Recently, Robert X. Cringley at PBS pulished an article on his website about “For Apple’s Windows Strategy to Work, It Must Replace Microsoft Office and Buy Adobe Systems“. The article is very interesting and a friend of mine, Eric Garafalo ( a MAC and Apple enthusiast ) had a good chat about Microsoft’s, Apple’s and Adobe’s potential future.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060427.html

[11:01] Garafalo: i just got done reading this. it is built on a few previous articles that he wrote and he is pro-apple, but i think that you will find the point of the article to be both interesting and possible
[11:01] Garafalo: PBS | I, Cringely . April 27, 2006 – Killer Apps
[11:05] d-mode: interesting
[11:05] Garafalo: yeah, i think nothing would make steve jobs/apple happier then finally sticking it to microsoft
[11:06] d-mode: oh yeah
[11:06] Garafalo: though i don’t know if it is the best thing for adobe/macromedia
[11:06] d-mode: yeah
[11:09] Garafalo: he alluded to the windows api in his article. that was really interesting that he talked about in a previous one. the short story is this, when ms gave apple a bunch of cash in 1997, it wasn’t just to get stock but to end the patent infrigement cases that the two companies had for each other.
[11:09] d-mode: right
[11:10] Garafalo: but by doing so it was also that the other company now had rights to certian technologies that the other one patented.
[11:10] Garafalo: so while MS picked up a bunch of apple tricks, this guy is saying that apple got its hands on the windows api and is looking to leverage that into its next os
[11:11] Garafalo: where you will be able to run windows apps on a mac with nothing else installed, and get better performance then on windows
[11:11] Garafalo: if that is true….. bill is going to be less then thrilled
[11:12] d-mode: yeah…he’s not the smartest guy in the world
[11:15] d-mode: how much would you wager that deal would be worth? adobe and apple?
[11:15] d-mode: 3-4 billion?
[11:15] Garafalo: maybe even 5
[11:16] Garafalo: adobe would diversify apple like no other aquisition
[11:16] d-mode: hmmm
[11:16] d-mode: why not think even bigger….Apple/Abobe/Google????
[11:16] Garafalo: becouse photoshop is like office, anyone who needs this type of app doesn’t use a knockoff
[11:16] Garafalo: you only use photoshop
[11:17] Garafalo: i think google is too big for apple
[11:17] d-mode: what if it was the other way around?
[11:17] d-mode: Google buys Apple
[11:17] Garafalo: thier stock is way to high to even speculate on someone thinking about buying them out
[11:18] Garafalo: it could, but i think apple… more importantly… steve jobs wants to win before he sells
[11:18] d-mode: true
[11:18] Garafalo: that is what he did with pixar. he didn’t sell until he proved that they were the king of the hill
[11:18] Garafalo: then inked an amazing deal
[11:19] d-mode: but…would he sell it to the right people, like google, just to piss MS off?
[11:19] d-mode: since MS showed interest in Google
[11:19] Garafalo: i mean John Lassider, the creative genious at pixar, is basically the god of disney
[11:19] d-mode: yes
[11:20] Garafalo: he dictates what animated movie are made for all of disney and has direct control on the new projects for the disney theme parks
[11:20] Garafalo: i mean, he walked into disney day one and said, stop working on toy story 3 and that was that
[11:21] d-mode: yeah, exactly…I think Disney realized that Pixar had them by the throat
[11:21] Garafalo: right and then they gave pixar… but really steve anything and everything he wanted
[11:22] d-mode: yup
[11:22] Garafalo: so here is my guess
[11:22] Garafalo: nothing will happen to apple or steve until he wins
[11:23] Garafalo: then either they will sell it or steve will step down for a perfect protege
[11:23] Garafalo: but he won’t do that until he wins
[11:24] d-mode: I can see that…and MS is really looking at some bad times in the future….
[11:24] d-mode: with Appple, Google, Linux…they are doomed
[11:24] Garafalo: vista in 2007 is really bad for them
[11:26] Garafalo: especially since, vista is tiger made into windows. apple is going to release show off their new os in august, and if i was a betting man, i would guess that they are going to make vista look very dated.

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So this morning as I was getting out of the shower, I reached in the linen closet to grab a towel and knocked a few other things off the shelf. I reached down to pick the stuff up and smacked my head on the wall hard, really hard. I mean really really hard.

I fell to the floor and I lay there on the floor, in the buff, for a few minutes….my wife, hearing the loud/echoing thud, walks into the bathroom and asks with a very puzzled look on her face,
“Ummmmm….what are you doing??”

I looked up at her with my eyes all a-glazed and replied, “if varF = 7 then response write…..”.

Too many late nights working on web….

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The saga continues…
Many of you will recall the issues I was having with my 15-baby iPod. Click here to read about it. I plugged it into my other compy to see if it would respond. Upon plugging it in, it started making some weirds noises and then displayed this on the screen:

I reckon it was flipping me off…perhaps it was still on vacation.

After sometime of being plugged in, iTunes finally loaded on my compy and it prompted me for an iPod software update. I downloaded the software and it displayed this on the screen:

I reckon it was saying, “Hey stupid…plug me in!”

Now we are back to normal. Playing tunes and blasting music as loud as 15 megaphones next to a baby’s ear! Hooray!

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wtf?

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Here are the photos from our recent vacation to St. George.
Enjoy!

Click on the image to view them all.

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A while back I submitted to the folks at Nabisco, the makers or the Oreo cookie, what I thought to be a great idea for a marketing plan. I emailed this idea to Nabisco and they replied, as you’ll see below:

My Email to Oreo:
Dear Oreo Makers,
I am a huge fan of the Oreo, eating about a package a week. Some might say
that it is unhealthy to do so. I digress by this charge and would like to supply what I think to
be a new diet plan! I've lost 10 pounds this month and know thousands of others could do the same.
I'd like to share this idea with you at your request. Please contact me.

Regards,
Dan.

Here is their reply:
Dear Dan,
Thanks for visiting our Web site. Comments such as yours tell us what our
consumers are thinking and what they expect from our products.

Please add our site to your bookmarks, and visit us again soon!

That was the end of my Oreo diet plan. Shot down in a blaze of chocolate and creame filling and dunked into a cool glass of milk.

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Many people have been asking me why I have not blogged anything for the past few days and here is why. We went to sunny St. George for the weekend.

Spent some time just relaxing. Golf, swimming, sleeping…you know, the important relaxing activities that are nice. I’ll post some pics a bit later of the trip.

Also, just last Wednesday, the 15-baby iPod decided to take a vacation as well. I was driving home listening to some Foo Fighters. I pressed the next song button and the next song didn’t play. I pressed it again and again…nothing. I turned the 15-baby iPod off and tried to turn it back on but it wouldn’t power-up. I plugged it in to recharge and let it sit overnight but the next morning, she was still dead. Methinks she’s a gonner. I’m not sure what I will do without my 15-baby iPod. I’ve grown so fond of her this past year that I’m not sure I can make it another day. I’m thinking that I may have to take her in to the Apple Store and see if they can bring her back to life.

The trip down to St. George we had to listen to the wife’s Nano ( a mere 3-baby iPod….I recommend to everyone to start today and measure anything you can in number of babies. For example, instead of a 5 passenger vehicle…a 9 baby vehicle. Or, rather than a 20 servings per container on a cereal box…45 baby servings per box. See how it works?). It didn’t go so well since the kids wanted to watch DVDs. I suppose that was the best solution since no one wants to listen to crying kids for 5 hours.

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Kevin Garnett is Coming to Utah and the Jazz!

OK, not really yet but lets think about what it would take to get him here…at least just dream about it for a few moments. It would take quite a bit to get Garnett in a Jazz uni with his massive contract and plus the Timberwolves wouldn’t just let him walk away without something huge in return.

Here are a few deal scenarios that I am willing to make with you Minnesota …in order to get KG to the Jazz. Take your pick of any one of the options and please feel free to contact me if you agree to the terms.

Deal Option #1:
We give you Okur, Harpring (sign and trade) and Jaron Collins (nobody is scared to drive on the Jazz…I mean Collins will make them a milkshake and invite them over to watch “The Yaya Sisterhood”)

Deal Option #2:
Now, I know that you probably didn’t like Deal #1 so, let’s sweeten the pot.
Andre Kirilenko and Harpring (or even Okur instaed of Harpring). Two guys for one. Heck, and a 2nd round draft pick.

I know what Jazz fans are thinking…”how could you EVER trade Kirilenko?”

Here’s how: With KG, you get everything that Kirilenko brings to the table plus an additional 15 points a game and KG is 6 inches taller. Kevin is a superstar in the NBA.

The combination of Boozer, Garnett and Deron Williams looks really good to me. A solid foundation for many many championship runs. Larry H Miller can rest assured that the Delta Center will be sold out every night to see these guys play. Three potential All-Stars once again playing for the Jazz.

The ball is in your court Minnesota. If you need more…we’ll throw in the walking-wounded-European-Giricheck.

Deal or No Deal?

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Freak snow storms have plagued Northern Utah for the past couple days. Last night my wife says to me, “hey…can you mow the lawn tonight?”

I turned my head quickly towards her with a surprised look on my face. She laughed and said, “haha, just joking my man!”

Here’s some pics for you to enjoy.

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The morons at Microsoft are at it again. If you missed it, let me sum up.

An update for Internet Explorer version 6 was just pushed out to all machines (see here ). MS says that, “Microsoft Internet Explorer users will not be able to directly interact with Microsoft ActiveX controls loaded by the APPLET, EMBED, or OBJECT elements”, that all Flash folks.

They continue in this webpage to provide a work around for it….yeah, they break it themselves then show you how to fix it when it WASN”T EVEN BROKEN!!! You guys are so flipp’n-A stupid.

Here’s the fix.
Well there are many different solutions. Some are easier to to do than others. Adobe, formerly Macromedia has listed some here: Adobe Flash Fix Microsoft’s Stupidity.

Basically, you have to write the object tag code using a javascript document.write from a .js file. It can get a little hairy when you have multiple swf files on one html page and passing vairables all over. Include the javascript file in the head tag and then call the function in the body.

Pain in the butt I know and we have the geniuses at Microsoft to thank for it. Idiots.

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One of the main reasons we, humans, are so…how do I say…lazy and inconsiderate towards others is due to one simple fact of life…at least in my opinion.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I myself am one of the most impatient persons I have ever met. I compare my impatience to that of a 3-year old little girl wearing a 3 day old diaper and a red popsicle stained face.

For example, when I’m standing in line for anything I get very impatient. I have an uncontrolable urge to physically body-check each and every person in front of me in that line while yelling at the top of my lungs. “MOVE IT!”

Or, when I am driving in my car and in a long line in traffic and some wise-butt thinks he’s being considerate by letting someone else in line while everyone behind him now has to wait even longer. I always lay on the horn and yell out my window all the really belittling words I can think. Because think of it, if this was a regular human-waiting line at Denny’s and not in an automobile traffic line, would you even think about letting someone in? I think not.

Another example: Whenever I’m not in the mood for any particular genre of music or band or song or whatever, I always default to the shuffle setting on my 15 baby iPod. Now, again to illustrate how impatient I am, if a song takes more than a few seconds to load in this shuffle mode…I immediately go to the next song. I don’t have time to listen to blank silence and sit there waiting for the song to play. Especially while in shuffle mode.

The facts are clear to me on why people are so inconsiderate and lazy. The whole world is just too slow and needs to start thinking about my needs and the fact that I’m impatient. Get over it world. I’m here and you need to listen to my needs. Do you hear them? They are screaming for you to listen to them….

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OK, time to break it down. Taylor Hicks on American Idol, not only looks like Jay Leno but, he dances like a lesbian women.

He dresses like one too. Look at Ellen Degeneres and how she dresses then, take a look at Taylor Hicks. He’s a dancing lesiban that looks like Jay Leno.

Ellen Degeneres:

Taylor Hicks (in lesbian-wear):

Next time Ellen Degeneres’s talk show is on you watch it. She always dances around to some funky music at the beginning of each show. Then, watch back this last American Idol from your TeVo or DVR and you’ll see that Taylor Hicks and Ellen Dengeres have quite a bit in common. The dance and the wardrobe.

I know what you are thinking. You think I must watch Ellen Degeneres’s show every day but I’ve really only seen it maybe twice. I’m not a fan of dancing lesibans…nor of Taylor Hicks…same same I guess.

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Last night, we are watching American Idol on Fox. It was the show where one of the kids gets sent home. A commercial comes on for “That ’70s Show”, which is also on Fox. “That ’70s Show”, is in its final year and having some special episodes or something. I’ve never watched “That ’70s Show” so I can’t say what that special thing is.

As we are watching the commercial for “That ’70s Show”, Jasper says, pointing at Ashton Cutcher, “That’s the same guy that plays Billy on Power Rangers.”

I reply, “No, not the same guy Jasper. That’s Ashton Cutcher…he’s a big movie star.”

“Yes it is Dad. They have the same face. Ashton Cutcher is on Power Raners!”

“Sorry son”, I reply, “it’s a different guy.”

“I know it’s him Dad. I know it.” He wouldn’t believe me.

Power Rangers is an ongoing superhero franchise currently owned by Disney. Given a new title and theme annually, the franchise is headlined by similarly self-replicating television series, and is directly tied to the vast merchandising empire owned largely by Japanese toy company Bandai.

The show is adapted from the Sentai series of yearly serials, but is not an English dub of the original. Rather, it is a ‘new’ production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage to varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of Sentai’s stories and design, the American shows are always at least slightly changed to fit a Western audience. Much of the toy line (specifically the zords) are similarly adapted from pre-existing Japanese counterparts.

The franchise was known as Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers during the first three seasons of the television show, after which the title began changing every year, starting with Mighty Morphin’ Alien Rangers. The official umbrella name is now Power Rangers, though the uninitiated will still refer to it with Mighty Morphin.

The Power Rangers series was distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1993 until the end of 2001 and was broadcast on the Fox network. The franchise was purchased by Disney as a part of a Saban buyout between 2001 and 2002, and the show continued to air on Fox until its Fox Kids package was dismantled in the United States. Since Fall 2002, all Power Rangers shows have aired on various Disney-owned networks. (source wikipedia.com)

I mentioned to my wife, who was also watching American Idol with us, that Jasper thought Ashton Cutcher was a Power Ranger. We had a good laugh and then finished watching American Idol…on Fox.

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If you are mad like me that Chris got the boot…then post a comment and make yourself heard!

Chris Daughtry Or Taylor Hicks – Leno?
I swear my brother Jake looks just like Chris Daughtry from American Idol.

Taylor, the grey-haired man looks just like Jay Leno.

Jay Leno:

Taylor Hicks:

Chris Daughtry should win this American Idol thing cause lets face it, they rest of them suck…especially Taylor Hicks – Leno.

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This evening as I was putting the kids to bed, I asked the kids if they wanted to watch a show. They are use to watching a TV show or video as they are tucked into bed. Yeah, I know…probably not what all the leading expert child all-knowers would recommend. But, it works.

So, I asked the boys what they wanted to watch. Jasper, age 6, answers quickly, “How about Deal or No Deal, Dad?”
I was expecting Barney, Power Rangers, or maybe even a Thomas the tank Engine video. You know something that every normal kid would watch to watch. I guess it goes to prove that my kids are smarter than the normal Barney watching kid because they would rather watch Deal or No Deal.

If you are not familar with Deal or No Deal, let me sum it up. Deal or No Deal is a television game show format owned by Dutch-based production company Endemol, known for creating the reality show Big Brother.

The basic format of Deal or No Deal consists of a number of cases (usually 26) each containing a different amount of money ranging from .01 to a million bucks. Not knowing the sum of money in each case, the contestant picks one case which potentially contains the contestant’s prize. They then open the remaining cases, one by one, revealing the money they contained. At pre-determined intervals the contestant receives an offer from the bank (run by “The Banker”) to purchase the originally chosen case from the contestant, the offer being based on the potential value of the contestant’s case. The contestant must then decide whether to take the deal from the bank, or to continue opening briefcases. If they decide not to take the deal and reveal low values then the next bank offer is likely to be higher (as the contestant’s case is proven not to contain these low values). Alternatively they risk revealing higher values, lowering future offers from the bank. It can get very intense.

Jasper loves math and I think “Deal or No Deal” feeds his hunger for learning more. He watches as each case is opened to reveal the amount and then if the deal is taken or not taken. He’ll scream out, “NO DEAL!!!”, or, “TAKE IT!!” , even if the odds are against the contestant. Jasper would be great on this show. I’d like to see a “Deal or No Deal” kids’ edition in the future after this one dies out….which will happen in about 3 months.

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