…continues to amuse. Just saw The Christmas Invasion. Amazing how many pop culture references they managed to cram into it.
Now I just have to wait until April or so before we can see more new episodes with lots of good stuff in store, according to the teaser trailer at least 
So, this Christmas my in-laws got themselves a nice new computer, complete with Apple’s Mighty Mouse. The Mighty Mouse has a ‘pea’ for scrolling, and the pea is also clickable. The mouse itself is also clickable (and even supports left and right clicks, although these are turned off by default). The surface of the mouse is smooth and featureless, except for the pea. The left and right clickability is handled via either capacitance or a proximity sensor, I’m unsure which.
So, on Boxing Day, my mother-in-law complains that whenever she clicks the mouse on her e-mail, all she sees are the Calculator, dictionary and weather, and when she clicks again they go away.
Of course, by Apple’s factory default, clicking the pea brings up the Dashboard. Which is silly really, as people who don’t know they can click the rest of the mouse will be naturally drawn to the pea (well, it’s used for all the scrolling, why not the clicking too?)
Really, the default for clicking the pea (now there’s a euphemism waiting to happen) should just be a mouse click, and people can change it when they are comfortable with what they’re already doing. If they never change it then they’re unlikely to be really missing it, and I doubt that the Dashboard is what they’d choose anyway (I think I’d probably go for Expos?ɬ©).
…the Bunnings carpark is totally empty.
If you know me and you haven’t got a New Years Eve invite, let me know and I’ll send you the details. I know too many people to be able to keep track of them all these days
Oh, and Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to everyone out there!
According to this article the US House of Reps has just approved US$1.5 billion dollars to help Americans upgrade their TV sets to digital.
If you’re a user of the most excellent Wikipedia or any of the other Wikis that use the Wikimedia software you may want to contribute to their fundraising drive(Australian currency options available).
For example, thanks to the Wikipedia you can peruse W’s approval rating
It has spread glitter throughout the house like some form of festive dieback.
So, watching Letterman, he’s previewing this Christmas’ hot toys with a toy industry ‘communications’ person (read marketroid). She’s got a 1 year old.
With some paraphrasing:
(after demoing the tumbling Tigger)
Letterman: “So what are you getting your child for Christmas?”
Marketroid: “Books”
Letterman: “Do the toy manufacturers like people buying books for their kids?”
Marketroid: “Books are friends of Toys”
Whilst in Melbourne waiting at taxi rank next to a bus stop, a bus adorned with the logos of a Richard Branson mobile phone company pulled up at the bus stop. A guy in their uniform jumped out and said “Hop aboard, we’re going the same route, and it’s free. Feel free to make some free phone calls while you’re at it”. They scored about 4 passengers (captives to advertising for the rest of the trip). Quite cunning marketing really.
A new thing to add to the World Domination Toolkit(tm)
