So I'm using one of the new Macbooks

Yes, I'm in an Apple store at the moment, posting from one of the new Macbooks. It's very nice. The trackpad is really great. I mention that first because I'm sure at first glance, the first thing most people will think is that it'll be bad without a dedicated button. But actually, the whole thing being a button is very nice. It allows for a lot of productivity since you can click anywhere, and if you don't feel like doing that, you can click in the bottom as if it had a button there and that won't make it strange to use. I like it a lot. It's also very smooth and easy to run your finger on, so you'll probably like it. It's also really big, which is great. The button isn't too hard or too easy to click, so it won't be distracting. I also like the "gestures." It took about one second to get used to all of them and I really like it. For example, the four finger "swipes" to activate Expose is really nice. It's very functional and because of the smoothness, it's just a joy to do. There's various ways you can "secondary-click" (which is the Mac term for right click). One way is to set a region of the trackpad to be your "secondary click" area so that when you click there, you get the menu. Another way (my preferred way, which is very nice and functional) is to set it so that a two-finger tap brings up the secondary-click menu. It's pretty nice and easy to get used to, I really like it.

They include Spore Creature Creator on all the Macbooks in the store so you can test the graphics. I ran it for a few minutes and I'm very impressed. The new Macbook is great, I'm definitely going to get one.

Edit: I've found what some people might consider to be a fatal flaw. There is quite a noticeable amount of blur when things move on the screen. It's not so bad when it's slow, but if you're doing something like dragging a window quickly, it's pretty noticeable. When I dragged a window around pretty fast, icons in that window blurred a noticeable amount. This won't keep me from getting one, but it is kind of annoying.

Let's face it, if pandas looked like the youngest Jonas Brother we would've let them die years ago

For real. If they weren't walking around being all cute all the time, we would've let them die years ago. I mean, they clearly want to die. It's not easy for an entire species to stop having sex forever. If they were ugly like that Jonas brother or the Chrysler Cruiser, we would've let them go extinct as soon as they wanted to. Now we're putting them together in enclosures with perfect sex environments during mating season and letting them do whatever they want and when they still don't have sex, we sedate them and put panda cum in the lady-bear. The only thing keeping them alive is their cuteness.

So how 'bout them Macbooks?

Anyone seen the new Macbooks? Sexy as hell. I'll get one sometime. And then life will be amazing.

Crabapples are the best kind of apple

I remember when I was little and we had a huge crabapple tree in our front yard. I asked my dad one day if they were poisonous since I didn't know what they were. He said they weren't, but just like every other person ever, he said they'd cause a stomachache (I've never had any kind of ache from eating them). I tried one and they are the fucking greatest thing ever. I don't know why people don't like them. They're like candy, but the best kind of candy. They're sour and sweet and they're awesome and they don't cause diabetes like regular candy. There is really nothing not to like. I spent the next week eating every apple on that tree and then I was sad because there were no more. Then when there were more, I was pretty damn happy. I can't wait to live in my own house so I can plant them all over my yard. Let's face it, everyone is vegan for crabapples. Some are just too afraid of what their friends and family will think to admit it.

I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING FOR SPEAKERS

So I initially wanted the Klipsch Promedia 2.1s. But then Klipsch decided to stop selling them everywhere but their online store. I emailed them about how the Promedias had been out of stock on their website for quite some time. And I found out that they wouldn't be in stock 'till January.

There's no way in hell I'm waiting that long, so it's time to look into other systems. For a little while, I had nothing I liked more than the Promedias. Then I found the M-Audio Av 40s. They're powered monitors, used for budget home studios and whatnot. Reviews are very favorable, they should sound as good if not better than the Promedia satellites (probably better due to the MDF cabinet and 4" drivers). I'm going to order those first.

That's dandy, but they have no sub. I can't have no sub. So I've found the Polk PSW10. It's a small subwoofer, ported, with a 10" driver. For comparison, the Promedia sub was ported with a 6.5" driver. I found it via Yahoo! Answered. I asked the question and told what I wanted (at least 30hz, powered, $100 to $150) and the only answer turned up this sub. It's exactly what I need. It's $230 new, but on Amazon it's a lot less, so that's what I'm getting for a sub. I'm gonna have to connect it strangely though. The M-Audios have the amp in the left speaker. Then the right speaker connects to the left one through regular speaker wire, they both use clips for connectors. Well I'm running the left speaker into the sub's speaker-in (it uses speaker clips for input and output, which are for use with amps that don't have a dedicated sub-out) and then going from the sub's speaker-out into the right speaker. That's up until I get the preamp.

I looked on Amazon and found the Gemini PA-7000 preamp. It's $80, and it completes the setup. The setup will be somewhat complex just for a computer speaker system, but it works. It's going from the computer's 3.5mm headphone jack to the preamp's AUX input (using a converter cable for 3.5mm to RCA, which comes with the M-Audios), then one of the preamp's outputs (the preamp I'm using has two) goes to the M-Audios and the other goes to the sub. I do realize that a preamp is going to be somewhat unnecessary, but I want it for several reasons. One, using one will make the most sense for setting up that sub with these speakers. Setting it up the way I will before I get the preamp will be just a bit awkward. Two, I like the idea of having tone controls that are just that available (it has a knob for bass, midrange, and treble). Three, I like that you can plug in multiple sources. If we ever move or if I just move the setup for any reason, I can plug in various sources (like a DVD player and some game systems) and have it work like that. Without the preamp, I'd have to change the cables manually whenever I changed sources. Plus, after the addition of the preamp, I basically have a pretty nice bookshelf system at my disposal.

So in conclusion, I'd like to thank Klipsch for making it difficult to get a pair of Promedias. If they hadn't, I'd have gotten those instead. Don't get me wrong, they're a great pair of speakers and I still have nothing bad to say about them. But if they hadn't made it so hard to get a pair, I never would've had the brilliant idea of getting this setup. I'm ordering the M-Audios soon. Plus, the Promedias are still the best 2.1 system I've heard in that price range. The promedias are still $150, which isn't a lot to pay for a good computer speaker system. At the least, the system I'm getting will end up costing $330, depending on the prices I can get on the sub and preamp when I go to buy them. Good thing I'm getting it in pieces. Expect a blog post for each part as I get it and the whole shebang after I get the preamp.

Update: Looks like the preamp only outputs through TRS and XLR. This may add complication.

Double update: I remembered that the M-Audios also do TRS. All is well, but I'll need some converters to make the sub work.

Even Microsoft likes Apple

Just saying, I think it's kinda funny how parts of their new "I'm a PC" site were made on a Mac. I know it's old news, but still. Look it up on Gizmodo or some other site of that nature for details.

While we're on this subject, who remembers those Xbox 360 demos at E3 that one year running off of PowerMac G5s? I thought that was pretty interesting, especially since they were in such plain sight.

"Cyber-bullying" clogged the bull

Yeah, it's that bad. Cyber bullying is the biggest bullshit since they said smoking was good for you. I don't care if it's causing 11 year olds to kill themselves, maybe they should take a moment to realize that they are being bullied by someone they can't see or hear, who they can block at any time. Or they could get off the internet since 11 year olds don't belong here anyway.

You hear them talk about it on TV like it's the biggest problem ever, but they think about it from a very one-sided standpoint. "Oh no, these awful people on the internet made a kid sad! Clearly it is the internet's fault, let's blame people who use the internet and no one else." That is a summary of every "cyber bulling is bad :(" discussion ever.

Guess what, the world is full of awful people. There is nothing anyone can do to make them go away. The internet connects awful people together and puts them in one place, so they can feel less bad about how awful they are by being awful to everyone. When you're online, you're pretty much in the position to talk to any bad person who uses a computer. Cyber bulling is nothing like actual bullying though. Actual bullying involves a person you can see, who can actually do things that can actually bother you. Anyone who feels sad because of cyber bullying doesn't belong on the internet, because quite simply, if you go on any website where you talk to other people, it's going to happen. Period. Nothing can be done about it. I don't know what causes people to be bothered by it either. Someone bothering you through IM? Block them. Email? Block them. If you're on a message board where everyone hates you, get off it.

Parents, if your kid is online, get him or her off. Kids don't belong online, period. They bother older people with their immaturity, which tends to trigger the cyber bullying in the first place. Then the kid stays on the website for months because for some reason, he or she can't just get off and never have to deal with anyone from it again.

And a lot of the time, the kids are instigating. The door swings both ways. When kids realize that they can say anything they want online and not get a time-out, they go totally apeshit. Every other word is a poorly written swear. Let me give you an example (written myself):

Mature person: "I enjoy listening to Franz Ferdinand. Does anyone else enjoy listening to this band of which is pretty good in my opinion?"

9 year old's response: "what th shit fucking dude tey suck jonas borthes 4ever!!! u r fucking so stupid u ass shit bitch u r so stpuid go suck ur moms cockLOLOL1!"

Anyone who's been on YouTube will probably describe that as accurate. The spelling and grammar of any kid online will bother everyone else, as well as the immaturity. You can argue that cyber bullies say whatever they want in front of the screen because they can't see the person, but would any of the little kids who do this say these things out loud to someone? No. So parents, get your kids offline.

Dear Apple, no one cares about iPhoto

IPhoto is really damn annoying. When you accidentally click on it in the dock (and I keep it there because sometimes I actually use it) it decides that when you go to close it, it'll take a while to do so. Then there's that whole "add to iPhoto" shit in Safari that is right under the "save image" selection in the control-click menu. I click that so often by accident and then I can either wait for iPhoto to finish doing that despite how much I don't want it to or force-quit iPhoto and have Safari sit there and not respond for five minutes until it realizes that iPhoto is not getting the picture, in which case it gives me an error message about it. You can't turn off the "add to iPhoto" thing either. IPhoto would be great if it was out of the way and wasn't so bothersome, but I'm gonna be honest, it is terrible in that sense. And it's not even that great to use. It's not very easy to figure out, and I try to avoid using it as much as I can. There should be some way to make iPhoto have nothing to do with anything on a Mac so I can make it disappear without uninstalling it. That way it will never have to interfere with anything I ever do. You know what? Screw it, I'm taking it out of the dock.

Shit shit shit

My computer speakers died. You know the ones (actually probably not), the Logitech Z4s.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Speaker-System-Subwoofer-970175-0403/dp/B000AM6QHE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222803290&sr=1-1

They were not super, but they got the job done. It's sort of a good thing because now I can't buy anything until I have those Klipsch Promedia 2.1s, so I can no longer procrastinate getting them. Unfortunately, that means I'm using the Harmon/Kardon Champagnes or whatever they're called. They're...decent. Each speaker has two 1" drivers so they are pretty much tweeters. So the highs are pretty nice and the definition is OK. But, vocals tend to be hardly audible among all the other sounds on them, and I can't turn them up because the resonance is terrible. Oh well, they're not unbearable, and looking on the bright side, I'll have the Klipschs soon.

Books: The Vinyl of the Future

So people are wondering if digital books and book readers (such as the Kindle) are going to kill books one day. Well, it saves trees and is more convenient, but books will never go away forever. I smell the future of the Vinyl vs. CD debate though, next it'll be Book vs. Digital Book. Digital books can be stored by the thousands in something that weighs less than five books, but real books have clearer, more defined words. 

I can imagine being an old guy right now, telling my grandkids about how when I was their age, one book could weigh four pounds. Won't that be fun

The Chrysler Cruiser is the ugliest car ever.

Just look at it. What the hell is that supposed to be? It looks like Chrysler tried to take a VW Beetle and turn it into an SUV. It's got the ugliest design I've ever seen. Just look at that grill. It's so stupid looking. Just like the rest of the car. I have no idea why anyone would ever think about getting one of these. It's like they wanted to make a timeless car like the Mini Cooper (which is coincidentally the greatest car ever) or the Beetle and failed horribly.

By the way, dried hot sauce is awesome. It's like hot sauce candy.

The new iPod Nano, my first impression

Today I got to stop by the Apple store and use the new Nanos (also iPod Touches). I had a pretty good time. The employees were very kind as usual. As you'd expect, this post is about the new Nano. So instead of filling your face with random useless info (I walked to Cold Stone Creamery and got some ice cream and it was good), I'm gonna get right to it.

It feels VERY good in the hand. It's very light (but still not too light) and thin. The curved edges definitely help to make it feel smaller. I probably spent a total of four minutes just fondling them and getting high off the colors. Speaking of the colors, my favorites on the Nanos would be silver (the black click wheel made it look a lot less basic and a lot more hell-yes), blue, and green. The build quality was probably the best of any iPod I've used yet. To put an end to this paragraph, it looks and feels very good in the hand (the curved click wheel wasn't annoying at all, despite my expectations).

So how's the interface on that awkward long screen? Really good. The spacious menus made navigating much easier. They also smoothed over all the animations, such as that sliding animation between screens. I definitely prefer it to the interface of previous iPods.

Cover flow was very good on the new Nano. It's definitely something I would use. From anywhere under "Music" you can turn the iPod on it's side and get to it. If you do it on the Now Playing screen, there's also an animation that rotates the album art 180º and shrinks it into cover flow. Then you scroll.

I like that because it's a nice way to get right from Now Playing to scrolling by album. The accelerometer is responsive and quick, so there is hardly any turn-and-wait. You do have to turn it a pretty good amount though, but that's actually a good thing because it prevents accidental-cover flow. And cover flow has really been improved over what was in the previous iPods. Album art loads much faster and there is a lot less lag. The animations are smoother and scrolling is much easier. You can also scroll by letter by scrolling very fast, which I found to be very useful. And I know it wasn't like that just from the store having a small library, because on the new Classics it is still just as laggy and slow as ever, and all the iPods in the store have the same content on them. So essentially they took something that was totally useless before and made it pretty great. Something you might not know though is that when it's rotated, the buttons on the click wheel don't rotate their functions. So Menu is on the left, fast forward is on the top, rewind is on the bottom, and play/pause is on the right. It's not nearly as awkward as you'd think, though.

By the way, the new Now Playing screen is very pretty. I like the big album art covering the top, it looks very good (though I bet it looks kinda ugly when you play songs that don't have the art) and how they fit everything else on bottom without making it look cramped. Text is small, but readable. Animations (such as when you press the center button to change functions) are smooth here as well. I also like how they worked in Genius. For those who don't know, holding down the center button while on Now Playing brings up a menu on the top where you can choose to add that song to the On-the-Go Playlist or make a Genius playlist out of it) The Nano gets an A+.

And while I'm here, I'll say a few words about the other new iPods. The Classic is pretty pointless, as I've said before. Plus, it's an insult to everyone who owns the old Classic (me). Despite the nice improvements in the iPod Nano, you don't get any interface changes (no smooth animations), cover flow is still useless (I know it doesn't have an accelerometer, but they could have smoothed the animations and given it letter-scrolling), Genius seems out of place (if you hold the button on Now-Playing you don't get a pretty menu on top, it takes you to a whole new menu where you can't see the now-playing screen where you then choose what you want to do with that song), and it has support for the remote feature on the new iPod in-ear headphones. Why's the last one bad? Those of us with the old Classic (which is essentially exactly the same) are taunted with more (for us 80gbers) space and the headphone support and the lazy addition of Genius for the same money we paid for our 80gb iPods, and those with 160gb now have a less valuable iPod because the 120 is closer to 160 for the same cash the 80 once was. That sounds stupid, but when you pay $350 for an MP3 player, you want it to retain value for a while. Plus, the 160gbers, even if they're OK with paying another $250 for the unexciting new Classic, lose 40gb of space. I think we would've been better off if the Classic was left alone and if the new headphones used an adapter or something to connect through the dock connector (that way everyone with a recent iPod could use the remote).

The touch is cool. It's not super different from the old one. The thinness is very noticeable though. It's extremely thin. The back looks neat with the curved edges. It's pretty much the same as the old one, except for the built in Nike+iPod and the speaker. Oh yeah, and the speaker hardly makes it worth getting to replace a current touch. I guess it would be convenient if you forgot your headphones and wanted to put it right in your ear, but otherwise it has little purpose.