Real Stupid The Sunday Times has an article about *poor* Real Networks, creators of the infamous Real Player. The article is about them trying to achieve market share in the somewhat lucrative download-music market and their current suit against Microsoft for some sort of unfair practice involving their crappy media player (it's like the lesser of two evils here, eh?).
Now, by no means am I loyal Microsoft follower (go ahead though and notice all the .asp pages), but this article completely paints Real Networks as this innocent company (compares them to Netscape) that is trying to scrape out an existence while big mean MS is getting in the way. The article doesn't make one mention of the creepyness of Real's software, their incredibly crappy user interface of their site and the actual program, and some suspiciously suspicious privacy issues that have come up with them over the years.
Oh, and that the software has stunk since day one. No mention.
Hello Hamas Was it just that liberal media biasis or something, but did I catch myself feeling sorry for this Hamas fellow that was killed by the Israelis this morning? I am listening to the BBC, and they are interviewing a Palestinian guy and an Israeli guy - and good golly... things are just going to get worse. Palestinian guy: Get out of our country! Israeli guy: Get out of OUR country! Palestinian guy: Your people stink! Israeli guy: No, YOUR people stink! Palestinian guy: You guys are losers! Israeli guy: No, YOU guys are losers!
Robert Young Pelton I am a big fan of Pelton's 'World's Most Dangerous Places' travel guide - it is a great read and I heartily recommend it to anyone. Last night I was reading the chapter about Afghanistan... fascinating and infuriating stuff there. The connection between the Taliban and the US that existed until *very* recently will make you cranky. Oh, but his chapter on Israel is pretty great, although the website version doesn't have the same amount of zip. His article on Hamas isn't bad, though.
This made me laugh, though:
In March 1998, hackers attacked the Prime Minister Netanyahu's Netvision Web site, redirecting it to the Penthouse site. Netanyahu's wife's site led visitors to Playgirl magazine. The Israeli government has not decided which Palestinian Web sites to rocket yet.
MattyJ + JackiePony = 718 M&J are moving back to Brooklyn! Yay!
Happy Wedding to Robin & Josh R&J tied the knot Saturday night, and it was a fine time had by all. Robin looked lovely and Josh was quite handsome. It was all good.
I did have an odd experience with a bartender, though. I ordered a scotch and ginger-ale and she filled a wine glass with scotch. I then said, "um, I wanted ginger ale in that, too" So, she topped it off with ginger ale. Of course, there was actually no space left in the glass so the ginger ale and scotch just poured over the edges and all over the bar. It took her a good 2 or 3 seconds to realize what she had done. Classic.
From the co-worker mailbag:
My Uncle Roasted a Kangaroo My uncle roasted a kangarooooooo gave me the grizzly end to cheeeeewwww was that a very nice thing to dooooo? to give me the grizly, end of the kangarooo to chew?
