Now I could really use some help with this question. What’s up with the US War on Terrorism? First, check out this video:

It gets even more fun if you follow all the videos that are related to that one. It’s not like that’s just some unique and random post by someone that hardly anyone pays attention to or cares about. Check out the number of views … 2.5 million in just over a month?! That’s quite a few.

Anyway - check this out. It’s a document from 2006 highlighting what the US government is planning on doing over the short and long term with respect to this whole war. It doesn’t seem like this is something that’s going to end any time soon.

It would seem to me that there are quite a few people in both the US and abroad who are against “the war on terror”. If so many people in the US are against the War going on, why is the government doing it? Shouldn’t a governing body represent the desires of the population it governs? I’m aware I’m not qualifying “so many”, in that question. But again, it seems to me that a large part of the US population doesn’t think the war is justifiable or in their best interests, so that will have to do.
If you’re bored, you can check out lots of documents from the US government Accountability Office. This is a list of articles that relate to the War and Iraq. One I particularly enjoyed was this one. They’ve been spending lots of money. I’m not sure who’s money.

At this point, it’s not that I’m saying the war is a good or bad thing. There is so much information out there, that it kind of gets a bit confusing. For example, check out this Wikipedia article. I’m not even going to get into the wealth of conspiracy theories around what really happened at 9/11.

So, what do you think is going on? How long is this going to go on? And, dare I ask, is it a good or a bad thing?

“Anyone here who’s not confused, probably doesn’t understand what’s going on.”

brent: “there is no way there is a race of huge man-bears hiding somewhere”

I picked up a 16GB Apple iPod Touch about a month ago. It’s awesome. I’ve been holding back on writing a review ’cause I wanted to really get a feel for it before I posted anything about it.

Let’s pause and admire the Touch. This is mine, displayed for us by Spiderman. Clicking on the picture will magically make it bigger.

Initially, the thing is just too fun. The 3.5″ touch screen is very fun to play with, and it has lots of neat features. I haven’t run into a problem with the battery life. The biggest things I enjoy are the coverflow system, the wifi NIC built in, with the Safari web browser, youTube application, and the iTunes Store app. To hit each of those, briefly:

Coverflow just let’s you flip through the albums you’ve got as if you were just flipping through a paper book - each album is displayed by it’s cover art. It’s awesome, and quite cool to look at, not to mention fun as hell to flip through. It makes browsing your music very easy. If you want to find a song in particular, just touch the album and it’ll show you it’s tracks. Hit the track and you’re listening to it.

At first I thought the networking stuff was a bit iffy - I didn’t think I’d really use it. But it turns out that it’s awesome. If you’re kicking back anywhere and you want a new song, you want to look something up, or you want to watch a video on youTube, then it’s a cinch. I started using it fairly often - in particular when I’m waiting for someone - I just jump on an open wifi network, and I’m off browsing youTube, the net, or whatever. Another time I found it useful was during a dinner at a restaurant - I wanted to explain a really cool youTube video of an undersea lake - well, forget about explaining it! I just brought out the Touch and was showing everyone the video in a minute. So, the wifi stuff has proven to be really great.

Not to mention that it’s really cool how you can flip the device around and it’ll orient your display for you. If you turn it sideways, the display flips and you’re watching it in widescreen. then you can flip it 180 degrees and the display will flip upside-down for you. A really nice touch, that one. Viewing web pages is pretty easy too - by drawing two fingers either together or apart on the screen, you can zoom in or out on anything.

Apparently the display is pretty tough. Check out this video of a guy taking his car keys (and other things) to the Touch. I’ve had it in my pocket for about a month now, using it every day during all sorts of fun. The back (brushed aluminum) has a few scratches, but the front is perfect, just like when I bought it. Nevertheless, I’ve picked up a case for my toy. I figure it’s worth keeping in good shape, and I am notoriously hard on things. So, I ordered the OtterBox Defender and Armour cases. The latter is really just ’cause I want to see how tough the cases are. They have video’s of people driving over them with ATVs - and they’re completely waterproof, sandproof and dustproof - which will be useful during the biking season. The defender series of cases is a more general purpose deal - it can withstand some decent shocks and will protect the touch without adding too much to the size.

There are some things that suck with the Touch though. iTunes isn’t a horrible piece of software, but I don’t really use Windows, and it’s a bit annoying to have to boot up a windows machine just to interact with the Touch - the only software that works with the Touch, is iTunes. It’s a bit weird how Apple has locked out their devices from the Open Source community, but frankly this thing is so slick that I’d buy a Windows machine, or a Mac, just to have it. Still, that’s a bit annoying. I also don’t like how the Touch handles playlists. I’m used to the dynamic playlists, like the ones I can create on the Squeezebox. With this thing, it’s not very intuitive at all, even when you’re using the iTunes software. But you can get it done.

I think the earphones that came with the Touch suck. I am lucky enough to have two pair’s of Grado earphones, so I use my SR-80’s when I’m walking around with the Touch. If you can do that, then I recommend it - the Grado’s have exceptional sound. But they’re a bit bulky, so the rest of the time, I have a pair of Skullcandy in-ear earphones. They’re not bad, but I find them very uncomfortable - and definitely nowhere near the sound I get from the Grado’s. I might have to invest in some Shure ones - they’re apparently very good … or something else. Either way, the phones that come with the device are just not great. That said, though, if you get the nicer earphones, at least the Touch has some excellent hardware - the sound is great.

Speaking of sound, I picked up a Mirage OmniVibe speaker shortly after I got this. You can get them from Future Shop for 150$, and they easily sound as good as the 400$ Bose ones - and I think it’s quite a bit better. Roy and I spent about an hour in the store trying out all the different brands with my iPod. We tested them at different volumes, and different locations in the store. I use it when I’m on the treadmill - I’m not sure how, but Mirage has the sound reflecting around the room wonderfully - it’s very clean sound, even over the noise of the treadmill. Anyway, I highly recommend it.

In case you’re interested, feel free to check out this review, too - it has more pictures … and words. I found it useful when I was thinking of buying.

And so, even after a month of constant use, the Touch is still wicked. It’s super thin, has a beautiful display, lots of space, and is very very cool.

Tom: “His head hurts, and his foot hurts, so he has owies at both ends.”

Craig: “I remember once in the shoolyard this kid got beaned in the head with a baseball and then he had this wierd look in his eye and said ‘hee haw’. It was wierd.”

Google is awesome.

Earlier this year, there was an interesting blog post theorizing that a black background to Google would save some 750 Mega-Watt hours of energy per year, due to it’s popularity, and the number of people using CRTs.

This is a neat study about the savings in engery for LCD vs CRT. The end result is LCDs use the same amount of energy displaying a black display as a white one, but I still like the idea. Plus, it seems easier on the eyes.

However, as with just about everything, the more you look into it, the less “black and white” (2 points for the pun)  this whole thing becomes.  It starts out with a good idea, and then you start reading about how most LCDs will use more power displaying black than white, and then conflicting information about that too.

I like what Blackle is trying to do. Lots of little things do make a difference. And it’s a good reminder to keep doing little things.

Check out www.blackle.com