On September 1st Apple is holding a press conference. It’ll most likely be talking about iPods and there are rumors of other items being released (like an updated Apple TV).

Onto the choice bits. Apple said it will be live-streaming the event using ‘open standards’. But the catch is you can only watch the live-stream on an Apple product running iOS 3 or 4, in the Snow Leopard operating system running Safari.

WTF? Why even bother saying “open standards” if you are employing it in a fashion that a vast majority of the internet connected populace can’t use? I can’t even watch this live-stream on my Mac Book Pro because I ONLY have OSX 10.5. I might be able to watch it on my iPhone if the 3G connection down here in the OBX works for me than two minutes.

In all, it’s contrived double-speak of Microsoft proportions.

They really should run for some government positions at this point given the shit that dribbles out of their mouths.

September 7th is right around the corner. For the past two seasons SOA has been some of the best television around. It’s pure motorcycle/violence porn. Perfect!

Of course the political news is all ablaze with the ramblings of Glen Beck’s rally in Washington. I was keen to hear the attendance numbers and ensuing vitriol that would be spat from all sides on said numbers. In a mud put like this how does one separate fact from fiction?

Ah science – even the sketchy, fuzzy science of crowd counting delivers better numbers than the biased squint and pull a number out of your ass routine that we’ve seen come from all sides of the media.

Steve Doig does this kind of science. You can read about his latest efforts on Glen Beck’s rally:

My estimate is that about 80,000 people were at the rally. Ryan Shuler, an Airphotoslive image analyst, used the same images and a different grid-density method to produce an estimate of 87,000. Considering the error margins around our separately-calculated estimates, they are statistically identical.

Of course he’s taken all kinds of heat for publishing this from the same right-wing groups that lauded his numbers on the Obama inauguration.

Do numbers really mean anything? Not always. In fact, often it becomes a crutch, a logical fallacy - argumentum ad populum, that because a lot/too little people were there an idea is good/bad. How many news stories will fill the airwaves balanced on this exact crutch rather than addressing the issues that were presented? Too many.

I fully expect one of the few, if only  place that will actually dissect the messages presented at the rally will be the Daily Show. Then again, throughout all of man’s history comedy and satire has always delivered the truth.

If you are not a PC gamers than this won’t hold much interest for you outside the realm of two industry giants battling it out for market supremacy.

For almost two decades the graphics card market has been a hotly contested place. It’s been a race of pure horsepower, and the winner is always the customer. A few giants have come and gone, and this last decade has mostly seen ATI and Nvidia duking it out for the crown.

They’ve alternated turns at the top, and in this last round it looked like ATI was down for the count. They surged back with their 4000 series and 5000 series of cards to beat Nvidia and take back the crown. In return customers saw graphics cards more powerful than ever before, and ultimately delivering better gaming experiences.

And now ATI is going away – at least in name. They were bought back in 2006 buy chip maker AMD (another giant who regularly trades blows with Intel – and again we win because of it), who has now decided to dissolve the ATI brand completely.

While AMD gives reasons for this change but it still seems… foolhardy - especially given the amount of pixel-ass-kicking ATI has delivered over the past year. It’s like DC Comics renaming the Joker as ‘heinous villain owned by DC Comics’.

Things just won’t be the same.

RIP

• @chaselisbon yep, most people lack quality when you need it the most. in reply to chaselisbon #
• @brother_bish except it's a laptop. Dependent on Apple to update those video drivers. in reply to brother_bish #
• .@BadAstronomer 1st ep of #badastronomy was fun. In HD I can see little lonely hairs on the top of your head. Epic. #

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• Dear Apple, your driver support is utter ass. Can't even play a simple game like Worms Reloaded under Boot Camp. #apple #wormsreloaded #

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• RT @bengoldacre: Americans protest plans for christian church at Hiroshima RT @markthomasinfo: RT @sinisterpics: http://bit.ly/aMK5Qt #
• Boot Camp not booted in a year. Just tried, 60+ XP security updates to go… Ug. #

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• Taliban threaten relief works in Pakistan and attack schools in Afghanistan. Need better uniforms before they replace Nazis as top villains. #
• Lookin' shiny, Captain! RT @NathanFillion: RT @JenniferPSims @NathanFillion Here's your spaceship. http://bit.ly/bPpLPs Nice! #

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• Downward spiral RT @SecularStudents: Dangerous escalation Armed Christian militia to protect the Quran-burning church http://fb.me/waEcEABi #
• Yoda said it best. “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” #
• Excited for The Walking Dead on AMC. I hope they decide to offer this on iTunes, streaming or other 'net connected avenue. #zombie #
• @pzmyers "don't be a dick" will be the ad hominem that gets a free pass by those reframing honesty as anger. in reply to pzmyers #
• Meh, the ONE piece of hardware I never got for my C64. Ask another question RT @hackedtobits: re C64 modem #
• You announce you are quitting for the Firefly relaunch? RT @NathanFillion: I've got a surprise coming for the crew of Castle tomorrow. #
• RT @BadAstronomer: Bad Universe giveaway: book, TV show swag, a real meteorite! Retweet to enter. Rules: http://is.gd/eDbwy #BadUniverse #

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• Bronze-age politics rears its head. RT @bengoldacre: US court ruling sets stem cell research back to Bush era: sigh http://dlvr.it/4Bf78 #
• Stem cell ruling "a blow to the hopes of millions of patients and their families suffering from fatal and chronic diseases and disorders." #
• What happens when supernatural beliefs are used in creating laws and policy. Science is halted, people die. But bible thumpers are happy! #
• Sen. Jim Lembke, R-Lemay of St. Louis: a soul "is not a religious statement. It's a scientific statement." #skeptic http://bit.ly/cVVwHf #
• The more I read the angrier I get. Keep your backwards, hocus-pocus rationalizations out of my science. http://nyti.ms/deTwcq #skeptic #
• AMD reveals its 8-core processors codenamed Bulldozer. My geek heart is all a-flutter. http://bit.ly/b0nrG9 #

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