512 Pixels

Wikipedia:

The holiday includes novel practices such as the “Airing of Grievances,” in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. Also, after the Festivus meal, the “Feats of Strength” are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned.

Most people- including me, until this morning- thought Festivus was fictional, created by Seinfeld writers. Wikipedia corrected the error in my ways:

Festivus is an annual holiday created by writer Dan O’Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld. Although the original Festivus took place in February 1966 as a celebration of the elder O’Keefe’s first date with his future wife, Deborah, many people now celebrate the holiday on December 23, as depicted on the December 18, 1997 Seinfeld episode “The Strike.” According to O’Keefe, the name Festivus “just popped into his head.”’

Happy Holidays, folks.

Apollo 8 was the first manned space mission to leave Earth’s gravitational pull and enter that of another body- the moon. It was the the first manned mission to use the still impressive Saturn V rocket, and was the first time humans saw the dark side of the moon. Circling the moon 10 times, the mission hosted several television specials from space and took the first photo of the whole Earth from space. Time named the three men aboard (Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders) “Men of the Year” in 1968.

Today, Time published a photo gallery covering the mission, including the reactions of the men’s wives when the craft returned to Earth safely. Really impressive stuff.

I usually like Lifehacker, but today, I’m not sure:

We had to look at this desktop twice to make sure it really was Windows.

I mean, that’s horrific.

Ars Technica:

Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu guy) says that notifications should be simplified to completely eliminate the need for user interaction. To accommodate that goal, the new notification system will not support response buttons or any other interactive elements. This change is intended to reduce the disruption caused by notifications. He says that applications which require persistent notifications should use panel notification area icons and that conventional popups and other mechanisms can be used for messages that require an interactive response.

Shuttleworth understands the concept of notifications very well. They should be simple, clean, and non-disruptive. Growl on the Mac platform does this well; it’s nice to see Ubuntu users get a similar tool.

Apple’s Support Site:

After updating to Mac OS X 10.5.6, Mail may unexpectedly quit.  This can be caused by using a copy of Mail that wasn’t updated properly (you may need to install the Mail Update).

Wired:

Windows PC owners always pull the “Macs aren’t compatible with any decent software” card when bashing Apple. But that insult is clearly outdated if Barack Obama was able to win the U.S. presidency with a Mac as his computing weapon (while using iChat to stay in touch with his family, no less). And wait — there’s one more thing: Obama has his own official iPhone application! Can we all “think different” if we’re all using the same trendy gadgets?

I agree. 10 years ago (even more so 15 or 20 years ago) Mac users were a family. We got picked on. We wore our rainbow logos proudly, all had ponytails and earrings, and all loved the dogcow.

Today, there’s way more Mac users than ever before, which is great, but that ragtag, nomad feel is gone.

PC World has posted a list of the first 100 “.com” domains registered. Symbolics.com was the first. Xerox was # 7. Adobe, #42. Apple, #64. Microsoft isn’t on the list.

MacNewsWorld:

My health is a private matter. Your health is a private matter. Steve Jobs’ health is not a private matter. Steve Jobs’ health is Apple’s health. When Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, shows up gaunt in public or acknowledges that he is not going to show up in public at all, the company’s stock price dives.

… Apple’s record of being less than forthcoming has left us to wonder: Is Jobs too sick to attend the January show? Are Apple strategists concerned that he could become too sick by then, or even look too sick by then? Would they rather not deal with the questions and speculation should he show up healthy, but with the sniffles or looking thin or tired?

All fair worries. But we shouldn’t really have to be guessing at Apple’s motives.

Steve Jobs could clear it all up with a speech. A long one. At Macworld.

“Asshole of the Week” goes to this guy. Will Apple suffer when Steve leaves? Sure. Will it die when he leaves? No.

Also, why does their site have a section named “Apple Juice?”

Ever heard of the Apple Interactive Television Box? Wikipedia:

The Apple Interactive Television Box was a set-top box developed by Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in partnership with a number of national telecommunications firms, including British Telecom and Belgacom amongst others. Prototypes of the unit were tested in parts of the United States and Europe from 1994 to 1995, but the product was cancelled shortly thereafter, and was never mass produced or marketed.

The set-top box was designed as an interface between a consumer and an interactive television service. The unit’s remote control would allow a user to choose what content would be shown on a connected television, as well as to provide functions of fast forward, rewind and so on. In this regard it is similar to a modern satellite receiver or TiVo unit. Unlike the TiVo, the STB would only pass along the user’s choices to a central content server instead of issuing content itself. There were also plans for game shows, educational material for children and other forms of content made possible by the interactive qualities of the device.

One has surfaced on eBay. So weird.

And it got beat to death with an ugly stick. I don’t see this going anywhere. The thing is 11 pounds and $3,600. And somewhat pointless.

The Mac mini is an oddball. Some people view it as the “ Starter Mac,” (fueled by Apple’s BYODKM concept) while others use the tiny desktops as servers. The unit has fans all over the place (myself included), but Apple hasn’t updated the machine since August 2007. It is the only Mac left with 802.11g instead of 802.11n. This has lead to many people claiming the Mac mini was dead or dying.

However, in the last few weeks, rumors have been popping up across the Internet that the Mac mini is about to get a refresh. Macenstein has posted two images of the next-generation Mac mini. Fake or not, I think they’re close. Apple’s new “unibody” construction system would work well on the Mac mini, which is now comprised of two major parts- the outer case, and the guts, which are built on the foot. Having everything built into the case would not only allow for a smaller Mac mini, it would be far stronger- right now, the top can flex with weight on top of the unit.

Apple has already claimed their products are all going to get the new Mini Display Port in the future. And since the Mac mini is basically a Macbook under the hood, one can hope the new desktops will receive the new graphics subsystem powering the new family of notebooks.

I guess we’ll find out when Steve Phil Schiller takes the stage in a few weeks at Macworld.

Dell:

We wish Apple would be more bold in making a difference rather than making ads. If they do both, then fantastic, run all the ads you want. But don’t forget what this is all about.

Yikes. In the same post, Dell outlines what they’re doing to make their products more environmentally friendly. The company’s efforts are praiseworthy, but picking on another company just comes across as childish. And yes, that includes these guys.