Paresh’s Blog

so i just came across this on my nightly web trolling:

whoever made this has definitely put some thought into it but i’m still not entirely sure i buy his thesis. sure he’s pretty much a universal joke. i mean, the mere mention of his name is enough to get a chukle from shepherd in the highlands of nepal (does nepal even have “highlands” or, being in the himalayas, are they just called “lands”?). on the other hand, its hard to argue with the fact that his crooning single-handedly brought down the berlin wall. its a tough call either way. and i think its pretty obvious i shouldn’t be awake right now. peace out.

haha, word. see the whole video here.

right, so you all know i’m a nerd (recent exams which shall remain unnamed notwithstanding). well, with my newfangled ipod, i get to revel in podcasts (the oxford english dictionary word of the year). one of my favorite podcasts is called this week in tech. the show covers all kinds of current issues in tech (what’s cool, what’s stupid, so forth and so on). so this week’s show featured the one and only steve wozniak (aka the woz). for those [normal] people for whom that name means nothing, the woz founded apple and invented the apples I and II.

well, this guy is freakin hilarious. the host of the show referred to him as a “celebrity”. i suppose that’s true provided we severely narrow down the demographic. but this guy is nothing like steve jobs and that’s entirely a good thing. from what i could gather, yes, the guy is stupid rich but he’s just loves gunnin his prius, modding the speed limitors on his segway and everything else normal nerds enjoy doing. for lack of a better word, he’s “normal”. here are just some of the things he talked about on the show:

-his love for laserpointers and how he recently used his laserpointer while driving his 05 prius to LA. he wanted to see how fast the car could go so he used his green laserpointer to fool the slower cars in front of him into thinking they were being tailed by a cop. those cars would promptly slam on the brakes and swerve to the side of the road only ot see a prius whiz by them. (incidentally, he got the car up to 108mph)
-he will be representing america in the first wold cup of segway polo (or whatever the official name is). not only did he and his friend invent the game, but they have challenged teams from other countries to a tournament to be held in new zealand.
-he packs two cellphones and likes using both of them simultaneously on conference calls b/c the ensuing echo effect when he talks makes him sound like a god.
-in 1982, times wanted to make steve jobs the man of the year but afte their reporter interviewed dozens of people in the silicon valley, it turned out no one had anyhing nice to say about steve jobs. end rseult: the computer is named the machine of the year.
-and my personal favorite story: back in 1984, the infamous apple ad based on the book 1984 was vetoed by the apple board but steve jobs and the woz got together and decided to personally pay for the ad to run during the superbowl anyway thus forcing the board to approve the ad and allowing one of the greatest tv commercials ever to actually hit the airwaves.

so on a little sidenote, its been a while since i’ve seen that 1984 ad so i found it on a video podcast devoted to apple ads. as i was watching the ad, i noticed that the establishent shaking lady is sporting an ipod. shocked and in just a little disbelief, i tried to take screenshots to prove to all of you (the masses) that i’m not just making this up. but, being devoid of any quicktime editing software, i looked it up on google and, as i suspected, apple made a “remix” of the original ad in 2004 to commemorate the 20th anniversay of the mac thus explaining the apparent dejavu or premonitions or so forth and so on.

anyway, if you have a spare hour, you should really go over to the TWiT website and listen to the show. even if you’re not all about smtp and pop ports or ajax websites, the other 40 minutes of the show will be quite entertaining.

so, after exhaustive research and trolling of the countless forums dedicated to such matters, i finally ordered a new case for my ipod to replace the generally crappy case it came with. i got the sonic blue version, though, tempting as it was, i did not order the color coordinated headphones. its a really cool design that integrates the two things i wanted: “grippy” silicone case and hard plastic screen protection. from everything i’ve read, these things are in huge demand and they are taking quite a while to even get out the door from the plant let alone to the buyer’s front door. i even opted for 1-2 day shipping b/c i figure if its gonna take them two weeks to ship it, why should i wait another week to receive it just to save $3? at any rate, i certainly look forward to the new svelte physique i’ll have after i’ve sold one of my kidneys to pay for it all.

so i heard about this article last week but only just got around to reading it. and while i can’t say it completely absolves me of my disappointment, it does provide me a small amount of comfort. though, i’d probably feel better if the article was accompanied by a little southern comfort but i’ll take when i can get. i guess angela has it right on her blog: if at first you don’t succeed, you’re in great company.