HUMP DAY NEWS


MACWORLD MANIA
Like Moses coming down from the mountain, Steve Jobs delivered his annual Keynote address at MacWorld happened yesterday. Some of the highlights, and lowlights. The good stuff - GARAGE BAND, joins updated versions of iDVD, iMovie (with StarWars-esque scroll) iTunes, and a faster iPhoto for the iLIFE suite. Garage Band puts a $50,000 recording studio on your MAC with premade looped tracks to allow users to be their own "Alan Parsons Project." They even state that the non-musician can be an "American Idol."

The not so hot news that went over like a lead balloon was the "mini-iPod." Not because of it's design - a 4GB - 1,000 song size - but because it's PRICE. $249! For only $50 more you can get the whole magilla with iPod Sr. Nice colors, though.

Then there's the G5 MacServe. HUH?
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THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Conservative columnist and Talk show host Hugh Hewitt has an article on good and bad uses for the web. Love him or hate him, the proclaimed "California State Sommelier" has a reasoned analysis on most things, so his article is worth a read.

YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE
The U.S. has started taking fingerprints and digital photos of all international travellers coming into U.S. airports. A good idea, but considering that passengers from most European countries, Australia and Japan are exempt, one wonders what the point is. And if the borders are kept open like a sieve, seriously, WHAT'S THE POINT?

Besides, need we remember that all the 9-11 terrorists came into Boston from smaller commuter airports? A good idea in theory, but in practice it's typical symbolic politics which do little.


MARRIAGE, THE FINAL FRONTIER
Geekdom now has it's own "mecca" as the Vegas Hilton's Star Trek Experience now offers TREK THEMED WEDDINGS. Packages include a ceremony on the bridge of the USS Enterprise 1701-D by a Starfleet officer, photos, and intergalactic wedding music.

Come on, we all know that Trek geeks can't even get a date, much less a wife!

"Get a life ... look at you, have you ever kissed a girl?" - William Shatner, GET A LIFE skit.


MEMO TO THE MPAA
Wired has a great memo to the MPAA on why it should embrace change and stop all the lawsuit nonsense.

Meanwhile, Cory Doctorow from EFF.ORG points out on his blog that the MPAA claims that fewer users are file-sharing out of fear is really a misnomer considering who would answer an MPAA survey about filesharing accurately? He goes on to say that the PEW study shows that file-sharing levels remain constant, thus proving the practice is still in the mainstream.



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