23 Jul 05 Happy Birthday, Amiga
“Today is the Amiga’s 20th anniversary. Commodore officially introduced the Amiga 1000 with much fanfare at the Lincoln Center in New York on July 23, 1985. It was the most advanced computer of its day. The Amiga 1000 was originally conceived a few years earlier by a small California company called Amiga, Inc. and was financed by a group of Florida doctors looking to invest in a killer game machine.” …..
Yes, Amiga Happy Birthday.
Although I have never used or even seen one, happy 20th birthday.
I do however have had an experience with an Amiga user.
Back in 1992 I was living with my aunt and uncle going to college up in Delaware. They had a new washer installed incorrectly which led to a whole lot of water damage. After the cleanup, new carpet needed to be installed. Talking to one of the carpet installers, computers came in conversation. I was majoring in computers and he also had an interest in computers. I had a 286-16, he had an Amiga. I never heard of them, but I got a lesson about the Amiga. He went into total Fanboy mode, telling me how much better Amigas were than the IBM compatibles and Amigas were the future, yada, yada, yada.
I did not argue, just listened to his sermon.
I tend not to get into the typical fanboy rants, this vs. that.
It has been 13 years since that education.
What I want to know, if the carpet installer is reading this on his Amiga, is your Amiga still faster than my computer? Is Amiga still the future?
No?
Tags: amiga
22 Jul 05 Minority Report
It is the year 2054 - Washington D.C. - dreams can be recreated through computers, computer monitors and displays are transformed into holograms, and identification is done through eye-scanning. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) lost his son, and to prevent horrible events from occurring to other individuals he joins a unit known as “Pre-Crime” - where murderers are arrested before they can commit the murder. How does Pre-Crime work? Through 3 people known as “precogs”. They are 3 psychics used to see the future and they see murders exactly the way they will occur. Through advanced technology, Pre-Crime officers are able to see what the precogs see, and they analyze the data, identify the perpetrator and victim, and try their best to stop the murder from occurring. The perpetrator is put into a sleep state with a device called a “halo”. John Anderton gets accused of murdering a man he has never even met, causing him to run from Pre-Crime and prove his innocence.
The term Minority Report was used to reference flaws in the precog’s vision. When one of the precog’s visions did not match the other two, it was called a Minority Report and quietly discarded.
Minority Report was a good sci-fi movie. I’d give it a 4 out of 5 rating.
Pre-crime is an interesting concept, but I don’t see it as being acceptable, at least not in my life time.
Some off topic stuff…
Tom Cruise has been getting a bad rap in the media lately and probably deserves so.
I don’t follow the celebrity news that much, but have been hearing about his antics lately.
Going from Nicole Kidman to Penelope Cruz to Katie Holmes.
That bothers me more than some of his Scientology comments like his interview with Matt Lauer.
I don’t agree with him 100% but I understand what he is trying to say. Basically, that we as a society take too many drugs. Many people that are currently on these types of medication, if they would make lifestyles changes, be it diet, exercise, change careers, etc, could take care of their problems without drugs. But he takes it too far by just making a blanket statement that all people can do this, but in reality they can’t. So the meds help many people that need it.
Let us not forget his Oprah appearance.
Tags: thought crimes, tom cruise
22 Jul 05 Which File Extension are You?
20 Jul 05 Congress to add 2 months to Daylight Savings Time
It looks like Daylight Saving Time is about to be extended, and that has child safety and fire prevention advocates riled. …..
I hate Daylight Savings Time. Yes I absolutely hate it.
There is nothing more annoying that having to change clocks and sleeping patterns for no good reason.
Why?
To save energy? Well, sure just ask this congressman.
“The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
Oh I get it. We change the time and viola we have more daylight.
What does the earth stop rotating for an hour during daylight?
No? So we have the same amount of daylight. We are just tricked into getting up an hour earlier and going to bed an hour earlier.
Well thank you very much.
I really don’t care if it does save energy, it is crap.
Actually I should rephrase this. I do not hate DST itself, I hate the frackin changing.
If DST is so wonderful and saves so much energy why not just make the whole year DST. Imagine the energy we could save if everyone is tricked into getting up earlier the entire year.
jeesh
Tags: DST
20 Jul 05 The Ridiculously Thorough Guide to Making Your Own Pizza
One weekend when I am feeling adventuress I am going to try this. I love pizza, but delivery is not cheap and not really that healthy. I have bought pre-made dough in the past, but I am sure the ‘homemade’ dough is much better.
Tags: pizza
