The Digital Dad

Today is the keynote address at the annual MacWorld Expo in California. For Apple users the world around (and with the proliferation of iPhones and iPods, that number is growing by leaps and bounds), this is traditionally a big day. The iPhone was launched at a MacWorld keynote. The iMac, Powerbooks G3 and G4, Mac Mini, MacBook Air, Intel-based Macs, Apple TV, Time Capsule; all (okay, most) revolutionary Apple products launched during the keynote address of MacWorld…
…by Steve Jobs.

Now say what you will about Apple and Steve Jobs and fanboyism, but the fact is that he’s given every single MacWorld keynote since 1997. That qualifies as an institution. This year, not only has Apple announced that Steve will not be giving the keynote (apparently for health reasons), but that after the 2009 show, Apple will no longer appear at MacWorld. Waitaminute. It’s a Mac show, right? Yes and no. The conference is not an official Apple event, it’s produced by IDG World Expo, a spinoff of IDG, a media corporation who owns, among other things, MacWorld magazine. It is a forum for Macintosh developers, not necessarily Apple itself. Apple runs their own show, WWDC, held at the same location (the fabled Moscone Center in San Francisco) in June. But as the WWDC is a conference for software developers, most of the new products announced there are software applications.

So what’s their plan? Will Apple start making major hardware announcements at WWDC? Will they morph WWDC into a more global conference? Or will they (my prediction) ditch MacWorld for the far more news-friendly Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Vegas a few weeks after MacWorld? With Apple vying for a more mainstream market share and global adoption of their products, this seems a likely choice. Time will tell. Meantime, I’m all giddy. 90 minutes til keynote!

So, this guy went and built himself a custom midi interface for Guitar Hero III so he could play it like a drum. I want to comment on his performance, but… there are no words. Just watch.

What if the Matrix ran on Windows? Here’s your daily dose of nerdcore funny to break up the Mondays.

So a week or so ago, while enjoying my selection for the VIP beta of Tom Clancy’s EndWar (which is shaping up to be an AMAZING game, FYI), the graphics on my 360 started looking a little wonky. Sort of washed out. I rebooted, all good. Next day it happens again. Reboot, all good. I’m thinking something in the beta must be icky. The day after, when I boot the system I get no video out at all. Audio works just fine. (I know ‘cuz I can hear that glorious Xbox startup sound they put in all the commercials. I just can’t see it.) Reboot, all works well. This cycle continues for a few more days, then bang. No video ever. Reboots don’t help. Changing video cables doesn’t help. Crying doesn’t help. Surely the internet will help!

Not so much. A perusal of Xbox’s support site states that while Microsoft extended the 1-year warranty on all Xboxes to 3, they only did so for systems suffering from the infamous “Red Ring of Death.” Me no ringy. Poo. Then, this morning, just for grins I fired up the ol’ 360.

RED RING OF DEEEEAAAAATTTTHHHHH!!!!

This may be the first time in gaming history someone’s actually been happy for the RRoD. My system’s still busted, but at least I know I’ll be playing again soon… in 2 to 3 weeks.

Woohoo! Promotion day! No longer will I mire away in the blue-collar nomenclature of Network Technician. Nay! For today I rise up as the university’s first Wireless Network Engineer. Ta-da! Not much in the day-to-day will change, but my email sig is already teh upgraded. Plus, the salaried nature of new position vs. the wage rate of old means no more time-sheet bubbles ever! Woohoo!!!

Ooh, ooh. Bonus! Not only did my voicemail get played first on episode 792 of CNet’s Buzz Out Loud, but they named the episode after my extempore exclamation, Odin’s Beard!