Photo blues.

Oh dear...



You know what that is? It's the first digital photograph I ever took. I'm uploading it to Flickr tonight along with 2,000+ other photographs from 2004 to 2005. These were all pictures I originally uploaded to Mac.com, before I started using Flickr. I just discovered that when Apple started Me.com, all the photographs on Mac.com stopped displaying. I can still download them, but then I need to re-upload them, and they will have different code at that point, which means every blog post that originally displayed those photographs will need to be redone.

I have to go through all the old posts to find the ones that had photographs, open them up for editing, and enter the new code for the old photographs. Part of the process will be figuring out which photos belong in the post, which will not be easy. Maybe you think it doesn't matter what's in the archive 5 or 6 years ago, but it matters to me. A lot.

I'm so annoyed at Apple for doing this. I've paid every year to have a Mac.com account, mainly only to preserve those old photo displays. I have sometimes thought of putting the pictures on Flickr so I can stop making those annual payments. At least now I can stop paying, but I'm disgusted that after making all those payments to Apple, it saw fit to wreck all that work of mine.

***

By the way, thanks for using my links — my Black Friday gift selections — to buy things on Amazon. It really is nice to get the support from readers. I'm saying this here in case you're wondering what that book on the table is. It's "Strong Opinions" — and if you buy it at that link, some of the money will pay me for tending this blog, including the massive — 20,000+ posts — archive. It also works to use this search box:

The way things look from a computer screen in Madison, Wisconsin.

Click image to enlarge.

Do you want to replace the existing Normal?

"Keith Olbermann Interviews A 'Clown' And A 'Witch' About Christine O'Donnell."

"The clown and witch were played by comedian Angry Bob and Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, respectively."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From the other end of the political spectrum, here's Rush Limbaugh complaining about O'Donnell's "I'm not a witch" ad. He mainly objects to her letting her opponents know it bothers her and giving any more play to something so stupid. Then there's this:

It's either navy, royal blue (very dark), or black background....  If you're gonna do a black background, it would be great to have Pelosi on a broomstick flying around or Harry Reid as one of the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz, "Oh-weee-looo'" if you're gonna do that. A dark background and say, "I'm not a witch"? Make it white. Make it a lighter, you know, a "morning in America" kind of background.

A white background? I think that would come across not so much "morning in America" as... Ellen Feiss!



And then when she got to the "I'm you" part, we'd be all Nooooo! You don't want me in the Senate. I'll screw everything up!

The Apple update that has made it impossible for me to watch video or open iTunes.

Thanks a lot. I can't even go anywhere on line without a pop-up window telling me what I already know: Your update sucks.

I woke up this morning thinking the charmingly mellow James Taylor song "Carolina in My Mind," started watching a video of it on YouTube, decided to buy it in iTunes, opened iTunes, got prompted to update software, and now iTunes opens only to crash immediately, so I can't buy it, and I can't even get to the YouTube video anymore. If I see the phrase "Plug-in failure" a few hundred more times, I may lose my mind... or my 25-year-long love for Apple.

ADDED: This and today's cool Google doodle have motivated me to try Chrome as my new browser. Safari had been crashing repeatedly even before the current update. Unfortunately, I still can't get Flash to work.

UPDATE: By the end of the day, Apple had an update (or updates) that appeared to solve the problem.

99-cent TV show rentals from iTunes.

That would be nice.

Apple on the supposed problems with the new iPhone: "Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place."

So it's not a flaw in the new iPhone, it's something that was phony in all the phones all along. Hmmm. How convenient! Just when I was trying to decide if I should buy the new iPhone or stick with the old one while the bugs are getting ironed out of the new one.

Apple... said it will fix its signal strength formula to conform to other AT&T phones through a free software update for iPhone models 3G, 3Gs and 4 within a few weeks.

''We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see,'' Apple said.

Massaging our perceptions. Who knows if the reception is really bad or not? People are fixated on the way their bars look. So make the bars bigger.

G.M. sends a corporate memo telling its employees to stop using the word "Chevy."

“We’d ask that whether you’re talking to a dealer, reviewing dealer advertising, or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet moving forward... When you look at the most recognized brands throughout the world, such as Coke or Apple for instance, one of the things they all focus on is the consistency of their branding. Why is this consistency so important? The more consistent a brand becomes, the more prominent and recognizable it is with the consumer.”

But — as the linked NYT article notes — "Coke" is short for "Coca-Cola" and the company name Apple doesn't overwhelm the product names like iPhone and Mac. How obtuse can a corporation get?

If Coke had to pick one name for its product would it pick Coke or Coca-Cola? It would pick Coke, so why doesn't G.M. tell its employees to stop saying Chevrolet? The longer, Frenchier word is preferable to the very American nickname?

But I agree that consistency is important. The more consistently stupid a company is, the more its stupidity will be prominent and recognizable with the consumer.

***

What about all the pop songs?

Elton John, Bob Seger, Mötley Crüe and the Beastie Boys have all sung about Chevy, and hip-hop artists rap about “Chevy Ridin’ High” or “Ridin’ in My Chevy.”

And:

Bye-bye, indeed, Miss American Pie. If General Motors has its way, you won’t be driving your Chevy to the levee ever again.

(Hey! Did the NYT write this article to try to cancel out that embarrassing misspelling — "levy" for "levee" — in David Brooks's column the other day?)

UPDATE: "We love it when people call us Chevy."

Isn't Apple about love? Where's the love Apple?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Appholes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

A great coinage: "Appholes."

CONFESSION: The video clip looked beautiful in full screen size on the 27" screen of the iMac I picked up at the Apple store 2 days ago. So crisp I exclaimed "He needs to get his knuckles waxed."

About that prototype iPhone that was lost in a bar.

Put me in with the people who suspect it was fake-lost to get the publicity it, in fact, got.

Got my iPad!

Down at the Apple Store in the West Towne Mall in Madison, Wisconsin. Things were hopping:



That's "Specialist" Chuck Sholdt handing over the goods. He recognized me and said he "felt like [he was] in the presence of royalty." He recognized Meade too — said he'd read all about him.

Back home now, in my favorite reading position...



UPDATE: I'm typing this on the keyboard. I do think I could use this to blog, something I can't do on the iPhone (without a great deal of trouble).

UPDATE2: I bought the iPad app Pages to do word processing and I just plain cannot get it to work. It seems that there should be a toolbar, but I can't get one to display, so I'm at a dead end. Any ideas? AND: I turned it upright, out of landscape mode, and that worked. AND: I wish I could figure out how to get iDisk documents into the Pages App. (And I really am trying to find the answer in various "help" pages. It's especially frustrating because "pages" isn't a distinctive word.)

UPDATE3: Apple confirms that you can't get your iDisk documents into Pages.

"Live Blogging the iPad’s Big Day."

From the long lines at the NYC store(s).

I expect to just drop by the West Towne Apple store and pick mine up easily. We'll see how different Madison is from New York.

UPDATE: Am I pathetic to have searched Twitter to find out about the line at West Towne Mall? And here. I found a picture. I'm not the type to wait outside before the store opens, and since others are, I allow a little time for the door-crasher bulge to process.

UPDATE 2: I got it! A manageable line:

iPad reviews.

Assembled in a handy chart.

Did Apple really check whether women would like the idea of a maxi-pad?

I see that Steve Jobs is demonstrating the new product — the iPad — with a "Star Trek" video...

... indicating the answer is no, they did not put a whole lot of thought into appealing to women. When you make something light, you should think about how important the product will be to women, who are touchy about carrying things. Anyway, for our light days, we have iPhones. For our heavy days, we have the iPad? The iMaxiPad? Come on, guys!

And hey, MadTV warned them:



(Thanks to Meade and Zachary Paul Sire for the female-friendly humor.)

It's called the iPad.

What is this thing I must surely want?

ADDED: My first questions: 1. What does it weigh? [ANSWER: 1.5 pounds.] 2. How long does the battery last? [10 hours of video use/1 month standby — great!] 3. Will it mainly just feel like a big, dorky iPhone that I'm never going to prefer to either the iPhone or my laptop? 4. Is it basically good for Kindle-user types who mostly want to read and are not always moving back and forth between reading and writing?

AND: There's WiFi but no 3G wireless. Oh... Bleh. So it's not even a a big, dorky iPhone. It's a a big, dorky iTouch. I don't want one.

MORE: From the previous link (the NYT blog):

“I can take a flight form San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole way.”

Said Steve Jobs, making me think this is especially aimed at the poor folk who spend a lot of time on airplanes.

What's more exciting about tomorrow?

The State of the Union Address or the unveiling, presumably, of the Apple Tablet.

What's more exciting about tomorrow?
	State of the Union Address
	Apple Tablet
pollcode.com free polls

2 products that look a lot better in the ads than they've worked for me.

1. MobileMe. This thing supposedly syncs the calendars in all your computers and your iPhone. I use an iPhone, 2 different desktops, and at least one laptop and thought it would be cool to be able to put things onto my calendar using whatever device is in front of me at the moment. Now that I've done that, I've got to check for appointments on multiple calendars, because the syncing has not been reliable, and I have no idea how well it's working at any given time. It's not a convenience, but a big distraction. Maybe Apple can fix it, but lord, how it has wasted my time and infused my life with an uneasy sense that I don't know if I'm missing appointments.

2. Tempur-Pedic. You think this mattress will deliver a marvelous sleep experience?

"That's fried mush, baby! You're a Hoosier now."

1. Meade makes mush ... apropos of all that grits talk in the Whole Foods threads (1 & 2). And yes, we bought the corn meal mush at Whole Foods.

2. Enlarge for details — but don't think you'll be able read the papers. I've blurred out all the text.

3. To answer the question I'm sure is coming first: Yes, the bacon is Nueskes. And you can't buy that at Whole Foods.

4. Answer to that other question: Ate Berries in the Canaries.

5. Note the hinge defect. Unpropped, the thing lies flat. I've heard of the much-rumored Apple tablet, but the Air should not pretend to be one.

6. That stool is a Swopper. (Buy one: here.)

7. Popcorn.

The MacBook Air "hinge defect."

Hey, this is exactly what happened to mine!

How can one computer kick another computer off the WiFi?

Maybe someone can help me with this. I have several computers, but I like using my MacBook Air around this house. It works fine with the WiFi here when I'm the only one on, but if the other person uses his MacBook (the original MacBook), it breaks my connection. Using the Network Diagnostics application, I can restore my connection, but it will break again, perhaps the every time the other user clicks from one website to another. If I get on one of my older laptops, I don't have the problem. My own old MacBook (original MacBook) interferes with my Air exactly the same way. When we're at our other house, I don't have this problem. I also have this problem at some cafés but not others.

How can this happen, and what could fix it?

"I want [snuggle] you like a [kitty-cat]!"

Apple nixes the Nine Inch Nails iPhone app — after approving it.

Trent Reznor tweets: "The objectionable content referenced is 'The Downward Spiral."

What might have been:



Tame!