1. Tenant ask about possibility of having a cat.
2. Landlord says yes, you can have a cat.
3. Tenant lets landlord know when they can expect a call from SPCA.
4. Landlord says it’s all good.
5. Tenant goes to SPCA, fills out paperwork. SPCA worker calls landlord for confirmation.
6. Landlord says yes to SPCA worker, hangs up.
7. Landlord immediately calls the tenant, informing the tenant that she will need the house back in about 5 months or so. Don’t worry, you have plenty of time to find a place to live.

I = tenant

Would’ve been nice to know just a few minutes before I get the cat, wouldn’t it?

With any consumer products, there are two signs that you’re really in trouble:

1. You’re only being compared to the same product of last generation.
This type of comparative review where you’re evaluated mostly against the last generation, perhaps even last generation of your own product, can only happen under two situations. One, if you’re the market leader and there are nothing else to compare to. Or two, you are only impressive when compared against last generation or your previous self. If you’re not in situation one, you’re in trouble.

2. Even major publications that are generally very mutual and stays away from making strong statements and opinions are not giving you a positive, perhaps even just mutual review.
This would be CNET…

It’s very clear in CNET’s review of Windows Vista Ultimate, they are not impressed by how much Windows Vista had to offer after years of development, and the only comparison that would shine light on Vista’s major facelift, would be against its former brethen.

Snippets like this cannot be what Microsoft has planned for five+ years:

Windows Vista is not the Apple Mac OS X 10.4 killer one hoped for (or feared).

Perhaps we’re spoiled, but after more than five years of development, there’s a definite “Is that all?” feeling about Windows Vista. Like cramming an info-dump into a book report the night before it’s due, there certainly are a lot of individual features within the operating system, but the real value lies in their execution–how the user experiences (or doesn’t experience) these–and

…

It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one that’s been driven to Mac by the disappointment of Windows Vista.

From The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
MIT writer says Vista drove her to Mac

And the original article here:
Uninspiring Vista

Yay! I’m not alone! We should start a whole new subculture of “users driven to Mac by Vista” under the broader big-brother branch of the Mac culture.

Gear Diary had done a very impressive and thorough out-of-the-box experience & review for Presto before. They also apparently followed it up with a Part 2 of the review that shows the experience from the receiver’s side (the previous review was more focused on the sender).

Worth a read:
The Presto Service and HP Printing Mailbox Review - Part Two

The industry trend to start selling DRM-less music seems to be growing. Independent artists & small labels were where I expected to see those changes taking place. However, it seems that even some major labels has throw themselves into the fray as well. VirginMega France will start selling MP3 files without DRM, and even encode them at higher than traditional bitrates.

Take a look at Engadget’s article for more information:
VirginMega France to sell DRM-free MP3s in March

From a person who complains about the nuisances… well, just about anything, would you expect anything less? Every product, may it be a car, my choice of toothpaste and shaving cream, and as incredulous as it may sound, even my computers (that includes both my of choices in Mac & PC) are far from the utopian world where flawless products prosper.

So here are a few annoyance that I’ve found with my Mac:

• The Finder -
  The Finder is an adequate file management system. Part of my unhappiness with it is due to my experience with Windows Explorer for the past several years. Although Windows Explorer has its share of flaws, both file management system can take a few tips from the other. Although the more time I’ve spent with Finder, the more familiar and comfortable I became. It is also quite apparent that since moving to the Mac, I tend to interact with files a lot less with Finders than individual applications. For example, organizing my photos is done through iPhoto, music through iTunes. However, this also brings me to the next caveat…

…

Courtesy of Time Magazine online:

The iPhone breaks two basic axioms of consumer technology. One, when you take an application and put it on a phone, that application must be reduced to a crippled and annoying version of itself. Two, when you take two devices—such as an iPod and a phone—and squish them into one, both devices must necessarily become lamer versions of themselves. The iPhone is a phone, an iPod, and a mini-Internet computer all at once, and contrary to Newton—who knew a thing or two about apples—they all occupy the same space at the same time, but without taking a hit in performance. In a way iPhone is the wrong name for it. It’s a handheld computing platform that just happens to contain a phone.

Read the whole article here.

This year’s Macworld keynote was all about the iPhone, and a bit about appletv. Despite that the next release of OS X, Leopard, is pretty much around the corner (anywhere between now and summer?), there had been very little talk about Mac at all.

Part of that may just be Apple is very satisfied with where Mac hardware & software is right now, and any model changes & upgrades wouldn’t require such a big announcement at Macworld. I think part of the reason may also be article like this one in Information Week:

“Microsoft had two serious issues. First, they had to make this update of Windows revolutionary enough that it came close to justifying the delay. Second, they had to come up with something that would stand up well with its main competitor in the desktop OS market, Mac OS X. Have they succeeded at both? I’d argue that the former’s almost a non-issue: Vista will sell well, because the world won’t have a choice. As far as the latter, well, probably, but you’d be hard-pressed to say Vista’s better than Mac OS X.”

“Windows is…well, Windows is very eager to tell you what’s going on. Constantly. Plug something in, and you get a message. Unplug something and you get a message. If you’re on a network that’s having problems staying up, you’ll get tons of messages telling you this. It’s rather like dealing with an overexcited Boy Scout…who has a lifetime supply of chocolate-covered espresso beans.”

“This kind of

…

It’s not typical for CES and Macworld to happen on the same week. Usually CES occurs a week before Macworld, and it was due to the weird calendar dates following New Years this year, that both events were held at the same time.

Well, I hope CES learned their lesson and never do this again. Apple just blew everyone away with the iPhone, coverages are all over the web, so I won’t repeat any of them here. I’ll just provide a few useful links to read up on all the jazz:

News.com
Engadget
Gizmodo

Of course, not the least:

Apple

Despite month of speculations, including many accurate ones, Apple *still* managed to just BLOW EVERYONE AWAY. Even with all the expectations and hype, they outdone all of them. No one cares about anything that’s going on at CES now, we’re all just counting our bills and waiting ’til June 2007.

A few, rather small & quiet, news items caught my attention shortly over the holiday season. During the season of CES & Macworld, or the blissful orgasmic gathering of tech geeks as I like to call it, it’s easy for other important news items to be drowned out. Small, minor movements in the industry seems insigificant next to the big boys announcing the next awesome hardware-soon-to-be-vaporware. The first is the announcement of a label completely going digital. The second is Jason Mraz releasing his latest EP.

To be honest, I think the Jason Mraz EP has been out for quite a while, I just haven’t checked his website recently. I’m also not up to date with the ongoings of the music industry, part of which I contribute to my age. As my parents used to hang on tightly to the music that they heard in their youth, I used to struggle with the notion that I may one day be out of touch with the current state of pop culture. Inevitably I’ve lost connection with what is hot and cool (all at the same time), and thus transitioning from MTV to VH1, and now really nothing at all.

What is exciting to me, is that Jason Mraz released his EP not in iTunes, not in WMA format with DRM, and most certainly not on the Zune marketplace (that wouldn’t have done him any good at all, would it?); but in pure, unadulterated MP3 file format. The audiophile in…