The Good Old Days: 1989

Not really that long ago. It's not as if we didn't have cellular telephones, you know.

In case you're wondering, the $799 price tag works out to something like $1,400 in current dollars.

And before all you morons under the age of 30 smile indulgently and move on, take a look around you. Ponder your car, your laptop, your iPhone, your toaster, your DVR, your Dolby 7.1 home theater sound system, and consider this: in 25 years, at least one of those things is going to look hopelessly antiquated, and your kids are going to laugh at you.

Steve Jobs

There are few individuals about whom it can be said, without fear of contradiction, "he changed your life."

Reality: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means . . . .

This will certainly make video dating more interesting. Here's a short webcam video of the Gentleman Farmer just this morning.

Look at the Person on Your Left; Look at the Person on Your Right; Two of You Don't Have Broadband

Two-thirds of "broadband" connections aren't.

Ford's in His Flivver. All's Well With The World.

The Australian reports: "Found: Genes That Make Kids Smart."

The researchers believe their work could eventually lead to genetic tests to predict babies' academic potential.

"This kind of research could help us develop genetic tests to predict which kids are at risk of developing problems with their schooling, so that we could intervene to help them," said Robert Plomin, professor of behavioural genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, who will describe his work today at a meeting of the Royal Society.

"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."   - Aldous Huxley, "Brave New World", Ch. 2

In-Sourcing Tech Support

In the interest of full-disclosure -- and to demonstrate that we really DO have research interns here at G&S -- the original video is from 2006, and HP ultimately made this soldier happy. We've learned that HP adopted a "no questions asked" policy with respect to military personnel. Of course, had this item been shipped back to Palo Alto, the only relevant question would be "Looks like .50 caliber full-auto, right?"

Science Marches On

Digital Fingerprint Technology?  CHECK
Retinal Scan Software?  CHECK
Facial-Recognition Device?  CHECK
Penis Recognition Software?  CHECK

Wait, what?  "Chatroulette has long featured the rawest side of humanity -- copulating couples, men taking their pants off, and so on. But it also allows for a potentially rewarding (and potentially lucrative) random human connection, and that's what interests investors."

There's an App for That

Of course there is!

Basics of Marketing

"Having customers die on us isn't exactly good publicity".

IM IN UR COMPUTR, AN UR ASS IZ FAT

Boingboing reports:

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

Think about this for a moment, and recall that minors have been charged with crimes relating to child pornography as a consequence of posting or texting pictures of themselves. So if a school administrator flips on the webcam, and captures a picture of a sophomore drying her hair . . . . .

Hitler Reacts Badly to the New iPad . . . .

G&S Has ALWAYS Loved The Woz

Steve Wozniak's favorite gadget? The Google Phone.

Tell Me What You Think You're Looking At

You're wrong.

Win/Win

The Sunday Times (the real one, you twit) reports on a new plastic surgery technique that's eco-friendly.

Ecumenism on Parade

Who says the Presbyterians have nothing to teach us? To wit:

Once Upon a Time

That is, in 1981:

MacBook Wheel

While attendance was down at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, there was no lack of innovative products on display. Apple Computer, always on the cutting edge, introduced the MacBook Wheel:

It's a Girl!

Gender Analyzer describes itself thusly:

We created GenderAnalyzer out of curiosity and fun. It uses Artificial Intelligence to determine if a homepage is written by a man or woman. Behind the scene, a text classifier hosted over at uClassify.com has been trained on blogs written by men and women. In our lab it seems to works pretty well, we want to see how it performs on the web! We hope you like it!

So we thought we'd give it a try. Drudge Report, for example, is rightly identified as being written by a man, as is Instapundit. The Divine Ms. Althouse is found to be a woman, as is Miss Julie.

Now the analysis is based entirely upon the text of the blog itself. That presumably means that data respecting subjects, vocabulary, syntax and the like are collected and compared to writing known to be by a man or instead by a woman. The software doesn't know whether you're a boy or a girl, it can only conclude that you write like a boy, or you write like a girl.

It is perhaps then not surprising that the program misidentifies certain sites -- such as the radical feminist Firedoglake (written mostly by the adorable Jane Hamsher)-- as being almost certainly written by a man.

And we're proud to report that Gender Analyzer concludes with great confidence that Glib & Superficial is written by a woman.

Embarrassing E-Mails

"Hey punkin pie, how is Arizona??? I really miss you punkin pie, and I hope you're having fun at your conference because I've cried myself to sleep every night this week because I can't sleep without my punkin. I've been saving my tears in an eyedropper, and I'm going to put it on a pendant and give it to you when you get back so that you'll always know how much I love you. I don't know if your phone is dead or what, because you haven't been answering, but I will call you again at 5:00 AM because I have to hear your voice or I think I might die."

More HERE.

Caturday Morning

Blender Defender.