G5 intro movie

Apple has posted the Power Mac G5 introduction movie online, for those who missed it from this year’s WWDC.

Revolutions theatrical trailer

The now-running theatrical trailer for The Matrix Revolutions is available online. QuickTime format only, as it should be.

ATPM hits Sweden

ATPM contributing editor Matt Coates noted for the staff that the ‘zine and his article on Xnippets made the Swedish edition of Macworld magazine.
With staff members throughout the world, this bit of international exposure is hardly surprising, but very, very welcome.

Comments spam

I check my email this morning, and what do I find but some idiot has uploaded penis enlargement spam into the comments section of one of my posts (from October 2002, no less).
Comment deleted, IP banned. Don’t you morons have anything better to do?

RIFfed

So the brilliant executive minds at Verizon Information Services finally decided on a plan for its IT personnel, and made said plan known to all of us yesterday at an 8 AM meeting: layoffs, or in corporate jargon, a RIF (Reduction In Force).
On the one hand, I can respect this decision, as I believe it better for the company than the other major proposal that was looked at, which was outsourcing IT personnel under AMDOCS, our main contractor, and provider of much of the core server software the business runs on.
Only everyone pretty much hates AMDOCS; their code is sloppy, as the Toad can well attest, and they’re arrogant to boot, with a “we know better than you” attitude toward even the most techincally competent among the Verizon IT staff (most of whom are more technically competent than said AMDOCS personnel). The only reason this scenario didn’t play out was because Verizon couldn’t get AMDOCS to swallow a lot of salary and benefits issues that would have taken better care of Verizon employees who were outsourced.
So my team lost three people yesterday, and I was one of them. I’m still on the payroll until 24 October, and the severance package looks pretty good.
So potential employers, I’m a Mac geek with a decade of experience in computer support, with a little HTML knowledge I’d like to expand on. I need to stay in the Dallas area, and I’m open to contract, contract-to-hire, or, best of all, permanent positions.

Grayism

I figured since so many people out there like to poke fun at George W.’s verbal blunders, turnabout was fair play:

“My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state.” –Gray Davis, California governor, at a press conference; quoted in Time magazine, Vol. 162, No. 13, September 29, 2003, p. 15

In The Sun

If you’ve been watching The Bourne Identity on Encore, or have the DVD, and you want to know the song that plays in the alternate ending, it’s “In the Sun” by Joseph Arthur, from his album Come To Where I’m From. Thanks to a poster on the Amazon page for the movie’s soundtrack.
I really like this song; it’s almost a lullaby in some respects, and I found myself singing it to the little one night before last:
I picture you in the sun wondering what went wrong
And falling down on your knees asking for sympathy
And being caught in between all you wish for and all you seen
And trying to find anything you can feel that you can believe in
May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you
I know I would apologize if I could see your eyes
Cause when you showed me myself I became someone else
But I was caught in between all you wish for and all you need
I picture you fast asleep
A nightmare comes
You can’t keep awake
May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you
Cause if I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
You
I don’t know anymore what it’s for
I’m not even sure if there is anyone who is in the sun
Will you help me to understand
Cause I been caught in between all I wish for and all I need
Maybe you’re not even sure what it’s for
Any more than me
May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you

Piro, Mac User

Applelinks has a great interview with Fred Gallagher, the creator and meatspace alter ego of MegaTokyo’s Piro. Fred discusses his relatively new switch from Windows to the Mac, for reasons which include stability, more power, and lust for a Cinema Display.
And, of course, I am kicking myself for not thinking of getting this interview for ATPM…

On Conservative Democrats

I realize that the above may seem like a misnomer in these days of the far Left hijacking of the Democratic Party, but such an animal does exist. In recent times they have been known as “Reagan Democrats,” a title which should be worn as a badge of honor and not shame, as current DNC leadership would have things.
The Toad points to Kim du Toit’s essay today that responds to a letter from a reader, who is a conservative Democrat. Kim offers an extremely lucid argument on why the Democratic Party cannot be trusted in its current state to run the nation, and makes the case on why conservative Democrats have far more in common with Republicans and should think about switching parties.
Of course, the latter doesn’t really fix the Democratic Party, but rather gives more of a hold of it to the far Left, which has gotten the Democratic Party, and partly the nation, in to its current state of affairs.
I don’t care for some of Kim’s language (not that Kim would care what I think), but he’s spot on:

Handing Democrats access to the levers of power is like giving a teenage boy a bottle of wine and the keys to the Ferrari: a great old time is had by all, until a f***ing catastrophe ensues. Then, when the feckless irresponsibility of the Democrat Party is made plain for all to see, and Republicans have to clean up the mess, the Democrats scuttle across the border into New Mexico in a childish sulk and suck their thumbs until they get their own way again.

Every time a conservative tries to treat liberal Democrats with politeness and fair play, the f***ing bastards use that as a bargaining chip to further their own agenda. Parliamentary rules are fine, as long as they’re invoked only by Democrats — when Republicans even attempt to do likewise, they’re “mean-spirited”. Don’t ask me for examples or this will be longer than a Bill Whittle essay.

The Opinionated Amphibian Diatribes

SuperToad has redesigned the Pond, giving up his home-baked PHP model for a site generated by PostNuke. At least this way, his PHP knowledge doesn’t go to waste.
Now if I could just talk him in to another font for his logo…
😉