Gee Why

November 3 is World Usability Day to “help create a better user experience of our world.“

iLounge has published its annual Holiday Buyers’s Guide for all things iPod. This massive but free publication looks at accessories (including FM tuners), cases, how to choose the right iPod for you, and so much more.

Take a gander at the goods!

Usually, I don’t deal with any political stuff, but what’s with this Galen Fox story? You know, the 62-year old legislator who resigned after being convicted of a sexual misdemeanor. The stories in the local papers are just bizarre.

Here’s the deal:

He was charged Dec. 18 after a 27-year-old woman accused him of putting his hand between her legs while she slept on the flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles.

–Honolulu Star Bulletin

“It was one of those sad things. I think she didn’t understand that he was just, you know, being friendly with her, not in an obscene way or anything, and she misinterpreted it to be making a sexual advance,” Braun said. “And it became a whole hullabaloo on the plane and the whole thing.”

–Honolulu Advertiser

Being friendly? Wow, there’s a statement.

More from today (11/2):

She said:

she awoke to a warm sensation pressing against her crotch. Lifting her blanket, she saw Fox’s right hand rubbing her crotch

He said:

he just touched her right hand as it rested on her left arm… I have photographic recollection of that moment — it was her hand on her arm — her right hand was on her left elbow

She said:

What the —- are you doing?

He said:

I touched you, I’m sorry I touched you… When she jumped up, I could see I was touching her. It’s possible that I committed a crime

He’s so going down.

Talking about Mariah Carey coming to Hawaii for two concerts, I looked at my music collection to see what songs I owned. My iTunes music library has 40 Mariah songs including three renditions of her debut, Vision of Love.

Hey, I must be a fan!

Sony released its competitor to Apple’s iPod called the Walkman Bean. The Bean? C’mon. I thought “iPod” was a dumb term when it was first introduced, but the bean is worse!

The Bean is flash-based in 512 MB or 1 GB sizes. Don’t know what music format it uses, Sony’s proprietary ATRAC? Probably coolest thing about the Bean is the electroluminescent display and quick charge feature. The Bean has an FM tuner that the iPod doesn’t, but I think Sony’s missing the boat with the tuner. Apple’s got the iTunes Music Store that provides fresh content for the iPod (at a cost). With a radio tuner, Sony’s missing the chance to make more sales on music files since users can listen to free radio broadcasts.

The true test comes this Christmas. What would you be more excited at getting, an iPod or a Bean? Tell the truth now.

In an Apple Special Event, the new iMac was announced featuring the remote control, Front Row, and a fun app called PhotoBooth. Supposedly these apps are only bundled with the new iMacs. However, the McMac web site is making these apps freely available. They also hacked the software to make it work using keyboard controls.

The site is under extreme load and is very slow. Apple will probably take them down pretty quick with some legal shenanigans.

It was a banner year for trick-or-treating in the Kailua area. We had 25 kids come by the house! Though about half of the tricksters were either in high school or maybe even college.

Didn’t see any great costumes. Maybe the best was a Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

The 60 second Sony commercial about the Bouncing Superballs in San Francisco is now available.

Watch the video (QuickTime 7 required).

Read about how a harmless hobby of blogging consumed the time of a Wall Street Journal tech writer covering the New York Mets.

Kinda similar story for most folks starting out with blogging I would assume. And yeah, blogging does take time.

Interesting to hear how their readership numbers ballooned so quickly. The trio of Pulpconnection, Wayne’s World, and CCTWT have a ways to go before we see 14,000 hits in a month!

After learning about the Top 10 Design Mistakes for Blogs and seeing the changes made on CCTWT, I figured I should make some improvements to Pulpconnection.

Added a picture of me and Merynn under the About section. I had also changed the tagline earlier in the week to better describe what I usually write about. Oh yeah, I changed my user profile picture which shows up in comments I leave.

This blog is also now reachable via the URL www.pulpconnection.net. Of course, the original address of pulpconnection.blogspot.com works fine.

One more thing I want to fix is the navigation to older material. Other sites have “previous” and “next” links at the bottom of the pages, but I don’t think the Blogger service provides this feature. Anyone know?

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, feel free to comment away.

Snoop Dogg told you to Drop It Like It’s Hot, and now Anoop Dogg drops this parody Drop It Like a FOB.

I am a nice FOB,
I work in the IT,
When you call tech support,
You will get me.