New Keyboard

 New Keyboard  General  Comments Off on New Keyboard
Jan 302005
 

So I’m sitting here, typing away on a new keyboard. It wasn’t exactly necessary; I mean, it’s a laptop. But I really liked the key rebound and tactile response from the Apple wireless keyboard, and since I already have a bluetooth mouse, it seemed a nice accompaniment. And it sure does work well; I just love not having to deal with cables. I can kick back, put up my feet, and type away without any trouble at all.
As for the mouse, it’s a Logitech MX900. The base station that came with it isn’t compatible with OS X for some reason (which is strange, considering that if it weren’t for the Macintosh, Logitech probably wouldn’t make any Bluetooth devices at all). But I also have a USB bluetooth “pocket” adapter that does the job wonderfully. And with this nifty piece of shareware that someone mentioned on MacOSXHints.com called “GamePad Companion,” I’ve even managed to get the “Back” and “Forward” buttons to work properly. Plus I love having an Exposé button on the mouse; it speeds up window switching so much more without having to push F9 by hand.

I hate ABC

 I hate ABC  General, Rant  Comments Off on I hate ABC
Jan 082005
 

So I discovered late Wednesday (well, it was technically Thursday morning) that ABC is apparently showing Alias on Wednesdays now instead of the Sundays that served so well for the last 3 seasons. OK, I’m fine with that; every show needs a change of scenery eventually.

But those bastards in charge of scheduling have just ticked me off. Instead of a nice easy timeslot that makes it so I can record other shows (like CSI:NY or Good Eats, both of which start at 9:00), Alias apparently runs from 8:01 PM to 9:02 PM.

Guess what, ABC? This means I won’t be watching Alias live, or even recording it with my DVR. It means I’ll be downloading the episodes each week from the Internet and burning them to CD (or DVD, I haven’t decided yet). So your advertisers don’t get my eyeballs. If it weren’t for Alias, there wouldn’t be anything I’d watch on your network, and because of this scheduling crap I won’t even need to tune to your channel at all. I may just delete it from my TV, because lord knows I need more reruns of… um… what is it that ABC shows again?

Ah, yes. After a quick trip to ABC.com, it appears I need more Bachelorette, Jim Belushi sitcoms, and “Wife Swap,” whatever that is. No, I think I’ll be taking advantage of the fact that there are lots of people on the Internet that are really good at capping and posting TV shows. I’ll get to skip the wonderful commercials (18 minutes per hour these days, you know), and I’ll have nice, archival quality, HDTV widescreen caps of the only show that’s worth watching on ABC.

I think I win.