The insanely boring life…

We all know the time of year where prices shoot through the roof and the TV is loaded with “Christmas Cheer.” Sadly, we are very close to that. One month to go, and that will be our fate for 2 months.

On the bright side, however, gifts are looming ahead as well. Yes, we all know Christmas is more than just gifts, but celebrating the birth of Jesus. But seriously, who cares, right? A pity so little people actually see that detail. And of course, the church is starting to remind us of that already. Pity that they tell it to the people who actually come to church and not those who actually need to hear it (which are, unbelievably, two separate groups). But that is another subject all together.

So, now to the point of my discussion today: My prezzies!

This is my wishlist so far:

• A laptop
• A digital camera

See. I only have two items on my list. I am not a greedy, self centered, I-think-my-parents-have-money-growing-on-their-backs kind of person. Seriously though. Both those items are extremely important and will contribute to the welfare of myself. Just think of the possibilities and benefits. They completely outweigh the price. But let me get into some detail:

Firstly, the laptop. I get shivers just thinking of owning one of those babies. Why, other teens (my age) ask for scooters and motorbikes and other such rubbish. But who needs psychical transportation (thats why you have loving parents) when you can have the transportation of mind. A laptop would be an educational experience. The only downside I can currently think of is (assuming laptops were free) Vista not being available in December. Typical. Then, of course, one has to consider the price. Woe is me. That is one tiny little snag. I don’t think anything above R10 000 ($ 1300 / £ 700) is an option. What can you get for that? Well, I need something that can at least RUN Vista on it. So, that will mean 2 GB of RAM, AT THE VERY LEAST 80 GB storage (although i would love more) and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Now to find a laptop like that will be difficult. Also, very important: it must have a LAN port and many a USB ports. It will obviously need to have wireless capability and will have to be aesthetically pleasing. I am a hard customer.

Now if that is not an option, a Digital Camera will be my next choice. What is important for the digital camera is that it should be able to take at least 5.1 Megapixel pictures, it needs to have image stabilizer (since I tend to shake a little when I take pictures) and if needs to be thin. I HATE big, black, bulky cameras. They make me sick. Since I don’t know much about cameras I will either consult a magazine that is doing a digital camera supertest or (and most likely) ask Erik to make a suitable recommendation. Anything above R3000 is not acceptable.

I think I have now outlined my specifications. That leaves little room for error. It all depends, though. i might just get get an old toenail for Christmas. One must remember, of course, that it is a Christian holiday, and shamelessly I have helped to convert it to a money making media monster. I am ashamed. But they tempt us so!

I am sorry to be the one to say it (and you can call me silly all you want) but kids and cinemas just don’t work together.

I don’t mean kids older than 10, I mean kids younger than that age. I saw Ant Bully today (gee, am I behind the times, I know. I’ve been away) and the main factor stopping me from enjoying the movie fully were little kiddies.

Now, anyone who knows me will tell that I am not a fan of children in general. Heck, I was not even a fan of myself when I was younger, but that is another story all together. The point is that children have the attention span of a teaspoon (I actually wanted to say “tea leaf”) and can’t appreciate a good movie. Parents loose control of these hyperactive vermin and lo and behold, their fiddly selves destroy make other kids fiddly and even MORE kids fiddly until you have an entire cinema of kids sulking, being loud and ultimately destroying the experience for everyone else. Especially me.

Why, at times like those I really wish I was the Witch from Hansel and Gretel. But now I am at the point of sulking. THE POINT is that I was trying to avoid the kids by going to a later show, which backfired (and it usually works), so that leaves the blame on the parents. They should movie-train their bundles of grief happiness or (even better) wait for the DVD. If the parents feel that the blame should not be places on them, then I blame the cinema for not providing plastic bags to cover the heads of the screamers.

Sorry for the rambling session, but I really needed to get that out. I must admit though that ONE movie where I never heard ONE kid was Hoodwinked. Maybe because we saw the 20:00 show, but mostly because the movie was just to funny for the kids to find boring. A pity it had such a short run.

It’s been talked about in various circles for quite some time, but this is the first time I can remember Microsoft actually admitting that they would consider giving away free, ad-supported versions of Microsoft Office in an attempt to fend off the potential competition coming from other office suite sources. The company has increasingly been facing pressure from the Open Office/Star Office space, especially among some companies and governments that prefer to go with more open solutions. However, it still hasn’t taken a serious bite out of their market share. The more serious competition may actually be coming from elsewhere, with a variety of companies starting to offer web-based office productivity tools. With competition coming from such different angles, it’s good that Microsoft has realized that it’s going to have to change at least some aspect of what they’re doing. While a lot of people thought this was part of the plan behind their “Live” strategy — that effort has mostly been focused on different types of web services. So, the response here appears to be to see what happens if they go lower down the chain with a free ad-supported version of Office. However, it still seems like they may be thinking about this incorrectly. They’re talking about how they can use this to “woo entry-level users,” which suggests they may not recognize the type of competition they’re facing. The real threat from the offerings coming out of Google and a few different startups isn’t really that they’re free, or for “entry-level” users, but that they allow users to do things that traditional desktop software doesn’t really allow. The power of things like Google’s Writely is how it can be used for collaboration, not just that it’s free. It’s good to see Microsoft thinking about these issues, but if they are only looking at it from the viewpoint of “how do we offer a free version,” then they risk missing the real advantages that their competitors are serving up.
Click on “read more” to see the original TechDirt article.

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This is an interesting video. The top 5 movie trailer voiceover guys of our time in one limo. It is so satirical! Even that Disney VO guy is there.Anyway, you can view it here.

Those of you who know what the website Virtual Hogwarts is, might know that the website is currently offline.

If you are a member, then please know that we will be back in a few days. We just need a little time to bring all of the suggestions we got into action. We have a few things that need to be sorted out before our community will function properly again.

The chatroom is still open, so if you really need to keep in touch with your VH friends, you can do so there.

This is a very interesting article I found on Techdirt:

Many folks are familiar with the so-called broken window fallacy, where people think that breaking something should be considered good for overall productivity, since it creates more work to do. It seems that perhaps we’re facing a similar story with the ongoing (and ridiculous boring) next generation DVD standards battle. There are, of course, two main standards fighting it out, and neither side will agree to just create one standard to focus on. That basically slows down everything. Consumers won’t buy because they don’t want a DVD player that only is going to play a fraction of available movies (or, worse, get stuck with the “losing” side and have nothing to show for it). Studios hate to pick sides for the same reason. Everyone slows down and nothing happens. Sometimes, this can be okay, as the two sides can fight it out for dominance on quality — and the better solution will win. However, with DVDs, the longer they wait, the more likely it is that both offerings will be obsolete by the time either has established itself. So, now, some folks at Warner Brothers have decided to apply for a patent on a disc that would play both types of DVD standard. However, this seems like a lot of wasted effort, to create a patent for something that shouldn’t even be needed in the first place. If a standard had been set earlier, then this wouldn’t have been needed, and now an extra cost will be added to the market, just because no standard could be agreed to.

Yes, another South Park me, this time, with a little better hair and my glasses are dark (which they turn into, anyway when I step into the sun).

This is probably the funniets MS joke I haveever read:

How many Microsoft executives does it take to change a light bulb?

1) 1001. One to install the new bulb, plus one thousand lawyers to assert intellectual property rights over every light bulb ever invented.
2) Microsoft doesn’t change light bulbs. It declares Darkness (TM) the new standard.

This is a custom digital me, drawn by a person named Terence. Don’t ask - an acquaintance. Anyway, what do you think? I look a bit older, but I look so artsy! Movie director me!

Right, those who actually read my blog, since I am probably doing this for my own love and charity, anyway, might know that I love seeing digital versions of myself. And now, I have a South Park me!