Archive for the ‘blah From Across the Web’ Category
I was Bast.
I always wind up a woman in these things. :-/
Overpriced iTunes Music Cards?
I was just on a site and noticed an ad for eBay auctions of iTunes Music Cards.
When I buy a $15 gift card at the store, I pay $15 for it. There are no taxes or anything else. Why on Earth would anyone pay anything more than that for one? I just don’t get it.
Lyrics007 bizarreness
I was looking up lyrics to “Slumber My Darling” (iTunes) by Alison Krauss, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor, & Yo-Yo Ma so I popped “Slumber My Darling” into Google and the first result was Lyrics007.com.
Now’s when the oddity occurs: In the “Fans who visit this lyrics also like” section, it listed artists like Ginuwine, Destiny’s Child, and Slipknot. Slipknot! What the hell?
“BOO!” on Apple
The big news going around the Mac web right now is the teaser that Apple‘s thrown up on its website telling viewers that “The first 30 years were just the beginning.” Strange as it seems, any little hint from Apple sends every Mac nerd into a tizzy, myself included.
What I found truly interesting, though, was the highlighted bit at the bottom about redeeming gift cards. It reads, “Redeem iTunes Gift Cards (iTunes 7 required)”. I’m a big fan of iTunes–as long as it’s on the Mac. The Windows version is a utter P.O.S. I don’t like the idea of forcing Windows users to upgrade to the bug-ridden, resource-hogging iTunes 7.x if they want to redeem their iTunes Gift Cards.
When iTunes 7 came out, I immediately upgraded my Windows box so I could have all the niftiness, ugly UI aside. Shortly after, though, I found myself despising it. I couldn’t even browse the Web while iTunes was playing without causing stutters in the playback and freezes in Firefox. I downgraded back to iTunes 6.0.5, thanks to a nice tutorial.
When the 7.0.2 upgrade came out a few months ago, I again jumped on it hoping that it would solve the issues affecting my machine. It didn’t. I thought that the problem had gone away, but it hadn’t. It returned shortly and was just as infuriating as ever.
“Boo!” on you, Apple, for forcing people to use the crappy version of iTunes if they want to redeem their gift cards.
Random Jumble
- Why Routine HIV Testing Makes Sense
TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog – Why Routine HIV Testing Makes Sense
Twenty-five years into the AIDS epidemic, the U.S, Centers for Disease Control is changing its guidelines on HIV testing to encourage more routine screening among patients in the 50 states, whether or not they appear to fit into a high-risk group.
- Yea!!! More tax cuts for the rich!
Technically it’s “extended” but you get he picture.
The latest plan — announced today — will spend $70 billion to extend the 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends until 2010.
- ArsTechnica Review of Aperture 1.1
Aperture 1.0 got a 4. The update gets an 8 and a lot less Cons.
- Free science fiction/fantasy ebook
The main character, Stefan, happens to be gay (but it’s not a coming-out story, AIDS story, soft porn about young hustlers, or any of the usual stuff; I’m trying to put other sorts of work out into the community). As “magical realism”, it blends the everyday and the fantastic, but hopefully in an imaginative way, not an author-indulgent, “I’m not on his pills so I can’t follow this” way.
I’ve not read it yet, but I’m passing the link along. Free is good. ;)
If I were a drag queen…
Skating in Space?
If not, why is this story in the Yahoo! News: Space & Astronomy feed?
‘Curse you SMS! You’ve damaged my digits!’
A British survey shows that hand and finger damage (repetitive stress injury) is on the rise due to people sending SMS messages.
British SMS Boom Leads To Digit Damage: Survey | InformationWeek.com
Your Honor, I have no talent of my own, so…
Lachey seeks spousal support from Simpson | USATODAY.com
And he wants his jewelry back, too!
Though if he’s that hard up for cash, I’m sure that he could make a killing in gay porn. :p
‘Valentine’s Day Massacre’
A List Apart has published a list of reasons by their readers for why they hate the Internet.
My favorites:
The thing that most annoys me on web pages is poor hyperlink text. I remember reading articles published in the last century advising against the use of “click here” or “You can find more information here”, etc….
Sites whose sole purpose is to dazzle and impress yet lack meaningful and useful content. I’m beginning to dislike the use of Flash when the same content could be presented much better in XHTML/CSS and reach a wider audience on a broader range of devices…
And my absolute favorite:
MySpace. I absolutely hate myspace.com everything about it. From the concept of it, to the people at my college who use it, to the fact that the design is made from nothing but tables and iframes. It’s something the internet could do without: a website that promotes use of table layouts, spacer GIFs, CSS generators. (A typical MySpace profile put through the validator on W3.org.)…
Read them all: Valentine’s Day Massacre | A List Apart
