Pants on Wordpress 2

Currently making it’s rounds on the blogosphere: a Windows 386 promo video. Do yourself a favor and watch the whole 12 minutes.

As others have pointed out, it gets particularly awesome around the 7 minute mark.

I’m using Windows, Windows, Windows 386,
so all my applications are running at once.
My report right now is scattered all over my disk,
o-woah-woah Windows, you’ll put these parts together real quick

I’ve got pieces in one spreadsheet, I’ve got pieces in another,
I’ve got pieces that have never been close to one another.
Some are in the database, where things are pretty stuffy;
some are in the word processor, that’s where it gets sloppy.

And so on.

Also: From the associated Metafilter thread comes word of this instructional video for Windows 95. “Look [Matthew Perry], I’m computing!”

See, there’s a little presentation taking place tomorrow in San Francisco. These days, you can’t go five minutes on the web without running into another set of Macworld predictions. Most cover the following: Apple phone, Apple set-top box, iLife 07, iWork 07, OS X 10.5, updated displays, new iPods, Blu-Ray, Beatles content, and probably more. *phew*

Since so many of the rumors have been covered elsewhere, I’m going to cover two items that I think have a possibility of making themselves known tomorrow. Please note that I don’t have much in the form of evidence; this is mostly conjecture on my part.

1. iTunes will see a major upgrade in it’s handling of video content. While TV shows seem to have done OK for Apple, I get the feeling that movie sales haven’t been doing so well. Apple designers probably want to make the iTunes movie experience closer to that of iTunes music. Meaning that we may see the following features introduced, in some form or another:
   • Intelligent, legal DVD ripping (by “intelligent”, the DVD’s metadata — episodes, chapters, menus — will be retained somehow)
   • Intelligent, legal DVD burning (hopefully including content purchased from the iTMS, but possibly just for unprotected videos)
   • Higher resolution video from the iTunes store (an iTV launch makes this even more likely)
2. This will be Steve’s last Macworld keynote presentation. In other words, Steve is getting ready to retire. Reports came out a few days ago that Steve Jobs had invited close friends to tomorrow’s keynote presentation. It’s very possible that he wanted his friends to attend not because of a huge product announcement, but because it may be the last chance to see him where he shines best. (Update: a post on Kirkville on the topic of Jobs’ retirement)

With all the rumors going around, people will be disappointed no matter what happens. Wired’s Cult of Mac blog wonders if the keynote could get out of hand.

Update: As a commenter here points out, it’s possible that Steve asked his friends to attend the Keynote because of a planned performance by ex-Beatles members. An odd prediction, until you consider rumors that Apple is announcing Beatles content for sale on iTunes. I like this idea.

Post Keynote Update: Wrong on both points. I’m still holding out hope that the first item will appear in some form before the Macworld expo is over, but that hope is fading.

Jeff’s post reminded me that I haven’t come up with any resolutions for 2007. Let’s see:

1. Start the Atkins diet (again), and stick with it for a year. Last time, I did it for eight months and was healthier that ever. This time, I’m hoping to make the switch for good.
2. Find a job. Self-explanatory.
3. Improve my finances. I intentionally left this vague, but this involves the usual: saving more, spending less, and paying off debt.
4. Launch an open source, PHP/MySQL application by the end of the year. I think I’ve settled on an idea; more on that later.
5. Buy the new Stars of the Lid album. Heh, I would have done that anyway.

Take a look at 2007 resolutions from all around the wordpress.com-isphere.

Now that 2006 has (finally) passed, let’s take a look at my personal top 10 artists according to my last.fm profile:

1. Kraftwerk
2. Kings of Convenience
3. Squarepusher
4. Stars of the Lid
5. Zero 7
6. Goldfrapp
7. Stereolab
8. The Whitest Boy Alive
9. Camera Obscura
10. Eluvium

Nothing here particularly surprised me, especially Kraftwerk and Kings of Convenience — this was the year I discovered both. Also, Squarepusher came out with probably the best new album of the year — with the possible exception of Clint Mansell’s soundtrack for The Fountain.