Towards Valuation of the Arts
Posted by Rey
The Arts aren’t important. They’re the cherry on top; the second layer of frosting; a pretty, yet ultimately unnecessary, addition. Really they’re nice, look really well on your living room wall, or playing from your stereo system—they might even make you think pretty things; but really, they’re not necessary.
After all, they’re the first thing to go on any budget. If a person has to choose to invest in food or the Arts, food will almost always win. Even if it’s the option between an extravagant (unnecessary) dinner and a night at the opera—the arts can just go. It’s not like we need the Arts to live.
Oh sure, when we can afford it, we should do something about the Arts because they make us feel better about ourselves, elevate our self-estimation, reveal our intelligence, sophistication and culture. But really, beyond those incidental perks they are ultimately unimportant. So…
Brands, Halos, and Life
Posted by Rey
It takes a while, maybe even a few years, but eventually—after the destruction of the second death star, after the death of the Emperor and after Nien Nunb and Lando are cackling—you start wondering about who you were rooting for. These insurgents not only bucked under the authority of Government but they joined hands with criminals as they slaughter thousands of innocent lives.  It didn’t matter though since we knew these were The Good Guys. They were the Rebel Alliance, and with their brand firmly in place (and the standard production that goes into setting up the protagonist of any given movie) the audience happily stands and applauds. But I remember also applauding at the end of the Phantom Menace…
Article Tags>> brand | identity | logicCrayon Doodle: Leonardo
Posted by Rey
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Taplet PC Dreamin’
Posted by Rey
I’ve been flitting around tech stores trying out multi-touch capable laptops searching, hoping, for the perfect Multi-Functional All-Purpose Swiss Army Tech Tool. What I’m hoping is that this tool replaces my leather Bible, works as a note-taking tool, allows me to design anything from articles to websites on the run, and has the sheer work-horse power to create and display professional presentations. I dream of a Perfected Tablet PC.
But Tablet PC’s are just not there yet. They offer all the features that you can find on your standard multi-touch smart phone, but I’m not looking for a glorified phone or a laptop transformer—I’m looking for the Future of portable computing. So here’s where I’m thinking the market needs help:
Article Tags>> computing | laptop | pcApple WWDC 2009
Posted by Rey
No, I’m not there but I’m following the live feed on The Apple Blog and Gizmodo:
- 15″ Macbook Pro, 7 hour battery life with an SD card slot ($1699).
- 13″ MacBook now MacBookPro, with unibody, SD Card, 8GB of memory, up to 500GB or 256GB SSD drive with backlet keyboard and FW800. $1199
- Uber model 17″ with 500GB HD, at $2499. Yup, still can’t buy a Macbook Pro.
- New Safari does purdee things that are meh. Plugin crash that stops the plugin, not the browser.
- Quicktime X rebuilt from the ground up. Big woop.
- Snow Leopard (Leopard users: $29 single/$49 Family) running all major OSX apps in 64 bit coming out December (Windows 7 should be out October, in case you’re wondering).
- Ms Exchange Support built into Mail, iCal and Address book. This was a Duh, no brainer. Should’ve had that long ago.
- iPhone OS 3.0: 100 new features. cut/copy/paste across aps. Shake phone for undo. Landscape keyboard. MMS available but AT&T MMS later this summer (HA!) HTTP Streaming AV. Javascript performance boost. HTML 5. Form auto-fill.
- iTunes rentals available for iPhone.
- iPhone Tethering now available over USB or Bluetooth. AT&T doesn’t support it at launch (HA!)
- Find My iPhone (new feature): your iPhone floats from the ether, or at least tells MobileMe ($99 per year) where it is. Your family and friends can also track you down with it. (SkyNet coming soon)
- A bunch of boring iPhone Ap stuff. Some random announcment of 16gb 3GS iPhone ($199) and 32GB iphone 3GS ($299) and the base 3G model remaining at $99.
- No Camera on the front of the iPhone. bah.
All in all, no big woop. Maybe some ups for OS3.0 but, with a jailbroken iTouch I’m not overly hyped.
Article Tags>> apple | keynoteToward Criticism of Christian “Art”
Posted by Rey
I’ve been critical of what is usually perceived nowadays as being Christian art. Recently, I got into a conversation where some folk were defending the validity of this or that style of art and stating, quite emphatically, what right do I have to preside judgment over them (citing the Most Well Known Verse of the 21st Century: Matthew 7:1). I’ve given it some serious thought, and I think that not only do I have to be critical (in the classic sense) of such art: we all, especially Christians, should.
Article Tags>> art | christian art | kincaid | kinkadeLaws of E-Debate
Posted by Rey
Many years ago, so the story goes, Newton was bopped on the head by a falling apple and immediately came up with several Laws of Physics. Years later, Einstein was bopped in the head with Time and came up with the Law of Relativity. On the Internet forum I participate in, I have been verbally bopped enough times to unearth the Laws Of E-Debate which are just as foundational to any Laws of Thermodynamics and probably just as provable. Maybe on your jaunts through message forums and online debates you will find these Laws coming to the fore.
Now what you may find is that these Laws might have some proper applicability in some scenarios—yet you may also realize that sometimes, they’re just embarrassing refusals to engage the opposing position properly.
Article Tags>> debate | logic | thinkingMouse Arrow Moves Screen (Apple Mac)
Posted by Rey
For some mysterious reason your screen looks bigger and when you move your mouse the pointer/cursor moves the entire screen instead of going to a specific area. It does also move to specific areas but if it’s past the boundary of the screen it moves the screen.
This is part of Apple’s Universal Access panel and is enabled (and disabled) by pressing Option+Apple+8.
So no, it’s not a bug.
Article Tags>> apple | techA Message Of Hope From The Eye
Posted by Rey
Mordor, DC
The All Seeing Eye of Obama
Darth McCain
Princess Palin
Advertising + Design > Cost + Learning Curve
Posted by Rey
In recent years, Apple’s done a fair share of designing pretty products (if not hardware wise the best products) and have substantially increased their exposure to the public with product placement (they’re in Best Buy and Apple Stores) and advertising (no more pretentious posters: now we have the PC Guy vs. the Mac). In all this, Apple’s prices haven’t dropped so much to equate with a PC (that usually gives you more hardware wise). Also, Apple hasn’t bothered much with training in their products beyond the nearest Apple Store Genius but all in all it’s paid off.
Apple is now the third largest computer seller in the United States, bumping Acer to Fourth.
Article Tags>> acer | apple | pc