Programs sometimes take a step back

Do you step with them?

Like a good little boy, much like all of you*, * No girls allowed!I update my programs and OS’s to keep together this utopian existence, allowing me worry-free days and care-free morns, and all that shit. But alas, boys and ghouls, updating can sometimes lead to heartache, trouble, and fantasies of infanticide†. † Hey, babymurder is how I cope, OK?

A small example—which I will lead then to my biggest cautionary tale—is my update of the iPhone game called Labyrinth. Before, it was a nice little free game that I could show to people and invoke awe and wonder toward the iPhone. But, hark! updating today brought with it, not the free app I so enjoyed before, but rather a begging troll that gave me just a taste of fun, yet denied me further laughter. This newest version of Labyrinth for iPhone added new features and new limitations: a time-clock to test your speed as you maneuver the ball into the right hole; and a nagging message telling me I had reached the end of what was free. Labyrinth now wants me to pay. That would be fine, if I had known what I was getting into. But nowhere did the release notes say, “Hey, dude, this shit ain’t free no more.”

So, fuck you Carl Loodberg, author of Labyrinth for iPhone. Suck my balls.

This isn’t the first time to deal with this asshole. My key to unlock the limited shareware version stopped working, and I had to beg by email for him to please, oh please give me the right to use what I payed for.

Speaking of balls, a huge set are drooping below the taint of programmer David Watanabe, creator of two otherwise great Mac applications, Acquisition and Xtorrent.‡ ‡ Both of which I payed. In this sordid tale, I am the moron, yet a double-dealer is he. For you see, I trusted what my Acquisition app was telling me. It said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Hey you, I have a new version ready to download. I’m much better now. So download, won’t you?” Like a million other times, I downloaded the update. This was different than the other times, I suppose, because this went from “1.0” to “2.0.” Like an idiot, I replaced the existing version in my Applications folder with the new version. But, uh oh! Acquisition now tells me he is no longer fully functional. He now caps my downloads after an hour and randomly eliminates search results. I’ve reverted to fucking shareware! Hi, David, I payed for Acquisition, so can I have my old version back? I can’t seem to find a working link, anywhere. Hey, I know you don’t need to continually provide a link, but don’t be a douchebag. Prove to us this isn’t a scheme to trick idiots like me into erasing their current copies and forcing them to pay all over again.

So, fuck you David Watanabe, and you, too, can suck on big, hairy, caucasian balls and wonder why they are so much bigger. P.S. I loved you in The Last Samurai.

Labels: Apple, Cartoon, Technology

Read more of “Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About” * Peculiarly, not bedfellow Disney. † “HD” meaning 720-progressive, to accomodate the maximum output of Apple TV.

Macrumors reports of another report by Financial Times: Apple’s got a movie download scheme on the way for Macworld—if it’s all true—and Fox is the first on the scene*. So, what this means by my account, is that we will finally see HD † downloads and the rise to glory of Apple’s set top box Apple TV. If Vudu can do it, why not Apple? …And in a revolutionary way?

Labels: Apple, Technology

Ron Paul is either a complete revolutionary or completely batshit. Either way he may just shake things up (like Shaken Baby Syndrome, I suppose).

John Stossel from 20/20 interviews Paul.

Beautiful movie poster for Taxi to the Dark Side, banned by the MPAA because it features a U.S. Army detainee in a hood. Which is something that actually happened and happens [11. I’d love to read his source on this.].

“Something that happened and happens.” Holy fucking shit! Is my government putting people in—gulp—hoods??? Not HOODS! Anything but motherfucking hoods!

Get some perspective, cocksucker.

Read more of “Daring Fireball”Someone needs to stand up and decry the MPAA for what it is: a censorship board. There’d be mass outrage in the mainstream media if there were an equivalent of the MPAA for books — imagine a book cover needing the approval of some mysterious board of conservative prudes, as movie posters do.

Except that the MPAA is, obviously, not a government body, but rather a voluntary self-censorship the studios themselves—and themselves alone—fund.

Labels: Blogosphere, Movies

Black skin can stop the death penalty?

Read more of “The Connecticut Post Online - Racial bias alleged in death-row cases”Many of the state’s nine death-row inmates acted as a backdrop Thursday in the Northern Correctional Center during an unusual hearing on whether there’s a racial disparity in the way Connecticut sentences murderers to die.

I don’t know how it is in Connecticut, but in the country, the Bureau of Justice Statistics says more whites than blacks are fried or poked with poison.

Of persons under sentence of death in 2006:

• 1,802 were white
• 1,352 were black
• 28 were American Indian
• 35 were Asian
• 11 were of unknown race.

Read more of
“MyFox Tampa Bay | Report: Deputies made racial remarks”They are disturbing allegations that could derail the government’s case against two University of South Florida students charged with transporting explosives.

Youssef Megahed—seriously, his name is Mega-head—and Ahmedd Moha… fuck it, two sandniggers are caught transporting bombs. Their defense-attorney gives his objective opinion:

Megahed’s attorney called the remarks a clear case of racial profiling and hopes the judge will consider the evidence tainted and throw it out before a jury ever hears it.

Well Holy Allah, maybe this racial profiling thing isn’t so bad if it catches Muslims transporting bombs.

Labels: Crime, Race

In a recent blog post, Apple fluffer John Gruber rebuts a Fast Company article regarding Steve Jobs and the company. His actual headline reads:

Read more of “Daring Fireball”Yet Another in the Ongoing Series Wherein I Examine a Piece of Supposedly Serious Apple Analysis From a Major Media Outlet and Dissect Its Inaccuracies, Fabrications, and Exaggerations Point-by-Point, Despite the Fact That No Matter How Egregious the Inaccuracies / Fabrications / Exaggerations, Such Pieces Inevitably Lead to Accusations That I’m Some Sort of Knee-Jerk Shill Who Rails Against Anything ‘Anti-Apple’ Simply for the Sake of Defending Apple, and if I Love Apple So Much Why Don’t I Just Marry Them?

… And By Typing All Said Points In My Article Title I’ll Deflate the Issue, Nip the Criticisms in the Bud, and Seem More Objective Somehow and Less of a Used Summer’s Eve

Labels: Apple, Blogosphere

These would do great in places like Oakland, Compton and Washington D.C. ‘M just saying.

Labels: Photography, Race

A newly found one from our friends at Unemaro 3D. Two young teens ask you, their friendly sensei, to school them on the important lessons of taking dick.

For a Black dude born in Philly to refer to himself as African-American borders on the absurd.

“Maverick Philospher” drops some philosophical knowledge on my ass. In his article, “The Hyphenated American” [11. More on The Hyphenated American.], the writer tells why he does not refer to himself as an Italian-American, and how Anything-American is absolutely absurd. Regarding specifically on a black man calling himself African-, he writes:

Read more of “Maverick Philosopher The Hyphenated American”And if he wants me to treat him as an individual, as a unique person with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereunto, and to judge him by the content of his character rather than by the color of his skin, why does he identify himself with a group? Why does he try to secure advantages in virtue of this group-membership while at the same time demanding to be treated as an individual? One cannot have it both ways.

Labels: Race

A motorcycle and a car collide in the intersection of New Montgomery and Mission, here in San Francisco. The car is totaled by the body of the motorcycle, so I can only imagine the condition of the motorcyclist.

Labels: On the Town, Photography

Labels: Hentai

I demoed an HD movie downloader-player at the Westfield mall here in San Francisco. Viewers can rent or “buy” movies they download, but movies cannot be exported from the device, nor can external hard drives be attached. “It holds about fifty movies,” the gentleman told me at the small kiosk where a big-screen TV showing a downloaded Fantastic Four played. The UI was easy to use and pretty, the remote control was small and simple (think Apple’s remote, with a wheel), and the movie was decent to watch—not comparable to over-the-air high definition signal—but decent. Note: cable and sattelite also suck vs. over-the-air. Prices were the same as the movie’s DVD price-points. Going on memory, $4 for renting, about $15 for “buying.”

Labels: Technology

Cringely makes a good point on why we haven’t seen Flash come to the iPhone, yet.

Read more of “I, Cringely”Had Apple allowed a Flash player on the iPhone, it risked having Flash — rather than the Apple-preferred Ajax — become the dominant iPhone web application development environment. … but Apple wants to control its own destiny, zigging and zagging as it likes to crush competitors, hence WebKit [11. Instead of Flash.].

Flash kiosks, if you’ve noticed, never have fluid animation or rich experiences, and always put, well, flash over substance. San Francisco’s Westfield Shopping Center’s interactive directory seems to use flash for its touch-screen wayfinding, and it sucks. It’s almost a nice UI, but whenever I push a button, animation takes a long time to respond and it’s about three frames per second. That’s what you always expect when applications are built in Flash. And it is beneath iPhone.

And why would Apple want to be shackled to Adobe for the most revolutionary device to have been produced in the past decade? Fuck that. Cringely a long time ago made an excellent suggestion that Apple buy Adobe. Why worry whether Photoshop is available on OS X when they can take steps to ensure it would be.

Cringely yada-yadas on to predict that Apple is revealing a tablet computer using multi-touch mojo at Macworld ‘08.

Labels: Apple, Technology

Read more of
“The Blonde Map of Europe”

Europe, where your child’s hair- and eye-color are a variable.

Labels: Race

Purchase guns now; Supremes to decide your gun rights soon

Washington DC councilmen know best for city, country

The Supreme Court will decide on whether a gun control measure in Washington, D.C., contradicts the rights guaranteed to citizens by the Second Amendment of The United States Constitution. The city of Washington D.C. bans the citizens’ right to keep and bear arms, but all that could change. Libertarian lawyer Robert A. Levy finances and brings the case before the Supreme Court in March on behalf of all Americans wanting the continued right to own a firearm. [22. New York Times]

… to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The BBC News website states: “But states which wish to impose gun control measures argue that it only means a ‘militia’, ie a modern-day police force, is entitled to be armed.” A modern-day police force is exactly the entity from which our right to bear arms guarantees to protect.

Anyway, Washington, D.C. has the highest murder rates, and ranks in the top ten cities with the highest number of blacks. [11. Infoplease]

Read more of US Supreme Court ponders gun law”But supporters of gun rights point out that having one of the toughest laws in the US has not stopped Washington being one of its most murder-ridden cities—with 169 killings in 2006.

This is true because laws only control the law-obiding.

Labels: Law

If journalism is to inform, race shouldn’t be censored. Let the facts play out.

Journalists don’t include race in crime reporting anymore because facts cause an unhealthy byproduct of knowing. AsianWeek opinion writer wants it back in, saying that without race readers miss the context:

Read more of “AsianWeek » American Books And American Bars”You just don’t know the context from the spare police blotter reporting, which leaves one guessing. Fortunately, citizen journalists-bloggers added more information online, which put ethnicity back in the mix. Some bloggers even took Chronicle reporter Sabin Russell to task for the reporting. But Russell, an award-winning health reporter who deserves better than to rewrite police statements, is not at fault. Journalism is.

Labels: Race