The CompUSA near my house has a managers special tag out on the slightly older, iBook 14″ 1ghz systems. They wanted $699 for them. Amazon sells the 12″ variety for $799, so as you can see, this is a great deal. I was ready to buy, and guess what, none in stock! Then they told me they’d sell me the demo…then they wouldn’t. Then they wouldn’t give me a straight answer if they would be getting any more from a warehouse to clear out.

I guess I’ll have to call around over the next few days to see if I can work something out, because that price is incredible.

I’ll admit, the WB show Everwood is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. It’s totally over the top. Some characters have no foothold in realism and operate purely out of idealism. But for some reason, as saccharine as it is, it can be satisfying entertainment. As both my girlfriend and I have watched the show for a while, we make a habit out of watching it together on Monday nights.

Let me just say, the most recent episode sucked. In fact so much, I’m willing to say the show has jumped the shark. That’s right, it is downhill from here. Why? First, we have expanding cast (an annoying Scott Wolf) and guest stars (a surprisingly less annoying Anne Heche). The plot is focused totally mainstream now, too. Sex, sex, sex. Call me a prude, but this is definitely not what the show is good at. In fact, this was the core problem with the most recent episode. Missed it? Let me summarize the “lesson” from the story: the measure of how much two people love each other is shown by how much they want to jump each other. Oh please. Can’t we really look for a different message for teenagers? I know, now I’m being idealistic. They could have done better than throwing in the cliched, mousey, “I’m gonna wait till I’m married” wallflower. Amy, the hotter girl, is gonna have sex, and the more average girl is gonna wait. Tired retread.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the show has lost any capability at consistency. Ohh…Amy’s gonna wait….oh wait…she changed her mind! Yay! Oh wait. Boo. The brief PSA spot afterwards featuring actors from the show urging parents to talk to their kids about sex was a farce. Didn’t I just watch an episode where the parental advice towards the kids consisted entirely of two words, “Be safe”. Wow, way to go and work things through.

This show is sharkbait, which is sad, because they can and have clearly done better.

* I should note that, some ideas contained here are the result of discussions with my girlfriend, and are not entirely my own. Thanks honey.

I’m one of those office types that is almost always at my desk. Some of the LAN guys that sit behind me are rarely there. Not in the slighest because they are slacking, but rather because they have to run all over the floor to fix things.

Over the past year, this situation has lead to a case of mistaken identity among many of my co-workers that annoys me intensely. That is what I’ll call the “I must look like a post-it note” problem. Let me assure you, the differences between my appearance and a post-it are remarkable. My skin is not quite as yellow, my eyes are green, sometimes I have facial hair, and I’m about 5′6″ taller. I also weigh approximately 136.9999999 pounds more. I could easily go on.

Here is a list of acceptable ways to leave a message for a co-worker that is away from their desk:

• Send them an email
• Send them an instant message
• Call and leave them voicemail
• Write a post-it to stick on their monitor
• Consider stopping by later

If any of the above methods are repeatedly ignored, perhaps you should:

• Use any of the above methods to contact their manager

Here are some unacceptable methods:

• Ask me if I could leave them your message
• Repeatedly ask me if “I know where s/he went”

See, here’s the thing those of you missing out on the above acceptable methods don’t realize. If you try to use an unacceptable method, I am going to revert to using an acceptable method on your behalf. But keep in mind, I might miscommunicate. Or I might forget. So perhaps it’s better you just do it yourself, don’t you think?

…you suck.

That’s right.

This rant has been in me forever. Others have already shared the sentiment. But you know what the most offensive “PSA” style campaign in recent memory is? Try the “don’t pirate” ads we get to enjoy before sucking down your $10 a head flicks. Is this only me? I doubt it. I just paid to watch your movie, and you are exploiting my captivity to remind me to keep behaving like a good boy. So here is some advice. The last thing you should be doing is reminding your paying customers that they may be engaging in criminal activity elsewhere. Well guess what, we paid for our tickets, so cut us some slack, mmm k?

Wouldn’t it be fun for other media industries to follow suit? We can then watch the hilarity ensue. Have the newspapers get a crack at it first. Here is my suggested warning: “Attention subscribers, sharing this paper with your neighbor hurts paperboys”. The warning should replace page one. Also, it would be good for the newspaper to somehow be sealed shut to force the consumer to consume the message longer.

If you want to bombard the public with your heavy handed tactics (”oh look, the best grip is crying because he can’t buy a thanksgiving turkey! I really should have paid for The Fast and The Furious 16“) then fork up the cash and pay from some more ads. But how about you leave them out of the places you know people have paid.

Then again, I could be wrong. Perhaps college students across America are walking away from your lessons filled with doubt and conviction. Uh-oh, wakey-wakey time.

So here’s a novel (not actually) thought. Perhaps you should focus on developing incentives for people to buy your products. Let’s see, get it for free or pay for it. Why should we pay again? Oh that’s it, because it’s the right thing to do and it supports the industry. You know what, that’s fine with me. But guess what, most people don’t care. See your bed, Hollywood? That’s right, you’ve helped create an amoral vacuum of relativism in American society, and now you want people to do the right thing.

So here’s a suggestion. Go out and do some research on the rate of “piracy” of the Criterion Collection discs versus say, the best of Bruckheimer/Bay. I bet you’ll see a difference. Now why do you think that could be? Could it be you shape your audience? Could it be, people are less willing to buy cat food for dinner than say, a nice fresh albacore steak?

I’m out of sarcasm…

I’m a little irked at the excitement recently on some blogs regarding the ChattingAimBot service. For those unfamiliar with the system, it’s a novelty where you provide your email address, the AIM screenname of a friend, and some characteristics you wish the bot to assume. The bot will then go have a random, and likely surprising, IM session with your friend and then email the transcript back to you. It is nice they have a feature to block the bots from talking to a screenname, so people can’t indefinitely harass you with the system.

There’s a much bigger problem here, and I’m disappointed that guys of the like of Engadget are endorsing such an application with little warning. That is, it’s simply not smart, nor cool, to give third parties information like this on your friends. We’ve all received enough email spam and read enough prevention tips to know that it’s good to protect your internet contact info. So why all the sudden do we think it’s a good idea to go and put the info of others in?

Granted, the site has a privacy policy which states your screenname will never be used or sold for spamming purposes, now and forever. But come on people, look at the site. Does this really look like something you should be dragging your friends into?

I think I’ve slept 11 hours since Monday.