John Turner

Today, CNN had a headline that said “Goldberg joins The View”. The first thing that popped into my head was “The View” had hired Bill Goldberg to replace what’s-her-face. And I thought “hmmm…maybe I’ll have to start checking that show out”. Imagine my disappointment when I realized they were talking about Whoopi Goldberg. Bummer.

In America, you’re (allegedly) innocent until proven guilty. Not so much recently, thanks to things like the PATRIOT Act, but in the beginning, that was the intent. So, I can’t judge Michael Vick quite yet, because he may be innocent, though the details of his indictment seem pretty damning. But, I can say this: if this is true, Vick should be treated to a few rounds of the exact same treatment he gave those dogs. [Read more →]

Recently, Microsoft has signed agreements with Xandros, Novell, and Linspire aimed at protecting users of those Linux distributions from damages related to unspecified patents. Microsoft claims that Linux infringes on 235 of their patents but RedHat and Canonical (the commercial backer of Ubuntu) are not buying it.

RedHat stated that their position remains unchanged, according to ZDNet Australia. Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind Canonical, posted a comprehensive explanation of his position and opinion of these agreements. In short, Shuttleworth believes that Microsoft is no friend to Linux or free software and takes the time to explain why. He sums up the recent agreements with Microsoft as “trinkets in exchange for air kisses”. Ouch!!

HBO’s Entourage has totally jumped the shark, and it seems I’m not the only one with that opinion. For me, the fourth-season opener was basically unwatchable…I was cringing and gritting my teeth through all 28 minutes or whatever it was. The show used to be outrageously funny with ferociously biting satire but now its like a really, really bad teen “coming of age” movie. The Vince character in this latest episode looked like a doofus trying to portray Pablo Escobar, and while I can’t stand the Billy Walsh character, I shouted in agreement when he dissed Drama during the table read. If I hear another bad pick up line out of Johnny Drama, I’ll scream and it won’t be pretty. Trust me. Oh, and if I ever see Kevin Connolly’s smirk in real life, I’ll rip it off his face.

Luckily for HBO, though, they have “Big Love” and now “The Flight of the Conchords”. “Conchords” has to be the funniest show I’ve seen in a long, long time. Funnier than “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” even. All due respect to Tenacious D, but JB and KG can only WISH their show was as funny as “Conchords”. Watching the premiere, I was on the fence until I heard the first song, “Part-Time Model”. The lyrics killed, there’s just no other way to put it:

You’re so beautiful
You could be a waitress
You’re so beautiful
You could be an air hostess in the ‘60’s
You’re so beautiful
You could be a part-time model

Funny and wickedly clever on so many levels…don’t miss the rest. This is a show I will not miss every week. Thank you, HBO!!

Just experimenting. Technorati Profile

I haven’t listened to the radio in over 4 years. Any type of radio…FM, AM, satellite, whatever, I haven’t listened to it. The state of Detroit radio is the worst…there isn’t a single station I can listen to for any length of time, and I’m not one of those people that spends 3 hours a day in their car, so satellite radio has no attraction, either. But, I love music, so for the last few years I’ve been relying on movie soundtracks, TV commercials and shows (like Entourage and Weeds), and the referral engines at Pandora and iTunes for my music fixes.

You’d be surprised how much cool music can be found on TV commercials these days…they kind of sneak it in. I think the first time I realized this, it was a couple of years ago and I was wondering what song was playing during a Diet Coke commercial. It took me a couple of days to figure out, but I finally did (it was “Callin’ Out” by Lyrics Born).

Another site I’ve found really helpful is Soundtrack Info. Got a question about something you heard in a movie? Ask it there, and there’s a good chance it will get answered. Pretty cool!!

Every morning at work lately, when I crank up my iPod nano, the first song I must listen to is “Dance This Mess Around” by the B-52’s. I’m not sure what that means, exactly. The song is what, 30 years old? I think it was released in ‘79. Oh well, I can only hope whatever it is that’s got me hooked on this song is good, because I don’t think my janky HMO will cover it if it isn’t. If I felt like splurging on a purchase, I’d buy one of those iPod-capable clock radios and set it as my wake-up alarm.

I’ve been crazy busy at work. This is good, I’d rather be busy than bored, but it has kept me from thinking about posting. A few things I’ve been working on: trying to figure out which would be better for some sites I’m building, Cake (PHP framework) or Django (python framework). I have security and (potential) scaling issues with PHP, but I have administration and learning curve issues with Django, so I’m not sure what to do. Another major problem for me is the apparent dearth of Django-friendly webhosts. At least with PHP, you can pretty much use it anywhere.

I checked out Ron Paul’s website the other day. Very, very interesting. I loved his track record, especially the part about never having voted to raise taxes, never voted for an unbalanced budget, and having voted against the Patriot Act. All big pluses in my book! Maybe I’ll vote for him…I’m definitely not voting Democrat or Republican no matter who gets nominated.

A lot of people see being “green” as a political statement, and take it one step further by generalizing that anyone “green” or environmentally friendly is liberal or left-wing. A “treehugger”, if you will. This is incorrect, as should be obvious. You can be green without being political, and even if you are political, you can be green and support political platforms at any point in the spectrum.

I see being green from an engineering perspective. It just makes sense. Being green means doing more with less (recycling and reuse) and preserving future resources. That’s why I was pleased to read a recent release from Apple: A Greener Apple.

I switched to a Mac at home over a year ago. Even before that, I was using a G4 Powerbook as my primary laptop. Having a history with Windows-based PCs spanning more than a decade, I took a lot of grief from friends and colleagues when I started using a Mac. The common criticism was always “Macs cost more for the same features as a Wintel PC.”

My replies were always two-fold: a) I’m not stupid, and b) sometimes there’s more to a purchase decision than price and benchmarks. I can compare prices as well as the next person, and believe me, I’ve compared the prices between Apples and any other PC hardware. Apples are more than competitive on price. When I purchased my G4 Powerbook, for example, the nearest comparable Dell laptop was $400 more based on features alone, and that wasn’t even counting things like getting a real UNIX-based OS on the Mac (which, for an old UNIX greybeard like me, is a serious plus). When I bought my Mac mini, there wasn’t a comparable PC desktop available for the same price, assuming you counted things like having a footprint slightly bigger than a CD jewel case and running completely silent the same as CPU speed, amount of RAM, and hard disk size. And I do.

And, as I said above, sometimes there’s more to a purchase decision than price and benchmarks when it comes to technology. For example, supporting elegant, efficient design and engineering. In effect, voting with your wallet to show support for products that take the long view, that constantly evolve, iteration after iteration, getting better and better each step of the way. Take a conventional PC desktop…has it evolved? No, it hasn’t. Sure, the colors have changed, but basically big companies like Dell and HP blast out rectangle boxes with chips in them. All that changes is the chips get faster or smaller or have higher capacity. But the end result hasn’t changed. It is still a box with some stuff in it, made with the same processes they’ve always used.

By “better and better”, I include being more green. Getting rid of toxic materials that can’t be recycled, using less energy both in production and use, implementing take-back programs and basically just going about your business in a very smart, elegant, effective, efficient manner with more than a passing quarterly-earnings glance at the long view. Thanks, Apple, for putting into black and white and confirming what I already suspected.

A friend of mine sent me a link the other day. The link was for a “keyword bookmarklet” that apparently helps you figure out what niche websites will be the most profitable. Potentially profitable, anyway. I have to admit to being completely dense as to how folks are making so much money with ads…I get how AdSense works, but if I make enough to cover my hosting bill I’m happy. I need to figure out how people are making hundreds and thousands of dollars just from their websites!