Photo Album: DigitalLife Expo 2007

Of last year’s small attendees, only Supacam and GelaSkins came back. No Pepper. And, shockingly, no Sony! I wanted to fondle the new Sony Reader, dammit.

Even though Palm had four Meeting Rooms, no Foleo. Palm was all Centro.

No Asus Eee in sight or even hinted at. Damn!

The show was shockingly small. My quick overview was done in just an hour!

On with the show…

Gateway was showing off a new machine that ripped off the Mac design was all-in-one…

…in fact, it’s called One

Gateway also showed off this humongous monitor; that’s three websites and an XboX picture-in-picture running

The cheap-ass Palm display; you had to pay for drinks!

Sorry-assed freebies (also a pen and jellybeans; not shown)

Crowded, huh?

No Treos. No PDAs. No Foleo. Just Centro.

Centro being demonstrated. Palm had the blonde I ordered, but no Foleo!

The crowding will kill you…

PC Magazine made it worthwhile again with a batch of wee devices

The big deal HTC Advantage running WinMob 6. Their HotSpot wasn’t working so I couldn’t try Opera browsing. But still, now having given this thing a feel (that’s far less than a fondle), I was very unimpressed. About a grand for that? No!

Size next to Centro actual-size brochure

Next to the ShitDrive my LifeDrive (left edges aligned)

With iPhone (left edges aligned)

My flash kills the HTC screen while the iPhone smiles

Better picture where I off-centered the flash… iPhone screen is still better

HTC vs OQO (left edges aligned)

Dell brings color to notebooks. Big whoop.

Erector is pimping a WiFi spy robot now…

… I didn’t get details. Go Google.

Aie! My mortal enemies!

Yeah, she looks like a satisfied customer. Must have used the 770!

Just as my brain began to melt out of my ears, I hear over the rush of earwax, “Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!” I think, “Me? It’s a trap!” “Mike! Mike!” I turn around and my god —

— it’s Liz Kelly and Hannah Fairlight of Girls Don’t Cry at the Save Net Radio booth! Real human beings at the trade show! How did they get in?

Then it was back to the torment for me…

Why? Why? Why?

See above caption

A Pac-Man hat!

What the world was waiting for: Snoopy on cellphones! Kill me now.

I don’t know what it is …

… but I want it. NOW!!

Did anyone buy these?

Spider-Mutt. And Linux should sue for abuse of the penguin.

Look at them, ready to pounce and kill me!

Some parrot robot that does things

No Philip K. Dick electric sheep in sight. Thank God!

Cute enough to make you want to kill yourself. Not cute enough for Japan.

The new slavery: People as videogame consoles

All right! Something freaky!!

An electronic camera that magnifies up to 200x. What’s this guy have?

As I thought: FLEAS!

Non-parasite-infested samples to magnify

OK. This is just wrong.

Toshiba’s new Gigabeat player. More fodder thrown underneath the iPod juggernaut.

This is a very interesting notebook. Very lightweight with a CD/DVD drive!

The specs. Turns out that sub-2-pound one uses Flash, not a hard drive. Always a catch!

Only I would turn a notebook over like a turtle to show you its bottom isn’t flat!

Closed view. Wee LEDs on the edge you can see when closed.

Scale next to LifeDrive

Next to dollar bill (suggested by Toshiba rep!)

Screen in outdoor transflective mode. No, it’s not turned off —

— close up. I was told it’s very bright in direct sunlight. Hmmmm. I was also told you can get this with XP installed instead of Vista. The Toshiba rep wanted that made very, very clear. Wow, Vista must be the biggest disaster in Microsoft history!

Eight flatscreens showing eight players killing each other in Gears of War

This was fun. Toshiba did a Deal Or No Deal game

They picked a number by random draw corresponding to a seat. This woman was the first to play…

She picked a case. The two models were very lovely and lively. Drool. Real women!

The banker tries to get her to swap the case for a backpack!

“Open the case…”

Oh. My. God!

Close-up

She won top prize: A free Toshiba laptop computer!!!

One of those ceiling-projected interactive displays seen on mall floors

At hp’s booth, I come across their Tablet PC …

— and leave my mark!

The new hp PDA next to the LifeDrive; hp stylus shorter & thinner than LifeDrive’s. Yes, my LifeDrive screen is also showing year view on full brightness! Those of you thinking of swapping a RAM-based Palm PDA for this, forget it. It took five seconds to open a Mobile Word document. I can get that shitty non-performance with my LifeDrive!

I go back to the Palm exhibit…

LifeDrive next to Centro

Real-life size comparison: my shit-ass Thiefone Tracfone next to the Centro

I need a break from this unrelenting technology. I go see Hannah and Liz and find to my horror…

Hannah has become professorial, tutoring people on Saving Net Radio. Poor Liz is getting high from sniffing soy chips again. She has such a tough addiction!

I see the pair of assassins Palm and Nokia have co-funded to kill my ass. I flee.

But there’s no escape. In the hallway leaving, I see …

American technology vandalized by Finns …

… inside it has an Anti-Internet Tablet installed …

Thoughtfix probably drooled. (I see the lad is lapping up the Kool-Aid these days… sad.)

The show ran til 7PM. I fled a little after 5PM (sorry, Hannah and Liz!). It was very disappointing. I didn’t return today due to lack of sleep. If I’m bored tomorrow, I might return to see what’s going on. But I doubt anything will be…

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Oh. Wow.

My jaw drops.

MMM: Stout Scarab

Just shut up and click!

Update:

Double wow.

MMM: Holden Efijy

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India At 60

India is celebrating sixty years of independence from their former British overlords.

A whole bunch of events are taking place in New York City.

Last night I happened upon an Indian pop singer giving a free concert in Bryant Park. He was great!

He’s Remo Fernandes. [PDF link]

If you ever get a chance to see him or hear his stuff, do!

His website.

Mumbai City song sample [right click Save As…]

News article about Remo Fernandes at the India celebration
Remo Fernandes wikipedia page
Article about Remo Fernandes

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Greetings From The Pentagon. Christ Sent Us To Kill You.

Earlier today I wrote:

This Administration is playing Chicken with other countries in regard to the value of the Dollar. This Administration damn well knows it cannot sustain the current military outlays for its folly in Iraq (and, covertly, in Iran) and take care of necessary business here at home. This Administration believes the Hand of God will protect this nation.

This Administration is insane.

So, does this sound like sanity to you? —

Carroll was appalled by what he found.

“In the Pentagon today,” he says, “there is active proselytizing by Christian groups that is allowed by the chain of command. When your superior expects you to show up at his prayer breakfast, you may not feel free to say no. It’s not at all clear what will happen to your career. He writes your efficiency report. And the next thing you know, you have, in the culture of the Pentagon, more and more active religious outreach.”

Continues Carroll, “Imagine, then, a military motivated by an explicit Christian, missionizing impulse at the worst possible moment in our history, because we’re confronting an enemy – and yes, we do have an enemy: fringe, fascist, nihilist extremists coming out of the Islamic world – who define the conflict entirely in religious terms. They, too, want to see this as a new `crusade.’ That’s the language that Osama bin Laden uses. For the United States of America at this moment to allow its military to begin to wear the badges of a religious movement is a disaster!”

In the Bible, it foretells of a time when Christians will be rounded up and executed.

When I was taught that, it was in the context of a global government that would be evil beyond belief.

Now I no longer think that.

That prophecy must be using a very loose version of the meaning of “Christian.”

Because, surely, these people must go!

They are the danger. They have made themselves so.

Fundamentalists and the Military: James Carroll on the Danger of a New Crusade

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The Final Shearing Of The Sheep. Now Baaaa.

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

This Administration is playing Chicken with other countries in regard to the value of the Dollar. This Administration damn well knows it cannot sustain the current military outlays for its folly in Iraq (and, covertly, in Iran) and take care of necessary business here at home. This Administration believes the Hand of God will protect this nation.

This Administration is insane.

And they are going to turn all of us into slaves.

Watch as people flock here with their Euros to buy up everything in sight. You won’t be able to walk your own street without tripping over a German tourist. You are going to have to compete with the world for domestic services.

Come to New York City any weekend and see for yourself.

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Quote Of The Day: Pool Cleaner For Senior Bush

ON THE JOB
The former president’s pool boy

“I look at the biggest middle finger in the world all day.”

YouTube: Copwatchers

Copwatchers

Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers and other law enforcement officers. The term may also be used to apply to such behavior when used by prison officers. Widespread, systematic police brutality exists in many countries, even those which prosecute it.[1] Brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct which include false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, political repression, surveillance abuse, sexual abuse, and police corruption.

The purpose of this channel is to provide one space where we can upload video evidence of police abusing their powers for all to see,the aim being that if they know we are paying attention and watching them,they will have to behave in the right manner and observe what civil rights we still have left.

Tech Quote Of The Day

King Algorithm
An Oracle for Our Time, Part Man, Part Machine

As you sit with your eHarmony spouse watching the movies Netflix prescribes, you might as well be an avatar in Second Life. You have been absorbed into the operating system.

Did any of you ever read John Douglas’s books?

They drove me mad. He was able to profile criminal suspects down to make and color of vehicle. Do you understand the process of sorting that had to be gone through to accomplish that? Even more maddening, with certain other details he could determine, it made me wonder if all human beings are nothing more than a series of clichés strung together. Are there certain OSes that run human beings, so that someone can determine their core, underlying motivation? Their “algorithm?” And where does that algorithm come from? Is it innate in all of us? Do we create it as we go along? Are there a limited number of algorithms for human beings?

This shit should worry you.

It began with advertising. Moved into law enforcement. And can easily be used for evil purposes by government. Even our government.

How would you like your door bashed in by a team of paramilitary cops and have yourself dragged off because some secret calculation by the Pre-Crime/Pre-Terror Bureau has stated you’re a future hazard?

Previously in this blog:
We’re Puppets Of Biology. PKD’s Electric Ant.
OK. This Just Freaks Me Out. It Better Freak You Out Too!

Where The Gods Create

Take off your shoes, you uncircumcised heathen. You are about to tread on holy ground!

Writer’s Rooms

YouTube: What Did She Eat?!!?

Nattliv – mensvärk (Extended Edition)

Looks to me like one of those damned live call-in game shows. Then… oops!