It’s Another Apple Christmas – this time fo realz

…..ugh…..SERIOUSLY? A Woot-off? ON THE DAY OF A MAC EVENT?! Geez, companies are really doing their part to “stimulate the economy”/bankrupt us.

Speaking of bankruptcy though here’s a shoutout to two people who I know won’t be bankrupt in the future, although I must say you’re making me nervous and anxious all of a sudden for the next year. A BIG congrats to Chelsea Marcus and Sean Brennan for getting into UF’s College of Medicine! Even though you’ve made me jittery as hell, you both obviously deserved it . Much congrats and best of luck!

Now to the really, REALLY good news though:

• Apple released, after almost two years since their last iteration, the new MacBook Airs. One word, no, two describes them: freakin sexy. LOOK AT THEM AND YOU’LL SEE WHAT I MEAN. 11.6 and 13.3″ versions, lowest priced model is $999 with 2GB RAM, 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia 320m graphics, multitouch trackpad etc. It’s a tad expensive, but it’s definitely much better value than Sony Vaio’s P ever was (that underpowered piece of crap with a weak Intel Atom processor that was STILL $800). Nothing of majorness is missing from these guys except a backlit keyboard, but I’ll live with that. It is interesting to note, however, that Apple kind of “compromised” on the netbook wars by trying to go as low a Core 2 Duo processor as possible AND only putting 2GB RAM standard on ALL MODELS. (I would’ve understood 2GB on the 11.6 and 4GB on the 13.3″…but not this scheme that they’ve done). Battery life is claimed to be vastly improved, but we’ll see how that works. If battery life is stellar on this thing, expect it on my doorstep by next year. (also interesting to note that 13″ model has an SD slot, 11.6″ doesn’t. 13″ model much more suited for expansion of flash memory if necessary). (also, one of the criticisms of flash memory has been its long term longevity, aka: can SSD drives stay alive more than conventional ones do? This’ll be interesting to see).
• Apple also came out with iLife ’11 (interestingly no iWork ’11, yet). iPhoto is improved greatly with more of an iPad theme but also much better Facebook integration and better print/card options. iMovie basically is a kiddy Final Cut Pro, which it kind of always was, but it’s more feature-packed than before. GarageBand looks really cool and could aim to help someone like me to learn guitar better.
• Apple also previewed bits and pieces of Mac OS X Lion, due in Summer 2011. Basically, it’s not iOS, but it definitely has some more elements of iOS. Launchpad looks unnecessary and almost like an add-on layer rather than something that’s integrated. I fear for people like myself who are folder users how Launchpad could “ruin” file organization in the next few years. But at the same time, Mission Control (the way to control all your full-screen and windowed apps) looks phenomenal, even if it is just a gussied up Expose. The Mac App Store will be interesting…but at the same time I feel like Steve Jobs has put himself into a bind with this regard. Think about what he said on Monday in the earnings conference call, how iOS is closed but better. Mac OS X is now trying to head to a closed ecosystem…but it will still always be “open” because one can always side-load apps via CD/disk image/whatever. Hypocrisy anyone? I don’t mind that there’s a Mac App Store…as long as we can still install applications the way we want to, things like menu bar extras, TweetDeck, etc.
• Speaking of big kittehs, as seen in the Alligator, a Nevada feline is the longest cat in the world. big kitteh.
• Christine O’Donnell forgot that the Separation of Church and State existed in the Constitution. This coming from the lady who sponsored witchcraft some years ago. This coming from the lady who said “she would uphold the values of the Constitution”. She doesn’t even know the frickin first amendment! A 5th grader knows the first amendment for crying out loud. I can understand her not remembering the 14th or 16th amendments (I sure don’t remember them), but even then she’s going to be a politician and doesn’t even know the Amendments?! She said bluntly in response to her gaffe “I’m sorry I don’t carry a pocket-sized constitution around with me”. To those voters in Delaware planning to vote for her: ARE YOU FREAKING RETARDED?

The French team is imploding snap! for 6/20.

I’m wholeheartedly enjoying my week off so far, and while this means eventually I’ll get back to work (there are some pesky biochem notes to be rewritten and a lab report to actually BE written), it means right now that my butt is plopped on a sofa, watching nearly non-stop World Cup action on Univision.

Yes, that’s right, Univision.

Why the wonderful Spanish-speaking channel, you may ask? All of my good friends know that at the Park residence the word “cable” doesn’t exist. I keep on telling my dad every two years (two for the Olympics, two for the World Cup) that we NEED cable, if only to watch those two events around the clock. OK, there are such things as ESPN3 and NBC (ungraciously) posts Olympic events online as well, but streaming can be horrible (and while we have high-speed internet, we have only 1.5MB/s down-stream). My dad was flipping channels and found that the World Cup games were being broadcast on Univision. But hey, it makes for MUCH better commentary simply because you know that something can drown out the vuvuzelas and that’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

• Speaking of World Cup, the French team has practically imploded. After Nicolas Anelka was booted from the team after a heated discussion with his coach, the rest of the team (apparently) got up in arms as well. One of the players was seen by French news station CANAL+ confronting a team fitness trainer…who then decided to storm off, throw his credentials in the air, and quit. The French team director then quit after being disgusted…and the team refused to practice. I don’t know if this means Bafana Bafana has a chance of beating France and qualifying, but you know who I’ll be rooting for come Tuesday. Personally, maybe the ref from the US vs. Slovenia game should just give the whole team a Red Card and put them out of their misery.
• Apple has just confirmed that in its new iPhone 4 that the video chat thing known as FaceTime will NOT use your carrier minutes… as it very well shouldn’t because it’s only going on WiFi anyway, right?
• Now I don’t get which is worse…Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, basically pleading the 5th during his congressional hearing; Tony Hayward saying how he wanted “his life back”; or, you guessed it, Tony Hayward participating in a boat race around an island in England. BP claims that it was only his first day off since the April 20th disaster began. At first I was naturally outraged…then not surprised…then realized, hey maybe it’s better that he get the @$!# out of the United States because he honestly hasn’t done anything to help out at all. But still, bottom line, didn’t you say that BP will be in the Gulf around the clock until the Gulf is restored back to its previous state? You are a part of BP right?
• Were any of you Verizon fans laughing at your AT&T friends because of their end to unlimited data? Well stop laughing because it’s happening to us now too (I’m a Verizon customer). That being said, I don’t think 2GB can be easily surpassed anyway.
• I want a sleep pod…these things are what apparently make Google employees uber-productive.

Daily Snap for 3/25

This week has just been HORRIBLE…I can’t explain all of it but what I will say is that a bunch of creative liberties helped to alleviate the pain of this week. Our Relay team has been hard at work painting posters and such and getting ready for the big party startin this Friday.

Oh which reminds me, DONATE. If you have anyone who has suffered from any type of cancer or know people whose family members are suffering, make this donation for them.

This is going to be a news-laden Snap.

• For those who didn’t know, the healthcare bill is being sent back to the House after Senate Republicans successfully outed two minor violations. For those uneducated nitwits who think that the Republicans have stopped the healthcare reform, the answer to that is a no. (Again, not giving my opinion, just saying that it really hasn’t stopped. The House simply revotes, will vote along 219-212 lines again. This is simply the Republicans trying to stall the whole thing.)
• Google’s pullout of mainland China is sending a ripple effect across the tech industry. GoDaddy will stop registering .cn domain names and Dell is saying that they are pulling out in favor of “safer conditions”. A person once said that commerce starts war…just saying.
• The Magic lost last night to Hotlanta. Whatever.
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter FINALLY has a opening date: June 18th.
• This is day #xxxxx of my “Where’s My MacBook Pro?” Protest
• Chrome wins in the security department, at least for one hack…while IE8, Firefox and Safari fail.
• HTC just announced, with Sprint, the new Evo 4G. Basically, this phone rocks…although I’m at odds with my friend Will over whether it really does do video conferencing because it’s not mentioned ANYWHERE in the PR.
• And, yes, Day 6, 7 and 8 of the Nashville adventure are STILL coming up. It’s sitting there waiting for me to write it.

Oh, SG.

Let us remember that booze and politics rarely ever mix.

Before I get Unite on my tail about this, I just want to say that this is more humorous than bashing, haha. But really Jordan, did you HAVE to hire an attorney for this? Is it really that hard to say “oh, my behavior was not professional of me and I apologize”? I don’t mind peeps having fun…but this is kinda “meh”.

Daily Snap for 3/22

Just a bunch of links, no real commentary…except

• …if you lived under a rock for the past day, then maybe you didn’t know that the House (or, more like the majority of Democrats) passed the most sweeping healthcare legislation in decades.

Now before I continue with the rest of my links, I’ve been seeing a bunch of statuses roll through Facebook…as what usually is the case when these kinds of things happen. Some statuses have been insightful…but most haven’t.

I’m not going to divulge my full opinion about the healthcare reform simply because of two reasons: 1) I really don’t know that much about it because it’s way too complicated for my own good and 2) I don’t feel like dealing with comments on either side of the line at this moment in time.

What I will say is this, reason #1 is precisely why SOME sort of change is needed, rather than some stagnancy. If it doesn’t work, OK, that’s fine…but maybe that’s why you should vote in Midterms for different senators rather than in some sensationalist election (aka the ‘08 Presidential election).

There’s also certain levels of “unknownness” among the masses…if you still think, for instance, that there are death panels, then please stop reading here because it has been established by now that 1) death panels never will exist and 2) you really know nothing about anything, so take your status down and go on with your life.

As someone put it, we won’t really know the effects of H.R. 3590 are for, at the very least, a few months (also, if you’re bashing or bashing the bashers, and don’t know what I mean when I say H.R. 3590, I question your commentary as well…).

Anyway, happier links:

• People are really wanting faster Internet from Google, and I don’t blame them.
• Tiger Woods finally does an interview…great timing I have to admit. But also great Captain Obvious moments: “I’ve done some pretty bad things”. No…really?
• The “Can You Cook” Flowchart…it doesn’t include an option for incompetent cooks like myself

Obama elected president ≠ Racism/any bad -ism over

Not even close.

Hearing reports right now that as the Democratic caucus, led by Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), was heading to Capitol Hill for the final House votes when their whole group was heckled by a group of posters definitively against the healthcare bill. As they were going by, however, some of the protesters yelled racial slurs such as using the N word and yelling other stuff (article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35965961/ns/politics-capitol_hill/)

The thing is, race has nothing to do with this bill at all…

With all due respect…

So I’m at the Hub listening in the background to the House proceedings for the final vote on the whole Healthcare issue (please, if you feel like flooding my blog with comments on how much you hate/love the reform, don’t.), and every democrat who is speaking on the floor right now has the urge to mention Ted Kennedy and how the passage of the healthcare bill would be the “greatest eulogy” ever to him

Now don’t get me wrong, Ted Kennedy was a great man who fought tirelessly for the people (not saying other Senators didn’t, but he was definitely remarkable in doing so). But what makes these Democrats think that the Republicans or even dissenting Democrats will give a damn about “creating a great eulogy” for him? I know Republicans, despite hating his ideas, respected the man greatly, but pathos my friends will not sway a single person in politics. Not a SINGLE person.

So stop wasting my time already and get to the damn vote.

So what happens now?

All that alcohol in your system for sure probably knocked out some brain cells of yours. It’s OK…remember the whole scandal allegedly showing Unite Party people possibly bribing sororities and some possible hazing incidents.

NBC News’s Chuck Todd tweeted about it…UCF’s student newspaper made it their lead story a day or so after it happened…and the Huffington Post did an article about it as well.

And then Spring Break came the shooting of the geography teacher came. As if UF didn’t have enough controversy revolving around UFPD…this thing came along and reared its ugly head. President Machen was, once again, slow off his butt to react in any way, shape or form. Finally issued some kind of weird statement a few days later when, as Tony Blair says to the Queen in the Helen Mirren movie “The Queen”: “the moment for statements has passed”.

Granted, the shooting and the controversy surrounding it really are far more important matters, don’t get me wrong. But what about the hazing incidents?

The short story is probably this: nothing will happen. The long story: life goes on, and the people behind the scenes will probably just reprimand themselves for not doing a better job of hiding it. An audio tape is definitely legit though and damning in so many ways…but the fact is we really won’t know how this will affect the future until the future becomes the present. The audio tape still can be considered wildly circumstantial…and, as long as the person who recorded the tape never reveals himself, it really can’t be considered “legit legit”.

Will this make Unite clean up its act? Probably not. Will this make Student Alliance more prominent for Fall elections? Maybe…but there’s still a few things to be questioned about everything.

Bottom Line: If we don’t hear anything from either the Prez, Office of Fraternity/Sorority Affairs, or any other affiliated agencies within this month, consider this issue moot.

SG Should Just Close Its Doors.

BREAKING

The Gainesville Sun is now reporting about an audiotape which basically puts a little more credence to the whole “corruption” scheme of things and all the rumors that you may have heard about Greek + SG interplay for years now. From things like “getting pledges to vote or else not feeding them” and talking about praising a sorority for “giving its members alcohol if they voted”, these seem a little extreme but maybe not expected.

This may mark the first time that recorded and (possibly) non-circumstantial evidence is available against the Unite/Gator/whatever party…there’ve always been rumors and I’ve heard anecdotal evidence from a variety of sources, but rumors are rumors and anecdotes can be easily misshaped.

If the tape is found to be legitimate…it would for sure be damning to the Unite Party and possibly very illegal in both UF and local laws and regulations. We’re talking serious punishments here…and not just removal of senators and what not. We might be talking suspensions, expulsions, probationary periods, etc. for both individuals and groups alike.

That is not to say Student Alliance is the great hero of this…the tape was allegedly recorded after the first day of student elections. Many questions abound…for instance, WHY wasn’t this tape delivered immediately to proper authorities? A school-wide election stoppage could have been ordered and investigations could have been immediately started. Instead they decided to wait until AFTER new senators were inaugurated…the timing seems awfully peculiar and designed to implicate maximum damage.

This is why I am asking President Machen, for the only time in my life, to actually do something about this. Dissolve the entire Student Government and suspend Student Government for an indefinite period of time.

Why such a radical idea? I recall a quote from some UF official talking about the whole legality of the Renew Your Reitz campaign and saying that SG is kind of supposed to act as a “Tinkertoys” of real-world politics. Tinkertoys, like any other toy, is a privilege to have, and having a Student Government who echoes our concerns is a privilege as well. Voting blocs and even minimal corruption are tolerated, as it’s seen in regular politics. But the things mentioned in the tape are just too unbearable to ignore and let go unpunished.

I am not saying let’s abolish everything and anything SG has ever done…third parties would be involved in running and funding programs like SNAP, late night hours at the HUB, final exam library hour extensions, etc. But it’s about time that everyone chill, settle down, and retool SG to be, at the VERY least, a fairer body of government than all this hooligan nonsense we’re seeing right now.

Again, I honestly don’t think that Greek influence is all that bad…it again represents the power of a voting bloc. And, in fact, there have been instances where people as a part of a group have been known to be wrongly persecuted for lack of voting or voting against a group’s wishes. But the latter should never happen anywhere…and if we instill this kind of behavior right now while we’re still young…then that’s just wrong. Voting blocs are fine. Persecution and denial of a right to vote for who you want, or even a non-vote? That’s just wrong.

My last SG-related post…for now.

So you’ve learned about both parties and their platforms, you’ve learned how Election Day kind of works, and you’ve probably learned that I really don’t like Student Alliance’s presidential candidate.

The question is, where do we go from here?

In case you haven’t picked up a copy of today’s Alligator yet, the election results indicate a good deal of what the students want. They still wanted experience in leadership, that was seen with the Unite Party winning straight across for the executive board.

But there is also definitely change in the air…as Student Alliance picked up a whopping 20 of 49 the open seats…this is in comparison to last semester where Orange and Blue AND Progress only got three seats. Consolidation works eh? It doesn’t mean that Student Alliance has anywhere CLOSE to a majority in the Senate right now…but it does mean that they are on the up and up.

You might say, well that’s simply because there were more voters this time around due to the Reitz referendum and you’d be right…but you’re wrong. SG Supervisor of Elections Ariana Alfonso said that there was about 9775 people voting….the same as last semester (~ 9800). So what happened? Did the Greek “voting bloc” fail? Did Unite run a campaign kind of akin to the Democrats in Massachusetts (aka nothing until it was too late)? WAS IT BECAUSE OF STUDENT ALLIANCE BEING THE FIRST TO BRING OUT CUTE AND CUDDLY DOGS?!?!?! I don’t feel like doing a real big analysis, but it might be a bit of all three (yes the dogs did help).

What I also learned, sadly, is that 56% of the campus (if we want to wildly extrapolate) is selfish. There, I said it. You all bit the hook like a bunch of brainwashed Republicans who, when they hear the word “tax” now think “tea” (as in tea party). Ashton Charles may have won the Presidency, but Ben may have gotten the last (annoying) laugh. Don’t get me wrong…I understand that times are tough and you all don’t want an increase in fees. But we still do have some of the lowest tuition and fees in the entire state. Unless SG really does find a way to procure these “alternative funds”, we’re going to end up paying for it one way or another. And if something, God forbid, DOES happen to the Reitz in the next two years that I’m here, I’ll be pissed. On the other hand, if we do find a way to support the new Reitz without a single dollar increase in fees…well then I’ll just straight up apologize.

Anyway, congratulations go to Ashton, Student Alliance and in particular two newly-minted senators (Michelle Loewenherz, Student Alliance; Jackie Hauser, Unite) for getting their seats!

And, FINALLY I can get back to writing about other crap…like Apple products . And focusing on the woot-off going on right now at woot.com. Oh, and yeah, studying Microbiology I guess…