Apple to Demo Tablet in January. Asks Developers to Get Apps Ready

I've been waiting for this, in some way, shape, or form, since Jobs killed the Newton. I have never believed it would take place (and I'm not at all 100% sure now). An Apple Tablet has been predicted by major news outlets every year since the Newton's demise. It's all been bull.

This time feels different, though, for some reason. I'm not sure I like the reasons why it feels different.

The iPhone and iTouch are specific devices. Yes they have the power of traditional computers, but they don't have the flexibility of traditional computers. Their size is a part of that problem, but it is the smallest part. The largest part is that Apple has created, in the iPhoneOS, the most closed operating system on the planet, bar none. It is a Capitalist's wet dream - all packaged, monitized, and shackled. I fear they'll end up putting the same operating system in the Tablets using their usual "quality customer experience" excuse when, of course, the real reason is to drive the online Apple Store. If so, I fear the device may well be useless.

Despite its closed nature the iPhone is useful because of its size. It's not a full computer, but its a phone, PDA, and GPS unit, so its useful. Without an unshackled operating system exactly what will the Tablet be good for? It'll be too big to claim size as a virtue. It should be too expensive to claim it's an effective e-book reader (one of the prime uses the tablet could be put to).

So, if Apple actually makes a Tablet, if it puts the iPhoneOS on it, i'll be a piece of expensive junk that won't interest me. If they actually put MacOS X on it, then I'll have some interest. MacOS X may well be a closed operating system, but its not a shackled operating system, if you understand the difference.

Rereading this classic, which combines the horrors of the 1945 bombing of Dresden with the sfnal captivity of the hero by the aliens of Tralfamadore. Having first come to Vonnegut via Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan as a teenager, I wasn't really sure what to make of this. Coming to it again a quarter-century later, I have a much deeper appreciation of Vonnegut's savaging of the surrealism of war, and of how trauma throws the rest of your life into a weird perspective. But I also find his attitude to women much more annoying - at least, to the women in the main part of the story, the mothers of Billy Pilgrim's children, Valencia Merble and Montana Wildhack (and Pilgrim's daughter Barbara). Having said that, the sanest character in the book is probably Mary O'Hare from the ostensibly autobiographical foreword; and it must also be admitted that most of the male characters are pretty unpleasant too.

Anyway, I can't think of many other sf novels which take the Second World War as their subject, and this is probably the best in that rather small set.

This particular incident/quote Sunday night when we were at the Boston Gay Men's Chorus has stuck with me for days. I must share.

Kyle: "This is the most Gay I've been surrounded by since I saw Brokeback Mountain. You can smell the Gay! It smells like...lavender!"

Rourkie (deadpan): "It is lavender."

All I have to do is think about that and I smile.

I've praised BBC Four many, many times in this blog but last night's programming was almost exemplary. Fine tributes to Oliver Postgate, Clement Freud, and the Open University, but pride of place went to another British liberal institution that is impossible to replace. Some of the bon mots uttered by the great man in John Mortimer: A Life In Words were enough to make you want to burst out cheering, and what a pleasure to see someone using the word "libertarian" as it's meant to be used; doubtless the neo-Thatcherite yahoos who describe themselves as such would have been horrified had Sir John wound up as Home Secretary instead of his Oxford Union opponent as televised. That particular debate, on the subject of pornography and from (I'd guess) about 1970, featured Mortimer and Spike Milligan up against Mary Whitehouse and a young, over-enunciating Welsh lawyer with a mouth like a hammerhead shark who talked about "peepul" and "chill-drun" a lot, and you can guess who he grew up to be. Oh, what the hell, just watch it, it's on iPlayer for a week. Bless you, Sir John, you were an inspiration.

Looking at that 24-hour tranche almost all of it is gold and unsurprisingly far better viewing than what will be flung out on Christmas night, what with the docos about the three great heroes of British Grand Prix racing the night before, and of course, Charlie Brooker being Charlie Brooker. In fact the only clunker in the pack is horrible shouty quiz We Need Answers which somehow managed to waste the talents of Neil Innes; it belongs on BBC3 at best. Are there any other phrases in the English language that drop the spirits and sink the heart in quite the same manner that "comedy panel game" does?

Here's a thought - if the Roman Catholic church teaches that the bodies of the saints are incorruptible, then how do they explain the jaw-dropping decision to venerate (of all people) Pius XII? Most people, one would have thought, knew something of his political sympathies long before John Cornwell's highly recommended book was published (h/t annajaneclare for the recommendation) - and it's safe to say Pacelli was equivocal at best - but the stories of what happened immediately after the ex-pontiff's death in 1958 were rum indeed and best not read about before mealtimes. Suffice it to say that what emanated could not be described as the Odour of Sanctity.

Last half-day for me for nearly a week, though likely to be on standby Boxing Day. Debating whether or not to pub it this evening, but chances are Bradford - and Leeds - will be overrun with the pests known as Onepoticus screamerensis vulgaris; always seasonal but never welcome. If it were not for the fact that I have DVDs, food (not a turkey or piece of dried fruit in sight, thank Dawkins), fags, booze, and a hot soldering iron so that I can do some very shed-like things with vintage electronics while the rest of the world is closed, I'd want to get hold of some sort of anaesthetic that will put me under until Sunday. Hell, there isn't even an ISIHAC on Christmas Day; in fact, apart from a documentary about Vivian Stanshall there's very little I'd want to listen to on R4 that day apart from the Count (anyone fancy joining me to see him in Harrogate in February, then?) and of course, Missusnel's panto in Ambridge. Truth be known, this is always a tough time of year for me but I'll get by, because I know this time round at least there's something good on the other side.

Now to weigh in the washing and then into town for three hours, most of which will doubtless involve sitting around like a spare prick at a wedding. Much to be said for finishing one's work in advance.

Save that Liz Woolf mentioned it, there is no particular reason for this today - except that there is a reason to post this, think about this, and act on this every day.

Herein I give you one of the most important things ever put on TV in the United States at any time in its history.



This is the power of fiction, whether it is The West Wing or The Bible - the ability to teach us, to make us think. This is one of those rare moments when TV goes beyond the mere "bread & circus" entertainment that we as a culture wallow in daily, and breaks free to embody what its inventors hoped it could bring to the American people.

Wisdom.

I was surprised to receive this distressing message just now, ostensibly from one of my cousins:

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There are numerous clues here to indicate that the message is a fake, the first being that it was sent to me at all - if one of my Irish cousins was really stuck in Manchester, there are at least a dozen other mutual relatives whom it would be more sensible to contact than me. Note also the complete lack of corroborating details (name of hotel, identification of embassy, salutation of recipient). Also my cousin is, as far as I know, unlikely to need to make a research trip to Manchester.

Assuming that my cousin's email address has been hacked, it would be rather pointless to reply to the scam artist - or are these emails simply sent as harassment, without the expectation of pecuniary gain? I have alerted my aunt and my cousin's sister, since they all live in the same town, and suggested that the Gardai also be alerted. Though I guess there is a good chance that the hacker lives a long way outside their jurisdiction.

Edited to add [ten hours later, sorry, I've been busy] the message originated from 41.217.65.4 which is an IP address registered to Zoom Mobile, a telcom company in, surprise surprise, Nigeria.

What the headline said.

At this very moment!

I moved here ~1.5 years ago to Boston, site of the Great Nor'Easter Storms. Not much snow, but when it came, it was snow to die for.

Obviously its residents would be used to such things.

Well, not so much.

From today's Boston City Website:

12/20/09 UPDATE: Boston Public Schools are closed Monday, December 21. BPS administrative offices will remain open.

The Snow Emergency and Parking Ban was lifted at 4pm Sunday.

You have got to be kidding!! It's -2° out, and partially sunny!

Boston has lost any respect I ever had for its residents with respect to snow. They're a bunch of bloody wimps!

This is our annual ‘shout-out’ to all our friends and relatives all over the country who saw this URL on the return address portion of our Christmas card envelopes that we mailed Friday and Saturday. I may leave it up for three days instead of the normal two just to give everyone a chance to see it as the first hit top page of our blog.

We have been maintaining this blog for about five years now, and posting our Christmas letter instead of killing trees for a paper Christmas letter for the third year, I think. We are environmentally conscious up here in the northwest, even if we do encourage the harvesting of trees for the local economy!

This blog has always been on LiveJournal, a popular blogging site that will store and display your basic blog for free, and of course also provides all manner of bells and whistles if you want to pay for them. A couple years ago I started my own personal web site for anything LiveJournal charges for, such as audio, video, and photographic file storage. My blog is on LiveJournal, but my file storage is on my web site.

The first of every month I always author the monthly feature “State of the Carol” here on our blog, so if you want to know specifically how Carol is doing just go to Carol’s area any time.

That LiveJournal ‘tags’ feature that allows me to differentiate among topics also includes my ham radio stuff, the latest TV shows I have seen, and all the reviwes of all the movies I have seen here. A nice collated list of those movies is on my web site, however.

Thus concludes this year’s tutelage in Leroy and Carolyn’s blog familiarization!

This year we not only wrap up 2009, but also recap the first decade of the 21st century, like all the newspapers and magazines are doing. The fact that technically the year 2000 was actually in the 20th century notwithstanding. This was, indeed, the tenth year, in the ‘aughts,’ as my dad would say.

This decade saw Carol and I witnessing ‘9/11,’ of course, we moved to WA in 2002, and bought a ‘new’ house that’s now 27 years old… From July 2004 to February 2005 we went through her five brain surgeries, and we have been recovering ever since.

Her brain continues to improve and reconnect itself, with the occasional bad episode, such as when she started seeing bright lights in her peripheral vision at home, and ended up in the hospital for two days.

Carol is pretty much settled in to be a homebody up here. Our house is her ‘comfort-zone,’ and she seldom likes to leave her comfort-zone. I get her out of the house for all her doctors appointments, of course. We try to get all appointments in the afternoon so we can stop at the PX Food court for lunch beforehand. We also go over to James and Wendys’ house in Eatonville half a dozen times a year, which is also good for us to get out of the house and spend some time with family.

She still walks for ten minutes or so every day, always in the house here so she is within reach of a wall or furniture in case she gets dizzy. That helps with her weight issues, which she is finally coming to grips with. Her vocabulary continues to improve, everyone remarks how well she sounds on the phone now, and I can even see the difference sometimes.

I have had some slight physical challenges this year which affected my walking. I’ve been using permanent orthotic arch supports for the past month now, and they seem to be working, finally. I still managed to walk quite a bit this year, but ‘down’ to 1700 miles from a record-breaking 2300 miles in 2008. 1700 miles is still a helluva long ways, of course. Looking forward to hiking in the hills again this spring.

Ham radio continues to be the other main hobby that keeps me busy. I check in to the National Traffic System CW nets almost every day, and hit the major dozen (or so) ham radio contests throughout the year. I had a good contest season this year using a new type of ham radio, the FLEX-3000 ‘Software Defined Radio.’ An SDR is completely controlled by me through my laptop here, and the computer takes care of all the tuning and signal processing. It’s also the future of ham radio as I see it. Most operators of SDRs use them for experimentations, but I’m still learning how to run the darn thing. It’s the best thing since sliced bread when it’s running well, however.

Another new item this year I am checking out is the omnipresent Facebook. I don’t Twitter, but I like to check up on half a dozen friends and family that are also on Facebook at least once a day. Our daughter and son-in-law and their three sons in MS, our niece in MD, our son in CA, an old friend of mine in San Diego, and our granddaughter and her boyfriend/fiancee up here in WA, are all on Facebook. It is interesting.

I also dabble in a play-by-email science fiction computer game called ‘Star-Web’ and watch mostly science fiction TV shows using our DVD recorder so I can fast-forward through commercials. Life’s too short to sit through them stupid freakin’ commercials…

Carol and I continue to love it up here in Washington, and are looking forward to 2010 as a year she continues to improve her brain functions and I continue to walk a lot. That would be fine.

Merry Christmas, thanks for ‘tuning in’ to the Leroy and Carol blog. Hope you had a pleasant 2009 and a better 2010.

C-ya!
Leroy and Carol

What is interesting for a "widely read" religious person such as myself is that December (I was actually thinking of a short science-fiction story along these lines. Why December? And how would that evolve once Man left Earth? The holidays we celebrate, in some cases, have no basis in either fact nor reason - Christmas being the best example.) itself becomes a holiday, culminating, perhaps, with Christmas.

For me, the major holiday - done in its original meaning: holy day - is Rohatsu (8 December), the Japanese Zen Buddhist Holiday celebrating the Birth, Enlightenment, and Death of the Buddha.

Next is Zamenhofa Tago (15 December), the most celebrated day in Esperantujo, marking the birthday of Esperanto's Founder.

Oddly enough, perhaps, Haunakah is being more celebrated by me due to Isaac and Michele. Celebrations usually center around one of Michele's concerts, but includes Menorah lighting at times, so that's good.

The Army/Navy game falls in that time period as well.

In two hours Yule occurs. I tend to celebrate this both religiously and scientifically. :-)

---

General celebrations not specifically tied to a specific day happen as well. Last night was one of the best: attending the Boston Gay Men's Chorus Holiday Concert. Last night I had the great honor of bringing Kyle & Rourkie for the first time. Besides the usual great work, they included a stunning, powerful rendition of Rev. Fred Small's "Not in Our Town". The boys enjoyed the concert. At several points Rourkie rested his head on Kyle's shoulder and Kyle had his arm around him. Again, I had to take insulin shots. I hope I never have to stop. :-)

---

And then there's Xmas - something that has greatly changed for me in the last two years. Xmas Eve will be spent at Arlington St. Meetinghouse, and in its Bell Tower, ringing for three services: 1700hrs, 1900hrs, 2100hrs. I would encourage anyone who does not have other plans to come to one of the services. The whole, cavernous sanctuary is, at one point, lit with about 500 candles, and carols go nearly continually through the air, sung by the people themselves, led by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus.

Xmas itself will be spent with a small contingent of the family I am building in Boston - my Twins, of course, my new roomate Ryan, and perhaps my son Kyle. Rourkie's parents have some issues they have to work through. It'll take time, but they'll get there.

I'll see the Queen's Christmas Message. I'll listen to CBC's reading of Frederick Forsyth's "The Shepherd." I expect, with Ryan, there will be a good bit of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as well. The weekend will see a viewing of the first part of the 10th Doctor's last story.

All in all, certainly, not a bad month.

Many thanks to the folks that explained Arnold Palmer and Newman's foods to me. Fascinating stories. I don't think I'll ever understand people actually buying it, but then I readily admit I don't understand people anyway. :-)

I now handle several mailing lists. They're "closed" in that you need to be a member of the list to post to them. This (largely) keeps the spammers out. I have a non-automatic sign-up process that I review as well.

So every day each list is filled with 200+ emails from spammers that, thankfully, only I see because, as non-members of the list, these emails don't go out to the list. So, the spammers have, over the last six months, tried to become members of the list by automatically filling in the signup form. They do it with near complete gogglety-gook that my father could figure out. I reject these without comment.

Every so often, however, they surprise me. Today, a subscription request came in for:

nzzfztbc@ffqgnmph.com (cialis 20)

Obviously the email address is gobblety-gook, but the name - the name. Heh, at least they're telling me what they want to spam me about, I guess. Perhaps I should be grateful that he's offering me some sort of truth-in-advertising.

This was pressed on me by the infamous quarsan, and his efforts have been duly rewarded; I really enjoyed it. It is a fairly short novel, told in fragmentary, disjointed style (150 chapters in 135 pages) about the narrator's investigation of the disappearance of the head waiter of his favourite Indian restaurant. He spends a lot of time stuck down a well, in hospital, and musing on the precise nature of the vindaloo, the biryani and other Indian recipes. It is a real classic of surreal style, very funny in places. Interested to note that it was originally published in blog format earlier this year; the hard copy costs €10 and comes from amazon.de among other places.

Use small words and charts if you have to.

Just seen right now in the store...

Why would anyone in their right mind - with the possible exception of golfers - buy "Arnold Palmer Lite Half & Half Lemonaide?" The man knew how to swing a specially designed club to get a specially designed ball in a specially designed hole. How in the name of all that's holy does that qualify the man for knowing jack about lemonaide?

I never understood Paul Newman's salad dressing, either.

List the towns or cities where you spent at least a night away from home during 2009. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive stays.

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A lot fewer than some years. But also addfour overnight flights - two transatlantic, two between Europe and Africa.

Del;ighted that Gardner Dozois has picked up Vishnu at the Cat Circus for Year's Best 27 next year.

...but like a lot of people I'll be watching with interest for the outcome of the selection process for the next Lib Dem candidate in Cambridge, now that David Howarth has announced his intention to return to his academic career (he is a specialist in tort, if that is the right way to put it). Of the six shortlistees (listed here and also here) the only one I know at all is Julie Smith. I know David Howarth rather better since we were actually next door neighbours during my second year, as well as being Lib Dem activists at the same college. David won in 2005 on his third attempt with a majority of 10%, having eaten substantially into both the incumbent Labour MP's vote and into that of the Conservatives who held the seat from 1967 to 1992. Assuming (as seems likely) that the Labour vote tanks, the Lib Dems hold steady and the Tories rise but not dramatically, the seat should be holdable in next year's election

We went to see Avatar at the BFI IMAX. I really enjoyed it; I had a fantastic time, and am now thinking about what I did and did not like.

( spoilers for a movie that has been rather meanly called 'Dances with Smurfs'  )

I thought I was reasonably well-informed about the history of Doctor Who spinoff fiction, but was rather amazed to discover this 1966 46-page story, in the same format (and by the same publisher) as the Doctor Who annuals, in which the First Doctor prevents an invasion from the Andromeda galaxy with the help of a family who he has rescued (just before the story starts) from the Great Fire of London. Apparently the text is by J.L. Morrissey, who published half a dozen detective novels in the 1930s and 1940s; the artwork is by Walter Howarth, the World Distributors stalwart illustrator. The story itself is standard Who, let down by rather dodgy astrophysics and some awkward phrasing (note extract from first para here). But the characterisation of Hartnell's Doctor is bang-on.

A friend of mine sent me this greeting:



which apparently means "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in his native language.

A special prize for the first person to identify that language!

(And a very special prize for anyone who knows how to pronounce it...)

ETA: Well done bugshaw! Others may guess anyway by clicking on "reply" without reading what others have written.

This will be a "no spoiler" review. Frankly, its simply not possible to give spoilers for this movie. The story was pedantic, old, and predictable, even by me. And that's hard to do, people. That's very hard to do!

I write this as I travel to Alewife Station for a continuing movie night - probably a convening of the Gay TV Watchers Club, actually - and Kyle & Rourkie's.

Story
OK, as many people have said before, the story was the weakest part of Avatar. If you've seen Dances with Wolves you've seen Avatar's story. Nuff said.

Rendering
Fortunately there was more. And frankly the more was the settings and how they were rendered. It was, to put it bluntly, the strongest part of the film. Cameron said that seeing Gollum in Lord of the Rings convinced him that this film could be done. He was probably 90% right. While the rendering of the characters was the best yet and might be starting to move out of the area of well drawn cartoons (OK, very well well drawn cartoons), at no point did it convince me it was real. It is getting there, though. I'll give it another ten years.

That being said, what was done was wonderful not for the rendering per se, but for the detail in the rendering. Here I don't mean the texture or anything like that, but the basic, good, imagination with regard to the creatures and the environment. I loved the fact that the "horses" had noses on their necks. I loved the fact that many of the land animals had 6 legs. That the dragons had four eyes. The creatures, somehow, looked like they filled the ecological niches they were put in.

Maybe I've been reading too much Traveller lately, but I was impressed. It convinced me that we have reached the point where anything can be put on video.

3-D
This was the first 3-D movie of its type I've seen. Frankly, while it was OK, it came off as an un-needed gimick. Maybe I have to get used to it, but there were certain areas of the story where I didn't know it was 3-D and then other areas of the story where it was 3-D!!! For all the Gods, it was 3-D!! With respect to all the other rendering, it just wasn't needed, I didn't think. I'll be quite happy to see this film again on my regular TV.

I'll say the didn't try to make it gimicky, and they succeeded, but it just wasn't needed. Unlike JC, the glasses didn't give me a headache at all, but there were times when I didn't like being dictated to where my depth perception was meant to go.

All in all it was OK. The jury is still out with regards if it was $14 OK, but it wasn't a bomb.

And with that, I arrive at Alewife.

I feel a bit mean posting this, because the other reviews I've seen so far of An Earthly Child are rather positive (without spoilers here and with spoilers here). I think Marc Platt's scripts are a bit like Marmite - you love 'em or hate 'em. However, to explain why I didn't like it requires a cut-tag and spoiler warning, thus:

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