Author: RagManX

Consumers contribute half a billion dollars to Apple

In a news announcement that absolutely boggles my mind, we find that Apple has sold 1 million iPhones as of today – weeks ahead of their predicted mark of the end of September.

Apple Inc. said Monday it sold its one millionth iPhone on Sunday, just 74 days after its introduction and ahead of its expectations to hit the mark by the end of September.

. . .

Apple shares rose $3.97, or 3 percent to $135.69 in morning trading.

Hey – I’ll admit I screwed up and bought Bioshock on release day. My unwillingness to wait cost me $50. Those of you that bought the iPhone are now on the slowest data network out there, and out $600 (assuming you bought the high-end, which all my amazing readers would certainly do if they bought at all). Sure, Jobs is giving $100 back, but that’s in the form of iTunes credit, so many folks will end up spending more there, giving even more money to Apple.

So while this news baffles me, there’s no denying that Apple has elevated its cult status far beyond the early turn-of-the-century hold it had. And folks out there still can’t wait to stay ahead of others on the gadget train. Check back with me in 2010 – I’ll probably be ready to hope on the iPhone train then. Certainly no sooner, and maybe still not then. But maybe that’s because I still think a phone should be a phone – everything else is fluff.

And hey – the investors like it.  Capitalism clearly knows more than I do.

[tags]WTF, iPhone, Apple, Early adopters, 1 million[/tags]

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Unopened rebate forms found in dumpster

You’ve bought your cool new gadget. You cut out the UPC. You fill out the rebate form. You photocopy everything you are sending in. You sent it all, wisely chosing registered mail so you know when it was delivered. And yet, you still don’t ever get your rebate. WTF?

Well, maybe somebody threw out your submission along with those from your 1299 closest friends?

unopenedrebates.jpg

This is a picture of the 1,300 unopened rebate forms a Mercury News reporter found in a dumpster near Vastech, a rebate processor for Fry’s Electronics.

When confronted, the company’s owner blamed it on a lazy employee who no longer works for Vastech and offered to process and sign checks for all of the envelopes in front of the reporter.

Reminds me of the scandal years back where so many Publisher’s Clearing House entries were found in the trash. Unfortunately, I cannot find a link to anything about that scandal, so you’ll have to either remember the issue yourself or trust my increasingly faulty memory.

I suppose this could explain why, nearly 9 years later, I’m still awaiting 2 rebate checks from CompUSA for memory and a hard drive. I’m starting to suspect I won’t actually get them, CompUSA contacts’ assurances to the contrary.

[tags]Unprocessed rebates, Consumerist, Rebates[/tags]

More photochopping beautiful

Since I just linked to a photoshopped to beautiful web article in my asides section, I felt compelled to post this Ugly Betty photochopped to skinny link to show more evidence of the attractive-is-not-attractive-enough mentality that runs rampant through so much of the glamour industry (movies, magazines, etc.).

And what do you know? Just like the actress in The Box and The Bunny, Ferrera has been photoshopped to be somewhat skinnier. It’s not horribly drastic, but apparent, nonetheless. Especially if you look at another photo of Ferrera from the magazine:

[original image snipped for posting here]

Ferrera is a real woman, and she has curves. 🙂

Well, apparently curves disturb some in the industry. So sad. (via boingboing)

[tags]Ugly Betty, Real women have curves, Photoshopped to beautiful, Photoshopping celebs[/tags]

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Tetris grand master

This is the most insanely awesome gamer clip I can ever recall seeing (and I’ve watched a lot of them).  Think you are good at Tetris?  You probably won’t after watching this guy.  If I could find a WordPress plugin to let me inline the video, I’d do that, but I haven’t found such a plugin yet, so I’ll just send you to the GameBrink.com page for it.

[tags]Tetris, Gaming, Tetris grand master, Insane gameplay[/tags]

Bioshock video critique

While I’ve already spoken against purchasing Bioshock due to draconian legal-user restrictions (i.e., those who pirate it aren’t affected, but those who paid money are treated are necrotic lepers with erupting pustules of bitter smelling acid), I do still admit to finding it a good game.  Here’s a video review done by a British gent who agrees it is good, but can still point out the problems with the game.

[gametrailers 103130]

Now that I’ve got System Shock 2 working on my system, I can play and compare (yes, I failed to play SS2 originally or over the past 4 years I’ve owned a copy) so I can see how accurate his criticisms are.

[tags]Bioshock, System Shock 2, Video Review, Necrotic Leper, Erupting pustules, Securom 2 STILL sucks[/tags]

Crash Internet Explorer in one line

I don’t really think figuring out an exploit to crash a browser is a great and fantastic feat, given how insanely complex, large, and bloated most are.  However, crashing a browser in just a single line of HTML and CSS code is pretty impressive.

A Japanese blogger who goes by the name Hamachiya2 has discovered a single line of HTML and CSS that crashes IE 6. The line is:

Ohhhh, the suspense is killing me.  I guess I’ll just have to read the article to find out how easy it is.

[tags]Security, Crash Internet Explorer, Browser vulnerabilities, Another kick in the nuts[/tags]

Wellness tip

Received a batch of these earlier this year from a cow-orker. Here is wellness tip #1.

Removed for copyright reasons – did not intend to steal someone else’s work – linked to original creator’s page with comic I had posted.

It made me laugh. My cow-orker didn’t share his source, but I’ve linked back to the page listed in the image.

EDIT: Removed image

[tags]Wellness tips, What fits your schedule?, Exercise or death?, Humor[/tags]