Free Phelps!

I don't do drugs. I don't do drugs of any kind. I don't do illegal substances. I don't do the legal ones either. The only reason I have any kind of drug would be because it was either prescribed, is an anti-inflamatory (I run) or anti-histamine.

I grew up in the "just say no" era. Where Nancy Reagan had her little news conferences and we were told to "just say no." Simple for me as I never said yes. I was convinced by people who I'm, sure had my best interest at heart that drug use was a one way street to unemployment, homelessness and all other manner of ill things. Indeed I was convinced that if one did drugs you just couldn't BE anything. Good reason to abstain.

Well somewhere between then and now an interesting thing happened. Public figures of all kinds started admitting to drug use. Weed in particular. Of course I had grown up with the images of Marion Barry of DC fame caught on tape getting high so such admissions were kind of unsettling to me. Eventually we got to the point where NY Mayor Bloomberg admitted to taking a toke and claimed to have enjoyed it. And this bloke got re-elected to office? Huh? So apparently then, one can inbibe and still be a decent human being, be responsible, run a billion dollar company and NYC. Wow.

Of course, the NYPD had made news stopping young black men on the street with no probable cause and either givng them summonses or outright arresting them for having small amounts of herb on their person. Hypocritical to say the least. It's not like people who drink alcohol are accosted while walking down the street. I mean drunk drivers kill people all the time and yet alcohol is freely available to anyone of legal age. Talk about double standards.

But it doesn't stop there. In Novemeber the US elected a president who admitted to not only taking a toke but of using the far more potent (and of no medical value) cocaine. Think about that for a minute. The commander in Chief is a known ex coke head, a former weed user and still has a cigarette habit. How are the people of the US and corporations, who undoubtedly gave millions in donations to the Obama camp, going to turn around and say that Phelps " is not consistent with the image of Kellogg,”

I suppose that since there aren't tapes of Obama or Bloomberg taking hits they can be passed on but it' OK to shit on Phelps because someone at a party decided it was a good idea to give a picture to a tabloid for some undisclosed sum (And they had better had made a profit since they have cost Phelps a nice coin).

To top things off "USA Swimming publicly reprimanded Phelps, temporarily withdrawing its financial support from him and barring him from competition for the months."

Why? Did his use of Sensimela give him an unfair advantage in the pool? No? Right. Oh perhaps there's some kind of "morality clause" in his contract (and I assume he has one). Oh it's for the kids! The poor kids who will soon enough learn that their government leaders have been taking hits and that the president of the US had a coke habit. When I was a kid I assumed that if you did such things you couldn't become mayor of a large city or president of the US. Now I'm grown and realize that such things not true. Same for the kids. Now is a nice time to have a conversation with the kids about that thing called privacy. How you ought not go selling pictures of your "friends" to newspapers and trashy websites. How some people choose to imbibe but in your house it is/ or is not allowed for whatever reasons.

Michael Phelps ought to have called out Bloomberg and the POTUS and discussed how weed use, like alcohol use is about moderation. Anyone can abuse either substance and make a wreck of themselves and their lives and unlike tobacco it won't send you to the hospital for treatment but rather you're likely to be sent home with the herb FOR treatment.

My message to Phelps: Grow a pair. Tell Kellogg to kiss your *ss and for future contracts make sure that the so called "morality clause" is stricken. Don't let these money grubbers who stand to make far more off you than they will pay you, dictate what you can and cannot do on your personal time cause they sure as hell won't let you dictate to them how to run their business.

Like That Creature in the Log

So I was thinking on the recent spate of trojans affecting Macs and it got me to thinking about what I said to a client of mine:

Using limewire is kind og like that scene in the Flash Gordon movie where Flash has to put his hand into a log where this apparently poisonous creature lives.

Sure a lot of people do it and don't get bitten but also be sure that a whole lotta people got bit

Barry "Junk" Bonds

In previous postings on the matter of Barry Bonds, I have defended the man based on one thing. His alleged clear tests for steroids. Regardless of what people said, my position was that if he hasn't tested positive then there's no case. It's kind of like a rape kit. You can call me a rapist all day, but if you can't put me at (or in) the scene, then it's a wrap.

Last night we find that Barry Bonds did in fact fail at least two steroid tests. Still though, Bonds made an ass of himself when he said he used some cream that he didn' know the contents of. I train to run, nothing goes on or in my body without me knowing what is in it. So it was pretty disingeneous to claim that he had no clue as to what he was putting on or in his body. He's a grown man. It's only kids who you get to tell "trust me it'll make you better" to.

Junk Bonds. And the Aaron's record ought to be re-instated.

GarageBand Frequency (Maybe iTunes)?

I've been working on some music in GarageBand and I've been listening to the music in iTunes with a Graphic EQ and noticed that the highest frequencies are all but missing. I'm one of those people who can hear when a tube tv is whining, even though I am getting to the stage in life where I won't be able to do that for too much longer.

I believe it to be Garageband because the missing frequencies are very obvious compared to a file downloaded from iTunes. Anyone else seen this issue?

Apple TV Sales Triple Last Year...

Yes, and I'm one of them. ATV with Boxee, as noted has replaced cable and the rental store for me (maybe even regular Best Buy DVD sales). No Boxee, no sale though. Apple should either buy Boxee or make sure any update to the ATV software works with Boxee. For real though.

Disappearing shows

Fully a week into basic cable and Boxee I feel compelled to discuss the problem of the disappearing shows and movies. Yesterday it was reported on how Hulu on demand from FX, pulled all past episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which cause a great deal of grief to Hulu users. The consensus seems to be that FX wants people to purchase the DVD set. Not that I watch Sunny but really this "buy the DVD" thing is in my opinion silly. When I saw the price for the box set of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I passed on it. I have the choice of watching re-runs on cable and sit through commercials or buy a box set and perhaps be motivated to pop in a DVD. Or I could watch it via boxee (if it were available) commercials and all, at my convenience, without having to store a DVD, case and all or a ripped version on my NAS (taking up valuable storage capacity). Of course since I can't get DS9 on Boxee or any other legal means on the net, I simply don't watch. Lost money for Viacom. Speaking of DS9, Where is Star Trek on Hulu or Joost or Boxee? Seriously people. Yes the classic ones are there but I want my DS9, TNG and Voyager please.

Now previously I had found Spenser for Hire on AOL tv. Then not two days after finding it did it disappear. Now I've found it on Joost via boxee, though it's missing many episodes (but has no adverts).

In the end, these companies need to realize that internet delivery "on demand" is the future. With products like Boxee, I don't care whether they are in a Hulu or a channel branded site. So long as I can access it through the TV set I'm satisfied.

Sun VirtualBox

A little request to Sun Microsystems about Virtualbox: It would be nice to have the windows task bar disappear in "seamless mode" That it floats there above the OS X dock is kind of ridiculous.