Whatever I Want

I saw a picture in the latest issue of Newsweek (January 22, 2007) that really got to me. A picture that accompanies the article “Blame For the Top Brass” by John Barry and Evan Thomas has a picture of a father holding his young son as he’s waiting to be deployed to Iraq as part of Bush’s “surge”. I have 2 young kids and the thought of leaving them for 6 months, much less to go on an assignment that is so very dangerous is unthinkable. It breaks my heart.

On one hand I have nothing but admiration for the men and women who do this. On the other hand I have nothing but contempt for President Bush and his administration for their selfish and short-sighted flailing. They have lied to us at every turn, twisted words to suit their own purposes; Condoleezza Rice calling the current escalation of troops a “augmentation” and refused to listen to the advice of experts from all areas of the military and government. Then Tony Snow, who you can tell is lying when you see his lips moving, says, “And those who think they have a better way, I think have an obligation to step up and share it”. Based on the track record of this administration I’m sure the experts are lining up at the door, Tony.

The amazing thing is that Bush and his team have managed to consistently bungle Iraq while, at the same time, systematically taking away the rights of American citizens.

I have no doubt that Bush will go down in history as America’s worst President. I just wonder if he’s deluding himself about his legacy or he figures that Daddy will step in and make it all better yet again.

Yep, I do.

Whatever you may think about Segway Polo – and me for playing it – I don’t really care. I enjoy it. When we started playing Segway Polo it was just for fun. Just another thing to do with a very cool piece of technology. Then Woz came out and started playing. It was cool to have Steve Wozniak, arguably the creator of the modern personal computer, come out a couple of times a month and play polo with us but even better was that he was just one of the guys – someone who loved playing polo. With Woz playing, people started to pay attention. A video we shot got loose on the internet and before we knew it we were on all sorts of blogs and video sites. Sure, most people were making fun of us but that didn’t bother us much. We didn’t take the whole thing too seriously. Since then we’ve been on T.V., radio and newspapers around the world and despite the matches getting a lot more competitive and traveling to New Zealand to play in the first “Woz Challenge Cup” we still try not to take it too seriously.

The thing that I think is so cool and strange is that I was part of a small group of people who popularized something that has become a part of pop culture. People may think it’s great or stupid but it’s well-known enough that it gets mentioned in the likes of Time Magazine and on the Colbert Report with no explanation necessary. Not many people can say that and while I’m not trying to say that it’s an important accomplishment I think it’s pretty cool.

Here’s a picture of me playing polo with Jamie Hyneman and Grant Imahara of the MythBusters. That was a big thrill.

OK, so I’m one of the millions of geeks that, as Stephen Colbert put it (see my next post about him mentioning Woz and Segway Polo), got “wood” over Apple’s new iPhone. There’s a lot to love about this phone based on Steve Job’s introduction at MacWorld 2007. The best thing is that it runs OS X. I’m a Mac fan and have had a Mac since 1990. I think that OS X is one of the most solid, secure operating systems available today and to have it on a portable device is amazing. I also like that the various applications are the same as the one’s you’d find on your Mac at home; You browse real webpages on a real web browser, not WAP pages, you get your mail with a mail client that works just like the one on my Mac. I love the screen. I haven’t seen it in person but from everything I’ve heard it’s beautiful.

I think the design is great but somehow not quite as great as most of Apple’s other recent products (iMac, MacBooks and iPods). I can’t quite put my finger on what it is but there’s something that could be better about the iPhone’s design. I’m also a little sketchy on the phone’s keypads. I’m not sure I’ll like the way the buttons work but I’m also not sure exactly how they work so I have to wait and trust that Apple’s design will work as well as their others have. I’m disappointed that they haven’t included 3G. It seems that if you want to have a top of the line phone/internet appliance you need to take advantage of all the best technologies available and, by ignoring 3G, Apple isn’t.

I would have loved to see Apple release a provider-independent phone. How great would it have been to have Apple lead the way in breaking the stranglehold that cellular providers exercise over the public? There may be a technical reason they weren’t able to do this or maybe they didn’t want to but it would have been a real blow for the little guy. The choice of Cingular is really irrelevant. Apple could have gone with any carrier – it’s about the phone afterall. Although the $599 price with a 2 year contract seems a little ridiculous. I’d buy the phone for $599 without a contract but I’m not going to be locked into 2 years and pay that kind of money. Of course I say that now…

Last but not least is Cisco’s lawsuit because it had trademarked iPhone. This, in my opinion, will not help Cisco’s reputation. From what I’ve read so far it looks like Cisco almost let the trademark expire but, betting on Apple’s introduction of a phone, decided to renew it just to make a quick buck.

I’ll be interested to see one in the wild and to hear what some of the “experts” have to say about it.

Today’s New York Times has the following report:

Toys “R” Us yesterday reversed its decision and awarded a $25,000 savings bond to a baby born on New Year’s Day to parents who are not legal United States residents.

The company, and its Babies “R” Us division, said it was giving away not one but three prizes in the contest for the first baby born in 2007, including one to Yuki Lin, who arrived at midnight at New York Downtown Hospital in Manhattan.

Yuki had tied with two others: Yadira Esmeralda, born at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, on Long Island; and Jayden Swain of Gainesville, Ga. Yuki was chosen the winner by a drawing from all three names, then was disqualified because the rules excluded babies whose mothers are not legal residents. The prize was then awarded to Jayden.

Now all three babies will get $25,000 bonds. The original decision was reported in The World Journal, a Chinese-language newspaper.

The New York Times reported on the controversy yesterday. Later in the day, the company released a statement apologizing for the tumult.

“We love all babies,” the statement said. “We deeply regret that this sweepstakes became a point of controversy. As a result, we have decided to award all three babies in the grand prize pool a $25,000 savings bond.”

Yuki’s parents — Han Lin and Yan Zhu Liu, both 22-year-old restaurant workers — declined to be interviewed. But Albert H. Wang, a corporate lawyer who had mounted an e-mail campaign on the couple’s behalf, said that they were happy, adding, “I think justice has been done.”

Some people were concerned that the parents’ status had been exposed, he said. “But the safest place is actually the eye of the storm,” Mr. Wang said, “and any politician who says we should deport the parents, it would be the end of their political career.”

Here’s what I don’t understand; the rules clearly stated that the mother had to be a legal resident – I believe that most contest rules usually state that – how does the fact that she wasn’t a legal resident and therefore wasn’t within the rules of the contest equate with discrimination? A longer version of this article in the Times from the day before states the following:

Some Chinese-American advocates said the company’s decision smacked of second-class citizenship.

”People are just pretty much outraged,” said John Wang, president of the New York-based Asian American Business Development Center.

Albert Wang, an attorney, who launched the e-mail campaign said ”She was deprived of $25,000 intended to be used for her college education because of who her parents are,” he said.

“second-class citizenship”?? “deprived of $25,000″??? What the hell? Maybe I don’t understand this because I’m a white guy but I was always taught that you follow the rules unless the rules are patently unfair. I don’t think this is the case here. I think that the rules were broken for this couple because they’re a member of a minority group. If this woman would have been from Croatia or Russia I don’t think she would have gotten money.

Now I’m not an anti-imigration person. I firmly believe we need some sort of guest worker status because I believe that much of the work done by immigrants, like this girl’s parents, is work that most Americans don’t want to do. I also believe that anyone who wants to work hard and follow the rules deserves a chance at a better life. What I don’t believe in is changing the rules for a person or group of people simply because of their race. I’m sure this lawyer feels pretty proud of himself. He bullied a big company into breaking the rules with cries of racism. If he felt so strongly about this and so badly for the parents, why didn’t he write them a check? Every time someone trots out claims of racism and asks for special consideration because of the color of their skin it sets things back a little bit. There may have been a time when that was necessary for certain groups but I think it’s becoming a crutch for some and a cudgel for others.

Nintendo Wii, that is. I stood in line (a small line) at Costco the day after the Wii was officially released to get one for myself. I brought it home and hooked it up and was immediately taken with the feedback and natural way you use the remote (Wiimote) to navigate the system and play games. My 5 year old son loved it too. We started playing Wii Sports, which comes with every Wii. There’s tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. You use the Wiimote for the first 4 games and the Wiimote and nunchuck for boxing. The great thing about the games is that you hold and swing the Wiimote just like you would a tennis racket or baseball bat or bowling ball. Within a day or two my son had already gone way beyond my skill level in tennis and baseball. The gameplay is so immersive that it sucks you in. Everyone who’s played the Wii, from my son to my mother-in-law, has enjoyed it. People laugh and smile and have fun when they play. I think that’s what video games should be about.

The package I bought at Costco came with Legend of Zelda: Twighlight Princess and Excite Truck. Both games are fun. I’ve enjoyed Zelda more. I’m slowly but surely working my way through the game. I think there’s something like 80 hours of gameplay so I should be done with this sometime around the end of 2007.

There’s something to be said for a game system that is long on fun even if it falls a little short in some other areas:

• Graphics: Not great but not bad. This isn’t a XBox or a PS3 but I think the graphics are fine for most of the games I’ve played.
• Games: There aren’t a huge number of games available yet and more than a few are on the cutesy side but I bought this with my son in mind so I don’t mind skipping the hard-core blood and guts games.
• Online gameplay: This may or may not be coming. I would love to see it done for free but I think that’s probably unlikely. I’ll have to wait and see.

I’d recommend the Wii to anyone who wants to have fun playing video games again.