the Xoom promo on YouTube.
OK it’s not as friendly as an Apple device:
… The Xoom is not a tablet you would hand to your mother; it is cold and complex and industrial and vaguely foreboding, the look and feel resembling a glossed up slice of Blade Runner. Everything is black, with glowing blue accents. …
The operating system (Android 3.0 Honeycomb) is arguably more powerful. And within a few months will be much more powerful.
The built in Chrome browser is as good as the Safari browser on the iPad, and getting better, faster.
The Xoom has an SD card slot (function coming soon), something I really miss in Apple devices.
Overall, for a brand new product … it’s amazingly ready to compete with the iPad 2.
By summer, as apps roll out, the software will be as good. Or better.
And far more customizable. I’d change the dark theme to a light one, ASAP.
I have faith in Google to throw millions into the operating system until it’s superior to the iPad. That might take a year. It might take 6 months.
Motorola Xoom Review: The Future Of Tablets (Whether You Like It Or Not)
Click PLAY or watch a comic comparison on YouTube.
Pike Place Market, Seattle
I take the ferry over to Victoria Friday morning.
Walking through historic Pike Place Market en route to the 8am departure, I’ll grab a Pike Roast at Starbucks. The original opened here in 1971.
the future of computers
Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick …
… a stack of 3 million sheets would be only one millimeter thick.
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene …
Here’s the future.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Thanks Maureen. Thanks Rocco.
Vancouver (again) most ‘livable city’
Is the Economist Economic Unit smoking the BC Bud, again this year?
The world’s top livable cities:
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Perth, Australia
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
Read more: Australia and Canada dominate ‘most liveable cities’ list | CNNGo.com
Most people in Christchurch, New Zealand would refuse to move to Auckland, I can tell you that.
They did get one thing right. The traffic in Dhaka , Bangladesh (second last on the list) is even worse than Vancouver.
Rick McCharles 