Congratulations to Robert & Maryam Scoble on the birth of their new son, Milan. Robert posted updates on Maryam’s labor all day on Twitter. Let’s not forget Milan’s big brother Patrick.
General
Biko
Via MetaFilter: You can blow out a candle. But you can’t blow out a fire. Steve Biko died 30 years ago today.
The Apple Tax
You think you got it bad cause the iPhone dropped in price by $200? My family has bought three of them so far. Well, four, if you include Patrick’s mom, who just bought one a week ago. She’ll be able to get her $200 back, but the rest of us have paid an early-adopter-tax of $600.
My first response? This is nothing new.
I remember when Steve Wozniak showed me his new die-sublimation printer back in 1990. It cost him $40,000. Today a $70 printer does a better job.
This “reduce the pricing” trend is one of the reasons I LOVE this industry.
Seagate, today, just brought out new hard drives. More capacity. More features. Lower price.
Am I bummed that I spent $2,000 on my first 20 megabyte hard drive when today a $400 model is a terabyte? No. I’m happy!
I celebrate anytime our industry drops prices. It brings more people into what we’re doing.
I really hate eBay
I relisted my MacBook Pro a second time, after the first buyer cancelled and it didn’t sell the second time. This time an asshole in Nigeria bought it even though I said very specifically in the listing that I would ONLY ship to the US or Canada. I am not selling it to him and I won’t ship it to Nigeria.
UPDATE: A few hours later I received a fake PayPal payment notice for that item. When I checked my PayPal account (by logging in manually, not through the email) of course no funds were deposited. On checking the email’s headers I see the sender address was paypalcustomerservice@generalmail.com and it was sent from an ISP in Germany. Ebay is now saying I owe over $100 for a sold item which didn’t sell. I’m getting really mad.
Comcast Forging Packets To Filter Torrents
Slashdot reports that Comcast is throttling BitTorrent traffic using forged TCP Reset (RST) packets, like the Great Firewall of China does. It turns out that Comcast may actually be violating criminal impersonation statutes in states around the country. While it’s legal to block traffic on your network, forging data to and from customers isn’t legal.
Comcast seems to forget that there are legitimate uses for BitTorrent, such as downloading Linux distros. Yet another reason I won’t switch from DSL.
Finally!
Via MacNN | The Macintosh News Network:
Toyota on Friday released an iPod Integration Kit that works in all current Toyota and Lexus models. The kit, first announced in early May, is installed in the vehicle’s glove box: it connects Apple’s iPod directly to the car’s audio system and can recharge the iPod’s battery, according to Leftlane News. Once connected, all of the iPod’s functions …
No word on whether it supports the touch screen in a Prius.
Two Years Later
Exactly two years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. While I was at the gym today, Magnolia Soul by Ozomatli came up in shuffle on my iPhone. A very appropriate song for today.
Dell "quality"
Engadget tells of someone receiving a Dell XPS M1330 laptop without an OS, no system BIOS and several other defects.
The $2k+ laptop looked fine at first glance, but when Pradeep popped it open and hit the power button, it immediately booted to a blank, white, flickering screen. After 10 minutes, nothing had changed, no Dell logo, Vista boot screen or anything — not only had Dell forgotten an OS, they didn’t even manage to squeeze in a system BIOS before they shipped this one. That wasn’t all that Dell screwed up on this M1330, the power button is defective, the Microsoft seal underneath the machine is partially ripped and burned, there’s a problem with a grill cover protruding, and the WiFi radio switch is so loose it almost falls off when pushed back and forth. 
Yes, a Prius can go over 100 MPH
Via B12 Solipsism :
The first time came one Thanksgiving when he decided to drive down to a Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank.‘Highway 5 was empty that night and I made good time and was surprised to discover that the Prius was very stable, even with major gusting winds,’ Wozniak said.
Dead Battery or Toyota's Revenge
This is yet another chapter in my ongoing problems with the 12v Starter battery in my Prius.
To recap, the battery died for the first time last December while I was using a 12v compressor to adjust the tire pressure. The second time I found a dead battery was when I returned from MacWorld Expo in January. At this point I bought a portable jump starter. I had to use it for the first time in March, after leaving the door unlocked for about 3 days without using the car.
I took it to the dealer and was told that I didn’t drive it enough to keep the battery charged. Since I work from my home office, I often don’t drive for several days during the week. I followed their recommendation and got a solar trickle charger after my friend installed Coastal Tech’s power outlet mod so it can be used with the accessory outlet.
I had no further problems until June, when I was away for over two weeks to Vancouver and San Francisco, which I sort of expected. When I got back from 6 days in Vancouver last month and found that it started, I thought the problems were behind me.
Until today. I didn’t use my car for only two days and found it dead this morning. I got my trusty jump starter, but this time it wouldn’t start. It came alive in Accessory mode with all of the warning lights on and an error message on the screen saying there’s a problem with the parking interlock (even though I had the parking brake fully engaged). Attempting to switch in and out of park and releasing and depressing the parking brake had no effect. Repeated attempts had the same result and I was never able to get it to Ready. I’m now making sure the jump charger is fully charged, since I didn’t use it for several months, on the off chance that it didn’t have enough of a charge to start the car.