sept 7 notes

How successful is the iPhone? Very. Remember that computer company from the nineties that had some kind of products involving Windows, Offices and Points of Power? They were doing good, and by most companies standards they are quite successful, having grossed $73 billion dollars in revenue. But then you see that the  iPhone itself has made more money by over a billion dollars than the entire Microsoft corporation as a whole, grossing a whopping $74.3 billion dollars by itself. And how is the Windows phone doing? They send for a priest on the launch date and it never recovered. Below is the classic commercial for the first Macintosh personal computer circa 1984.

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Don't mess with Texas! Intolerant rednecks rejoice! I'm just joking.. Stereotypes. I'll go back to my igloo. Anyways, the Texas Transportation Commission approved an 85mph speed limit on a toll road between Austin and San Antonio. It is now the highest posted speed limit on any road in the United States, passing (rapidly) a stretch in the state of Utah. "We look forward to opening this segment of SH130, which will help reduce congestion for the Austin-San Antonio corridor by providing Texas drivers and other with an alternate route for traveling through our great state," said Mark Cross, a spokesman for the Texas Department Of Transportation. It will open in November sometime.

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cOk, the Red Sox are done. This season was written off with blockbuster trade that sent most of their healthy line up to the Dodgers and the continuing rumours of Bobby Valentine's dismissal. Boston's first choice for his replacement is current Blue Jays manager and former Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell, who was mobbed by reporters before his Jays opened up a three game series at Fenway. So, since the unloaded $257 million in salary, Gonzalez being the only player in the deal I was genuinely bummed about leaving, I thought I'd go through some free agents that would look pretty tight in Boston come next season. But first, we can hold onto catcher Jared Saltalamacchia, second basemen Dusty Pedroia, outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Cody Ross, and hopefully Big Papi David Ortiz will want to stick around with the new players I got in mind for him. Current first baseman. James Loney's contract is up after 2012, but he's a good player and would glad to have him back, particularly since the first base free agent pool is pretty shallow. Jhonny Peralta's deal is up this year, though the Tigers hold a 6 million club option, but former Red Sox shortstops Alex Gonzalez and Marco Scutaro will also be available. At third base, and I like Will Middlebrooks, but I can't help but notice that Youk's contract is up at the end of the year and the club option is $13 million. Will the White Sox pony up the dough, or can Kevin come back to Boston? Need to pick up another outfielder, and I have no problem with Podsednik being the fourth outfielder but with talent like Josh Hamilton, Grady Sizemore, Delmon Young, Juan PIerre, BJ Upton and Curtis Granderson (though the Yanks will pick up his club option.. count on it) hitting the open market it would be tough not to look at any of them. Hamilton is the obvious choice for everyone, but my dark horse is Grady Sizemore, who when healthy (a big if unfortunately) can be a game changer any night.  Pitching. Lester and Bucholz are beauties, but the rest of the rotation doesn't look good. Well, how about luring Zach Greinke or Jake Peavy to Beantown.  Here is my Red Sox opening day roster:

C Jared Saltalamacchia

1B James Loney

2B Dustin Pedroia

SS Jhonny Peralta

3B Kevin Youkilis

CF Jacoby Ellsbury

RF Cody Ross (if he resigns!)

LF Grady Sizemore

DH David Ortiz

Starting Rotation: Zach Greinke, Jon Lester, Jake Peavy,  Clay Bucholz, John Lackey

Red Sox in 2013!

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I've had a rough 2012 sports wise. Not fixing to get any better come fall with the inevitable lockout.. Not looking good. Well, here's some salt in the wounds for Toronto. The Maple Leafs have been ranked the worst team in North American pro sport. The categories in which all the major sports leagues were judged on included 'fan relations,' 'ownership', 'affordability', 'stadium experience' and 'title track record', the last category rates on the likely hood of a championship in any one fans lifetime. Not good. The highest ranking NHL team? The Tampa Bay Lightning. Weird…

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news feeds june 19

Nik Wallenda completed his walk across a 5 cm wide cable from the American side of Niagara Falls to the Canadian side. It took him about 25 minutes, and he looked pretty calm during the walk, even fielding questions from his father and an ABC broadcaster. The walk was 550 meters long, and he was just getting peppered with mist from the falls below him. Always the patriotic watchdogs, Canadian officials greeted Wallenda after the walk to inspect his passport, which checked out. "I'm not carrying anything over, I promise, " said Wallenda, completely exhausted. They didn't check out to see if the safety tether was stuffed with narcotics or Philadelphia cheese steaks. Speaking of that tether, it has been a point of controversy, but ABC refused to air a man potentially falling to his death, and I think that's fair. Wallenda went on to say that the tether is extra weight that might throw him off, and although he was initially disappointed about the safety measures, he said it "is what it is." But safety harness or not, he didn't ever come close to falling so it is an incredible feat nonetheless. 

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Well, we're all doomed. Our very own Milky Way galaxy, home to Earth, is on a crash course with the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy in about 3.75 billion years. I'm not saying we should move to another galaxy or anything, but they are thinking that the two galaxies might actually merge and for a super galaxy not unlike some kind of Star Wars or Star Trek scenario. Unfortunately, a galactic merger takes about ten years longer than a corporate one, (two billion years) giving the stars time to realign themselves into new orbits around the super galaxy's new galactic centre. Simulated collision from NASA: CLICK HERE

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An Apple I computer, circa 1976, just sold for $374,500 at an auction in New York this past Friday. The archaic piece of tech history was expected to fetch about $180,000, then doubled when a bidding war broke out between two buyers, then an anonymous telephone bidder phoned in and scooped up the computer. For that price, you could buy 750 iPads, 1880 iPhones or about 650 shares of Apple. The computers were sold at a Silicon Valley computer chain Byte Shop, when the store of Paul Terrell ordered 50 computers at $500 each (retail $666.66) and Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs assembled them in 30 days. The duo also pieced together another 150 to sell to friends and other stores. The Apple I was basically a chipset that had no monitor, keyboard, power supply, casing, but boasted 4KB in memory (which couldn't run a calculator).

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In other tech stuff, Microsoft unveiled their new tablet called "Surface" to go along with their new operating system Windows 8 coming out later this year. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the new product was the ultimate merger of software and hardware. Ok. The models shown included a kickstand that allows the device to stand up and a cover, that's detachable and equipped with a keyboard. The device is also quite slim, at a mere 9.3 millimetres thick. The tablet is bound to do better than Blackberry's dismal Playbook, and one way they have a good chance of survival is full integration with the Xbox 360, which has sold over 67 million units world wide. Microsoft envisions the tablet as basically the nucleus holding together one's computer, video gaming console and TV. Not a bad idea. Would love to see Apple strike up a deal with Playstation then.. well I don't know what then. It would just be sweet.

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Sir Paul McCartney turned 70 on Monday, and what better way to celebrate his birthday then going over some of the best songs ever written (40ish years ago) by the man himself. Paul has 60 gold albums to his credit, with over a hundred million albums AND singles sold. "Yesterday" from the Beatles 1965 "Help!" album has been covered over 2,200 times - more than any song in history. Did you know Paul McCartney was in a bad before Wings? Old Simpsons joke.. anyways here are my favourite Paul (Beatles) songs in honour of his 70th. Sorry, can't do Wings.

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So, if I'm the only one old enough (or who cares) to remember this, stop me here. But Woody Allen and Mia Farrow got together in 1980, two years after Farrow and her ex-husband adopted an 8 year old Korean girl named Soon-Yi. Woody left Mia for his adopted step daughter in 1992. During this time they had a biological son named Ronan, now 24, who tweeted on father's day "Happy father's day - or as they call it in my family, happy brother-in-law's day." That is.. awesome. I love the Wood-man and pretty much everything he does artistically, whether it's writing, acting or directing, but as a person, he seems to have some baggage.

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I love Family Guy. I do… I know, it's really stupid. Not as well structured as the Simpsons. Not as satirically brilliant as South Park. But something about their sense of humour, just makes me laugh. But, something is wrong with teaming up with Kiss. The two iconic "brands" are coming together for "a line of products." Don't really know what that means, other than there is sure to be Stewie dolls with Peter Criss' cat makeup, and more guest appearances on the show, which has been touched on before, when it turned out that Lois and Gene used to get it on. Kiss have been a self-parody since they got back together in the mid 90s (even tho Ace and Peter left, their make up lives on) and for Family Guy to cross promote with Kiss, and for Seth McFarlane to put out that horrible talking bear movie, "Ted", makes me understand why the quality of Family Guy has declined fairly steadily for the last season or two.

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I just watched the best/worst TV special ever. Although I heard about it through various sources (the Simpsons barbershop quartet episode being the main one), I didn't want to know too much about it, and to spoil the surprise, even though I already knew the ending. I wanted to see it unfold. I'm talking about Geraldo Rivera's opening of Al Capone's vault. As the story goes, Capone moved into a suite the Lexington Hotel in 1928 until his arrest in 1931. In the 1980s, contractors were planning on renovating the old hotel and while they were surveying the building they came upon a series of secret tunnels (apparently one behind Capone's medicine cabinet too). The tunnels connected to nearby taverns and brothel's giving Capone a number of different escape routes. The was also rumoured that a "secret vault" was located beneath the hotel, and sure enough there was. The point of the special was to open the vault and live TV revealing riches, bootlegged booze.. bodies. Who knows what the most powerful gangster in Chicago in the 1930 put in such a vault? So the show starts with medical examiners on hand in case there were bodies on the inside, and agents from the IRS to collect any money that Capone may have left behind (I'm guessing he wasn't big on paying taxes). They finally open the vault to reveal… nothing. There was a bit of dirt, which probably seeped in over the 60 years, and some empty moonshine bottles. Thirty million viewers were left going 'what the hell was that?' as was a stunned Rivera, who just looked at the camera and said that they had "struck out." The special aired in April 1986 and essentially launched Geraldo's career. "My career was not over, I knew, but had just begun. And all because of a silly, high-concept stunt that failed to deliver on its titillating promise."

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