Thursday, August 31, 2006

Wow - Should I Sue Apple?

Today I got an e-mail from Apple informing me that the battery on my PowerBook is a fire hazard, there have been nine cases of fires associated with these models, and therefore they are issuing a recall. I should please first of all plug in my power cord, and remove my battery from my computer. I should then go online, fill in the information, and Apple will send me a replacement battery. When I get the replacement battery, I am to ship back the original one.

Ok, all well and good. I went online, signed up, and immediately received a confirmation e-mail from Apple.

I can expect, so it says, to get the replacement battery within 4-6 weeks(!!!!).

So, until then, I can either use my laptop as a desktop computer - always connected to the wall, no travel possible - or risk a fire. Methinks something is wrong here.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Facebook

You may all know about this, but it was news to me. The college kid
equivalent of MySpace is Facebook. It's like MySpace, but with an academic twist. You're listed by your college. You can browse through the entries for all your co-collegees. But if you're looking up someone from a different university, you have to know their name, and they have to agree to be your
"friend".

The really cool thing is that you can look up, for example, all the people taking a certain course. So if you want to know who that cute guy is, the one who always sit sin the back row, no problem... Very cool, (I say this without
any irony)...

Target

I've resisted for years, but finally yesterday my daughter got me into
Target, and I don't know what I've been waiting for. It's the American
equivalent of H&M: The clothes are completely chic and of the moment, and of course cheap.

Those baby-doll tops that are so in fashion this season? I couldn't even find them on 3rd street in Santa Monica, but they were at Target in abundance, and for $16.99 each.

Worth the trip...

What Makes My Skin Crawl...

...although perhaps I'm expressing this too strongly - is seeing people walk around with bluetooth ear appendages - the ones that let them talk on their cell phones hand and wire free.

In case you're wondering why the owners of these contraptions never seem to take them off, it's because at any moment the phone may ring, and then with the press of a button on their earset, they can answer. No need to pick up a phone or an earbud.

The result? That these bluetooth users start looking like cyborgs, with slick electronics permanently attached to their orifices.

If I ever go around with one of these things, please, as friends, say something to me, don't let me do it.

Shawn Green

I loved the NYTimes article today about the baseball player Shawn Green. Apparently he's a source of extraordinary pride among the Jews of New York. He's a great player, and he's Jewish. As the article explains: "Jews... have long been stereotyped, even by themselves, as being weak in athletics. There might not be a group on the planet with a more finely honed sense of physical inferiority."

Friday, August 11, 2006

Secretary of State has Become a Female Stronghold

Condaleeza Rice, Tzipi Livni (Israel), Margaret Becket (U.K.), Madeleine Albright (formerly, of the U.S.)...

Whatever I may think of their politics, it's still pretty cool.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

What Materazzi Said to Zidane

Ok, so following up on my multi-week obsession, I have a reasonably authoritative answer to this question.

Here's what happened. Materazzi pulled on Zidane's shirt.

Zidane said: "If you want my jersey so much, you can have it after the game".

Materazzi said - "I'd prefer your sister".

Bingo.

Sounds plausible to me.