Bustikated

Trev emailed me last night to say that he’d gotten a reply from the flickrthief. (See Part 1 and Part 2 of the saga.)

Here’s the response

What can you do with the drunken hillbilly
Cut his fucking eyes out and feed em to his Aunt Milly
Willy Willy chicken neck, chicken hunting gotta love it
Hit him with the twelve gauge bucket, chicken nuggets

Redneck fella, moonshine sella
Hang him by his neckbones, chicken bones
Locked in the cellar, yellow belly chicken plucker
You redneck fucker!

yeah i am … i wanted to ask if i can credit you with permission but unfortunately I automatically assumed you’d be against it. Oh and I purposely changed the date and location just because it looked exactly like the timing and location of the shows I went to. But hey, atleast you caught a theif and took them off. Be greatful for something. Live life smiling. All I can say is sorry and if you don’t accept that then so be it. Live life with the DGAF attitude.

P.S. the lyrics are just becuase I was listening to the track and thought why not send it to you.
MMFWC&KL

This dude is obviously a fucking idiot. I had to read it several times to assimilate the full extent of the idiocy within.

The Podfather speaks out about the Thugs Standing Around

These people are out of control power hungry fucktards. Fuck you for taking my toiletries, fuck you for your power hungry attitude, fuck you for you inconsistency. If you are really the last line of defense against a terror attack on a plane then we are all truly fucked. I hate you so much, you are ineffective, and useless.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Fuck you, TSA.

Mr. Gruber points out that

The whole ringtones racket is predicated on the notion that ringtones are something different than songs. This notion is bullshit. You don’t turn songs into ringtones; you treat them as ringtones. They’re not even a different file format. It’s just a different context for playing the same song on the same device.

I couldn’t agree more. Paying for the same song twice is idiocy.

However, he also states that

Instead of the complicated, confusing mess of a ringtone policy that Apple announced last week, what they should have announced is this: Any song you can play on your iPhone can be used as a ringtone for no additional charge. Want a new ringtone? Just buy it from iTunes or rip it from a CD.

And this is where I disagree. I think, that Apple’s stance is good for everyone. They can have an “official” policy which kisses the ass of the RIAA fuckwads, while anyone with half a brain is going to roll their own anyway. It doesn’t take a genius to realize how easy it is to get their own songs as ringtones, and only those people easily duped out of their money will pay twice. I’m a firm believer that stupidity should be painful.

In this same article, John goes on to point out Apple’s history of doing right by consumers. I will say that this is probably the biggest draw Apple has had on my business. They have maintained, more or less, an personal attitude with their customers. Lately, however, they seem to be acting a little more corporately. And that isn’t a good thing. They run the risk of being associated with Microsoft , AOL, or worse yet: Dell.

If Apple were just another huge corporation that came across as not caring about its customers, why would we pay the Apple Premium? I wouldn’t.

Ok, so I’ve gone live with my first simplelog theme. This theme is, obviously, inspired directly by my new site layout.

I alread know that I’m not 100% satisfied, but seeing it in use should focus my attention better.

Ok. What the fuck. Seriously. There have always been certain things about the iPods that I haven’t been 100% happy with, but for the most part I felt like Apple was bringing us the best experience possible.

Now, they’ve basically admitted [via Engadget] that they’ve purposely crippled the iPod Touch.

Why. Would… It just doesn’t make sense… Apple is supposed to be the champion of the customer, right? I mean, this just isn’t like them.

So, Trev just sent me a text message saying that all offensive content has been removed from both Flickr & Wikipedia.

Damn.

Didn’t even take 24 hours.

Isn’t it great when things work the way they’re supposed to?

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Chris just IM’d me about some updates to his cross platform webkit based browser, Swift. Screenshot.

In case you’ve been living in the proverbial dark, webkit is the same rendering engine used by Apple’s Safari browser.

If you’re wondering “why develop a webkit browser for windows/mac when there’s already Safari” then you’ve obviously never tried to install Safari 3 on a windows machine. I’ve had a 100% failure rate with Safari on winxp. Swift can be unstable, but at least it doesn’t crash on launch!

Also, cross platform means the same experience on winxp/linux/mac. This is a pretty big deal for me. I use safari exclusively at home, but I’m forced to use a PC at work. Having a consistent interface makes switching platforms less of a pain in the ass.

I love that word.

So, my best friend sends me a message this morning about Flickr, Wikipedia, and Copyright infringment. Looks like some asshat on Flickr is taking his pictures and claiming they are his own.

As if stealing someone’s photos wasn’t bad enough, taking those photos, and posting them in a “wikipedia”: page and claiming them as your own is just fucked up.

I have created a photoset with more examples of stolen material.

More proof that my buddy’s pics are legit

more

Nothing to See Here

Just claiming my blog. Technorati Profile

Some of the people I work with aren’t into the whole Think Different thing. They are die hard PC users. The kind of people that wouldn’t buy an Apple product if Microsoft went out of business. I can’t believe all the grief I’ve already gotten from these guys over the iPhone price drop.

I bought 2 4gig iPhones. One for myself, and one for the wifey. So I’m out 400 bucks, or so they say. My opinion is that I wouldn’t have spent the money if I didn’t think it was worth it. But, it still stings with the unprecedented price drop so soon after initial release. To paraphrase Steve, “shit happens.”

Apparently even Steve himself is no longer satisfied by that sentiment. In a letter released today, his Steveness has decreed once again that customer satisfaction is the number 1 priority at Apple.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

A lot of different iPods. A lot of different combinations. Where do you start?

In order to pick the right iPod(s) for you, you have to think about how you’ll use them. For instance, I purchased the smaller iPhone, since I planned on keeping the majority of my library on my 60 gig iPod + Video Classic.

The key issues are

• Price
• Physical Size
• Storage Capacity
• Connectivity

Price & Physical Size

If price is going to be the deciding factor in your purchase, then the iPhone and iPod Touch are probably out. The Shuffle is a good choice if you’re broke and don’t mind the lack of a screen. The size makes it ideal for listening to audio books, playing podcasts in your car, or rockin out at the gym.

If you’ve gotta have more storage, or a screen then the Nano is the way to stay cheap. Again, its compact design and flash based storage make it incredibly resilient and incredibly portable.

Storage Capacity

The iPod Classic is a clear winner here. 160 gigs? You can’t argue with that. This iPod is for the “I wanna have all of my music with me everywhere I go” people. Like me.

Connectivity

If you’ve been drooling over the iPhone since January, then there is no reason not to get one. Unless you’re stuck in a contract with another carrier. (Or maybe you don’t believe in cell phones?) If either apply to you, the iPod touch is equally amazing, with out the hassle of signing your wireless life away.

Upgrade or Mix & Match

If you’ve already got an iPod (or an iPhone) and you want to get a new device, there are a couple of options for you as well.

Again, you need to look at how you use the devices. I primarily keep podcasts on my iPhone, but I do have a few smart playlists that make sure I’ve got my favorites as well. I have 100% of my music on my iPod, and fill the remaining space with videos.

I use the iPod primarily in the car, or connected to my TV. I carry my the phone with me everywhere.

What I’ve done in the past is to simply upgrade my iPod by selling my current one, and using the money to pay (partially) for the new one. If you’ve kept yours in a case, and taken care of it, you shouldn’t have a problem finding someone who’ll buy it for a reasonable price.

Just mentioning it at work yesterday got me an offer of $100 for the wife’s 30gig photo, and an offer of $200 for my video. Obviously, YMMV.

Far be it for me to oppose the Daring Fireball, but I have to say that The Beatles in iTunes is a big deal. A very big deal. Perhaps it is the biggest news of the day.

Everyone knew there were new iPods coming.

We may have been surprised about the magnitude of the iPhone price cuts, but we all knew that was coming too.

The Beatles are coming innuendo was so thick at this press event it got everyone’s speculative juices flowing. It couldn’t have been an accident. Stevie J knew exactly what he was doing: promising us all exactly what we want. John, Paul, George, & Ringo.

Then he let us down.

What possible reasons could there be for such a blatant teasing of our musical emotions? I think the only possible answer is hype. Look at all of the attention the mere hint of an iTunes debut has gotten. What better way to get Apple Corps to see dollar signs than to get people in line to buy?

And when it does happen, people will buy. No other band has had such a profound affect on the face of modern music. The Fab Four set the stage for more than one generation of musicians and music lovers alike.

So, for now, we are all just pawns in an epic struggle to see our beloved musicians in their rightful place, and an answer to that eternal question: How can you call yourself a music store if you don’t have The Beatles?

For me, discovering blogging and discovering OS X went hand in hand. Shortly after I’d gotten my first Mac, I found an RSS reader quite by accident, and started going through the pre-installed blogs.

One of the first blogs that I can remember reading is TUAW, so I am kinda excited that they are hiring yet again.

I finally got around to submitting an application today. While I don’t exactly expect to get the position, it would definitely be a great opportunity.